Will this sofa fit through my door?
A sofa that won't go through the door is usually found out on delivery day. A few measurements taken before you order tell you whether it will make it in, and what to do if it's close.
The short answer
Look at the sofa's two smallest measurements, usually its depth and its height. If the smaller one is less than the door's clear width, and the larger one is less than the door's clear height, it can be carried straight through on its back or its side. Its length only matters for the hallways, corners and stairs on the way.
If its depth and height are both wider than the door, it may still go through tilted, if its diagonal depth (below) is less than the door's clear width.
1. Measure the way in
Walk the route from the street to the room and measure the narrowest point of each part of it. Measure the clear space, not the door itself.
| Measure | How |
|---|---|
| Door width | With the door wide open, from the face of the open door to the door stop on the other side (the thin strip the door closes against). That's narrower than the frame. |
| Door height | From the floor, or the top of the threshold, to the underside of the top of the frame. |
| Hallways | The narrowest width, at radiators, handrails, light switches or anything else that sticks out. |
| Corners and turns | The width of the hallway on both sides of each turn, especially a door that opens straight onto a wall or another hallway. |
| Stairs | The width between the handrails, the height above the stairs at the lowest point (often where the ceiling drops), and the size of any landing where the stairs turn. |
| Elevator | The door width and height, the inside depth and height, and the diagonal from a bottom corner to the opposite top corner. |
2. Measure the sofa
Store listings give the width (end to end), depth (front to back) and height (floor to the top of the back), including the arms and legs. Check them against the store's page, not a similar model.
Diagonal depth
Most sofas go through a tight door tilted back, standing on their back legs. What has to fit then is the diagonal depth, which few stores list. If the sofa is in a showroom, or already in your home:
- Lay a straightedge, like a yardstick, across the side of the sofa, from the top of the back to the front of the arm, so it touches both.
- Measure the shortest distance from the bottom back corner of the sofa up to the straightedge, at a right angle to it.
That distance is the diagonal depth. If it's less than the door's clear width, the sofa can usually be tilted back and carried through upright.
Leave an inch to spare. Measurements are rarely perfect, and a sofa wrapped for delivery is a little bigger than its listing. Anything within an inch is tight.
3. If it's too big
- Take the legs off. Most screw off, and they're often 3 to 6 inches of the height.
- Take the door off its hinges. An open door takes up its own thickness and more, often 1½ to 2 inches.
- Take off the door stops. The thin strips of trim inside the frame usually pry off and go back on, for about another inch.
- Ask what comes apart. Many sofas have backs or arms that unbolt, and sectionals and modular sofas arrive in sections: then only the biggest section has to fit.
- Choose one that arrives in boxes. Sofas sold to be put together in the room skip the problem.
- Ask about other ways in. A wider back door, a patio door, or, for an upstairs flat, a window or balcony.
How Sofaplot checks it
Each room in Sofaplot has a delivery path: the clear width and height of the narrowest doorway, hallway or stair turn on the way in. It starts at 30 inches wide and 79 inches high; change it to what you measured.
Every piece that arrives assembled is checked against it, using its two smallest measurements:
- Fits, with an inch or more to spare.
- Tight, with less than an inch to spare.
- Needs tilting: upholstered pieces up to 10 inches deeper than the doorway are flagged rather than ruled out, so you can check the diagonal depth or whether the legs come off.
- Doesn't fit, with which measurement is too big.
Sectionals and modular sofas are checked by their biggest section, and pieces that come in boxes aren't checked at all.