Furniture repair may seem out of questions for some people. Most of the time, we tend to buy new things, because something broke rather than fixing it ourselves first. For those that want to throw away money, that’s their prerogative.
However, we enjoy fixing furniture and wanted to share this in-depth guide on how to fix broken wood furniture. Besides, who doesn’t love a great DIY project.
So whether you have a traditional armoire, an antique chair or a farm-house stye dining table that you are looking to repair, this how to guide is for you. More specifically, we’ll be looking at:
Furniture Repair Tools
We’ll be reviewing all tools we need to get the work done.
Let’s start with the basics of furniture repair and the tools we need. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to buy lots of tools that you may not need often. Don’t be scared by complexity of the work. Whether you’re starting out or have experience with fixing broken furniture, the tools below are a great place to start.
Furniture Repair Tools
Hide Glue
One of the most important tools or products that you’ll need when looking at fixing wood furniture is hide glue. The adhesive used will make a large difference when repairing your furniture so don’t go cheap here.
Hide glue is made from the skins of animals. For some it may sound unpleasant but this is the best adhesive that you can buy and use for fixing your furniture.
The advantage of using hide glue is that it dissolves when hot water is applied to it. A lot of furniture glues on the market just seals the surface of the wood so no other glue can be used on top of it. If you need to repair your furniture piece again, good luck taking that apart.
Another benefit of the hide glue is its strength. This type of furniture glue falls in the middle of not too strong, not too weak. Don’t go for the strongest glue available claims that you see on the bottles in the stores.
Hide glue also acts as a lubricant. It truly is the best glue for repairing furniture joints. No smearing of generic glue and no need for a sledge to get it together. This glue also allows for excellent sanding if needed later.
The best option on the market is Titebond Liquid Hide Glue. You can get this from Amazon for about $13, so not a large investment.
Glue Brush
You can get any water base brush here. No need to spend a lot of money on fancy brushes. You can get these are your local Dollar Store or Craft Store. If you are looking at repairing joints and veneer a 3/8″ brush will do well.
Clamps
We did a window repair recently and used an old rusty clamp. Don’t do this. We learned. So we’re saving you the trouble here! Get good quality clamps that are clean and sturdy.
By sturdy we don’t mean heavy. We mean quality. You need to get the right amount of pressure, have proper pads in place so you don’t leave marks on your furniture when tightening and are light.
Depending on your furniture repair needs, you can get about 4 to 6 clamps that are 36″. Other lengths are handy to have but the 36″ clamps should cover most of the work around the house.
The top clamps bars that you should consider buying are:
- Irwin Quick -Grip Mini Bar Clamps (comes in a package of 4)
- Jorgensen Clamps
- Shop Fox, 36 inch Aluminum Bar Clamps
Epoxy Syringe
An epoxy syringe is necessary for those tight joints that you need to get into. A small syringe is fine, you don’t need to get anything fancy.
A 24oz Dead Blow Mallet
There are a variety of mallets for repairing wood furniture. Again, you don’t need anything too fancy here. Just pick a mallet that is sturdy and comfortable to use. Some mallets have sand where others have lead shot in the head that helps give the furniture a directed thump when needed. These are usually around $20 but shop around for deals.
Sandpaper, Go for 80 Grit
Pick up some 80 grit sandpaper on your local hardware store. You’ll be using this to clean up any glue that spilled over from the first application. These run you about $10 or less for a pack.
Nails – Avoid
Biggest mistake is using nails. Don’t. Nails don’t stabilize joints and when you need to disassemble a joint, it makes it almost impossible. Removing nails can mark the surface of the wood and you can end up with major damage no matter how careful you are.
Learning About Different Furniture Joints
Mainly there are three joints that furniture manufacturers use. These are:
The Dowel Join
One of the popular furniture joints is the Dowel Joint. This joint speeds up the manufacturing process. It also costs less to have a Dowel joint when compared to the traditional mortise and tenon joints which we’ll explain below. This join is not that durable which can make furniture repair more of a challenge.
The Mortise and Tenon Joint
Traditionally used in older furniture, also known as antiques, this type of furniture joint has a hole (mortise) and a corresponding tenon which fits tightly in. Most of these joints are rectangular or circular in nature. The Mortise and Tenon Joints are present in chairs, tables or drawers.
The Dovetail Furniture Joint
By far the strongest furniture joint, the Dovetail Joint joins two boards at 90 degrees to each other. The best feature of this joint is that, it acts as a mechanical lock.Usually used in antique drawers, this type of joint is very durable.
