Cost of Reupholstering Furniture

[baileyuph]

When the cost of reupholstering furniture comes up in business, often the reaction is "Why I can buy new for that or less".

There are reasons for that reaction, which most have been discussed.  

Giving the dynamics of this issue a little thought, one factor that has to be dealt with in reupholstering furniture and a lot of other items (marine seats, auto seats, etc.) is the disassembly/tear down time.

There is a thread on dental chairs which I didn't want to intrude on with this post that tear down time does enter into the equation.  It possibly varies with the dental chairs just as it does with house hold chairs.  Meaning that tear down on some furniture is time consuming, they are not all easy or can quickly be done.

In contrast to what is being said, manufacturers do not do tear down, their assembly lines litterally build or assemble.  That alone makes custom reupholstery more time consuming, or more direct "cost more".

Another point, when a custom upholsterer tears something down, they intuitively will take it a little bit slower because they analyze how it is not only assembled but how it is patterned and sewn.   Some furniure upholstery today (I could say most and be correct) is put together as an integrated system, considerable technical sewing techniques which should be reviewed during disassembly, merely to get things back together correctly.  

Tear down time continues to be different as items evolve out of the factory processes.  Said to point out that in old days recliners were primarily a stand alone piece of furniture but not much any more.  Recliners are integrated everywhere, sofas, love seats, and sectionals.  Furniture equipped with these devices can be a mechanical assembly that does take time to repair (mechanism replacements) or merely remove.

Hence, with all this as a starter, it should be obvious to most anyone involved in this work why reupholstery and repairs (the mechanicals as expressed) can take some time to just separate the items and further separate even before the patterning and sewing requirement is started.  

All said to explain why reupholstery is not simply all "just" do this or do that, it takes times to do
"tear down"!  Something factories normally do not do.

I don't know how many times when preparing an estimate I have short changed myself on the cost of "tear down".  Normally it takes more time than even the experienced quickly realize because it just takes time to pull staples and clean up the frame to ready it for the reupholstery process.

What would probably make an interesting thread is a presentation of ideas, discussing how to speed that process up?  

I spend so much time tearing down.  LOL.

In the old days it didn't seem like time was as valuable as it is today.

Doyle  

[kodydog]

Good points Doyle. Also, most seasoned upholsterers don't consider tear down a skill. We just get in there and strip it as fast as possible so we can get to the money making end of the job. That is until you try to train a novice how to strip. Then we are reminded it's not as easy as it looks. And just because you taught him to strip a club chair doesn't mean he can now strip a wing chair. There really is a lot to consider when striping a chair, like how to preserve finished wood.

The approach I take is basically the opposite of upholstering. Start at the bottom, then to the outsides and then the insides. I've seen different methods of staple removal but usually I'll just grab the fabric and pull off what I can by hand. The rest I attack with an old fashioned staple puller.

[Rich]

There is a thread on dental chairs which I didn't want to intrude on with this post that tear down time does enter into the equation.  It possibly varies with the dental chairs just as it does with house hold chairs.  Meaning that tear down on some furniture is time consuming, they are not all easy or can quickly be done.

Here's another fly in the ointment you might not be aware of concerning dental chairs. Most manufacturers these days are finding that money can be saved by mounting the upholstery on vacuum formed ABS substrates. They are using anywhere from 1/8" to 3/16" ABS and from what I can see, I'd say it's probably the lower quality recycled stuff. So, forget about stripping these chairs, b/c the ABS has become so brittle that even if it looks like it's OK, as soon as you start shooting a few staples into it, you find it begins to crack and crumble. What to do? well I have had to make replacements out of virgin ABS molding them in my own vacuum forming machine, or I re-engineer plywood replacements which many times means developing jigs to curve glued up bending plywood to shape and then machining to size. Believe me, it would be easier to just strip and recover, but this is the state of things with today's dental chairs. Oh and not b/c I want to make myself look good, but to give evidence for why I think the manufacturers are using recycled ABS, I've been doing these vacuum formings long enough to have stripped my own substrates years later and I've never seen any of them crack. It's better stuff but the manufacturers don't seem to want to spend any more that they have to. I guess this is what they have to do to remain competitive.
Rich

[baileyuph]

Gosh Rich you mean the build it cheap mentality has penetrated dental chairs.  Now, come on people, your dental work hasn't done anything but continue to rise, as most medical services.

Hey Rich, can you clue me in on this vacuum forming machine?  I didn't catch one?

Doyle

[baileyuph]

I think you are right Kody about some not taking tear down seriously.  It has become imperitive to pay close attention and remember the sequence of events that the item was produced by.  If you don't, it can get hairy refabricating and reassembling.

I was working on a sectional component just this week and every thing on the bottom cushion area was one integrated system off the sewing machine and was installed that way after it was stuffed (filled with foam and whatever).  Ditto for the inside back, the outside back and the pillow backs on the inside back, one integrated system.

Now, imagine going in and repair/replacing one panel in the connected mess!!

Basically, it seems that everything is seamed, filled, and the assembly process is two or three steps and out comes a finished piece.

The changes are so hard to keep up with.

Doyle

[kodydog]

Yep. This has been going on for the last 20 years in manufacturing. Put everything onto the sewers. The "integrated system" in an assembly line production may take a sewer one hour to assemble. That leaves the upholsterer with about 15 minutes time to finish the thing off. Everything is over stuffed and nice and comfy in the showroom. Not a whole lot of detail. And it's a real nightmare to reupholster the darn thing.

These are the pieces that when giving a quote the customer says, but I only paid $600 for the whole sectional. Best to let these pieces fall by the wayside.

[Rich]

Doyle,
The vacuum forming machine was built by me from plans in a book I found in the library years ago. It uses 24" square sheets (8 from one 4'x8" sheet). The most difficult part is making the molds from wood. It makes sense only when multiple pieces are anticipated over time.
Rich