Sectional Sofa Placement and Care

Sectional Sofas are a good design solution for many rooms and can create an easy conversation or media watching grouping.    Most sectionals, and many modular sitting pieces, come with connecting brackets on the interior sides of the pieces to help hold the pieces together.   

If you will want to “float” the pieces apart from one another or with tables or other pieces in between them, please let our staff know before ordering so we can confirm that the inside surfaces will be free of brackets or other tailoring issues which may not be attractive.

Hard surface flooring issues -    The connecting brackets that manufactures use to attach sectional pieces together will normally be adequate for smaller sectionals when used on wall to wall carpeting.    If you will be putting the sectional in a room with smooth hard surface flooring such as wood, laminate, tile, or vinyl you will probably have to take additional actions to hold the pieces in place.   Sectional pieces normally have plastic or metal oval glides to protect the legs or base from sliding damage.    Unfortunately this means they also slide easily on smooth hard surfaces if you tend to push back on the piece when sitting down or getting up.   This is particularly true of longer sectionals where the increased leverage can pull apart most connecting brackets.     We recommend that you initially try using the piece with just the manufacturer’s attachment brackets to see if your flooring and the way you sit down causes any separation problem.

If you do have a problem with the pieces separating, there are several options for keeping your sectional together on smooth surface floors.

For most sectionals with round or square legs, the legs in the area where the pieces come together can be tied together at the top either with steel tie wire or plastic strips which you can get at hardware stores, or we can provide you with.    If the shape of the legs is not suitable for holding tie wires or straps you can also lay the pieces over and insert 1” pan head screws into the front and back of the underside of the frame and run tie wires or straps around those.          

For more difficult situations, 3M brand white mounting foam squares can be used under each leg, preferably after removing any small “nail in” glides in the ends of the legs.  Unfortunately they will leave some sticky adhesive residue on the floor and leg if you later move the sectional, which may have to be cleaned off with mineral spirits or paint thinner.   

Area rugs and uneven floors -    When sofas or chairs are placed partly on, and partly off, an area rug, or on other uneven surfaces such as rustic tiles, the frame may not sit level and may rock from side to side.    When sectionals sit partly on, and partly off, an area rug the connecting brackets also may lift or twist apart and the frames may not line up evenly.    All legs of a sectional should be on placed on the same level surface.   If it is not possible to have all legs of a sectional on an area rug the legs which are off the rug may need to be shimmed at the top to the thickness of the rug for the frame to sit level.      For standard bolt in legs, this can usually be done by removing the legs and inserting washers or other solid discs that are just slightly smaller than the leg diameter.  

If you have any questions regarding use or placement of your sectional, please mail our Service Manager at  Service@BlackledgeFurniture.com  or call 541-753-4851.