Guide · upholstery in Melbourne
A creak is timber: a glue joint, corner block or rail that has dried out and started moving. A squeak is metal: a serpentine spring rubbing on its clip, or a clip rubbing on the rail. The bench rule: if the noise comes with a dip in the seat it is springs, if it comes without one it is the frame. Neither is fixed by a plywood board.
Last updated: October 2026
Get a free quoteCall 0425 832 619A creak and a squeak come from different materials and need different repairs. Timber creaks: a low, grinding, wooden note as a dried glue joint shifts under your weight. Metal squeaks: a short, high note as a spring rubs its clip. Tell us which you hear and we can usually name the fault before we see the lounge.
When we open a noisy sofa in our Eltham North workshop, the sound has already told us where to look. Of the noisy lounges that reach our bench, roughly two in three are timber creaks and one in three are spring squeaks, and in a 10-year-old family sofa the two often arrive together. Timber talks, metal squeals, and most fixes pushed online treat them as one problem, which is why so many fail.
| What you hear | Where it lives | What it means | Comes with a dip? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low, wooden creak or groan | Frame joints, corner blocks, rails | Dried glue, loose dowel, cracked rail | Rarely |
| Short, high squeak | Serpentine (zigzag) springs and clips | Spring moving in a dry or worn clip | Usually |
| Metallic ping or twang | Spring ends | Spring snapped or slipped its clip | Yes, one seat |
| Pop or clunk | A joint or clip letting go | Joint or clip jumping under load | Sometimes |
A creak is the frame asking for glue; a squeak is a spring asking for a clip.
A creaking lounge is almost always a frame joint that has lost its glue, not a frame about to collapse. Timber shrinks, old glue goes brittle, and the joint moves a fraction of a millimetre under load. That movement is the creak. The fix is to open the joint, clean it back to bare timber, reglue and reblock it.
The most common thing we find when we open a 10 to 15 year old creaking sofa is one of three faults: a corner block that has let go on one face (the sofa that creaks from one end only), a dowel turning in a dried hole on a rail (the creak as you lean back), or a rail split along the grain where a staple went in too close to the edge (the creak that worsens weekly).
Cheaper frames creak sooner because the joint is a staple and a smear of hot glue rather than a dowel in a glued hole. A particleboard frame is rarely worth regluing: once the fixing lets go there is nothing left to glue to, and a careful workshop will tell you that before it quotes. A hardwood frame that creaks is simply asking for its joints back. Our 30-year guarantee is on the hardwood frame only; fabric and foam wear and are not part of it. A frame that has broken rather than loosened is covered on our furniture repairs page.
A squeaking couch is a serpentine spring rubbing in its clip, nine times out of ten. Serpentine (zigzag) springs run front to back under the seat and sit in a small steel clip at each end, stapled to the rail. When the clip wears, loosens or dries, the spring end rubs steel on steel every time you sit.
The clips go, not the springs. A serpentine spring is stiff tempered wire and rarely fails on its own. The clip is thin stamped steel with a paper or plastic insert in better grades and nothing in cheaper ones.
The front rail is the second place we look: it carries the front clip of every spring and the load of everyone who perches on the edge. On a lightweight frame the rail flexes, the staples loosen, and the clip itself moves on the timber. That is the squeak that comes with a clunk. Elastic webbing (strapping) does not squeak: if a webbed seat makes noise, it is the frame.
Our 9-way hand-tied coil seats do not squeak in service, because the coils are tied with twine to each other and to the webbing, not clipped to steel. We fit serpentine springs only when a customer specifies them, and then every clip is new and every rail is checked for flex first. If the seat has dropped as well as started squeaking, the causes are on the sagging sofa page.
You can separate a frame noise from a spring noise at home in 30 seconds without tools. Take the seat cushions off, press straight down on the seat deck with both hands, then lift one front corner of the lounge 5 centimetres and set it down. Where the noise appears tells you which fault you have.
A deck that dips more than about 3 centimetres under hand pressure has a spring or webbing problem even if it is silent today.
A new lounge that starts creaking within 6 to 18 months is timber movement, not something you caused. Kiln-dried frame timber keeps taking on and losing moisture after the sofa is built. A frame assembled in a dry factory and delivered into a damp Melbourne winter living room swells, then shrinks again under summer heating, and the glue joints move.
A north-facing room with a heater running dries the frame fast through July and August; a south-facing weatherboard holds humidity. Either way a joint that was tight in the showroom is loose enough to creak. Softwood frames move most, and stapled joints with no dowel or corner block have nothing to lock them once the glue has shifted.
A creak in a lounge under 2 years old is worth raising with the retailer first, since a joint letting go that early is unlikely to be fair wear. Our view from the bench: a frame that creaks in its first winter will creak every winter until the joint is reglued.
The only safe home fix for a creaking lounge is tightening what is already a screw: leg plates, bolt-on arms and the bolts joining sectional modules. Everything else pushed online, from spray lubricant to the plywood board, either masks the noise for a week or makes the repair bigger when it reaches the bench.
Also vacuum the deck with the cushions off, since grit between clip and rail is a real source of squeak, and move the lounge off an uneven floor.
| Home fix | Creak (frame) | Squeak (springs) | Our verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tighten leg plates and bolts | Helps if that is the joint | No effect | Do it first |
| Vacuum the deck | No effect | Helps if grit is the cause | Do it |
| WD-40 or silicone spray | No effect | Quiet for days, stains foam | Avoid |
| Candle wax in the joint | Quiet for weeks, blocks future glue | No effect | Avoid |
| Plywood board under cushions | Hides it, loads the front rail | Hides it, loads the clips | Avoid |
| Zip ties on springs | No effect | New squeak, same dip | Avoid |
We have seen a plywood "sofa saver" crack a front rail in under a year. The honest line: anything that quietens a lounge without taking the cover off is treating the sound, not the fault.
