How to take the back off a recliner. For one reason or another, there are times you might need to remove a recliner’s back and reinstall it. Some recliners are part of sofas while others come as standalone chairs.
Most reclining chairs and sofas have an option to remove the back to make it easier to lift, move, and flip around the furniture.
While the actual act of removing and reinstalling may be pretty much the same across the board, slight differences can exist based on various manufacturers’ models.
Recliners who have thumbscrews want you to loosen them first before proceeding with any other steps. One chair we tested required that all four legs were pushed in at all times during disassembly or reassembly throughout those procedures themselves.
How to take the back off a recliner
For moving a recliner with a back, it is essential to remove the back completely. This will make the recliner easier to move without any scratches or marks.
In addition, you can move it to another location safely. Additionally, we should measure the size of the recliner so that we can get an idea about that whether it can fit in the door or not.
Taking measurements is also helpful for moving your new recliner from one place to another conveniently.
locking levers recliner
If your sofa has a separate back cushion, try to figure out whether or not it can be folded down. Lots of them do topple over as in most cases the bottom portions of them are pretty loose and it isn’t that hard to pull the bottom portions upward.
Locate the velcro strip and unfasten it or you can just locate the snap securing your fabric upholstery. Then lift up the cushioning, but be sure to take notice of any locking levers noted on each side like where the back meets up with the seating at each end of your couch (you want to check behind these areas if it doesn’t come equipped with a center console).
If this doesn’t work and your sofa comes with a center console, locate any locking levers between them and your seats.
Most sofas have levers underneath the seating cushion. Using your finger or a flat head screwdriver, push the first lever up and lift the seating cushion off its housing. Repeat this process for each lever.
Once all of the levers are raised, you can remove the seat cushions from their housing by lifting them and putting them aside. If there is a partition between two seats, you’ll need to lift each of these sections separately, but there are handles on either side. ​
Bolted-bar lazy-boy recliner
Take your sofa over to the floor. Locate and undo the bolts that connect the sofa’s base to its frame. If there are no bolts, check around the base for any screws or rivets.
With a drill-driver and an electric screwdriver bit unscrew each one until you has successfully removed them all.
Undo the last remaining bolt with help from somebody who can hold or steady the sofa while you’re at it because sometimes when you’re unscrewing something small they want to roll off or drop it on the floor.
Recliner with locking tabs
For those sofas whose back has locking tables, the tabs snap into place automatically when the back is slid on. The easiest way to release the tabs is by using a flat screwdriver. It is not advisable that you use your hands.
If after sliding it on, the back is still loose, detach the fasteners of the back brackets and tighten them. If it is still loose after you have done this, use a screwdriver to ensure the tab is seated properly in its slot after the back has been installed.
To remove the back of a recliner with locking tabs, firmly grasp and press in a forward direction as you pull on one side of a sofa’s cushions naturally causing an unlocking mechanism for most sofas to unfold automatically.
Then, lift up and off that half of the sofa’s back if however there are other attachments holding it down like seat bolts then go ahead and loosen those first before lifting off! You have to gently rock it back and forth to help slide it off.
The reinstallation
Uninstalling the back of a sofa is a reverse of the process for installing the furniture, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. To begin with, take photos as you disassemble each component of your living room corner such as the sofa frame, base, and other relevant components.
This way you can refer to these at a later date when reassembling your new addition. When you unpack the sofa back or corner piece please note which areas are visibly damaged and fix them prior to reassembling (e.g., if any holes have been punctured in the top/bottom).
Once you’ve completed repairing any damage to the sides of your furniture piece you can then move on to putting it all back together again.
In general, it’s much easier for two people to do this than one person alone because you will need to ensure that alignments are perfect before securing the pair together.
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