Five Steps That Protect Your Investment
Since 2013, we've refined this process across thousands of consultations — residential balconies, restaurant patios, strata rooftops, and vacation rentals from Vancouver to the Okanagan. Every step exists because we learned, sometimes the hard way, that skipping it leads to problems. Here's what happens when you work with our team.
"The Conversation" — Free Consultation
You tell us about your space. Square footage. Sun direction and daily exposure hours. Wind exposure — is it a sheltered courtyard or an open 12th-floor balcony catching southwest gusts? Salt air? Pool chemicals? How many people eat dinner out there? Do you entertain once a month or every weekend? We're not filling out a form for show — these details determine which materials survive on your specific deck, balcony, or patio.
In-showroom consultations run 45–60 minutes at our 4,600-square-foot showroom on East 17th Avenue. Video calls run 30 minutes. No charge either way. No obligation. If you visit in person, you can walk our open-air exposure yard out back and sit on products that have weathered one, three, or five-plus Vancouver winters — so you know exactly what you're getting before you commit.
We maintain a database of balcony dimensions for 85+ Vancouver-area condo buildings, compiled from floor plans over 10 years. If you live in one of those buildings, Elena can often pull your exact measurements before you walk through the door.
"Elena pulled up our building's floor plan — she already had it on file — and recommended a wall-mounted drop-leaf table with two folding chairs that give us a full dining setup in 12 square feet."
— Annika Strand, Yaletown"The Shortlist" — Data-Driven Options, Not Sales Pitches
We narrow 200+ SKUs to 5–8 options tailored to your site conditions. Every option has been scored on our 12-point Survival Scorecard — UV hours tested, load capacity, warranty-claim rate, material composition, joint construction type, cushion fabric UV rating, frame corrosion resistance, hardware grade, weight stability, cleaning chemical tolerance, manufacturer warranty terms, and field-failure history from our own customer database. We show you the scores.
Here's what most people don't know: we publish those scores. You can check the data before you buy. Tom Beaulieu maintains the database, tracking return rates by SKU (currently 1.7% across all categories) and monitoring warranty claims per manufacturer per quarter. If a product's field failure rate exceeds 3% in its first two years, it gets pulled from our showroom — no exceptions, regardless of margin. Since 2016, 27 products have been removed under this policy.
Your shortlist arrives as a side-by-side comparison with Scorecard ratings, pricing, estimated lifespan, and cost-per-year calculations. No guesswork. No "trust us, this one's better." Just transparent numbers you can verify. Browse our full range of services to see the categories we cover.
"The Decision" — Honest Math, No Pressure
You choose. We don't rush this. Mistakes we've learned from: early on, we sometimes oversold the premium option when a mid-range product fit the client's use case perfectly. A family who uses their patio four months a year doesn't need the same marine-grade specification as a Commercial Drive restaurant that pressure-washes its tables five nights a week. Now we present the honest math — cost per year over expected lifespan — and let you decide.
For larger projects ($5,000+), we provide a scaled floor plan with furniture placement, material palette, and a phased purchasing plan if budget timing matters. Our flat design fee of $350 is credited in full toward any purchase over $5,000. Elena works with your layout to ensure proper chair clearance (minimum 36 inches from table edge to wall or railing), traffic flow patterns, and visual balance across dining, lounging, and transition zones.
Need to see it first? For projects of this size, Priya can provide high-resolution product photos so you can preview staging before committing. Some clients share these with partners, strata councils, or interior designers before signing off — and we encourage it.
"White-Glove Delivery & Assembly" — Placed, Not Just Dropped Off
Jordan's team schedules a 2-hour delivery window. They show up in one of our two trucks — a 16-foot for standard residential orders and a 24-foot for larger installations — unbox everything, assemble it, place it exactly where you want it, and haul away every scrap of packaging. Then they photograph the finished setup and email it to you as confirmation. No cardboard left on your balcony. No Allen wrenches to hunt down.
On-time rate: 94.2%, tracked per delivery since 2018. Metro Vancouver standard delivery: $89. Our coverage extends from the Fraser Valley east to Chilliwack, Sea-to-Sky north to Whistler, and Vancouver Island via BC Ferries (surcharge $150–$250). For destinations beyond that — Okanagan, Kamloops, Prince George — we coordinate with vetted freight carriers and quote specifically. Every delivery, regardless of distance, includes the same white-glove service. See our Kelowna lakehouse project for an example of what out-of-region delivery looks like.
For commercial clients like restaurants, Jordan coordinates overnight delivery and assembly to avoid disrupting business hours. For strata buildings, we work with property managers to schedule elevator access and loading dock windows.
"In the two years we've worked together, we've furnished 19 projects through Sun Life without a single delivery delay."
— Ben Hooper, Principal, Clearwater Landscape Design"The 90-Day Check-In" — Because What Happens After Matters Most
Every customer gets a call or email from Sara at the 90-day mark. Not marketing. Not a satisfaction survey that feeds an algorithm. She asks: How's the furniture holding up? Any issues? Using the right cleaner? Have the cushions been stored properly if it's fall? This catches problems early — before a wrong cleaning product damages teak's natural oils, before a loose bolt becomes a structural issue, before a shade sail develops pooling from improper tensioning.
These follow-ups feed our performance database. Every compliment and every complaint, verbatim, reviewed by the whole team monthly. That's how we maintain a 1.7% return rate across all categories. It's also how we've caught manufacturer quality shifts early — when one supplier changed their cushion foam density without notifying dealers, Sara's 90-day calls flagged the issue within six weeks. We pulled the affected products and negotiated replacements for every affected customer.
Beyond the 90-day mark, every purchase includes a product-specific care card, and we publish a quarterly newsletter timed to Vancouver's climate calendar: October covers cushion storage, March covers teak sealing, June covers shade sail tensioning. Real maintenance advice — no sales pitch. Check our Seasonal Maintenance & Aftercare service for details.
