There’s been a surge in demand for patio furniture as many homeowners see it as an ideal way of improving the garden’s aesthetic appeal. This is especially the case when the summer months are around the corner. Once you have your set of garden furniture, you shouldn’t simply place them on your patio or yard and forget to look after them. This is a huge mistake many homeowners make, cutting down the lifespan of outdoor furniture.
To ensure this doesn’t happen, you need to clean and protect your garden furniture regularly to maintain its excellent condition. As a result, it’ll look fantastic for an extended duration regardless of its material. If you don’t know how to go about doing this, here’s a guide on maintenance tips to use for your garden furniture:
Items Needed To Care For Your Garden Furniture
Before you even start caring for your garden furniture such as the glider porch swing, the first thing to do is making sure to get the items needed to guarantee a perfect job. Some of the items you need to maintain your garden furniture include;
- Rubber gloves
- Clean rugs
- Paint stirrer
- Sandpaper (fine and medium grit)
- Scrubbing brush
- Wood preserver
- Hose and a hose trigger gun
- Woodblock
- Pressure washer
- Hand or circular electric sander if necessary
- Natural bristle brush
- Electrical sander
- Bucket
- Timber cleaning solution
- Protective covers
- Anti-rust treatment
- Metal paint
- Tack cloth
- Mineral turpentine whenever you use an oil-based product
- Outdoor furniture paint or oil
These are what you need when revitalizing the look of your metallic and wooden garden furniture.
Tips To Look After Your Garden Furniture
The tips to follow when maintaining your garden furniture will depend on the material it’s been made from like softwood, metal, wicker, resin or plastic, or hardwood. For example, when you’re buying a garden sheds or storage, you must check its materials as the maintenance job is solely dependent on this factor.
Here’s an overview of how to care for each of these materials.
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Hardwood Garden Furniture
Hardwood is considered as one the most robust and durable furniture material—the woods used include iroko, teak, eucalyptus, cedar, acacia, roble, and courbaril. Hardwood usually contains natural oils in significant quantities, making such furniture less prone to damage due to wear and tear. For this reason, you can even leave your hardwood garden furniture outside during winter if the space below the cover is big enough. Also, this furniture is relatively simple to maintain.
The maintenance tips to observe if you have hardwood garden furniture are;
- Keeping the feet of your furniture away from the wet ground to prevent any rot and tilting it.
- Washing this furniture with soapy water and a brush at least once annually and then rinsing it. Doing this removes any lichens and algae on the wood.
- Cover this outdoor hardwood furniture with heavy-duty water-resistant covers during winter.
- Apply teak oil if the furniture needs to be brightened up using. But before doing this, always confirm that the wood has dried completely, or else it’ll start to blacken.
When the teak is silvery-grey rather than golden-brown, this is a sign you should apply the teak oil. With that said, doing this takes away the furniture’s natural patina, but from there onwards, it can last for long without needing treatment.
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Metal Garden Furniture
If you have metal garden furniture, the main issue will be rust. In the long run, this issue on rust can lead to the furniture breaking down. So, you need to prevent rust at all cost and to do this necessitates you to cover the metal garden furniture with waterproof covers. This way, the feet and base of the metal chairs will be protected from dampness caused by rain or snow. Other than this drawback, metal garden furniture generally needs low maintenance.
The maintenance tips to observe to ensure your metal garden furniture remains in impeccable condition include;
- Constantly wiping down the furniture after a heavy downpour to prevent the pooling of water.
- Brushing the furniture regularly to prevent any buildup of grime or dust.
- Treating signs of rot or rust right away. Ignoring this might lead to the complete damage of the metal garden furniture or spending more money on repairs.
- Buy patio covers when you aren’t using the metal garden furniture.
- Inspect for tiny cracks or chips as this acts as a pathway for water to enter below the outer layer, which eventually causes rust.
- Wash this furniture with hot water.
- Applying oil to joints and fixings to promote free movement
- Repainting the metal furniture after every two or three years to ensure its weather-resistant.
Should you decide to paint your metal garden furniture, it’s best to go over the manufacturer’s guidelines on how this needs to be done.
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Softwood Garden Furniture
Unlike hardwood, softwood needs a lot more care to ensure its aesthetic appeal remains intact as well as its functionality. This is the case because they don’t contain as many natural oils as hardwood furniture. Softwood furniture, in most cases, is made from pine wood. Hence, they tend to be costly and less durable, usually lasting for around a decade if you look after them well.
There are several valuable tips you should follow to maintain your softwood garden furniture, including;
- Placing the furniture in a shaded area.
- Applying ultraviolet (UV) filters ideally darker colors as they offer greater protection against cracking and discoloration.
- Applying paint or preserving stain during dry weather.
- Treating your softwood garden furniture with fungicide if it’s covered using a sheet as this can trigger the rotting process. You also need to do to prevent the growth of mold.
- Washing the softwood garden furniture often using wood-cleaning products ideally once each year or whenever necessary. After this, proceed to apply paint with preservative or wood stain.
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Plastic or Wicker Garden Furniture
Although a plastic or wicker garden furniture doesn’t need too much maintenance as it’s weatherproof, it’s essential to take care of it as there’s the risk of it discoloring. In addition to lowering the chances of discoloration, it’s recommended to store them in a shed during winter.
To maintain your plastic furniture, all you need to do is;
- Wash the plastic using soap and water
- Covering your furniture to prevent the bleaching of the furniture’s color by the sun rays.
- Storing the plastic garden furniture inside your store during winter to prevent fragility, which might lead to fracturing and instability due to excessive cold
Takeaway
After investing in garden furniture, you hope that it serves you for an extended duration. But to achieve this, regular maintenance is necessary, or else the hard-earned money you spent buying the furniture will all go to waste. For this reason, you should prioritize maintenance of your garden furniture, and discussed above are useful tips on the steps to go about doing this.
