Office Furniture
Buy and sell office furniture in Guatemala.
Most Guatemalan paperwork still goes into folders cut for folio sheets, longer than the letter size many imported cabinets are built around, and that one measurement decides more office furniture purchases here than any brand does. New or pre-owned, the pieces are familiar ones: the melamine executive desk with its credenza, the steel filing cabinet that has outlasted three tenants, the swivel chair someone bought for working from home and no longer needs. Furniture from an office move often goes as a lot, so ask early whether a single piece can be had on its own.
Office chairs, desks and the pieces that go with them:
chairs come in three kinds. A secretarial chair is compact, often armless, and adjusts for height. An executive chair adds arms, a taller back and a tilt you can lock, and is often covered in bonded faux leather. A visitor chair has no wheels and does not swivel, and is bought in pairs or fours for the other side of the desk. For a single chair on its own, see office chairs. Desks have their own set of companions. The executive desk is the larger straight or L-shaped one, usually paired with a credenza, the low cabinet behind it. A hutch is the shelving unit that sits on top of a desk, and a mobile pedestal is the small three-drawer unit that stands beside or under it. Most of this is melamine-faced particleboard. A plain study or computer desk is better looked for under desks.
Filing cabinets and the folio folder:
folio paper is a few centimetres longer than letter, and folders cut for it will not hang in a drawer built for letter size. New cabinets are labelled with the paper size they take. A used one has usually lost its label, so take one of your own folders along and hang it in the top drawer before you talk price. A cabinet made for US legal paper takes folio comfortably, since legal is the longer sheet. Hanging folders and dividers are listed under office supplies.
What a steel filing cabinet keeps and an office chair loses:
a four-drawer vertical cabinet in folio size is around Q2,200 new, and because one with sound runners and its key barely wears, a used one in that state is still worth most of that. Chairs run from about Q350 for a secretarial model to Q3,000 and more for a fully adjustable ergonomic one, and they lose value far faster, because the parts that fail first, the gas piston, the casters and the faux-leather cover, are exactly the ones the next owner sees.
A pre-owned chair, cabinet or workstation, piece by piece:
with a chair, set the height and sit for a full minute. A seat that sinks slowly has a tired gas piston. It is a standard part and cheap to replace, so treat it as a repair and knock it off the price. Faux leather that has started to flake at the front edge of the seat will keep flaking, and no cleaner stops it. On a mesh back, press along the frame where the mesh is held, because that is where it lets go. A genuine Herman Miller or Steelcase chair carries a label under the seat with the model and manufacture date; without one, do not pay a branded price. Pull every filing cabinet drawer out to its stop, loaded if you can, and close it again. Many four-drawer cabinets let only one drawer open at a time so the cabinet cannot tip forward; if two open together, that interlock is broken. If the key is missing, budget for a new lock. With a workstation for two or four people, count the panels, brackets and cable trays against the photos. One missing bracket and it will not go back together.
Selling desks, chairs and filing cabinets from an office move:
much of the office furniture that comes up second-hand leaves when a firm shrinks, moves floors or closes a branch, and then a whole room goes up at once. Price the lot and the single pieces separately, and say which you are willing to split. Give width, depth and height and the material, and for every filing cabinet say whether it takes letter or folio. Photograph the label under one chair seat and a drawer pulled open with a folder hanging in it. Say whether the workstation is still assembled and whether it has to come down stairs: a buyer coming from Mixco or Cobán will ask how many floors before booking a truck.