wayward

Hi all,
We are aiming to move over in Sept to Oct sometime and I'm trying to get to grips with what to take and what not to take.
We have a loads of garage items, lots of tools (hubby a fitter & myself a gardener), boxes and boxes of nuts, bolts, screws etc
My Father moved to South Africa some years ago and on hindsight wishes he had taken all of these types of items.
We are worried about how clean things need to be, and have read posts where even if a couple of blades of grass are found they will charge for fumigation or charge for it to be destroyed.
So did anyone bother to take all of those workshop/garage bits and bobs that you have gathered over the years? How well did you clean them? I can see it taking us weeks & weeks just to clean stuff! should we go as extreme as steam cleaning our hundreds of nuts & bolts!
I also have a collection of very old carpenters tools that were my Grandfathers, I would like to take them, but worry that they might not get past customs.
Any advice appreciated,
Lisa

grapii

Hi, we've just gone through the same, the shipping company we used gave us some suggestions on what to do.

Basically we got 2 buckets, filled one with disinfectant and the other with soapy water, then with a hard tooth brush (cheap bath cleaning brush from the pound shop) we went through each piece and scrubbed down (not too forcefully or immaculately) first in disinfectant bucket and then sort of rinsed off in the water bucket.

Anything prone to rust, we immediately wiped dry, the rest we left to dry naturally. Tedious task but had to be done.

We used the same process for the bikes and shoes.

al150n

Hubby is a mechanic by trade so he had a lot of tools to bring with him. He spent quite a time sat cleaning stuff down with WD40. All the smaller, fiddly bits like sockets, etc went through the dish washer which worked a treat & saved hours. I did have to promise my Mum though that I wouldn't tell my Dad about that otherwise she'll be constantly finding unwanted items in her dishwasher

Things like the car jack we left behind. We didn't bring any of the gardening tools although in hindsight I wish I had cleaned down a few bits & bought them with us. I did bring my bike though & that wasn't even checked when it came through, it was still completely sealed up in the bike bag the shippers had packed it in. I'm guessing may be they could smell the jeys fluid & WD40 through the plastic!

Alison x

Sherlock Holmes

Hi Wayard and Welcome to B.E.

Glad to see that you have received a few good replies already.

Engine oil, grease etc. is one to avoid.

Enjoy B.E.

A.

wayward

Thanks for the reply, must admit I'm tempted to buy a steam cleaner, then just spray everything in disinfectant after, to give it that clean smell!
How about things that are already a little rusty, do you have to clean that off as well & maybe give a coat of hammerite or oil?
Did they go through all of your tools when your container arrived, how picky were they or is it just the luck of the draw.
Any tools you wish you had bought in the UK to take over?

Lisa

Sherlock Holmes

Avoid any sort of oil.

Inspection at customs is a COMPLETE lottery. I even declared one chest of drawers to have woodworm. They didn't look at that. Of all my possessions, they opened a small packet of brand new 1 x 2 x 12ft finished pine from B & Q that I had lying around and thought I'd bring. I had a tool box which was completely left alone also.

BUT, you never know.

furkew

we brought heaps of tools, garden & otherwise. everything was cleaned and got through all fine.

We didnt bring anything mechanical.

furniture:we brought a hand made indonesian cabinet plus lots of other indonesian made furniture, a chair with a wicker back and no problems either.

4 push bikes, all nicely cleaned. No probs.

but admittedly it is, as has already been mentioned a bit of a lottery with AQIS.

I deal with them weekly because the company where I work imports cut flowers from Holland weekly, and one AQIS officer will refuse entry for a product & another will clear it without a problem. I received an email from a quarantine officer today about a product that we have been importing for a couple of months stating that it is not allowed in the country, and we have another email from a month ago from the head dept in canberra stating that it is fine

p.s. I see you are headed to Belgrave. Thats just round the corner from us, Its a great little town. maybe catch up for a beer at the micawber if you want to find out a bit more about the area.

Paul.

wayward

Hi Paul,
I will be pm you soon, got one more thread to post before I can!
Interested in your rental, as well as other things! Bikes, trail riding, horticulture questions
Did you bring over things like nuts, bolts, screws etc we have built up quite a collection of bits & bobs like that over the years

wayward

Something else of concern is whether to take our air compressor, it's has quite a large tank and because it's got an engine, does that mean different rules apply?

furkew

not 100% sure, but cant forsee it being an issue.

moneypenny20

We brought ours. The husband would have thrown a hissy if anyone had suggested we leave it behind. Wasn't checked over as far as we could tell from the packaging. Drain the oil, water etc, pressure washed, wiped with WD40 - went through cans of that as we did every last tool and machine with it. No problem. Rust he dealt with by brushing off loose stuff with a wire brush then painting. We also used the dishwasher for small tools and parts. Don't forget to clean the toolboxes thoroughly as well.

It was a bit of a faff but at the end of the day we've got thousands of pounds/dollars worth of gear and if we were bringing sofas and beds we were bringing his toys.