How to care for your Patio Glider Bench

Buying an outdoor bench is always an investment and investments need to be well taken care of! No matter, if you have a traditional, jack-of-all-trades Glider Bench or if you own a well sheltered Patio Glider Bench, the care they need is pretty much the same. The first thing what you have to determine before doing any cleaning work at all, is the material your bench is made of. This pretty much determines the methods you can use. Patio and Garden Glider Benches are typically made of metal, wood, polyethylene or combinations thereof. In the case of wood, this can be untreated, treated or painted with a variety of paint emulsions. In all cases, patio glider benches require normally an astonishingly low level of care and maintenance. Just follow the steps below, and you should be fine:

1. Inspection

It is important to do a quick inspection of your outdoor furniture from time to time. Check if any screws need tightening up, if there a small scratches or blemishes that need to be repaired before developing into bigger problems, and so on. Take care of it immediately and you avoid so having bigger repair jobs to do down the time line.

2. Spot Cleaning

You don't need to do a full cleaning job every time, if there are just a few dirty spots, clean them with a soapy, damp cloth, rinse and dry well. That should be done as soon as you notice a stain to avoid that this stain settles in and is more difficult to remove later on.

3. Dusting and removal of foreign objects and loose dirt

Taking a soft brush and dusting off and removing dead leaves, bird poo and other foreign bodies from your outdoor furniture should be always the first step of a major deep clean. Only when all the loose dirt has been removed, should you proceed.

4. Washing and hosing

After all the loose dirt has been removed and stains have been spot treated you might give your patio bench a good wash with warm, soapy water (be careful with untreated wood!) and a good rinse with clear water from the water hose.

5. Drying and winter storage

After you cleaned it with water, your bench needs time to dry off completely before you can put it into storage for the winter. That is, if you want to put it into storage ;-) In all cases, let your bench always dry in the shade, never in full sunlight as this may cause blistering. The water drops can act like tiny lenses and cause a sunburn to your outdoor furniture.

You see, outdoor benches require precious little effort to keep them in shape and form and good looking. Just apply regularly a little bit of TLC (Tender Loving Care) and you will enjoy them for many years to come

Disclaimer: The best care instructions you will always find in the documentation of the manufacturer of your bench. Please refer to them first. This article is not meant to replace them, merely to give an idea of the amount of TLC might require or not require. Please use the information provided here with common sense.