Buying commercial pool furniture for the pool restaurant before opening day

Order the pool restaurant before the pool opens. It sounds obvious in February and becomes urgent in May, when the deck is being pressure washed, the bar is being stocked, and the chairs that were meant to be on it are still a line on an unsent order.

Commercial pool furniture, as we carry it, means the dining side of the pool: chairs and tables for the pool restaurant, stools for the pool bar, and umbrellas for shade over lunch. Every piece we would put on a pool deck is listed for patio use. Buying it well comes down to three things in a fixed order: the lead time, a freight quote for the property, and a plan for the hour the truck arrives.

Patio-listed pieces only

Start with the listing on each record. Aluminum, resin, synthetic teak and coated steel pieces carry a patio listing; wood frames and upholstered seats do not, and they are not covered once they are taken outside. That rules out borrowing from the hotel restaurant for a busy pool weekend.

Our patio chairs give a pool restaurant plenty of choice. A stacking armchair in white aluminum, its seat in gray faux teak, is 23 inches wide, has an 18-inch seat, stacks, weighs 13 pounds, carries a listed 400 pounds and is priced at $121. For the tables, an aluminum patio table with an umbrella hole comes in four sizes, squares of 30 and 36 inches and rectangles 30 inches deep and 48 or 60 long, all 30 inches high, starting at $279. The 30-inch square seats two and the 36-inch square seats four, and the wider set of patio tables runs from small squares to long rectangles.

The pool bar line

The pool bar takes stools, not chairs, at a bar 40 to 42 inches high. Stools for that height have a seat at about 29 to 31 inches. An aluminum bar stool with a rope seat in graphite sits at 30 inches, weighs 11 pounds, carries a listed 500 pounds and is listed at $171, and our patio bar stools show the rest of the range.

Spacing sets the count. Space the stools 24 to 30 inches apart, seat center to seat center. A 24-foot bar front is 288 inches: at 24 inches that is 12 stools, and at 30 inches it is 9. Choose the tighter figure for a bar that serves drinks to people standing behind the stools, and the looser one where guests settle in for lunch.

Counting back from opening day

Here is a worked timeline. Say the pool restaurant opens on a Saturday twelve weeks from today.

For pieces from the standard range, count 14 to 21 business days, a little over four calendar weeks at the long end. Anything custom, a special finish say, stretches toward 8 weeks. The carrier's transit comes on top of either figure, and the freight quote estimates it rather than naming a day. Then your own team needs time to receive, unpack, assemble and set the deck, with a margin for anything that has to be put right. Ask your deck crew how long that takes them, or ask a specialist what the order involves, and write the figure into the plan.

Count back from the Saturday: your setup time, the transit estimate, then up to about four and a half weeks of lead time for standard pieces. A standard order sent by the end of the fourth week leaves about three and a half weeks for transit and setup after the longest lead time. A custom order sent that same week leaves almost none. So the rule of thumb is short: put the custom lines on the order first, and send it before you finalize anything that can wait, such as the umbrella canopy color.

A freight quote for each property

Every delivery address gets its own freight quote, sent with our order confirmation after a person has read the order. A resort group opening two pool restaurants receives two quotes, and each property can be checked against its own budget. Nothing is charged when the order is submitted.

Standard delivery is LTL freight to a business address, at the dock or the tailgate, and unloading is your team's work. If the pool deck has no dock nearby, book a liftgate when you send the order, along with inside delivery or limited access if the property needs them; each is an added charge. Drivers will not carry pallets up or down stairs, which matters if the deck sits a flight above the drive. Our delivery page lists every service.

The hour the truck arrives

Put staff on the drive before the truck is due, so unloading begins inside about half an hour, or the carrier may bill detention. Before anyone signs, someone counts every pallet and carton and checks the total with the bill of lading. Write every damaged or missing carton on that document, sign subject to inspection when there is no time for a full check, and photograph anything torn or crushed. Concealed damage found later has to reach us within 24 hours, and the damaged packaging is kept until the claim closes. Our team works through the carrier paperwork with you.

The mistake here is signing a clean bill of lading because the deck has to open on Saturday. Note the damage on the bill of lading, or the claim starts without its best evidence. For a full resort deck the freight may be split across several deliveries; receive the second exactly as you received the first.

Six months and the care that keeps them

Patio chairs, tables and stools carry our limited warranty for 6 months, for faults in how a piece was made or what it was made of, as found when it arrives. Read the exclusions with whoever runs the deck: normal wear, the wrong cleaning agents, outdoor furniture left without care, and indoor furniture used outside. Write to us about a shortage or a defect inside three days of the delivery. Send the order reference, a line on the problem, and three photos: the whole piece, the fault up close, and its labels.

Care is a routine, not an event. Rinse the pieces, let them drain, and cover them or store them when the season ends. For shade, a 7 1/2-foot aluminum market umbrella with 82 inches of clearance under the canopy starts at $220; close and tie it every evening, and see our patio umbrellas for the larger sizes.

Before the pool opens

Set the deck as its own plan in property plans: the restaurant tables, the chairs, the bar stools and the umbrellas, each as a line. Add the opening date and the receiving contact to the notes, and download the project sheet for the person who will meet the truck.

Then price it the way any room is priced. Our note on hotel chair price walks through a configured price and the freight quote that follows. If the deck calls for a size or finish beyond the listed options, read about custom hotel furniture first, and for what to ask before choosing any seller, see hotel furniture suppliers. Send the order in the week you settle the count, not the week the pool fills.