Liners for Hayrack Planters:
The dimensions listed for our hayrack liners are the interior dimensions of the baskets in which they fit. The actual liners may be slightly smaller. Note that these are intended ONLY for hayrack planters and not regular windowboxes—hayrack planters curve in the front and do NOT have a flat bottom.
Example: GL24 fits a 24" Window Hayrack. Measurements are 24" L x 7.5" W x 7.5" D
The liner for the 24" window hayrack may actually only measure 23" across the back rather than 24". The other measurements we give for the window hayrack liners are the depth, which is measured top to bottom on the back, and width which is measured back to front across the top.
Liners for Hanging Baskets and Round Planters:
Measure from side to side across the top in the center for the diameter, and from top to bottom for the depth. Note that some of our liners are made for baskets with a flatter bottom, so you should match the shape to your basket or planter.
Question:
Why is Teak furniture more expensive than other hardwood furniture on the market?Answer:
There are a number of cheaper hardwoods used for outdoor furniture with all of them inferior to teak. “Jarrah” is the most common of these woods and it does not have the same life expectancy as teak - let alone the same touch, feel or aesthetic quality. Teak furniture is not expensive when you relate the cost to its life expectancy; you must remember this when comparing prices. You are not comparing like with like when you compare teak with any other wood. It is a strange anomaly that despite the fact it is built to endure decades in harsh weather conditions, our furniture is less expensive than other quality indoor chairs and tables.
- - Do less expensive items in the range have the same quality as the more expensive?
- Generally price is dictated by the shape and weight of a piece of furniture. The more shape a piece has, the more wood is required to make it along with taking more time to create. Also, the heavier the sections of wood used means more weight and thus more cost. No matter which piece of furniture you choose, you can be assured that the same quality teak and standard of workmanship is used along with the same methods of manufacture and assembly.
- - How do I look after my teak furniture?
- Teak is a natural product; it can be left out in the open all year round through rain, hail or shine. Its color will gradually mellow to a graceful silver grey. The character of your furniture will alter, but its strength will remain. An occasional scrub down with hot soapy water will compliment this process and discourage any moss growth.
- - How long will it last?
- Teak furniture should last a lifetime if properly built in the first place. We use only the top grade kiln-dried timber, epoxy resins for lasting strength, and any metal parts are either stainless steel or solid brass, which will not rust or corrode when left outside. The top grade teak furniture which is used in all our furniture and with its high natural oil content, resists both warping and rot and ensures that Indian Ocean teak furniture will last more than a lifetime.
- - Cracks appear periodically in my furniture and then go away?
- This is perfectly normal as the wood breathes and reacts to variations in the moisture content of the air. The cracking tends to appear on the end grain sections and usually happens early in the life of the furniture. Cracks come and go depending on seasonal variations but rarely do they affect the strength, performance, or life expectancy of the item.
- - Should I keep the furniture indoors during the winter months?
- There is no problem wintering furniture outside, though it may need a washing down in spring before use. Should you prefer to bring your furniture indoors, our range of folding tables and chairs are perfect and can be easily tucked away when not in use.
- - Spills, Stains, Chips and Scratches?
- Most drink stains will weather out naturally or can be cleaned down with soapy water and a hard brush. Other damage or stains can be removed quite simply using ordinary sandpaper. The grade of sandpaper depends on the degree of damage. Serious damage - start with course and move up to fine. Light damage - fine grade is all you will need. Stains usually disappear with a light sanding.
- - How easy is the furniture to assemble?
- Most of the time the furniture is supplied flat-packed in semi-assemblies. Only few products come in fully assembles. All flat-packed items come with the hardware, dowels, screw glue and instruction manual. To make the furniture stronger and more stable, glue is required even though in some cases glue is not required. In most cases the furniture can be assembled within a few minutes by a single person with a minimum of tools. However, a helper is always useful.
