How to Disassemble Office Chair – a Step by Step Guide

by Andrew Smith| Last Updated: September 23, 2021

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How to Disassemble Office Chair

Office chairs come in different makes, and each design requires its disassembling instructions. Irrespective of your reasons for dismantling your office chair, you have to take caution to avoid damaging your seat.

That said, what is the best approach on how to disassemble an office chair?

Many office chairs are detachable, although some are partially removable. You can take apart an office chair by simply using your assembly instructions in reverse sequence. To remove the arm, headrest, or backrest, you’ll have to unhinge the bolts in most cases.

Table of Contents

Can You Disassemble Office Chairs?

Most office chairs allow you to detach them whenever the need arises. However, you may not be able to remove particular parts in some office chairs due to their attachment to the frame.

As you disassemble an office chair, there are some aspects to take into account. It can help to remember how your office chair arrived. Some chairs come in many pieces. And this means you can dismantle it in the opposite assembly order.

Must-Know Tips When Disassembling an Office Chair

For chairs that come fully assembled, you should determine what parts you can and cannot remove to avoid destroying your furniture. There is probably a reason why your chair came pre-assembled. So, avoid disassembling such chairs unless necessary.

While disassembling your chair, think about your reasons for doing so. You don’t want to dismantle every part of the chair when you could sort your problem with a few detachments. Besides, minimal disassembling reduces the risk of damaging your office chair.

You can always check your manual or contact your manufacturer to establish the parts you can disassemble and which ones you can’t.

Parts connected with screws should be easy to detach from your office furniture. These are usually components like armrests, headrests, and backrests.

Parts attached to your office chair’s mechanism without screws may be challenging to disassemble.

For instance, disassembling your cylinder from the mechanism can be challenging, especially if you have used the chair for an extended period. The cylinder is only connected via tension. So releasing that tension can be difficult, more so after an extended usage period.

You should not remove some office chairs at the cylinder, for example, Herman Miller models. And as you disassemble the cylinder, you’ll need something like a pipe wrench to sever the tension.

Although the pipe wrench is the easiest tool to remove the cylinder from the mechanism, it can damage it. So, consider finding a way to deter the wrench from scratching and gouging your cylinder.

Metal shaving and scratches from your deformed cylinder may get into the cylinder’s housing once reassembled, causing your seat height to go low. Your chair will most likely fail to move beyond the deformities and will become challenging to operate. In this case, you may have to get a cylinder replacement.

If you want to disassemble the cylinder from your chair, you’ll need several tools. Arm yourself with your rubber mallet and a large pipe wrench. For screwed parts like backrests, get an Allen wrench or screwdriver.

How Do You Take Apart an Office Chair?

You should familiarize yourself with various tips on how to disassemble an office chair before diving into the process. These basics will help ensure that you don’t destroy or lose any components of your office furniture.

Let’s now see the procedure for office chair disassembly.

How Do You Remove an Arm from an Office Chair?

Armrests come with various components. Therefore, ensure you master the order in which you are detaching the parts.

To remove an armrest:

Some armrests allow you to quickly disassemble them by pulling them from your office chair’s arm slot. If you have such an armrest, you can activate your adjustment lever and slide out the arm.

How Do You Remove a Headrest from an Office Chair?

Most office chair headrests are bolted onto the seat. To remove headrests

How Do You Remove the Backrest of an Office Chair?

For most office chairs, you can easily disassemble your backrest by detaching the bolts on your chair’s hind. However, some backrests come attached to the frame; hence you cannot remove them.

How Do You Take the Wheels Off of an Office Chair?

Most wheels get typically popped to your office chair’s base. Removing casters is unnecessary unless you want to replace them or return them to your manufacturer.

To remove the casters:

How Do You Open a Chair Base?

To remove your chair’s base:

How Do You Change a Gas Cylinder on an Office Chair?

Before detaching the gas cylinder from your office chair, remember it can get easily damaged during disassembly.

Besides covering your working table with protective material, do the same for the ground immediately before the working surface.

How do you remove the gas cylinder on an office chair?

The cylinder should fall on the protective material on the ground. Doing this ensures you do not damage the cylinder’s top making it impossible to fit back into your office chair’s mechanism. 

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Disassemble Office Chair

Is it Hard to Put an Office Chair Together?

Of course, you’ll need to reassemble your office chair once you finish the business you were doing, be it repair, realignment, transportation and so forth. It isn’t pleasant if you quickly went through the disassembling steps without much keenness only to get stuck when putting them back.

Nevertheless, putting an office chair together is easy even when you just detached it for the first time. You can use an online or hardcopy manual or retrace the steps you used when disassembling it. It will help to record the process if you think you’ll forget.

How Long Does it Take to Assemble an Office Chair?

The time taken to assemble or dismantle your office chair depends on its design. A chair with some parts attached to the frame will have less screwing and connection points. And that means you will do less work while assembling it.

Moreover, office chairs aren’t too heavy, and you can easily handle the task alone. If you assemble the chair alone, you can take roughly ten minutes to put together an average office chair.

Wrap Up

How to disassemble office chair shouldn’t be a big issue, provided you remember to conduct the process orderly. 

And while the process may have a few challenges, always ensure you carefully handle your chairs components to maintain them in excellent condition.

Author

  • Andrew Smith

    Andrew Smith is the founder of CozySeating, is a father of 2, and an engineer from one of the leading furniture stores in the country. Due to his 10 years of experience, he has proved to be the best person to offer advice to clients regarding different seating furniture based on their needs and performance. Besides, he is a specialist in product reviews and always keeps up with the current trends in the market.

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