Restaurant Bench Seats

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Thought there was a thread on the how-to's of this but cannot find it.

So, I bought my upholstery machine and the guy recommended me to a local restaurant whose bench seats were badly in need of a redo.  Layer upon layer of duct tape on the vinyl.  Ruined the foam underneath as it stuck to the duct tape and came out in chunks.

This was my first real upholstery project.  Working on a canvas top for a 1912 EMF, which is why I purchased the upholstery machine.

Anyway, the restaurant owner had vinyl on-hand that was sold to her by a cutter who didn't have time to do the work herself.  My first seat was a definate learning experience.  I cut to fit the foam, not realizing that it had been wrapped a bit around the sides so my first seat cover was about 2 inches too big all the way around.  Restaurant owner was very nice (I'm not sure I would have been that nice had the roles been reversed).  In my defense, the bench she sent home with me already had the old vinyl removed so I had no real pattern and gave it my best shot.  Anyway, I went back to the drawing board and did a respectable job.

My real question is probably more towards the quality of vinyl that I used.  I'm assuming that different types of vinyl have different "stretchiness".  This vinyl looks great for about 3 weeks and then it starts sagging.  We have restretched 3 times.  When finished, you could bounce a quarter off of it and as folks slide off and on, it gradually loosens up.  Doesn't matter which direction the vinyl was cut as I switched cutting direction on one to see if it made a difference and I have the same results.  My staples were driven deep and are placed about 1/2" apart max.

This vinyl was left over from another project, so I'm told.  I'm wondering if it was not the correct composition for a project that the end result has people sliding in and out probably 30 times or more a day.  I know that the old vinyl was much stiffer from the get go.  My feeling was that the restaurant owner was taken advantage of by someone wanting to ditch some stock but that's only my feeling.

Thanks for any comments you can give.  I'm kind of gun shy about any more restaurants until I can figure out why my bench seats aren't staying nice and tight.

Virginia

[sofadoc]

I do several restaurants in town on a regular basis. When I eat at those places, I'm not noticing any loosening of the vinyl. I think you may be right. If you're pulling it tight enough to bounce a quarter off of, and then it loosens up in a few weeks, it does sound like the manager got some bum vinyl.  Most vinyls will stretch easily in one direction, but not the other.

Is the existing foam still resilient? If it's starting to deteriorate, that could contribute to the problem.

[scott_san_diego]

I do a lot of restaurant seating and also build restaurant booths.  Like Sofadoc said, if  the foam is soft or broken down then the foam should be replaced.
I use a quality foam on the booth seats that I build or recover when needed.  Usually 2" Q-61 foam with a layer of Dacron.

Another problem could be the way you are cutting & sewing up the cover.  Most restaurant seats are 48" wide and 18" deep.  The cover will be either sewn up with a band around all four sides of the top cover with or without welting.  If this is the way the seat cover is sewn up, then you want to cut the top seat cover 49" x 19" , witch will give you your 1/2" seam allowance, and band depending upon how high the seat with foam is.
The other way would be to have the seat cover a waterfall style cover, where the cover is wrapped down and around the front of the seat and you sew the ends panels on the seat.  In this case you would cut the vinyl 49" x approx. 36".

This should give you a nice tight fitting cover.

[Rich]

You have, at least, demonstrated why it's not a good idea to use a customer's vinyl on a job that will get a lot of traffic. Without knowing what it is to begin with, you could find that it has characteristics that cause problems which, in this case, resulted in increasing your labor time. Stick with a good brand of vinyl like Naugahyde, Boltaflex, Spradling etc. and although the initial cost will be higher, you'll do it once and have a long wearing and good looking product. And hopefully, a happy customer.
Rich

[Virgs Sew n Sew]

Thanks for the input ya'll.

Glad that job is finished, for sure!

The seats were slightly smaller than the dimensions given in one of the comments.  Deb did not want welting as her girls are pretty lazy about cleaning the benches between customers so these were just full of old crumbs, etc.  Yuck!  Once she gave me a bench with the old vinyl on, I was using the same dimensions as the originals.  Anyway, I now know that from ever on, I will always buy my own vinyl and be a much happier camper in the long run for sure. 

Thanks again!

Virginia

[baileyuph]

Nothing was said about seat springing, the type, nor density of springs.  Builders of seats like this are catering to a price sensitive market, the restaurants and we know what happens when things are built in a low quality fashion. 

Also, nothing was said about the sub structure build up.  How well were the springs supported in terms of cross stay wires?  I assume the springs were zig zag style.  The main point here is no matter how good the vinyl is or how accurately cut, the spring base has to be built strong.  How many ties across the long dimension of the seat is particularly important?   Then, equally important is the build up over the springs and stabilizer cross wires, the substructure is as important as any part of the process.  These types of products are driven so much by price the restaurant (current or past owners) often buy cheap cheap from the get go.

The foam build stage; if quality, higher density foam isn't used, the outcome will be affected.

The vinyl used, it could have been too soft, meaning it offered excessive stretch up and across the roll.  It would have been helpful if the stretch had been defined, for example how much, in inches did it actually stretch in both directions, like over a half inch per foot in distance in both directions?  Some marine vinyls are designed very soft for a reason, one of these could be a decent vinyl but would not be the best for this job.

Overall, done and said, I can't say, not being present the apparent vinyl problem might not have been the significant actual problem.  Give this some thought, as you felt the firmness in the springs, the foam used, and even the stretch in the vinyl;  if the springs and underlayment had been built stronger, the vinyl would have been subjected to a lot less stress.  Firmness is not merely a function of the vinyl used.

There was mention that the old vinyl was harder than the new, that is expected because as vinyl ages it becomes harder.

Restaurants usually get and want cheap because they do not understand the requirements to built higher standards seating.  In reupholstery, in general, this can be an issue.  I usually don't get these jobs, there is no money to be made in being cheap.

Doyle