Furniture Repair: Chair Repairs
Chair Repairs—The Most Common Type of Furniture Repair
We don’t realize how much we depend on our chairs until one of them breaks. We use chairs for everything—at home and work. Chairs for dining, chairs for relaxing, chairs for working, chairs for entertaining, you name it–there’s a chair for everything! Chair repairs are the most common type of furniture repair we see. Oftentimes, it’s also the most urgent repair for many.
Think about your dining chairs, for example. You use them every day and you have the perfect number of chairs to accommodate your family’s needs. One day, someone leans back too far and the leg snaps in two. What do you do? You grab a bum chair from another room that doesn’t match, it isn’t comfortable, and it doesn’t fit. Then what? Do you live with it, repair the chair, or buy a new one…?
To Repair or Buy New?
First, decide how important the chair is to you. Is it sentimental? If so, then repairing it may be your only option unless you can live with it the way it is. On the other hand, if it isn’t sentimental, you might ask yourself if it is easily and affordably replaceable. If it isn’t replaceable because it’s part of a set that you really like and don’t want to replace, then having the chair repaired makes sense. In either of these cases, RestorLINK can repair your chair quickly and effectively. Get your quote in less than 60 seconds now.
Common Chair Repairs
Some common chair repairs include: rung or spindle repairs, leg repairs, back support repairs, and loose joints. These can vary in severity from simple to major. Below are descriptions of repairs to help you identify your level of repair. What is very important to consider is whether or not you have all of the pieces to the chair that have broken off–fabricating the missing part(s) can drive up your chair repair cost considerably.
Simple chair repair
An example of a simple chair repair is when a leg or spindle has broken in one place and the break is clean with only two pieces – the chair itself and the piece that broke off. The most common type of repair is a broken chair leg, but other common ones are separated joints, a chair arm that has broken off, a back support that has come out of place or broken off. A simple chair repair could also be a chair that is not broken in any area, but is wobbly due to loose joints or it may even have separated joints that are not broken.
Moderate chair repair
A moderate chair repair is when there are two breaks in the chair – for example, two broken legs often occur due to someone leaning back in a chair, or two broken arms, or both back supports break when a chair falls backward. It could also be one very badly broken area where part of the chair has shattered into several pieces.
Major chair repair
A major chair repair ranges from three or more broken areas up to catastrophic damage, such as water or fire.
We have repaired chairs that have fallen out of a pickup truck on the highway, or have folded under the weight of something falling on top of it, crushing it into multiple pieces. Regardless of the damage, 99.9% of the time, it can be repaired–so don’t despair–you’re in very capable hands with RestorLINK!
Chair Repairs–What You Need To Know About Quality Repairs
There are many approaches to repairing wood—dowels, screws, and wood glue are common. The quality of the repair largely depends on the repair approach or method used. Our RestorLINK chair repair specialists know that it takes some judgment, experience, and knowledge of physics to determine which approach is best.
For example, without understanding how weight is distributed throughout the chair, and at what angle force is applied along a chair leg or arm, it would be difficult to develop a repair plan that effectively counteracts the forces that will be applied to the area.
Many inexperienced repair technicians will simply glue two pieces of wood back together and expect the repair to hold–this obviously is NOT a quality repair. So be aware–and ask before you repair. This may work in non-weight bearing areas of the chair, but is destined to fail in any part of the chair that supports the weight of the person sitting in it–the legs, the seat, the arms, the back. If the repair technician or company cannot or will not explain to you how they plan to repair your chair, you should be concerned. Furthermore, if they tell you glue only–be afraid, be very afraid.
In fact, there are few areas that don’t support some type of weight or stress, so quality repairs are important not only for the chair but for the safety of the person sitting in it.
Whatever you do–say NO to foam glue!
We commonly see people attempting to repair their chair using foam glue. While foam glue is strong, it was not made for precise work because it expands as it dries, and ends up forcing a joint apart leaving a gap and pushing the repaired piece out of alignment with the rest of the chair. A quality wood glue is the best material to use, and in a few cases, high-strength epoxy.
Experienced repair technicians, like our RestorLINK specialists, know that in addition to glue, some type of support is needed. Dowels are the preferred method for reinforcing a repair and require a fair amount of skill to install correctly. On a broken chair leg for example, an experienced repair technician installs an internal dowel that serves as a bridge between the two halves of a broken area. Much like an orthopaedic surgeon repairing a badly broken bone, a hole is drilled out in the center of the chair leg allowing the dowel to be inserted, where it becomes an internal support for the wooden leg, just like a metal rod reinforces a broken bone. Drilling at exactly the correct angle, and using the correct diameter dowel is important.
Screws may be needed for certain repairs, but are more intrusive than dowels due to the fact that they need to be installed from the outside. While screws are very strong and allow a broken area to be tightly drawn together, they are only appropriate when the break occurs somewhere out of sight or where the screw head can be covered with a wooden plug that is finished to match the surrounding wood of the chair.
Example of Chair Repair
Simple chair repair - An example of a simple chair repair is when a leg or spindle have broken in one place and the break is clean.
How it Works
Get your chair repair quote in 3 easy steps: Enter your dimensions, indicate the level of your repair, attach your pictures—it’s that easy!
Before & After Gallery
Check out these before and after pictures of some of the chair repairs we’ve done. These pictures show the level of expertise and craftsmanship you can expect from RestorLINK.
info@ncchairrepair.com
8813 Gulf Court, Suite B
Raleigh, North Carolina 27617