Question:
Do your planters come with drain holes?Answer:
Yes and no. If you are planting directly in the pot, your pot needs drainage, so you may want to purchase a saucer. If you are using it indoors as a cache pot or cover pot you will not need drainage.
Cast Stone: These come standard with drain holes unless otherwise requested. You may also specify your drain hole size for these planters because they are cast after an order is placed.
Resin: Most of the Crescent line of planters come with drainage. The Montana Bowl is the exception; it does not come with a drain hole but can be easily drilled if needed. Some of the other planters, such as the Delano Oval and the Orinoco Bowl come with plugs so that they may be used for water gardens. Riverside planters have drainage holes.
Aluminum & Steel from Ore, Inc: These are crafted once an order is placed, so drainage can be specified at that time.
Fiberglass: Our fiberglass planters do not come with drainage so that they can be used indoors as well as outdoors. You must specify drainage requirements at time of order.
Garden Artisans Exclusive Designs in Copper, Brass & Aluminum: Drainage requirements must be specified at time of order.
Fiberstone: All of our fiberstone planters drainage must be specified.
Yes and no. If you are planting directly in the pot, your pot needs drainage, so you may want to purchase a saucer. If you are using it indoors as a cache pot or cover pot you will not need drainage.
Cast Stone: These come standard with drain holes unless otherwise requested. You may also specify your drain hole size for these planters because they are cast after an order is placed.
Resin: Most of the Crescent line of planters come with drainage. The Montana Bowl is the exception; it does not come with a drain hole but can be easily drilled if needed. Some of the other planters, such as the Delano Oval and the Orinoco Bowl come with plugs so that they may be used for water gardens. Riverside planters have drainage holes.
Aluminum & Steel from Ore, Inc: These are crafted once an order is placed, so drainage can be specified at that time.
Fiberglass: Our fiberglass planters do not come with drainage so that they can be used indoors as well as outdoors. You must specify drainage requirements at time of order.
Garden Artisans Exclusive Designs in Copper, Brass & Aluminum: Drainage requirements must be specified at time of order.
Fiberstone: All of our fiberstone planters drainage must be specified.
Question:
Do I need a saucer?Answer:
Saucers are optional and are usually preferred when water draining from a planter may stain or damage the surface below. The INSIDE dimensions of the saucer should be approximately 2 inches larger than the OUTSIDE BOTTOM of the planter. This will allow for a 1” space around the bottom of the planter when sitting inside the saucer.
Question:
Galvanized Garden Structures - why pay more?Answer:
To answer that question, you really need to understand the process of galvanization. It is our belief that anyone who buys steel for outdoor use and does not pay the extra cost for galvanization is making a poor long-term decision. Galvanizing provides a rust resistant finish for metal products. Products with a galvanized finish are much less likely to show rust, except where the galvanized coat wears off in use. In areas where products will be exposed to salt water (sea air) serious thought should be given to using products that have a galvanized base. Otherwise, it will be necessary to repaint as much as every year. Because the galvanizing process involves total immersion of the material, it is a complete process; all surfaces are coated. Galvanizing provides both outside and inside protection for hollow structures.- Hot-dip Galvanizing is a modern and technically advanced method that protects iron and steel from rust by providing a thick metallic zinc envelope that completely covers the steel surface and seals it from the corrosive action of its environment. A high quality zinc coating is welded to the steel surface by an alloying reaction between zinc to form a tough, durable and impervious coating. This protects the steel by electrochemical protection, also known as sacrificial protection because where there is damage or minor discontinuity in the sealing coat of zinc, the zinc sacrifices itself to protect the steel to which it is alloyed. It will go on doing so until almost the last atom of zinc, significantly reducing corrosion of steel and iron.
- Unlike organic paint coatings that require frequent renewal, the galvanized coating cannot come off as it is alloyed to the surface of the steel, coating every surface of the product which can be reached in the hot dip process, both inside and out.
- In hot dip galvanizing a product, the galvanizer cleans the steel by degreasing and pickling to obtain a chemically clean surface.
