Furniture assembly: hourly rate or a fixed price per item?

How the hourly rate works out over a whole order

Furniture assembly is charged from 39 € per hour, with a minimum of one hour and 30-minute steps after that. A single wardrobe or a bed frame is usually one to two hours, so the hourly model is straightforward: you pay for the time it actually takes, and if something goes faster than expected, you pay less.

Where it gets less predictable is when several items are booked in one visit. Four or five pieces of flat-pack furniture in one flat can run to six, eight, sometimes ten hours depending on complexity, and the total is only known once the last item is finished. That is fine if you are relaxed about the final figure landing somewhere in a range.

A call-out fee of 25 € applies within Tallinn and is deducted from the bill if the work goes ahead, so it does not stack on top for a multi-item visit — you pay it once, not per item.

When it makes sense to ask for a fixed price instead

A fixed quote is worth asking for once an order stops being one or two items and starts being a whole room or a whole flat: wardrobe, bed, shelving units and a kitchen's worth of cabinets in one go. At that scale, a fixed figure gives you a number to plan around rather than an estimate that could move by a couple of hours either way.

To give a fixed quote we need a description or photos of what is being assembled — model names or links from the retailer, how many units, whether it is straightforward wardrobes and shelving or a kitchen with cabinet doors, drawer runners and worktop cut-outs. The quote is valid for 30 days, so it holds even if delivery from the shop is delayed.

For jobs that mix assembly with an appliance going in, such as a built-in oven or a dishwasher under a new kitchen worktop, appliance installation is priced separately from 55 € per job and worth quoting alongside the furniture rather than as an afterthought.

What actually moves the final price either way

The biggest single factor is the number and type of items: a basic wardrobe with sliding doors takes less time than a kitchen run with soft-close hinges and adjustable legs on an uneven floor. Flat-pack kitchens in particular vary a great deal by manufacturer, and cabinet count matters more than square metres of kitchen.

Access matters more than people expect. A ground-floor flat with a lift and a clear hallway is quicker to work in than a fourth-floor walk-up in a 1930s Kalamaja building, where boxes have to go up a narrow stair by hand. Tight spaces, existing furniture that needs shifting out of the way, and doors that are too small for a wardrobe carcass to pass through whole all add time.

Materials are the other variable. If extra fixings, wall brackets for shelving, or replacement parts for a damaged panel are needed and we source them, a 10 % handling fee applies on top of the cost, or you buy them yourself and we fit what you provide.

A worked example: furnishing one flat

Take a typical one-bedroom flat: a wardrobe, a bed with a storage base, two shelving units and a small flat-pack kitchen of six cabinets. Booked by the hour, that could run anywhere from six to eleven hours depending on the kitchen's complexity and the building's access, which at 39 € per hour and up puts the labour alone somewhere between 235 € and 430 €, plus the single 25 € call-out.

Asked as a fixed quote with photos and item lists sent in advance, the same job might come back as a single figure in a similar range, but agreed before work starts rather than totted up afterwards. Neither model is inherently cheaper — the fixed price simply moves the uncertainty from the invoice to the quote.

• Wardrobe with sliding doors: roughly 1.5–2.5 hours
• Bed frame with storage base: roughly 1–2 hours
• Shelving unit, each: roughly 0.5–1.5 hours
• Flat-pack kitchen, per cabinet: roughly 0.5–1 hour, more with worktop and hinges
• Access on a walk-up floor or through a narrow stairwell: add time on top of the above

What to include when you ask for a price

A useful request for a quote saves back-and-forth and gets you a figure that is more likely to hold. Send it as one message with everything listed rather than piecemeal, and mention the building type if it is a walk-up or has a difficult stairwell, since that changes the estimate more than most people expect.

The more concrete the information, the closer the fixed quote will sit to the final bill, and the fewer surprises there are once the invoice arrives itemised by hours and materials, payable within seven days.

• Which items, with model names or a link from the shop where you ordered them
• How many of each — two shelving units is a different job from five
• Photos of the boxes or the room, if the furniture has already arrived
• Floor number, lift or no lift, and how far boxes need to be carried
• Whether any old furniture needs to be moved or disposed of first
• Whether you are supplying extra fixings or brackets, or want us to source them