Cottage Q&A
QUESTION
I have been trying to find a source of supplies so I can re-web my lawn chairs. These chairs are still being
made, so it would seem that someone must supply the webbing for them – it would help keep them out of the
landfill!
Hugh McLachlan, via e-mail
ANSWER
What can we say, Hugh? We struck out. In these days of outdoor “living spaces,” appointed with luxury patio furniture, the lowly fold-up aluminum lawn chair with plastic webbing doesn’t get a lot of respect. That little re-webbing kit once so common in hardware stores is now rarer than outhouses in Muskoka. After a fruitless search through the websites of possible sources – Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Wal-Mart, Home Depot – and then several phone calls to their head offices, we checked with Kevin Manley, manager of the Huntsville Home Hardware. He hasn’t been able to stock the kit in a long time, although he still gets a few requests every season. Best source? “Yard sales,” he says.
Deb Martz, owner of Chair Care Patio in Dallas, Texas, doesn’t know much about cottaging in Canada’s north country, but she does know a thing or two about keeping good serviceable lawn furniture going and sells the replacement parts for hundreds of models and styles from her website, www.chaircarepatio.com. But even she doesn’t carry the sought-after re-webbing kit. “Most people just throw those chairs out,” she says sadly.
If you are still loathe to send your chairs to the dump, another practical solution would be to use discarded chairs for “parts,” in much the same way cars destined for the scrap heap are scavenged. We’ll leave the actual replacement mechanics up to you.
Christine Langlois
* Published in the November/December 2007 issue of
Cottage Life
