We get this question quite often and the truth is, you don’t need a salesman or on-site pew consultant to tell you what you need – you can determine for yourself if you need to replace your church pews or just “freshen it up” a bit with pew reupholstering!
First, inspect your pews and pulpit seating AS a member of your congregation or as the pastor (respectively). Take notice of a few things:
- Is the seat failing?
- When you sit down, are you making contact with the hard surface below?
- Do you feel significant inconsistencies in the pew padding?
- Are you hearing cracking or stresses in the wood?
- Are the seats rocking every time someone sits, stands or fidgets?
- Are there cracks on the legs that may or may not eventually completely falter and cause the pew to collapse? This one is an extreme example, but you can’t be too careful with guest safety sometimes.
At the end of the day, most church furniture issues can be resolved with upgrades, church pew upholstery, restorations or repairs. Going with these options will save you money more often than not when compared to purchasing an entirely new seating system.
We can help you do the math!
Pew Repairs and Upgrades
Let’s say you decide, “Ok, I don’t want to buy new church furniture. What can we do instead to address the deficiencies in what I already own?”
Well, let’s begin with the wood itself. When the fabric and foam are removed and the seat frame is exposed, plywood can be added for additional support. This fix can add many years to the life of church seating.
If you find that your pew legs are cracking or in danger or falling apart in some way, it is important that you contract a company that will make replacement legs for you either on-site or prior to arriving to do the job. Many companies will outsource this service causing the completion of the job to be delayed by weeks in some cases. Be careful and make sure that the company you hire GUARANTEES the entire job will be done on location! Otherwise, you can expect significant delays.
Reupholstery of existing pews with new high density foam is the most economical way to upgrade the beauty of your sanctuary seating for about half the cost of new pews with no disruption of services. One of the things our customers love is that we do a sample as soon as we arrive!
Whether you hire us or not, we want to help. Call or contact McPhail Church Services with your questions or concerns and we’ll give you some helpful tips on how to deal with your service providers and on how to cross-check the information they give you. And if we feel we can give you a better deal, we’d love the opportunity to give you a quote as well.
Thank you and good luck!