REPAIRING
A
CHAIR SEAT
Probrably the most important
part of
a chair is where you sit. A wooden chair seat that is split or
needs to
be replaced will be an obvious spot to perform repairs.
Split
Seats
Split chair seats can be
repaired
with a series of 3mm dowels (wooden pegs) along the break and
reinforced with metal mending plates. The seat must be
completely
removed for doweling.
Drill holes for the dowels in
each
side of the broken seat, about 25mm deep (or as deep as
possible) and
spaced about 4 to 6 inches apart. A doweling jig is used,
clamped to
the broken seat, to drill the dowel holes. We cut and score each
dowel
, 6mm less than the total length of the dowel holes.
Glue is applied to one end of
each
dowel, and inserted into the holes along one side of the broken
seat;
then glue is applied to the protruding dowel ends and to the
broken
edge, the two parts are then joined. The pieces of the
seat are
tapped together with a rubber or wooden mallet, and any excess
glue
wiped off. The glued seat lightly clamped and left to dry for at
least
two days. For extra strength, metal mending plates can be added
to span
the break, like the one above -- four plates is adequate.
Finally, the
chair is reassembled .
Inserting Chair Seats
Chair seats set in or on frames
are
usually boards or plywood covered with padding and cloth. These
seats
seldom split, but when they do the simplest solution is to
replace the
seat with a new piece of plywood -- 8mm thickness is best. If
8mm
plywood won't fit properly after the padding has been added, 6mm
plywood can be used, but anything less than this will not
provide the
needed support. The old chair seat is used as a pattern to
cut
out the new one.
Padded chair seats are usually
held
to the frame with screws driven through glue blocks. all
fasteners are
removed, and replaced the same way to hold the new chair
seat.
If the upholstery on insert
seats is
worn or damaged, it can easily be replaced as interior chairs
are
usually padded with cotton batting. Some chairs have foam
padding or a
combination of foam and cotton. Both types of padding are
available
precut for chair seats. For most chairs, the padding should be
about
15mm to 25mm thick.
To recover an insert chair seat,
it
must be removed from the chair. The seat is usually a piece of
plywood,
held to the chair frame by screws; the screws may be
counterbored into
the frame or may go up through the corner glue blocks. The tacks
or
staples that hold the old upholstery fabric to the seat are
removed,
and the fabric is lifted off. The chair is refinished, if
necessary,
before proceeding further.
Using the old fabric as a
pattern,
new fabric is cut to fit. If the old padding on the chair seat
is in
good shape, it can be reused; if it's damaged, it is replaced
with new
padding. It may be possible to fluff and smooth old cotton
padding; if
it's badly flattened, a layer of foam padding may be added to
build the
seat cushion up to 15 to 25mm.
The new fabric is laid flat,
wrong
side up, and center the padded seat on it upside down. The edges
of the
fabric are folded up over the seat, stretching it firmly onto
the
plywood; the fabric is taped firmly down with masking
tape.
Starting at the center of one side, the fabric is folded under
and
attached to the seat with a staple gun using heavy-duty staples.
If the
new fabric is very heavy, flathead upholstery tacks will be more
secure. Staples or tacks are set 25mm to 35mm apart along the
side of
the seat.
When the first side is
completely
attached, the fabric is restretched; then stapled or
tacked to
the opposite side. The seat is turned over and the padding is
smoothed
out, making sure the fabric is straight, with no wrinkles. Then
the
seat is turned over again, and the other two sides fastened. At
the
corners, the fabric is folded in to miter it neatly; if
necessary, each
layer is stapled or tacked separately. Finally, a scrap piece of
the
new fabric is stapled under the seat, in case repairs are
necessary in
the future. The chair seat is replaced in the frame, and
resecured. All
the screws are replaced, and tightened firmly.
LOCATION
