Assembling a three-seater sofa

Sickening but true! FFS!!?

I'm putting together a three-seater sofa acquired secondhand: a heavy item, with electric recliners at the two ends. The backs are three separate units with sprung catches to secure them to the base, which is also in three parts.

What slightly surprised me is that the outer seats attach to the centre one in two different ways. One slots into locating housings, giving a fit which is close but still permits a little movement; the other (with similar fixings) is positively sloppy.

Does anyone know if this is a standard arrangement? Perhaps to accommodate possibly uneven floors? I can't see any way of tightening the fixing without removing some of the leather covering and even though it would be in area out of sight I really don't want to do that.

I imagine that the weight of the end unit would prevent much movement anyway: it just - as I say - struck me as slightly surprising.

Many thanks.

Bert Coules explained :

The idea is just to make the individual parts stay together and yes, they are very heavy indeed, even in their separate parts. I cannot move our two seater, without some help.

Harry, thanks for that. I've just been looking again and I can't see any way of tightening the fit. It does seem a little strange though that the play is only at one end - but the fact that the fixings are different from those at the other end certainly suggests that it's a deliberate design feature.

Possibly intended for configurations where there's a corner unit as well, so it's not possible to tip the whole thing up/over in the same way as a straight set?

Owain

Owain,

That's an interesting thought, and makes sense.

I looked at all three units to see if I could find a maker's label to aid checking, but there isn't one.

If not, one may be obtained from Ebay :-)

Owain

No, there isn't.

According to the July Commons Select committee for building regs, adding fire-retardent to furniture foam may have caused additional deaths because of the extra nasty fumes given off when there is a fire.

If you don't smoke, then I wouldn't be too bothered.

Thanks. Actually, I wasn't: there are far more flammable items in the house.