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Hardwood Garden Furniture UK

Outdoor furniture, benches, tables & chairs - what is a good hardwood?

Hardwood outdoor furniture for British gardens

Those who live in climates similar to Britain will no doubt go through the same panes as we Brits when buying quality hardwood garden furniture in the UK. Few of us are hardwood experts and possibly wouldn't know a hardwood from a softwood.

I intend to trawl the many garden shows around my area during the short summer like a man on a mission to buy some good quality outdoor garden furniture and I want it at a bargain price ... mainly because I fear the short summer of 2004 will end sooner than normal although an optimist from Benchmark cheerfully informed me that we'll have a pleasant October too!

I don't know how many so-called hardwood benches I have bought and thrown away a year or so later because our winters are not kind to our furniture and I don't like to cover them because with a patio heater we can have pleasant Autumn and Winter days in the garden.

Balau hardwood garden furniture

Picture courtesy of
Benchmark Garden Furniture

Balau Hardwood Patio Furniture

Picture courtesy of
Benchmark Garden Furniture

I have to admit I've bought my benches from DIY stores not garden centres and didn't really feel the quality or indeed sat in one to test it, well lets face it, a bench is a bench isn't it? No!! Hardwood is hardwwod isn't it ? No !!

I discovered that there are three types of hardwood; Heavy Hardwoods, Medium Hardwoods and Light Hardwoods. Teak is rated as a Medium Hardwood and Balau a Heavy Hardwood ... Balau ? I hear you say. Well I'd never heard of it anyway!

Balau is a tropical hardwood if you like Latin or garden centre speak it is of the family Dipterocarpaceae. I dare say that a botanist may agree that is was created just for outdoor garden furniture because Balau is a very dense tightly grained wood that is heavily laden with rich tropical oils and resins. Balau’s texture is very fine and even and for centuries it has been used for shipbuilding, heavy construction and indeed heavy-duty furniture, it is coveted for it's excellent strength, seasoning and weather resistant properties.

I wondered how balau compared with teak when it comes to outdoor garden furniture.

 

It has very similar in characteristics to teak, and balau may seem new to me because over the years teak has been more popular because of its availability. In recent years however the teak forestry industry has suffered from over-harvesting and this has caused the prices to skyrocket.

Consequently teak is now plantation grown but whilst balau is also managed in plantations, it’s mechanical properties are superior, Balau has not experienced the overpricing that teak has. So we have a hardwood that is stronger and more durable than teak, it costs less than teak - depending on where you shop. This balau hardwood serving trolley is only £55.00 from www.bench-mark.net.

Whilst visiting The Herts Garden Show at Knebworth House in Stevenage, I saw Benchmark's range of Balau hardwood garden furniture and accessories, also at Pendley Manor Flower Show at
Pendley Manor in Tring, Herts .I've added a list below of venues where you can see Balau garden furniture.

Picture courtesy of
Benchmark Garden Furniture

Picture courtesy of
Benchmark Garden Furniture

If you are still not convinced about the Balau versus Teak bit and need more evidence, heres some hard tried and tested facts.

Working stress data

WORKING STRESSES IN FLEXTURE - POUNDS PER SQUARE INCH

Dry Places
Under Cover In Wet Places
Outside not in contact with ground
Teak
1300 lbs
950 lbs
1100 lbs
Balau
2600 lbs
1950 lbs
2250 lbs

This tell us that Balau has far superior strength characteristics and is a more durable wood than teak by at least a factor of two.

So, how do we tell whether the garden furniture we are buying is a quality hardwood or indeed not a softwood?. I am told that if we looked at a hardwood it has little or no visible grain compared with a softwood which has a higher profile grain. That's one good way to tell hardwood from softwood but what if someone hit you over the head with a lump of wood - could you tell it was a softwood because it didn't hurt as much?

The truth is a hardwood is not necessarily a harder than softwood nor is softwood any softer than a hardwwod. Take balsa wood, it is one of the lightest, least dense woods there is, we wouldn't make a patio table and chairs out of it but it's considered a hardwood.

The distinction between hardwood and softwood has to do its reproduction. We know trees reproduce by producing seeds, but the seeds vary. Hardwood trees are angiosperms, these plants that produce seeds with some sort of covering such as fruit or nuts. When the seeds fall to the ground they are encased in their fruit or nut.

Whilst softwoods are gymnosperms. These plants let the actual seeds fall to the ground with no covering. Pine trees, which grow seeds in hard cones, fall into this category. In conifers like pines, these seeds are released into the wind once they mature. This spreads the plant's seed over a wider area.

It is also fairly accurate to say evergreens are softwoods and deciduous trees are hardwoods, generally, angiosperm trees lose their leaves during cold weather while gymnosperm trees are evergreen.

Okay that piece of useless information might be great for someone studying forestry but how does it help us by hardwood garden furniture?

Evergreens tend to be less dense than deciduous trees,so they are easier to cut, whilst the majority of hardwoods tend to be more dense, and therefore sturdier. But, as the classification of balsa wood demonstrates, there is no minimum weight requirement to become a hardwood.

The other way is to visit anyone of these garden shows in England and look at the back, if it has a green oval disc with 'Benchmark'. You've got a quality hardwood.

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

Peter Yexley
The Granary
Redwell Wood Farm
Ridge
Hertfordshire EN6 3NA
Email. peter@ukhq.com