Upholstery Finder/Guides/How long reupholstery takes, and what makes it slower
How long reupholstery takes, and what makes it slower
Only about six per cent of upholstery shops say anything at all about turnaround on their websites. I know because I read all of them.
That makes this one of the harder things to find out before you commit, which is a shame, because for a lot of people it's the deciding factor. A dining set can live in a workshop for a month without anybody minding much. A restaurant's booth seating cannot, every day it's away is a day those covers aren't earning.
The numbers that exist
From the shops that do publish a timeframe:
- One to three weeks is the typical quoted range
- Two to four weeks is common, and seems to be what shops say when they're honest about a queue
- Six to eight weeks for a custom-built piece rather than a recover
Two things about those figures. They almost always mean *once work starts*, not from the day you call. And they assume the fabric is already sitting on the shelf.
Fabric is usually the delay
The bench work on a straightforward armchair is a couple of days. The reason you wait three weeks is rarely the upholsterer.
Order a fabric that's in stock at a Los Angeles warehouse and it's there in days. Order something a mill makes to order, or a colourway that's run out, and you're waiting six weeks before anybody touches your chair, and the shop can't tell you that until they place the order.
This is the single best reason to go and look at fabric in person rather than choosing from a website. 42 of the 88 shops listed here have a showroom or sample books on site. Sitting in one of those with an upholsterer who knows what's actually available this month will save you more time than any other decision you make.
What else pushes it out
Frame work. If the frame needs repair, that's a separate operation with glue that has to cure before anything gets covered. 17 shops here list frame repair and 16 list spring replacement. Neither is unusual, and neither is quick.
The queue. A one-person workshop with four jobs ahead of yours is four jobs slower than the same workshop in a quiet month. Nobody advertises this. Ask.
Your own decisions. Shops wait on customers more often than customers realise, a fabric not finally chosen, a deposit not sent, a question not answered. The clock is running on the shop's schedule the whole time.
Getting a straight answer
Ask two questions rather than one:
- How long from the day I drop it off to the day I can collect it?
- Is that assuming the fabric is in stock, and when will you know?
The second question is the one that gets you the real timeline. A shop that answers it precisely is a shop that has thought about your job rather than quoting you a habit.
If you're working to a hard deadline, a dining set for Thanksgiving, a restaurant reopening, say the date out loud at the estimate. Some shops will tell you they can't make it. That's the most useful answer you'll get all week.
Pickup and delivery changes the maths
Some shops collect and deliver, some don't, and it's recorded on each listing here where the shop says. It doesn't shorten the job, but it removes two trips and the problem of fitting a sofa into a car.
Browse the shops by city to see what each one takes on, or read what reupholstery actually costs first if you're still deciding whether to go ahead.