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Garden furniture on Teesside has a hard winter ahead of it. North East England gets about 894mm of rain a year, roughly 240mm of it in winter, and around 60 days of air frost.
The rain isn’t what does the damage. The frost is. Water gets into joints, cracks and hollow frames, freezes, expands and thaws, and does it again the next clear night. That cycle is what splits timber, turns plastic brittle and lifts the paint that keeps steel from rusting.
So the short answer: some furniture can stay out under a decent cover, and some of it needs to come in. Which is which depends on what it’s made of.
Can garden furniture stay outside in winter?
Some can, if it’s the right material and you cover it properly. Here’s the plain rule for each.
| Material | Stay out or come in? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Teak and other hardwoods | Can stay out | Naturally oily and dense. It will weather to silver. Keep the feet out of standing water. |
| Softwood (pine, spruce) | Bring in if you can | Soaks up water, then frost opens the grain. If it stays out, treat it and cover it. |
| Synthetic rattan and resin weave | Can stay out, covered | Clean and dry it first. Natural rattan and wicker must come indoors. |
| Aluminium | Can stay out | Won’t rust. Tip hollow frames so water drains out before it can freeze inside. |
| Steel and cast iron | Bring in, or cover well | Rusts wherever the coating is chipped. Touch up bare patches before winter. |
| Cushions, parasols and fabric | Always in | Even shower-resistant fabric goes mouldy when left damp for months. |
| Barbecues | In, or under a fitted cover | Clean out grease and ash, dry it, and disconnect the gas. |
On the coast there’s an extra factor. Salt in the air holds moisture against metal and speeds up rust, which is why steel furniture in Redcar, Marske and Saltburn ages faster than the same set inland. Our guide to damp and sea air in Redcar explains why.
Are furniture covers enough?
For hardwood, aluminium and synthetic rattan, yes, on three conditions. For everything else, a cover only slows the damage down.
The conditions are simple. The furniture goes under the cover clean and dry. The cover is breathable, or at least vented, so moisture can escape. And air can move underneath, which means the cover stops short of the ground and the legs sit on a hard surface, not the lawn.
Get those wrong and a cover makes things worse. A tight plastic sheet traps moisture against the furniture for five months. With humidity here averaging 83% across the year, whatever is sealed in stays wet.
Check after a storm too. A cover that has blown half off and filled with water is doing more harm than no cover at all.
How to prepare furniture for storage
Clean it, dry it, treat it, then pack it. It’s an afternoon’s work, and worth it.
- Clean. Warm soapy water and a soft brush. Get the green off now, because algae holds moisture against the surface.
- Dry fully. Give it a couple of dry days, or finish it off in the garage. Damp furniture goes mouldy wherever you put it.
- Treat. Oil or preserve timber, touch up chipped paint on steel, and wipe a little oil onto bolts and hinges.
- Dismantle. Take the legs off tables and fold what folds. Tape the bolts to the frame they belong to.
- Bag the cushions. Bone dry, in breathable bags. Never sealed in polythene.
- Empty the parasol base. Water left inside can freeze and split it.
Where does it all go?
Wherever is dry, has air moving through it, and has room. For a lot of Teesside homes that’s the hard part.
The shed is the obvious answer and usually the full one. On the newer estates, a compact garden often comes with a shed to match, and it already holds the mower and the bikes.
The garage is better, if the car isn’t in it. Keep furniture off the concrete floor, which draws up moisture.
The loft suits cushions and parasols and not much else. Nobody enjoys getting a six-seater table through a loft hatch.
A storage unit makes sense when none of those has space, or when the furniture cost enough to be worth protecting. These are our guide prices:
| Unit | Roughly the size of | Per month (inc. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 ft Container | Small Garage / Large Shed | £90.00 |
| 20 ft Container | Size of a Single Garage | £118.80 |
| 90 sq ft Internal (First Floor) | One Bedroom Apartment | £130.00 |
| 90 sq ft Internal | Small Garage / Large Shed | £140.00 |
| 96 sq ft Internal | Two Bedroom Flat | £150.00 |
| 108 sq ft Internal | Single Garage | £160.00 |
| 135 sq ft Internal (First Floor) | Large single garage or 7 tonne lorry; contents of a large 2-bed or small 3-bed house | £160.00 |
| 135 sq ft Internal | Large single garage or 7 tonne lorry; contents of a large 2-bed or small 3-bed house | £160.00 |
iBOXED Redcar price list, checked 2026-10-02; see current availability on the Redcar units page.
Guide prices, checked 2 October 2026. Sizes and availability change from week to week, and not every size is offered at every site. For what's available today, with live prices, see the Ingleby Barwick, Redcar and Stockton (Preston Farm) pages.
In practice, a 10ft container takes a patio set, a barbecue and a mower. The 20ft container is single-garage sized, so a whole garden’s worth goes in with room left for the bikes and the Christmas decorations. It’s also the one size offered at all three of our sites, at £118.80 a month including VAT.
Is that worth it? Five months at that price is about £594. Set that against what the furniture would cost to replace, and remember the unit holds more than the patio set. The Teesside storage cost guide breaks the sums down, and the size guide helps you avoid paying for air.
One honest caveat. The gas cylinder from the barbecue isn’t part of the load. Keep it at home, disconnected, unless the site has told you it can come.
When to put it away, and when to bring it back
Put it away when the clocks go back, on the last Sunday in October. By then the evenings outdoors are over, and you’re ahead of the hard frosts.
The exact date matters less than the weather on the day. Pick a dry spell, because furniture stored wet is the one mistake that undoes everything else.
Bring it back when the clocks go forward at the end of March, give or take. Keep cushions in a little longer, until the nights are reliably frost-free. A late frost in April won’t hurt a teak bench. It will soak a seat pad.
If the shed is already full
We have container storage at Ingleby Barwick on Low Lane, in Redcar on Limerick Road, and at Preston Farm in Stockton. Access is by personal PIN at the main gate, 24 hours a day, so the first warm Saturday of spring doesn’t have to wait for anyone. All three iBOXED sites are pinned on the map below.
