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I've just built a tall Ikea PAX wardrobe and it appears to be leaning backward somewhat (see photo).

enter image description here

I'm wondering how I should go about correcting this?

Initial idea:

There are brackets on the top left and top right designed to secure the carcass to the wall. I was thinking of adding a block of wood or something between the bracket and the wall in order to prop it forwards and screw through to both push the top forward and also secure the wardrobe to the wall. I'm just not 100% sure that this will be strong enough?

FYI - I haven't yet used these anchor points

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physicsboy
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    A small about of lean-back is safer (from tipping forward and hurting people) than dead vertical. Especially if you figure a lot of people will ignore or not do correctly the anti-tip brackets. There's also the question of is the floor level and is the wall plumb before assigning blame to the cabinet... – Ecnerwal Aug 30 '22 at 16:31
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    Can you determine which of the following is your situation: 1) The floor is not level, and tilts back towards the wall, 2) The floor is level but the wall is not vertical and leans in a little towards the room 3) The cabinet is leaning back because you overtightened the safety bracket at the top. The answer depends on which of these is the case. Note the safety bracket is not meant to secure it tightly to the wall, it is meant to prevent it from tipping forward. With a baseboard below you should only tighten it enough to do its job. A shim is a decent idea but not necessary. – jay613 Aug 30 '22 at 17:26

3 Answers3

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It is leaning backwards because of the baseboard at the floor.

The brackets are important to help to keep the wardrobe from tipping over and falling on someone. For this they should be screwed into studs, not just drywall.

To fix the lean, can either add a piece of wood to the top or remove the section of baseboard by the floor. If adding wood(1x3 should be be good), make sure it is screwed into studs, and it should be strong enough if your brackets do not match to studs.

crip659
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  • I should have probably stated in the initial question that I **haven't** yet used those anchor points, it's just freestanding at the moment. So the lean is a natural, as it stands stance. Of course, adding a piece of wood in would be the best choice, but where abouts? Something to brace against the top of the wardrobe? Should I be going for the same thickness as the skirting board? – physicsboy Aug 30 '22 at 10:23
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    Most stuff like that does not have a "natural" lean usually. It should fit/stand flat on the floor. Those brackets have been added/given to the parts bag because of lawsuits. Either your floor/wall has a slope or the wardrobe might have a lean built in on the bottom(odd). Skirting board probably about ~3/4 inch thick, a 1x(1inch by something inch) is ~3/4 inch thick. – crip659 Aug 30 '22 at 10:42
  • Much of the Ikea furniture we have has cutouts at the bottom to fit around the skirting boards (baseboard). Unfortunately, these must be designed for some non-UK standard because our skirting has always been taller than the cutout. +1 for removing a section of baseboard but first check that your walls and floors are square. If not, you might as well shim it out and add an end panel that you scribe to the wall and baseboard to cover the gaps. – Carl Aug 30 '22 at 15:49
  • You need to remove skirting for this cabinet if it bothers you that there is a gap behind it. You do not need to remove skirting to fix the leaning problem. The cabinet should sit flat on the floor, and the safety bracket should not be overtightened. See my comment to the Question. – jay613 Aug 30 '22 at 20:35
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in steps 7 and 8 you should have screwed in feet into the front end of the base, step 22 shows how to use them to level the wardrobe.

Those can be screwed in and out to level the wardrobe. You can access them from the inside with a phillips head screwdriver.

image showing how to level the wardrobe using a level and phillips head screwdriver

However don't slide the wardrobe around while those feet are resting on the ground, otherwise they will get twisted around and do some damage. So make sure to attach the top shim to the wall before you do the final leveling.

Though if the floor slopes towards the wall those feet won't help. If that is the case you can use shims and wedges under the backside of the side panels, like the kind used to plum a door or window in a frame.

ratchet freak
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    Use the screw feet, but do _not_ attach to the wall until they're vertical. Once they're nice & square, _then_ attach the anti-tip brackets to studs. Use shims, or in the OP's case, there is square trim at the bottom spacing it from the wall, a similar sized piece of wood at the top will likely be an ideal spacer. – FreeMan Aug 30 '22 at 11:27
  • Yeah I have these on, but even when they're not in contact with the floor the wardrobe is leaning back. Perhaps I should have installed them on the back to push the whole thing forwards instead XD – physicsboy Aug 30 '22 at 12:01
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I'm sitting in a room full of these PAX cabinets that I installed a couple of years ago. Using the leveling feet (as suggested in other answers, and I even agreed in comments), is normally the way you'd want to do this.

However...

There are only holes in the front of the cabinet floor to install the leveling feet, which means that if you screw them down, you're tipping the cabinet even further back.

This means that if the front of the cabinet is not vertical, you'll actually need to drive shims under the back corners of the base to raise the back edge. This will push the cabinet upright (moving the back away from the wall) and leave a gap between the back of the cabinet and the wall.

Once you've got the cabinet vertical (a slight tip back toward the wall is fine - it'll help keep round things from rolling off the shelves), then you'll want to secure the top to the wall using the provided anchors. However, if you just tighten the clamps down, you'll once again pull the top of the cabinet against the wall, tipping it backwards, which isn't what you want.

In order to fasten it to the wall and not tip it, you'll need to use shims to fill the gap at the top so you can securely fasten the anti-tip clamps. If the gap is too large for a pair of shims to fill, you'll want to use a piece of thin wood to fill in some of the space. This piece of wood will be roughly the same thickness as the trim at the bottom of the wall, though a bit thinner is better.

You'll want to take a pair of shims and place one against the wall, thick end down so that it covers the area where the screw goes for the anti-tip clamp. Take another shim, thin end down, place it on top of the first shim and slide it down until it just fills the gap and the cabinet can't rock. Hold the shims in place, then drive the screw through the bracket and into a stud to hold the whole thing in place (note - you have to hold the shims - they'll want to spin when the screw hits them). Do the same in the other top corner and you're done.

FreeMan
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