The galvanizing reaction between zinc and steel takes place in liquid zinc, at high temperature for a few minutes.
Steel can be further protected from the elements by adding powder-coating. This combines the advantage of the durability of galvanizing with the attractive appearance of powder-coating.
Economic Benefits: Because duplex systems (combining galvanizing with powder-coating) greatly extend the service life of a product, maintenance costs are significantly decreased. Additionally, a product lasts longer before it must be replaced, thus decreasing the life-cycle cost. The cost of a product, which has been protected by galvanizing and painting, is lower over the entire life of the product than most single system methods of corrosion protection.
Synergistic Effect: Combining galvanizing with powder-coat finishes provides corrosion protection 1.5 to 2.5 times longer than the sum of the lifetimes of zinc and paint used individually. For example, if a galvanized coating is expected to last 40 years and a paint system is expected to last 10 years, galvanizing and paint together should last 75 years with needed maintenance, or 1.5 times the sum of both systems.
More About Metals and Corrosion
Corrosion should always be a consideration when choosing a garden structure. Being able to make a material or component resistant to corrosion is a vital part of designing and constructing anything you wish to last in an outdoor environment.
What is Corrosion?
Corrosion is the result of a material reacting with an outside substance, such as a gas or liquid. The most common occurrence of corrosion is that on mild steel or other iron-based alloys. Iron reacts with oxygen and forms Iron oxide, aka rust.
Rust is the enemy of everything from bridges to garden accesssories and presents as an orange substance on the surface, which if left unattended will turn solid steel components into iron oxide powder.
Corrosion engineering is a specialized field with experts dedicated to preventing and monitoring the progression of it, it applies to everything from steel structures to aircraft components and everything in between.
Corrosion Resistance
Corrosion resistance generally refers to the ability of iron-based alloys to resist oxidization in air or water. Corrosion resistance can come from a material’s chemical composition, or through a secondary process applied after the part is manufactured.
How to Prevent Corrosion on Steel?
With steel being the most commonly used metal in the world, there have been many different corrosion resistance techniques developed. Each one has its advantages and drawbacks.
Galvanizing
As zinc does not rust and has a relatively low melting point, it can be melted in a large tank (bath) and used to coat steel parts by dipping them in it. This is the fundamental principle of galvanizing.
Large parts are hung from frames attached to overhead cranes and dipped into the bath, smaller parts can be coated via a cylindrical spinning technique, which is known as spin or centrifuge galvanizing.
Benefits of Galvanizing:
- Relatively cheap – thanks to automated dipping processes
- Gives excellent corrosion resistance, it is also reasonably hard-wearing
- Fast processing – even large or complex parts can be dipped in a day
Drawbacks of Galvanizing:
- Prep work needed – As the part is dipped in liquid metal, vent and drain holes are needed to avoid it filling with liquid zinc
- Poor finish quality – galvanizing leaves a thick coating of zinc, which can build up on corners and fine details, resulting in a poor-looking finish if not addressed
- Threaded holes – the zinc will fill in threaded holes, so they need to either be re-tapped or tapped after coating
Painting
Everyone is familiar with the concept of painting something to improve its appearance, from fences to home decor. The primary purpose of painting steel components is often to prevent corrosion.
High-performance coatings are often applied in two or three coats, involving a specialist primer and base coat. They can be extremely effective at preventing corrosion. Application methods range from spraying to brushing or rolling, the latter usually being used where the resultant appearance is not critical.
Before paint can be applied, the surface needs to be prepared, this can be done by chemical stripping, sanding, shot blasting or a combination of these things. Each one can take a long time on complex parts.
Benefits of Painting:
- Finish quality – if needed, the end result can be of a very high quality
- Range of finishes – the combination of colors, textures and gloss levels is exhaustive
- Size of component – because the parts don’t need to be dipped into a bath, large parts are reasonably easy to process
Drawback of Painting:
- Expensive – both the materials and labor costs involved in painting parts, especially complex ones, can be very high with wet painting
- Upkeep – Whilst high-quality paint finishes can last years, some may still need replenishing or touching up if they are subject to harsh conditions
Plating
Plating coats steel or other parts with a very thin layer of another material such as zinc or copper to prevent corrosion. It is much thinner than galvanizing but is often done in a similar fashion.
