Guide · upholstery in Melbourne
Most pet damage is local, so the honest fix is a new panel, a rebuilt arm or one remade cushion, not a whole recover. Clawed fabric is replaced, never patched; a discontinued fabric is matched across both arms. Urine is the exception: it sits in the foam and often the frame, no cleaner reaches it, and that core goes in the bin. If the puppy is still chewing, wait.
Last updated: October 2026
Get a free quoteCall 0425 832 619Four kinds of pet damage come through our workshop: chewed corners and arms, clawed fabric, torn cushion undersides with the foam pulled out, and urine. The first three are local and are fixed by replacing the damaged part. Urine is the only one that spreads past what you can see.
Owners usually overestimate pet damage because it sits at eye level on the corner you pass twenty times a day. When we open the piece, the frame, the springs and ten of the dozen or so panels on a 3-seater are untouched. Our rule from the bench: fix the part the animal touched, leave the rest alone.
| Damage | What is actually wrong | Local or whole-piece | The fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chewed corner or arm | Fabric, padding and sometimes the timber corner are gone | Local, 1 to 3 panels | Rebuild the corner, new panels sewn to match |
| Clawed fabric | Loops pulled, weave opened, usually on arm fronts and the back edge | Local, often 2 panels | Replace the clawed panels, keep the rest |
| Torn cushion underside | Dust cover or ticking ripped, foam torn out | Local, one cushion | New foam core, new cover underside or full cushion cover |
| Urine | In the foam, the polyester wadding (Dacron), the hessian and the timber | Spreads, one seat to the whole base | Bin the foam, strip the padding, treat the timber, rebuild |
The last column matters because most online advice answers "my pet destroyed my sofa" with a shrug or a pitch for a new lounge. Most pet-damage jobs we quote are one cushion or one arm, and the owner was ready to recover the lot.
A chewed corner is rebuilt in place: the torn panels come off, the padding is built back up, the timber corner is repaired if teeth reached it, and new panels are sewn and fitted over the existing frame. The rest of the cover stays. On most lounges that is one outside-arm panel and one front border, or an arm facing.
A dog goes for the corner because it sticks out and because the padding under it is soft. What we find when we open a chewed corner is a fist-sized hole in the fabric, a bigger hole in the polyester wadding and foam behind it, and sometimes tooth marks in the timber. Pine corners chew faster than hardwood ones, and take more rebuilding.
The rebuild strips the damaged panels back to their seams, not to the frame, blocks or reshapes any chewed timber, rebuilds the arm pad in Dunlop HR35 foam and polyester wadding to the profile of the untouched arm, and fits new panels with the seams landing where the originals were.
A chewed arm cap and inside arm is typically three panels, and the matching arm on the other end is left alone if the fabric matches. If it cannot be matched, both arms are done so they pair, which is still far short of a recover. The quote names the size of the job and what would push it bigger: a chewed frame rail, foam gone deep into the seat deck, or fabric that cannot be found.
The one-liner we give every chewed-corner enquiry: the dog ate a corner, not a couch.
Cat-scratched fabric cannot be repaired, because a claw does not cut the fabric, it pulls the yarn out of the weave, and a pulled loop has nowhere to go back to. The clawed panel is replaced. A cat claws the same 30 to 40 centimetres of arm front and back edge every day.
People try to fix pulled loops with scissors, glue and a lighter, and each one makes the next pull easier: trimmed loops leave a bald patch the cat reads as a scratching post, and glue stiffens the weave until it cracks. Any fix that leaves the original yarn in place leaves the cat's grip in place.
What we replace: the arm fronts and the outside back edge, where a cat stands up to stretch. What stays: the seats, backs, inside arms and base, which is most of the fabric on the lounge. A clawed 3-seater in a loop-weave that is otherwise sound is usually a two to four panel job.
On the new panels, we steer owners toward a tight, flat weave or a vinyl, where there is no loop to hook, at 25,000 Martindale minimum for a family lounge and 30,000 or more with large dogs; the pet-friendly fabric guide covers the choice. Leather is a different conversation: leather is sold by the whole hide, around 5 square metres, so a two-panel leather repair can mean buying a full hide, which is why a small cat repair often lands on vinyl.
