What Professional Upholsterers Wish You Knew Before Bringing In Your Sofa You've finally decided to stop tolerating that sad, deflated sofa in your living room. Maybe the fabric is worn thin in all the places people actually sit. Maybe the color just stopped making sense five years ago. Whatever pushed you over the edge, you've started googling sofa reupholstery and suddenly you're drowning in estimates, fabric samples, and conflicting advice. Before you haul that couch across town, here's what the people who do this work every day want you to understand. Not to talk you out of it — to make sure you get what you actually came for. The Sofa Itself Has to Be Worth Saving This is the conversation that makes upholsterers uncomfortable, because nobody wants to tell a customer their beloved sofa isn't worth the investment. But it's the most important thing to address before anything else. A high - quality sofa built with a hardwood frame, eight - way hand - tied springs, and solid joinery can last decades with good reupholstery. A sofa built with a particleboard frame, sinuous (zigzag) springs, and staple - gun construction? Recovering it is like p utting new paint on a car with a rusted - out frame. The new fabric will look beautiful for about eighteen months before the underlying structure starts winning. When you bring a sofa in for evaluation, a skilled upholsterer will flip it over, press on the frame, and look at how it was originally constructed. If they tell you the frame is compromised or that the springs are shot, take that seriously. The labor invo lved in sofa reupholstery is substantial regardless of what's underneath, so you want the bones of the piece to justify the cost. How do you know before you go? Press firmly on the arms and back. If they flex or feel hollow, that's a warning sign. Flip the sofa and look at the underside — solid hardwood frames feel heavy and show tight, clean joinery. Particleboard often shows staple s and lightweight panels. Fabric Choice Will Make or Break the Project Most customers come in with a color in mind. That's a starting point, not a plan. Fabric selection in sofa upholstery services is one of the most consequential decisions you'll make, and it goes well beyond aesthetics. You need to think about how the piece will actually be used. A sofa in a household with two dogs and three kids needs a different fabric than a formal sitting room piece that gets used twice a month. The metric upholsterers pay attention to is the rub count, measured in double rubs (also called Wyzenbeek or Martindale, depending on the testing method). Residential use generally calls for at least 15,000 double rubs. For heavy use, 30,000 or more is sma rter. Performance fabrics — solution - dyed acrylics, coated linens, certain polyesters — offer stain resistance and durability that natural fibers simply can't match in high - traffic situations. Pattern matching is the other thing people underestimate. A large - scale pattern like a bold stripe or a dramatic floral can look stunning in a fabric sample. On a sofa, matching those patterns across seat cushions, the back, and the arms requires significa ntly more yardage than a solid or small - scale print. Your upholsterer will calculate this for you, but go in knowing that a heavily patterned fabric might need 30 to 50 percent more yardage than the base estimate. Bring fabric samples to your space before you commit. Look at them in natural light, artificial light, and at night. What looks like warm cream in the shop can look greenish or gray in your living room. The Estimate Isn't Just About Yardage When people get a quote and feel shocked, it's usually because they assumed most of the cost was fabric. In reality, labor is often the larger portion of the bill for sofa upholstery services. Reupholstering a standard three - cushion sofa involves stripping the old fabric, assessing and repairing the frame and springs as needed, cutting and fitting new fabric with precision, sewing cushion covers, and finishing with proper tucking and stapling. T his takes an experienced upholsterer anywhere from 15 to 40 hours depending on the complexity of the piece. That's skilled trade labor, not assembly line work. Common additional costs that people don't anticipate: replacing foam (old foam compresses and loses support over time), repairing or retying springs, adding new batting to change the feel, and alterations to the silhouette. If you want the cushions to be fi rmer or softer than they currently are, that means new foam, which adds cost but also significantly improves how the finished piece feels. Ask your upholsterer to walk you through the estimate line by line. A good shop won't mind. They want you to understand what you're paying for, and you'll make better decisions if you know where the money is actually going. Timing Is Not Optional Sofa reupholstery takes time. A reputable shop with skilled craftspeople often has a wait list, and the work itself takes multiple weeks once it begins. If you're expecting to drop off your sofa on a Tuesday and pick it up the following weekend, that expectation needs adju sting. Plan for four to eight weeks as a realistic window at a quality shop, longer during peak periods. Some shops can rush for an additional fee, but rushing hand work introduces risk. If you need the piece done by a specific date — a holiday gathering, a move — communicate that upfront and ask directly whether it's achievable before you commit. You'll also need to arrange pickup and delivery or transport on your own end, and you'll be without the sofa during that entire time. If it's the only seating in a room, plan for that gap. What You Should Actually Ask When You Call Rather than showing up and hoping for the best, come prepared with a few specific questions. Ask whether they do their work in - house or send it out to a third party — you want to know who is actually touching your furniture. Ask whether they can show you examples of similar projects. Ask what their process is for frame repair if they find problems after they've already started stripping the piece. Ask whether they offer any kind of guarantee on their work. A confident, experienced shop will stand behind the craftsmanship. Not forever, but long enough to cover any issues with seaming, fabric installation, or structural repairs they performed. And finally: trust the people who've seen it all before. If your upholsterer tells you a particular fabric is going to show every crease and pet hair, or that your frame needs reinforcement before they can proceed, they're not trying to pad the invoice. Th ey're trying to make sure you end up with something you're actually happy with when you walk it back through your door. The whole point of reupholstery is that you get to keep something you love, fixed. Go in informed, and that's exactly what you'll get.