Outdoor / Cold Weather Tips & Tricks

Search didn't reveal too much on this topic, but I was wondering - for those of you who have outdoor Tiki Bars and live in a climate where it snows in the Winter - do you have any tips or tricks you like to share re: weather-proofing, off-season storage, garden plants, or anything else that's relative to those of us who live in the Midwest/Northeast, etc.? I like to hear about how some other folks tackle these challenges.

I partially disassemble my bar each year, store some items in my shed, some in the garage, some in the basement (where I winter my non-hardy hibiscus)and haul it out every spring. I am starting this process now (about two weeks late) after vacationing in the UK; I am excited but the annual work required is pretty daunting...

[ Edited by: AkronTiki 2017-05-22 09:41 ]

I'm using synthetic thatch. It'll probably outlast the bar. Just ordered a hardy bamboo that's good down to ridiculously cold temperature. I'm still building mine, but will be done soon.

Bananas are all cut back to about 6' tall, dug up and stored bare-bulb in the garage. Tropicals are dug up, potted and stored in the garage under a grow light to hang-on through winter. Lots and lots of spring and fall digging. The tiki hut is wrapped to keep the snow out. I've used tarps (ugly) and heavy duty roll plastic dropcloth. I have a friend in the party tent rental business and he hooked me up with a company that will make custom vinyl curtain tent walls, so with grommets I can run some cable and string the walls for a reusable and (hopefully) quick install and tear down.

Hate to even think about this topic now, but it helps to have a shed or other outdoor storage. Stuff also goes in the garage. Pots can be clustered and partially buried. Some plants go indoors. Canna and taro and other bulbs are dug up and brought into garage or some other indoor safe place.

These Covermates are the best things for covering outdoor furniture that you have to leave out through the winter. They even sell sizes that fit those big vintage fireplaces. We keep ours covered even in the summer when not in use because of the rain. They're more expensive than the low-end covers but the price is worth it -- junk covers last a season or two, and these are made to last for life. We bought some ten years ago and they still look brand new.

I leave my bananas in pots and bring them in for the winter.

I haven't covered the furniture...always torn between protecting from the weather or creating habitat for mice. I do bring in the cushions and store those for the winter.

I take down the sail shades. I left one up one year as an experiment and the s-hook on one side bent straight from the snow load. The sail shade didn't get damaged. Its best to take those down to avoid problems.

As for the bar, I bring in the bar fridge and kegorator and plug those in for indoor usage. I'd guess they would be fine if left outside, except everything in them would freeze. Since I keep my syrups in the bar fridge, I bring it in for winter storage (same with the beer in the kegerator). I also bring the booze in for the winter.

As far as the bar itself, I leave decorations and lights hanging in the bar.

Move! get out now while you can!

If I did not have the restaurant and so many connections here I would have.

I kinda think people are like plants in that that have zones that they thrive in.
Sure you can live in this zone 5 cold wet grey hell, but not feel good about it most of the time.

Some people like the colder climates, I do not.

If you are young and like sun and warm weather get out now, don't even pack just go.
You will feel so much better down the road.

As I write this rain is coming, it rained yesterday, and calls for rain thru Friday.

OHIO sucks!

On 2017-07-12 08:01, jimsflies wrote:
I leave my bananas in pots and bring them in for the winter.

Gonna have to try this sometime. Have not grown banana plants yet. This year we added Florida tillandsias but they're all in the house. Also growing a pineapple in a pot on the lanai.

I haven't covered the furniture...always torn between protecting from the weather or creating habitat for mice. I do bring in the cushions and store those for the winter.

We worried about this before too, but it hasn't been a problem at all. The Covermates do the job well. No mice. We do have a few well behaved local cats and maybe they help keep the mice and chipmunk population down, which is a very good thing.

I take down the sail shades. I left one up one year as an experiment and the s-hook on one side bent straight from the snow load. The sail shade didn't get damaged. Its best to take those down to avoid problems.

Where are your sail shades? We need more 'above' type stuff in our back and we've thought of rigging sail shades from the side of the house to some posts. Would like to see your setup. Do you have a thread on your home bar in this forum? Love the snowtime pic.