Furniture Repair – How to Repair Most Common Furniture Issues
Let’s look at some common furniture repairs and how we can fix these ourselves.
How to Fix Loose Chairs
This is the most common repair that most of us will face, a loose chair. Chairs are getting loose because there’s a lot of pressure and use put on them. Over year, these chairs are sometimes giving up.
Whether there’s a creak in the chair or other issues, let’s look at this in more details.
If the chair has more than a loose joint is best to dissemble all joints and re-glue. It’s best to examine the join carefully. Look for nails. As you recall above, we don’t recommend using nails to fix broken chairs or joints. After you have inspected the joints and you found nails, make sure that you use a nail-set to drive the nails all the way out. Make sure that you use your time and get a good grip. You don’t want to do any damage.
After all joints are dissembled, label them accordingly. You can use any painter tape that you like and put a letter or a number on both the mortise and tenon. Once you label all joints you can use the clamps we recommended to apply pressure. Ensure that there’s pressure on both side equally. If the joints are not spreading out, you can use the mallet to tap it.
If this still doesn’t work, you can use the epoxy syringe and get some hot water into the joint to loosen up the glue. Just clean the water after. You should allow the water to sit in for a while, usually a few minutes. At this time, the glue should loosen up and the spread should be made possible. If any joint doesn’t loosen up, just leave it in place.
After all the furniture pieces are dissembled, use your 80 grit sandpaper and sand gently to get the glue out. Make sure that you don’t remove the wood. If you remove wood, the joint will be too loose which will require more glue to fix.
Once you clean up every furniture joint, do a dry clamp test. This will show you any problems with refitting the tenons back and you can address it before you apply any hide glue. Once you’re confident that you got it all in OK, dissemble the joints and start glueing.
The liquid hide glue gives you about 30 minutes before it starts to set in. Apply glue to both the tenon and mortise joint. You can spread it around if needed. Assemble the entire chair and clamp it with firm pressure but don’t go overboard here, use just enough pressure.
How to Fix Stuck Drawers
We all have a favourite drawer however, that drawer may not work as well as we want to. So if your drawer always gets stuck, how do we fix that? If the drawer is hard to pull out or push in, the first thing we need to examine the drawer sides and rollers.
If there’s a worn drawer side bottom, this can be replaced with new wood and be reshaped with the shape that is damaged. This is no easy task but you can take your time and do it right.
Another tip that can fix your broken drawer is to use wax on both drawers sides and runners. Replacing the ballbearings on each drawer is something that you may want to consider. Again, if a piece of wood is missing either from the sides of the drawer or hanging from the bottom, just replace that with new wood.
How to Fix Loose Veneer on Furniture
Overtime veneer can be susceptible to damage. After years of use, glue sometimes just fails. If this happens, you have veneer pieces pop out from your favourite furniture pieces. Make sure you save every piece of veneer when this happens. If you don’t have all the pieces in place, you’ll need to cut some new veneer pieces.
Test to see what type of glue the original furniture manufacturer used. Ideally, you’ll want to be hide glue as this is the best to work with. Just place some warm water on the area and let it sit for 20 minutes. Check to see if the surface is sticky and if so, that’s good news as this is hide glue. If not, you’ll need to use an exact knife to remove the glue off the surface. Just make sure that you don’t get too deep into the wood.
Once the spot is clean, use your hide glue on the furniture and the back of the veneer piece that came off. Put the veneer pieces in place. Use a light clamp or painters tape to keep the veneer in place. Leave this overnight and wipe any excess glue with water.
Bonus Tips and Tricks on Furniture Repair
Furniture Refinishing
This is a must read to further your knowledge on Furniture Refinishing Tips and Tricks . From furniture stripping, sanding and painting, we cover it all here.
Furniture Painting
All you need to know about Painting Pine Furniture. A complete guide for painting wood furniture.
Picking Up the Right Paint For Your Wood Furniture
Learn how to Pick the Best Paint for Your Furniture and more tips here.
We covered a lot of ground and knowledge on furniture repair here. From tools to variety of furniture joints and fixing the common furniture problems, we hope that you find it all useful.
Most of all, at home furniture repairs do not need to be costly or difficult. If you take your time and have the proper tools on hand, you should be able to repair any furniture piece in your house.
Please comment below any tips and tricks that have helped you with fixing the common furniture problems around the house. Also, what tools and methods did you use. Ideally, if you have a final cost of the DIY project, that will be great so that others may know the true cost of furniture repair in your area.