How to properly clean & maintain outdoor patio furniture?

All of us love sitting in the garden and spend some quality time with ourselves or closed ones. This makes it essential to have beautiful furniture there which also depicts our personality and mood. Like for someone who prefers summers a lot, will prefer to go for bold yellow rather than neutral grey. Patio furniture is the furniture which is designed for keeping outside and other outdoor purposes. Therefore, it becomes necessary to make them using weather-resistant material which can survive the adverse conditions of nature and prevents them from being corroded. One of the most used metals for this purpose is aluminum. There are different furniture types which are available like Bamboo furniture, Wooden furniture, Metal furniture, Wicker or rattan furniture, Glass furniture, Plastic furniture or Concrete furniture. The patio furniture is mostly made of wood, plastic, aluminum, wrought iron, and wicker.

You can find plenty of them in different varieties in
rattanfurnitureuk.co.uk But, it becomes essential to take care of outdoor furniture and get them cleaned once in a while. With different types, the cleaning process differs. Let us see all of them one by one.

Teak and Wicker Patio Furniture

As teak is pretty durable and doesn't take much money and time to get it cleaned and maintained, it could be one of the best options. You can use pure teak oil to get its back to its original form. Teak is resistant to mold and rot, but if not taken care of there can be mildew formation on the surface of the furniture. To ensure that the furniture is to lose its luster, not getting discolored or there is no mildew formation, it should be cleaned regularly. Let us see some homemade solutions:

1) You need a cup of vinegar and a gallon of warm water or laundry detergent, chlorine bleach and warm water to scrub the furniture. Take a plastic brush and dip it in the cleansing solution and get it cleaned. Don't be too harsh and don't use any metal brush as it will bruise the surface and damage it. It also helps taking care of water stains.

2) If the furniture is exposed to harsh elements for a longer time, you need to purchase an aggressive solution which is present or buy it from near local shops to clean the pieces. But, using too much of power wash isn't good as the softwood is damaged which is not encouraged. Also, you need to read all the instructions carefully as the solution might need to be diluted.

Rattan Patio Furniture

This eco-friendly material is desirable, durable and lightweight. It looks somewhat similar to bamboo and is vine-like palm that stretches in the jungles of Asia, Malaysia, etc. But, you don't want your patio furniture to be al spoilt, so we have this magic serum that can help you:

1) In a bowl of water, put few drops of the soap used for cleaning dishes. Keep stirring it, unless you see bubbles on the surface. You can dip a soft cloth in the bubbles to ensure that there is no direct contact with the cleaning solution. You can wipe any part of furniture using this solution.

2) Don't wet the material too much as it gets damaged. There can be several cracks in the furniture, and it should be cleaned using a toothbrush or some soft brush.

3) You can also include the detergent to the soft brush and scrub it using more water and make it clean. Once, it is finished, you need to dry them in the sun or sue some hair dryer to do so. To make sure no fungi are settling you need to give a thin coat of lacquer once it is dried.

Wrought Iron or Metallic Patio Furniture

A lot of patio furniture is made with wrought iron, cast iron or even stainless steel. It is effortless to clean them as you can add one-fourth of the mild dishwashing soap to warm water and use it as a cleansing solution. The primary issue of using metal furniture is rust, so it needs to be coated or painted after sanding the areas using sandpaper so that there is no oxidation and lasts long. You can also use a scrub brush if some harsh stain is to be removed.

Plastic Patio Furniture

There are a lot of advantages like it won't ever rust and is of low cost and maintenance. The only disadvantage is it fades, and if exposed to heat, it becomes brittle. To clean it, you can either mix half a cup of baking soda with three tablespoons of dishwashing detergent and add them in a gallon of warm water. You can also add a cup of white vinegar to 5-7 cups of water, and you are good to go.

We have discussed how to take care of your outdoor patio furniture. When you buy costly products, it is necessary to maintain them as well, so make sure you take care of them.