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Black Iron Garden Furniture


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I am moving to NZ shortly from Ohio, and am currently sorting out what to bring. One item on the maybe list is Patio/Garden furniture. I am a great fan of the iron furniture that is mostly made from a material called expanded metal in these parts - not sure if that is a term that's commonly used in NZ. The furniture is powder coated to look black and give it fairly good rust resistance. In my experience the furniture is sturdy, durable, very comfortable, and reasonably priced - chairs around $25 for a regular stack-able one, $50 for a 'rocking' model, about $100 for a big round table.

In Ohio I have big back yard, and have accumulated enough of the stuff over the years to entertain a small crowd. However, most of the stuff is getting a little rusty, and needs to be replaced. Will I be able to buy this stuff easily in Auckland, and will the price be comparable to the US? If not, I am bringing a 20' container. As long as everything fits in there, I could bring 6 chairs and a table at virtually no cost - probably all I'll need in NZ.

patio-furniture.jpg

Regular chairs with round table and sun umbrella.

patio-furniture-2.jpg

Rocking chairs with round table.

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chairs around $25 for a regular stack-able one, $50 for a 'rocking' model, about $100 for a big round table.

will the price be comparable to the US?

:rotf: I wish. Not even close. I can't find anything exactly like those, nothing nearly as ornate. I'd estimate you'd be looking at about 3-4X the US price here in NZ if you can find something similar. You can get a cheap table and 4 chair set for in the region of $400NZ.

Something like this which is aluminum and cheap fake wicker backing is about $935 US.

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This is powdercoated aluminum: $530 US

!61041xlg.jpg

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I would bring as much of it as you think you need and can fit in, outdoor furniture is quite dare here and most of it is pretty low quality and wont last long.

NZ is pretty much the most expensive country in the world to buy anything even the products which are made (milk/meat etc) here are more expensive here than any other part of the world. And customs will hit you hard if you try and get things cheaper from overseas.

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Thanks for all the input guys.

You can get black powder coated furniture here, just not that cheaply.

Caryl - where? I have looked up web sites of The Warehouse and hardware stores like Mitre 10 and Bunnings, and I can find nothing like it.

BTW - nice ride you are sporting in your avatar! My brother in law lives in Blenheim and he and his wife joined some type of motorbike club a couple of years ago. Mike and Lorraine Brasch - wonder if you know them.

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Ira's second pic shows powder coated furniture.

I have not seen it totally like yours but my outdoor set came from either Bunnings, Mitre10 Mega or Warehouse (I can't remember but most likely Mitre10 Mega)

tableandchair_zps8c337968.jpg

There are more chairs to this set but they blew away in the recent storm and I have yet to gather them up around the table again (and they are all wet as it rained last night)

I don't know the Braschs but suspect they belong to the Ulysses Motorcycle Club. Their motto is Grow Old Disgracefully. They have their runs at the same time as we have our MX5 Car Club runs and we both leave from the same location. A couple of our members belong to Ulysses as well.

My avatar is a lie. It costs too much to register and insure a motorbike so I got a Suzuki 50cc to putter about in town or to carry stuff too heavy to walk home with (I usually walk everywhere). It looks like this...

Carylsscooter_zps94fda4ed.jpg

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Caryl - thanks for the clarification. That's powder coated aluminum. I am looking for iron/steel. You summed up the shortfalls of aluminum nicely - too light so it blows about in the wind. That wouldn't happen with iron. Also, the expanded metal seating area and table top dry off within minutes after a rain shower -unlike plastic fabric and glass. Maybe I should source a container load of that furniture in China and start selling it in NZ. It would seem ideal for the windy, rainy climate!

BTW - I don't know what you are talking about. The bike in the photo looks exactly like the one in your avatar - yellow and racy :thup:

David - I wish I could bring fish! You would not believe the prices breeders sell fish for around here. At any of the local club meetings you can pick up bags with 6 juveniles of anything under the sun. Prices rarely go over $10, and virtually never over $30 even for rare Tanganyikan cyps, featherfins, or sandsifters. Geophagus are a dime a dozen, but those sp. Pindare were a little less common in this area - much more popular in Germany! For some reason the suckers never spawned for me, and I'll never know why!

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Yeah I spend a fair bit of time on MonsterFishKeepers so know roughly what the American market is like. I cringed when I was talking to a friend there about the true Heros severus and he said he euthanised the last batch of fry his pair produced as he already had loads he couldn't give away!

My sister just moved to Dallas Tx where her husband is from, and I just spent a month in the states and loved it. NZ is a great place in many regards, but I'm sure there's a lot you'll miss about the US.

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fmueller your bike comment is very kind but if you look at my avatar closely you will see it is me who is bright yellow but the bike is black :wink:

Neither are a true representation of either :slfg:

Also, you are going to have to learn that what Americans call aluminum is called aluminium by the rest of us although it could be the aluminum bush is a sub species of the aluminium tree :wink:

You are going to be horrified at prices and lack of variety in many things here I am afraid. :-?

It is actually very rare for things to get blown around in the wind at our place as we are very sheltered here so weight is not a factor, unless we are moving it a lot in which case the lighter the better.

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