Lowe's Garden Treasures Salem Slat Bench By Amy Nil on Jun 02, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

Last fall, our local Lowe's had a clearance sale in their home and garden department. We had been wanting a simple bench for our backyard, and this fit the bill. At 50% off, we figured it was probably a good deal. It was in the box when we bought it, and there were a number of different benches available. There was no indication that this particular bench may have problems.

We were wrong. Here are just a few of the problems we have had:

1. Shoddy construction - we have to tighten the slats every two weeks if we don't want the bench to wobble.

2. Not weather resistant - After one winter (and the winter here is not that bad), this bench looks very weathered. A lot of the finish has worn off, and the wood underneath is very rough. It would definitely need sanding before applying another finish. We have even had some splinters.

3. Not very comfortable - 15 minutes max on this bench is all I can handle. And I am not very picky about comfort.

In addition, it doesn't really look nice anymore because so much of the finish has come off.

Generally, we are people who will try to fix things up before getting rid of something or throwing it away. However, in this case, I think that we will probably just replace this bench and call it a loss. I would highly recommend staying away from this particular model.