Melanie Zoltan writes the Boston Home Improvement Blog for HomeStars.com. She lives in the metroWest Boston area and enjoys the Big Dig, putting a chair on the street to mark her parking spot during snow storms, driving on 128 during rush hour, and rotaries. 
Low cost upholstering at your local Boston...prison?
The first time I drove past MCI-Concord shortly after moving to Mass, I asked a friend, "Why does the telephone company need barbed wire around it?"MCI, I quickly learned, stands for Massachusetts Correctional Institute. What does prison have to do with home improvement and home-related issues?
As Gail Friedman notes, in her Boston Globe article chronicling her desire to fix a gifted, broken chair:
Fabric Place in Woburn estimated the job at $640 (including $60 in new springing); Calico Corners in Acton wanted $775 (including $75 worth of tacks). And those were without fabric.
Enter Masscor, Massachusetts Correctional Industries:
Before bringing in a chair, a customer must send a photo and dimensions to Masscor, which then provides an estimate. My estimate: $226, plus tax. I picked up fabric at a half-price sale for about $10 a yard. (Masscor had told me to bring 5 yards, but I brought 8 because Fabric Place had estimated the job would take 8½. Masscor returned more than 4 yards of unused fabric.)
So for less than half the cost, a newly-repaired, reupholstered chair. In order to use the service, according to Masscor (Massachusetts Correctional Industries), to request an estimate for your furniture:
Send photos and measurements of each piece you want reupholstered. Please include a front view, back view, and side view. Be sure to include a telephone number where you can be contacted. Send this information to:
MassCor
P.O. Box 188
Norfolk, MA 02056
ATTN: Reupholstery
Or e-mail this information to caayers@doc.state.ma.us
If you accept the estimate, you then make arrangements to deliver the item to Masscor's offices in Norfolk (not at the prison).
Sleep sofas, recliners, and leather furniture are off the list of acceptable items, and reupholstery jobs can take longer than the typical tradeperson's work.
We have had two items reupholstered, neither through Masscor; read my review here. Our Morris chair has held up well (I'm sitting in it right now).
Masscor's programs help to give prison inmates marketable skills, skills that can help them as they transition out of prison life and into society. Masscor has two showrooms open to the public, at MCI-Norfolk and MCI-Shirley, open 9-5 Monday through Friday.
With prices like $5.25 for a 3-piece towel set, or $47.50 for a dozen fitted full sheets, it might be worth a visit.
Posted by Melanie Zoltan
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1 Comments:
That's a great service, I'm not any where near Boston though :(
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