Repairing a chair seat

[Malcolm Hoar]

So, the seat of an old kitchen chair broke in two this week.

I have removed the old fiberboard seat and make a new one with some available plywood.

The bare seat is covered with some foam padding and fabric over that; both are in sufficiently good condition to be reused.

The old fabric was stretched over the seat and appears to have been glued at the edges and stapled on the underside.

Question: do you guys recommend that I use some form of adhesive (contact cement?) at the edges of the seat when I reinstall the foam and fabric? Or, better to simply stretch and staple?

[hrhofmann]

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Gary Player. |

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0|

I have done a number of these repairs, stretch and staple, sand off any rough edges on the plywood top and bottom or they will cut through the padding and cover.

[Malcolm Hoar]

It seems we have a concensus. No gunk! Thank you gentlemen.

Excellent point about smoothing off the edges although I had already taken care of that.

[ChairMan]

In news: [e-mail], Malcolm Hoar spewed forth:

the glue was probably to just hold the foam in place, just staple it. get a piece of bonded polyester to cover the foam and act as a muslin cover, it will help keep the foam from drying out

[ChairMan]

it depends on the application, where and how, but yeah those will work. Foam you buy at retail fabric outlets are usually cheap poly foams and have very little compression, some now sell decent HR foams that are about a 2.8 lb foam and hold up real well. A layer of cotton or bonded polyester over the foam will help keep the foam(oils) from drying out as quick

[Malcolm Hoar]

Not in this case. There was no sign of any adhesive ever being applied to the foam -- just the fabric cover. I was kind of surprised too. I don't suppose we'll ever know exactly why.

Anyway, I have hand washed the cover and let it dry overnight. I plan to reassemble the thing later day but will do so without any adhesive or other gunk.