Folding chairs/new chairs.

[pa_broon74]

Thought I'd through this out for discussion.

In the on-going betterment of our hall, I'd really like to get rid of the stacking chairs we have. They're old, metal-framed things, burgundy velour, smelly, horrible, possibly from an old British legion circa 1982. Old, but not in a good way...

I'd quite like to chuck them and get folding chairs that will stack on a trolley or on a wall frame type set-up.

We'd need between 20 or 30, and they'd need to not be flimsy for reason you'll all appreciate.

Can travel for decent second hand stuff.

[johnmcmahon]

Ikea and Argos come up as general purpose in a search.

Try Google shopping.

[campwarden]

We bought a large stock of these
https://www.frontrowfurniture.co.uk/...nwealth-games/

Used but "as new" fairly standard in the event industry. Not the cheapest necessarily but built to last - we get very few breakages and they do get abused.

Not sure about a trolley but I'm sure given your talents you could make one far cheaper than you can buy it

Good luck

[dragonhhjh]

We bought a large stock of these
https://www.frontrowfurniture.co.uk/...nwealth-games/

Used but "as new" fairly standard in the event industry. Not the cheapest necessarily but built to last - we get very few breakages and they do get abused.

Not sure about a trolley but I'm sure given your talents you could make one far cheaper than you can buy it

Good luck

These are what my last scout group bought along with a trolley to go with them. More robust than they appear!

[pa_broon74]

Thanks.

They look decent. I've had a good look around to see if any community centres or halls etc are getting rid of seats. Usually, we're awash with offers of seating - when we don't need any seating. Indeed, we went through a phase a wee while ago where seats would just appear in the hall. At one point, two medical recliners appeared - I have no idea why they thought a scout hall might need medical recliners...

We have another 20-odd good quality wooden-framed chairs, about 30 orange plastic chairs (kindly 'given' - as in dumped - to/on us from the community centre), and these awful social club chairs - about 20 of.

Hmmm... I feel an arbitrary (covert) tip run coming on...

(Our hall is coming along, bogs are nearly finished... We're sooooo close...)

[campwarden]

Thanks.

They look decent. I've had a good look around to see if any community centres or halls etc are getting rid of seats. Usually, we're awash with offers of seating - when we don't need any seating. Indeed, we went through a phase a wee while ago where seats would just appear in the hall. At one point, two medical recliners appeared - I have no idea why they thought a scout hall might need medical recliners...

We have another 20-odd good quality wooden-framed chairs, about 30 orange plastic chairs (kindly 'given' - as in dumped - to/on us from the community centre), and these awful social club chairs - about 20 of.

Hmmm... I feel an arbitrary (covert) tip run coming on...

(Our hall is coming along, bogs are nearly finished... We're sooooo close...)

Funny that. Our hq used to attract what could at best be referred to as "questionable donations", or at worst "fly tipping"

We had 2 6ft tall glass display cases... the type my grandparents displayed their sherry glasses in... appear one day. Someone thought we could use them for trophies apparently and the beaver leader didn't have the heart to say no. The scouts were going to smash them up for firewood until I sent some photos to an antique furniture dealer and he offered £100 for the pair.

[dralphs]

Probably too expensive for what you are after, we managed to get a grant from Parish Council for some (but not all) of these

Chairs https://www.officefurnitureonline.co...ack-of-4-.html

Trolley https://www.officefurnitureonline.co...ey-2-rows.html

Alternative Trolley https://www.officefurnitureonline.co...air-truck.html

[pa_broon74]

Aye, they're a wee bit pricey.

Couldn't quite see what the fabric cushioning was. One of the problems we have with the current seats, (apart from them each weighing as much as the small child who sits on them), is that they're fabric covered foam. I don't want to think what might be growing in them. You could probably take a core sample and see what we were selling at our jumble sales in the late nineties...

They're not nice. Padded vinyl folding seats would be cool, I'm not sure we could justify the expense however. They're just seats.

[mang21]

Only thing that springs to mind with folding chairs is the risk of fingers etc getting trapped in them when the fold up at an inopportune moment. However those "front row" ones tend to be robust enough. Sad as it may be might be worth keeping an eye on the auction sites to see if any event companies are being liquidated.

(Not ideal for use in outdoor venues - recall sitting on one of those at an event inside a marquee. Unfortunately although the rain wasn't getting in through the roof, a week of solid rain had taken its toll before the canvas went up, and it wasn't long before the chairs were all sinking at the front - the cross bar at the back tended to keep that end out of the ground!)

[campwarden]

Only thing that springs to mind with folding chairs is the risk of fingers etc getting trapped in them when the fold up at an inopportune moment. However those "front row" ones tend to be robust enough. Sad as it may be might be worth keeping an eye on the auction sites to see if any event companies are being liquidated.

(Not ideal for use in outdoor venues - recall sitting on one of those at an event inside a marquee. Unfortunately although the rain wasn't getting in through the roof, a week of solid rain had taken its toll before the canvas went up, and it wasn't long before the chairs were all sinking at the front - the cross bar at the back tended to keep that end out of the ground!)

We find the frontrow chairs seem to be fine outdoors unless its been really really wet and the ground is really soft. On reasonably dry ground they do ok. If theyre mainly for use in your hall with maybe the odd trip to camp they should be fine. We have a stock of around 100 and also hire them in from time to time (to the point that i'm looking at increasing our stock) and I think the only one we've broken had a trailer reversed over it! From a safety point of view the mechanism is also pretty straight forward - obviously there's always a finger trap risk with anything that folds but these dont tend to fold accidentally (the motion to fold them involves pulling the front of the seat base up first)

Interestingly enough i'm constantly keeping my ear to the ground in case of any event companies liquidating stock at the moment. Not that we have masses of surplus funds to invest in kit as a business either at the moment, but even with covid restrictions easing a lot of events are thinking of providing chairs where otherwise benches might be used etc. If I do hear of any that are "up north" i'll let you know Pa Broon!

