Sofa collapse - is this a thing?!

[nc321152]

Our current sofas have low, wide feet so they more or less sit flat on the floor. I'd like to replace them with sofas with wooden raised legs like this: www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/smedstorp-2-seat-sofa-lejde-red-brown-black-s09477229/ (NB not this actual sofa, chose this image because the legs are clearly visible).

DH has just said something along the lines of 'over time, wouldn't those legs buckle under our immense weight?' I'm paraphrasing, but this is what he meant.

Is this a thing?! Do sofa legs ever just give way?? Has anyone had this happen to them?

For reference, we are both slightly overweight but not obese, and we'd be looking at spending £1000-1500 per sofa so would expect reasonable quality.

There is sometimes a ‘max weight’ detailed on a particular sofa, I noticed it when looking for a new one. Fwiw DH has pretty big family members (morbidly obese range) and, although the seat pads are flattened, the structure of their sofa is fine.
At slightly overweight it really shouldn’t be an issue for you & DH.

It's generally advised to add an additional set of legs front and back under the midpoint across the sofa for heavier weight people, as it will spread the load out over 6 points instead of 4 and take some of the strain off the frame.

If you are changing the legs anyway, I'd recommend adding the extra pair.

I have seen them give way, but it's more often due to people who sort of plonk/collapse themselves down onto the sofa rather than sitting normally which is like a blow with something that weight, or to legs that have come a little loose and haven't been fixed properly.

Both DH and I are obese. We have one leather sofa from sofology. It snapped one leg within 6 months. We called them to repair "due to Covid" took 3 weeks to fix it. But since been okay. We've had it for 4 years now.

Thank you all, this is really interesting as I'd never considered it before at all! I will look out for max weights and extra legs.

I'm pretty sure we're the sort to plonk ourselves down, it just seems like something we'd both do... maybe we're just too oafish for raised leg sofas 😂