Fixing a noisy lounge means getting to the joint or the clip, which means lifting the bottom cloth and usually the seat deck, not the whole cover. A frame creak is cleaned, reglued, reblocked and clamped for 24 hours. A spring squeak gets new clips on a checked rail, or a proper respring. The outer fabric usually stays on.
Most noise jobs sit between a small repair and a partial rebuild, not a full reupholster. A one-joint creak or a run of clips is a small job. A flexing front rail with worn clips and a dropped deck is a seat rebuild, and the sensible moment to refoam while the deck is open. It becomes a full recover only when the frame has several failed joints and the fabric is tired as well. Job size is driven by count and access: how many joints or clips, and whether the deck must come off. A frame-only repair is quick once the glue has cured; anything needing new fabric waits on fabric lead time.
A squeaking recliner is a separate inspection of pivots and mechanism, covered on the recliner page. Workshop visits are welcome; it is a residential address in Eltham North, so call first.
Good to know
A creak on sitting is a timber joint in the frame moving under your weight: a corner block that has let go, a dowel turning in a dried glue hole, or a rail split near a staple. The glue has gone brittle and the joint shifts a fraction of a millimetre each time you sit. It is rarely a sign the frame is failing. It is fixed by opening the joint, regluing on bare timber and reblocking. Tightening screws helps only when the noise is a leg plate or bolt.
Serpentine springs squeak because the steel spring end is rubbing in a worn or dry clip at the rail, or because the clip itself has worked loose on the timber. The spring is rarely the problem; the clips go first. Vacuuming grit from the deck is the only home step worth taking. Spray lubricants quieten it for days and stain the foam. The lasting fix is new clips on a rail that has been checked for flex, or a proper respring if the springs are tired.
Usually not. A creak means a joint is moving, not that it has broken. Hardwood frames can creak for years at one corner block without any structural risk. The warning signs that it is more than noise are a creak that is getting sharper week by week, a front rail you can feel flexing under your palm, a seat that has dropped on one side, or a visible crack. Those point to a split rail or multiple failed joints and are worth having looked at before the sag arrives.
New sofas creak in their first 6 to 18 months because frame timber keeps moving after it leaves the factory. A frame built dry and delivered into a humid winter room swells, then shrinks through summer with the heater on, and stapled joints without dowels or corner blocks loosen with the movement. Lighter softwood frames do it most. Raise it with the retailer while the piece is young; a tightened screw from a technician treats the symptom, and the joint will need regluing to stop for good.
A pop or clunk is a joint or clip jumping, not rubbing. A corner block or dowel joint that has fully let go moves and locks again as weight comes on, which pops. A spring clip that has loosened on the front rail clunks as the spring drops into the slack and catches. A single loud pop followed by a soft spot in one seat usually means a spring has slipped or snapped its clip. All are bench repairs; never hide a popping rail under a plywood board.
No. Of the squeaking recliners that come through our Eltham North workshop, around four in five are dry pivot pins and bushes or loose back-to-base bolts, not a failed mechanism. Cleaning and lubricating the pivots and tightening the frame bolts cures those. A mechanism needs replacing when it grinds, locks unevenly, has a bent link or a stripped ratchet, or when an electric unit's actuator has failed. A squeak is the recliner asking for oil, not a new mechanism.
Not for long, and both make the real repair harder. WD-40 or silicone spray on springs runs onto the webbing and foam, attracts dust and evaporates within weeks while the worn clip stays worn. Candle wax rubbed into a creaking timber joint quietens it for a while and then prevents fresh glue from bonding to that joint when it is properly repaired. The only home fixes we recommend are tightening visible bolts and leg plates and vacuuming grit from the seat deck.
Timber takes on moisture in a humid winter room and gives it up again under heating, so the frame changes dimension through the season and any joint that has lost its glue moves more. The creak is often loudest in the first cold weeks of the year and in rooms where a heater runs beside the lounge. A joint that creaks in winter and goes quiet in summer is still a loose joint; it will do the same every year until it is opened, cleaned and reglued on bare timber.
A dining chair creaks on lean-back because the joints between the back legs and the seat rails are moving. Those two joints take all the leverage of a leaning body, and once the glue dries and the dowel or tenon loosens, the chair talks every time. It is the first stage of a wobbly chair. The repair is to knock the joints apart, clean off the old glue and reglue them with the chair clamped square. Injected glue over the old glue does not hold.
It gets worse, because a sofa bed mechanism is a steel frame of hinge pins and bushes that wear and dry out with every fold. The squeak starts at one pivot and spreads as the loose pin lets the frame rack. Ask any workshop to unbolt the mechanism, clean and lubricate the pivots with a dry lubricant that does not reach the mattress, straighten bent links and replace loose rivets with bolts. A cracked link or sheared pivot means replacement, and we confirm which path applies when we quote.
Usually a small to medium job, because the outer fabric stays on. A single creaking joint or a run of worn clips is reached by lifting the dust cover and seat deck, and it is reglued or reclipped. It grows to a seat rebuild when the front rail flexes and needs reinforcing or the springs need replacing, which is also the sensible moment to refoam. It becomes a full recover only when the frame has several failed joints and the fabric is already tired.
One-seat noise means a local fault: the corner block at that end has let go, the leg plate under that corner is loose, or the clips under that seat have worn while the rest are sound. On a three-seater the end seats go first because they carry the arm and the leg as well as a sitter. A one-seat squeak that comes with a dip is a run of clips or a slipped spring under that seat alone, and it is one of the smaller repairs we do.
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