Folding chairs are bought on a photo and a unit price and lived with for a decade. These four questions decide the decade.

Ask what the pivot runs on

This is the whole category. A rivet punched through thin-wall tube makes the tube the bearing surface, and every fold enlarges the hole slightly. Eventually the chair racks sideways and will not sit flat.

A shouldered pivot turning against a bearing washer moves the wear onto a component designed for it. Ask the question; a supplier who cannot answer is telling you something useful.

Get the steel gauge in writing

Gauge is the wall thickness of the tube, and it is what stops the frame taking a permanent bend when somebody stands on the seat to reach a banner. Somebody always does.

The specific number matters less than whether a supplier will commit to one on paper. Two quotes that look identical can be a whole gauge apart.

Treat the weight rating with suspicion

A capacity printed on a carton is marketing. A capacity tested to a published standard comes with a document you can ask to see, and you should ask.

Understand too that ratings are static loads. The event that breaks chairs is someone dropping into one, which is a dynamic impact several times the sitter’s weight. That is why gauge and pivot matter more than the headline number.

Match the material to where it lives

Steel indoors. UV-stabilised resin outdoors or anywhere hosed down — and it must be stabilised, or it chalks, fades and eventually cracks at the fixings. Padded where people sit for over an hour, knowing the upholstery goes before the frame. Hardwood where a steel chair would look like equipment.

None of these is the premium option. They are answers to different questions.

Cost the trolley in

Over five years, set-up and clear-down labour costs a venue more than the chairs did, and it is decided by folded thickness and chairs-per-cart.

Ask for both numbers alongside the unit price. Almost nobody publishes them, and they occasionally change which chair is actually cheaper.