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- Do you know that feeling when you come home tired, and all you dream about is to sink into the couch in the living room, but your couch just makes you sink a little too much?
- A sagging couch can be both a visual and practical issue. When you bought it, the shape of your sofa was so perfect. Now, it looks like it went through a lot! Just sitting on it became a challenge.
- What to do if you notice your couch cushions drop uncontrollably? Luckily, there are ways to act! Keep reading to explore methods to fix sagging couch springs.
Why does your couch sag?
Your couch may not even be so old, so no wonder you’ll ask why a sagging couch issue happened in the first place. If you have an old couch, it even feels natural that it went a bit down with time.
The sofa is often the central point of the living room and family life—it can be pretty frustrating when it starts to sag.
You can easily clean a stain or spilled juice from all sofa materials:
but it’s more challenging to stop your couch from changing its shape!
Luckily, we’re here to support your efforts.
First, let’s explore three main reasons you’ll have to fix sagging couch springs at some point.
Cushions are sagging
Couch cushions may start to sag because of
- their core structure which is prone to sagging, and
- reasons as simple as gravitation and wear and tear;
Remove the cushions from the couch and check if the sag comes from the cushion foam or the couch frame to resolve this problem.
If you find out that cushions are the problem, you’re lucky! You can simply repair, refill the existing foam, or change couch cushions, and your sofa will be at its best again.
Check our articles “How To Keep Couch Cushions From Sinking” and “How To Stop Couch Cushions From Sliding“ to learn more.
Tip: If seat cushions are flattened, and their shape leaves much to be desired, you can revive the situation by turning them around.
Springs are loose
Another reason your couch furniture loses its shape can be located deeper—underneath the seat cushions.
If you have checked the attached cushions and sagging cushions seem not to be the reason, you may want to look for damaged springs within the couch frame.
While cushions generally give a sofa shape, the springs provide support and determine its comfort—explain the authors of the article “Sofa Buying Advice From the People Who Design and Make Them” published in NY Times.
The springs are located inside the couch’s frame. They soften the cushions and determine the manner in which you sit down and relax. They establish the couch user experience.
In mid-tier sofas, sinuous springs are the most common suspension system. These springs are made with heavy-gauge steel wires bent into a continuous line of vertical S-shaped coils.
Sinuous springs are also called zig-zag springs because the metal goes back and forth in a zig-zag fashion.
How to fix sagging couch in this case?
Often it all boils down to a simple solution. Since the springs have come loose, you need to attach them back to their spring clips.
Tip: Attaching springs back to their clops is a temporary fix. To prevent springs from loosening again, you should also secure them.
Springs are broken
Springs are made of solid metal, but even they can break.
However, it’s much more common that springs break off from the wooden couch frame attachments. So, if you notice pieces of cracked wood around, it means that the springs are still in one piece. Simply fix springs, reattaching them with twine or wire.
In case you have a stretched-out or broken spring problem, the only thing you can do is a replacement spring. Go to the repair shop or hardware store to find one.
Fix a sagging couch
Now that you know the three potential reasons your couch is sagging, it’s time to take action!
Find the causes of a sagging couch
We mentioned that three circumstances could cause your sofa to sag:
- cushions are sagging—it’s in their nature to start sagging at some point. Regular use, gravitation, and your cushion foam material may influence it.
- springs are loose—it’s a minor repair that will instantly stop cushions and the entire sofa from looking saggy.
- springs are broken—they usually break off of their attachments in wood couch frame.
Before you fix a sagging sofa, you’ll have to inspect it.
Maybe all you have to do to make your couch look like new is buy and fill it with some new foam?
If your sofa cushions look fine, go deeper and remove the upholstery fabric.
Check the attachments. Do your sofa zig-zag springs need new clips? Consider replacing them if they don’t hold and don’t fulfill their role anymore.
Now, let’s get down to springs. Are they broken or bent?
- springs bend—contact a repair service or repair them yourself with pliers to save money,
- springs are broken—replacing the springs is necessary; do it by yourself or call for professional help;
It can also happen that the entire frame gets broken.
Broken couch frame repair costs around $480 to $1,000. You will also need to spend $975 or more on upholstery fabric services. Replacing a couch costs from $650 to $2,500.
Leather sofa repair can cost up to $4,000 for the minor repair of broken springs and legs, plus reupholstery services ($30 to $60 per yard for the fabric). Repairing a broken frame may cost $1,000.
Sometimes it will make more sense to replace your sagging couch instead of repairing it.
Do you want to forget about sagging springs and simply buy a new couch instead?
Wait until we share our tips on how to fix a sagging couch!
Put sagging couch tips into practice
To avoid breaking the unique, emotional bond that you established with your favorite sofa, read the article below to find out how to fix the sagging problem.
- First, remove the cushions from the couch. Get inside your couch. You can turn the couch upside-down if needed.
- Remove the couch legs by unscrewing them off counter-clockwise by hand. You can also use the screwdriver or drill.
- Remove the dust cover by carefully cutting it away.
- Pry away the staples that hold the dust cover to the couch’s wooden frame.
- Take a staple puller, remove staples and pull the fabric back to expose the springs.
- If batting is on top of the springs, remove every staple from one side of the batting. Then, pull it aside to expose the springs.
- Put on gloves and safety glasses. Grasp each spring individually. Sofa springs run horizontally from front to back, and each of them has a bracket on both ends.
- Pull the spring from side to side to check the metal brackets.
- If they rattle or move, the brackets are loose. In this case, use a drill/driver to secure them. Then, drive 3/4-inch screws into holes in the metal bracket until you attach the springs fully to the sofa frame.
- Take a single, paper-coated wire running from side to side attached to each of the springs and check it. Pull and stretch it to see if the wire clips got too loose.
- Take diagonal pliers to pull the bent clip off the spring.
- Place a new clip over the spring and compress the clip shut. Then, fold the batting back over the springs.
- Use a staple gun and 1/2-by-1/2-inch upholstery staples to reattach the batting to the sofa frame.
- Fold the light fabric over the batting. Then, reattach it with the staple gun.
- Measure the length and width of the light fabric and subtract 6 inches from both measurements.
- Use a table saw to cut a piece of 1/8-inch-thick luan plywood for the measurements.
- You can ask a manually-skilled friend to help you with this part. Sand and round the corners and edges of the plywood by hand using 100-grit sandpaper. Sand one side of the plywood smooth using an orbital sander and 120-grit sandpaper.
- Add plywood on top of the light fabric sanded side up. Center it side to side. Push it flush to the back.
- Place the cushions back on top of the plywood.
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