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We actually expected our West Elm sofa to be well built - it wasn't cheap and their reputation wasn't complete garbage yet when we purchased it. After about 18

We actually expected our West Elm sofa to be well built - it wasn't cheap and their reputation wasn't complete garbage yet when we purchased it. After about 18 months the whole thing collapsed, just out of warranty believe it or not. When I started taking it apart to see if it was fixable I found that the entire damn thing was built out of stapled-together 1/2" OSB (oriented strand board...garbage "plywood") and all of the cuts had awful stress concentration corners which caused the frame to pretty much disintegrate. Wasn't a real screw or nail anywhere in the piece that I could find. I spent a day rebuilding the frame with about $30 worth of construction lumber (some 2x4s & 2x8s) and hanger brackets. It's been perfect ever since. Completely inexcusable that a $30 aftermarket fix is all it took to dramatically improve an $1800 sofa. Edit: I found a few images of the damage and a couple of the replacement supports I added. There was a lot more, but at the end of the day I was tired and didn't take a ton of pictures https://imgur.com/a/bqlLgW3 https://imgur.com/a/bqlLgW3

LastTrain 3y ago
That is pretty cheap for a sofa. Here is what spending a similar amount in 1970 would have gotten you: https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1970-Sears-Spring-Summer-Catalog/0004 https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1970-Sea... That would have been regarded a a cheap sofa at the time, and would have set you back $379. Average salary now vs then is 5x so equivalent price would be $1895. Your sofa probably looks nicer but the Sears one has a proper hardwood frame.
segmondy 3y ago
Thanks for sharing. Never thought of doing this, but definitely will be doing it next time a sofa falls apart.
Gigachad 3y ago
That's so much worse than what you'd get from IKEA where everything is held together with nuts and bolts and seems to be very carefully engineered to be as strong as possible given the cost constraints.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Usually. Their bedframes are notorious for having slats that don't go all the way across and aren't held together with much, so they fall in really easily. It's so bad that there are common fixes recommended online like velcro'ing them down or replacing them with something else. Idk what they were thinking.
hot_gril 3y ago
That's awful. I've lived around a lot of cheap sofas, often literally from the curb, yet I've never heard of a sofa collapsing except in The Simpsons. Maybe the armrest breaks or the upholstery rips.

LastTrain 3y ago

That is pretty cheap for a sofa. Here is what spending a similar amount in 1970 would have gotten you: https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1970-Sears-Spring-Summer-Catalog/0004 https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1970-Sea... That would have been regarded a a cheap sofa at the time, and would have set you back $379. Average salary now vs then is 5x so equivalent price would be $1895. Your sofa probably looks nicer but the Sears one has a proper hardwood frame.

segmondy 3y ago

Thanks for sharing. Never thought of doing this, but definitely will be doing it next time a sofa falls apart.

Gigachad 3y ago

That's so much worse than what you'd get from IKEA where everything is held together with nuts and bolts and seems to be very carefully engineered to be as strong as possible given the cost constraints.

hot_gril 3y ago
Usually. Their bedframes are notorious for having slats that don't go all the way across and aren't held together with much, so they fall in really easily. It's so bad that there are common fixes recommended online like velcro'ing them down or replacing them with something else. Idk what they were thinking.

hot_gril 3y ago

That's awful. I've lived around a lot of cheap sofas, often literally from the curb, yet I've never heard of a sofa collapsing except in The Simpsons. Maybe the armrest breaks or the upholstery rips.