leather repair leather sofa leather restoration upholstery fabric

News and Information Page.

This is only my own thoughts.

Never pay cash. If something goes wrong and the shop does nothing then you have a battle on your hands.

Pay by credit card, you then have some back up from the card company.

Pay by finance, again you have some back up.

The information and pictures below concerning colour loss and delamination is a common problem.
The shops selling this quality of furniture know this can happen and will do there best to fob the customer off.
They sometimes send technicians to give a report but remember, they are batting for the retailer.

Picture 1
Just had an e-mail from our customer 01 08 08

The retailer had offered £300.00 as settlement.
This was rejected.
Our customer has now been offered a new suite
to the value of the original.
This has taken 18 months to resolve.

The motto is, do not let the retailer grind you down.

They know some of their products are dodgy but if anything goes wrong by spinning out the process they hope you will give up.

Pictures 1 & 2 show massive colour loss and delamination of
a sofa less than 1 year old.

The retailer who has shops throughout the Land have told our customer the fault is nothing to do with the leather but down to lack of maintenance,
body oils and cats running around the flat and possibly cat urine contamination..

This is one of the worst cases of delamination and colour loss that
I have come across caused by a poor pigmentation process and top finish.

Picture 3 shows a small test area I did on the back of one rear cushion on an area that would get no day to day contact.
I only used an edge of a clean white cloth moisened with water.
The colour of the leather came off onto the cloth instantly.
Does that tell you something?

As the retailer was not really interested and on instructions from our customer samples of leather were sent to an independant Leather testing authority which was UKAS approved.

The findings which can now stand up in a Court of Law basically state the leather finish on our customers suite is of a poor quality and failed all tests. Pictures taken when examined under a microscope show just how bad the surface of the leather was.

PS the tests showed no urine contamination.

Picture 2

Picture 3

The picture on the left shows a back cushion less than 2 years old.

Back cushions take no wear and tear.

This is splits leather and after a period of time just opens up just like
if you tear tissue paper.

On close examination you can see the leather surface opening up.

The shops are full of furniture like this, looks good for a short time.

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See pictures on the Fabric page for dentists and doctors plus Chiropractic benches.

Transporting your chair or suite from any part of the UK and Islands is not a problem.

	Silver Sprint Transport
	Our own transport

Facts about Leather you may not know

Not all leather is the same, quality ranges from down right poor to
superb.

This is why we only use Scottish leather.

Yes, prices of leather furniture have come down over the years but so
has the quality.

Many retailers sell this type of furniture as do Supermarkets and DIY shops.

It is not only the leather that is poor but everything else underneath as well.

As long as you do not expect your furniture to last any longer than a year or so then fine.

Different Types of leather

Pure Aniline full grain leather :-Very soft,beautiful feel
but not resistant to dirt and impossible to clean.
Expensive.

Nubuck :- Very soft feels excellent. But variable
appearance and virtually impossible to clean.
Expensive.

Pigmented or sometimes called colour coated :-
Hard wearing, easily cleaned, durable suitable
for everday use. Affordable.

By cast::- Splits leather with a polyurethane coating.
looks like plastic, feel like plastic and unless it
meets the correct specification should not be
called leather.

The most common type leather is the pigmented.but as has been said
before quality varies. Leather can be split, so from 1 hide you can for example get 3 hides.

The top split in days gone past would be used on the frontal areas and the 2nd and 3rd splits used on the outside areas.

To keep costs down these 2nd and 3rd splits are now used on the frontal or wear areas.

Hence 2 seater sofas being made for £99.00

I was asked the other day that if people are buying these very affordable suites, if I was busy?

Yes I replied, I am kept busy firming them up, renewing the poor seat foam, etc as when customers have paid over £1000.00 they cannot just throw them out.

Just some of the comments we have received over time from our customers far and near.

The work has now been inspected by the whole family
and totally approved by all, thank you very much

J.Jones.......................................................................... Wales

We are so delighted with our chairs and settee. You have done an unbelievable job. Ourfriends could not believe that it was the same old chairs, nor could they stop praising the settee. Thank you all for a wonderful conclusion. Now we can sit back and enjoy them.

A & N Callander ..........................................................................Aberdeen shire

I thought I would send you my photos just to show how delighted we are with the completed work. You really have made a fantastic job so thank you for your efforts. Much Appreciated.

K Burns..................................................................South Glasgow

I wanted to thank you, the whole transaction from start to finish has been first class, from the time I made contact with you, my e-mails and phone calls have always been answered promptly. My Scandinavian chair, after refurbishment is better than it was new. Susan did a very good job.( I think I told you a local upholsterer had said nothing could be done so dump it.) Then I found you. The fact that I was in Bournemouth Dorset and you are in Forfar was not a problem.Collection and delivery by Forfar Removals was at pre arranged times.
I have no hesitation in recommending your services to anyone.

P Vitue ---------------------------Customers chair is on the Scandinavian page right at the bottom.

