Beyond Blue Home Improvement Thread

[geoff]

Hi everyone. I'm Geoff and have been a dedicated Volunteer on the forums for 13 years. I am proud to have stopped some of the stigmas that are associated with mental health as well as doing my best to help others too

Before my health went south I was a builder in all aspects of home construction and renovation. If you don't have a handyman around I hope I can offer you some tips that may be of help. I have had many years of experience in home renovation and will do my best to help you out if you are stuck and need some advice

I hope my experience may be of help to the people on Beyond Blue and make their life a little bit better. Even if you need help with the most basic painting job or putting up a shelf I can help there too with some tips

I will do my best to get back to anyone that has a question when I can as this is social yet important thread

Geoff

[Mathy]

Tony! That’s a big ouch, I’m glad you weren’t hurt too bad. And many thanks for posting the after the event safety tip 🙂

[blondguy]

Hi Mathy! That was a good safety point from Tony....ouch!!!

Really appreciate your help with the painting advice too. I will be going with a swivel head sander on a pole with 180 sandpaper with a dust mask instead of the washing and scrubbing...Paul

[geoff]

hi Mathy, I'm pleased you've replied because it's quite simple.
Turn your water off at the mains, take handle off, then remove the whole spindle, grab your handle to the spindle and put it on, turn it as if you are turning the handle to stop water until it becomes 2 parts, take the long part of this spindle and you'll see a little black round washer, it's called an 'O-ring' size 8.5, put a small screwdriver under it or just break it.
Go and buy one or a packet of O-rings then slide it on to where the other one was, then reassemble the spindle and you might as well change the main washer while it's apart, do the same with the other tap, see how it goes. Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Gday one and all. Not sure if this was the thread we were talking about ride on's in , mowers that is , ahh,.

Had to push mine back from around the corner again today , damn. Never stops near the house , runs perfectly , so after that parts all finished and l'm sure l can trust him , l venture round the front stretch to finish that part. At first l stick close to this end so that if he does stop l don't have far to push it. And as get quietly more confident that l can trust him enough to start doing the far end, l get up there, and he stops. arrrgggg.

It waits for me , l'm sure of it, and as soon as l'm settled in , wham , gotcha. l think someone evil's taken over my mower.

[geoff]

hi Randomx, I know how you feel, ride-on mowers are great when they're working and the same happened to me several times, stopped and wouldn't go at the bottom of a hill and yes always the furtherest from the house, so I take it down the mower repair man who always says to me 'what on earth have you done this time', rather than say 'hi Geoff how are you and I'm sorry, not again', he always made me feel an inch tall, even when I took my chainsaw, whipper-snipper and lawn mowers down to him.
A most unapproachable tradesman. Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Ah mate ,take it to someone else and hey , if he fixed it properly it wouldn't be stopping right .

l put mine in to and he sent back worse , not taken it back to him.

But hey that's funny can't believe yours waits until your down the bottom to stop too. On my other ac block it slows pretty steep. The mower always waited until l got down to the bottom part to stop. Couldn't push it up that part but l discovered if l left it 30 mins , it'd start again. So l'd go back up and have a coffee or something , go back down and try again later and it usually start again ,, got a bad bad sense of humor my mower.

Now at this place he's up to his old tricks and waits until l'm up around the corner.

[Mathy]

Hi Random and Geoff,

I’ve never used a ride on mower, but both of you have described similar issues. What do think is the cause? Length of running time? Getting on a tilt and having fuel delivery problems?

It surely isn’t some sort of evil spirit that inhabits ride-on mowers, is it? Has to have a logical explanation?

Ears on, waiting for discussion about this, because it’s very curious, cheers M 🙂

randomx said:

Gday one and all. Not sure if this was the thread we were talking about ride on's in , mowers that is , ahh,.

Had to push mine back from around the corner again today , damn. Never stops near the house , runs perfectly , so after that parts all finished and l'm sure l can trust him , l venture round the front stretch to finish that part. At first l stick close to this end so that if he does stop l don't have far to push it. And as get quietly more confident that l can trust him enough to start doing the far end, l get up there, and he stops. arrrgggg.

It waits for me , l'm sure of it, and as soon as l'm settled in , wham , gotcha. l think someone evil's taken over my mower.

hi Randomx, I know how you feel, ride-on mowers are great when they're working and the same happened to me several times, stopped and wouldn't go at the bottom of a hill and yes always the furtherest from the house, so I take it down the mower repair man who always says to me 'what on earth have you done this time', rather than say 'hi Geoff how are you and I'm sorry, not again', he always made me feel an inch tall, even when I took my chainsaw, whipper-snipper and lawn mowers down to him.
A most unapproachable tradesman. Geoff.

[geoff]

hi Mathy, did you work out what I was saying about the tape washer. Geoff.

[Mathy]

Hi Geoff, sorry, yes I did. Replacing the o-rings. That’s a really good point to pay attention to when fixing your taps. Washer can be fixed, but still have blinking water going where you don’t want it! Tank, cheers M 🙂

[Elizabeth CP]

I wondered if you could give me some advice. Recently my son removed my wall oven & knocked down the brick surround. I have bought a flatpack tower with space for oven & microwave with pot drawers at the bottom & a cupboard above. I will also fit narrow cupboards next to the tower to fill in the extra space left by removing the bricks. My son removed the bricks so they finish below the floor level leaving a rectangular shaped hole edged with bricks. My plan is to place pieces of wood across to make a platform level with existing floor. I will then build a plinth for the cupboards/ oven tower to sit on the platform. .

My issue is the bricks are not perfectly level so the wood doesn't sit flat. What suggestions have you got to ensure the wooden platform is level & secure.