[pa_broon74]

We find the frontrow chairs seem to be fine outdoors unless its been really really wet and the ground is really soft. On reasonably dry ground they do ok. If theyre mainly for use in your hall with maybe the odd trip to camp they should be fine. We have a stock of around 100 and also hire them in from time to time (to the point that i'm looking at increasing our stock) and I think the only one we've broken had a trailer reversed over it! From a safety point of view the mechanism is also pretty straight forward - obviously there's always a finger trap risk with anything that folds but these dont tend to fold accidentally (the motion to fold them involves pulling the front of the seat base up first)

Interestingly enough i'm constantly keeping my ear to the ground in case of any event companies liquidating stock at the moment. Not that we have masses of surplus funds to invest in kit as a business either at the moment, but even with covid restrictions easing a lot of events are thinking of providing chairs where otherwise benches might be used etc. If I do hear of any that are "up north" i'll let you know Pa Broon!

Thanks.

I've sent a wee message to the company you linked above. Theirs are the cheapest I can find.

I've just spent £40 on coat hooks, a backing board, and door stops. I was going to get bog roll holders but B&Q, B&M*, and Asda were all lacking totally in suitable equipment. (The toilet roll is also going to be a partial door stop, it wasn't planned that way, it's just the way things have turned out.)

Last night I cut a bit of hardboard for the new loft hatch. I was glossing it and thought, hmmm, what can I do to make this more interesting... I found the Beaver's arts and crafts supplies and decorated it with shiny tinsel and stars. I have animal decals for the toilet seats, (cute pets bursting out...) I'm at the stage of adding these small details, so looking for ideas.

* I don't normally go into B&M, what a fascinating place it is. I bought a life size plastic rabbit for £8. I have no idea why, it was calling out to me. (And a Toblerone...)

[campwarden]

Thanks.

I've sent a wee message to the company you linked above. Theirs are the cheapest I can find.

I've just spent £40 on coat hooks, a backing board, and door stops. I was going to get bog roll holders but B&Q, B&M*, and Asda were all lacking totally in suitable equipment. (The toilet roll is also going to be a partial door stop, it wasn't planned that way, it's just the way things have turned out.)

Last night I cut a bit of hardboard for the new loft hatch. I was glossing it and thought, hmmm, what can I do to make this more interesting... I found the Beaver's arts and crafts supplies and decorated it with shiny tinsel and stars. I have animal decals for the toilet seats, (cute pets bursting out...) I'm at the stage of adding these small details, so looking for ideas.

* I don't normally go into B&M, what a fascinating place it is. I bought a life size plastic rabbit for £8. I have no idea why, it was calling out to me. (And a Toblerone...)

Haha so at some point when you're NOT wearing a necker you'll decide the best thing to do with that plastic rabbit is pop it at the end of the garden and use it for some air rifle practice

Its amazing how many people seem to marvel at the concept of B&M and Home Bargains, completely forgetting that Wilkinsons have basically been following the same model (albeit in more centrally located stores) for years, and Woolworths did it on the high street until they disappeared out of our lives. Certainly shows that Woolworths could have been successful if they'd sorted themselves out a bit and dealt with their horrendous property portfolio.

From my memory of dealing with Front Row they're pretty good (we;ve used them a couple of times) but the postage isnt cheap. I also vaguely recall each of the 100 chairs arrived individually wrapped in pallet wrap but if you've got an army of scouts to hand it shouldnt take you too long to unwrap them. Took 2 of us a good couple of hours to unpack the delivery.

- - - Updated - - -

Just looked it up and for 100 chairs and 10 tables (so probbaly quite a bit more than you'll be buying) the shipping was £85 (on an order which came to a little over £1000) We worked out it was still cheaper than us driving a van to essex to pick them up though.

I would assume if you're just ordering 30ish chairs for a scout hall they;d be quite a lot cheaper... and their customer service was excellent

[pstretch]

We have used these Economy Folding Chairs for some years:

https://www.gopak.co.uk/chairs/folding-chairs

I think that are actually branded Samsonite.

Another local Group uses them too

Only issue is that the plastic feet get worn away on Altro-style non-slip flooring after a few years, but they can be replaced easily. No wear on wooden floors.

[richardnhunt]

We got great ones from here: http://secondhand-chairs-and-tables.co.uk

[pa_broon74]

Haha so at some point when you're NOT wearing a necker you'll decide the best thing to do with that plastic rabbit is pop it at the end of the garden and use it for some air rifle practice

Its amazing how many people seem to marvel at the concept of B&M and Home Bargains, completely forgetting that Wilkinsons have basically been following the same model (albeit in more centrally located stores) for years, and Woolworths did it on the high street until they disappeared out of our lives. Certainly shows that Woolworths could have been successful if they'd sorted themselves out a bit and dealt with their horrendous property portfolio.

From my memory of dealing with Front Row they're pretty good (we;ve used them a couple of times) but the postage isnt cheap. I also vaguely recall each of the 100 chairs arrived individually wrapped in pallet wrap but if you've got an army of scouts to hand it shouldnt take you too long to unwrap them. Took 2 of us a good couple of hours to unpack the delivery.

- - - Updated - - -

Just looked it up and for 100 chairs and 10 tables (so probbaly quite a bit more than you'll be buying) the shipping was £85 (on an order which came to a little over £1000) We worked out it was still cheaper than us driving a van to essex to pick them up though.

I would assume if you're just ordering 30ish chairs for a scout hall they;d be quite a lot cheaper... and their customer service was excellent

Delivery is £41 x 30 seats. That's not too shabby.