Hill Cross Furniture 
Having an outdoor seating area in your restaurant can do wonders for attracting customers, especially seasonal guests looking for a pleasant spring or summer experience.
Similarly, it’s a great touch for other hospitality and professional settings, ensuring customers and staff can be comfortable while getting fresh air.
However, one of the only predictable things about British weather is that it’s unpredictable. That means even if it’s peak season, you should understand how to properly protect outdoor furniture from heavy rain, intense winds and more.
This blog will offer simple guidelines on how to protect commercial outdoor furniture throughout the year, ensuring you keep rot, rust and general degradation firmly at bay. This way, you can protect your furniture investment for as long as possible.
Investing in breathable covers
One of the most important steps in protecting outdoor furniture is choosing the right covers. Using cheap, non-breathable plastic tarps can create a sauna-like effect, which will accelerate mould growth and wood rot. Instead, you should invest in breathable, polyester covers with air vents that keep rain out and allow moisture to escape.
Remember to keep covers taut; otherwise, you run the risk of water pooling and seeping through.
Treating the materials
Different materials need different treatments to protect them from damp British weather. Even if you cover them up, you won’t be able to keep every piece out of the rain’s way at all times. It’s important to understand common materials and how to preserve them.
Wood treatments
It can be hard to protect wood outdoor furniture, especially when it can vary in terms of treatment requirements. For example, a teak sunbed’s wood elements should be treated with a hardwood shield or teak oil to maintain colour and prevent cracking. Softwood elements made from pine or spruce should be treated with a wood preserver.
Metal treatments
Aluminium is naturally corrosion- and rust-proof, but powder coating can chip if scratches are ignored, so make sure to touch up any marks whenever you notice them. Steel and wrought iron are more susceptible to rust, so pieces made from them should be coated with car wax every few months.
It’s worth noting that synthetic rattan is generally weather-hardy, but most pieces use metal or wood in their frames, so make sure to check the entire piece for all its elements.
Fabric & cushion care
Even “weatherproof” cushions and upholstery will develop black mould if left out. Even if everything else is under a cover, detachable cushions should be kept in a dry shed, garage or watertight box. When in a box, stand cushions on their side to improve airflow between the pads.
Understand when to use proper storage
Even with all these treatments and care tips, it’s important to understand when you should simply pack your pieces into long-term storage, such as during winter. It’s best to have a shed or garage space, but if you don’t, there are some tips for better protection. For example, huddling or stacking items in the most sheltered areas of your outdoor space, then covering them as a unit, can keep pieces safer.
It’s also essential to remember that the most crucial step is to purchase high-quality furniture from a reputable supplier.
Visit Hill Cross Furniture today to find everything from commercial outdoor benches to rattan bar stools, along with a wide range of contract pieces.
We also offer plenty of free resources, like this one, for business owners looking to furnish their spaces with knowledge.
