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In shopping for my new home, I have found numerous rigs whose major flaw is really worn and dated upholstery and floors. Flooring is easy but how about recovering (or replacing) attached furniture? Any comment or references to other posts will be appreciated!
In addition to law enforcement, I owned and operated a upholstery shop for 20 years, and I even hold a teaching credential in vocational upholstery. What exactly are you trying to do? I will tell you the pros and cons of recovering your existing furniture.
Pros
1. it fits already no need to measure
2. You get to pick out exactly the materials you want
3. You can usually buy discounted fabrics at fabric outlet stores for a fraction of the cost of new furniture
4. You can change the style (for instance if the back is plain you can add channels)
5. Its confortable.
Cons
1. You will need a industrial sewing machine and tools (staple gun, staple remover, air compressor, adhesive, etc.)
2. You need a place to tear it down and recover it (if you do it yourself)
3. Sometimes you can buy New for the price of re-do. (When you factor in all the costs)
4. Your tired of what you have and want something different.
5. Finally you don't want to do it yourself and want to hire a professional to do it for you. You will be suprised at the costs (foam, fabric, labor)
Most upholstery shops make money off of every aspect of a project. if they tell you otherwise, they are less than honest so turn and run. Foam is made of petroleum and rubber which is very expensive. They usually make anywhere between 25-50% off the fabric they sell you. and finally the labor is calculated to allow the business to keep the doors open.
Hope that helps. If I can help you in any way I will.
-- Edited by crmfghtr on Monday 20th of August 2012 05:16:10 PM
We've had it done at a professional upholstry shop on one of our first RVs. The foam was replaced and recovered in the material we chose. Came out nice and held up for many years.
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"Small House, Big Yard "
"May the FOREST be with you" Alfa See-Ya 5'er and 2007 Kodiak C4500 Monroe
We reupholstered all of our furniture including the captains chairs with Ultra Leather Plus ourselves.
We did it mostly in the motor home with some work done outside under the awning on a fold up table. It was pretty crowded in the coach for about five weeks but we got it done. We could have done it faster but we had to accommodate some health issues. Of course as full timers taking that much time wasn't a big deal to us.
We couldn't find an industrial sewing machine anywhere close to where we were (Bouse AZ) and the day before we were going to make a two hundred mile round trip to try to find one my wife said that she wished she had her 40 year old Remington that was in storage because it would do the job.
I remembered that I had seen some old sewing machines in a junk store down the road. I bought a White sewing machine with the original manual and attachments for $25. It was made in 1938. It didn't do any fancy stitches but it did a good job of sewing the Ultra Leather.
In addition to what was mentioned above by Robert we found that we needed a pair of hog ring pliers plus a couple of hundred hog rings. Also it may be a good idea to get some quality high density foam to replace the old stuff.
-- Edited by Clay L on Thursday 21st of March 2013 12:18:31 PM
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Clay (WA5NMR), Lee (wife), Katie, Kelli (cats) Full timed for eleven years in a 2004 Sightseer 35N. Snowbirds for one winter and now settled down in CO.
