So, our Karlstad broke and I nearly cried. Basically, there is a piece of particle board in the arm that holds the bolts that attach to the seating section of the couch – because you know, IKEA’s furniture are just large puzzles. Well that piece of crucial, load baring particle broke, just tore right in half. It’s not surprising really, particle board isn’t the cream of the building material crop.
The night it broke I decided to makeshift fix it with some wall nails. That wasn’t much use since the next night it broke again. So it stayed this way for a while, looking all sad and lonely and causing half of the couch to be off limits.
I think I could repair it for the time being, or find a spare Karlstad arm at IKEA. For now it is being held up with some of the children’s building blocks; thankfully the children don’t seem to mind.
Do you have any experience with IKEA’s Karlstad? I’m sure if I was able to make a warranty claim this whole process wouldn’t be a huge issue, but that is the downside to buying a used couch for half off the retail price.
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Did you ever find a solution? I've run into a similar problem recently.
Unfortunately I haven't. Our children's building blocks are still holding the broken side up. I've heard multiple times that IKEA frequently carries extra arms which could be used as a replacement to the broken one.
Our karlstad busted too. The staples holding the arm together ripped right out and other staples are starting to work loose in the main couch. Not worth the money…this is our second repair and we've only had it a year! They don't do warranty claims beyond 90 days either.
Isn't there a 10 yr limited warranty on this couch ? http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/customer_service/warranty.html
http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_US/img/customer_service/KARLSTAD_warranty.pdf
Try calling IKEA customer service !
I believe there is but since I bought it used and don't have the receipt or the original purchase date, I am unable to claim the warranty.
Two arms, on two different sofas, so FOUR arms. Notice we haven’t given up. We found a Kartell sofa that you could take apart and clan like the Karlstad but it was 6 thousand dollars. (steel frame though)We do dog rescue and have EIGHT dogs. Washable is EVERYTHING!!!
(also..our sofa was up on stacks of bricks for a while)