If you own a sectional couch, then you know that one of the most annoying things that can happen is when your sofa begins to separate. When a sectional sofa separates, it can become uncomfortable and, in some cases, unusable. For that reason, you should be prepared with a reliable way to keep your sectional sofa together.
In this article, we will introduce you to a few of the best ways to keep your sectional together. Along the way, we will help you understand what causes a separated sectional as well as some other related issues. Read on to find the best way for you to keep your sectional sofa in one piece.
A Few Ways to Keep a Sectional Together
There are numerous ways that you can go about securing your sectional sofa in place. The method that will work best will depend on the details of your specific scenario. To help you decide your best course of action, we will explore these means of keeping a sectional sofa together:
- Checking existing connection hardware
- Ensuring legs don’t slide on the floor
- Informal sectional connections
- Hardware to keep your sectional secure
The next few sections will explain how each of those approaches works. After reading through them, you should have no problem developing a course of action to keep your sectional sofa together.
Evaluate Built-In Hardware
Before you use any other means of fixing your sectional, you should take a look at any existing connection pieces. Most sectional sofas should come with a set of connecting hardware pieces. These pieces have male and female components that connect to each other.
At times, the reason that your sectional is coming apart is that the existing hardware is either disconnected or broken. If your pieces have become disconnected, all you will need to do is reconnect them. Find a friend to help you move the pieces back into place, and you should be all set.
In other instances, your sectional hardware may be broken or may have come loose. In the latter case, tightening the connections should be an easy DIY project. However, if your connecting pieces are truly broken, you’ll need to find a replacement. Contacting your sofa manufacturer is a great place to start.
It can also be the case that your sectional sofa’s connecting pieces simply do not work well even if they are not damaged. If that happens to you, the next few tips are what you should consider using.
Keep the Legs in Place
Sometimes, the reason that your sectional is not staying together relates to the way the legs interact with the floor below. If there is insufficient friction between the legs and the floor, it is likely that the sectional will move when a person sits on it. Here are three approaches you can use if this is the cause of your sectional sofa separation:
- Keep your floor clean
- Use rubber pads
- Change the floor surface material (Adding an Area Rug)
Each of those tasks addresses a different way that you sectional can slide. At times, you may need to use more than one of those tips to keep your sectional sofa still. Now, let’s take a closer look at how each of these resolutions will play out.
Keep Your Floor Clean
As we already mentioned, a lack of friction can cause the legs of your sectional to slide. At times, the floor on which your sectional sofa sits is the reason for that lack of friction. This is especially likely if you have not dusted in a while.
An accumulation of dust can cause your floor to be a bit more slippery than it normally would be. While cleaning alone won’t often fix the problem, it is a simple way to start addressing your sliding sectional.
Use Rubber Pads
When it comes to insufficient friction, your floor can be the culprit, but so can your sectional sofa legs. Sometimes, the material that comprises the legs of your sofa is too slick and unable to grip the floor properly.
If you have dusted your floor and you notice your sectional sofa still separates, try checking the legs. If you notice they are failing to grip the floor, you’ll need to attach a better material to the bottom of each leg.
One of the easiest ways you can do this is by attaching a simple rubber pad to the bottom of your sectional sofa’s legs. Alternatively, there are some specialty furniture grippers that will serve the same role. Those grippers will not only help keep your sectional from sliding, but they can also protect the integrity of your floors by reducing scratch marks.
Change the Floor Surface Material
One of the ways you can resolve the issue of a sliding sectional couch is by changing the floor material entirely. Materials like hardwood or linoleum can be exceptionally smooth. That makes it more likely that your sectional sofa will fail to make a strong grip. Rugs, on the other hand, tend to have a lot more friction.
But don’t worry. You won’t need to re-do your entire flooring surface to use this method. Instead, you can simply drop an area rug below your sectional sofa. The textured surface of the rug will supply more friction than a smooth surface, which could potentially resolve your sectional sofa separation issues.
Connect Sectional Pieces with Zip Ties
If you tried working through all of the solutions related to insufficient floor friction, it is time to move on to a more impactful approach. Occasionally, your sectional sofa will need a stronger physical connection between each section. Fortunately, you do not need to break the bank to form that strong connection. Instead, you can try using a typical zip tie. Here are the steps you can follow to do so:
- Identify two sections that are moving apart from one another
- Wrap one zip tie around a leg from each of the two sectional sofa section
- Tighten the zip tie, so the two sections are connected
- Repeat as needed on front and back legs
- Repeat as needed for other separated sections
This solution may not be the most elegant, but it is inexpensive and highly effective. After forming the connection using the zip ties, you should work to hide the presence of the zip ties. Often, cutting off the excess will do the trick. You should also consider using a zip tie that has a neutral color that does not interfere with the appearance of your couch or living space.
Use Hardware for a Secure Grip
If all else fails, you may need to purchase additional hardware to connect your sectional sofa. After finding the correct pieces, you will then need to spend some time connecting them to your sectional sofa. This approach is the most involved and will likely cost you more time and money than any of the other fixes that we have presented. On the plus side, using this approach will make the most secure connection.
Since attaching hardware to your sectional sofa can be a tough task, we have decided to list all of the steps you will need to take to complete this process. Here are the general steps that you should follow to give your sectional sofa the greatest connection using new hardware:
- Find a suitable sectional sofa clamp/bracket
- Determine how many clamps/brackets you need
- Invert your sectional sofa
- Find the best place to attach your hardware
- Drill the hardware into place
While that list gives you a general overview, it does not give you the full details of what it will take to use hardware to keep a sectional sofa together. For that information, read on in the following sections that will break down each step.
