The simple answer is yes you can, as you are doing yourself what someone else would be paid to do, so you can save their cost. But as with everything else, you need to ask if you want to save money this way. Maybe you are the type of person who services their own car, or performs minor surgery at home, in which case putting together some furniture will be a doddle.

But if you are like the rest of us, who tremble when the phrase flat-pack is mentioned, and your toolkit consists of the spanners you got with the lawnmower and some screwdrivers you bought from a stand at an agricultural show because they were cheap, then you need to consider very carefully what you are taking on. Office furniture is heavy, awkward, and easy to damage. It is designed to be assembled by professionals who know the products, which means no instruction manuals or diagrams. And you will only get enough fixings to do the job, and these will be unique to that range. You won’t find a replacement at B&Q.

Also if you damage anything you will have a fight with the supplier to get it replaced for free.
At least if you use their installation service, any problems will be down to the supplier. Their fitters will have spare parts, and will put the furniture together in a fraction of the time that it will take you.

And they will take way the rubbish. Technically the rubbish is business waste so you shouldn’t take it to your local tip, or leave it out on recycling day.

Before you decide to install the furniture yourself please read though the following list of most common problems with furniture installation :-

• The missing fixing - as mentioned above, your only solution is to contact the supplier and wait for a spare to be sent. This could take days.

• Damaged item – again, you need to contact the supplier for a replacement, once he is satisfied that it wasn’t you who actually damaged it. Please also remember that whilst the supplier may have the whole furniture item in stock, he will have to order the replacement parts as an after-sale which could take weeks to turn up.

• A drilling in the wrong place - Easy to fix, with the right drill, but make sure you don’t cause any more problems, as from this point it’s all down to you if you damage anything. You have crossed that line, where the supplier is no longer responsible for your actions.

• Weld spatter in a metal thread - Very common and easy to fix is you have the correct tap to clean out the thread. If you don’t know what a tap is then you really shouldn’t be assembling the office furniture.

• Incorrect parts - A big problem as it will take you ages to work out that this is what wrong. Once again experience and training makes this an easy problem to discover. You have neither so you could be there for hours.

• Wrong tools - Although most fixings are fairly standard, star headed and unusually sized Allen bolts appear regularly. This will mean more expense and time spent getting hold of the correct tools or a bodge which will usually take you back to 2) above.

These are the most common problems but the most frustrating is the small dent or scratch that you don’t notice on the desk top, until after you have triumphantly assembled the unit, cleared up the rubbish, and put your tools back in their plastic bag.

Was the damage there before you started building the item, or did you cause it. How do you explain this to the supplier ?

He will quite righty just say that you should have inspected all parts prior to assembly, as indicated on the delivery note.

At this point the installation charge you were smugly saving suddenly becomes a very insignificant amount