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Why are most sofas so bad?

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Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#711

Post by tacocataco »

m463 wrote: post #332
btbuildem wrote: post #181

Twenty some years ago I used to work at a business that made and delivered sofas. They've got showrooms in key large cities in North America, fancy schmancy top end stuff. The factory was a real place; the frames were made of solid wood and plywood, there was a sewing floor and even one (incredibly kooky) person whose sole job was to stuff the pillows. This guy was in a little room full of feathers all day, and they'…

I think the problem I've noticed is - the furniture that is built to last very frequently fails the partner test - "that looks like old fart stuff". Same sort of issue with cool remote controls. For example, la-z-boy has pretty good controls - remotes have better designs, have lots of adjustments, and motors seem to move faster. And they too fail the partner test - "that looks like old fart stuff" I kind of like some…

Is it about the style or look of the product? or is this a "weekly pill organizers are for old people" thing?

People learn to be comfy over time. I dont need to live life like i dont know what I'm doing.

Getting old rocks, but maybe that says more about the terrible quality of life during my younger years then it does about current year.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#712

Post by samtho »

jspash wrote: post #502
lostlogin wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Particleboard is absolutely useless, MDF is mostly useless except using as a guaranteed flat surface on top of something to support it Unless there is a drop of moisture, then you throw it all away. It’s so depressingly wasteful.

I could be wrong, but isn't MDF basically made from the waste of wood products? I mean, it's graded and standarised. But MDF _is_ the waste. So to waste it again is no great loss. But as with all things, I'm certain some producers are using raw/virgin materials. Probably from wood that is dirt cheap.

MDF is an engineered product comprised of homogenized hard and soft wood pulp, binding agents. It is dehydrated and pressed together to create a material that is of higher density than fiber board.

The amount of sawdust needed to create a sheet of this stuff is astronomical compared to the output, not to mention the manufacturing process being very resource intensive. You also cannot just take bags of sawdust from the wood mill - it must be macerated and ground to a very fine dust with roughly the consistency of flour.

The main advantage it has is that it is heavy (to weigh down furniture) and very easy to cut with bandsaws, mills, lasers, etc because of its uniform distribution of its constituent parts. It’s also good for applying vinyl wraps and edging which is one reason why arcade cabinets are often made from it.

All this for a product that is roughly the same price as A cabinet-grade ply:

MDF 3/4” x 4’ x 8’ for $52.98: https://www.homedepot.com/p/3-4-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-MDF-Panel-D...

Radiata Pine plywood 23/32” x 4’ x 8’ for $55.98: https://www.homedepot.com/p/23-32-in-x-4-ft-x-8-ft-Cabinet-G...

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#713

Post by tomxor »

mmcnl wrote: post #656
zac23or wrote: post #530

Everything is bad these days, not just the sofas. 1. The new switches I bought broke before the old ones, which are over 20 years old. 2. LED bulbs last less than incandescent bulbs, even with a 20-year warranty. 3. The new cell phone's screen breaks very easily, it's not like the old Nokia's. And nowadays something expensive is no longer guaranteed to last. This is why I value old things so much: I have an old chair…

My experience is completely the opposite. Nokia phones weren't as durable as you remember. A Nokia phone would hardy last 2 years with limited use, either the battery or power connector would die quickly. iPhones get way more usage than Nokias and they easily last 3 years. Also I've literally never had a LED bulb die on me.

I don't know what kind of nokia your talking about but I use a 12 year old nokia feature phone, works fine, very robust, had countless drops, onto countless surfaces, often gets smushed when I go rock climbing and forget it's in my pocket. The battery is barely working but I still get 4 or 5 days charge on it.

I will have to upgrade soon to a 4G version because the 3G bands are getting repurposed in the UK over the next few years. Otherwise I would have kept going with it. Thankfully HMD still make the ones that run the S3 OS... which is immediately obvious when they actually bother quoting standby time in the specs; the KaiOS ones are basically just a worse android phone with all the same power drain issues and not enough compute or utility to justify it.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#714

Post by jeramey »

verisimilitude wrote: post #532
linsomniac wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ended up doing MDF tops for my workbench (1" MDF over 3/4 plywood), and finished them with shelac for a protected, low-friction surface. It is still vulnerable to water damage, but not as bad as unfinished, and as a spoil layer it's not bad. It has plusses and minuses.

