A daft question?

[Guest alan smallman]

Hi

 

Has anyone taken graden tools (spades, rakes etc) and tools in general (spanners, hammers, screwdrivers, saws, planers etc) over, and if so what kind of checks (if any) did they have to go through? We've heard of garden furniture having to be steam cleaned but is that something that would apply to greasy (well, not greasy but well-used) ordinary tools with a few dents and chips, and scuff marks on them, such as spanners, chisels etc. Also, if anything does have to be steam-cleaned, is that something we would have to do over here before shipping stuff out? Did anyone take wooden bookshelves or tv cabinets (we've got soft wood items which house our cds, books and tv which were purchased from IKEA and are already stained with wood-dye), and if so were these subject to any scrutiny by customs?

 

Many thanks

 

Alan & Pauline

[Guest Deb17]

Hi Alan,

My hubby brought his ordinary tools over - spanners and screwdrivers and such, they were packed in our boxes and we listed them on the inventory and nothing was opened and checked. I think it's different for garden tools, because they've been in contact with the soil and would be a quarantine risk to Aussie plants and wildlife apparently, so you may have to leave them behind. If you take them and quarantine do a check on them and find they have to be cleaned to their stringent standards you will be charged for them doing this. As for your wooden items of furniture we shipped out stained wooden bookshelves and a coffee table also from IKEA, without any problems. But there is an IKEA here right next to the airport if you want to buy new - I reckon the prices here in comparison to what I paid at home are a bit cheaper actually.

Good Luck.

Deb.

[Guest Django]

Your garden tools will have to be thoroughly cleaned and rubbed down with jeyes fluid. We are going to have to do this with the kids bikes as well. Anything with mud on them have to go minus the mud and if it smells with jeyes fluid then customs are generally happy.

 

Pete

[Guest Alipally]

The shippers have told us that we need to paint the tools with hammerite, unless they're stainless steel, but they all need to be absolutely spotlessly clean.

We were told that our oiled teak garden furniture is fine to take, untreated wicker and seagrass is not. Nothing that is an animal skin (we have an Indian drum that we can't take because of the skins) no dried flowers, pot pouri or raw timber.

That's about all I can say for now, they're not packing for a few more weeks yet.

[Guest alan smallman]

Thanks all for your replies. I guess it's not going to be worth it to take over spades and such-like. Mind you, My wife and I will have 4 road bikes we will be wanting to bring over (I'm just about to build a fourth). So I Guess I won't bother replacing tyres after this season (which looks as though its gonna be a wet one again) as that will be one potential hassle less. When we were doing our reccie we saw plenty of cycle shops :sad:where we can buy new tyres etc (I also saw a smashing cycle shirt with a Kangaroo on which was cool) - Sorry :GEEK:I seemed to have slipped into my fave subject! Anyway, many thanks for the info it's really appreciated as usual.

 

Alan:notworthy:

[Guest Alipally]

So long as you jet wash your tyres they should be absolutely fine... They're not looking to catch you out and make money, they're just aiming at keeping all the nasties that they think we have in the UK out of Australia....

You'll be fine, friends took their bike on their WHV on the plane with them, it was just visibly clean, not sprayed with Jeyes or anything and they were fine and dandy!

[Guest Guzzler&Sas]

The shippers have told us that we need to paint the tools with hammerite, unless they're stainless steel, but they all need to be absolutely spotlessly clean.

We were told that our oiled teak garden furniture is fine to take, untreated wicker and seagrass is not. Nothing that is an animal skin (we have an Indian drum that we can't take because of the skins) no dried flowers, pot pouri or raw timber.

That's about all I can say for now, they're not packing for a few more weeks yet.

 

 

Not heard about having too paint your tools with hammerite:skeptical:, give them a good clean removing any mud, sawdust etc, a wipe down with an oily rag and they will be fine.

One lesson to be learnt get the packers to confine your tools to as few boxes as possible, customs will target these boxes and the more they have to open the more you may have to pay, mine were spread through 20 boxes and it took them an extra hour to check for which I had to pay,

 

Guzzler

[Guest Guest75]

There is never a daft question - only the ones you don't ask.

Wish I'd brought more of my stuff,it seemed to "fit" better.

[Guest sarahsmartiepants]

I wish we had bought our garden tools the tools here are sub-standard, Bought a lifetime gaurentee fork and I managed to break it at the weekend!

Anyone have a need for a 2 prong fork drop me a PM:biglaugh:

[Guest graandjac]

Thanks all for your replies. I guess it's not going to be worth it to take over spades and such-like. Mind you, My wife and I will have 4 road bikes we will be wanting to bring over (I'm just about to build a fourth). So I Guess I won't bother replacing tyres after this season (which looks as though its gonna be a wet one again) as that will be one potential hassle less. When we were doing our reccie we saw plenty of cycle shops :sad:where we can buy new tyres etc (I also saw a smashing cycle shirt with a Kangaroo on which was cool) - Sorry :GEEK:I seemed to have slipped into my fave subject! Anyway, many thanks for the info it's really appreciated as usual.

 

Alan:notworthy:

We have just had our container delivered, the only thing pulled out was christmas decs , there seems to be a lot af scare mongering by the shippers , we brought with no hastle , tools all i did was oil them all......we brought 4 bikes with sets of spare road and off road tyres . Only jet washed off the bikes and tyres so there was no mud in sight which is easly done ....all this steam cleaned is .......well rubbish as long as the tyres are clean and there is no old mud in sight thats the main thing . It does look like the boxes are spot checked . cheers Graham

[Guest alan smallman]

Many thanks for the latest replies, guys . It does seem a little worrying when shippers seem to be advising you to adopt certain approaches and others don't. I guess they need to cover their backsides when they give advice . Have you hammerited your tools yet, Ali? I was actually thinking (as I lay trying to get to sleep ) how one would actually go about that effectively . It'll be interesting to see what the shippers say when we appoint them (now that's a question I'll save for another day!)

 

Once again, Cheers!

 

 

Alan;)

[Guest Alipally]

Nope, not done it yet, have 4 weeks until the big move and plenty weeds to get out of the garden before it's done.

It's only the rusty stuff, that they've said to paint up again, my rake is more rust than metal, so I guess that's why he advised it!

You hear a lot of horror stories, but mainly I think if you're sensible and it's all clean it'll be fine. Well I'm hoping so!

 

Ali

[Guest alan smallman]

When you think about it, maybe that does make sense for items such as that. Well Good luck with the weeding then Ali, and the eventual move! Let us know how you get on.

 

All The Best

 

Alan;)