Moving a USM Haller: dismantle, transport, reassemble
A USM Haller moves well, provided you take it apart first. The system Fritz Haller designed with Paul Schärer in Münsingen in 1963 has no glue and no permanent joints: chrome-plated tubes screw into connecting balls, and that frame holds the panels in place. Anything that was assembled can be disassembled, which is how a long sideboard gets up a narrow staircase or through a service door.
Moved in one piece, it suffers. The frame twists on every step, the joints take loads they were never meant to carry, and a panel that brushes a door frame keeps the mark. A small cabinet on castors can go from one room to the next as it is. As soon as stairs or a van are involved, it comes apart.
Before you loosen anything
Much of the job is done before the first screw turns. Photograph the piece from every side, from a distance and close up, with the drop-fronts open and closed. These pictures are your plan for reassembly, and you will be glad of them if weeks pass between the two.
Then record the configuration: how many bays, how many levels, and where each drop-front, drawer, door and shelf sits. A rough sketch is enough, numbering bays from left to right and levels from the bottom up.
Every part you remove gets a label that refers back to the sketch. Put it on an inside face, using low-tack masking tape, never a strong adhesive on visible lacquer. Empty the unit completely, take the keys out of the locks and keep them separately, labelled as well.
Take it down in order
Work from the top down and from the inside out. Start with whatever moves: shelves, glass tops if there are any, drawers, then drop-fronts and doors. The panels come next, and the frame of tubes and balls comes last.
Loosen without forcing. A screw that resists should not be wrenched out: a stripped thread disables a whole joint and the part will have to be replaced. If a joint is properly seized, it is better to move that small sub-assembly as it is than to keep fighting it.
All the small hardware (balls, screws, glides, castors, keys) goes into bags labelled by bay, and the bags go into a single box. That box travels with you, not at the back of the van. One missing ball is enough to stop a bay from being rebuilt.
Transport without marking
Panel lacquer marks on contact with bare metal, whether that is another panel, a tube or the buckle of a strap. Each panel is therefore separated from the next by a blanket, a sheet of cardboard or foam. Carry them upright on their edges and wedged, rather than stacked flat: a stack settles, slides and rubs at every bend in the road.
Tubes are bundled with their ends protected, held together with tape applied over the wrapping rather than directly onto the chrome. Glass tops travel upright, each in its own packaging, away from any metal parts. In the van, nothing should press on the edge of a panel, because the edges are where lacquer chips first.
If the furniture has to wait between two homes, keep it somewhere dry. A damp cellar or garage is the most common reason for pitted chrome.
Rebuilding on arrival
Reassembly is the same process in reverse, with two rules.
First, do not fully tighten anything until the frame is complete. A frame that still has some give will accept the panels. Tighten it too early and you will have to loosen everything again to fit them.
Second, check that the frame is square before the final tightening. On an uneven floor, adjust the glides first, then make sure both diagonals of each bay measure the same. A twisted frame shows straight away in the drop-fronts, which no longer close flush or leave uneven gaps.
Then tighten gradually, joint by joint, without overdoing it. Refit the drop-fronts, doors and drawers, adjust them one at a time, and only load the shelves once the unit is stable. If a screw goes in at an angle, stop: back it out, realign it and start again. Two turns of the key are enough to ruin a thread.
A tall unit, or one that was fixed to the wall in the old place, needs fixing in the new one too. How it is fixed depends on the wall, and that should be settled before the day of reassembly, not while someone is holding the unit up.
What can go wrong
A ball with a worn thread, a seized screw, a lost glide: these parts are replaced individually and do not put the reassembly at risk. A panel scratched in transit is another matter. On original lacquer, a local touch-up always shows, so if work is needed the whole panel is relacquered.
Sometimes the piece simply no longer suits the new room: too long for the available wall, too tall under a sloping ceiling. A move is the right moment to reconfigure it, since it is in pieces anyway. Removing a bay or a level involves no extra dismantling at that point.
When to get help
A low unit of two or three bays can be taken apart and rebuilt by two careful people working methodically. Tall, wall-mounted or very long configurations, upper floors without a lift and narrow staircases call for more hands and some familiarity with the system.
We dismantle, move and reassemble USM Haller furniture in labelled, protected modules; the process is set out on our USM Haller assembly and dismantling page. If the piece needs a new layout on arrival, the reconfiguration can be done in the same visit. For a quote, send dimensions, photos and floor levels through the contact form; we reply within one working day.
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LAPIERRE MARKET
