Secure outdoor furniture with tarps

BOB WEINSTEIN | LIVING BETTER 

It took serious discipline to get back to a daily work routine after driving around Sicily for 16 days. It was a bit of a shock pulling into my driveway and seeing my lawn, and pile of recently cut wood covered with an inch of snow.

But it was the sudden temperature change that was difficult to get used to at first. Since I hadn’t finished my fall cleanup and with winter bearing down on me, I got right to work.

One of the projects I never got to was cleaning my metal deck furniture and wrapping them securely in tarps. Since I don’t have room in my garage or basement, I have no choice but to secure them with sturdy, canvas tarps and tie them tightly so the cold and dampness doesn’t penetrate the material and rust the metal frames more than then they are.

It took a while to learn the value of properly securing deck furniture. Several brutal winters taught me the difference between a cheap, flimsy plastic tarp (typically used for protecting floors and furniture when painting) and a well-made waterproof tarp for securing deck furniture.

Before I cleaned my furniture, I made sure I had enough tarps to cover all the outdoor furniture. Ideally, it’s best to use custom-made patio covers, which can be ordered online. There are plenty of companies that sell custom covers at different price points, depending upon measurements, materials, styles and colours. Just punch in the exact dimensions, and have your credit card ready. In less than a week, they’re delivered right to your door. That’s the ideal way to secure your furniture, because the custom-made covers fit snugly to your furniture, which helps ensure the life of your furniture.

But I’d rather not spend the money. Study tarps do the job. And the extra work of securing and tying them isn’t worth talking about. Beyond the savings, tarps serve multiple purposes, aside from protecting deck and lawn furniture from snow, ice, wind, and biting cold temperatures. When the weather warms up, I’ll write a column on the many uses of tarps. For example, tarps can be used for the following: They make a solid improvised tent when camping; wrapping plants/vegetables on a cold night; dragging heavy stones, shrubs, debris, and leaves along the ground; covering furniture, beds and easily damaged objects when your roof leaks; and they can be used to temporarily cover windows, to name a few.

Enough said on tarps. Before covering your deck furniture, try to clean the surfaces as best you can. While outdoor furniture is available in a variety of materials, most furniture is made of iron, aluminum and wood. Each one has to be cleaned differently. Yet most outdoor furniture can be initially cleaned with soap and water to remove surface dirt.

Iron/steel furniture. Much of the new metal frames are made with rust-resistant metal. But the older iron/steel furniture rusts if not properly maintained. All of my deck furniture is made of iron and rusts. I try to remove all the surface rust with a compound or utility knife, and then I cover the furniture with automotive paste to prevent further corrosion. Naval jelly can also be used.

Aluminum. There are two popular types of aluminum furniture, painted and unpainted. Painted aluminum can be treated like any other painted metal surface. After cleaning it with soap and water, it can be protected with a coating of automotive paste wax. Unfinished aluminum doesn’t rust, but it does oxidize. This form of corrosion protects the metal from the cold, but it does lose some of its sheen. This can be prevented by coating it with metal polishing paste.

Wood. Most wooden furniture, with the exception of teak and cedar, should be stored indoors during the winter months. If you don’t have the room, I wrap them securely in tarps. When the weather warms up, scrape then thoroughly, and if necessary, apply another coat of paint.

After you’ve cleaned and prepped your outdoor furniture, cover it securely with tarps. It’s best to use a separate tarp for each piece of furniture. Keep them close together. You’ll be surprised what strong gusts of winter wind can do. If gale force hurricane winds can snap a tree weighing thousands of pounds, it can easily hurl a metal deck chair thousands of feet. That’s why it’s best to cluster your furniture once tarped. In fact, once they’re clustered together, circle all of the pieces with strong, heavy duty twine or rope. This way, they’re less likely to be effected by bad winter storms.