1) Do you warranty your upholstered furniture frame for life? 2) Does your ... match where all patterns match up both ve
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7 Questions for your GSA Upholstered Furniture Manufacturer
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1) Do you warranty your upholstered furniture frame for life? 2) Does your upholstered furniture frame meet the FNAE or ANSI/BFMA HEAVY DUTY service rating? 3) Is your upholstered furniture made using recycled steel hand-tied coil springs? 4) Are your upholstered furniture seat cushions made using Marshall Units (environmentally safe, fire retardant (CA117) foam surrounding recycled steel springs sewn into a fiber filled, channeled, down-proof, ticking case)? 5) Are your upholstered furniture frames constructed of 5/4” kiln dried hardwoods harvested from non-rainforest, sustainably managed plantations? 6) Is the fabric on your upholstered furniture applied in a complete 4-way match where all patterns match up both vertically and horizontally? 7) Do you have multiple fabric grades that increase the furniture price?
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1) Do you warranty your upholstered furniture frame for life? Upholstered furniture frame warranties are directly indicative of a manufacturer’s faith in the products they produce. Well-made upholstered furniture should have no problem lasting decades. If a manufacturer has not cut corners in their manufacturing processes, there should be no hesitation for them to offer a lifetime frame warranty. Well-made upholstered furniture frames have an almost zero fail rate. Furniture produced with less-than-ideal material and techniques is engineered to fail. Look at the frame warranty being offered for an expectation of how long the manufacturer expects a frame to last. Lifetime frame warranties should extend to the mechanisms in recliners and sleeper sofas.
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2) Does your upholstered furniture frame meet the FNAE or ANSI/BFMA HEAVY DUTY service rating? Upholstered sectionals, sofas, sleeper sofas, settees and recliners sold via GSA contracts are required to meet or exceed durability standards. This is a rigorous and costly testing procedure that involves making a frame and sending it to a testing lab to be stressed in a series of tests. This is the way the GSA assures government clients of the durability of the furniture offered via their contracts. These tests are rated as LIGHT DUTY, MEDIUM DUTY or HEAVY DUTY. Manufacturers are required to present the testing result on request. Upholstered furniture frames that meet or exceed a HEAVY DUTY service rating are much more likely to provide longer service than MEDIUM OR LIGHT DUTY rated frames. Well-made upholstered furniture frames using high quality materials and production techniques should have no difficulties in exceeding the HEAVY DUTY service rating standard. Ask if the sofa,
sectional, recliner or settee you are about to buy meets GSA’s HEAVY DUTY service rating.
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3) Is your upholstered furniture made using hand-tied coil springs made from recycled steel? Upholstered furniture frames utilizing hand-tied coil springs are considered more comfortable and are more likely to give a longer service life than those utilizing continuous leaf springs. Coil springs are more costly to produce and they are more costly to incorporate into frames as they must be tied into place by hand. The results speak for themselves in terms of comfort and longevity. Ask your upholstered furniture manufacturer to only supply frames that use hand-tied coil springs. And while you are at it, insist that those springs be made from recycled steel. These are construction materials and techniques that are readily available. If your manufacturer is not using hand-tied coil springs made from recycled steel, it is almost certainly a cost cutting decision made to support their profit margins. You should be more concerned about the quality of the furniture you are buying than the bottom line of the manufacturer. Insist on hand-tied coil springs made from recycled steel.
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4) Are your upholstered furniture seat cushions made using Marshall Units (environmentally safe, fire retardant (CA117) foam surrounding recycled steel springs sewn into a fiber filled, channeled, down-proof, ticking case)? Upholstered furniture frames utilizing Marshall Units in the seat cushions are generally more comfortable and more durable than seat cushions that do not utilize them. Marshall Units are like small sleeping mattresses. They are made using individual coil springs that are encased in a hollow foam unit that is then encased in a fiber filled fabric envelope. Cushions using Marshall Units are more costly to manufacture. Manufacturers who do not use Marshall Units in their seat cushions are likely more concerned about their bottom line than they are about the comfort of their customers. If comfort and durability are important, insist that your upholstered furniture seat cushions be made using Marshall Units.
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5) Are your upholstered furniture frames constructed of 5/4” kiln dried hardwoods harvested from non-rainforest, sustainably managed plantations? Load bearing components of your upholstered furniture frames should be durable and made from 5/4” kiln dried hardwoods harvested from non-rainforest, sustainably managed plantations. Joints should be reinforced with double dowels, screws and glue. If these standard construction techniques and materials standards are adhered to, you can be assured that you are buying a frame that will last a lifetime and is made in an environmentally sustainable manner. You do not have to settle for inferior frames that are engineered to fail in a few years that utilize unsustainable forestry practices.
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6) Is the fabric on your upholstered furniture applied in a complete 4-way match where all patterns match up both vertically and horizontally?
Patterned fabrics require additional yardage as well as skill and expertise to apply in a 4-way match. Many manufacturers will cut this corner and simply not match a pattern at the seams to try to save on fabric, training and labor costs. Ask your supplier if your fabric will be applied in a 4-way match. If the answer is “No”, you might want to ask yourself what other corners are being cut. If they are willing to skimp on the decorative aspects of furniture manufacturing, might they also be willing to skimp on the structural aspects of furniture manufacturing that you cannot see? If a manufacturer doesn’t take make the effort to make the furniture look good, can you be certain they are making the effort to make the furniture durable and comfortable?
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7) Do you have multiple fabric grades that increase the furniture price? In years past, furniture manufacturers would have a base price for furniture. Often this price did not include fabric. This is called COM (Customer’s Own Material) price. But upholstered furniture without fabric is just a frame. So the up-charging begins. Depending on the quality, durability and styling of the fabric you require, you could end up paying 20%-50% over the base (COM) price. This is an obvious way that manufacturers lead with a low price and switch to much higher prices once your needs are introduced into the equation.
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Fortunately for government furniture consumers, times have changed. Some manufacturers have begun to offer single-price upholstered furniture that includes hundreds (or even thousands) of fabric options. Ask your furniture manufacturer if they are willing to price their furniture this way. One-price fabric options should include faux leather (vinyl), Crypton fabrics, Nano-Tex fabrics and recycled content fabrics. If your manufacturer is not offering thousands of one-price fabric options in this range of styles, you should consider asking them “Why Not?” This level of consumer support is quickly becoming the industry norm. You shouldn’t have to settle for anything less. Not only does it represent superior value, it will greatly reduce contracting complexities as a project evolves and fabrics change. If all of the fabrics are a single price, it won’t matter to your contract whether your customer chooses a Crypton fabric or a vinyl fabric -the price will always be the same.
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