Garden Furniture Delivery and Placement

The commonest complaint about garden furniture delivery is not damage — it is that the set arrived and the set was incomplete. A six-seat dining set is nine or ten separate pieces, and counting them at both ends is cheaper than arguing about them afterwards.

Why does garden furniture arrive incomplete so often?

Because it is a set, not an item. A six-seat dining set is a table, six chairs, six cushions and usually a parasol with a separate base — that is nine or ten distinct pieces, frequently in different cartons, sometimes from different pallets.

Anything counted in pieces can arrive short, and the piece that goes missing is almost always the small one: the parasol base, the cushion bag, the fixings pack. The furniture is present, the set is not, and the customer has a table they cannot sit at.

So the first thing to settle on a garden furniture delivery is the piece count, agreed in writing at booking and checked at both ends. That single step removes the commonest complaint in this category.

What counts as one delivery?

A rattan corner set is the hardest of these and not because of the weight. The modules are bulky, rigid and cannot be reduced — a corner unit is the shape it is, and if it does not pass the narrowest point on the route it does not go in at all.

Is a glass table top a problem?

It is the single most damaged component in this category. Tempered glass tops travel badly flat and well on edge, and they fail catastrophically rather than gradually — a chip at the edge becomes a shattered top, often hours later rather than on impact.

A glass top needs to travel upright on edge, padded on the edge rather than the face, and separated from anything rigid. It should never have weight on top of it, and a strap over the face of a glass top is how one arrives in pieces.

If the set has a glass top and the original packaging still exists, use it: the moulded inserts hold the edge, which is exactly what improvised padding fails to do. If it does not exist, say so at booking so the vehicle is loaded with that in mind rather than around it.

Flat-pack or assembled — which travels better?

Flat-pack, clearly, and it is worth choosing if you can. Boxed flat-pack stacks, fits through doors, cannot be knocked out of square and is rectangular in a vehicle. An assembled rattan sofa is an awkward shape with soft edges that catch on every door frame between the van and the lawn.

Assembled is sometimes unavoidable — a house move, a used set bought privately, a showroom clearance. In that case the chairs stack, the table does not, the cushions travel separately in bags, and a parasol goes in its own sleeve rather than loose.

We do not assemble or dismantle furniture and hold no qualification for it. What we will do is advise from the measurements whether assembled delivery is realistic for your access, which is a cheaper conversation at booking than on a driveway.

How does the furniture actually reach the garden?

Through a side gate, through the house, or not at all — and the answer is a measurement rather than an opinion. The narrowest point is usually the gate latch or a step rather than the gate opening itself.

Where there is no side access the route runs through the house, which is acceptable to some customers and not to others. A rattan corner module carried through a hallway with a light carpet is a conversation worth having before the crew is holding it.

The far end matters too. A set going onto a lawn is one thing; onto decking with a step down, or across gravel, is another, and a sack trolley is useless on both. Saying what the surface is lets the crew bring the right approach rather than improvise.

What should you tell us at booking?

1. Step 1 — the piece count, written down, including cushions, parasol and base as separate items.
2. Step 2 — flat-pack or assembled, and whether there is a glass top.
3. Step 3 — the narrowest point on the route to the garden, measured including the latch and any step.
4. Step 4 — the surface at the far end: lawn, patio, decking with a step, or gravel.
5. Step 5 — parking, and whether there is a long carry from the road.

Step 1 is the one unique to this category and the one that prevents the argument afterwards. Everything else on the list is the ordinary access conversation for anything bulky.

Does the weather matter?

For the delivery, yes. Garden furniture is designed to live outdoors but not to be rained on in a cardboard carton — wet cardboard collapses, and a soaked box is how a set arrives with the pieces loose and the corners crushed.

So a delivery on a wet day either goes into a garage, a porch or under cover, or it waits. We would rather put a set in a garage and have you move it to the lawn in the dry than leave it in a downpour because the delivery note said garden.

Cushions are the part that does not recover. A cushion bag that gets wet in transit stays damp inside for days and can mildew before anyone notices, which is why they travel inside the vehicle rather than on a tail lift in the rain.

Is this seasonal?

Sharply. Demand concentrates into spring and the first warm spell, which is exactly when two-person capacity is tightest and retailers are clearing floor stock at the same time.

The practical effect is on lead time rather than price. A delivery booked three weeks ahead is routine; the same delivery wanted during the first hot weekend competes with everyone else's. If a date matters — a party, a let, a photoshoot — book against the date and not against the forecast.

For a retailer that argues for planned rounds rather than ad-hoc jobs. One vehicle doing a scheduled day of deliveries prices better per set than six separate urgent bookings in the same week. Where a genuine deadline exists, same-day furniture delivery covers when the premium is worth paying.

Can you take the old set away?

Yes, and it is a regulated movement. A discarded garden set is controlled waste, and moving it requires a waste carrier registration — ours is CBDU654368 with the Environment Agency, upper tier carrier, broker and dealer, valid to 20 August 2029 and searchable on the public register.

The duty of care under section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 binds whoever hands the waste over as well as the carrier, so a household or retailer using an unregistered remover carries its own exposure. Fly-tipped furniture traced back to the original owner is the standard example — see waste duty of care.

Doing both on one visit saves a second journey, which on a bulky two-person job is most of the cost. It also means the old set leaves before the new one arrives, rather than both occupying the same patio.

What is a garden set covered for?

A figure derived from weight, not from price. The default under the RHA Conditions of Carriage 2024 is £1,300 a tonne on gross weight lost, wrongly delivered or damaged — before anything else is agreed.

A 100 kg six-seat set is 0.1 of a tonne, so the default cap is £130.00; a 50 kg four-seat set reaches £65.00. For a budget set that is broadly proportionate. For a premium rattan corner set costing well into four figures it is not close.

Our own goods-in-transit cover is £50,000 as standard, with higher limits to £1,000,000 arranged through partner carriers for high-value work — see goods in transit insurance for how a carrier's conditions and a cargo policy differ. A declared value is agreed at booking.

Does this suit retailers and garden centres?

It is most of the volume, and the economics favour planning. A garden centre clearing floor stock, an online retailer fulfilling spring orders, or a showroom rotating display sets all need two people, a tail-lift vehicle and a round in delivery order.

The thing that makes trade work run smoothly is capturing the access answer at the point of sale. A retailer that asks about the side gate when the order is taken removes most of its own failed deliveries, because the information exists and nobody was collecting it.

Where sets are palletised for a trade address with a loading bay, pallet delivery is cheaper. It is not an option into a domestic garden, which is what this service exists for. For indoor furniture see furniture transport and sofa courier.

How does T&C Logistics deliver garden furniture?

Two people, a tail-lift vehicle where the access allows it, the piece count checked at both ends, glass tops carried on edge, cushions inside the vehicle, and the set placed where you want it rather than left on a drive.

We do not assemble or dismantle, and we say so before booking rather than at the door. The old set goes under our own Environment Agency registration if you want it gone, on the same visit.

Our Birmingham office is on 0121 720 3841; enquiries arrive round the clock and are answered between 06:00 and 22:00, seven days a week. Tell us the piece count and the width of the route to the garden and we will confirm it fits before you book a date.