There are two types of plating; electrolytic plating and electroless plating. The former uses an electric current and a bath of electrolytic solution to encourage the plating material to coat the part.
Benefits of Plating:
- Thin layer – plating creates an incredibly thin layer, meaning parts can be plated after the machining process such as tapping, and the features will be within specification
- Good corrosion resistance – despite the thin layer, plated parts can retain their corrosion resistance if handled well
Drawbacks of Plating:
- Abrasion resistance – because the layer is very thin, and the coating material is soft, plated parts do not resist abrasion and harsh conditions as well as galvanized parts
- Size limitations – whilst large components can be plated, many plating companies have baths much smaller than those of galvanizing plants
Which Metals are Corrosion Resistant?
As well as the various methods listed above, some metals are inherently corrosion-resistant thanks to their chemical composition. These are used where corrosion protection is extremely important and/or the part is hard to protect by other means.
Even though some of the following metals do corrode, they are often used in place of steel for their slow rate of oxidization:
- Stainless Steel – an alloy of steel containing chromium, it forms a layer of chromium oxide on the surface that prevents further corrosion
- Aluminum – aluminum oxide does form on the surface, but in usual situations, this stops after an initial layer is formed
- Copper – Copper oxide forms in a pleasant green hue, but generally stops after an initial layer is formed, allowing it to be used for water transportation for many years
Do All Metals Corrode?
Not all metals corrode readily in the normal atmosphere we experience, but most do to some degree. Metals like aluminum and titanium will develop an oxide on their surface that is mostly indistinguishable from the base metal.
Noble metals such as platinum, gold and silver barely corrode at all, as they don’t react with oxygen.
Shipping
Question:
How will my order ship if it is Free Shipping?Answer:
That will depend upon the item shipping, but as a general rule we will choose the method that will safely get your order to you and is also the most economical.Question:
Why does it cost so much to ship my item?Answer:
There are many factors taken into consideration when a shipping rate is determined: weight, box dimensions and length of travel. New to 2015, Fed Ex and UPS now calculate shipping weights by taking the dimensions of the shipping box, L x W x H, and dividing by a divisor that is a negotiated rate. This is the weight then used to calculate the shipping weight. So even if you have purchased a lightweight item, it can ship at a much higher weight. We pass along all negotiated rates to our customers.
Question:
What does truck shipment or motor freight mean?Answer:
Truck shipment means the product you have chosen will ship via a large semi-type truck rather than the small package trucks most often seen by residential deliveries via Fed Ex, UPS and the post office.
When we quote a truck shipment, this means your item will be delivered strapped to a pallet. Trucking companies charge an additional fee to bring these trucks into residential areas. Most companies also charge a fee for a lift-gate. A lift-gate is the apparatus on the back of a truck that allows the driver to lower the pallet to the ground. In our quotes, the pallet will be left at your curb. It is then up to you to retrieve your item and move it to your desired location. You will also be required to dispose of the pallet.
When a truck shipment is arranged going to a residential area, dispatch from the trucking company will call you to arrange the date of the delivery. You must be home to accept and sign for this delivery. You should inspect the pallet carefully and note on the ticket any damage to the pallet that you fear may affect the product on the pallet. If you can see that the item is damaged on the pallet beyond what you are willing to accept, you should refuse the shipment. If you think it is something that can be repaired and you can accept that, then sign the ticket, noting any damage you see, and contact us immediately.
Question:
When should I request a shipping estimate?Answer:
When you are adding multiple and varied items to a cart, our shipping calculators are not always able to condense and pack appropriately; therefore, it may return an incorrect shipping quote.Anytime you are not happy or question the shipping estimate, please request a quote! We are happy to provide them.