RelocatingBrit

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of shipping mattress from UK to California. We have a 7000 spring mattress which we really like, exactly a year old. It was expensive but due to the hassle of shipping, initially we were thinking of just buying everything in US. However, upon research it seems that you cannot buy such a mattress in US easily, we only found two suppliers and the cost was about £3500 pounds. The problem is that we have had mattresses with memory foam, gel etc and really hate these sow e just want standard spring mattress with natural fibre- John Lewis in UK sorted us out. If we ship mattress , we will ship the bed too, alongside our furniture. What I really wanted to know was how the mattress travels this distance and for 6-9 weeks in a container? I would appreciate comments from anyone who has done this?
Thank you,

civilservant

I haven't done it, but I would think that if it was enclosed in a sealed (and preferably vacuum packed) bag it would be fine. Obviously the issue is dampness getting to it, what with it being at sea for so long.

dj6372

We shipped ours from the UK, it was sealed in a heavy duty plastic cover (we'd kept the delivery one) and it was fine.

RelocatingBrit

Thank you civilservant and dj6372. dj6372, its really good to know that your's was fine.

chawkins99

We shipped 2 mattresses. No special prep. Just put them in the container with everything else. No problems at all. I think one was stood on end against the side of the container and the other thrown on top of everything else when the container was nearly full. We also shipped some food including a box of (48) crisps. No issues after 6 weeks of travel in July/August.

RelocatingBrit

Fantastic! Thank you . Can I also ask who you used to ship, I guess you were happy with their service?

chawkins99

Well, now you're asking!!!

Fortunately, this geek still has emails from 14 years ago

I'll send the company in a PM.

Cost us £2,750 at the time. They came to our house with a 20ft container and we had 2 hours to load it. More time would have cost extra but we were prepped and able to load in the 2 hours.

We waved goodbye to our worldly possessions and they were delivered to our new home in Alabama 6 weeks later. The shipment went from Tilbury to Charleston and then overland to Alabama.

We had help from a couple of Mexicans to unload in Alabama. Boy, can those guys work!

petitefrancaise

We shipped all our beds and mattresses. No problem - as others have said, they were carefully wrapped.

Nutek

Does it make buying sheets and stuff a PITA? I thought sizes were different in some way.

petitefrancaise

nope.
A British double is a "full" size here. A single is a "twin" . The queen size beds I bought here anyway.

I had more problems in France where I seemed to accumulate about 4 different pillow sizes.

chawkins99

Yes. It's also a pain to get a replacement mattress when the time comes.

We shipped a British king size. Closer to a US Queen size but not exactly.

We also shipped a British double. NO US equivalent.

We've now replaced both with US King size. The old ones are now our daughter's problem.

Nutek

That's all cleared up then.

chawkins99

chawkins99

I stand (lie) corrected. A UK double is the same as a US full.

A US queen is 2 inches longer than a UK king.

Nutek

Said the actress...