Interior Remodel
Upholstery Repair and Replacement: Cost, Hours and Process in Hacienda Heights
RV upholstery work recovers and rebuilds the soft goods inside a coach: dinette cushions, sofa and theater seat surfaces, captain chair covers, headboards, valances and window treatments. On a coach the material choice is governed by UV and heat far more than by wear, because the interior sits in sunlight through large windows for years at a time.
What brings this in
- Bonded leather facing that has cracked and flaked off in sheets, typically first at the sun facing side
- Dinette cushions compressed flat with no recovery after the weight is removed
- Seams split along the welt where thread has gone chalky from UV
- Fabric faded in a hard line matching the window opening
- A sofa that reads sunken in one seating position and firm in the other
- Vinyl gone sticky or tacky to the touch after a hot summer
- Valances and window treatments with sun rotted backing that tears when handled
- Zippers separated or seized on cushion covers
- A persistent odor in the foam that survives cleaning
This job, by the numbers
$600 to $8,500
4 to 30 hours
RV systems estimate, $150. Covers slide, awning, water, electrical and generator. Credited to an authorized repair.
Parts and assemblies we work with
Thomas Payne, Villa, Flexsteel, RecPro, Sailrite, Ultraleather
Why coach upholstery fails on a schedule
A coach interior is a greenhouse. Large windows, a light colored ceiling and a vehicle parked in the open for most of its life mean the soft goods take a UV and heat dose that no house sofa ever sees. In this region that shortens the service life of an interior significantly compared to the same furniture indoors.
The specific failure depends on the material. Bonded leather, which many builders used through the 2010s to hit a price, delaminates and flakes off in sheets and cannot be repaired once it starts. Vinyl plasticizer migrates in heat and the surface turns tacky. Thread goes before fabric does, because polyester thread at a seam is thin and fully exposed. Foam does not fail from UV at all; it fails from compression cycles and it is the cheapest thing in the assembly to replace.
That last point matters. An owner who says the sofa is worn out is usually describing dead foam under sound fabric, or failing facing over foam that is still fine. Those are two different jobs with two different prices.
What we recover, rebuild and replace
Recovering keeps the frame and the mechanism and gives you new surfaces. Cushion covers are cut and sewn to the existing pattern, or to a corrected pattern where the original was undersized and always pulled at a corner. Captain chairs and theater seating are recovered in place on their frames.
Rebuilding goes deeper. Foam is replaced with a high resilience grade chosen for the seat depth and the weight it carries, webbing and springs are retensioned, and a plywood deck that has cracked under a dinette base gets replaced. A rebuild is where a twelve year old sofa comes back feeling correct rather than just looking correct.
Replacement makes sense when the frame or the mechanism is the problem, or when the furniture is the wrong furniture. Swapping a jackknife sofa for theater seating, or a booth dinette for a table and loose chairs, is furniture replacement rather than upholstery and is priced there.
- Cushion cover cut and sew to existing or corrected pattern
- High resilience foam replacement sized to seat depth and load
- Webbing, spring and deck rework under dinette and sofa bases
- Captain chair and theater seat recovering on the existing frame
- Headboard, valance and window treatment fabrication
- Powered seat mechanisms removed, protected and reinstalled
Material selection for a coach, not a living room
The single most useful decision an owner can make is to choose a performance material rather than a residential one. Polyurethane based synthetic leathers such as Ultraleather hold up in heat and UV in a way bonded leather never did, clean easily, and do not go tacky. Solution dyed acrylics hold color under sun in a way that piece dyed fabrics do not.
Weight is a minor factor here compared to countertops or tile, but it is not zero: a full soft goods replacement across a large coach can add 60 to 150 pounds if you move from thin factory fabric to heavy upholstery leather and denser foam. On a coach already near its rating that is worth knowing.
The other quiet variable is thread and construction. We use UV stable thread and we welt or double needle the seams that carry load, because a seam that opens in two years undoes an otherwise good recover. Describing how the seams are built is more useful to you than a promise about how long they will last.
Scope
What this line item does not include
- We do not perform upholstery work at a customer location. Cutting, sewing and fitting all happen at the bench.
- Powered recline and heat mechanisms that have failed electrically are diagnosed as systems work, not upholstery.
Being explicit about the boundary is faster than discovering it at pickup. If the work you need sits outside this line item we will say so at intake and point you at the right one.
Questions
Upholstery Repair and Replacement questions
Is it cheaper to reupholster or replace RV furniture?
Recovering is usually less than replacing, and it keeps a frame and mechanism that are often better than what is currently sold at the same price point. Replacement wins when the frame is broken, the mechanism has failed, or you actually want different furniture. On a coach with sound Flexsteel or Villa frames, recovering is almost always the better value.
Why did my leather seating crack and flake after only a few years?
Because it was very likely bonded leather rather than hide: a thin leather pulp layer bonded to a fabric backing with a polyurethane surface. In a coach interior that sees direct sun and high heat, that construction fails by delaminating, and once it starts it cannot be repaired. Recovering in a polyurethane performance material is the durable answer.
Can you replace just the foam and keep my fabric?
Frequently yes, and it is the cheapest way to make an old sofa feel new. If the covers are sound and the zippers work, we pull them, replace the foam with a high resilience grade matched to seat depth and load, and refit. If the covers were cut undersized originally, we will tell you, because new foam in a tight cover pulls at the corners.
How long does an upholstery job take?
One to three weeks in most cases. Labor is 4 to 30 hours depending on how many pieces are in scope, but fabric lead time from the mill runs 10 to 25 business days and that usually sets the date. Foam is in stock, so a foam only rebuild is the fastest work on this page.
Related work
Often done at the same time
$750 to $8,500
Furniture Replacement
Sofa, theater seat, recliner, dinette and chair replacement anchored to structure and verified against slide travel.
$1,200 to $14,000
Bunk and Sleeping Area Conversion
Bunk builds, bunk room conversions, Murphy beds and bed base rebuilds with storage, built as structure.
$1,500 to $50,000 plus
Full Interior Remodel
Complete interior strip and rebuild across flooring, wall panels, cabinetry, countertops, furniture, upholstery and lighting, scoped after a teardown.
$250 to $2,500
Interior Lighting Upgrades
LED fixture conversion, task and accent lighting, dimmer and switching rework, and circuit load verification inside the coach.
Get a firm number on upholstery repair and replacement
The band on this page is honest, and the rv systems estimate at $150 turns it into a firm number. Covers slide, awning, water, electrical and generator. Credited to an authorized repair. We are 18.4 miles from Hacienda Heights.