What Goes Into a Sofa Reupholstery Quote

A reupholstery quote is built from 4 things: labour hours, fabric yardage, foam, and any frame or spring work the piece turns out to need. Labour is usually the largest share. Fabric is the biggest variable, because yardage multiplies whatever the fabric costs per yard.

On pricing. We do not publish price lists, because no 2 pieces are the same job. A sofa that needs nothing but a new cover and a sofa that needs springs re-tied, decking rebuilt and a joint repaired are different pieces of work wearing the same shape. What follows is how the number is built and what moves it, so you can read any quote, ours or anybody else's, and know exactly what you are looking at.

The 4 parts of a quote

Any honest quote separates these. If yours does not, ask for it broken out.

1. Labour. The bench hours. Across the trade this accounts for roughly 55 to 60 percent of a reupholstery bill, which surprises people, because fabric is the part you can see and touch.
2. Fabric. Yardage multiplied by your fabric's price per yard. You control both halves of this.
3. Foam and fill. New seat foam where the old foam is spent, plus wraps and back cushion fill.
4. Frame and suspension work. Whatever the piece needs once it is stripped. This is the part that cannot be fully known until it is open.

What the labour half covers

Here is what those hours actually go on, in order, on a typical sofa.

1. Strip down. Every staple, tack and old panel comes off. On a 3-seat sofa that alone can take a few hours, and it is the step where we find out what the piece really needs.
2. Inspection and frame work. Loose joints get re-glued and pinned. Split rails get repaired or replaced. This is invisible in the finished piece and it is the difference between a sofa that lasts 15 more years and 1 that fails again in 3.
3. Webbing and springs. Webbing stretches and sags. Springs get re-tied or replaced. If the piece is 8-way hand-tied, retying it properly is skilled bench work and it takes the hours it takes.
4. Decking and padding. The platform the cushions sit on gets rebuilt. Burlap, cotton or foam padding over the frame gets replaced where it has broken down.
5. Foam. Seat cushions are cut fresh. Standard residential seat foam at 1.8 lb per cubic foot holds its shape for roughly 7 to 10 years. Push to 2.8 lb and you are closer to 15. It is the single change that most affects how the finished sofa feels.
6. Patterning and sewing. Every panel is cut from your fabric and sewn to fit your frame, not a generic one. Welting, piping and boxing are all sewn here.
7. Fit and finish. The new cover goes on, gets pulled true, and the trim, skirt or nailhead detail goes on last.

If you want just the foam refreshed and the covers are still good, that is a much smaller job. Our custom cushion replacement work handles that on its own.

How much fabric your piece needs

Yardage is not intuitive, and it is the number that moves a quote most. These are typical plain-fabric estimates before any pattern allowance.

Now think about what that multiplies by. Basic synthetics, mid-range performance goods and designer books are separated by a wide margin per yard, and on a 16 yard sofa that margin gets multiplied 16 times before anyone touches the frame. That is why the same sofa can be quoted very differently by 2 reasonable shops.

Two things push yardage above the table.

Pattern repeat. If the fabric has a repeating motif, every panel has to be cut so the pattern lines up across seams and cushions. Depending on the size of the repeat that adds 10 to 25 percent more yardage, sometimes more on a large repeat.

Fabric direction. Most upholstery fabric runs up the roll. Railroaded fabric runs across it, which lets us cover a long sofa back without a seam. If your fabric is not railroaded and the piece is wide, we either seam it or use more yardage. Worth asking about before you fall in love with a bolt.

3 pieces compared

The clearest way to see where a quote comes from is to compare 3 jobs side by side. No 2 pieces are identical, but the shape holds.

A wingback chair

8 yards of fabric. Roughly 11 bench hours. New seat foam and a Dacron wrap. The frame was sound, so nothing unexpected appeared during strip down. That is the best case and it is common on older hardwood-framed chairs.

A 3-seat sofa

17 yards. Roughly 20 bench hours. New foam across 3 cushions plus a feather-blend wrap. Once it was open, 2 seats needed the springs re-tied and the decking replaced. That extra work is what separates a sofa that looks new from 1 that also feels new.

An L-shaped sectional, 4 sections

28 yards. Roughly 34 bench hours. Foam across 5 seat cushions, back cushion refill, and frame work on 1 corner section with the connectors replaced.

Set against each other: the sectional took roughly 3 times the bench hours and 3 and a half times the yardage of the chair. Sectionals are counted by section rather than by length, which is why a 12 foot sectional built from 3 units is usually a smaller job than a 10 foot sectional built from 5.

What makes 1 quote higher than another

When 2 shops quote the same sofa very differently, it is almost always 1 of these.

• Frame work included or excluded. Some quotes assume the frame is fine and add for repair later. Ask whether frame and spring work is in the number or outside it.
• Foam grade. A cheap quote often keeps your old foam or replaces it with low density stock. It will feel fine for a year.
• Detail work. Tufting, deep buttoning, skirts, decorative welting, contrast piping and nailhead trim are all hand operations. Each one adds hours.
• Difficult fabrics. White and light fabrics, high-sheen fabrics, velvets with a nap direction, stripes and plaids that must match across every seam, and leather all take longer and carry more risk of waste.
• Attached cushions and mechanisms. Attached-back sofas, sleeper mechanisms and recliners have to be dismantled and rebuilt, not just recovered.
• Transport. Pickup and delivery, stair carries, island and gated-community access and long-radius runs are real costs. Ask whether they are included.
• Shop experience and backlog. A workroom with a long queue and 30 years of hands works differently to a shop looking for work. Cheapest is rarely a bargain in this trade.

