Increasing the height of a sofa - Not much woodworking :(

[=Adam=]

Hi guys,

I bought a sofa on gumtree yesterday, it was a bargain really because there was a corner sofa, a three seater and a poufee (not sure how to spell haha) all for £180.

Now the only issue with it is that it is fairly low to the ground. The legs on the sofa are quite short, maybe 30mm or so, so I was wondering if it is possible to take the legs off and replace them with some turned wooden ones which are about 150mm long?

Sorry if it is a silly question.

Cheers.

 

[marcros]

Probably possible. You would need to find out how they were attached for starters, and whether the point to where they are fixed would handle the leverage etc of the longer legs. I dont see why you couldn't reinforce the areas if required and fit taller legs though.

 

[RogerP]

... or somehow extend the existing ones?

 

[heatherw]

We have to modify sofa legs quite a lot for our clients. It depends on how they are attached. If they are just screwed on a slim turned leg 150mm long would probably break quite easily. You'd be better off making either a fat turned leg (like a bun foot, around 150mm thick, or alternatively a squared chunk of timber, you can bevel it to make it look smaller, but the bit that is on touching the sofa needs to be at least as thick as the leg is high, maybe more.

This is the sort of thing I mean.

And this is what I mean about bevelling

If however the leg is part of the structure, I would be tempted to maybe make a bigger leg which fits round the existing one, so as to use the structure to give it strength. Note that I've never tried this though, all our work with structural legs involves cutting them off, not adding to them. Or you could cut it off and fix the new one to the stump.

Screws are normally sunk into the foot through an oversized hole so that they only hold about 25-30mm of wood, I can't remember how you say this in English at the moment, I'm in Spanish mode.

 

[=Adam=]

Thanks for the quick responses guys!

I did think about the option of just making some supports for the legs where the existing ones just fit on/in the new ones.

I like the idea of removing them and replacing with some wooden blocks. I know that the current legs are just plastic donut shapes which are around 30mm long/high, so I doubt that they are structural haha.

I will have a look tonight to see what would be the best option.

 

[twothumbs]

What is wrong with 4 bricks?
Seriously, in repair work some screwed rod (say 1/2") set into old and new with epoxy resin or car cataloy paste can do the trick if the old caster holes , etc, are big and all over the place. Best Wishes.

 

[CHJ]

I turned up these Gliders to help spread the small diameter brass foot ferrule load on some plush carpeting, and did some much taller to raise a chair for an elderly person. All depends upon existing feet configuration.