When you’re searching for an upholstery shop it might be hard to know who to choose. You probably aren’t an accomplished upholsterer yourself and since the upholstery business is an industry where anyone can say they know what they’re doing when it comes to reupholstering your couches or fixing the seat covers in your vehicle it can be tough to tell the amateurs apart from the upholsterers with years of experience until it’s too late. We understand your plight and know upholstery shops so we came up with this list of tips to help you in your search.
- Level of Training and Experience: Did the person doing the upholstery or the staff of the upholstery business get training in a college program and then apprentice under an experienced upholsterer, or did they just take a short course that lasted only a few weeks before going into the upholstery business?
- Types of Services Offered: An upholstery shop or upholsterer is no good to you if they don’t specialize in the type of service you need. If they mainly just do furniture and you have a rip in your car’s seat covers, or you need new upholstery for all the seats and benches on your boat, they might not be the best choice for your upholstery needs.
- Attention to Detail: No matter what you’re having reupholstered, from antique chairs to seats in an airplane, you want to know exactly what the quality of a prospective upholstery work is like. Do they simply leave the old upholstery in place and put the new fabric over it, or do they strip the old fabric, inspect the frame for damage, tighten anything that’s loose, repair minor damage and then cover the item with new fabric.
- The Lowest Price Isn’t Always Best: In the upholstery industry, the lowest price isn’t necessarily a sign of the best service and craftsmanship. Upholstery isn’t always the cheapest service and sometimes it might be less expensive to replace furniture and other upholstered items, especially antiques than it would be to have them reupholstered. If you’re looking for an upholstery shop, it means the item is special to you. Do you want to risk ruining something with sentimental value by trusting it to a bargain upholstery shop?
- What Are Their Reviews Like: Ask friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors for recommendations of quality upholstery shops they’ve done business with. Also read reviews about potential upholstery shops on sites like Google, Yelp, and Facebook. A couple bad reviews are fine as long as the rest of the reviews are stellar. Also, pay attention to how the upholsterer responds to any customer criticism. A business that works on addressing customer concerns shows they care about you and about your furniture, car, boat or other items they’re upholstering.
We hope we’ve made the overwhelming search for your next upholstery shop easier with our list of tips. Leave your feedback or ideas below. If you have any questions or are searching for upholstery services call Rocky Mountain Upholstery and Foam today.