The useful move is not to hunt the lowest number. It is to get 2 quotes that break out labour, fabric yardage and foam separately, then compare like for like.

Is it cheaper than buying new?

Sometimes, and often that is the wrong question.

Against the cheapest flat-pack replacement, no. Against a new sofa of equal build quality, it usually is, and by a wide margin.

The thing worth checking first is the frame. Furniture built more than about 20 years ago, and good furniture built since, uses hardwood frames with doweled and glued joints. That construction takes reupholstery well and will carry another 15 years of daily use. A lot of modern volume furniture uses particle board and bolt fixings, which does not hold staples or stress the same way. Recovering that is money spent on a cosmetic fix over a structure that is already failing.

Quick self-check before you call anyone. Lift 1 front corner of the sofa about 6 inches off the floor. If the opposite corner lifts with it and the frame stays square, the bones are good. If the frame twists, creaks or the opposite corner stays put, get it looked at before you spend anything on fabric.

There is also the part a price comparison misses. A reupholstered piece is made to your room, your fabric and your dimensions, and you keep a frame that has already proven it lasts.

The coastal factor

This is the part national guides cannot tell you, and it is the reason a quote in Hilton Head is not a quote in Charlotte.

Summer humidity on this coast regularly sits above 75 percent. Salt in the air acts like a fine abrasive on fibre and corrodes metal fixings and hardware. UV load here fades and weakens fabric faster than it does inland, and anything within sight of the water gets all 3 at once.

Practically, that changes what we specify.

• Performance fabrics earn their premium here. Solution-dyed acrylics and treated performance weaves hold colour and resist mildew in a way standard goods do not. They cost more per yard and last longer per dollar.
• Foam choice matters more. Anything that sees porch air, a screened room or a boat needs reticulated open-cell foam that drains and dries rather than standard foam that holds water and grows mildew.
• Thread and hardware get specified, not assumed. UV-stable thread on anything exposed. Standard polyester thread sun-rots and the seams open long before the fabric fails.
• Second homes need different thinking. A house that sits closed and unconditioned for 3 months is a mildew problem waiting to happen, regardless of fabric grade.

Boat and outdoor seating work on a different basis again, because the materials and the working conditions are different. That sits under our marine upholstery service.

Pickup, delivery and where we work

We run 3 workrooms on the South Carolina coast, and pickup and delivery across South Carolina, coastal Georgia and into North Carolina. Most furniture never needs to be moved by you.

• Hilton Head Island, 106 Arrow Rd #25A. Workroom and showroom, Mon to Fri, 10am to 4pm. Walk in with a cushion or a fabric question.
• Charleston, 4365 Dorchester Rd #106, North Charleston. By appointment.
• Myrtle Beach, 720 Main St. By appointment.

If you are looking for local detail on turnaround, pickup radius and the areas each workroom covers, start with upholstery in Hilton Head, Charleston or Myrtle Beach.

Most pieces are back with you in 1 to 2 weeks once the fabric lands. Fabric lead time is the variable nobody controls. A stocked performance fabric can ship in days, and a cut-order designer fabric can take 3 weeks on its own.

How to get a real number

You do not need an appointment. Send photos and we will come back with an estimate for your piece.

Photograph the piece straight on from the front, from each side, from the back, and a close-up of any damage, worn arm or sagging cushion. Tell us roughly how old it is and whether you already have a fabric in mind. That is enough for us to give you a figure that will not move much once we see the piece in person.

Request an estimate or call the workroom on 843 785 4002.

If you want to read what the full service covers before you send anything, our furniture reupholstery page walks through the process from strip down to delivery.

Frequently asked questions

What determines the cost of reupholstering a sofa?

Four things: labour hours, fabric yardage, foam, and any frame or spring work the piece needs. Labour is usually the largest share of the bill, and fabric is the biggest variable, because yardage multiplies whatever the fabric costs per yard.

Why do you not publish prices?

Because no 2 pieces are the same job. A sofa that needs only a new cover and a sofa that needs springs re-tied, decking rebuilt and a joint repaired look identical from the outside. We quote from photos so the number you get is for your piece rather than an average.

Is it cheaper to reupholster or buy a new sofa?

It is cheaper than buying a new sofa of the same build quality, and more expensive than buying the cheapest replacement. The deciding factor is the frame. A solid hardwood frame is worth recovering. A particle board frame that has already loosened usually is not.

How many yards of fabric do I need to reupholster a sofa?

A 3-seat sofa typically needs 14 to 18 yards of plain fabric. Add 10 to 25 percent if the fabric has a pattern repeat that has to be matched across seams and cushions.

How long does reupholstery take?

Most pieces are finished within 1 to 2 weeks of the fabric arriving at the workroom. Fabric lead time is usually the part that sets the schedule, not the bench time.

Do I have to replace the foam?

Not always. If the covers are worn but the cushions still hold their shape, you may only need new covers. If the seat bottoms out or the cushion no longer springs back, the foam is spent and no amount of new fabric will fix how it feels.

Can I supply my own fabric?

Yes. We work with customer's own material from any book. Talk to us before you order so we can confirm yardage, pattern repeat and whether the fabric is suitable for how the piece gets used.

Do you pick up and deliver?

Yes, across South Carolina, coastal Georgia and into North Carolina from our 3 workrooms in Hilton Head Island, North Charleston and Myrtle Beach.

David Quintanilla is co-owner of Palmetto Upholstery & Fabric, which has run upholstery workrooms on the South Carolina coast since 2004. The team works on residential furniture, marine interiors, hotels, restaurants and drapery from workrooms in Hilton Head Island, North Charleston and Myrtle Beach.