Repair Wicker Furniture Frame

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The vast majority of frames in wicker furniture wouldn't last until the end of the first day if they weren't held together with the weave of the reed material. Some frames, made of wood, are mortise and tenon jointed and in their hey day were very sturdy, but most weren't protected with any kind of finish, so they dried out and shrank and warped. Some frame pieces are large diameter rattan pole, which is solid and quite soft. Some frame pieces are bamboo, which is hollow.

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Repair wicker furniture frame

A good, concise instruction page would have to start with, "Hmmmmm, now let me see. . .", then I think I would say to study it and see what you can figure out while I have a cup of coffee.

Where Do We Start?

Each wicker furniture frame joint repair is just a little different than any other wicker furniture frame joint repair.

Whatever you do, never remove any of the wicker weave to repair a joint. Test the sturdiness of the piece. It's probably pretty sturdy, even if the weave is two thirds gone, so if you just absolutely can't get to the frame, don't fret about it. If it's sturdy with portions of it missing it will be sturdier when you get it repaired.

If the frame repair is at all possible, do It.

If the wicker furniture frame is made of wood and the joint members are touching or if they can be pulled together, then you can work some glue into the joint. A glue injector is the easiest way to get glue inside the joint inside the weave. If you can't locate a glue injector at a hadware store, then go to a store that has animal supplies, or to a Veterinarian and get a hypodermic syringe used for injecting into horses and cows. They have needles with a large enough opening to handle glue. Nip the end of the needle with wire cutters or file it down with a file, because they're large enough and sharp enough that they can cause some serious injury.

A Good Inexpensive Clamp

The best way to clamp a wicker furniture frame joint is with a length of rope tied in a loop so there's enough slack to get a stick in it and twist the rope until it pulls the joint snug. Don't tighten up tight enough to cause damage somewhere else. Put several layers of soft cloth between the rope and the wicker weave at corners to keep from damaging any wicker. We had several hundred dollars worth of clamps of various descriptions, but we usually used a good old rope clamp on wicker furniture because of the irregular shapes.

Screws in wicker furniture frames

If you have a wood frame or a solid core rattan rod frame see if you can get to a joint where you might get a screw in that would do some useful holding. Don't use nails or brads, they'll just give pivot points since they can't be snugged up. Lo-root screws are best and easiest to use. The spiral thread is wider apart and works best on material that might pull out with a narrower thread. Lo-root screws are used mainly for drywall and particle board.

Drill a pilot hole first if you can, it will help prevent splitting. Make the pilot hole slightly smaller than the screw size. Pull the thread of the screw across a bar of soap before you put it in, it will make the screw go in a whole lot easier.

Don't damage the wicker to repair the furniture frame joints

If it isn't possible to repair a slightly wobbly frame without damaging the wicker in the weave it's better to leave the frame wobbly. The wicker weave is secure enough that the wobbly frame probably can't go anywhere and if the wicker's in good shape you sure don't want to damage it so that you have to repair the wicker weave.

Figure that the wicker furniture frame repair is necessary if you can get to it, but if you can't get to it without damage to something else, then it isn't necessary unless it's about to fall apart.