Flat‑pack & IKEA assembly across San Diego
That flat‑pack box looks simple until you're an hour in with three spare bolts and a wonky drawer. Easy Break builds it right the first time — square, sturdy and exactly where you want it. We assemble furniture from IKEA, Wayfair, Amazon, Target, Pottery Barn and more, in homes and offices across San Diego.
Tall or heavy pieces — wardrobes, dressers, bookcases — get anchored to the wall so they're safe around kids and pets. Cardboard and packaging haul‑off is available as a small add‑on, so you don't have to deal with a trash run.
What we assemble
- Beds & bed frames (incl. storage, bunk beds and Murphy / wall beds)
- Wardrobes & closet systems (IKEA PAX and similar)
- Dressers, nightstands & chests of drawers
- Desks, office chairs & standing desks
- Bookcases, shelving units & TV stands
- Dining sets, cribs, patio & outdoor furniture
Furniture assembly prices in San Diego
We price per item so you know the cost before we arrive — send a photo or the product link.
| Item | Examples | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Small item | Nightstand, small shelf, office chair | from $79 |
| Bed frame | Standard or storage bed | from $99 |
| Dresser / bookcase | Multi‑drawer, wall‑anchored | from $119 |
| Wardrobe / PAX system | Large closet unit, anchored | from $189 |
| Whole room / multiple items | Bundled discount | text for quote |
Got a box to build?
Text a photo or the product link — price & same‑day slot back fast.
Built solid & anchored safe
We torque every fastener properly, check that doors and drawers run true, and tip‑secure tall furniture to a stud so it can't topple — important in San Diego homes with little ones. Moving or redecorating later? We also disassemble furniture for moves.
Why San Diego chooses Easy Break
- Per‑item upfront pricing — no hourly meter running
- Same‑day & next‑day across San Diego County
- Wall‑anchoring included on tall, tippable pieces
- Packaging hauled away — room ready to use
- Licensed, insured & 90‑day workmanship guarantee
Areas we serve
Furniture & IKEA assembly throughout San Diego County, including:
Furniture assembly FAQ
How much does IKEA furniture assembly cost in San Diego?
Do you assemble Wayfair, Amazon and other brands?
Do you anchor furniture to the wall?
Do you take away the boxes and packaging?
Can you also disassemble furniture for a move?
Common flat‑pack gotchas — what we see weekly
Most failed DIY assemblies fail in the same places. The four that account for almost every callback:
- Cam locks — the round disc that twists 180° to clamp a dowel. Overtightening strips the cam, loose tightening means a wobbly joint that gets worse with use. Right answer: finger‑tight, then a quarter turn with a hand driver. Never use a full‑torque cordless drill on a cam.
- Dowels not fully seated — if a dowel only goes 80% in before you cam‑lock the joint, the joint squeaks forever and the panel sits 1/8" proud. Push every dowel home with a dead‑blow hammer before you turn the cam.
- Back panels installed before squaring — the thin hardboard back is the square reference. If you nail it on while the case is racked out‑of‑square, the panel forces the case into a parallelogram that drawers won't run in. Always check square (5 mm tolerance corner‑to‑corner diagonally) before driving back‑panel nails.
- Drawer slides mixed up — full‑extension ball‑bearing slides and partial‑extension epoxy slides are not interchangeable. The mounting holes look similar; the slide travel is not. Wrong slide = drawer hits the back of the case at 2/3 open.
And the legal one: California AB‑2326 (and the federal STURDY Act) require anti‑tip restraints on dressers over 27" tall. We install the bracket into a wall stud with the strap into the structural part of the dresser back (not the particleboard panel itself) at no extra charge on every dresser, bookcase or tall TV stand.
Brand‑specific assembly tips
The boxes don't all act the same. Quick notes on the brands we see most in San Diego homes:
- IKEA PAX wardrobes — the most common assembly failure: skipping the top rail before the drawer interiors go in. Correct order: frame + back + top rail + interior frames + drawers + doors. Always use the wall‑anchor strap (included in the box). KOMPLEMENT drawers must clear the interior wall by 2 mm — don't force a drawer that's binding; re‑shim the runner.
- IKEA BILLY — particleboard shelf‑pin holes wear out fast; expect 3–4 re‑mounts max per hole before it spins. We always wall‑anchor BILLY to a stud and use the included tip‑stop bracket.
- IKEA SEKTION / BESTÅ / MALM / KALLAX / HEMNES — all share IKEA's cam‑and‑dowel system; the gotchas above apply
- Wayfair — quality varies wildly within the catalog. Birch Lane and Joss & Main (the Wayfair premium sub‑brands) are solid hardwood with cam‑locks. Budget Wayfair lines are MDF with dowels only (no cams) — slower assembly, more glue, lower service life. We adjust price per item accordingly.
- Article — mostly solid wood and real leather; mid‑difficulty assembly but heavy (most pieces need 2 people just to flip onto its back for leg install). Build quality is good.
