Overseas savings on home reno's

[William]

I spent a good couple of hours reading through this thread last night. A bloke in Perth looked into initially shipping a stove from the U.K and ended up with with quite a list of goods. Australian prices $71,318. Landed from U.K to his door including container, shipping, insurances and fees etc $36,731.

He does a great job of explaining how he chose the retailers, forwarding companies, insurances, warranties (Lack of), money exchange etc. There are over 40 pages of reading, I have put the link to where he does the breakdowns. I just thought some others here might find it interesting.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm't=1614240&p=17#r327

[Tombie]

Makes it hard to buy local doesnt it :(

[Mike_S]

Just spent the weekend in Perth, catching up with friends.

Mate was saying the same as he's building 4 houses at the moment. Locally sourcing as much as it's efficient to do so but at the same time not prepared to pay the 35% markup that seemed to be the minimum he came across. Kitchens was a big one, they have a specific spec for each house and were sourcing locally until his wife found a firm who manufacture the entire kitchen in China. Thinking it would be typical Chinese rubbish they enquired further and ended up being invited to the factory in Shanghai. Suffice to say the kitchens are now being made in China and shipped as complete units ready to install, for 30% of the locally sourced price. They reckoned the quality was better than anything they've seen locally.

[Tombie]

Just spent the weekend in Perth, catching up with friends.

Mate was saying the same as he's building 4 houses at the moment. Locally sourcing as much as it's efficient to do so but at the same time not prepared to pay the 35% markup that seemed to be the minimum he came across. Kitchens was a big one, they have a specific spec for each house and were sourcing locally until his wife found a firm who manufacture the entire kitchen in China. Thinking it would be typical Chinese rubbish they enquired further and ended up being invited to the factory in Shanghai. Suffice to say the kitchens are now being made in China and shipped as complete units ready to install, for 30% of the locally sourced price. They reckoned the quality was better than anything they've seen locally.

Can you get the contact details for Kitchen mob and forward to me Mike?

[isuzurover]

Interesting stuff. On average the savings seem to be ~50% even after shipping duty and tax!!!

In WA I think we really get screwed over even more than other states. I bought a boat hull and outboard from the east coast recently, because I saved about $2500 all up over buying from WA dealers.

I suspect that for most goods, the distributors are all on the east coast. so WA people always pay extra shipping.

[big guy]

The MDF often used in imported furniture and boards contain chemicals that are banned here. Cut it and you die so to speak.

MDF could well be the sleeping aspestos scenario of the future so step carefull.
We now used finger jointed pine for skirtings and Jambs etc rather than MDF because of the glue used and the fine air-borne particles floating in the air.

Who really knows what effect they will have but as the main food prep area I would strongly suggest a product that will off-gas a less toxic cocktail.

Just my experience of many years in the trade.

Oh, and also, their products are usually not MR(moisture resistant) and can swell like a bitch and you will have no comeback in terms of warranty.

[Matt97]

I did the same thing last year for a house renovation in Auckland, New Zealand. Brought the kitchen, all bathroom fittings, even doors and windows, furniture (Ikea) etc. Managed to fill a 20ft container which really saved on freight and handling charges. Came in about half the price of going local, I visited all the factories and checked the quality which we are very happy with. Just the saving from getting the curtains done paid for the trip up there and a friend introduced us to a freight forwarder who already had the factory contacts and experience doing the same thing. He checked everything was there and even got replacements sent to us for the odd wrong product. Out of Foshan in Southen China. I'm a little unsure of the rules in Australia, you guys have allot more import protections to keep industry going outside of mining.

[isuzurover]

The MDF often used in imported furniture and boards contain chemicals that are banned here. Cut it and you die so to speak.

MDF could well be the sleeping aspestos scenario of the future so step carefull.
We now used finger jointed pine for skirtings and Jambs etc rather than MDF because of the glue used and the fine air-borne particles floating in the air.

Who really knows what effect they will have but as the main food prep area I would strongly suggest a product that will off-gas a less toxic cocktail.

Just my experience of many years in the trade.

Oh, and also, their products are usually not MR(moisture resistant) and can swell like a bitch and you will have no comeback in terms of warranty.

I used pine or jarrah for all the skirtings, etc in our house for similar reasons...


However, we already import a lot of MDF/particleboard from China. So I am sure it would be possible to specify "Australian Spec" MDF/boards, if such a thing exists.

Most of the health risk is during manufacture. Any MDF used in a kitchen must be sealed/painted anyway to protect it from water - that will stop any outgassing.

They can probably also make the kitchen from solid timber for less than a domestic MDF/chipboard one?

[Mike_S]

Can you get the contact details for Kitchen mob and forward to me Mike?

I'll ask him, see if he's prepared to spill the beans. ;)

[3toes]

The fully built up kitchens supplies from the factory in china direct to your door have been around for in Australia for about 10 years.

Looked at doing the same to here in the UK unfortunately this is EU territory so imports are subject to a mine field of rules and regulations followed by a variety of taxes which make it uneconomic.

[solmanic]

Some of the worst problems I have had on jobs have been where clients bought cheap crap from overseas then expected their builder to install it. Unless you are doing the job entirely on your own, it's a false economy as contractors will charge you to put it in, then take it out again and install a decent quality product when it fails. Stay clear of Chinese tapware is all I can say.

[BMKal]

Many of the "dongas" and other buildings used in new mining camps (particularly where the mine is wholly or partially owned by Chinese companies) are either built in China and shipped here, or are assembled in Australia from "flat paks" manufactured in China.

From what I've seen of them (I live in one when on site), the building materials don't appear to be any worse than those used in similar Australian made buildings (they're ALL pretty cheap and nasty), but I have to agree with solmanic - give Chinese plumbing and bathroom fittings a wide berth.

In particular, the "S" bend on their dunny bowls are much smaller and tighter than the Australian standard, and are well known for requiring a "breaker bar" or similar to "push" through some of the materials that they are intended to convey. :o

Also, their taps and wall exhaust fans are crap. ;)