Upholstery Springs question

Rob Keeble

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Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Well suffice to say i now know why i don't even bother thinking on a Friday what i will get done on the weekend. :eek::(:rofl:

Any of you married guys will probably relate to my story today.

We have a pair of couches, (used to include a chair but i managed to get that one tossed at the time of move) that came with us from SA. They leather covered and few years back before Mil came to visit i had a guy fix them at a cost of $950. Anyhow he said we would not find that quality of leather here or again and this is one of the only pieces of SA kit we have left and despite me wanting to ditch them thats not happening as far as Linda is concerned.

I have tried like crazy to foster, cultivate do what it takes to get her to bow to then fixing them up again, and had resigned myself to a term used in politics to wait for it to happen. "Political Will" :rofl: Sometimes in marriage you just have to be patient and let natural forces create the political will and appetite to deal with something.

Thats what happened this weekend after a certain person who shall remain nameless :)D) decided her back was not happy on these units anymore. :congrats::woohoo::woot: well the joy was short lived for me. :( here i thought i could organize the trash collectors but no ways this was turned into my new diy project and before you can count to 10 the covers were hauled off the largest unit to see what lay underneath to repair. I have no idea what created this sudden drive to remedy the problems i have been :blah::blah: about for so many years. Pretty sure i could trace it back to some reality show if i cared to go doing research. Something got the bee in the bonnet and you guys know what that means. Life stops and you do as momma says.

So now i got the repair job to do and have found a site which has the right bits and pieces. For others reference here it is
http://www.diyupholsterysupply.com/250ED/Upholstery-webbing.html
From my brief research looks to me like these folk have reasonable pricing on stuff like the webbing.

My question though relates to these type of zig zag springs.
http://www.diyupholsterysupply.com/8GM120/upholstery-springs.html

When we opened the couch up the springs all look to be in good shape (good as in no broken or visibly bent or sagging springs or even the interconnect that runs laterally connecting them up showed no damage.

But hey if you open up a end of life matteress the springs could show the same yet put some weight on them and they have lost their "spring" quality.

So is this the same with these kinds of springs? Has anyone here had a go at replacing these?

There is a piece of around 4-6 inch high density foam on top of this spring layer (sorry no pics we put the loose covers on before i could even think to get some pics, when she who shall remain nameless came to realise it was not going to be repaired same day. (this is the consequence of bathrooms on tv in 24 hours some people think diy stuff is like a drycleaning service (same day turnaround if you hand it in before 9am :rofl:) :huh:

My current plan of attack, :rofl: is to procure some 3 inch wide elastic webbing and create a web matrix above the spring base rather than taking on replacing what looks like a good spring setup, to put more support into the base. Reason being looks as though a cover they had over the springs was being used as an added tensioner and relied on the staples that hold it stretched over the springs to provide additional tension. When flopped on by the D lineman son, even the best material and staples aint up to the mission and so immediate sag.

Tactically i could go on and mess the job up in order to get these things disposed of, but that could be dangerous to my health and longevity given i have succeeded in fixing way more complicated things than this and certain person would know i am faking it. Besides its simply not in my make up to be able to do that. :( Sometimes we are as my dear mother would say "hoisted by our petard" given our tools and past remedies. So i am down for fixing this couch despite us having a second full set of couches (brand new) in the basement in "storage mode" ......go figure.
I have thought of following in Neds footsteps and creating my own kickstarter campaign to fund sufficient money for me to get blind drunk to the extent that i would be confined to a rehab center but i dont think even that would allow escape, the sentence would be more like complete this job first then I will let you go to the rehab center.

So friends i need your help. Info i found in You tube etc has been sketch and suspect and i prefer trusting advice from guys i know have been honest in the past.

Thanks for any thoughts you may have on these springs.

If you dont see me around after this call the cops :rofl: because a certain person would have seen this post and likely taken action. ;)
 
Rob,
No help with the zig-zag springs, but I did do a job using rubber strapping and special clips similar to these:
http://www.onlinefabricstore.net/ru...t=Pk05ahufdc|pcrid|57080269693|pkw|pla|pmt|e|, they clamp onto the webbing and then fit into a slot cut in the wood frame at a 45 degree angle from the direction of pull IIRC. You might be able to use a biscuit joiner to cut slots in your frame to hold them, then no worries about staples pulling out. They did a great job and the strapping lasted a good ten years before it got tired.
 
Thanks Ted, i actually showed those to Linda as i did the same kind of thing on my very first couch in life when i was a bachelor and they worked well and that was exactly my concern on finding the thin upholstry staples expected to hold the material taught across the springs.
Excellent idea on the biscuit cutter because not having a slot was high on my list of thinking of not using them and getting full benefit, you solved that one for sure. :thumb:
 
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