Recommendations for shipping to UK from Florida

We have just submitted our spouse Visa application to move back to the UK, and obviously are hopeful of getting it approved  in the not too distant future. We opted for priority service.

We have been living in Florida for the last 15 months having moved across from the UK. We don't have anything by way  of furniture to move, but we have all of our personal possessions a lot of construction tools and expensive electrical equipment. We also have a good few expensive toys!

Has anybody any recommendations at all as to how one would move this sort of stuff. Not enough for a full 20 foot container, but more than a bunch of suitcases!!

If anybody has moved that sort of stuff and  has any idea on cost or contacts it would be great! Thank you.

U pack we ship will likely be your most competitive.

I wouldn’t bring US tools if electric. I’d sell and rebut here if this is a permanent move. You would need a very heavy duty transformer and none are likely to perform as expected even with a top of the line transformer. Just my 2p.

We used Rainier's "slow boat" option. Our stuff was put into three big plywood crates and stored, and when they had enough to fill a container it was added to the shared container and shipped over. We left in late April and our stuff got here in July - as expected.  Was happy with them, was able to track the boat online to see where it was, and it was a lot cheaper than most.  They also do regular (not slow-boat) shipping. I would suggest contacting a few different companies and have them send someone to do an actual inventory and quote on your stuff for you.

Caution on UPak - if you live in an apartment or other community where they cannot get their truck in right to your pallet, you'll have to make arrangements to take all your cartons and pallet somewhere else to wrap it up and have it picked up.

I second KF's advice on power tools that need a lot of current. Smaller things, including a lot of your kitchen and/or AV items, could possibly run well off a good transformer. Rechargeable battery-run items, the same. But the big power tools may not. If you have room anyway, you could bring them and find out how they did. But if room is tight, you might try to sell them there and use the income towards purchasing more here. Which will be way more expensive than they were there. 

I'm not sure about those construction tools.  I don't know much about it, but I understand that it's fairly common for construction tools over here to be 110 for safety reasons, at least among builders.  Builders use big yellow transformers to go from 220 to 110. 

Hand tools for consumers are typically 220.  Might be worth looking into. 

Jobsite construction power tools run on 110V for Health and Safety reasons.  If you're a home hobbyist, you would buy/run 240V tools.  Modern tools will often be dual-voltage, and all you'd need to do is change the plug (or use a plug adapter), and possibly change the voltage by flipping a switch.  Look on your tools to see if this is the case for you before you ship them, as running tools off of a transformer is not ideal.  Another concern is that AC current runs at 60Hz in the US while the UK/EU is standardised to 50Hz, so you will likely notice reduced performance even if you get the voltage right.

What about was the price of that service/option with Rainier and what size were the crates?

We used Rainier's "slow boat" option. Our stuff was put into three big plywood crates and stored, and when they had enough to fill a container it was added to the shared container and shipped over. We left in late April and our stuff got here in July - as expected.  Was happy with them, was able to track the boat online to see where it was, and it was a lot cheaper than most.  They also do regular (not slow-boat) shipping. I would suggest contacting a few different companies and have them send someone to do an actual inventory and quote on your stuff for you.

Caution on UPak - if you live in an apartment or other community where they cannot get their truck in right to your pallet, you'll have to make arrangements to take all your cartons and pallet somewhere else to wrap it up and have it picked up.

I second KF's advice on power tools that need a lot of current. Smaller things, including a lot of your kitchen and/or AV items, could possibly run well off a good transformer. Rechargeable battery-run items, the same. But the big power tools may not. If you have room anyway, you could bring them and find out how they did. But if room is tight, you might try to sell them there and use the income towards purchasing more here. Which will be way more expensive than they were there. 

Oh, goodness. Let me try to remember.

Three standard plywood sea crates ("lift vans" they call them in the trade). We had three of them, but the third was only partially full. They were about 200cu.ft. each. Note that the cu.ft., is their footprint, you usually get a bit less of actual packing space - maybe 180cu.ft. per crate?

I ~think~ we paid around $10.50 per cubic foot start-to-finish, with insurance, but that includes a weird pack-up scenario at the shipping address (and having the guys come pack the crates on VERY short notice, on a weekend) and us being up flights of stairs on both ends. It's cheaper if it's a "short carry" and on the ground floor. It's good we did not go with a cargo container of our own, as they'd never have gotten it in to our property here. We would have had to have paid to have it unloaded, loaded onto a shuttle truck, and then shuttled and delivered to us here. 

As it was, they uncrated all our stuff at their warehouse in England and put it on a delivery truck up to us that way.

Hope that helps!

Thank you, yes, this gives me a good idea of some prices.

Oh, goodness. Let me try to remember.

Three standard plywood sea crates ("lift vans" they call them in the trade). We had three of them, but the third was only partially full. They were about 200cu.ft. each. Note that the cu.ft., is their footprint, you usually get a bit less of actual packing space - maybe 180cu.ft. per crate?

I ~think~ we paid around $10.50 per cubic foot start-to-finish, with insurance, but that includes a weird pack-up scenario at the shipping address (and having the guys come pack the crates on VERY short notice, on a weekend) and us being up flights of stairs on both ends. It's cheaper if it's a "short carry" and on the ground floor. It's good we did not go with a cargo container of our own, as they'd never have gotten it in to our property here. We would have had to have paid to have it unloaded, loaded onto a shuttle truck, and then shuttled and delivered to us here. 

As it was, they uncrated all our stuff at their warehouse in England and put it on a delivery truck up to us that way.

Hope that helps!