Kids can break things. Any parent knows this incredibly well. They may not mean it, but that still doesn’t change the fact that it’s broke. Furniture tends to see the brunt of this destruction. Kids like to jump around on furniture and beds all the time. We all did the same. Who can blame them? It’s kind of fun. However, your responsibility as a parent is to fix whatever it. So today, we’re going to look at how to fix furniture. The dad way.
Assess The Damage
First you need to know what’s broken. How bad is it? If it looks beyond any DIY capability to fix it, throw it out. If you think you’ve got a shot at putting it back together, go with it. For the sake of this example, let’s say the sofa is broken.
Usually the damage from kids comes from jumping. Now kids aren’t very heavy, but they can do a lot more damage jumping on things than someone heavier sitting on the furniture. This is because of the surface area.
Kids are adding force to their mass by jumping in the air. Their little feet are the surface in which the weight and force are concentrated. If it hits the right place, it can snap a beam in a sofa.
The good news is the sofa is rarely destroyed entirely. The bad news is that the beam needs replacing.
Gather Your Materials And Tools
You’re going to need a hammer with a claw, a staple gun, wood adhesive, nails, and a saw like a Hitachi CC14SF. Add a measuring tape too. In terms of materials, all you’re really going to need is timber.
Get It Done
The first thing you need to do is create some space. Pull the sofa out into the middle of the room and make sure you have the room to tip it over if needed. You need no distractions either, so maybe get your kids out of the way for a little bit.
Use the claw on the hammer to pull out the upholstery staples enough to get inside the sofa. From there remove any loose wood. Then work on dislodging the broken beam, and pulling any nails out.
Next, measure the length of where the beam should be. Mark and cut your timber, then see if it fits. Once it’s a good and tight fit, apply adhesive to either end. You could either use a normal adhesive or mouldable glue like Sugru. To find out how to use it, you can look up videos on YouTube or search the internet. Once you have applied adhesive, hold the beam in place until the adhesive has dried. Then aim to replace any nails that were present in the original beam.
Finally, staple the upholstery back into place.
Test It
Push it back into place and reward yourself for all your hard work with a nice sit down. Hopefully you’ve done the job right and everything is in order.
Of course, the lesson here needs to be learned. Tell the kids to stop jumping on the furniture, or else they’ll break it all over again.
And that’s how you fix a sofa, the dad way.
