Furniture delivery prep: what to measure, what it costs from Duncan, and what happens if it arrives damaged

How long until delivery day? Lead times by brand

Lead times at Merit depend on the maker. Most of what you see at the Duncan store is on display for sitting and feeling, and your own piece is ordered for you. Each time below runs until the piece is ready for pickup or delivery. Then we call.

Those are typical times, and we give you an honest one for your piece before you order. If a special order slips, we lend you loaner furniture at no charge while you wait. We usually offer a discount if you'd like to carry on with the order. Cancelling is an option, though it rarely comes to that. What happens between the order and the arrival, and why a custom cover takes longer, is laid out in what the wait for a special order covers.

A Decor-Rest sofa ordered today is an 8 to 10 week wait. That gives plenty of time to measure, clear a room and plan the take-away. A mattress at 2 to 3 weeks gives less, so the measuring for a new bed frame is worth doing the same week you order.

How a Merit delivery gets booked, from order to doorstep

Booking a delivery with Merit is done by phone, never by an online calendar. The order of events is the same whether you buy at the Duncan counter or through the website.

1. Order. At checkout, online or in the store, we take a phone number. Checkout won't go through without one, because the number is how the booking happens.
2. Deposit, for special orders. A special order takes a 24% deposit, collected when the order is written up.
3. Arrival. When the piece reaches us and is ready, we phone you.
4. Booking. We agree a time on our schedule, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. For a Gulf Islands address, the time is worked out around the ferry.
5. Delivery. The piece comes in and is assembled, and anything you booked for take-away goes with us.

The Cowichan Valley and the Island are spread out, and our delivery runs reach the nearby communities almost every week. That is why we book by call: a time that suits you can usually be fitted onto a run that's already going your way. Next-day delivery is not something we promise.

If your number changes between the order and the arrival, a quick call to the store with the new one keeps the booking on track.

Furniture delivery prep: measuring the piece and the route in

Measuring for furniture delivery means checking two things: whether the piece fits the room, and whether it fits the route from the curb to the room. The route is the one people skip. Michael says the sofa mistake that costs most is a doorway or an elevator measured too late.

What do you need before you start measuring furniture?

A metal tape measure, a notepad or phone, and a second person to hold the far end. Painter's tape helps for marking a footprint on the floor. Every Merit listing prints the piece's width, depth and height; write those down first, then go and measure the house against them.

How do you measure if furniture will fit through your home?

Walk the path the piece will take and write down the narrowest point of each part of it:

• every door on the way, measured as the clear opening with the door swung fully open
• the hallway width, and any corner the piece must turn
• stair width, the turn at any landing, and the headroom over it
• an elevator's door and inside depth, for a condo
• any gate, deck step or tight path between the street and the front door

Then compare the smallest of those numbers with the piece's two smallest dimensions. The Decor-Rest 2003 sofa is 84 inches wide, 40 deep and 38 high. Its 38 inches is more than a BC minimum entrance door of 31.9 in, so that sofa is one to measure the route for. The full method, with the BC Building Code minimums for doors, halls and landings in inches, is in the guide to measuring a doorway and hallway for a sofa. A massage chair has its own numbers, covered in doors, hallways and stairs for a massage chair.

When you order a sectional or a sofa, we draw how it faces and write the measurements right on the invoice. Then we ask you to go home and re-measure, to be sure it fits. That second measurement takes about ten minutes.

How much space does a sofa or sectional need once it's in?

A sofa needs its own depth, a gap to the coffee table, the table itself, and a walkway past it. Ashley's coffee table guide gives 18 inches as the most accommodating distance from sofa to table, within a range of 12 to 18 inches. The National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) recommends that a walkway be at least 36 inches wide, and 42 inches where two walkways meet.

Worked through on the Decor-Rest 2003, the floor from the wall out looks like this:

Ashley also sets the coffee table at about two-thirds the length of the sofa, which on an 84-inch sofa is a table near 56 inches long. For height, the table should be the same as the sofa's seat or 1 to 2 inches lower. This sofa's seat height is 19 inches, so a table from 17 to 19 inches high sits right with it.

What is the 2/3 rule for furniture?

The 2/3 rule is a proportion guideline with two common forms. A sofa looks balanced when it covers about two-thirds of the wall behind it, and a coffee table looks balanced at about two-thirds of the sofa's length. Neither has anything to do with whether the piece gets through the door. The proportion side of sofa sizing, with standard widths, is in the sofa dimensions guide with the 2/3 rule.

Planning a sectional layout before the delivery

Plan a sectional layout on the floor before the order is written. Tape out each section's footprint, then walk around it: to the door, past the chaise, to the window. Keep the 36-inch walkway at any open end where people pass. Decide which side the chaise goes on while the tape is down. Left-facing and right-facing are named as you stand looking at the piece, and the reasoning is set out in how left-facing and right-facing are named. Whatever you choose, that orientation goes on the invoice drawing.

Getting the house ready the day before a furniture delivery

Getting ready for a furniture delivery takes an hour at most, and most of it is clearing a path. Here is the list we'd work through at home:

• Clear the route from the door to the room: rugs that slide, plant stands, shoes, the hall table.
• Move the old piece out of the spot, or book its take-away when you order.
• Decide exactly where the new piece goes, so it can be set there once and not shuffled later.
• For a power recliner or an adjustable bed base, check there's an outlet within cord reach of the spot.
• Leave room in the driveway or on the street close to the door.
• Keep pets in another room while the door is propped open.
• In a strata building, book the elevator or loading area with the building manager once we've agreed a delivery time.
• Keep your phone with you that day, since that's the number we'll use.

If you're moving a heavy old sofa yourself to make room, get a second person and lift with your legs, not your back. If you'd rather not move it at all, the take-away charge exists for exactly that.

How much should you tip for furniture delivery?

A tip for furniture delivery is your call, and nothing on our invoice asks for one. The $150 from Duncan is the delivery price with the assembly in it.

The cheapest way to get furniture home, and shipping it across Canada

The cheapest way to get a piece of furniture home is to pick it up yourself, which is free at the Duncan store. It's worth checking the piece's dimensions against your vehicle first. A sofa that is 84 inches long needs a truck or a trailer, not a hatchback.

For shipping furniture across Canada, our furniture delivery covers Vancouver Island and some of the Gulf Islands from Duncan. Pillows, sheets and other small items are different: we don't send them out on their own, and most of them sit in our pillows, sheets and protectors. They're a free pickup in Duncan, ready about 2 business days after they arrive, or they ride along with a delivery. A mattress going across the Island may travel by a different method, and we'll say which when you order.

The old piece is the other cost. The Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) charges $32 per unit for a mattress, box spring or futon at its recycling centres. It charges $825/tonne for couches and armchairs, which it puts at about $50 to $63 per couch. Soiled or pest-ridden furniture is treated as garbage at the same fee. Next to that, our take-away at $25 to $50 a piece saves a trip to the depot, and sometimes it's included. Donating or selling it are the other ways to get rid of old furniture, and the depot fee differs in each regional district.