Sleeper sofa repair — a brown leather sleeper sofa opened out, the mattress carried on its black steel folding frame
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Sleeper Sofa Repair

The bed still has to close. A sofa bed is a sofa built around a folded steel bed — recover it without counting the millimetres and it will look right, sit right, and refuse to shut.

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The argument

Every millimetre you add comes out of the gap.

The mechanism folds into a cavity the factory sized once, with the original foam and cover already counted in. So sleeper sofa repair is a measuring job before it is an upholstery job.

Measured closed. Finished closed.

Related — leather sofas · cushion replacement · sofa reupholstery · seam repair

The quilted corner of a sofa bed mattress resting on its black steel frame
The mattress folds in at full thickness. The sofa was built around it.
A sofa bed mechanism folded down into the cavity beneath the seat
Folded, the whole bed lives under the seat.

Complete Sofa Bed Restoration

Two hands stitching a leather seam with a curved needle and thread Upholstery & Leather Hides and fabrics chosen for the thickness the mechanism can still take. A sofa bed stripped back to its bare timber frame and decking Frames & Support Rails, joints and decking repaired so the bed squares up and stays square. The black steel bar mechanism of a pull-out sleeper sofa, opened wide Sleeper Mechanisms Pull-out, click-clack and trundle actions serviced, freed and reset.

On a sleeper we also do — seam repair · panel replacement · colour restoration · cushion repair · leather cleaning · conditioning

What We Repair

Common issues. Expert solutions.
Brown leather creased and scuffed pale across the grain
Worn Fabric or Leather
A collapsed and wrinkled grey sofa seat cushion
Sagging Seat Cushions
The hinges and pivots of a sofa bed linkage seen close up
Bent or Stuck Mechanism
A split hardwood sofa frame rail beside black sinuous springs
Broken Frame or Support
A sofa bed opened out on its quilted mattress
Aging Mattress
A burst upholstery seam with the stitching open and threads frayed
Loose Seams and Trim

Real Results for Real Homes

Same sofa. A brighter tomorrow.
The same brown leather sleeper sofa side by side, faded and worn on the left, colour restored on the right BeforeAfter
Faded across the front edge, then colour restored — the original hide kept, so nothing gained thickness.
The same sofa bed side by side, a sagging old mattress on the left and a new firm mattress on the right BeforeAfter
A replacement mattress chosen to the same folded thickness, not to the same comfort rating.
The same sofa shape shown twice, in a cream cover on the left and a charcoal cover on the right CreamCharcoal
Not a before and after. One shape in two covers — the other choice on the table when a sleeper is recovered.
What you have

Six sleepers, six different insides.

They all look like sofas. Sleeper sofa repair is priced off what folds inside, not off the size of the piece in your room.

A charcoal three-seat sleeper sofa closed, in a panelled room
Three-seat pull-out
The common one. A full-size mattress on a scissor frame under three cushions.
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 A grey two-seat sleeper loveseat closed, between two windows
Sleeper loveseat
Same mechanism, less room around it. The tightest clearance of the six.
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 A sleeper sectional with a chaise, the pull-out section part way open
Sleeper sectional
Only one section folds. The rest is an ordinary sectional and is priced like one.
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 A trundle sleeper open, the mattress sitting flush with the base
Trundle and pop-up
The seat itself becomes the bed, so the seat foam is doing two jobs at once.
→
 An armless click-clack convertible sofa on wooden legs
Click-clack
No separate mattress. The back drops flat, so the back cover takes the wear of a bed.
→
 A burgundy leather two-seat sleeper closed, in a dark panelled study
Leather sleeper
Hide is thicker than the cloth it replaces. On a sleeper that is a measurement, not a preference.
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The mechanism

The half you never see.

We test the fold before the cover comes off and again after it goes back on. A sleeper sofa repair that ends with a bed which will not close is not finished work.

The black steel bars and rollers of a sofa bed mechanism seen along their length
Perforated plywood deck panels mounted on a black steel sofa bed folding frame
The deck. Perforated so the mattress breathes, and thin so it folds.
Close view of the steel bars and rollers of a sofa bed mechanism
Rollers carry the bed out. A dry roller is what makes a sleeper feel heavy.
Steel hinges, pivots and bolts in a sofa bed linkage
Every pivot is a wear point. Worn pivots let the frame rack out of square.
A hand adjusting the linkage of a sofa bed mechanism on a workshop bench
Adjusted by hand, then cycled. Twenty opens and shuts before it is signed off.
How it goes

Out, apart, and back inside the same gap.

Every sleeper sofa repair runs the same three stages.

A stripped sofa bed frame in bare timber on a workshop floor
Stage 01
Measured, then stripped

Closed height, seat height and the arm-to-arm gap are recorded first. Then the cover comes off and the mechanism comes out.

