Be Ready For Spring and Summer with Commercial Patio Furniture
Time Flies when you’re having fun soaking up the outdoors
Everytime spring rolls around, the outdoor venues fill up with people looking to get the most out of the summer weather and the changing season. Even in areas where there is not a harsh winter, you’ll see increasing crowd sizes in outdoor spaces to grab every bit of sunshine they can from sunrise to sunset. This is especially true in public spaces – and outdoor furniture can be an important consideration.
This is an article about the concept of being ready for the crowds as the temperature rises and spring and summer crowds start to fill up spaces that you design, administer or maintain. This is applicable for maintenance personnel, buyers of equipment and infrastructure, and administrators of outdoor spaces. It can also serve to help residential owners of outdoor furniture in addition to the commercial and institutional audience we often work with.
As the seasons change and environmental conditions transition, the resulting differences can wreak havoc on outdoor furniture. And before you know it, people are lining up to catch some rays, or enjoy an outdoor space, and their experience can be negatively impacted by poorly maintained, or damaged outdoor furniture.
What can we do to ensure we are providing the best experience for visitors and users of our spaces, whether they be public, private, or commercial? Let’s start that discussion!
What is the outlook for your current outdoor furniture?
First, let’s take a look at what exists in your space – and this is applicable to public spaces, like city infrastructure, parks, public building and outdoor services, commercial and private campuses that host a large employee or constituent population, and hospitality related organizations, like restaurants, event venues and hotels among others.
Here are some concepts that might get you thinking in the right frame of mind:
What does your inventory of outdoor infrastructure look like, when compared to your expected visitor population?
Do you have enough picnic tables, trash receptacles and other infrastructure, relative to the amount of visitors you expect? Do you have population tracking and data metrics in place to determine this? Have you seen what people are saying on social media channels related to the experience in your space? Are you soliciting feedback based on space visitors?
Not all of these concepts may be applicable, but it’s important to audit the space and see if needs for the visitor population are being met. In the case of city or county governance, this process and the purchasing process can be somewhat protracted. An early start is helpful.
In the case of commercial or employer facilities, are you increasing hiring, or decreasing on site employee populations – do you need to reevaluate the outdoor furniture and amenities to improve new visitors or daily users?
Do you require a large increase in outdoor seating like benches, or other furniture to improve on the changing habits of users?
Understanding who is using the equipment you have in place is important – it can help you plan for the next few years and can improve ROI, user experience and overall maintenance costs, if you are properly meeting space needs.
How badly was the furniture damaged during the slower season?
Did the weather cause problems with the safety or usability of your outdoor furniture? Is year three of use showing accelerated wear or unrealistic damage from your initial purchase? Did the change in humidity or moisture levels compromise the overall stability or quality of the outdoor furniture?
Have you had non-environmental damage to your outdoor furniture and amenities?
Did you have damaged or missing inventory from theft, or vandalism? Do you need to inspect and improve or replace tie-downs, mounts, or other accessory safeguards to ensure public safety or overall maintenance costs?
Is your initial purchase aging out or becoming a negative drain on maintenance schedules and budgets?
Has your initial purchase become a difficult to maintain group of furniture? Do you need to consider a full replacement plan? Are workers spending too many hours trying to keep a group of infrastructure in operable condition? Sometimes the replacement costs can be justified easily when weighed against the yearly increase in costs. Rates for qualified labor are going up and are not likely to be reduced in the future, generally – can you save money by making infrastructure improvements? Can you ease maintenance duties by improvement in infrastructure including your outdoor furniture?
Has support or warranty become an issue on your outdoor furniture?
Is your warranty period over? Did you have problems with a company that did not honor a warranty or has trouble meeting ongoing needs? Did you know warranties can be incredibly important?
Has the visitor population changed for your outdoor space?
Year over year, did your visitor profile change? Did you have many move-ins to the area, or is there a new demographic change (e.g. a senior center or a sports complex can have a dramatic year over year impact on the type of visitor you may see in your space)?
Do you have enhanced needs now? Do you have other concerns to prepare for or safety risks to minimize?
Do you need to accommodate safety concerns because a new parking scheme was implemented for example, that might require planters to help guide traffic? Do you have increased wind load because a new development cleared out a natural windbreak, or because weather changes and environmental considerations?
Protecting and maintaining your outdoor furniture
While some of the above concepts may seem a bit esoteric, they are meant to get you thinking as someone involved with facility maintenance, administration of a high visitor count space, or a purchaser of infrastructure like outdoor seating and waste management products.
While it’d be great to cover maintenance from an in depth perspective in this article, we have an article that may be more appropriate given the scope of the article up to this point.
Why Premier Polysteel products make sense to consider for your outdoor space
We hope that we’ve given you some ideas to consider in the overall preparation phase for robust Spring and Summer crowds. We’d like to tell you how we address some of the above concerns as a producer of high quality outdoor furniture.
Premier Polysteel can be a gamechanger for your outdoor furniture needs
Premier Polysteel outdoor furniture is:
- Easy to clean and disinfect with common cleaning products
- Heavy-duty. Our products when properly installed won’t tip over in high winds you can see our products tested rigorously for balance and stability
- UV stable and mildew resistant
- Engineered to dry quickly
- Coated in plastisol, so the surfaces never get too hot or too cold because of this plastisol coating
- Protected against rust – proven to be long-term rust proof in normal conditions
- Manufactured with no open pipe ends that allow access to bees and other insects
We build products quickly on site at our production facility in Iowa. We have better than average industry lead times, but we want to make sure we can meet your needs – so we encourage you to contact us with questions about timelines for production and delivery.
We believe that you’ll be impressed with our team’s knowledge and understanding of your type of space and with our ability to provide you with a product that is built for the long-term and can be counted on regardless of the conditions of your space, or your needs as an organization.
We invite you to see why thousands of public and private entities all around the United States have chosen Premier Polysteel as their premier provider of outdoor furniture.