Guides / Container planning
Loading restaurant dining chairs into a 40HQ without paying for air
In short: Chairs load by volume, tables load by volume, and knocked-down furniture loads roughly twice as densely as assembled. Whether your order fills a container is a packing decision made at the quoting stage, not at the port.
Volume first, weight second
A 40HQ holds about 68 cbm usable. For restaurant dining chairs packed at 1 pc per carton, 0.18–0.24 cbm, the arithmetic is simple: divide 60 cbm — the practical usable figure once you allow for stacking losses — by the carton volume and you have the maximum piece count. Weight almost never binds first with furniture; volume does.
Ask for the packed carton dimensions before you confirm the order. A factory that cannot give you a carton dimension is a factory that has not packed for export before, or has not checked.
Knocked down or assembled
Knocked-down chairs load at roughly half the volume of assembled ones and cost less per unit to ship. The trade is assembly time at destination and a small risk of missing hardware. For a project with its own installers, knocked down is usually the right answer; for a restaurant that wants furniture in place on opening day, it is usually not.
Either way, specify that hardware is packed per unit in a labelled bag and that a 2% spare fittings kit goes in the container. It costs almost nothing and it saves the one missing bolt that stops a whole table being built.
Mixed loads and stack planning
A mixed load of tables and chairs is normal for a restaurant fit-out, and it needs a stack plan: heavy flat-packed items at the bottom, cartons on top, nothing bridging a gap. Ask the factory for the loading plan with the carton count per row.
The failure mode is a container loaded to the doors with no allowance for the last two rows, which get crushed on closing. If the total volume comes to 64 cbm against 68 cbm usable, plan on 60 — the last 4 cbm are the ones that do not fit.
Sampling, and what the sample is for
A physical sample takes about 15 days and carries no sampling fee; the courier is on the buyer's account. The sample is not a formality — it is the only point at which the seat height, the finish and the fabric can be checked together before a production run exists.
Keep the approved sample, or a signed photograph of it with the finish and fabric references written on the back. When the production run arrives, that sample is the specification. Without it, the comparison becomes a memory.
Why the specification, not the price, is the decision
Two quotations for restaurant dining chairs are only comparable when they answer the same written specification. Once they do, the remaining difference is construction and material grade — which is exactly the difference that shows up in year two, in a room full of guests, with no spare chairs.
The cheapest reliable path is to fix the specification, fix the drawing, and then compare. It takes one extra week at the start and removes most of the reasons a project has to buy the same furniture twice.
What happens after delivery
Two things cause most after-delivery problems: settlement in the first weeks, and a finish that does not survive the cleaning chemical the venue actually uses. Both are preventable. Let the furniture settle in its final room for a few days before final positioning, and ask for the cleaning instruction in writing with the cleaning agent named.
Replacements and spare parts ship with the next order rather than as a single parcel, which keeps the cost of a small claim proportionate. Tell the factory what failed and send a photograph; a joint that opened in service is information the next run can use.
Where this fits on our own range
Our metal restaurant chairs, wood restaurant chairs and velvet dining chairs are built to the same drawing discipline, so the numbers above apply there without translation. These are the pages the same workshop builds to, so the dimensions, finishes and load ratings discussed above apply directly rather than in principle.
Two models built to the specification discussed above are the JP-C058 metal dining chair and the JP-C070 wood dining chair; both are quoted against your drawing rather than a stock size.
Frequently asked questions
Can the dimensions be changed?
Yes. Every model can be re-dimensioned, and the price basis does not change. The requirement is that the final dimensions are confirmed on the drawing before production, because a custom size is a new structure.
How is an order for restaurant dining chairs packed for export?
Corner protection on every carton, a moisture barrier inside, and the model and quantity marked outside. Packed volume is 1 pc per carton, 0.18–0.24 cbm.
Is there a minimum order for restaurant dining chairs?
The MOQ is 6 pcs per model. Custom dimensions and custom fabrics carry no upcharge and no tooling fee.
Sources and further reading
- restaurant furniture specification — foshanrestaurant.com
- restaurant furniture supplier — foshanrestaurant.com