Best outdoor rocking chairs

Why rockers fail at the joints

A rocking chair is unusual among outdoor furniture in that it is under cyclic load every time it is used. A static chair carries weight; a rocker carries weight that shifts back and forth through every joint, thousands of times a season.

Add moisture to that. Outdoor wood swells and shrinks with humidity, working the glue line in every glued joint. Cyclic mechanical load plus moisture cycling is a much harsher combination than either alone, and it is why wooden rockers loosen years before wooden chairs of the same construction do.

The classic sequence: a faint creak in year two, visible movement at the arm-to-back joint in year four, and a chair that racks side to side by year six. At that point the repair is disassembly and re-gluing, which on an outdoor chair is rarely worth doing twice.

Rocker geometry

Rockers vary more in feel than they look like they should, and three things account for most of it:

• Runner curve radius. A tighter curve rocks faster and further through a shorter arc; a flatter curve gives a slower, longer motion. Flatter is generally more relaxing and less likely to feel tippy.
• Runner length behind the seat. Short rear runners let a chair tip backward more easily. Longer rear extension is a safety feature as much as a comfort one, particularly with children around.
• Center of mass. A heavy chair with a low center of mass rocks steadily and stops when you stop. A light one keeps moving and shifts position on the porch over time.

Porch versus open deck

A covered porch is a materially easier environment than an open deck, and it changes what is worth buying.

Under a roof, rain is mostly deflected, UV exposure is a fraction of open sun, and freeze-thaw cycling on wet wood largely does not happen. A wooden rocker on a covered porch can last a very long time — decades, with occasional refinishing. The same chair on an open deck is on a much shorter clock.

So if the chair is for a porch, wood is a legitimate choice and the rocking-joint problem is slowed considerably. If it is for an open deck, poly lumber is the answer for the same reasons it is the answer everywhere else on this site.

What surface it rocks on

Easy to overlook, and it affects both the chair and the floor:

• Wooden decking. Runners wear grooves into softwood decking over years, and grit trapped under a runner accelerates it. A small outdoor rug or runner pads solve it.
• Composite decking. More forgiving, but runners can leave marks where the surface has a texture.
• Concrete or stone. Hard on runners rather than the other way around. Poly lumber runners handle it; painted wooden runners lose their finish quickly.
• Uneven surfaces. A rocker needs a reasonably flat plane. On uneven flagstone it will rock diagonally, which is both irritating and hard on the frame.

One more consideration for a deck with gaps between boards: rocker runners can catch in a wide gap. Runners that sit across the boards rather than along them avoid it.