What we tell every cat owner: you cannot mend a pulled loop, you can only stop giving the cat loops to pull.
A cushion with the underside torn open and the foam pulled out is fixed with a new foam core and a new cushion underside. The sofa stays home. Only the cushion comes in. A single remade seat cushion in Dunlop HR35 outlasts the original, because most factory cushions were never HR foam to begin with.
Dogs do this when the cushion is on the floor or once they learn that the mesh dust cover underneath tears easily. Exposed foam shreds, and a shredded core cannot be glued back into anything that sits level; we have never seen a stuffing-back-in repair hold for more than a few weeks. The new core is cut in Dunlop HR35, 200 firm for a seat or 165 medium for a lower, softer lounge, about 2 centimetres over the cover size each way so the cover fills out, then wrapped in polyester wadding under a new underside panel.
Because the new core is the only HR35 cushion on the lounge, it will sit a little firmer than its neighbours for the first months. If the other cushions are going soft anyway, the honest call is to re-core the lot at once so the seat is level; the cushion refoaming page explains the signs. The Dunlop foam carries its own 10-year warranty. Chewed foam is not repaired, it is replaced, and good foam is the cheap part of a cushion.
Pet urine cannot be cleaned out of a sofa, because it soaks through the fabric in seconds and into the foam, the polyester wadding and the hessian beneath, where no surface cleaner reaches. The foam core is binned, the padding under it is stripped, and the timber is dealt with before anything new goes in.
Enzyme sprays and steam treat the top centimetre of a 10 centimetre cushion. The liquid runs to the bottom of the foam, into the webbing or spring hessian, then along the timber rail, and open-cell foam breathes it back out on every warm or humid Melbourne day. So a urine job replaces the foam core and wadding of every affected cushion, the deck padding if the liquid reached it, and any stained webbing or hessian, which on a cat-marked lounge is usual.
The timber is the part to ask about. A careful workshop will dry the rail, scrub it with an enzyme cleaner and seal it before new padding goes on, and will only cut out a rail that has gone soft or black with years of soaking. A frame marked for years can hold a smell the way an old floorboard does, so we confirm the frame's condition with you when we quote, not after.
A professional clean has its place for a fresh accident on a removable cover, and no place for a smell that has been there a month. Cleaners work on the layer you can touch; urine lives in the layers you cannot.
If the original fabric is still made, a local repair is invisible; if it is discontinued, we source the closest match and put it on a whole visual unit such as both arms. Fabrics run for two to five years before they are dropped, so a lounge over five years old is usually a matching job rather than a reorder.
The first thing we do with a pet-damage photo is look for a scrap: a spare cushion cover, the fabric under the base, a label with a fabric name. A name finds the mill. No name means a search by weave, weight and colour, and most Australian lounges draw on a few mills, so the search is shorter than owners expect. When the match is close but not exact, the new fabric goes where the eye compares like with like: both arms, the whole seat row, or both arm caps in a tougher plain, which also solves the next scratch.
A lounge that cannot be matched and where every cushion has been chewed is the rare case for a full recover; the recover versus reupholster guide covers that job. Slipcovers are also a yes from us for a household with a second puppy coming. A patch has to match; a pair only has to agree with itself.
This week: photograph the damage, find any fabric scrap or label, pull out any loose foam the dog can reach, and keep the animal off the piece. If the puppy is still teething, wait: a lounge recovered before a puppy stops chewing is a lounge that gets chewed again, and most dogs stop by 12 to 18 months.
What gets a quote fastest:
We quote from the photos, and the quote names the panels, the cushions and anything that only becomes clear once the piece is open. Pickup and delivery across Melbourne is by arrangement, or you are welcome to bring a cushion to the workshop in Eltham North; call first, it is a residential address. A cushion-only job needs only the cushion; an arm or corner needs the lounge.
Our one-liner for the week: fix the couch after the dog has finished with it, not before.
