Guide · upholstery in Melbourne
Memory foam belongs in a mattress, not a seat: it runs hot and bottoms out within a year or two. Latex is superb, lasts 20 years and costs considerably more than high-resilience foam because the block is made to order and the raw material is dearer. Yellow foam is harmless oxidation; crumbling foam is finished. Residential Australian foam is generally untreated with flame retardants.
Last updated: October 2026
Get a free quoteCall 0425 832 619People ask us about memory foam, latex, conventional polyurethane and high-resilience polyurethane, and we fit one of them as standard in seats: high-resilience Dunlop HR35, at 200 Newtons for firm seating or 165 for medium, with a 10-year Dunlop warranty. The other three each have a place, and a seat cushion is rarely it.
Density, measured in kg/m3, decides how many sitting cycles a foam survives; the full explanation is in the foam guide. This page covers the rest: the exotic foams, what old foam is telling you, and what is actually in it.
| Foam | Typical density | Feel | Life in a seat | Where it belongs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conventional polyurethane | 23 to 28 kg/m3 | Soft to medium | 2 to 5 years | Backs, scatter cushions, light-use chairs |
| High-resilience polyurethane (HR35) | 35 kg/m3 | Medium or firm, springy | 10 to 15 years | Our standard seat foam |
| Memory foam (viscoelastic) | 40 to 60 kg/m3 | Slow, sinking, warm | 1 to 2 years before it bottoms out | Mattress toppers, thin comfort layers |
| Natural latex | 60 to 80 kg/m3 | Buoyant, instantly recovering | 20 years plus | Premium rebuilds on frames worth keeping |
Our rule on the bench: if a foam cannot recover its shape within a second of you standing up, it does not belong under you for eight hours a day.
Memory foam is a poor seat cushion because it softens with body heat, recovers slowly and has no support factor, so a sitter sinks until the foam is compressed and the frame does the holding. In a mattress the load is spread over most of your body length; in a seat it lands on a patch 30 by 30 centimetres.
Memory foam is engineered to melt into your shape at skin temperature: wonderful lying down, miserable sitting up. Within months the sitting spot stays compressed, and in summer the foam holds heat against your legs. When we open a sofa with memory foam seats, the cushions are usually under two years old and already dished 5 to 8 centimetres.
Retailers sell "memory foam comfort" because it feels plush in the showroom for 30 seconds. A cushion is sat on for ten years, not 30 seconds. Its one honest place is a 2 to 3 centimetre comfort layer over a conventional or HR core in a back cushion, never the seat itself.
Latex is the best seat foam money can buy: natural latex sits at 60 to 80 kg/m3, recovers instantly, stays cool, resists mould and dust mites, and a quality block will outlast two covers. It costs considerably more than HR35 because the block is made to order and the raw material is dearer, and it weighs nearly double.
When a 1970s designer piece comes into our Eltham North workshop, the latex seats are usually still square-edged and springy under a cover worn through at the welts; the only latex we condemn has gone crumbly at the surface from sun through a window.
Latex is worth it in three situations. First, a piece you intend to keep for decades, where the foam will see two or three covers and the extra cost spreads thin. Second, a sitter with allergies or a damp room, because latex does not harbour mould the way open-cell polyurethane can. Third, a designer piece whose original seats were latex, where anything else changes the feel.
It is not worth it on a flat-pack frame, a rarely used seat, or a lounge likely to be sold in five years. Ask any workshop whether it is quoting natural, synthetic or blended latex, and how long the block takes to arrive; we confirm this with you when we quote.
Our honest line: latex is a 20-year decision on a 10-year budget, so make sure the frame deserves it.
Yellow foam is harmless, crumbly foam is dead, and sticky foam is dying. Polyurethane foam turns yellow through oxidation when air, light and heat react with the polymer; it changes colour but not performance. Crumbling means the cell walls have broken down and the foam has lost its structure for good.
What we see in our Eltham North workshop, in order of age:
Orange dust on the floor under the sofa is the clearest sign a re-foam is due. If the cover is still sound, a cushion re-foam replaces the inserts and keeps the cover. Yellow is a birthday, crumble is a funeral.
Cured polyurethane foam is chemically stable, residential Australian foam is generally not treated with flame retardant chemicals, and the smell from a new cushion is residual process gas that clears within days. The health concern people read about online comes from overseas foams built to older flammability laws, not from standard Australian lounge foam.
The United Kingdom has required furniture foam to pass flammability tests under its 1988 furniture regulations, and California's TB117 standard pushed chemical flame retardants into American foam for decades. Australia has no equivalent mandatory domestic furniture flammability standard, so everyday residential foam here is made without those additives. Fire-grade foam exists, and we fit it as standard on commercial and venue seating and on any job when specified; it carries its own test certificates and is not something a home lounge gets by default. The commercial side is on the fire-rated upholstery page.
Dunlop HR35 is the foam we fit, and we confirm the grade and firmness with you when we quote; ask any workshop whether its foam is Australian made and whether it carries an environmental certification such as GECA. The new-foam smell is the same with any polyurethane; unzipped in a ventilated room, a cushion is odourless in two to three days.
Fire-grade foam is a commercial specification, not a household default, and anyone telling you otherwise has not read the certificate.
A foam code is two numbers and sometimes a letter prefix: the first number is density in kilograms per cubic metre, the second is hardness in Newtons, and the letters name the maker's foam family. So 36-130 is a 36 kg/m3 foam at 130 Newtons, a soft feel on a durable block.
Read the code the way we do at the bench:
Read together: 36-130 is a long-life soft foam, good for a back cushion or for someone who likes to sink. EN40-230 is a dense, very firm foam built for a bar banquette sat on twelve hours a day. Our residential seat, HR35-200, is a durable block at a firm feel; HR35-165 is the same block in medium.
