reupholster or buy new captain chairs is the question

just got the chairs back and they looked great. way cheaper to reupholster 375 a chair. thanks for all the feedback

pete

I re-upholstered both captain's chairs, the recliner, and the sofa in our 2012 Georgetown about a year ago. It came with very cheap 'fake' leather. Both captains chairs, recliner, and the sofa started peeling and looked horrible after just 2 years. Looks much better now, and is much better material (leather).

I seem to recall it costing around $400 a chair, another $450 for the sofa, and a few hundred more for the recliner. Was expensive, but still a good bit cheaper than replacing them. And, as already said, with this approach we could chose the material, and now everything has muuuuuuch nicer material and will last a long time.

Re-upholstering is definitely the way to go, unless the chairs are really, really old and/or have other issues besides just the material. Trick is finding a good upholstery shop that will do a good job for you and knows what they are doing.

dons2346 wrote:
I was looking to have my seats reupholstered. When the guy found out that the seat belt came through the back of the chair, I was told it was cheaper to buy new chairs. Not believing one, I went to two more shops and was told the same thing

My seats had the integral seat belts and the upholsterer had no problem with them other than it took a little longer. The integral seat belts run through the upper part of the seat but they are ultimately fastened to the lower seat frame/base. It just had to be disconnected, recovered, and put back together just like the original manufacturer built them.
I would guess that you ran in to some upholsters that didn't want to learn something new.

I was looking to have my seats reupholstered. When the guy found out that the seat belt came through the back of the chair, I was told it was cheaper to buy new chairs. Not believing one, I went to two more shops and was told the same thing

The pleather comes in several qualities. What goes in most of the coaches is a "lesser" quality. . . it's whatever the manufacturer requests. When we had ours reupholstered, we chose a higher quality product.

And the cost was basically the cost of ONE new chair. We had both redone. And buying new doesn't guarantee you will get a better quality fabric.

Dale

Maybe you can get real leather instead of that cheap faux stuff that comes with new ones.

i just hired a guy who will do it for 375 a chair. hope all turns out good

With an upholsterer you can get REAL leather and the foam cushioning of your choice.

Just FYI, I had my dinette reupholstered last year. It was originally fabric and I was going to get it done in ultra leather. The shop told me that ultra leather is a very nice, soft leather like material, BUT it does not last. I ended up getting another vinyl product for about 1/3 the price that they said would lake much longer.

I think ultra leather is hit and miss. I had an 07' diesel pusher and the captains chairs material was flaking but my current 03' they are holding up fine.

As noted, a reupholster job will cost as much or more than new chairs. Do you research, check new vs reupholster, and go from there.