Good to know
Yes, nearly always. A chewed corner is rebuilt in place: the damaged panels come off at their seams, the padding is built back with Dunlop HR35 foam and polyester wadding, any chewed timber is blocked or reshaped, and new panels in matching fabric are sewn and fitted. On most lounges that is one or two panels out of a dozen. The job only grows into a recover when the fabric cannot be matched and the damage is on more than one arm.
The panel has to be replaced. A claw pulls yarn out of the weave rather than cutting it, and a pulled loop has no way back. Trimming, glue and heat all leave the original yarn in place, which leaves the cat's grip in place, and the next scratch comes faster. Cats claw the same 30 to 40 centimetres of arm front and back edge, so replacing those two to four panels in a tight flat weave or a vinyl is the whole job.
The torn core is discarded and a new one cut in Dunlop HR35 foam, 200 firm for a seat, about 2 centimetres over the cover size so it fills out, then wrapped in polyester wadding with a new underside panel fitted. Only the cushion comes to the workshop; the sofa stays home. Shredded foam cannot be stuffed back and glued into a level seat, and the new core carries Dunlop's 10-year warranty, so it usually outlasts the cushions next to it.
Yes, provided the frame is sound, and reupholstering is the only fix that works. Urine soaks through the fabric into the foam, polyester wadding and hessian in seconds, and cleaners reach the top centimetre of a 10 centimetre cushion. The affected foam cores are binned, the deck padding and stained webbing or hessian are stripped, the timber rail is dried, cleaned and sealed, then the seat is rebuilt. The cover can often be reused on a one-cushion accident; a cat-marked base usually needs new deck fabric.
It does, because liquid runs to the lowest point and that is the timber rail under the webbing or springs. A single accident rarely reaches it; repeated cat marking usually does. A careful workshop will dry the rail, scrub it with an enzyme cleaner and seal it before new padding goes on, and that holds for a hardwood rail that is still hard. A rail that has gone soft, black or crumbly is cut out and replaced; we confirm which case yours is when we quote.
Take three photos: the whole piece, the damage close up, and the underside or inside of a cover. Find any fabric label, spare cover or offcut, because that decides whether the repair is a match or a replacement. Remove loose foam the dog can reach, keep the animal off the piece, and vacuum then wipe it with a damp rubber glove to lift hair. Do not glue, trim or paint the damage; every DIY fix we have unpicked made the panel harder to match.
Often, yes. We first look for a scrap: the fabric under the base, a skirt lining or a spare cover will usually yield enough for one cushion cover. If there is no scrap, we source the closest weave and colour and remake all the seat cushion covers together so the row reads as one, or put the new fabric somewhere the eye does not compare directly. A single cushion in a near-match fabric among originals is the one option we advise against.
Yes. A lounge recovered while a puppy is still teething is a lounge that gets chewed again, and we have rebuilt the same corner twice for owners who did not wait. Teething chewing eases once the adult teeth are through at around 6 to 7 months, and most dogs stop destructive chewing by 12 to 18 months. Fix a torn cushion or a sharp timber edge now for safety, put a throw over the corner, and book the panel work when the chewing has stopped.
Vacuum with the upholstery head first, then go over the fabric with a slightly damp rubber glove or a rubber squeegee in one direction; the static and drag lift hair that a lint roller rides over. Do seams and the crease between seat and back, where hair packs in. It matters before a repair because hair in a torn cushion migrates into the new foam and into our sewing machines, and a clean panel is easier to colour-match against a sample.
The foam is the problem. A professional clean is worthwhile for a fresh accident on a removable cover, where the liquid has not had time to wick through. Once urine has reached the foam core, a clean treats the surface and the smell returns on the next warm or humid day as the foam breathes it back out. Open-cell foam cannot be cleaned from the outside. The only lasting fix is a new foam core and fresh padding under it.
Yes, and it is one of the most sensible repairs a cat household can choose. Both arm caps, or both full arms, are recovered as a pair in a tight-weave fabric or a commercial-grade vinyl that gives the claws nothing to hook, while the seats and backs stay as they are. Done as a deliberate contrast, it reads as a design choice rather than a repair, it solves the next scratch as well as this one, and it is a fraction of a full recover.
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