Maintaining Outdoor Wicker Furniture
Maintaining your wicker furniture is important to prolonging its life. You should perform regular maintenance on your outdoor wicker furniture to keep it protected from the effects weather can have upon it. Maintenance includes repairing worn or broken spots and repainting. You will want to clean your wicker furniture with a damp cloth or sweep it off with a vacuum and a brush attachment before trying to do any maintenance.
To get the maximum benefits from painting your outdoor wicker furniture you need to go through a few steps. You should gather all the materials you need before beginning. You will need a liquid stripper that is designed for use on wicker, a toothbrush or small brush, a pointed dowel rod, and some cloths. When you are stripping the furniture it will become soft and stretchy because moisture has that effect on wicker. When it dries it will regain its former shape as long as you have not stretched it. Apply the liquid stripper to the furniture and allow it to soak into and begin to work. It should start to remove the paint for you. You can then use your tools to push away the remaining paint. If the previous paint was a darker color then you might end up with a stain left behind where the wicker soaked up the pigment. Make sure you get into all the weaved areas. Let the furniture dry 24 to 48 hours after you are finished stripping it. If you were left with a pigment stain on your furniture you may want to give it a few coats of light colored paint before actually doing your final paint job. Using spray paint is the easiest way to paint wicker. Again, make sure you get into all the weave areas. Let the furniture dry completely before using.
Repairing your wicker furniture takes some skill. You should have a basic idea of how to weave before attempting to repair a wicker piece. If you are unable to repair it you may have to seek out a professional. The first step in repairs is to take a good look at the damage. There are a few ways to repair wicker. You may have to reweave a whole section or just add in a new wicker strip. In order to prepare the new piece or pieces of wicker you need to soak it in linseed oil to make it bendable. You can then weave the new pieces into place.
Keeping up maintenance and repairing your outdoor wicker furniture will keep them usable for many years. It is not something you should have to do often, but once a year you should check the furniture’s condition. To help cut down on maintenance you may wan tot consider moving outdoor wicker furniture inside during harsh weather.
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