sephy

Can anyone tell me if they have taken any antique wooden furniture over to Perth with them, did you need to have it fumigated?? - is it worth taking or selling? We have two chests that we were thinking of taking.

Also my sons have a huge box of Brio, can we take that or will it need fumigating because I don't think its varnished. Wanted to pass on to grandchildren if we get any!! ,sentimental I know but if every piece will need to be fumigated then we'll have to sell it.

canaveral

hi sephy is it not just timber that needs fumigating rather than furniture? I too have a pine warddrobe i would like to take. would that need fumigating? I asked the shipping company and thay said it did not. Can anyone clarify this please.

Pollyana

Any wood MAY need treatment, but modern pine furniture is probably OK.
They are mainly looking for woodworm or other infestations, and will look closely at any untreated wood, esp stuff from places like Indonesia.
very few people on here have actually needed their wooden furinture treated, if thats any reassurance.

canaveral

thanks Polly

flip

We brought both - like you've been told it's untreated wood, muck, dirt, feathers, shells, wicker and food that are the no-nos.

We had to have our garden furniture sanded, steam cleaned and oiled 3 times but it passed inspection. They didn't inspect our other furniture, inspected one box of toys, our christmas decorations (looking for pine cones), our hoover (which was brand new so no problem but it must be completely clean), and other outdoor stuff.

Left our duvet and lots of pillows and cushions which were feathers and had all rugs cleaned.

I'd bring the stuff you've mentioned - they will know Brio has been treated as has your antique stuff probably (varnish counts as treating it I believe)

kirsty&al

No problem with Brio, we brought loads of track and other unvarnished wooden toys. It is available here too.

K

joho

I brought an antique bureau and glass cabinet and both needed treating in oz. It wasnt expensive though $110 for the pair, the only thing was we had to pick them up ourselves as it can take 2-3 weeks for them to do the treatment. I also brought lots of other wooden stuff like pine wadrobes, dinning table, chairs (its suprising how much wooden stuff you have) and it was all fine. We havent even used the wadrobes and they are still packed. Also brought an old wicker ottaman and chair, both ok. Although packers just marked it as 'ottaman'. Quite a few things went through ok which surprised me.

Jo

MrsDagboy

We brought back a stack of antiques when we actually moved here & last time we went on holiday & the only thing that needed treating was an old pine trunk that had signs of woodworm. The brio was fine & as Al says you can buy it here (although I think its more expensive than the UK).

Diamond Lil

We brought mostly antique furniture over with us. Fine antique furniture that is inlaid or veneered does not like the climate very much. You will find that the veneer is liable to bubble or start peeling or the joints and joins start widening. Solid wood is much more stable. We have found that a bowl of water underneath a piece gives it some humidity and can combat this problem. As an ex antique dealer I made sure that we had no "bugs " of any sort in the furniture as being in a container for some time it doesn't take long for them to start boring into untouched pieces if you have hatchlings. Aqis had no problem with the furniture ( declared as antique ) BUT I had some garden ornaments which the kids had given us over the years. As soon as they saw those on the list the container had to be opened. They were worried that bird poo could be on them even though I explained that they had never actually been in a garden, only a conservatory. The result was that the container had to be fumigated. It doesn't harm your furniture but I have a lot of persian type rugs which had to be laid out in a garage for weeks because of the terrible smell.

Liz

sephy

Thanks everyone for your help, didn't realise about the shells though

gdcollectables

Hi

I used to be an antique dealer in the UK too!

We brought over waxed (not varnished) furniture, we didn't declare it as antique or describe the type of wood - just wood chests of drawers, wood wardrobes, wood cupboards etc, etc. It was not inspected by Aqis.

We also brought Persian rugs, carvings, cane and all manner of things - I think it depends on how the shippers describe the goods.

We had two boxes opened, one was listed as outdoor shoes and the other Christmas Decorations!!

gd