Independent buying guides
For anyone measuring a deck or balcony before buying a set that has to live outdoors. Each guide answers one question, costs the set per season with the formula shown, and dates every figure quoted.
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
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Photo: Guaka · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Measure once, order once.
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Photo: Apracroabei · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What things are made of, and how long that lasts.
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Photo: Apracroabei · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
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Photo: Sarah Stierch · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Putting pieces together without buying twice.
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Photo: Sarah Stierch · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Keeping it usable for years instead of months.
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Photo: Daderot · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How to choose
Teak, aluminum, powder-coated steel or resin: what each material costs you in upkeep hours per year, and which failure actually ends a patio set early.
Photo: Apracroabei · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
Price divided by years is only the first line. Add covers, cushions and upkeep, then divide by the days you actually sit outside, and the ranking changes.
Photo: Apracroabei · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Measuring and planning
The clearance arithmetic that decides whether a six-seat table fits your deck: table size plus twice the clearance, with published dimensions to check it.
Photo: Sarah Stierch · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Every figure in a guide is taken from a named source, with the date it was checked. Where a number is an assumption or an example, it says so in the same sentence.
We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned. Where a claim needs a lab or a long-term test we do not have, the guide says that plainly.
Photographs are free-licence images from Wikimedia Commons or Openverse, credited to the photographer with the licence named. Charts are drawn from the figures printed in the same guide.
This site earns money from advertising and, where disclosed, from affiliate links. That does not change the order of a comparison or the conclusion of a guide.
Some links on this site can earn us a commission. That does not change which product a guide recommends, and it adds nothing to your price. Advertising is not enabled on this site yet. When it is, ads will be labelled and kept visually separate from the guides.
Each calculator shows its formula, units and assumptions. Nothing is estimated for you in secret.
Checks whether a piece fits the space, including the walkway you need to leave around it.
remaining space = room dimension - item dimension - walkway x sides; delivery check compares the largest item dimension against the narrowest door or stair width
What a cross-border order really costs once shipping, duty and tax are added.
landed cost = (item price + shipping) + duty + tax, where duty = item price x duty rate, and tax = (item price + shipping + duty) x tax rate
Spreads purchase price, consumables and repairs over the years you expect to keep it.
cost per year = (purchase price - expected resale value + consumables per year x years + expected repairs) / years