When it is worth reupholstering a sofa instead of replacing it

What decides it: the frame

A well-made sofa will take several reupholsteries; a poorly made one, none. Utah State University’s furniture-buying guide sums up what to check: joints that are dowelled, mortise and tenon, tongue and groove, screwed or bolted — not stapled, because staples work loose and rust. Good corner blocks are set into the frame and screwed; on cheaper pieces they are only glued.

The timber matters too. Purdue University’s guides explain that wood swells and shrinks with moisture, and that the movement loosens joints over time. In a coastal house that stands closed for months, it is worth looking at the joints before deciding anything.

The suspension: it should push you back up

Under the filling there are springs or webbing, and they are what keeps a seat from sinking in the middle. The same Utah guide suggests a simple test: sit down and bounce gently. The suspension should push you back up each time. If it doesn’t, it needs redoing, and that is part of the job — it isn’t a reason to throw the piece out if the frame is sound.

What proper reupholstery involves

Reupholstering isn’t fitting a new cover. Heritage Crafts, the UK body that champions traditional crafts, describes upholstery as built by hand on a timber or webbed base, with springs, lashings and stuffings; today polyurethane foam is the most widely used filling. The trade’s formal training in the UK, City & Guilds, starts with preparing the piece — stripping it and repairing what needs repairing — before webbing, springs, stuffing and, last of all, the cover go on.

In practice that means taking everything off down to the frame, checking it, redoing the suspension if needed, replacing the filling and dressing it again. A new cover over tired foam won’t last, and you feel it when you sit down.

The cloth: chosen for its use

The cloth is chosen first and goes on last, and it has to be made for the life it will lead. Rub resistance is measured with the Martindale method in ISO 12947-2, and the European standard EN 14465 sets the requirements for upholstery fabrics in domestic and public use. Makers grade their cloths by those tests, and it is worth asking for the figure and the use each fabric is intended for. Camira, a British maker, also points out that beyond a certain number of cycles the result stops telling you anything about how long the cloth will last.

Beside a south-facing window something else is needed: lightfastness. It is measured with the ISO 105-B02 test on a scale of 1 to 8, and Kvadrat, another upholstery fabric maker, asks for at least a 5.

Fire: what is required here and in the UK

In Spain, the building code (Código Técnico de la Edificación) requires fixed upholstered seating in cinemas, theatres, auditoriums and assembly halls to pass the UNE-EN 1021 tests — the cigarette and the match. We have found no equivalent requirement for furniture in the home.

The UK does have one: the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 require the filling and cover of domestic upholstery to pass their ignition tests, reupholstery included. If you are used to that label at home, it is worth raising when the cloth and filling are chosen.

What doesn’t get thrown away

According to the European Commission, around ten million tonnes of furniture are discarded in the EU every year. The EU’s 2024 Ecodesign Regulation names furniture among its priority product groups, and Spain’s 2022 waste law provides for a producer-responsibility scheme for furniture. Reupholstering a piece with a sound frame is the most direct way to keep it out of that figure.

What to ask before deciding

Before you commission it — or throw the sofa out — these questions settle it:

The frame

How are the joints made? Is anything loose, split or stapled?

The suspension

Does it push you back up when you sit? If not, will it be redone?

The filling

Is it replaced in full, or is the old foam just re-covered?

The cloth

What rub resistance and lightfastness does it have, and what use is it made for?

The sums

As Oregon State University puts it: if the work costs more than an equivalent new piece, it doesn’t pay — unless the piece has value of its own.