Fleming Howland selects spring systems for reliability, consistent comfort, and lifetime maintenance. Serpentine and fish-mouth units offer engineered precision, silent operation, and straightforward long-term service ensuring each piece performs exactly as intended, decade after decade.
Steel serpentine (Zig-Zag) springs
A continuous high-tensile steel wire fixed across the seat frame. This system offers consistent tension, strong resilience under repeated load, and simple future replacement. It works harmoniously with modern foam and fibre layers and is widely used across premium British and European upholstery.
Fish-Mouth coil springs
Factory-calibrated open coils mounted to a steel frame, offering deep vertical travel and long-term shape retention. These units absorb shock effectively, maintain seat height over many years, and can be replaced cleanly during restoration.
Elastic Webbing
Elastic webbing is used selectively within Fleming Howland’s smaller pieces, typically items where the frame geometry does not allow for steel serpentine or coil springs. High-tension webbing provides stable lateral support without adding unnecessary height or weight. When applied correctly, it offers reliable elasticity, quiet operation and long-term resilience. Its purpose within Fleming Howland’s construction is practical rather than cost-driven: a measured solution for small formats where engineered steel systems cannot physically be installed.
Why Fleming Howland Does Not Use Eight-Way Hand-Tied Springs
Eight-way hand-tied (EWHT) springs remain familiar in the United States, yet the system is now considered outdated across the UK and Europe. Its performance depends entirely on manual tying, which creates inconsistencies, complex maintenance, and long-term fragility due to natural fibres. Very few modern upholsterers are trained to repair it, making lifetime serviceability increasingly impractical. For these reasons, Fleming Howland does not implement EWHT. Instead, the seating architecture relies on engineered spring systems that deliver predictable comfort, durable support, and straightforward servicing decades after purchase.