A hardwood sofa frame corner joint with screws and a corner block
Stage 02
The frame is squared

Split rails are repaired and the bolt points made solid. A mechanism cannot be trued up on a frame that moves.

A traditional hand-tied coil spring deck, springs lashed with twine over hessian on a wooden frame
Stage 03
The foundation is rebuilt to fit

This is a hand-tied sprung deck from an ordinary sofa. A sleeper has no room for one — its seat sits on webbing and a steel deck, and the rebuild has to stay inside that depth.

The cover

What you recover it in changes the gap.

Width and length are standardised across mattress sizes; thickness is not, and the same is true of the cover over it. That is why sleeper sofa repair is specified in millimetres rather than in swatches alone.

Three rolled leather hides in distressed brown, tan and black on hessian
Hides vary by more than colour. Substance is quoted in millimetres and we hold it against the closed measurement.
A fan of upholstery swatches in fabrics, suede and leathers
A fan narrows the look. The millimetre column decides which of them a sleeper can actually take.
Top-grain
The default for a leather sleeper. Hard-wearing on a front edge that gets kneed twice a night. Top-grain leather.
Pigmented
The most forgiving surface we fit, and the easiest to touch in later without recovering a panel. Pigmented leather.
Performance cloth
Thinner than hide, so it buys back clearance on a tight mechanism. Performance fabric.
Vinyl
Wipes clean, which matters on a piece that doubles as a guest bed. Vinyl.
Not advised
Bonded leather on a folding panel. It delaminates along the crease, which is precisely where a sleeper folds. Why.

Mattress sizing, for reference — Sleep Foundation on standard mattress dimensions.

Corner of a dark brown leather cushion showing the welt and topstitching
A two-tone upholstered corner with contrast welting along both edges
A woven upholstery corner with a pale contrast welt running over it
The arm and seat cushion of an upholstered sleeper with a houndstooth pillow behind

Welt lines are where a sleeper is judged close up, and where the fold puts its load. Three of these four are cloth, one is leather.

The honest answer

What we take on, and what we hand back.

Not every sleeper sofa repair is worth doing. Better said on the phone than after the cover is off.

Worth doing

A sofa bed open with a quilted mattress on its black folding legs

We will tell you to stop

  • A bent main frame. Straightened steel racks again.
  • An obsolete mechanism with no part available.
  • A cavity already packed out by a previous recover.
  • Bonded leather delaminated along the fold line.
  • A cover that costs more than the sleeper is worth.
A sofa bed open from the side, the mattress carried on its black steel frame

We would rather lose the job than hand you back a sofa that will not close. See the warranty.

A sofa bed opened out in a high-rise apartment with the Manhattan skyline through the window
Where we work

Five boroughs, and across the river.

Most sleeper sofa repair happens in the apartment, because a sofa bed is heavy, awkward on a stair and usually the only bed a guest room has. Work that needs the bench is collected and returned.

Commercial — hotels and serviced apartments are quoted as a run, not per piece.

Questions

Before you book.

A pale three-seat sleeper sofa closed, seen straight on in a bright room
Closed, a sleeper tells you nothing about the half that fails. Photograph it both ways.
Will recovering my sofa bed stop it closing?

It can, and that is the whole reason this page exists. It will not if the closed dimensions are measured before anything comes off and the new materials are chosen against them. We record them first and cycle the bed before the piece goes back.

Can you replace just the mattress?

Usually, and it is the cheapest useful thing you can do. The trap is buying by size alone — a replacement can be the correct width and length and still be too thick to fold into the cavity. Send us the closed height and we will tell you what fits.

Does the sofa have to leave my apartment?

Not for most work. Plenty of sleeper sofa repair is done in the room — colour restoration, seam repair, scuff work and mattress swaps all are. A full recover or a frame repair needs the bench, and we collect and return.

What does sleeper sofa repair cost?

It depends on which half is wrong. Surface work on the cover is the least; a full recover with the mechanism out is the most, because the labour is in the taking apart and the putting back rather than in the hide. We quote from photographs, free, with no visit needed to get a number.

My mechanism is stiff and the bed drags. Is that repairable?

Almost always. Stiffness is usually dry rollers, a worn pivot or a frame that has gone out of square around a split rail — all of which we fix. A bent main frame is the exception, and we will say so rather than take the job.

Can you match a sleeper to the rest of the room?

Yes. Colour is mixed against the piece itself rather than from a card, so a recovered sleeper can be brought to the sofa or chairs it sits with. Bring us the piece you are matching to, or good photographs of it in daylight.

A pale sleeper sofa closed, photographed straight on in a wide room
Next step

Photograph it open and closed.

Two photographs answer most of it: the sofa shut, and the bed pulled all the way out. Add the closed height in inches and we can usually quote a sleeper sofa repair without visiting.

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