There are many reasons why someone may decide to remove the back of an office chair. The back may be reupholstered to take care of general wear and tear or removed altogether for comfort reasons. Also, an underlying metal base and cheap plastic office chair back could not work very well together. All in all, you may want to remove the back of an office chair to improve it or make it the best office chair.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Removing the back of an office chair should take no more than an hour.
- To remove the back of an office chair, we recommend removing the wheels, base, and armrests before unbolting the seat from the backrest.
- Common reasons for removing the back of an office chair include reupholstering or replacing a worn part.
How to Remove Office Chair Back
Here are steps you can take to remove the back of an office chair.
STEP 1 Remove Wheels
If your chair has wheels, turn your chair upside down and dismantle the casters and wheels using a screwdriver. If your caster is hard to remove, use a pry bar to budge it out, placing the nail pulling end of the pry bar between the chair leg and caster before applying a downwards motion. This will allow the chair not to move while you are removing other parts.
STEP 2 Remove the Star Base
Remove the base using several hammer hits to a 2×4 piece of wood to avoid damaging the gas lift. Alternatively, you can also remove the gas lift from your office chair to be on the safe side.
STEP 3 Disassemble Arm Rests
Disassemble the armrests by unbolting and unscrewing all fixtures. Depending on the type of screws, you may have to decide between a cross-head, flat-head, or Hex key Allen wrench.
STEP 4 Unbolt Seat from Back Rest
Once the armrests are disassembled, unbolt and unscrew all screws that connect the seat to the backrest, slowly separating the two parts. If your chair has a hydraulics system, be sure to remove the cylinder with the hydraulics from the chair’s base as well. You can fix your chair seat if you want to stop sliding out of your office chair too.
F.A.Q.S
How do you remove the back of a chair?
Removing the back of a chair is a very straightforward process of removing wheels for stability, removing the base, disassembling armrests, and unbolting the seat from the backrest. There may be an additional consideration of removing a gas cylinder as well. All of this is very easy to do with a simple set of hand tools, including the always handy pry bar.
What is the knob on the bottom of my office chair for?
The knob on the bottom of your office chair is most likely a tension knob, which helps produce greater or less pressure for tilting. The lower the tension, the greater the tilt, and the higher the tension, the lesser the tilt.
Why does my office chair not lean back anymore?
One of the most common reasons for a non-reclining office chair is a stuck tilt engine or a poorly lubricated gas cylinder.
STAT: The average chair that is used 40 hours per week should last an average of seven to ten years. (source)
REFERENCES:
- https://homedecorbliss.com/how-to-disassemble-office-chair/
- http://sewway.com/recovering-an-office-chair.html
- https://www.btod.com/blog/how-to-disassemble-office-chairs/r
- https://www.hunker.com/13403769/how-to-remove-the-base-of-an-office-chair
- https://pvipvi.com/blog/when-to-replace-office-furniture
- https://bizfluent.com/how-5873569-disassemble-office-chairs.html
- https://officearrow.com/disassemble-office-chairs/
