To remove legs from a dining table, clear and turn the table upside down onto a padded surface, identify how the legs are fixed, then undo the fixings in order. Most modern tables use bolts, hanger bolts with corner brackets, or screw in threaded plates, all of which come apart with a spanner, an allen key or a screwdriver. Older tables with glued mortise and tenon joints are a different job entirely and often not worth dismantling.
Before you start, look underneath. Two minutes spent identifying the fixing type saves an hour of guesswork, and it tells you immediately whether this is a fifteen minute job or one you should reconsider.
An adjustable spanner or a socket set for bolts. A set of allen keys, both metric and imperial if you have them, since flat pack furniture uses metric but imported pieces sometimes do not. A cross head and a flat head screwdriver. A rubber mallet for persuading stuck joints. Penetrating oil for corroded bolts. A blanket, duvet or sheet of cardboard to protect the tabletop. A small container for the fixings.
That container matters more than it sounds. Table fixings are often non standard lengths and specific to the design, so losing one means the table cannot be reassembled properly. Put every bolt, washer and bracket in one place and label it if the legs differ.
Clear the table completely and take out any drawers or removable panels. Lay your blanket or cardboard on the floor in a clear area.
Get help for anything larger than a small four seater. A 180cm table is heavy and awkward, and the risk is not just to your back but to the tabletop edge, which chips easily if the table is set down at an angle. Glass and marble tops need two people minimum and should never be lifted from one end.
Turn the table onto its side first, then lower it onto its top. Lifting it straight up and inverting it puts strain on the joints you are about to work on, and on tables where the top is only lightly fixed to the frame it can pull the top away.
For glass topped tables, check whether the top lifts off the frame separately. Many do, held by suction pads or brackets, and removing the top first makes the whole job easier and considerably safer than inverting a glass panel.
Once the table is inverted, look at where each leg meets the frame.
Bolt through a bracket. You will see a metal plate or bracket spanning the corner, with a bolt passing through it into the top of the leg. A wing nut or a hex nut holds it. This is the most common arrangement on tables designed to be dismantled.
Threaded plate. A metal plate is screwed into the underside of the tabletop, with a threaded socket in the middle. The leg has a matching bolt in its top and simply screws in. These come off by turning the leg itself anticlockwise.
Direct screws. Several screws pass through a mounting plate on the leg into the underside of the tabletop or the frame. Straightforward, though the screw heads are sometimes covered by a plastic cap that needs prising off.
Dowels and glue. You will see no metal at all, just a joint line where the leg meets the frame. This is a permanent joint and removing it means breaking it.
Mortise and tenon with glue. Same appearance as dowels from outside, found on older and better quality timber tables. Also permanent.
Start by loosening every fixing on all four legs slightly before removing any of them completely. This keeps the frame square while you work. Taking one leg fully off first puts the load onto the remaining fixings and can distort the frame.
Work anticlockwise on nuts and bolts. If a bolt will not turn, apply penetrating oil and leave it for fifteen minutes rather than forcing it. Forcing a corroded bolt strips the head, and a stripped head turns a simple job into a drilling exercise.
Hold the leg while you remove the final fixing. Legs are heavier than they look and dropping one onto the tabletop causes exactly the damage you are trying to avoid.
Once a hanger bolt leg is free, check whether the hanger bolt has come out with the leg or stayed in the bracket. It should stay in the leg. If it has unwound out of the timber, it needs screwing back in before reassembly, and a drop of thread lock helps if the hole has become loose.
Threaded plate legs unscrew by turning the leg itself. Grip the leg near the top and turn anticlockwise. Some resistance at the start is normal, particularly if the leg has been in place for years.
If a leg will not turn, check for a locking nut at the top of the bolt. Many designs have one, and it needs loosening first.
If the leg turns but does not come out, the bolt may be turning inside the timber rather than the plate. Stop and check. Continuing will chew out the hole in the leg and you will need to reset the bolt with epoxy afterwards.
