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Finding Ultra-Durable Patio Furniture
Whacktose
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Background: I live in a 25 unit condo with a roof deck that I would say maybe 25-50% of the tenants use. This is in the Bay Area, CA so the coastal weather patterns apply: 8 months of overcast mornings with no precipitation followed by sunny afternoons, and 4 months of regular overcast/light-medium rain a year.
Situation: The condo board is looking to replace our (basically dissolved) patio furniture, and I am looking for suggestions/personal experience on what is the most durable. I'm open to anything. Because this is a condo building, people will likely treat the furniture somewhat poorly and be bad at keeping it covered when not in use. I'll be hunting around for reviews and such, but I just wanted to throw it out to the advice crew to see if anyone had any exceptionally good experiences with a particular brand or material of outdoor furniture.
Thanks in advance.
Situation: The condo board is looking to replace our (basically dissolved) patio furniture, and I am looking for suggestions/personal experience on what is the most durable. I'm open to anything. Because this is a condo building, people will likely treat the furniture somewhat poorly and be bad at keeping it covered when not in use. I'll be hunting around for reviews and such, but I just wanted to throw it out to the advice crew to see if anyone had any exceptionally good experiences with a particular brand or material of outdoor furniture.
Thanks in advance.
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Example... http://www.trexfurniture.com/
Still, a lot of people find it more convenient to just drop $10-$20 on a plastic lawn chair from a big box store every year, due to the higher cost of nice patio furniture.
If I was going to leave furniture outside in a common area, I would go for the cheap / generic plastic furniture. The cheapest stuff I could find. It's basically indestructible and not worth enough for someone to steal. Still, I'd probably use a paint marker to put a 'property of zagdrob' on it somewhere somewhat visible to discourage it from walking off.
I might also go with cushions - they can make cheap furniture far nicer and you can either take them in with you, or easily replace them if they get stolen / damaged. I'd suggest maybe getting one of those patio 'lock boxes' to keep the cushions in when they aren't being used so they last much longer. That way, they can be securely locked up, but the combination can be shared with neighbors so people who should be able to get them out still can.
Of course, I would suggest asking your neighbors that use the patio to pitch in a few bucks, and only share the combination with those neighbors.
Trex & Teak are a bit too pricey for our budget. Wrought Iron might work, although the weight could be an issue. Does anyone have any experience with aluminum or synthetic wicker?
if you get salty air from the pacific, the shitty stuff will disintegrate within 5 years
i've seen first hand what ocean air can do to Target brand patio furniture
it wasn't pretty
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
If you can find them - possibly at an estate or garage sale, maybe a flea market, I'd recommend looking for solid metal chairs. Something like this (probably painted differently):
Eh, doesn't like my hotlinking...it was a retro metal chair, tulip chair, etc. Simple durable chairs made out of two pieces of bent pipe and two pieces of stamped heavy gauge sheet metal.
This is the kind of chairs my parents had when I was a kid, and they still hold up well decades later - no worries about weather or anything. If the paint wears and they start getting rusty, you can just sandblast and repaint. I don't think you'll find much that's more durable than this style of furniture, so it can be a good investment. The downside is they are a bit heavy. You can get cushions if you don't find them comfortable.
If you're going to buy patio furniture wait about another month and buy a set. After labor day everything gets marked way down, and buying a set with table + chairs is far cheaper than buying things independently. Check your local Lowes / Home Depot, furniture stores usually have options too but get very pricey.
Ocean air is like the slowest acting acid in vapor form.
Everything rots unless it's specifically designed for ocean air.
You want bolts, not screws and glue.
You want a couple of coats of marine-grade varnish, and then you're good to go for at least a decade.
A couple of something like this (except made in the US, obviously, I don't want to imagine how much shipping would be from Australia!) and you're set.