Muskoka chair: wood vs recycled HDPE
Same chair, same lake, three summers apart. This is the whole argument in one picture.
Wood is the original, and for one summer it is unbeatable: the grain, the smell, the way it takes the evening light. The trouble starts the following spring. Sun breaks down the surface fibres and turns them silver. Water gets into the end grain, swells it, and frost splits it. The stain that protected it is half gone, so you sand it and stain it again. By the third year the joints have opened, the screws have streaked rust down the slats, and the chair either gets a weekend of work every May or it gets quietly moved behind the shed.
Recycled HDPE poly lumber is the same chair made from the plastic milk jugs are made of. It does not absorb water, so nothing swells, rots or freezes inside it. The colour is in the material, so there is no surface to fail. The sun cannot grey it because it is UV-stabilised through the board. Three summers later it looks like the day it arrived; so does year ten.
| The other | Greens.ly | |
|---|---|---|
| Looks new for | One summer | Twenty years |
| Yearly upkeep | Sand, stain or paint | Hose it off |
| Rot, mould, insects | Yes, eventually | Nothing to eat |
| Frost | Splits end grain | No water inside to freeze |
| Scratches | Show bare wood | Same colour underneath |
| Weight | Light to medium | Heavy on purpose, stays put |
| Hardware | Often plated steel — rust streaks | Stainless steel |
| Ten-year cost | Chair + stain + sander + weekends | Chair |
When wood is the right answer
If you want the grain and you enjoy the ritual — sanding a chair on the first warm Saturday of the year is a real pleasure for some people — buy cedar or teak from a good maker and look after it. If you want a chair you buy once and never think about again, buy ours.
Questions
Does HDPE look like plastic?
It looks like painted wood from a few feet: milled boards, real joints, a matte finish. Up close there is no grain. It does not look like moulded resin because it is not moulded — it is sawn and bolted like lumber.
Is it heavier than wood?
Yes, about 35–40 lb for the chair, a little more than cedar. That is deliberate: it sits like furniture and does not blow across the yard in October.