Take apart a couch?

I have a couch i need to get into the basement. It is about 3 inches too wide to get through a couple doorways (old house). Legs are already taken off. Tried every way possible to get it through with no success. Anyone have any experience with breaking a couch down and putting it back together?

I also should mention that the door frame is built in such a way that taking it off would require more work than I am willing to commit. Besides, it would only give me another inch or so.

Any advice would be awesome, thanks!

 

Nope. Unless it's designed to come apart, you'll be cutting fabric and other potentially structural materials.

Have you taken the trim off the doorways?

 

I agree, unless you can widen the opening or twist the couch into a position that clears - it sounds like time to get a different couch.

 

I'm having trouble understanding what you mean by frame is built in such a way that taking it off would require more work : (Do you mean door jamb? If so and it is an interior door I'm not sure why it would be that hard. As suggested remove the trim. In contractor built house often only the trim holds the door jamb in place. Even if they did a proper job with nails through the jamb and shims a Sawzall will make quick work of cutting the nails.

Tip: After removing trim on one sid ae nail 1-by diagonally across the jamb so it holds it shape.

 

Yeah to clarify, I meant the jamb is not easily removable. It is some sort of metal frame on top of the jamb.

 

Please post a mecture of the metal. http://www.doityourself.com/forum/li...rt-images.html Keep the width of images to 1000px or less.

 

It is actually a former exterior door. now a storm door is attached. Former owner built an enclosure over the sidewalk in between house and separate garage. The garage door can be bypassed, (it is small as well), by going through a new door built into the enclosure. I will post a photo as soon as i get home from work.

 

I recently purchased a love seat/recliner and two of us struggled to get it out of the building. When I got it home I realized the back sections just slipped on with a little spring pawl attaching them on each side. Would have been so simple had I known this before I battled it down a set of stairs. Check to see if the back can be removed by undoing the upholstery along the bottom of the back. Many have it attached with Velcro. Once that is off see if the backs are removable.

 

Storm doors are easy to remove. Will it fit if you remove the storm door?

 

Here is the suspect door jamb. I have never removed a jamb before. Does this look easy enough to remove? And no, it will not fit by removing the storm door itself.

 

Yes, that is a problem. I don't have anymore suggestions.

 

What kind of couch is it? If it's an IKEA or IKEA kind of couch, then you could take it apart easily, but if it's an upholstered cushy kind of couch, might not be so easy, if at all.

 

It is upholstered. It seems to have a large opening on the bottom, underneath the white fabric. I may be able to find some easily removable bolts or the like. Also the back of the couch is one big piece of fabric, so i may try to carefully take this off as well. The couch was used and a gift from an old friend. They said they were going to throw it out if I didn't take it. It's in good shape, but I will toss it if I mess it up too bad. Time to get creative!

 

Hope this isn't too untimely. Have you tried putting it through the door with it standing straight up on end? I've seen this work when every other way didn't.

But taking the back off is probably not as easy as it sounds. UPH staples are a PITA to remove, but aside from that, you will most likely find that other pieces of the UPH fabric are stapled to the back - the seat undercushion is probably pulled through and attached to the bottom of the back frame. The side UPH fabric will be wrapped around to the back of the couch. If there is cording along the bottom of frame that will need to be kept in one piece. The good news is that if you were reupholstering the piece, after the bottom dust cover, bottom cording, the back would most likely be the first piece of fabric to come off. Then you might be able to see how many other pieces are attached to the back.

You will probably need to buy new metal tackstrips (go along the side edges of the back fabric). For reinstalling the upholstery - I tried a manual staple gun, moved up to a electric which promptly went back to whichever big box, and then bit the bullet and bought an air compressor - my 8 gal 2 hp 125 psi is working well for me ($120+/- from Harbor Freight; I'd forget about one of their little pancake compressors) and an air powered stapler. I did not invest in a UPH stapler ($$$, have extra narrow/long noses, and use special staples) and believe that the commonly available T-50 guns are OK for a project or two.

Their are some good YouTube videos out there that show chairs, but the principles will be the same. Sailrite has https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR_rjW7Ro3c. Kimsupholstery.com and diyupholsterysupply.com have a number of informative videos on their YouTube channels.

I can't comment on dismantling the frame proper other than to say I suspect you are risking the structural integrity of the couch proper. I'd have to be pretty darn attached to the sofa to consider attempting doing this.

Be sure to take lots of pictures and make notes to help you put it back together. Good luck!