- Floyd — plywood case goods with brass cam locks; premium, forgiving, made to be re‑assembled (designed for moves). Our favorite to build.
- Burrow — modular sectionals with no tools; metal latches click together; the quickest premium sectional install.
- Castlery, Sabai, Inside Weather — DTC sectionals; usually 2‑person, leg bolts on the frame, cushion zip covers
- Pottery Barn / West Elm / Crate & Barrel / CB2 / RH — generally well‑engineered; metal fasteners over cams; expect 90 minutes to 4 hours per piece
Office chairs and standing desks
Ergonomic chairs are usually 80% pre‑built — assembly is mounting the base star to the gas cylinder and clicking the seat onto the mech. Herman Miller Aeron, Steelcase Leap V2, Herman Miller Embody and Humanscale Diffrient ship with the back already attached; the headrest is the only real assembly step on the Aeron remastered.
Standing desks are the opposite — lots of small steps and a wrong order ruins the desk:
- UPLIFT V2 (UPLIFT Desk), Fully Jarvis, FlexiSpot E7 Pro, IKEA BEKANT / IDÅSEN — all use a similar two‑motor frame
- Build the frame upside down on the desktop; the motor controller wiring runs in a specific channel — we tape and route it cleanly so it doesn't bind at full extension
- Test the full up/down range before torquing the desktop screws — if there's a binding issue you'll see it now, not after assembly
- Set height‑memory presets (sitting and standing) per user; most controllers store 3–4 positions
- Cable management — we run power and monitor cables through a chain or sleeve so the bundle moves with the desk without unplugging
Crib safety — JPMA and CPSC standards
Every modern US‑sold crib (Babyletto Hudson, Pottery Barn Kids Kendall, DaVinci Kalani, IKEA SNIGLAR / GULLIVER) is built to the post‑2011 CPSC standard: no drop‑side rails, slats spaced under 2‑3/8" apart (the standard "soda‑can" test), and a mattress gap of less than 2 finger‑widths between mattress edge and crib frame. We assemble per manual, verify slat spacing with a calibrated gap gauge, and re‑torque every bolt at 24 hours after the first use (wood compresses slightly under torque). Cribs don't need anti‑tip — the wide base handles it — but anything taller than the crib in the same room does.
Sectional sofas — which side is left?
This is the #1 reason sectionals get returned. "Left‑hand chaise" and "right‑hand chaise" are defined from the perspective of someone sitting on the sofa looking out into the room — not from the perspective of someone looking at the sofa from across the room. Wayfair and Article both occasionally mis‑pick orientation at the warehouse, and the customer doesn't know until the legs are bolted on. Before you unbox a sectional, we walk the room with you, confirm which wall the chaise lands on, and verify the box label against that orientation. Catching it before assembly saves a return and a re‑order.
Anti‑tip restraints — the install that matters
The bracket must hit a stud, not a drywall anchor (even a Toggler — straps yank perpendicular to the wall, and even a 50‑lb anchor pulls out under a falling 200‑lb dresser). The strap must attach to a structural element of the furniture back — a real wood rail or the steel L‑bracket on a knock‑down piece — not just stapled into a 1/4" hardboard back panel. We carry the universal IKEA‑pattern straps plus a few brand‑specific kits. Every dresser, bookcase, tall TV stand or wardrobe gets one before we leave.
Tools we bring (and why the IKEA driver is wrong)
- Bosch 12V impact driver — right speed/torque for cam locks and IKEA hardware. A full‑size 18V/20V driver over‑drives cams and strips them in one click.
- Hex bit set — 3 mm, 4 mm, 5 mm, 6 mm; most IKEA hardware is 4 mm or 5 mm
- Phillips #2 and #3 — most non‑IKEA flat‑pack uses Phillips
- Magnetic torpedo level for door alignment
- Dead‑blow hammer — seats dowels without marring
- Painter's tape — we mark every numbered panel as we lay it out so panels don't get installed backward; saves hours of "this looks wrong" backtracking
Edge cases
- Outdoor furniture (Outer The Sectional, RH outdoor, Lovesac Sactional) — we substitute stainless or coated fasteners on coastal installs; painter's tape on aluminum surfaces during build to prevent scuff marks
- Sectionals through a narrow doorway — many sectionals have a hidden split point in the arm or back; we know which ones do and we'll partial‑disassemble to get the piece through
- IKEA MARKUS office chair — the gas‑strut top assembly is under spring tension; we wear gloves and never put a finger over a charged strut (it can pierce skin if it fires)
- Lovesac Sactional — the "Sactional" puzzle takes longer than people expect; budget 90 minutes for a basic 4‑seat configuration plus 20 minutes per additional seat
What we don't do
We don't restore antique furniture (re‑caning, French polish, structural repair on old joinery — different trade). We don't do upholstery work (foam, fabric, springs — that's an upholsterer). We don't process manufacturer warranty claims — if your IKEA piece arrived with a damaged panel, the warranty replacement goes through IKEA customer service; we'll happily install the replacement on a separate visit.





