“I have personally witnessed many cabinets being sent to landfill from flood affected households that in time will need replacing and possibly assembling. I have already assembled a double kitchen storage unit for a Taradale resident directly affected by the floods and I do expect to get many more calls like this.”
Deane says feedback from friends, family, and the general public has been very supportive. Comments including “I hate assembling flatpack furniture”, “I wish I knew about your service earlier” and “it took me and my partner all day to assemble our furniture last time” are commonplace and have reassured him he’s on to something.
“Some of my colleagues would throw their tools across the room. I was always good at it and enjoyed the process. It’s like I’ve got four arms.”
Deane believes the main pitfalls people come across when trying to assemble their own flatpacks are not having the required tools, poor instructions, missing parts, damaging parts during assembly and, above all, getting stressed.
“These people need help. I get a great deal of satisfaction. I’m very meticulous and am plagued with an eye for detail. To serve others is what it’s about.”
The ball is already rolling, with plenty of requests coming in after Hawke’s Bay Assembly Services kicked off a month ago.
“I’ve fixed a clothesline when a woman’s fell to bits - with a full load of washing to hang out. She was rapt. I’ve re-strung another woman’s clothesline, assembled some large garage cabinets in Taradale, bedside cabinets for another customer and have had a few garden shed requests.”
Deane’s had quite an adventure accumulating all the tools to kit out the business, including finding a uniform and suitable logo. His goal was to get found on Google, which he managed to do in less than a week by joining Neighbourly.
“It’s all verified - no scammers. It’s quite a good site. And all my posts on the Taradale Community Page are turning into work.”
Deane’s mantra is ‘no job is too small’.
“It’s sometimes hard to find somebody to do those. I come to your place at a time convenient to you.”