Vinyl straps brittle, cracking or snapping

Vinyl straps that have gone stiff, cracked or started snapping have lost the plasticizers that kept them flexible, and once one goes the rest are usually close behind. A full restrap typically costs $80 to $95 per chair and $110 to $145 per chaise in Tucson, and can usually be done on your patio.

Check this first: the bend test

1. Pick a strap that has not broken and bend it sharply between your fingers, near where it wraps the frame.
2. Flexible and rubbery? The straps still have life. One snapped strap can be replaced on its own.
3. Stiff, or showing fine white cracks when bent? The vinyl has lost its plasticizers. The others will follow.
4. Look at the color. Straps that have turned chalky or blotchy, especially where people sit, may have been damaged by sun products. Tropitone warns that PABA in some suntan products can permanently discolor vinyl.
5. Look at the rivets. If straps have pulled off at the fastener rather than cracking, a rivet or clip has failed.

What is usually wrong

Full price tables are on the pricing page.

Why straps fail fast in Tucson

UV and heat break down vinyl and drive out the plasticizers that keep it supple. The vinyl then goes rigid, brittle and cracks. Strong cleaners, chlorine and salt speed it up. Tucson averages about 85 percent of its possible sunshine, the NWS normal is 68 days a year at 100 degrees or more, and 2024 hit 112. A strap chair on an uncovered pool deck sees all of it at once.

What a restrap involves

Every strap comes off and old rivets are drilled out. New vinyl is measured about ten percent shorter than the path around the frame, heated in boiling water until it is pliable, then riveted and stretched across while it is hot. As it cools it shrinks tight. The vinyl strap restrapping page covers single wrap, double wrap and cross-weave, and color choices.

Make the next set last

• Rinse with mild soap and water; no abrasive cleaners.
• Use a vinyl protectant, as Winston and Brown Jordan both recommend.
• Put a towel down if you sit out in sunscreen.
• Rinse off pool splash rather than letting it dry on the vinyl; see pool chemical pitting.

Check the warranty

Tropitone and Winston each state five years against strap breakage for residential use, and Tropitone three years against gross discoloration. If your set is newer, check with the retailer first. Both exclude damage from suntan products. The Tropitone and Winston pages have more.

When to call

Call when the bend test fails on more than one strap. Send a photo of the whole chair and one close-up of the underside so we can see the wrap and fastener style, or price a set with the sling and strap cost calculator.