You need comfortable lawn furniture if you love the outdoors and spend your weekends on your deck or patio. Do you love having parties outside or barbecuing on the weekends but need more seats for all your friends? Or have you purchased cheap constructed lawn furniture in the past? You know it just can't withstand the elements! If these outdoor seating problems have hindered you, then the Amish woodworkers can help. I've been researching to help you transform your deck, patio, or poolside into an oasis with Amish-constructed Polymer wood lawn furniture. Continue reading to learn how Amish Poly furniture can transform your patio from just another spot in the yard into a cozy corner of relaxation.

So What Is Amish Poly Outdoor Furniture?

Poly wood furniture is made of recycled polyethylene plastic. The same type of plastic is found in many everyday items, such as the plastic in soda bottles, vehicle interior door panels, and many other household storage containers. However, a great thing about Poly wood furniture, or HDPE as many people refer to it, comes about in the recycling process. The pigment or color in the polyethylene furniture begins in the recycling process, where items such as old bottles are separated by color, size, and thickness. This separation is to ensure that there is no contamination at the end of the recycling process. 

After the first initial separation process of the recycled plastics, the separated products are washed. This washing of the old plastic removes labels and leftover residue from things such as detergents. A little side note, it only takes one small label to ruin an entire batch of recycled plastics. Next, the clean plastics are put into a shredder. The shredding process is where different grades of plastic can further be separated to make other items, such as additives for different plastic mixtures. The shredded pieces of plastic are then checked for weight and, once checked, are melted down to form small plastic pellets that will be heated, formed, and pressed into different grades of plastics, such as the grade of plastic poly outdoor furniture is made. Below is a table showing six different types of plastics and what they are used for, and for a little more information, here is a link to shed a little more light on how Poly wood is Poly-Wood Lumber.

Six Different Types Of Plastics And Their Uses

• Polyethylene Terephthalate #1 : Used For (Food Grade Containers)

• High-Density Polyethylene #2 : Used for children's (Toys)

• Polyvinyl Chloride #3 : Used For (Amish Poly Furniture)

• Low-Density Polyethylene #4 : Used for (Garbage Bags)

• Polypropylene #5 : Used for plastics found in Tool & Die Machine work for making (Surgical Tools)

• Polystyrene #6 : Used for completely disposable products that can only be recycled once (Packing & Shipping Material)

How Do You Spot Good Grade Amish Poly Outdoor Furniture?

Now that you have a better understanding of how poly plastic wood is made, one major thing to look for when buying Amish poly wood lawn furniture is to check for significant imperfections in the finish of the poly plastics. On some rare occasions, you will see a piece of poly plastic that did not form correctly. In the forming process, the poly wood pellets are heated and pressed into extremely long boards. Then, the boards are sent through a cooling tank that sprays the new plastic boards with high-pressure water. The High-pressure water spray gives poly wood its wood grain look. Also, the use of high-pressure water spray is what cools the plastic, so it gains its rigid toughness. Remember, when buying Amish poly wood outdoor furniture, if the cooling water jets clog during the cooling process or the CNC machines that cut and shape the boards have dull tool bits, the poly wood could have significant imperfections in the finished boards. Poly wood looks like natural wood!!!

The Amish believe the quality of their work should always shine through. Just like the traditional wood products the Amish woodworkers construct. The Amish woodworkers carefully check the new poly wood lumber by hand before assembling any outdoor furniture. Doing this makes the Amish-constructed poly furniture better than most. Suppose there are any imperfections in the new poly boards. In that case, it is common for the Amish woodworkers to turn the imperfections downward or completely discard the piece, to keep the visible parts of the new furniture looking its best. You might need help finding this careful inspection of the boards on any of the cheaper poly wood furniture found at many major box stores. 

1. Amish Poly wood furniture does not have to be painted.
2. Amish Poly wood furniture can withstand the elements better than traditional outdoor furniture.
3. Amish Poly wood furniture is lighter in weight than tradition outdoor furniture (makes it easier to move, if needed!!!)
4. Amish Poly wood furniture helps save the environment from waste plastic products (ECO Friendly).
5. Amish Poly wood furniture requires no maintenance, other than a good was with a garden hose.  

So How Do The Amish Sale Poly Wood Outdoor Furniture Cheaper Than Most Places?

If you have ever priced good quality outdoor furniture, then you know it's expensive!!! The Amish usually buy supplies in bulk, and Poly wood is no different. Also, the Amish woodworkers are usually cheaper in hourly labor cost, and when you combine those two points with quality craftsmanship, you can't beat Amish-made Poly wood furniture. The Amish built the above chairs in Ethridge, Tennessee. Usually, chairs of lesser quality than those above will cost upwards of $400.00 apiece. The Poly wood Amish chairs in the above picture will sell for a quarter of the price of conventional poly wood furniture pieces. Not only are they better constructed than the chairs you find at most box stores, but the styling and design of the Amish poly wood chairs are usually more unique than the standard poly wood outdoor furniture found at major retail stores. It's not uncommon to see Amish Poly wood furniture, such as the chairs above, with gliding footstools or drink holders built into the design of the poly products.

On one of my trips to Amish country, I asked an Amish woodworker just what went into building a piece of poly wood outdoor furniture. Here's what he told me.*

"We do all the work by hand, and our poly wood comes to us unshaped. We drill all the holes by hand, cut all the poly wood on our saws, and do all our routing. We try to build poly furniture comfortable with different options and styles, unlike the ones at the stores." *edited for clarity and conciseness

What Other Products Do The Amish Build From Poly Wood?

As always, the Amish woodworkers build the typical Adirondack style of outdoor chairs from poly wood, but did you know if you are in the market for a folding poly wood outdoor chair, the Amish also build those? Not to mention you can buy porch swings, foot gliders, glider chairs, tables, rocking chairs, gliding swings, stationary benches, and chairs, all made from poly wood that the Amish construct! But another unique thing that many visitors to the Ethridge Amish community find interesting is that our Amish community builds out of Poly wood. For example, the Amish woodworkers in our community build playground sets for children, usually constructed from regular wood and poly wood. In the above picture, the handcrafted playground equipment does have natural lumber in its construction. But, if you look closely, many of the smaller pieces of the play set, such as the ladder, are made from Poly wood, not to mention the slide and swing seats are all polyethylene plastic.

If this blog post has helped you better understand what types of poly wood products the Amish woodworkers construct, and you would like to stay up to date on everything going with The Amish of Ethridge, sign up for our newsletter. The newsletter is free, and we DON'T sell your information. Feel free to look around the rest of the Amish of Ethridge website for more information. Also, look for Amish of Ethridge on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Thank you all for taking a second to read this post. I hope you have a great day and an even better tomorrow.