The gf and I are about to move into a house with a pretty huge two story porch on the back. The top floor is covered to the extent that rain could never fall on anything we put out there, even with a pretty stiff wind. We (ok, I) want to put our couch out there since we’re house-sitting and the house comes with furniture, and it would be great to sit on a couch on the porch, and maybe bring the tv out and watch horror movies on hot summer nights.
Will this ruin our couch? We live northeast of Los Angeles in LA county. Our couch is in pretty good shape, and we want to make sure that putting it outside on the porch for a year and a half won’t ruin it. Thanks!
If looks aren’t a concern, just cover it in heavy duty plastic, duct taped around at the base, then throw an old bedsheet or something over it (nicer than sitting on plastic). You might want to spray around the bast first so that bugs and spiders don’t decide to call it home.
I’d just go to salvation army or something and get a beater couch to put out there and see how it works out. I wouldn’t commit my good couch until I knew it wouldn’t get messed up.
A couch left outside will absorb moisture from the air, even if it is not getting rained on. Soon it will be moldy and smelly. Look in the want adds and by a chep one.
You should also contact your local planning/zoning office. Some localities prohibit keeping furniture designed for indoor use outside of the structure. You don’t want to cause your landlord any trouble with the zoning inspectors.
Sure, you can put a couch on your porch. But it’s also required that you put a junk car up on blocks in your front yard, and tie a dog to it.
Seriously, though; you should consider just getting a “couch” designed to be left outside. I don’t know what they’re called. “Patio couch”? Anyway, you can find them in your patio store.
You say you live in “northeast L.A. County”. Not sure where that is, but I lived in Lancaster for 11 years when I was in high school and as a young adult. There were lots of black widow spiders about. Be sure to look before you sit, especially if the furniture is not used for a few days.
In college, we had a front porch that demanded a big-ass, ugly couch. We found one, at a yard sale, and deposited it thusly.
It wasn’t long before the citation from the city arrived. No indoor furniture outside, they said. Of course, we just moved it out of site to the back porch.
I’d put it outside covered though like TheLoadedDog suggested. I wouldn’t worry about it absorbing moisture from the air, the air indoors is the same air they have outdoors in Australia. If it’s different there reconsider.
I was very tempted when I moved into my house to put a couch on the front porch so that I didn’t have to go buy all that expensive patio furniture. But the fear of becoming the neighborhood white trash has kept me in line.
Thanks for all your concern about our becoming white trash, but as I said in my OP, it’s a second floor back porch that nobody can see, it’s surrounded by trees and it’s usually the coolest place to be. The real reason we wanted to do this is that we’re house sitting for some friends, and they already have a house full of furniture. We were hoping we could just keep our couch outside and not have to cram it in one of the other rooms. Oh, and just to clarify, we live near Pasadena.
I hadn’t thought about spiders, though. I may never leave the house again.
