Fixing sofa springs

For some time I have been aware that my sofa has had at least one broken spring. Generally it was feeling a little too soft, and it sagged in the middle where there was one spring missing.
Months ago I investigated buying new springs, and found they are only a few pounds each. But they come in different lengths, and I tended to remember this job at work and forget it at home. So weeks passed with me doing nothing. However, the other week I was at work whilst Kat was working from home and I remembered. So I got her to measure the depth of the sofa, and I ordered new springs and fixings.

Yesterday after a very long time thinking I should try it, I finally set about my sofa.

First I took off the removable red cover, under which is the fixed pale covering. I thought I’d need to cut the covering material somewhere to get access, but when I flipped the sofa on it’s front I found the plastic sheet covering the bottom was held by staples. So with a screwdriver I began levering them out to remove the plastic sheet.

There were lots to remove, but they weren’t too hard to get out so I quickly got access to the underside of the sofa.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was suprised how simple the structure of the sofa is. No custom metal brackets, just bits of chip board and bits and boards of some hardwood. Cut to shapes and forming the structure. Made me consider how hard t would be to make my own sofa…. But not today.

I could easily see that it wasn’t a broken spring as such, it has simply come out of it’s fixing.

Working in confined space wasn’t too easy, but I removed the existing spring and it’s fixings, and discovered that they were not that same as the fixings I got with the new springs.

The existing ones were quite clever, they clearly just hammered in place and gripped the wood. Where as the new ones I had needed nailing or screwing. Given the limited space and access I decided screwing would be easier so I grabbed a box of screws from the garage (some time ago i got a trade pack of various sizes from screwfix. Times like this it’s very handy)

Fixing the first bracket at the top(back) of the sofa was easy enough. But then I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to get the spring in place, so I decided I’d need to attatch the second fixing with the spring in place. Right about now I was thinking a second pair of hands would have been handy. Then I glanced accross at my side table and noticed a small g-clamp…of course! (It pays to untidily leave tools laying around the living room :-))
I fetched a small wedge of oak from my offcuts box and presto:

I could clamp everything in position whilst I flipped the sofa back over and screwed the front fixing in place.

Job done.

Having fixed the only broken spring I decided to try to make the sofa a little more firm where I usually sit. So I used the same technique to put an extra spring between two existing ones.

Hard to tell if there is much difference. I think so, but I could just be convincing myself given I know there should be.
All told it took about and hour and a half. So not too bad, for a job which took me so long to get around to. Now I can consider designing my own replacement….but maybe that’s taking diy too far.

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