Sofa buying guide - DIY woodworking India

Sofa buying guide - DIY woodworking India

What are the points you need to consider while buying a sofa for your home? There are many. While many prefer buying a good branded one, some go for the non-branded ones. What are the pros and cons? How much money I should spend? How long the sofa should last? Is teak wood good for sofa? How about sheesham wood? Does rubber wood last long? What design I should select? Should I go for sectional sofa? There are so many questions floating in your mind that you are unable to decide which one you should buy?

Here goes some analysis based on my own research. Hope you will get some idea out of it.

What NOT to buy - sofa buying guide

Lets strike off what NOT to buy first, so that we won't miss it later. Most of these will be applicable to wooden sofa or sofa having wooden structure inside.

1. Do not go for a sofa where MDF has been used to build its core structure. Core structure refers to the main structural body of the sofa. MDF damps when it comes in contact with water, thus there is a chance your sofa may not last long. When you go to a furniture shop, ask for the material used. If they say MDF, thats it. When you are buying online, then also check for it.
2. When you check the sofa, do not miss out one thing. Lift the sofa at one end, may be a feet from the ground keeping the other end on the floor. This is a way to check the JOINERY if they are hidden inside the cover or outer body. If there is a problem in joinery, you can feel/see it by looking at the joints - for example sofa leg - sofa base joint. The joints should not be loose. Pay attention for any noise from the joints you hear when lifting. There should not be any. If there is, go for another sofa. 
3. Push/drag the sofa horizontally. Do not drag much, shopkeeper might shout. In doing so, pay attention to the sofa legs particularly. They should not get bent in the joint.
4. Sit on it, in the middle, with little force to check the base of the sofa. The middle of the base structure should not go inside. The cushion will of course go inside but I am talking about the inner structure. You will know when you free fall on it from couple of feet height. Just stand besides it and free fall on it. Particularly in case of 3 seater sofa, there should be proper reinforcement in the middle of the sofa base to bear the load on it. If that is missing or little weak, sofa base will go down in some time.
5. Sit on it, lean on the back, again with little force. This is to check the joints(if any) between the back and the core structures. The back should not further bend back, even an inch. If so, go for another piece. 
6. If the sofa has hand rest, handle etc, push/pull them with force to know whether they are tightly connected.  

Please do not miss out any of the above. If you are satisfied after checking all these checkpoints, the sofa is structurally strong and you can go for checking further what to have in that sofa.

What to buy for frequent shifter - sofa buying guide

Now next question. Should I go for a wooden or iron or cane sofa?

If you frequently shift your house with all your furnitures, go for an iron one. There will be less wear and tear when it comes to iron compared to wooden or cane sofa. The joinery of welded iron is stronger than that of wood or cane. When a good wooden structure comprises of mortise and tenon joints in the sofa, now-a-days average sofas are not having those, so structurally they are little weak. In case of cane sofa, they are joined by cane thread and nails, still not upto the mark. But cane is still more convenient in this case as you can yourself fix them easily without using any kind of tools.

Which wooden sofa to buy

Now comes to types of wood. We have several choices here, but we will be primarily stick to solid wood, sheesham wood and teak wood. 

1. Solid wood - Never go by the literal meaning of the word solid wood. Solid wood does not mean that it is really cut from a tree as one piece and fixed. What it really means is engineered wood. Engineered wood is nothing but binding together wood strands, fibres, veneers and adhesives and make it hollow-space free. As it does not have hollow spaces, that is why it is called solid wood. Plywood, OSB, fibreboard fall in this category. Even MDF falls into this category which is nothing medium density fibreboard. Now as you know there are different categories of solid woods, go for the good solid wood ones. 
2. Sheesham wood -  It is real hard wood and my favourite. If you are buying the sheesham wood sofa for home situated in humid or areas where there is much rain fall, here are few checkpoints. Is the sofa water proofed? Has oil treatment been done or varnished? Sheesham wood has less oil content than teak, hence more susceptible to moisture. If climate is dry, then you need to not worry. Sheesham wood will last long. It is resistant to wood termites as well. So, maintain it well, it will last generations. 
3. Teak wood - It has more oil content than sheesham, rest all attributes are almost same. It is often used for construction of boat. It is a solid choice for your furnitures.  

Rubber wood sofa

There are few more. One of them is rubber wood. In the recent times, it has become popular in furniture making. Point to be noted here is that rubber wood is chemically processed so that it can prevent attack from insects, fungus etc. If these diffused chemicals are absent due to outdoor use of the sofa, you can expect insects attack.

Coil spring

Coil spring inside the sitting base is one of the good-to-have attributes in sofa. Now-a-days, it is available in the branded ones in the higher range. Of course, how they are installed, what material of coil has been used matter, but in the average priced sofas(<35k), coil springs are not used. There may be exception, but I am talking about in general.

Cushion density rating

Cushioning is another important point to consider. Higher density means you will feel the hardness, but it will last long in due course of years. Go for branded ones. Always ask for the foam/cushion density rating. The vendor should be able to tell you that. Sometimes they may tell you ILD(Identification load deflection) to be the density. But still you should be able to understand. Typically, sofa cushions start from density rating of 30. Anything equal or greater than this is fine.

Hope it helps. Thanks.