If the legs are glued into an apron with dowels or tenons, they were never meant to come out. You can break the joint with a mallet and a block of wood, working the leg back and forth, but you will damage the joint surfaces and the leg will not go back as securely without recutting or reinforcing.
The honest advice here is to consider whether you need to remove the legs at all. If you are moving house, most glued frame tables travel on their side or upside down with the legs on, provided they are wrapped. If you are moving a table through a narrow doorway, measure the diagonal first: a table turned on its side often passes through a gap that seems too small.
If a table genuinely will not move and the legs are glued, and the piece is not valuable, a saw across the top of each leg is the pragmatic option. It is destructive but it does get the table out. Weigh that against replacement. The dining tables UK sale range includes designs with bolt on legs specifically for people who move regularly.
Put the legs back on with the same care you took removing them. Start every fixing loosely, get all four legs attached, then tighten in stages working around the table rather than finishing one leg at a time. This keeps the frame square.
Do not overtighten. Bolts pulled hard into timber crush the fibres around the hole, and the joint becomes looser rather than tighter over time. Snug is correct.
Check for wobble before turning the table back over. Press each corner of the frame in turn. Any flex means a fixing needs tightening or a bracket has not seated properly.
Once upright, check the table sits level. If it rocks between two diagonal feet, one leg is slightly short or the floor is uneven, both common in older UK houses. A felt pad or an adjustable levelling foot on the short leg solves it.
Moving house is the most common reason, and a table without legs takes up a fraction of the van space. Getting a table through a narrow hallway or up a stairwell is the second.
Changing the look is the third and more interesting one. Swapping legs is one of the cheapest ways to change a table completely. Timber legs on a glass top read very differently from chrome ones. Hairpin legs modernise a plain top instantly. If you have a tabletop you like on a base you do not, replacement legs are worth considering before replacing the whole table.
Height adjustment is the fourth. Shortening legs by a couple of centimetres to make a table work as a desk, or replacing them with taller ones for a standing height surface, is straightforward on bolt on designs.
Storage is the fifth. A table stored with its legs off, standing on edge against a wall, takes very little room. If you have a spare table for occasional use, this is worth doing rather than leaving it assembled in a garage where it collects damage.
Store the top flat or on edge, never leaning at an angle where it can bow. Timber tops left propped will take a permanent curve over months. Stand a top on edge on two blocks so it is not sitting directly on a damp concrete floor.
Keep the legs together and bundled, with the fixings in a labelled bag taped to one of them. This is the single most useful thing you can do for your future self.
Avoid unheated garages and lofts for timber tops. Repeated humidity change causes movement, and a top that has cupped in storage may not sit flat when reassembled. If you have space indoors, the shelving units and storage UK sale range includes options that free up cupboard space for exactly this kind of thing, and vertical storage in a utility area keeps a dismantled tabletop off the floor.
If a table has come apart for the last time and you are replacing it, the dining table and chairs sets UK sale selection at Furniture in Fashion lists assembly details for each design, so you can see which come apart easily before you buy.
No. Tables with bolted, screwed or threaded plate fittings come apart easily. Tables with glued dowel or mortise and tenon joints are permanent and removing the legs damages them.
Usually an allen key, an adjustable spanner and a screwdriver cover it. Add penetrating oil for old bolts and a rubber mallet for stiff joints.
Try a screw extractor bit, or grip the head with locking pliers if enough of it protrudes. If neither works, drilling out the bolt is the last resort and you will need a replacement fixing.
Not if the table was designed to come apart and you reassemble it correctly without overtightening. Repeated dismantling of the same fixings does gradually loosen the holes in the timber, so avoid doing it more often than necessary.
Yes, on most tables. Check the thickness of your top against the length of the mounting screws so they cannot break through the surface, and make sure the new mounting plates sit on solid timber rather than on a thin veneer panel.
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