Low Budget Fitted Wardrobe - help needed

[sticklebrick2003]

Hi, I have been approached by a friend to build a fitted wardrobe for his semi disabled friend and her disabled husband, after the person they hired made an absolute mess of things and ripped them off.

The guy charged them a fortune, and did a job that even cowboys would be ashamed of, to give you some idea of the shoddiness, and cluelessness of his work, if i tell you the guy used 6inch nails to attach 1x1 timbers to the wall, and used 15mm chipboard for the shelves, but instead of using 90 degree brackets to attach the shelves, he just screwed them in place, with the obvious result of splitting and weakening the chipboard, making the whole thing unsafe. Also some of it has had to be taken down as it was about to fall on them in their bed..

Basically I have been asked to (for obvious safety reasond) remove everything this guy did, and build them a new one.

However, all my carpentry experience has been in antique furniture restoration - which means I am trained to make precise, tight fitting joints etc, but as restoration of furniture is basically repair work on smaller items, this will be my first ever "construction" project.

So I would appreciate some help from those of you with the experience in building fitted bedroom furniture, as this lady has been ripped off once, and I would like to do a good, solid job for her.

They already know what they want, and I am looking for advice on how to design and put it together whilst keeping costs to an absolute minimum, as this poor lady will be paying for the materials out of her disability money, and I will be doing all of this work for free.

They kind of thing they want is wardrobes either side of their bed, which will be quite narrow (about 2ft in width), with storage running between the two wardrobes above their bed, with doors on both wardrobe and the storage above the bed.

If anyone could help me out with this I would be extremely grateful.

Thankyou

 

[^woody^]

Your looking at melamine sheets from a local Wickes/B&Q and standard fixings for these boards.

Make them to suite the board widths and use hardboard or 6mm chipboard for the backing and rigidity.

Have a look down at a local MFI/B&Q etc to see how these fit together.

 

[big-all]

12mm mdf and paint springs to mind for cheap and something like 4x1 to span between the wardrobs to support the front of the bridge unit

i would be looking at using the wall with battons on for shelves using the skirting hight for the base of the wardrobs with a batton screwed on the front of the skirting if nesisery

the end off the battons on the wall would give you somthing to screw your 3x1" planed onto that in turn will support a door [12mm mdf and flush hinges]with the 4x1"bridge support going from wall to wall and forming the top of the door frames either side and the bottom support for the overhead cupboards

i would do all the frame in 3x1" and surface mounted doors with 60mm flush hinges

no chipping no tight fitting doors to go out of line and jamb

 

[gregers]

no steeping on your sheos big-all but when ever ive built wardrobes ive always used 18 mm mdf i find it has a better supporting feature then 12mm,obviously with 18mm you can span alot more with it,i find if you use melemine you always get tear outs that are hard to hide.just my opinion dont shoot me.

 

[^woody^]

The disadvantage of MDF in this situation is that the clients are disabled, so painting every so often is a bit of a downer. Its OK for if you want to change the decor whenever you change your pants though, but otherwise give it a miss

Melamine is maintenance free and will stay fresh looking after many years with just a bit of a wipe.

And don't forget to notch out for the skirting so that the units sit flush against the wall

 

[big-all]

no steeping on your sheos big-all but when ever ive built wardrobes ive always used 18 mm mdf i find it has a better supporting feature then 12mm,obviously with 18mm you can span alot more with it,i find if you use melemine you always get tear outs that are hard to hide.just my opinion dont shoot me.

absolutly agree 18mm stronger

problem sole person stairs and a 8x4 sheet heavy

perfectly fine if you can cut it in the garden or off site to managable size

and woody i agree about melamane if you have the correct blades to cut it chip free

my sugestion is managable and easily adapted and wont jamb up with doors going out of line because they are surface mounted

any way all ideas above are good uns just depends on what he is happy working with