"Do you have a thread on your home bar in this forum?"
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=43640&forum=20

Great job on this bar!
Those sails would need to be really done well and strong as we get some strong winds, at least here we do.

I'm late to the party but the best thing we ever did was to use artificial thatch on our tiki bar. It snows in NJ and my natural bamboo is the bane of my existence. But the fake stuff looks as good as the day we installed it. I have bananas that are probably 8 ft tall. In the fall, around the first frost, I cut them to the ground and pile mulch on top. Same with my elephant ears and any other tubers. We put most of our tikis in the shed and take down our masks and put blue tarps around the sides of our bar. (It's open on 3 sides.) We leave opening so we can go inside which we sometimes do before we take them down if the weather is mild.

I'd love to move to somewhere warmer! But ya know, jobs and family...

Buttoning up for the winter. First snow of the year showed up this morning and we can expect freezing temps through to June.

The Hut has 13 screen windows which aren't all square after all these years, which necessitated cutting 13 plywood plugs of varying size. Sadly, the cold local temps prevented more than a single coat of paint, but I think it'll hold until Spring.

What else are our Tiki fans who are closer to the North Pole than the Equator doing for the winter?

Shot a quick, terrible, video of the final installation. https://youtu.be/5i72izcf9h0 Yes, I missed a board due to the weather. I think it'll handle the winter, and if it doesn't, I'll cut another one in the Spring.

Yes, there's a door missing, it's in the Hut and we'll install it in the Spring.

Everything around here waits until the Spring.

B

That looks solid. Obviously, I don't have to worry about the extreme weather you deal with in the winter, but your window covers got me thinking. Around here, there are a lot of century-old German and Czech open-air dance halls. They have large, wooden shutters like you've put up, only hinged along the top frame so they can be swung open, upward, and held in place with a chain. Would that be a viable option for you? It seems that would save you the effort of installing and removing those covers every year.

What a cool building.

I would one by one make those wood inserts you have be hinged to the top of the window.
It looks like there is no glass / plastic in those window openings.

That way you could just flip them up in the summertime plus you could lock your space up and keep the rain and wind, animals out even in the summer.
It would provide a cool roof to sit under in the summer when it rains after you flip them up.
It rains here a LOT.

You could also put port holes in the flip up window openings so they would look cool even when closed.

The best thing to do in the cold areas we live in is don't fight it.

Use stuff that can get wet and stay outside.
Stuff like metal that will rust and look better.
Things like cedar wood, stone, rocks, concrete, copper.

Even that fiberglass corrugated stuff they use for roofs.
Or that huge fat rope, it may rot but it will take forever.

They may cost more on the front end but last way longer and you won't be busting your butt bringing that stuff in and out every year.

Good luck!!

WINTER SUCKS!!!

Ha! looks like we posted at the same time, same idea.

On 2017-10-30 08:52, tikiskip wrote:
Ha! looks like we posted at the same time, same idea.

Ha! Great minds and all that...

Prikli, Skip -

Thanks for your ideas. The rest of the year the windows are covered by large screens, roughly 4'x4' which keep the mosquitoes out - our other major weather feature up here.

When we bought the house in 2007, there were fairly hideous canvas covers over the windows which rotted out sometime during the Carter Administration. The last few winters, I just had tarps covering the windows, drilled in place. When we got busy on the Hut this summer, it was decided that we should do something slightly more permanent.

The boards are held in place with the same clips that hold the screens in place. It takes about thirty minutes to switch them out and I can't complain about the price.

So far it's been a great hangout, and it's nice to bring some Tiki to the Northwoods.

Reading about the work you guys do makes me realize how spoiled I am in Zone 10 :( I'd much rather put up with 100+ degree days from April through October, the plants like it better too.

We still haven't shut down the lanai. Autumn this year was a second summer out here, the past few weeks have been chilly but the basil was still growing last time we looked, there's still a few cana blooms, a couple of crickets, seems like the autumn leaves have just started turning

On 2017-10-31 19:14, MadDogMike wrote:
Reading about the work you guys do makes me realize how spoiled I am in Zone 10 :( I'd much rather put up with 100+ degree days from April through October, the plants like it better too.

