Heavy Duty Commercial Picnic Tables: The Ultimate Guide for Durable Outdoor Furniture
The goal of this article is to help you understand how to pick durable outdoor furniture. It will be comprehensive – but within reason.
It’s difficult to make the ultimate guide for durable outdoor furniture as a brand that offers specific product types, and competes against other companies in the same space that don’t utilize the same designs and materials. As a manufacturer, we have a defined set of products and we are extremely comfortable discussing their use cases and attributes. We don’t want to come across as negative about other brands – we enjoy competition and we think many of our competitors have redeeming qualities.
That all said: we believe we provide a unique value proposition, and we know that our products enjoy a very good position in the market. We smile every time someone tells us how familiar and recognizable our products are. In fact, there are many thousands of installations throughout the outdoor venues around the United States of our outdoor furniture products.
The purpose in this article will be to explain contributing factors we have seen that help to deliver on durability and longevity for outdoor furniture. Of course it’s our opinion, and of course it’s a bit biased – we believe that we have a world class product and we continue to refine our offering incrementally where possible, continuously.
All the lead-in aside, what do you need to know about outdoor furniture to make a decision on the best heavy duty picnic tables, and choosing durable furniture for outdoor space? Read on, we think we have some insights that can help you do just that, in the guide that follows.
As builders of Heavy Duty Picnic Tables, we feel uniquely positioned to help you understand what makes a great heavy duty picnic table
We’ve seen a lot of crazy things in our many years of being in this space. We’ve been making high quality plastisol coated steel products since 1974. We’ve used the Premier Polysteel Name for our outdoor furniture products since 1998. By either measure, we’ve been around for a lot of the most important years of the industry in which we operate.
Let’s get down to the basics though: we sell a lot of outdoor furniture, and it’s recognizable if not by name, by look and by generations of people. When you see the colorful plastisol coating and remember the times you sat on a picnic table just like it, years ago, it starts to make sense: great furniture has a legacy quality, and lasts longer than just a few years.
We are a leader in commercial outdoor furniture, and our designs, products and experiences have put us in a unique position to tell you how to get the most out of purchasing decisions. Of course we realize that you may choose another provider. You may choose a different material. You may decline our products for this project, and come back for another in the future. We still think there are some insights you can benefit from. Below is an outline of those insights.
Why we have spent so long building the right characteristics into our business and our outdoor furniture – Durability and quality and longevity matter
Our founder knew that it was important to build something that lasted. To make something that had permanence and longevity – timelessness. It was important to also back up that methodology with very good customer service. It’s helped us become a leader in the outdoor commercial furniture space. But from the most practical level longevity and durability and quality are important for business building, but they are also important for end users of the outdoor furniture we make.
People like our ‘customers’, including park patrons, business clients, residents of apartment complexes, theme park visitors, and the list goes on, they want to feel comfortable and safe using public infrastructure.
People like you, including the architects and city planners, and buying agents and designers, and facilities management professionals, and boards of organizations, want to know that liability is covered. You want to make a unique and memorable visit for your guests.
How to pick the most durable outdoor furniture, including heavy duty picnic tables – The most important attributes for a heavy duty picnic table
The following items are important checklist ideas that should be explored when purchasing outdoor furniture meant to last for the long-term:
Weatherproofness
Can it handle the normal weather in your area, and is it capable of being in place during more extreme weather swings or unexpected events (of course major events need to be evaluated and planned for on a case by case basis)? Some products like recycled plastic picnic tables and wooden picnic tables cannot stand up as well to the weather.
Ease of maintenance
Does your facilities team or janitorial team have the necessary equipment already on hand to maintain the products on an ongoing basis? Is the maintenance requirement lower than peer products? Does the cost to maintain allow you to realize actual ROI? What about major maintenance concepts – is the furniture robust enough to avoid costly major renovation or protective regimens?
Ambient environmental concerns should contribute negligibly on the overall life of the product
Is UV exposure going to be a problem? Are pests going to be a problem? Is temperature going to be a problem? What about moisture or snow load?
Comfortability and usability
Can the average user of your space feel comfortable using the furniture? Is the product built with stability and long-term high volume traffic in mind? Is there an availability of accessible versions of the furniture to meet user needs and ADA compliance? Is your space enhanced by adding this equipment, or are end users uncomfortable with the interaction of the infrastructure?
Can the company back the warranty, and more importantly, is the product built well enough that a warranty doesn’t have to be a primary buying factor?
Is the manufacturer robust enough to back a warranty? Do they honor their promises and deliver on resolving customer service issues? Is the furniture good enough to not have to rely solely on the warranty to last the expected life cycle as determined by your pre-project planning needs?
Maintenance, warranties and reputations
We offer a 20 year warranty, but the beauty of Premier Polysteel Plastisol coated Steel outdoor furniture is that it’s so well engineered and built, warranty isn’t a really big concern for a vast majority of our clients. We have furniture in place today that has been there since the day we started selling under the Premier Polysteel name. Our furniture has added protection because of the coating. We also have a wide selection of products to choose from.
Does the company you are courting as a potential provider of park or public space furniture infrastructure offer a warranty, and do they have the capability of being here in years when you may need them to honor it?
Do they take their product seriously, and is it up to the task of the rigors that come along with high volume public facing spaces?
Is their reputation generally positive? Do you know their brand, their products and do you trust their customer testimonials? Are they presenting integrity in their overall commitment to the client like you, and the end user like your visitors?
We aren’t going to speak to our competitor’s reputations or capabilities in that regard, but we can state definitively how important our customer feedback is to us, and how much it has contributed to our innovation, our success, and our ability to service clients like the readers of this blog.
What a heavy duty picnic table means to your installation in the long-term
Better furniture means:
- More return visitors and better memories created
- Improved maintenance cycles and lower budget needs
- Better ROI from initial purchase of equipment
- Better total cost of ownership
- Fewer headaches, like broken furniture, and safety incidents
- One less thing to worry about on a daily basis
- More sustainability on a per space, and per installation basis
In the end it’s not just a straightforward play on the best reviews, or the best customer testimonials, or the most recognizable product mix. But those things factor into choosing a best in class solution for your outdoor space.
A unique mix that factors in your specific project needs, budget, and future expectations as well as the information you’re hearing from the companies that are being explored as partners in implementation for your project all contributes to the suitability of their products for your project.
Of course we’d love you to consider Premier Polysteel for your durable outdoor furniture needs on a commercial level. We also offer commercial quality outdoor furniture to residential customers.
If you’re not sure whether we are that partner yet, please give us a call or fill out a contact form on our website. We have a team of dedicated professionals that can answer any questions you may have. We hope you find exactly what you’re looking for when it comes to products like heavy duty picnic tables – and we would love to help you do that.
