# Criminal Chair Construction



## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

The 'young adults' at Church had some new furniture purchased a year or so ago, something a little nicer than metal folding chairs because they are almost grown ups now.

One chair got a little wobbly, so naturally it became the fun chair to sit in... until it broke. It happens... I thought maybe it was just a loose bolt, since you could hear something loose under the upholstery, so I took it home for a quick fix.

After I removed the 9000 staples I realized that I have 5 more chair repairs coming in the near future. It was downright shameful how this chair was built.

The piece they decided to use to hold the chair back/back leg assembly to the seat is a 5/8" piece of waney stock, held on the ends by 2 drywall screws and 2 staples. This piece had split on the ends coming completely free.

I was able to salvage some oak pallet runners from the scrap bin and put in an oak 2 x 4 in place, with 4 2 1/2 inch wood screws (no staples) I was able to pull the threaded inserts out of the old pieces and put them in the new. Since the stock was so thick I had to counterbore to get them to sit down low enough.

So far, so good, (since I weigh a bunch more than most of those kids and it holds me!)

Reattaching the upholstery makes me very greatful for my cheap harbor freight air stapler!

It's unfortunate that you can't see how cheap some of this furniture is built underneath all that fancy fabric.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

The original board looks punky. 

I was at my daughter's place the last few days and went to sit down on the couch and it made a funny noise. We turned it over and could see something wasn't right so we cut the fabric away and found that the cross bracing was made out of 1/2" OSB. The middle one had split in half at the middle. It was easy to fix by adding 2 more boards along either side but I'm still shaking my head why they would use OSB for something like that.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

hahaha, Doug.

I thought you were building an electric chair....ROTFL.

I do agree that the quality of workmanship/material is not improving as buyers go for ever cheaper prices.


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

jw2170 said:


> hahaha, Doug.
> 
> I thought you were building an electric chair....[/QUOTE
> 
> OOOOOOOOH, I hadn't thought of building one of those yet..... thanks for the idea


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## Dziadek1 (Dec 7, 2013)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> The original board looks punky.
> 
> I was at my daughter's place the last few days and went to sit down on the couch and it made a funny noise. We turned it over and could see something wasn't right so we cut the fabric away and found that the cross bracing was made out of 1/2" OSB. The middle one had split in half at the middle. It was easy to fix by adding 2 more boards along either side but I'm still shaking my head why they would use OSB for something like that.


Sounds like a supermarket overseas build if ya ask me.


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## IC31 (Nov 16, 2012)

We have 3 Lazy-Boy recliners - the oldest has 'real' wood in the framework. The middle one and with the most troublesome reclining mechanism is a mixture of real wood and OSB. The newest - sighhhhh - all OSB that I can see when turned over. The price of each was at least incrementally more expensive for less quality. We have a Lane recliner in the RV - it was the least expensive but is by far the most robust vs the last two Lazy-Boys. Any top line furniture store will have good furniture still made with real wood, the rest of it is what I call ground cardboard (low end MDF) held together with nails and staples.

Good luck on the next five. Their repairs should all go faster then the first with the vertical learning curve:blink:


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

It smells of China to me Doug. Over that last few years I've repaired several chairs, a table and a desk for friends and a neighbor.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Dziadek1 said:


> Sounds like a supermarket overseas build if ya ask me.


I've heard that the large chain this couch was bought from has a major supplier in Manitoba and that North America is still competitive in large furniture because of the shipping costs. Maybe they have to use crap material to stay competitive. Lazy Boy's quality is a surprise. I looked them up to see where the factory is and it's in Tennessee. There are lots of choices of wood down there without using OSB. It doesn't have to be top grade it just has to be strong so I don't understand why they would use such cheap crap for materials while trying to maintain an image of top quality.


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## Leifs1 (Dec 16, 2009)

Yes the World is faling apart and furniture is not what it once was. From my mothers house I have 5 armrest chairs and 2 without armrest. No one wants this. I have tried to sell them. Thinkeing of how much Work was put in to make them. They maybe 100 years old I do not know. My mother now in a nurcing home will turn 100 years may 15 this year.
But have a look at the pics.


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## IC31 (Nov 16, 2012)

Leifs1 said:


> Yes the World is faling apart and furniture is not what it once was. From my mothers house I have 5 armrest chairs and 2 without armrest. No one wants this. I have tried to sell them. Thinkeing of how much Work was put in to make them. They maybe 100 years old I do not know. My mother now in a nurcing home will turn 100 years may 15 this year.
> But have a look at the pics.


No one want that old "junk". They want new 'contemporary' junk(IKEA and similar). We have three of the armless chairs similar to yours that were my grandmothers - and have been dated to the 1860's. We tried also to sell them but instead, had them recovered and are nice decorative pieces in our home.


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## JOAT (Apr 9, 2010)

I thought electric chair too. I'm very disappointed.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

The trouble with restoring and recovering old quality furniture is the cost, if you farm it out. It's almost a DIY or nothing proposition these days.
Our place is almost exclusively old furniture from inheritance, estate sales, and also from a local restorer that does very affordable and well done craftsmanship.
I love our stuff.


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