How to choose a Muskoka chair

1. Material

There are four: wood, moulded resin, metal, and recycled HDPE poly lumber. Wood looks best for a season and needs a weekend every spring. Resin is light, cheap and cracks in a cold winter. Metal is hot, cold or rusty depending on which metal. Poly lumber is solid, heavy, pigmented through and needs nothing. Wood vs HDPE · Resin vs poly lumber · Metal.

2. Weight

A real poly-lumber chair weighs 35–40 lb. That weight is solid board, and it is what keeps the chair on the deck in a gale. Anything under 25 lb is hollow. Ask; if the listing does not say, that is the answer.

3. Slat thickness

One inch is right. Three-quarters is acceptable. Half an inch flexes, and a chair that flexes is a chair that creaks by the second summer.

4. Hardware

Stainless steel, and nothing else. Zinc-plated or "rust-resistant" screws streak rust down the slats within two years and there is no fixing it. A magnet does not stick to good stainless.

5. Colour through the board

Scratch a hidden edge with a key. If it shows white, the colour is a coating and every scuff will show. Pigmented-through board is the same colour inside.

6. The promises

Twenty years on the material is normal from the good makers. Thirty days to return it after it arrives, with the shipping paid, is fair. Free cancellation before it is built is decent. Anything less, ask why.

Then: colour, and how many

Choosing a colour for your deck, dock or patio. And if you will end up with more than one — most people do — buy them as a set: every chair in a set of two, four or six is cheaper.

Ours, against the list

Recycled HDPE lumber, about 38 lb, one-inch slats, stainless hardware, pigmented through, 20-year warranty, 30-day returns with shipping paid, cancel free before production, $299 CAD delivered. That is not a coincidence; the list is what we built it to.