Maintenance Of Furniture

Maintaining And Repairing Furniture 

Furniture which is in constant use will at some time require maintenance or repair work to be carried out. This is especially true with regards to wooden furniture which employs traditional joints and glue to hold the structure together firmly.

Popular wooden furniture such as chairs and dining tables often suffer after years of use with the common problem of legs wobbling or spindles on chair backs becoming misplaced and loose.

To rectify the problem easily the person undertaking the work needs to be familiar with how the furniture was constructed and assembled in the first place. Once an understanding of this is known the maintenance and repair work can begin. The chair or table which needs repair works should be placed in a workshop or area where good accessibility is available to work on the individual item from all sides.

Next, the relevant repair tools should be gathered so that they are all at hand to allow the job to proceed with ease. Woodworking glue, hand tools such as screwdrivers, clamps, a tape measure, mallet, and possibly a cordless drill should suffice. The evaluation of the particular table or chair will allow a repair list to be compiled of what is required to make the piece of furniture usable again.

Strip down: The item should be stripped down to only the stage required to carry out the necessary work. Once the area of work has been identified a decision needs to be made as to whether just the use or wood working glue is all that is needed. If this is the case the area should be glued then clamped in place and left to set overnight for the adhesive to harden and do its job. At the very least it is recommended the wood glue is left for 12 hours minimun to reach the minimum hardness. If glue is not sufficient to repair the item of furniture further remedial work is needed – usually by way of using fixing screws as well as the adhesive. This is where the cordless drill is the tool of choice allowing accurate drilling into both hard and soft woods with a greater degree of control than an electric drill would provide.

By accurately drilling the wood a woodworking screw can hold the timber tight as well as being assisted by a good quality wood adhesive. Again the item of furniture should be clamped to allow the glue to fully harden and set.