Shopping for upholstered furniture? Nobody wants to spend $1000 (or much more) for seating that will need replacement 3 years later.
Most sofa shoppers assume the frame and foundation are the key to a sofa’s long term durability. Wrong! Cheap engineered wood frames & sinuous wire foundations will hold up for 10+ years in most sofas.
Cushions are the real key to a couch’s long term durability. Cheap cushions wear out quickly, often within 3 years or less. Better quality cushions can last 15 years or more.
Sofa Sleepers are less durable than normal (non-motion) sofas made by the same brand. Adding a sleeper mechanism & mattress fundamentally alters the construction and reduces the overall quality & lifespan of a sofa. Very similar mechanisms are often found in both lower cost sleepers (<$1000) & high priced sofa beds ($3000+.)
Allform uses a hardwood plywood frame. Burrow has a solid Birch frame. One of the other competitors (Campaign) uses a steel frame. It really doesn’t matter. All the frames will last 10 years or more.
The most concerning reviews are about cushions that wear out quickly. That is why it is important to get the 2.75 density foam. It should hold up far longer than 2.0 density foam.
Theoretically, you could stuff loose fiber into the cushion cover, but the couch cushions will look lumpy & uneven, and could easily be even less comfortable than they are currently.
Reclining sofas in this price range have the shortest lifespan and highest complaint rate of any type of furniture.
Webbing used on lower priced seating “stretches.” Cheap stretchable webbing stapled into softwood or engineered wood frames can break or sag within 5 – 10 years. Webbing used on high quality seating does not stretch. Top quality, non-stretchable webbing, stapled into solid hardwood frames will hold up for 20 years & more.
A furniture industry study, conducted 15 years ago, indicated that consumers expected their new sofas to last 8 – 10 years. A more recent study reports that consumers now expect their new sofas to last only 3 – 5 years.
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