help..How much vinyl to order?

[dstroud1987]

I am doing the interior of my boat at the moment and just dropped off my old sleeper seats to get them rebuilt. I wanted them in a specific 2 tone color with the middle being orange and the sides being white. The orange vinyl was not available through the person thats doing the seats so i told him i would order it in myself and drop it off.

So the seats are just your standard looking back to back sleeper style seats. He tells me he wanted me to order 12 yards of fabric for it.. just to do the middle (the sides are white) and i think that seems like quite a lot.

I literally know nothing about re upholstery so i thought i would check on here if anyone has redone their seats recently and have a rough idea on amount of fabric. On one hand i really dont want to short him because them im going to have to order more and the shipping is quite costly. But i am also paying $14 a yard for the color that i wanted so i dont really want to have a ton left over.. unfortunetely I am not made of money lol

anyways if someone could give me there 2 cents on the matter it would be greatly appreciated.. Or just tell me to loosen the glue on my wallet and stop being cheap lol

Thanks in advance!

 

[Bondo]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

Ayuh,.... Yer Upholster knows 'bout what he needs to do the job,.... That's what I'd order.....

If you don't Trust his judgement, ya shouldn't be doin' business with the fella,... period....

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

Yea, i know what you're saying. Its a good point. I'm working on a tight budget though and have a friend of a friend doing the work for me for a great price but hes never reupholstered seats like this before. When i brought them to him all the wood was rotten and the seats were badly ripped so it was basically a pile of old mooshy wood and scrap vinyl on top lol He isnt actually going to upholster them.. just rebuild them and try and get the measurments from the old ones by piecing them back together. He took a quick look when i asked him about ordering my own vinyl and said 12 yards pretty quick lol so it got me thinking and i thought before i order maybe i could save a yard or 2 and just tell him to be careful lol.. damn i sound cheap haha

I always double or tripple all the prices and ask around to as many people when i get anything of mine worked on by another person. I may sounds crazy but i feel like its my responsibility to make sure im not getting ripped off.. Im probably just nuts though because i always tend to over thingk things. I dont trust anyone that im handing over my hard earned cash to lol

you definitely make a good point though.

 

[Koocanusa]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

Sorry to jump in here as I'm new.....but a seamstress.
Not sure if I've got it right? Is this the cabin dinette you're doing or passenger seats up top? Either way 12 yards is extreme IMHO for what you described as a duel coloured seat. I'd explain what you want again and ask him to recalculate.

 

[25thmustang]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

Fabric (vinyl) should come 48 or 54" wide. 14 yards being 42' long gives you 168+ SF of material. This is for just the center section of two fold down seats?

I did my dinette on my 30'er, as well as some trim panels with a lot less than that (that was also pattern sensitive, so it could only go one way). I still had material left over to give to the new owner to make curtains with.

Is he giving you the remaining material to use on bolsters or panels?

 

[babbot]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

Wow that sounds like a lot of material. Sure he said yards and not feet? 12 square feet to do the middle of 2 seats sounds more realistic.

 

[JimS123]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

I do all my own upholstery work. Its easy peasy and the pros charge too much.

Measure the seats - front to back, side to side, top to bottom and add 8" for overlap. Multiply by the number of seats and lay it out to scale on a piece of paper. If you got Visio even better. Figure out which vinyl you want to buy so you know the width. Add 25% in case you make a mistake.

My guess is that a yard would do one entire seat with a TON left over. So, 2 yards for a sleeper.

I use the remnants to make bags for fishing poles, to cover a plywood base to mount a depthfinder, etc.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

I do all my own upholstery work. Its easy peasy and the pros charge too much.

As a 20 year upholsterer, I take offense to this remark. There are a LOT of differences between a DIY upholstery job and what the "pros" do. Unless you're buying marine plywood, spending the time to cut, sand, and seal it, using the authentic marine foam and true marine rated vinyl, stainless steel /monel staples, and stainless steel hardware.... then you can't make an accurate comparison to what the general user and a professional would do. I'll put a true professional job up against any DIY anyday. 99% of the time, it's apples & oranges.

Regarding the OP's question...12 yards is enough material to do an average small sofa or loveseat in a house. It would really help if you post pics of the the type of seating you're talking about. With dimensions, You can get a true yardage quote.

 

[JimS123]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

As a 20 year upholsterer, I take offense to this remark. There are a LOT of differences between a DIY upholstery job and what the "pros" do. Unless you're buying marine plywood, spending the time to cut, sand, and seal it, using the authentic marine foam and true marine rated vinyl, stainless steel /monel staples, and stainless steel hardware.... then you can't make an accurate comparison to what the general user and a professional would do. I'll put a true professional job up against any DIY anyday. 99% of the time, it's apples & oranges.

Regarding the OP's question...12 yards is enough material to do an average small sofa or loveseat in a house. It would really help if you post pics of the the type of seating you're talking about. With dimensions, You can get a true yardage quote.

My apologies if I offended you. I wasn't implying that professionals don't do a first rate job. Nor was I suggesting that the OP do it himself as a DIY. My only intent was to give the OP a way to measure the job to see if his "guy" was giving him an accurate measurement. From what he said in the first post, it surely sounded like his guy was either not a pro, or he wasn't interested enough to take the time to do it right.

As a matter of fact, the way you described how a pro would do it is exactly how I do it. I'm not a pro in that its not my profession, but you don't have to be in the business to do things right. In fact, sometimes a non-pro can do a better job (if he has the knowledge to do it right) because when you work on your own stuff and don't need to make a profit, you can take all the time in the world to ensure perfection.

 

[dstroud1987]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

I actually though about doing it myself but i know i wouldnt be as happy with the result as i would be with a pro doing it. I think i took him by surprise when i said that i didnt like the colors he had and would be ordering my own.

I had to get my order in asap because i want the seats to come back as quick as possible so i ordered the 12 yards yesterday. Like others have said, there is a lot of other things i will be able to use the vinyl to add to areas around the boat. Plus i had a really hard time getting the orange that i wanted so it cant hurt to have a little extra around.

I think when i first checked out the prices and factored in the shipping ($220 total) for the specific color i want i instantly wanted to get it down a bit. Now that its had time to sink in i dont feel as bad lol

 

[25thmustang]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

Fireman, I agree. I have only done a tiny bit of sewing/upholstery and can say its a lot of work to do it and do it right. A lot of DIY guys will simply wrap corners and staple. A pro would most likely see a top panel, to a side panel, wrap, staple and then use a trim around the unseen edge. There are DIYers that do awesome work and would rival/beat some pros, but a lot of guys DIY it and it won't rival what you pay good money for.

 

[ezmobee]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

90% of the DIY upholstery on this site looks unfortunately DIY. Some of them are actually sewn pretty well but the foaming and stretching leaves much to be desired as there's usually wrinkles. Upholstery is definitely an art.

 

[Fireman431]

Re: help..How much vinyl to order?

This is an example of some of the upholstery I was referring to. Not that a non-professional couldn't do it, just that if they did, they have either had training or they have missed their calling and need to be in the business. It's not rocket science, but it is definitely a learned and honed skill. Smooth straight stitching, top stitching, french seaming, etc are all skills that take time to develop. Smooth, tight material, matched seams, lining up stripes and designs are typically not the DIY'er motiff. And as far as the charging, there are a lot of people who will rip you off in a minute. Shop around, get prices, get referrals. I'm not sure what the rush to get your specific orange was, but my books cshow 8 shades of orange, including multiple textures and grains...and I can have it next day. Find yourself a new shop to work with.