Expert: Mark H. Miller - 5/12/2008

Question
I have 8 diningroom chairs to recover and the wood frame seat has elastic webbing.  Should I replace this with elastic webbing or would jute webbing work just as well.  I am also having a hard time finding the elastic webbing.  I also considered not doing the webbing at all and replacing the seat with wood.  Your thoughts.

Answer
Hi,

You are right on with your suggestions.  There are several web sites that sell upholstery supplies they will have rubber webbing, also called Pirelli webbing.

As for comfort, rubber webbing is the most comfortable.  Jute webbing a little less so and 1/4 plywood is the least comfortable.  However, you can easily make a plywood seat more comfortable if you add at least 1" extra firm foam over the seat,  use HR extra firm foam from Foamorder.com don't use foam from fabric yardage stores it won't hold up.

Also it may help you to know that the total height of the seat should be 18" standard height, 19" maximum height from the floor, that will help you decide how much padding you have room for over the webbing or the plywood.

I hope this information is of help to you.

Mark Miller.