Expert: Mark H. Miller - 3/30/2008

Question
Hi Mark!
First of all, great insight to your previous questions...
I have an old Queen Anne sofa that belonged to my great aunt. One half of the couch has slumped as the webbing and springs have gone bust.  I think the springs are still good, just needs re-webbed.  I purchased some webbing, I am just not exactly sure what the procedure is. Put the webbing in place, taught and secure and then rearrange the springs and sew to webbing to secure?  What is the optimal procedure for ensuring the springs are balanced, level etc.

I would love to see some of the work that you have done!  

After this, I have 2 Queen Anne chairs and matching ottoman...
:-)

Answer
Hi,

Thanks for the compliment.  

To replace the webbing, nail or staple the webbing along the back edge of the sofa by folding an extra one inch of the webbing over itself, so that you have two thicknesses, nail the webbing down with about 5 or six tacks, and then stretch the webbing toward the front of the sofa.  For that you will need a tool called a webbing stretcher, is is a simple piece of wood about 1X6X4 with about 6 nails sticking out, have the nails toward you push them through the webbing and use it like a crowbar.  Once you have the tool it will be very easy to see how to use it, just make sure the nails point toward you, push them through the webbing and then push down at the front of the stretcher where the nails are. Nail the webbing down with about 5 or six upholstery or carpet tacks, # 12 size, which you can buy from some hardwood stores, or online from any upholstery supplier,  cut the webbing about 1 inch away from the front of the sofa, fold it over and nail it again.  Look at the existing webbing for a guide, if you do it will be very obvious what I am explaining to you.   You can buy a webbing stretcher from any of the upholstery supply sites on line,  they should cost less than 10 dollars.  

Put new webbing over the existing webbing, going from back to front and then side to side weaving the webbing as you go side to side.  Do not remove the existing webbing, go right over it. Use the existing webbing for a guide.  That is all that should be necessary. The webbing will hold the springs in place.  This is a simple and basic repair for sagging webbing.

However, if the ties on top of the springs are also broken then this repair will not work, in that case you need to replace the entire seat, that will require reupholstering the sofa and is much more of a job than I can advise via this forum.  If you decide to reupholster the sofa, don't let the upholsterer re-use the existing springs, it is a common mistake to think that they are still good.  They are not, the cost of putting in a new seat is 95% labor, the wholesale cost of a coil spring is about 25 cents, never re-use the existing springs when putting a new coil springs seat.  

I hope this information is helpful to you, for this job it is actually more difficult to describe what to do than to actually do the job.  Using the above instructions it should become very obvious what to do once you begin.

Good luck, please do not hesitate to contact me if you need further pointers.

Mark Miller.