Independent buying guides
Written for Australian households furnishing a deck, courtyard or balcony. Every guide takes one buying question, lists the figures it relies on with the date each was checked, and shows the room-fit and cost-per-season formulas in full.
The decisions that actually change what you end up with.
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Photo: Sarah Stierch · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Measure once, order once.
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Photo: Sarah Stierch · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What things are made of, and how long that lasts.
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Photo: Daderot · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
What the total comes to once everything is counted.
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Photo: BrokenSphere · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Putting pieces together without buying twice.
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Photo: Apracroabei · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Keeping it usable for years instead of months.
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Photo: Sarah Stierch · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Each guide answers one buying question and shows the figures behind the answer.
How to choose
Measure the clear floor before you count the seats. A 1.8 metre table needs about 9.72 square metres of deck once you allow 900 mm behind every chair.
Photo: BrokenSphere · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Budget and prices
Spread the setting over the years it survives and add the oil, cushions and cover. A $1,800 timber setting runs at about $317 a year once care is counted.
Photo: Apracroabei · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Materials
Teak is durability Class 1 above ground, over 40 years. Jarrah and western red cedar are Class 2, 15 to 40 years. What those classes do and do not cover.
Photo: Guaka · CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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We do not run paid product tests, we do not publish reader reviews, and we do not claim to have handled every product mentioned.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.
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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