Rain, moss and rot: clearing outdoor furniture in Portland

The short answer

Visit minimum is $75, so a single $30 patio chair is a $75 visit. Three chairs is $30 + $30 + $30 = $90, which clears it.

What nine wet months actually do

Portland's rainy season is not dramatic. It is a long, low, persistent damp from roughly October to June, and it does damage that a storm climate does not. Things do not get destroyed; they get slowly colonised.

• Moss. On the north side of anything. A teak bench under a fir in Eastmoreland will be green on top within two seasons, and the moss holds water against the wood permanently.
• Rot at the feet. Wooden furniture standing on a deck wicks water up through the end grain. The legs go soft first, which is why an outdoor table that looks fine collapses when you pick it up wrong.
• Cushion foam. Outdoor cushions absorb and never fully dry between October and April. Then they mildew through.
• Rust from the inside. Powder-coated steel frames rust where the coating chipped, invisibly, under the paint, and the leg fails without warning.
• Wicker and resin. Natural wicker delaminates. Cheap resin wicker goes brittle and starts shedding strands.

The result is furniture that is not donatable and, increasingly, not safe to sit on.

The carport, the covered porch, and the tarp

Three Portland storage habits that do not work as well as people think.

The carport. Very common on east Portland, Milwaukie and Gresham ranch houses. A carport keeps direct rain off and does nothing at all about ambient humidity or wind-driven rain. Anything stored in one for a winter comes out damp. Furniture, boxes, mattresses, and particularly anything upholstered.

The covered front porch. The classic bungalow porch is deep enough to feel dry and shallow enough not to be. The outer two feet get wet every storm, and that is where the furniture ends up because the inner part is the route to the door.

The tarp. The worst of the three. A tarp over a patio set traps moisture underneath and holds it against the furniture for eight months. Things under tarps in this city come out in worse condition than things left in the open, because at least the open ones dry out in April.

Why donation fails for this category

Portland tries to donate everything, and outdoor furniture is where that instinct runs out fastest. Thrift shops and reuse outfits will not take a mossy table, mildewed cushions, or a rusted frame — not out of fussiness, but because they cannot resell it and would be paying to dispose of it themselves.

Buy Nothing has the same outcome with a slower failure mode. Somebody claims the patio set, comes to look at it, sees the leg, and does not come back. Meanwhile it has been sitting on the driveway for two weeks getting wetter.

One exception worth trying: solid teak. Real teak outdoor furniture survives this climate better than anything else and there is a market for it here even in poor condition, because it sands back. If it is teak, ask before you haul it. If it is anything else, do not spend a month on it.

Typical Portland back-garden clearances

Addition shown:

• Patio table + four chairs: $89 + $30 + $30 + $30 + $30 = $209
• Patio table + six chairs + propane grill: $89 + $30 + $30 + $30 + $30 + $30 + $30 + $71 = $340
• Two chaise lounges + charcoal grill: $93 + $93 + $59 = $245
• Hot tub + patio table + two chairs: $322 + $89 + $30 + $30 = $471
• Portable basketball hoop + lawn mower + large junk pile: $115 + $65 + $208 = $388

If the back garden has more in it than a furniture set — the play structure, the rotted planters, the pile beside the shed — price the volume ladder instead: quarter $241, three-eighths $338, half $431.

Getting it out of a Portland back garden

Deep narrow lots, a 30 to 36 inch side gate, and a truck that has to sit on the street out front. That is the standard arrangement across the inner eastside and it means everything from the back goes out through the side yard past the hose bib and the recycling bins.

Two practical notes. In the wet months the side yard is usually a strip of mud or slick pavers, so material gets carried rather than wheeled. And a north-facing deck in February is genuinely slippery — if the route crosses one, scrub the moss or scatter some grit before pickup day.

None of that is charged extra. The side-gate carry is included in the flat price.

Timing it

There are two right moments.

April or May — the damage of the last winter is fully visible and you have not yet lost a summer to looking at it. This is when most people finally admit the patio set is finished.

September — before the rain returns, while everything is dry and light and before the next eight months make it heavier and dirtier. If you know a piece is not surviving another winter, this is the cheapest time to handle it, because dry furniture is a faster job for everyone.

The price does not change with the season. The experience does.

Propane, and what cannot go on the truck

The grill itself is fine — propane grill $71, charcoal grill $59. The propane cylinder is not. Full or empty, cylinders do not go in a truck. Take it to an exchange or to household hazardous waste, and check the current Metro intake rules first.

Same for anything else that has accumulated by the back door: old gasoline for the mower, paint, deck stain, pesticide. Those go to household hazardous waste, not on a general junk load. Portland garden sheds are full of half-finished cans of deck stain, and there are usually more of them than anyone remembers.

Frequently asked questions