4 Tips for Maintaining Your Metal Patio Furniture

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4 Tips for Maintaining Your Metal Patio Furniture

Staff Writer · Jan 14, 2011

Metal patio furniture can help you create a beautiful outdoor decor, but only if you know how to maintain it. If you don’t know how to care for it, the furniture may rust and become an eyesore. Before you know it, you’ll be hauling it off to the dump and you would have wasted money. Knowing a few tips for maintenance can help you hold on to your furniture much longer, prevent rust, and you’ll enjoy looking at it from indoors.

Tip 1 – Wash with Mild Soap

When cleaning your metal patio furniture, stay away from abrasive soaps. Those will leave scratches on your furniture, as well as chips. It can also remove paint. Use a mild soap instead with water to clean it as needed. You can make a mixture using a mild dish washing liquid detergent and water, and keep it in a spray bottle. Clean with a soft sponge or cloth.

Tip 2 – Use Tarps

Unless your apartment has a screen in patio, you’re going to have to come up with ways to keep the metal patio furniture out of the rain. Buying rust-free furniture helps you to avoid this problem, but if you don’t have it, then you’ll need to buy tarps. You can use the tarps to cover the furniture when it rains. You can use rocks to hold the tarps in place. If you expose the furniture to the rain, then it will develop rust. If you’re not at your apartment a lot, then you might want to make it a habit to cover the furniture when you’re not using it, just in case it rains when you’re away.

Tip 3 – Remove Rust

There are many ways that metal patio furniture can develop rust. When it does you should work to remove it. The easiest way to remove rust is to scrub it off with a wire brush. Try to do it as soon as you spot the rust, so that you can have more success in removing it. A large part of maintaining your furniture is to detect and remove rust. If you don’t use the furniture that much to notice, schedule a rust inspection as part of your monthly chores.

Tip 4 – Paste Wax

If you want to prevent rust in the first place, try using paste wax. Cover the furniture from top to bottom with it, and transform your metal patio furniture into a rust-free one. Paste wax will also stop corrosion of the metal. You can buy it at any home improvement center and most hardware stores. You can also buy it from a store that sells car cleaning products, because car wax is often paste wax.

Before you toss out your metal patio furniture, see whether these tips can help to restore it. Don’t paint over rust, because that will make the problem worse. If you plan to buy furniture, then keep these tips handy and spare yourself headaches in the future.

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