Fordham (Hampton Bay)

Every patio has a hierarchy of threats, and for most Fordham owners the list runs: the dog’s claws, the kids’ juice boxes, the weather — in that order. Standard outdoor fabric is engineered for the third threat. This page is about picking a cover that wins the first two.

Choose Pet-Proof Fabrics →

Fabric under paw traffic behaves differently

Claws don’t wear fabric so much as catch it. A loose weave or a looped texture gives a nail something to hook, and one good scramble across an armchair turns a snag into a run into a hole. Smooth, dense, tightly tensioned surfaces — the kind your hand slides across without catching — simply don’t offer claws a purchase. That structural difference matters more than any “outdoor” label on the bolt.

Spills are the second act, and they reward the opposite virtue: how fast the mess leaves. A fabric that lets juice pool on the surface and wipe off in one pass outperforms a fabric that drinks it in, regardless of how either looks in the catalog. And the third act — weekly reality — is washing. Covers that strip off fully and go through a gentle machine cycle keep a family set presentable for years; covers that can’t turn every accident into a permanent memory.

The CushionMill menu of 119 fabrics prices flat — every family below costs identical at any given cushion size — so this is purely a performance decision:

Fabric buys durability; layout buys sanity, and the second lever is free. Households that keep pads alive longest tend to run a simple rotation: the dog’s favorite chair stands at the set’s edge rather than mid-run, so claws meet one pad instead of three in the daily scramble; a washable throw — any old beach towel — claims that chair on muddy-spring days and launders in minutes; and a small basket by the door holds the towels plus the brush that does daily duty on the tech-fabric backs. None of this is furniture advice exactly — it’s the operating manual that makes the furniture advice last. The rebuild still matters most: a velvet seat that shrugs off claws makes the rotation a convenience rather than a defense, and the flat fabric pricing means the dog’s chair and the guest chairs can wear different armor without costing differently.

The measurements under the new fabric

Fabric choice changes nothing about sizing, and Fordham sizing has no published chart to lean on — the series ran through Home Depot as seasonal stock and its pad dimensions were never publicized. The retail figures in circulation describe furniture and cartons, not cushions. Your three numbers per pad are the specification: width across the clear seating span between arms, depth along the flat deck, thickness at the seam, one triple per pad with backs recorded as width × height × thickness.

The measurement guides cover each figure with photographs, including the tight cases — wrapped arm rails, deep-seated frames, pad-over-pad lounge builds. The workshop re-verifies everything you submit against your piece count before a single cut, and the finished build carries a ±½″ tolerance guarantee (±¾″ past 36″), remade free if the miss is ours.

Confirming the Fordham name

The series name settles quickly when the evidence exists: the white tag under a seat frame or inside an arm rail carries a model number, typically behind a GLD or THD supplier prefix — photograph it enlarged, because half-legible tags usually read fine on a phone screen. Second stop is your Home Depot account, where searching “Fordham” surfaces the original line item. The assembly manual from the box names the series on its cover if the paper survived.

Caveats that recur across the series index: Fordham is also a university and a neighborhood name, so open web searches wander off the furniture trail — your own records settle it. And Hampton Bay carried series across model years with quiet revisions, so same-name pieces from different seasons can take slightly different pads. Measured orders are immune to that drift by construction; chart-based orders wouldn’t be.

Both trails cold? Send frame photos — arm shape, weave, leg feet — and the series call usually comes back the same day, before any order exists.

What the rebuild costs and how it runs

Each cushion quotes from a $45 make-base, moving with two levers only: the pad’s size, and the foam density selected between 35D and 65D. Household-heavy seating earns the firmer bands — 55D and up shrugs off years of daily duty — while guest-room-grade pieces ride comfortably at 45D–50D. Fabric, again, never moves the number across all 119 options.

Full Fordham sets batch into a single confirmed quote; single-pad replacements — the one chair the dog claimed — order with no minimum and no surcharge. Production takes 4–7 business days standard, 3–5 rushed, with 3–6 weeks of shipping to most US addresses.

Neighboring uncharted series like Walnut Creek and Tobago run the same fabric-first route. Kampar holds the charted exception, and the Hampton Bay hub indexes the full range.

Frequently asked questions

Will velvet actually survive a cat?

Better than anything else in the menu. The dense pile gives claws no loop to hook, so scrambling paws slide instead of snagging. It’s the family standard for pet-household seat pads — and it machine-washes when the rest of the household has its turn.

How do I clean juice off tech fabric?

Usually one pass: blot the spill, wipe the face with a damp cloth, done — the water-resistant surface holds liquids at the surface instead of pulling them into the weave. For bigger events, the whole cover unzips and takes a gentle machine cycle.

Can I mix fabrics across one set?

Yes, per cushion, at zero premium — velvet on the two chairs the dog prefers, tech fabric everywhere else is a common build. All 119 fabrics sit at one flat price, so the mix is a performance decision, not a budget one.

A final calibration on expectations: even the toughest build is still fabric over foam, and households that treat the set as indestructible will eventually win that argument against it. The goal of choosing well is not immunity — it is making the ordinary years ordinary, so the pads age on a schedule your family sets instead of one the first sharp claw or spilled juice dictates. The fabric menu’s flat pricing means the resilient choice never costs the premium that resilience used to carry.

There’s no Fordham size chart anywhere — is that normal?

It is. Most series in this index shipped without published pad specs, which is exactly why orders here run on measured figures — width, depth, thickness per pad — re-verified against your piece count before cutting.

What should a daily-use family set cost?

Per piece, from the $45 make-base rising with size and density — the firm-family build at 55D–60D costs its density honestly and is the usual recommendation for constant use. The configurator totals a full set before you commit a cent.

How long until the set is back in service?

Plan on 4–7 business days of production, 3–5 on rush, plus 3–6 weeks shipping to most US addresses. Households replacing a destroyed set in July tend to rush; households planning ahead order in winter and never think about the clock.

What this workshop guarantees

• Custom cushion manufacturing for over a decade — quoted, cut, filled, and sewn under one roof.
• Measurement verification against piece counts ahead of cutting — discrepancies become questions, never guesses.
• No stock, no minimums — single pads to full sets, 119 fabrics, flat fabric pricing throughout.
• ±½″ tolerance (±¾″ beyond 36″) with free remakes for off-spec cuts, wrong fabric, or wrong build.

Fordham replacement cushions built for the household you actually have — claws, juice boxes, and weather included — from a $45 make-base.

Build My Fordham Cushions →

Series or sizing in question? Photos first, always free — or start from any custom shape / the Hampton Bay index.