You might know this as restaurant booth repair. Same work, either name. We recover restaurant booths, banquettes and bar seating without replacing the frames underneath. The frame is usually the expensive part and it is usually fine, so recovering costs far less than buying new seating and takes a fraction of the time.
Old vinyl, staples, and compressed foam come off the plywood substrate so the shop can see rot, delamination, and broken springs before anything new goes on.
High-density polyurethane cut to the original profile and wrapped in dacron. Seat foam and back foam are usually different densities, and using one for both is a corner cut.
Contract vinyl rated for abrasion and tested for cleanability, not residential upholstery goods. Health inspectors care that the seating surface is non-porous and can be wiped down.
Channel stitching, buttoned tufting, and contrast welt cords all get rebuilt to match. Tufting adds labor hours and traps crumbs, which matters more in a diner than a steakhouse.
Loose corner blocks, cracked plywood decks, and broken sinuous springs get fixed while the panel is open. Skipping this puts new vinyl over a frame that will keep flexing.
Panels go back on the frames, bolts torqued, and the gap between booth and wall closed so crumbs and grease stop collecting where a mop cannot reach.
If you are seeing any of this, call us before it gets more expensive.
| What you are seeing | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Vinyl split along the front seat edge only | Normal wear point; recover it, the frame is probably fine |
| Seat sinks and does not spring back | Foam is dead or a spring broke; both mean opening the panel |
| Soft or spongy spot on the seat deck | Water got under the vinyl; plywood likely needs replacing |
| Booth rocks when someone slides in | Frame or floor-anchor problem, not an upholstery problem |
Someone counts booths, measures seat and back panels, checks how the frames are anchored, and pulls a staple or two to see what the substrate underneath actually looks like.
You pick from contract vinyl books and check the abrasion rating and cleanability spec. The shop calculates yardage with an allowance for pattern repeat and waste.
Panels come off after close. On most commercial booths the frames stay anchored to the floor and only the upholstered sections leave, so the dining room stays walkable.
Old material stripped, foam replaced, frames repaired, new vinyl stretched and stapled on a bench. Bench work is faster, cleaner, and tighter than working around tables in a dining room.
Panels go back, hardware tightened, seams checked for pucker. Sit in every booth before you sign, because a soft corner or a loose seam shows up in week one otherwise.