Find a Suitable Sectional Sofa Clamp/Bracket
Your first step in this process is to find a proper piece of hardware that will work well for your sectional sofa. To your benefit, there are several options that you can use to achieve this. A quick search online will reveal that there are many clamps and brackets that are made for this purpose. Find one that is sturdy and relatively easy to use. Then, move on to your next step.
Determine How Many Clamps/Brackets You Need
After finding the correct clamp or bracket for your couch, you need to figure out how many to purchase. While you may have a single section that moves more than the others, it is often a good idea to buy one piece of hardware for each gap in your sectional.
In other words, the number of clamps that you buy should be one less than the total number of sectional pieces you have. For example, if your sectional sofa has three sections, you should buy two clamps. If your sectional sofa has four sections, you should buy three clamps and so on.
Putting in the work to connect all pieces of your sectional may seem like unnecessary work if you only have one problem spot. However, connecting all parts of your sectional will make for greater overall strength and may prevent separation problems in the future.
The only downside is that it will be more difficult to disassemble your sectional later on if you need to move or you need to change out your furniture. But if you plan to have your sectional in the same place for a while, a hardware connection for all pieces is a great option.
Invert Your Sectional Sofa
Now that you have not only found the best pieces of hardware but also determined how many pieces you need, it is time to get to some of the most important steps in this process. Before you can move on to forming a strong connection between sectional sofa pieces, you should flip your sofa upside down.
Inverting your sectional sofa will give you easier access to the points at which you will connect your hardware. For the sake of safety, you should consider having a friend help you to flip your sectional sofa. Some sectional sofas are heavier than they appear, meaning that lifting them on your own could lead to an injury.
Find the Best Place to Attach Your Hardware
With your sectional sofa inverted, you now have a clear view of the underside of your sectional pieces. This view will allow you to select the best place for you to connect your hardware. Most often, your couch will have some sort of wooden frame that keeps it together. This frame is the primary structural element of your sectional sofa and is the ideal place for you to connect your hardware.
For each gap in your sectional, line up the two sectional sofa pieces on either side. Then make a mark on the frames of each sectional sofa piece. These marks are the locations where you will later drill the hardware into place. The marks should be adjacent to one another so that the hardware can easily bridge the gap between the pieces.
Take your time at this stage to find the ideal location for your drill hole. As you might expect, it is better to get your drilling right on the first try, as multiple drill holes could begin to compromise the structure of your sectional sofa’s frame.
Drill the Hardware into Place
After making all the marks you need on the frames of your sectional sofa piece, it is time to drill your hardware into place. Most sectional hardware clamps will have a hole on either side that is ready to receive a screw and guide it into your sectional sofa’s frame. To allow that to happen, use these steps:
- Align your clam with the marks you made earlier to ensure proper fit
- Create a starter hole on each mark using a power drill
- Use your power drill to drive the screws through the clamp hole and into the frame
Once you have screwed your clamp into place on both sectional pieces, you can do the same for each of the other sectional gaps you have. Before you flip your sectional back into its upright position, you’ll want to take a final look at your clamps.
At this stage, you should make sure that the clamps are secure. You should also notice if the hardware you bought has any additional attaching pieces. Sometimes, sectional sofa clamps will come with a latch or fastener that will secure the connection.
Sectional Separation FAQs
By now, you can see that sectional sofa separation can be a surprisingly complex matter. For that reason, many people have a lot of questions about the topic. Below you can find answers to some of the most common ones.
Why Do Sectional Sofas Separate?
The main reason that sectional sofas separate is so that you have the freedom to move and rearrange your sectional as you see fit. This flexibility is what allows your sectional to work in more than one furniture arrangement. However, a sectional sofa that separates when you don’t want it to can be a bothersome issue. The main reasons why this will occur are:
- Insufficient friction between the floor and the sectional sofa legs
- Loose hardware connection
- Broken hardware
Regardless of the reason why your sectional sofa is coming apart, you need to find a way to fix the issue. If you follow the fixes that we shared with your earlier in this article, you should have no issue keeping your sectional sofa in place.
Can All Sectionals be Separated?
Nearly all sectionals can be separated. However, the ease with which you can separate a sectional depends on the type of sectional that you have. For instance, some sectionals do not have a distinct physical connection between pieces. These sectionals are very easy to move around by my come apart when you don’t intend them to.
Other types of sectionals rely on hardware to form their connection. These sectionals are much more sturdy, but they will take much longer to rearrange. Each time your want to move one of the sections, you will need to take out your tool kit to loosen the hardware then reconnect it to the new location.
What is the Best Way to Rearrange Sectional Pieces?
The main benefit of a sectional sofa is that you can rearrange the pieces somewhat easily. This ability lets you test different layouts for your furniture to see what works best. However, moving any sort of furniture can be challenging, and the same is true for sectionals. That is why it is important to find the easiest way to rearrange your sectional pieces.
Some sectionals will have handles on the bottom that make it easier for you to lift and slide them. For other sectionals, you may need to lift one end and then slide a dolly underneath to roll your sectional piece.
Conclusion
A sectional sofa that won’t stay together is an issue that no one wants to deal with. But if this happens to your couch, you need to know how you can fix the problem. Remember to use the tips in this article to help you restore the comfort of your sectional sofa and keep its sections together for good.