Ever wanted to know how to make your own sofa? The Guide - Stage 2 of 2

Continued from Hub Stage 1 - How to make a sofa.

• Part 4. The Frame

Now the one common factor in the manufacture of any type of sofa is the frame of the sofa, and the heart of a good piece of furniture. The English Sofa Company is a UK sofa manufacturer with the luxury of a frame making facility on site. Based in Manchester TESC’s wooden frames are made from beech hardwood which is used for all main supporting rails, and birch ply wood for none load bearing areas. This type of frame construction is excellent but far from common in sofa manufacture, with many companies choosing to use chip wood and / or mdf due to cost considerations. A good frame is both screwed and glued for added strength, corner blocks used to re-enforce all load bearing areas, dowelling is another good technique in frame manufacturer. A metal zig zag spring is then used to connect front and back seat rails. Again this is not typical, elastic webbing is a cheaper alternative that is often used by Chinese manufactured sofas or imported sofas. An unusual name for one third option of seat spring is a sprung edge sofa, or “Fishmouth Sprung” as it is sometimes known. This but this is only used by some of the UK's tops manufacturers including The English Sofa Company. The Fish mouth spring is named because of it's unfortunate resemblance to it's name sake. Not only is the base of the seat sprung, but the front edge of the sofa which is normally firm is sprung which makes for an extremely comfortable sitting experience, which opens and close like the mouth of a fish !

• Part 5. Boring but Required – The Compliance

Joking aside – Compliance with UK regulations is extremely important. Some serious consequences have occurred in recently years when retailers and overseas manufacturers neglect their basic responsibilities to public welfare and health.

• Toxic Chemicals

“When the sofas went into people's homes the solid sachets turned into gas that burned through clothes and on to skin.”

Three retailer – Argos, Land of Leather and Walmsleys have all admitted liability for the use of the highly dangerous chemical that Burned through clothes and skin, up to 100,000 of the sofas were sold with "highly sensitising" fungicidal chemical dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inside. The substance was designed to stop the furniture, manufactured by Chinese companies Linkwise and Eurosofa, going mouldy in storage. If the lead time for delivery of your sofa is over 8 weeks it could suggest that the sofa is being imported into the UK. Storage and shipment times of this nature are the reason this chemical was introduced by overseas manufacturers, and if buying a sofa, consumers should ask the question, is DMF used in your packaging. Further information available from the BBC website

• Fire Regulations

As recently as in October 2011 Trading Standard Officials seized hundreds of sofa from a midlands warehouse, with potentially life threatening leather sofas were bound for midland sofa retailers and showroom. Reported by the Birmingham Post.

The UK has one of the toughest regulations when it comes to fire prevention and strict guidelines help to save lives in millions of UK home every year.

The English Sofa Company works with UK fabric suppliers who are part of the strict regulations, and also work closely with it’s UK hide suppliers ensuring only quality safe products are kept. Fire certifications of all materials are available for public record from their Manchester manufacturing base, as should be the case from reputable UK manufacturers.

• · Commercial Furniture – Fire Requirements

Now just to complicate things a little further, if your looking to make a sofa for use if your restaurant, hotel or bar / pub, then there is the UK fire regs to consider. All furniture used in an commercial environment must be manufactured to Crib 5 fire standards otherwise you may not be able to use the furniture in public environments. Crib 5 is an enhanced standard, testing to more extreme circumstances than the UK domestic tests. To ensure your sofa complies to crib 5 you can review FIRA, (furniture industries research association) who will test your furniture for you. The action of testing involves setting a burning crib on top of the sofa and timing the burn time to ensure it meets regulations. As a result you will need to make another sofa ! If that sounds a bit extreme Forest Contract manufacture crib 5 sofas, which have already been tested and comply with the regulations and you'll only need to buy one – which is a relief. You can also obtain information on hotel furniture and restaurant furniture from the Forest Contract website the BCFA (British Contract Furnishings Association).

If there is just too much to consider making your own sofa and you would like The English Sofa Company to help with deciding what sofa style, design, stitch or frame type would be most suitable for your requirements contact a member of the team who will be happy to help.

The English Sofa Company - UK Sofa Manufacturer