A Broken Leg.. A Marvelous Old Couch

Hi Everybody. In this situation my customer called me to look at a recently recovered couch. These older pieces are often very well built inside and outside. They often incorporate a quality of materials and workmanship that puts much of todays similarly priced items to shame. This one is a great case in point. The internal quality of this older couch is well worth the cost of a repair, and it will give the family another 20 years of flawless service.

What you see (left) are two pictures of the couch's right front leg socket. I've peeled back the upholstery and its foundation fabric in order to get to the joint area, and then I will try to see what has happened.

Here, in the picture (left) I've cleaned out all the shattered material in preparation to fabricate and place a solid new oak seat for the leg in that spot. The leg of the couch will then be secured--re-glued and multiply screwed--into this new oak seat. As you can see in the picture, two dowel tenons from the couch's arm structure will also secure into the new oak seat, AND I will be re-securing the dowels
--those 4-round circles that I had to cut--back into the new oak seat too (see the pic). As you can see, the new piece's placement, (I'm sorry it's not shown) will support the structural integrity (rigidity) of the corner at the floor and from the couch's arm above.

Yes, it was all very much worth the effort. My customer was very happy--and then so was I!

That's Wood Talkin. Take care of your pieces---cuz they all have some fun stories to tell!