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Recycled anecdote from the last time this was discussed on HN: While a student, I looked after the apartment of a friend of mine, who was overseas. When he mo

by lb1lf 8y ago

Recycled anecdote from the last time this was discussed on HN: While a student, I looked after the apartment of a friend of mine, who was overseas. When he moved there, we were _just_ able to eke his sofa around the last corner from the stairwell and through the door to his apartment. Just. After much cursing and several failed attempts. So, what does a good (cough) friend do while the owner is overseas? Get some hardwood mouldings/trimmings/whatever you call those long, thin pieces of wood typically put where wall transitions to ceiling or floor and nail them to the exterior doorframes, making both door openings perhaps 3/8" or so narrower, paint them in the color of the doorframe, sit back and wait. Then, years later, as he is about to leave town, moving company comes along and everything runs smoothly until one item remains. The sofa. Obviously, it got in - so it'll (as obviously) come out. Only it doesn't. We (everybody except the owner and the moving guys were in on the joke) managed to keep a straight face for several minutes. The moving guys even laughed as they (eventually) left, mollified by a bottle filled with a Scottish export product which we'd kept on hand to ensure no feelings were hurt afterwards.

te_platt 8y ago
That especially hurt me too read as just this morning I helped a friend move a couch. We had had to turn it pretty much every way possible and the only reason we kept trying was because we knew somehow she got it moved in. It's interesting that in so many different areas knowing there is a solution makes finding the solution easier. In a related story my dad remodeled his house and put in a new wall blocking in a couch. When it came time to move it (years later) I thought it was going to be a permanent feature of that room. My dad came up with the solution of getting a saw and cutting the couch into pieces.
- fcbrooklyn 8y ago
  This is such a common issue in NYC that we have a business (the couch doctor) that does nothing but take apart furniture and reassemble it in place. Friend of mine used them and they were apparently really impressive (he told them what sofa he had, the dimensions of his door, and they knew right away it wouldn't be a problem)
  - ghaff 8y ago
    A number of years back I bought a couch from my brother. I promptly took off on a trip on which I managed to badly break my foot so he ended up dumping the thing at my house and it sat in my garage for months. Once I was mobile again, I realized it was a tight fit and the sofa wasn't actually symmetrical. Fortunately, it was asymmetrical in the right way for the room but I had a momentary panic. >we have a business (the couch doctor) I also have to say that I just love how businesses get created to deal with especially largely localized problems and do a really good job at it. Even at a national level, I met with a specialist company yesterday to do something in my house and it was very refreshing.
- adrianmonk 8y ago
  I once helped a friend move a mattress set up a tight stairway. We got the mattress to turn the corner by brute force squeezing and smashing, but the box-spring was too rigid for that. We were stumped until we finally figured out that if we simply unscrewed the two wooden frame pieces that run lengthwise, what remained of the box-spring was wooden pieces that run crosswise and are attached to a network of springs. Then it was possible to fold it into a U shape. To explain visually, the box-spring was built like this one: https://mk0mattressclarcyl3h.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/LifeKindBoxSpringImage.jpg https://mk0mattressclarcyl3h.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/upload... We removed the two pieces of wood running along the left and right bottom edges, then we folded the whole thing so that the wooden cross pieces at the foot of the bed and head of the bed touched each other. The wire grid at the top was just flexible enough to handle a gentle arc.

by lb1lf 8y ago

te_platt 8y ago

That especially hurt me too read as just this morning I helped a friend move a couch. We had had to turn it pretty much every way possible and the only reason we kept trying was because we knew somehow she got it moved in. It's interesting that in so many different areas knowing there is a solution makes finding the solution easier. In a related story my dad remodeled his house and put in a new wall blocking in a couch. When it came time to move it (years later) I thought it was going to be a permanent feature of that room. My dad came up with the solution of getting a saw and cutting the couch into pieces.

fcbrooklyn 8y ago
This is such a common issue in NYC that we have a business (the couch doctor) that does nothing but take apart furniture and reassemble it in place. Friend of mine used them and they were apparently really impressive (he told them what sofa he had, the dimensions of his door, and they knew right away it wouldn't be a problem)
- ghaff 8y ago
  A number of years back I bought a couch from my brother. I promptly took off on a trip on which I managed to badly break my foot so he ended up dumping the thing at my house and it sat in my garage for months. Once I was mobile again, I realized it was a tight fit and the sofa wasn't actually symmetrical. Fortunately, it was asymmetrical in the right way for the room but I had a momentary panic. >we have a business (the couch doctor) I also have to say that I just love how businesses get created to deal with especially largely localized problems and do a really good job at it. Even at a national level, I met with a specialist company yesterday to do something in my house and it was very refreshing.
adrianmonk 8y ago
I once helped a friend move a mattress set up a tight stairway. We got the mattress to turn the corner by brute force squeezing and smashing, but the box-spring was too rigid for that. We were stumped until we finally figured out that if we simply unscrewed the two wooden frame pieces that run lengthwise, what remained of the box-spring was wooden pieces that run crosswise and are attached to a network of springs. Then it was possible to fold it into a U shape. To explain visually, the box-spring was built like this one: https://mk0mattressclarcyl3h.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/LifeKindBoxSpringImage.jpg https://mk0mattressclarcyl3h.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/upload... We removed the two pieces of wood running along the left and right bottom edges, then we folded the whole thing so that the wooden cross pieces at the foot of the bed and head of the bed touched each other. The wire grid at the top was just flexible enough to handle a gentle arc.