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Diagnosis, Not Demolition — We Fix What Is Broken
You found something good — a walnut-frame lounge chair from an estate sale off Burnet Road, a teak-arm sofa rescued from a Hyde Park bungalow, a settee handed down through a Travis Heights family. The lines are right and the fabric still has life in it, but the seat has gone soft, a spring has snapped, or a frame rail has split. That is a repair, not a reupholstery. Weathersby Guild specializes in structural upholstery repair: we diagnose the actual problem and fix it without tearing the piece down to the frame.
Most of Austin’s best pieces do not need recovering — they need the broken thing inside them fixed. Re-tied 8-way hand springs, replaced webbing, spliced hardwood rails, hand-sewn seams, leather patching. Keeping a quality mid-century piece original is almost always better than re-covering it. Every repair runs through our San Antonio workshop, with free pickup and delivery up I-35.
A sunken seat might be collapsed foam, failed webbing, or a broken spring — three different fixes. We find the actual cause before we quote, so you pay to solve the real problem and not to replace what was never wrong. That is the difference between repair and demolition.
A mid-century piece loses character when it is re-covered. Where the original fabric is still sound, we work the structure from underneath — re-tying springs, splicing the hardwood frame, replacing webbing — and leave the period-correct cover and tack lines exactly as the maker left them.
Our workshop is about 80 miles south on Marbach Lane in San Antonio. We collect your piece from anywhere in the Austin area free of charge, do the repair under controlled shop conditions, and deliver it back — so a heavy chair never rides down I-35 in a borrowed truck.
Send photos of the damage and the full piece. We tell you what is actually broken — foam, webbing, springs, frame, or seam — and whether a targeted repair solves it or a full reupholstery is the smarter call. Every Austin estimate is free and in writing.
We collect the piece from your Austin home and bring it the roughly 80 miles down I-35 to our Marbach Lane workshop at no charge. No wrestling a vintage sofa into a rented van, and no risk of new damage in transit.
Cracked rails and split arm posts are spliced with matching kiln-dried hardwood and loose joints re-pegged. Failed 8-way hand springs are re-tied with new jute twine, broken coils swapped, sinuous springs replaced, and tired webbing renewed — most of it from underneath, with the original cover left in place.
Split seams are hand-sewn with curved needles and color-matched waxed thread so the repair disappears into the original stitch line. Collapsed foam cores are replaced with high-density foam and re-wrapped in Dacron, and worn leather is patched and dye-matched on the affected area only.
Every repair is checked under proper light to confirm the structure is sound and any visible work blends in. Then we deliver the piece back to your Austin home — original character intact, ready for the Hyde Park living room or the Lake Travis porch.
Repair is the right call when the structure has failed but the fabric still has life in it — a snapped spring, a split rail, one sagging cushion, a single torn seam. It keeps a quality Austin find original and costs a fraction of a full recover. When the fabric itself is worn across multiple panels, faded, or you simply want a new look, that is a rebuild — see our full reupholstery service or our Austin-specific reupholstery in Austin page. Not sure which one your piece needs? Send photos and we will tell you honestly.
If the fabric still looks good and only the structure has failed — a cracked frame rail, broken springs, sagging webbing — repair is almost always the right call for a quality MCM find. Recovering an original walnut- or teak-frame piece can erase the very originality that makes it worth owning. We fix the internal problem and leave the period-correct upholstery intact wherever possible. When the fabric itself is worn across multiple panels, a full rebuild makes more sense, and we will tell you so honestly. See our reupholstery service for those cases, or call (210) 251-3019 to talk it through.
Our workshop sits on Marbach Lane in San Antonio, roughly 80 miles south of Austin down I-35, and we offer free pickup and delivery on Austin repair jobs. We collect the piece from your Hyde Park bungalow, Tarrytown home, or Lake Travis house, do the work at the shop, and bring it back finished — so you never have to wrestle a sofa down the highway. To schedule a pickup window, call (210) 251-3019 or email mark@weathersbyguild.com.
Usually yes. On a solid hardwood frame we re-tie 8-way hand springs with new jute twine, swap broken coils, replace failed sinuous springs, and re-web tired webbing — most of which lives underneath the visible upholstery and can be accessed without a full recover. Cracked rails and split arm posts are spliced with matching kiln-dried hardwood and loose joints re-pegged. The original fabric and tack lines stay where they are. Send photos to mark@weathersbyguild.com and we will tell you what is reachable without disturbing the cover.
Send a few photos — a close-up of the damage plus the full piece — to mark@weathersbyguild.com, or call (210) 251-3019. We give every Austin client a free written estimate before any work begins, and we will tell you plainly whether a targeted repair solves it or whether a full reupholstery is the smarter choice. No verbal-only quotes and no surprise charges.
Austin homeowners and collectors choose Weathersby Guild for the same reasons our reviews keep landing at 4.8 stars: we diagnose the real problem before we quote, we repair the structure rather than tear good pieces down, and every estimate is free and in writing before any work begins.
Do not assume that sagging chair or split seam means it is time for a new one. Send a few photos of the damage and we will put together a free, honest estimate — and tell you whether a targeted repair solves it. Reach Mark directly at (210) 251-3019 or mark@weathersbyguild.com, and we will arrange free pickup from your Austin home.
We proudly serve San Antonio, Austin, and surrounding communities across Central Texas.