A Guide to Buying Used Office Furniture

Recycled Office Furniture

A Guide to Buying Used Office Furniture 

If you are looking to source office furniture, there are various good reasons for you to seriously consider buying the chairs and desks used rather than new.

One reason is that, quite simply, you can save a lot of money — as furniture can depreciate quickly after being bought new. Another reason is that buying used furniture is more eco-friendly, as you can prevent pieces from being consigned straight to a landfill.

However, shopping for used items inevitably carries certain risks. The good news is that you can rein in those drawbacks if you are strategic about how you purchase the furniture.

Firstly, Measure Your Workspace’s Dimensions  

This is particularly important if you are set on investing in bulky pieces like office desks. It would also be worthwhile for you to double - and triple - check your workspace measurements.

That’s because it can save you a massive amount of time if you have these figures close at hand when you are shopping, as it would be easier for you to quickly judge which options just wouldn’t fit neatly enough into the intended setting.

What Materials Should You Consider for Office Desks?

Second Hand Office Desks

Naturally, a lot can physically rest on an office desk when it is in use; think the likes of a computer monitor and keyboard, stationery, sheets of paper, and maybe even the worker’s arms. For this reason, your choice of material for an office desk’s work surface can be crucial.

Laminate desks are widely available — and even used ones do not call for high levels of maintenance on the user’s part. Metal desks are similarly easy to look after, making laminate and metal good options for desks destined for use in high-traffic areas.

While wooden desks might look charmingly traditional, they can also require special maintenance. For this reason, you could save them for parts of the office where not quite as much heavy-duty work is undertaken — though some wooden desks do come with protective finishes.

What Should You Look for in an Office Chair?

One big advantage of used office chairs is how easily they can be taken apart for upkeep purposes. Indeed, many of these chairs may already have been, on several occasions.

Second-Hand Office Chairs

What this all means is that, even if any part of an office chair isn’t entirely to your liking when you buy it, you will probably be able to swap out that dodgy part for something better with relatively little fuss. One good case in point is upholstery, which can be cleaned and reupholstered.

Another plus point of buying chairs is that, compared to desks, they are obviously smaller and so can often be transported more easily. However, it bears emphasis that, when you buy furniture online, how quickly it is delivered can depend much more on the seller than on the furniture itself.

For example, when a business based in London or an M25 postcode area purchases an office desk or office chair second hand from Andrews Office Furniture, we can deliver the item itself the next working day.