One of the key things to think about when setting up a food business (e.g. a restaurant, hotel, cafe or motel) is the type of furniture you'll need. Furniture affects the ambience, the seating capacity and the capital costs of your business. Generally, you can go with timber furniture or metallic furniture. In this article, see how choosing metallic furniture over timber can be of great value to your business now and in the future.

Metal furniture has a higher load-bearing capacity

In busy business premises such as restaurants or cafes, you want furniture that can handle a lot of work day in, day out. Metal furniture has a higher load-bearing capacity when compared to timber and this means it's better for such applications. Your metal shelves and tables will be able to withstand anything placed on them and your chairs won't squeak no matter the size of the people who seat on them.

Metal furniture can withstand rough use far better

In a food establishment, you need furniture that can tolerate rough handling without falling apart. As you can imagine, high traffic areas like restaurants often see patrons leaning on chair or tables, chairs tipping over to the ground, chairs hitting against tables and so forth. Metal furniture handles such damage much better as opposed to timber furniture, which is quite brittle.

More durable over the years

You also have to think about how your furniture will fare over the years, i.e. how long will it last before you need new furniture? Both timber and metallic furniture can last long. However, metal furniture has a much better chance of seeing you through the years and saving you on costs. This is because, unlike timber, metal furniture will not rot, acquire mould or break easily. Metal furniture can even withstand fires.

Little maintenance needed

Then there's the issue of maintenance. Again, metal furniture beats timber on this as well. In general, timber has lots of maintenance needs. In this particular case, your timber furniture would need regular pest treatment, painting, seal coating and custom joinery repair. Metal furniture only needs to be repainted every one or few years and the occasional weld repair.

A metal fabrication shop can design and prepare all the furniture pieces you need, be it chairs, tables, shelving units, doors, stools or even countertops. You'll enjoy numerous materials (and combinations) as well as designs and colours to suit your space just right.