Thank you very much for cleaning our Scandinavian suite---you made a lovely job of it.
Many thanks for a prompt and excellent service.

J Patterson..............................................................Aberdeenshire

Just a wee note to let you know that we are delighted with the wonderfull job you did of our chairs and settee and the cushions just set it off. Strathvale Furnishings is the place to go if you need your furnishings re-covered. A prompt and very efficient service
I give you 10 out of 10.

L& T Fraser.....................................................................................Dundee

Just a note to thank you for the adice and guidance and the professional job in recovering our Scandinavian suite. It has been much admired by us and others. We will have no problem in recommending your services to others, many thanks again.

D& M Donald..........................................................Perthshire

Just a brief note to say we are delighted with the work on the the Scandinavian suite you did for us-looks great and feels great to sit on.
Thanks very much again.

D Gatt........................................................................................Aberdeenshire

For our American cousins

I cannot help in repairing your furniture but below is a list
of AMU contacts in America

California
Second Chance Upholstery
Tel 17079874477
e-mail secondchance@mchsi.com

New Hampshire
Worrall'sDavid Upholsteryinc
Tel 16038823402
e-mail upholsterdave@aol.com

New Jersey
Osborne CS & Co
tel 19734833232
E-mail cso@osborne.com

For the British

I cannot do small repairs around the country but below are numbers to call who may be able to put you in touch with some one in your area.

Leather training and Technology
Tel 01423 881027

AMU
01633 215454
www.upholsterers.co.uk/directory

And you think you are buying leather

We were called in to a customer the other week to look at 4 leather dining room chairs that had been bought from a large furniture retailer in Aberdeen.

Our customer had contacted the retailer after a few months when the backs of the dining chairs started to split.

The retailer sent a technician to assess the problem,
sub contracted from another company..

Who then reported that it was wear and tear plus customer abuse and the retailer would take no more action. The 4 chairs cost £400.00

When I examined the chairs I initially thought I was looking at cardboard but after checking with a magnifying glass the leather was in fact leather fibres bonded together.

I sent one of the chair backs to be tested.

The report states that the 'leather' is infact what is called bonded leather fibres,

Bonded leather fibre is made from small fragments of leather fibre that are bound together with an adhesive and then cast into sheets. The sheets have a polymer coating applied to the surface which can be embossed to give a similar appearance to genuine leather. Because the internal structure of the leather is no longer intact, the material will only have the strength imparted by the adhesive binder.

In this particular test it was found that there was insufficient binder used and the material was very weak

The report summed up by stating that bonded fibre is ok when used on solid surfaces but should not be used on flexible chair backs plus it does not meet
The British Standard BS 2780:1983

The customer is now going back to the retailer and I will update this report.

The Retailer was given the report from Leather Wise around the 20th May 07 and has contacted the store since then and given promises that they will look into the problem.

I spoke to my customer today 15th Sept and they are still waiting on a reply from the Retailer.

This is normal, as the retailer is now body swerving the problem.

I called in to our customer to find out how things were progressing and the shop has replaced 1 back Bonded fibre cushion.

They therefore have admitted there is a problem but the other 3 backs are starting to show signs of cracking.

This shows the after care of most retailers nowadays or should I say no after care.

Are you getting a bargain

I was asked to go to a customer who had problems with the colour
coming off his arm chair.

He was upset as he had bought what he thought was a good
leather suite reduced from £2300.00 to £1100.00

This suite was never £2300.00, I keep saying this is a magic price.
When I examined the chair the leather had this 'look'.

In my opinion this was splits leather with a light covering
of colour and top finish.

Remember retailers have to make a profit and many spend a
lot of money advertising, one retailer in Dundee spends
over £1,000,000 per year on advertising so I am told.
This has to be paid for in some way. Plus all the overheads.

They cannot buy for example for £100.00 and sell for £150.00

Sales Patter
One of the worst bits of information we have heard 2 different
stall holders who sell care kits give, was to use a shaving
brush dipped into their hot cleaner and gently massage into the
leather as this opens the pores in the leather and allows
the dirt to come out. These two stall holders had different
names but bought the product from the same manufacturer.

Remember normal leather has a pigment or artificial colour
which is sealed by a clear top finish.When quizzed about this
statement they said we only buy from a company and put our
own label on the box plus they did not clean leather suites only demonstrated on a cushion top.

Many so called conditioners and hide food sold
as rejuvenators have strong smells like brasso and are sticky.
One we tested sprayed on a silicon finish?
We have said before on the Re-colour page there are
magic coloured creams out there that traders use to
freshen up suites proir to selling, just like magic
they disappear in a few days. Beware

If you need advice just contact us.

Many of the kits you can buy from the internet, shops, car boot sales,
TV shows are only care kits.The vast majority are sold by people
who have never cleaned a leather suite.
They will not clean a dirty suite. In fact there is not enough cleaner
in the pack to clean a 3 pc suite.

Click onto the cleaning page and you will see pictures of a
smoke damaged suite before and after cleaned by hand
using the same leather cleaner as supplied in the kit.