If you ever need to replace that MDF, try this: https://epoxytops.com/phenolic-resin-countertops/ I'm using it for my next workbench top.

Seconded! I recently built a large 50" x 90" work surface in my garage and used MDO sign board (another phenolic resin product, not much more expensive than MDF and available at many construction-oriented lumber yards) for the top surface over top of a hardwood plywood subsurface and heavily milled Douglas Fir legs and trusses, all doweled and glued together. I've been quite happy. It was easy to use a router on to make channels for t-tracks, and has been quite stable for the past 6 months or so through the fall, winter, and spring weather changes with only an oil-filled radiant heater to keep things from getting too frigid.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#715

Post by ncr100 »

zac23or wrote: post #530

Everything is bad these days, not just the sofas. 1. The new switches I bought broke before the old ones, which are over 20 years old. 2. LED bulbs last less than incandescent bulbs, even with a 20-year warranty. 3. The new cell phone's screen breaks very easily, it's not like the old Nokia's. And nowadays something expensive is no longer guaranteed to last. This is why I value old things so much: I have an old chair…

No, in my experience there's is "cheaper then ever" , these days and cheaper can be worse quality, naturally.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#717

Post by fuzzfactor »

Sometimes there's a lowest common denominator that puts pressure on everyone else to reduce quality & value, especially gradually over the long run.

When it comes to sofas there's a less common low, and that's "model home" furniture.

These upholstered representations look just like the real thing but they are not counterfeits, merely imitations of what it would look like if the model home were to be equipped with actual furniture where its usefulness was a consideration.

Occasionally appearing on the second-hand market so caveat emptor.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#718

Post by j7ake »

Because sofas that last are heavy and were meant for when people didn’t move out of the same estate for generations.

Now people move every few years. And it’s hard to justify buying fancy furniture in a place you aren’t staying for long time.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#719

Post by fsckboy »

sgc wrote: post #495
Symbiote wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ikea has two or three price points for each product. The cheapest will be made from chipboard or even cardboard. The most expensive varies, it might be pine or even something better.

I bought their highest end leather couch with a fold out bed a couple years ago, due to time constraints. I was very unhappy to see it was made from chipboard. Of course their shelves and such you can see what you are buying, but I would not trust anything upholstered myself.

> their shelves and such you can see what you are buying

no you can't, the outside shell of each shelf completely hides what's inside. I wanted to reconfigure a shelf (turn it on it's side, combine it with another) and turns out the "boards" are hollow. There is something inside at the corner pre-drilled-screw anchor points, but that's the only place you can attach something, the rest of it is potemkin shelf. You get to see this in more detail if you keep a shelf in a mildly humid place like a beachhouse, as the whoe thing delaminates and you see cardboard honeycombs inside a thin veneer of ...veneer

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#720

Post by yterdy »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #631
noduerme wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say it yourself. Why spend $7k on couches over a lifetime when you can spend $4k on one that lasts forever? If you can only scrape together $1k a year for a new piece of garbage, maybe you should sit on milk crates til you can scrape together $4k. Maybe the fact that no one thinks this way anymore explains why everyone complains their six-figure income is constantly eaten up by replacing cheap shit.

Hear me out: what if we reversed the various societal changes made since the Reagan era so people make enough money to afford the things they need and want like every generation before mine did, instead of just normalizing this notion that you need to eat shit for years on end so you can have the privilege of nice things? And that would have knock on effects for huge societal issues like climate change. Imagine how m…

Contrary to those coming out of the woodwork to tell us how much we can't have dignity and decent things, let me just, "Hear, hear!" you.

We have so much stuff we don't need, and we barely scratch the surface of utility of the stuff we have before throwing it out.

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