Best way to prevent leather upholstery from tearing up?

I just noticed my Hoist bench (just 2 months old now) has a little spec where the upholstery looks like it was pricked. I have no idea how this could've happened since I always work out in clothing that has no zippers, buttons, or metal parts. I've only used my urethane dumbbells on the bench, and no metal (ie. barbell) has been able to touch it. The spec is about the size of a grain of sand, on the lower backing.

I'm now using the bench with a towel over-top every time I work out, but I'm curious if there's any tips/tricks to repairing and/or preventing the leather on a bench from tearing up further.

I realize there's a 10-year warranty on the upholstery, so I'm hopefully covered (never know the technicalities of small print), but avoiding warranty claims is far better than relying on them. :)

It doesn't sound like you did anything like this, but I try to not lay anything on the benches unless very necessary. No db's, no plates, nothing except the user/s. I also don't step on the benches unless I take my shoes off and try to regularly wipe them down with simple green & a towel. Other than this, I don't know what you can do. The tears don't just appear, but eventually stuff is going to wear unfortunately. The goal is to make it look as nice as possible for as long as possible.

I did go to an auto parts store and invest in an upholstery repair kit for about $20. It was the nicer one with a heating iron. This way, when I did get any tears I can fix them. Obviously, my stuff was almost all purchased used and I don't have warranties though. On yours this would probably void one, not to mention why would you do repairs when they're covered?

[QUOTE=Keetman;764681993]It doesn't sound like you did anything like this, but I try to not lay anything on the benches unless very necessary. No db's, no plates, nothing except the user/s. I also don't step on the benches unless I take my shoes off and try to regularly wipe them down with simple green & a towel. Other than this, I don't know what you can do. The tears don't just appear, but eventually stuff is going to wear unfortunately. The goal is to make it look as nice as possible for as long as possible.

I also went to an auto parts store and invested in an upholstery repair kit for about $20. It was the nicer one with a heating iron. This way, when I did get any tears I can fix them. Obviously, my stuff was almost all purchased used and I don't have warranties though. On yours this would probably void one, not to mention why would you do repairs when they're covered?[/QUOTE]

I would second the upholstery repair kit idea. The only way to get pristine new upholstery on lots of items is to take apart the components, pull the staples on the naugahyde, and recover the wood and foam. It's kind of a pain, so unless the damage is severe the bandaid route will serve you better.

From your description, it sounds like the damage is minor. Unless you have experience with upholstery repair, I wouldn't mess with it just yet.

If you do decide to go the repair route, try to find some other furniture to practice on first. As I understand it, these repairs can look really good if done right, but like anything, it requires practice to do a good job.

[QUOTE=KBKB;764705583]From your description, it sounds like the damage is minor. Unless you have experience with upholstery repair, I wouldn't mess with it just yet.

If you do decide to go the repair route, try to find some other furniture to practice on first. As I understand it, these repairs can look really good if done right, but like anything, it requires practice to do a good job.[/QUOTE]



This is a good point actually. When I got mine I got it because I'd dropped a bb sleeve on my new bench...bad. I also had a GHR with damaged pads that I practiced on. You have to kind of heat the material just enough to get it a little soft with a patch on top that gives it a grainy texture to match the rest. If you don't get it hot enough, it doesn't melt, attach, or take the grain. Too hot and the patch and/or surrounding fabric burn and become brittle....real bad. Also, color matching is difficult too. On both my equipment repairs I was using black...no biggy. However, my wife tried to use it to repair a lazy boy that had a couple of holes in it. The chair is maroon and the color she came up with wasn't so much maroon ;).