Garden Furniture Covers

Once you have your garden furniture, the big question is how to care for it. You might think that garden furniture is made to be left in the garden, but this is not inevitably true. The real answer is: it depends on what it is made of, where you live and how much effort you are prepared to put into looking after it.

How can you expect any material other than stone or steel to put up with temperature ranging from 20c below to 30c above? In some places in the world, the temperature can vary even more. On top of this wood or fabric will soak up some water and so will expand and contract. Hardwood less so, but it does lose natural oils which should be replaced. Plastic perishes in strong sunlight and becomes brittle after a while. Another factor is theft. Expensive garden furniture is sometimes stolen.

If you have light weight garden furniture and if you have a garden shed, then it would be a good idea to keep it in there during the winter or during other times when you think you will not use it much. This will safeguard it from the worst of the weather. On the other hand, if you have heavy hardwood garden furniture this proposal becomes less feasible.

Steel garden furniture has to be shielded from rain and snow every now and again with some kind of water repellent polish or even light oil. Timber and wicker need protection too, particularly from rain. This can be accomplished by oiling it appropriately and polishing it. Plastic can be stacked in the shade, thus exposing less surface area to the sun when not in use.

The alternative to recurrent maintenance is garden chair covers. You will still have to take care of timber garden furniture, but garden furniture covers protect your furniture from the worst ravages of the weather. Garden furniture covers are usually made from heavy gauge vinyl with a polyurethane lining. The heavier the gauge the vinyl, the more durable the cover. The vinyl exterior of the garden furniture cover shields your furniture from strong direct sunlight, the rain and the snow.

The polyurethane lining will keep out any amount of rain and bad weather, but may become brittle after a few years because of strong direct sunlight. It is worth inquiring about this when you are purchasing your garden furniture covers, because some plastics are much better than others. It has to be highly UV resistant. That is resistant to ultraviolet light. Your garden furniture covers will have to be loose fitting and not impede air flow too much. This is to protect timber furniture against sweating and condensation which could lead to mold, mildew or even rot.

Check that your garden furniture covers have some way of holding themselves down if the wind blows up. Some have an elasticated edge others have ribbons or ties. Be sure that the elastic is strong or that the ties cannot rot quickly, because without these aids, you may either lose your garden furniture covers next Fall or you will be reduced to heaping stones on your covers to keep them down, which does not look good.

Cushions can be kept on the furniture, but under the covers or taken indoors, although some covers have pockets to put the cushions in. Check to see whether these pockets will store water too which could cause mould and mildew problems for your cushions, depending what they are made from. The last thing to think about is colour. Garden furniture covers come in a range of colours.

This is a personal choice obviously, but as you will be using your garden furniture covers most frequently in the winter, you may want white to match the snow or you may want to match the colour of your house's outside walls. Or green to match the surrounding grass. You are on your own there, I am afraid.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with recliner slip covers. If you are interested in a black recliner or any other type, please click through to our site.

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