Garden Furniture Weather Test: Rattan, Teak, Metal & Plastic After 24 Months

Two British winters change garden furniture in predictable ways, and moisture cycling rather than frost does most of the work. Furniture in Fashion, the UK modern furniture retailer, sets out how teak, hardwood, treated softwood, aluminium, steel, cast iron, synthetic rattan and moulded plastic behave through repeated wetting and drying. No scores or survival rates are published here because no UK testing programme provides them and we have not run a trial. The analysis finds that teak's silver weathering is cosmetic rather than structural, that aluminium resists corrosion while steel depends entirely on its coating remaining unbroken, that synthetic rattan almost always fails at the hidden frame rather than the weave, and that plastic is governed by ultraviolet embrittlement. It also explains why sealed covers cause more damage than rain and why cushions should be treated as a separate purchase....