A retailer that quotes "high-density foam" without a number is quoting an adjective. Two numbers on an invoice are worth more than any word in a brochure.
A sprung cushion is a pocket-spring or coil unit wrapped in a foam shell and polyester wadding, and the shell wears out long before the springs do. Rebuilding it means new foam walls around the same spring unit, or a plain HR35 block if the springs have started to poke, which they do after 10 to 15 years.
Plenty of 1990s and 2000s Australian lounge suites came with pocket-spring cushions for their mattress-like bounce. Some retailers sell them as the longer-lasting option, which gets it backwards: the springs outlive the thin foam shell by decades. When a customer describes a lump in one seat, nine times in ten we open it to find a spring through the shell with the coil unit still sound; the tenth is a collapsed foam wall. The fix is a new foam envelope, usually 2 to 3 centimetres of HR foam around the unit, or a full HR35 insert for a steadier seat.
Layered rebuilds are how we match a feel rather than a number. A seat can be built as a firm HR35-200 base with a 2 centimetre softer top layer, giving the support of firm foam and the first touch of a soft one. We do this often for people who want a 1990s lounge to sit as it did when new.
Call first, then bring a cushion in to our Eltham North workshop and sit on three samples before you commit. Comfort is personal, density is not.
Good to know
No. Memory foam softens with body heat and recovers slowly, so a seat loads it in one spot until it bottoms out on the frame, usually within a year or two. It also holds warmth against the legs. It works as a thin 2 to 3 centimetre comfort layer over a conventional or high-resilience core in a back cushion, but the seat itself should be a 35 kg/m3 high-resilience foam such as Dunlop HR35.
Latex lasts longer: natural latex at 60 to 80 kg/m3 will give 20 years or more in a seat, against 10 to 15 for high-resilience polyurethane and 2 to 5 for conventional foam. It costs considerably more than HR35 because the block is made to order and the raw material is dearer, and it weighs nearly double. On a frame you intend to keep for decades it pays for itself; on an average family lounge, HR35 is the sensible choice.
Cured polyurethane foam is chemically stable. The health stories online usually concern overseas foams treated with chemical flame retardants to meet older flammability laws, which residential Australian foam generally does not use. New foam gives off a faint residual smell for two to three days as process gases disperse. Choose an Australian-made foam with an environmental certification such as GECA and the density printed on the invoice.
Generally not in residential foam. Australia has no equivalent of the United Kingdom's 1988 furniture flammability regulations or California's TB117 standard, so standard lounge foam here is made without flame retardant additives. Fire-grade foam is a separate, specified product used where a building and its certifier require it, which is why we fit it as standard on commercial and venue seating and on any job when it is specified. A home lounge does not get it by default.
Polyurethane foam yellows through oxidation: oxygen, light and heat react with the polymer and change its colour. It starts within months, is fastest near a sunny window, and is completely harmless. A yellow cushion is no weaker than a white one of the same age. Colour tells you a foam's age; what tells you its condition is whether it has lost height, gone stiff, or started to crumble.
Crumbling means the cell walls of the foam have broken down and the polymer has lost its structure, usually after 15 years or more of oxidation, heat and compression. The orange dust that appears under a sofa or inside a cover is the sign. Crumbled foam cannot be cleaned, topped up or revived; the insert is replaced. If the cover is still sound, a re-foam keeps the cover and only the foam changes.
The smell is a mix of residual process gas from the new foam, finishing agents on the fabric, and adhesive used in the build. It is normal, faint, and clears in two to three days in a ventilated room, a week at most for a large lounge in a closed space. Unzipping loose cushions and standing them on edge speeds it up. A smell that persists beyond a fortnight is worth a call to the workshop.
Fabric and vinyl upholstery can be sat on the day it comes home. Where a frame has been glued and repaired, or show-wood has been French polished, the adhesive or finish needs time to harden before heavy use or placed objects, and we tell you exactly how long when we return the piece. New foam needs no waiting period beyond airing the room for the first couple of days.
Sticky foam is foam in late breakdown. Heat, humidity and age degrade the polymer until the surface turns tacky, and it will begin to crumble next. Older polyester-type foams and cushions kept in hot, damp rooms go this way first. Occasionally the stickiness is a cleaning product residue on the cover rather than the foam; if a damp cloth on the fabric fixes it, the foam is fine. If the block itself is tacky, replace it.
Open-cell foam can be rinsed by hand with mild detergent, but it holds water deep in the block and, in a cold wet winter, can take a week to dry and may grow mould inside. Never machine-wash or wring a foam insert, and ignore products marketed as foam cleaners. A surface spill is best blotted through the cover. Foam that is soiled all the way through, by a pet accident or flood, is something any careful workshop will replace rather than clean.
The first number is density in kilograms per cubic metre, the second is hardness in Newtons, and any letters are the maker's foam family. So 36-130 is a 36 kg/m3 foam at a soft 130 Newtons, and EN40-230 is a dense 40 kg/m3 block at a very firm 230 Newtons, typical of commercial seating. HR35-200 is our residential seat standard: high-resilience, 35 kg/m3, firm. Density decides lifespan, hardness decides feel.
They feel bouncier, but they are not more durable. A sprung cushion is a coil unit inside a foam shell, and the shell wears through in 10 to 15 years, at which point a spring pokes and the seat feels lumpy. Rebuilding means a new foam envelope around the springs or a plain HR35 block. Plain high-resilience foam gives a steadier seat and fewer failure points; sprung cushions suit people who want a lounge to feel like a mattress.
Send a photo or the dimensions of your booths, banquettes or venue seating and we'll come back with a rough price and turnaround.
Send us the drawings or details and we'll come back with a straight quote, no clout needed, just a great job.
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