On the other hand, twenty below has a way of keeping out the riff raff.

B

On 2017-10-30 20:28, HodagHut wrote:
Prikli, Skip -

Thanks for your ideas. The rest of the year the windows are covered by large screens, roughly 4'x4' which keep the mosquitoes out - our other major weather feature up here.

When we bought the house in 2007, there were fairly hideous canvas covers over the windows which rotted out sometime during the Carter Administration. The last few winters, I just had tarps covering the windows, drilled in place. When we got busy on the Hut this summer, it was decided that we should do something slightly more permanent.

The boards are held in place with the same clips that hold the screens in place. It takes about thirty minutes to switch them out and I can't complain about the price.

So far it's been a great hangout, and it's nice to bring some Tiki to the Northwoods.

We've got a similar screened in area. My plan is to build polycarbonate storm windows that I can install during colder months, and drop a tiny wood stove in. Of course, winter is right around the corner and I'm not quite there yet!

On 2017-11-05 17:50, HodagHut wrote:
On the other hand, twenty below has a way of keeping out the riff raff.

Yes, 120 above does the same thing. Otherwise we would have the traffic and housing prices of nearby (120 miles) San Diego :lol:

"On the other hand, twenty below has a way of keeping out the riff raff."

Ha! we still have riff and raff here in Ohio.

In California they keep the "riff raff" out by pricing the homes so high that the riff raff can't afford to live there.
Then go on about how they love the riff and raff.

We are on to you Justin Bieber!

Wait without his money Justin Bieber would be the most riff raffiest guy there is.

[ Edited by: tikiskip 2017-11-07 06:22 ]

On 2017-11-06 11:11, tikitube wrote:
We've got a similar screened in area. My plan is to build polycarbonate storm windows that I can install during colder months, and drop a tiny wood stove in. Of course, winter is right around the corner and I'm not quite there yet!

I'm leaving it unheated because I'm worried about moisture building up inside. Even thought it is uninsulated and not even remotely airtight, I worry about any kind of moisture building up in the reed fencing on the walls. The last thing I want is a mold problem.

We intentionally left the building uninsulated as that would've triggered the need for a building permit - as far as the city is concerned, we did work on the shed out back. Once the real snow hits here, it's about a 50' slog through two - three feet of snow, more if drifts occur.

There will come a night real soon when I won't go in there for the rest of 2017, I'm just not looking forward to it.

The big last project for this year was installing our table project inside to keep it out of the snow. We scored a 54" diameter wire spool that we'll tiki-ize into a table next year.

B

On 2017-11-06 17:03, HodagHut wrote:

On 2017-11-06 11:11, tikitube wrote:

I'm leaving it unheated because I'm worried about moisture building up inside. Even thought it is uninsulated and not even remotely airtight, I worry about any kind of moisture building up in the reed fencing on the walls. The last thing I want is a mold problem.

Good point. There won't be much difference in temp between outside and inside in our room, and when we do fire up the wood stove it should dry out the room pretty well. But watching the humidity levels and condensation is important.

"I'm worried about moisture building up inside"

There is mold resistant paint you could use behind the reed on the walls.
Plus could you spray the walls and reed with some kind of mold inhibiter TSP/ water down bleach?

Just painting the wood walls would keep the moister at bay as moister would not soak into the wood.
It did help in our shed.

On 2017-11-07 06:21, tikiskip wrote:
"I'm worried about moisture building up inside"

There is mold resistant paint you could use behind the reed on the walls.
Plus could you spray the walls and reed with some kind of mold inhibiter TSP/ water down bleach?

Just painting the wood walls would keep the moister at bay as moister would not soak into the wood.
It did help in our shed.

Now you tell me! :wink:

B

Here's another tip...if you have a plumbed bar sink that will be in the cold (under a patio or porch), pour a little antifreeze down the sink so that any water left standing in the p-trap doesn't freeze and cause damage. I also shut off the water supply valve from inside the house and then open the tap at the bar.