Upholstery Finder/Guides/Fourteen questions to ask an upholsterer before you book

Fourteen questions to ask an upholsterer before you book

I built this site by reading 88 upholstery shops' websites and recording what each one says it does. The interesting part wasn't what they say. It was what they all leave out.

Every question below exists because a lot of shops don't answer it in public, and you'll only find out by asking. They're roughly in the order you'd ask them.

Before you go anywhere

1. Will you take this piece on at all? The one that saves the most time. Marine cushions, restaurant booths, cane and rush seats, mid-century frames, these are separate skills, and a shop that doesn't do yours would rather say so on the phone. Each listing here records what the shop names, so you can cross off the obvious mismatches first.

2. Do you quote from photographs? 20 of the 88 shops will. That turns a Saturday of driving into twenty minutes of emailing. Expect the figure to firm up once someone sees the piece.

3. Is the estimate free? 42 shops say yes in public. The rest don't say either way, which usually means ask.

About the piece

4. Is the frame sound, and did you check? The question that decides whether the job is worth doing. 17 shops here do frame repair and 16 do spring replacement, those are the ones equipped to answer properly.

5. Are the springs staying or going? Eight-way hand-tied springs are worth keeping and worth paying to re-tie. Serpentine wire usually isn't. A shop that can tell you which you have is a shop worth using.

6. Has this been recovered before, and does that add time? Stripping somebody else's work is billable hours before yours begin.

7. What's the foam situation? 47 shops here list cushions and foam as a service. New foam is often the difference between a sofa that looks restored and one that feels it.

About the fabric

8. How many yards, and what happens if it runs short? Get the yardage in writing. A re-order on a discontinued fabric can add weeks, and someone has to pay for the extra.

9. Can I supply my own fabric, and what do you charge to handle it? Almost no shop states this in public, I checked twice across the whole site and got the same answer both times. Where a handling fee is published it's around $15 to $20 a yard.

10. Can I see the fabric in person before I commit? 42 shops have a showroom or sample books on site. Fabric in a photograph is a different colour from fabric in your living room, every time.

11. Will the pattern be matched across the piece? If it has a repeat, matching it costs yardage and hours. Find out whether the quote includes it.

About the work and the wait

12. Who is actually doing the job? Some shops do everything in house. Some send frame or wood work out. Neither is wrong, 25 shops here do wood refinishing themselves, but you should know whose bench your chair sits on.

13. How long, assuming the fabric is in stock? The "assuming" is the whole question. Fabric delivery is what usually stretches a two-week job into six. There's more on this in how long reupholstery takes.

14. What isn't in this quote? Ask it last and ask it plainly. Delivery, collection, foam, frame repair, pattern matching and disposal of the old covers are the usual answers.

One question not to bother with

Don't ask how long they've been trading and treat the answer as a verdict. It's a genuine signal, plenty of shops here have been going since the 1960s, but a good upholsterer who went out on their own four years ago will do better work than a tired one with a long lease.

Ask question 4 instead. Whether someone has properly looked at your frame tells you more about how they work than a founding date ever will.

The shops are listed by city, each with what it takes on and how it quotes.