Cedar vs Teak vs Polywood Adirondack Chairs: An Honest Comparison

When people ask what an Adirondack chair should be made of, they are usually weighing cedar against teak, painted pine or one of the recycled plastic chairs sold under names like Polywood. Each material can make a good chair overall but each also comes with trade-offs in weight, upkeep, appearance and price.

I build my chairs from Western Red Cedar, so I have an obvious preference. I have still tried to be fair here and not portray cedar as the clear winner, because the right choice depends on how you plan to use the chair and how much care you want to give it.

Western Red Cedar

Western Red Cedar is a softwood and is naturally resistant to rot and insects, which is why it has been used outdoors for generations. It is also light for its size. My finished chair weighs about 23 pounds, so it is easy to move into the shade or put away for winter.

Cedar is dimensionally stable, especially when it is quarter-sawn, so it will resist twisting or cupping.  And it has a very low thermal conductivity so it doesn't get as hot or as cold to the touch as metal, even when it stays out in the heat of the sun. Left unfinished, it weathers to silver-grey. With an exterior finish, it will keep more of its original colour, or there are tinted stains available if you wanted to darken the wood overall.

The trade-offs are real with cedar. It is soft, so it can dent from a hard knock. It also needs some care including occasional cleaning, and refinishing every few years if you want to keep the colour or yearly if the chair is left out in the elements year round. I cover that in more detail in How to Clean and Care for Outdoor Cedar Furniture.

Quality also varies a great deal from one cedar chair to another. Knotty or flat-sawn boards and clear or quarter-sawn old-growth boards are both sold simply as cedar. I explain the difference in Old-Growth vs Regular Western Red Cedar.

Teak and Other Tropical Hardwoods

Teak is a dense tropical hardwood with natural oils that protect it from moisture and decay. It is more durable outdoors than cedar and needs less care. Many owners simply clean it and let it weather to silver-grey.

That durability comes at a price. Teak furniture usually costs considerably more, and a teak Adirondack chair is noticeably heavier than a cedar one.  Heaviness can falsely give the impression of quality and sometimes it is not needed to obtain a sturdy product. Most teak is imported from plantations in Southeast Asia so you may ask the retailer where the wood came from. It is also worth asking the store selling the teak chair if theirs is made from solid pieces of wood, as teak furniture can sometimes be made from smaller pieces or scraps glued together to make a full width board.  It is generally quite obvious if you can zoom in on the product photos, you will see varied grain within a single piece or part of the chair.

Acacia and eucalyptus are often sold as more affordable alternatives, particularly in Europe. They are dense and reasonably durable, but they generally need regular oiling or sealing to prevent cracking.

Pine

Pine chairs are usually the least expensive wooden option. Pine is not naturally resistant to rot, so outdoor pine chairs are typically pressure-treated, painted or both. 

That can work well, but the finish becomes the chair's main protection. Once paint starts to crack or peel, moisture can get into the wood, and the chair will need work to prep and repaint for it to stay sound. For many people, that ongoing upkeep is the deciding factor. A raw pine Adirondack chair left outdoors will need full replacing after a short time.

Recycled Plastic (Polywood)

Chairs made from recycled high-density polyethylene, often called poly lumber, are designed to need almost no maintenance. They don't need painting, staining or sealing, they don't rot or splinter, and the colour runs all the way through the material. Cleaning them is a matter of soap and water to remove any dirt or mildew that has accumulated.

For someone who wants a chair to sit outside year-round with no upkeep at all, that is a genuine advantage.  Some people love the homogeneous and solid colour look of this type of chair, combined with the very low upkeep and the ability to leave it to the elements year-round is no doubt a huge benefit.

The trade-offs are mostly about feel and weight. A typical plastic Adirondack chair weighs around 35 to 40 pounds, which is heavier than a cedar chair of similar size, as they've had to add thickness to the plastic to make it withstand the weight of a person without flexing. It also looks and feels like plastic made to resemble painted wood, rather than wood itself. Whether that matters to you is a personal choice.

Recycled plastic chairs can sometimes cost more than a solid wood chair, though they may last longer. You could argue that plastic is not the most environmentally friendly choice when other options exist, and I would be one of those people. Even the longest-lasting plastic furniture will need to be recycled at some point, and how much plastic actually gets recycled is uncertain.

So Which Should You Choose?

If you want the longest life with the least care and budget isn't a concern, teak is hard to beat. If you want no maintenance at all and like a painted look, recycled plastic makes sense. If price matters most, a well-painted pine chair can serve for years.

Cedar sits in between. It is natural wood, light enough to move easily, naturally resistant to decay and more affordable than teak, in exchange for some care along the way. That balance is why I have built with it for years. It is also one of the most widely used woods for outdoor furniture. It grows naturally only in western North America, including here in British Columbia, where I source my logs.

You can see the chair I build here.