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

[geoff]

Hi Paul, back for seconds.

You could hire a pressured water gun from your paint store, but if you have any wood that has rotten away then this equipment may dig away all the bad timber and that's another question if you would like to be answered.

If I was painting these window frames I wouldn't necessarily want to remove the old paint that is still there, all I would do is sand where the old paint meets the bare timber just to make it even, that's all you need to do, a smooth surface.

The old paint would be oil based, that is paint that you need turps to clean brushes, so make the surface of the old paint rough, not too rough so the new paint can stick to it.

If you are using water based paint to paint the windows, then ask your pain dealer whether the paint you buy will stick to oil based paint when it has been roughened up.

You don't have to remove existing paint, not unless you want to, but that's going to be difficult. Good Luck. Geoff.

[Ggrand]

Hello Geoff,

I hope your feeling reasonably well.

I have a metal fence out front with metal gates, usual closing thingy, The fence is like those pool fences, The posts in between the panels are timber ones, due to the hot dry weather out here the posts have spit in several places, it's put the gate right out, it's moved the longer panel across My a few inches, on the other side the shorter gate panel has risin a few inches making it impossible to close, the closing thingy is to high to meet each other and doesn't close..

kind thoughts,

Karen..

Is this fixable, I have really no money to purchases anything to fix it atm, I have two little fur buddies I need to keep inside the gate, is there anyway that I can fix this problem, quickly and cheaply. .i hope I made sense and you can understand what I'm trying to say..

[Ggrand]

Oops sorry Geoff, is there a way to close the gaps like squash them together, or fill them with something?

Karen

[geoff]

Hi Karen, thanks for your question and I'll try and answer it from what you have said, please correct me if I'm wrong.

A couple of suggestions and please get back to me as I may not have understood your comment properly.

-Do you know how to tighten a wire from a star picket that may bring the gates so they can close

Try some chicken wire to stop the 2 little fur buddies from escaping

Can you move the latches so they can close

Or can you adjust the bolts holding the gate to make it go up higher or to lower the bolts, this may give you the opportunity to move 1 gate up higher or lower

Attach some flexible plastic to the bottom of the gates, it's cheap and you can buy from your hardware store, but I'm more concerned about getting the gastes level again, so please get back to me. Thanks Geoff.

[geoff]

Hi Karen, thanks for your question and I'll try and answer it from what you have said, please correct me if I'm wrong.

A couple of suggestions and please get back to me as I may not have understood your comment properly.

-Do you know how to tighten a wire from a star picket that may bring the gates so they can close

Try some chicken wire to stop the 2 little fur buddies from escaping

Can you move the latches so they can close

Or can you adjust the bolts holding the gate to make it go up higher or to lower the bolts, this may give you the opportunity to move 1 gate up higher or lower

Attach some flexible plastic to bottom of the gates, it's cheap and you can buy from your hardware store, but I'm more concerned about getting the gates level again, so please get back to me. Thanks Geoff.



-

[Ggrand]

Hi Geoff,

Thank you for your time, I'm sorry about my description I'm not good ar describing things,

I could move the small gate has to go down, there no room to move it down, maybe I will try to move the bigger gate up that will level it off I think. I will try that first, thank you. The long pin thingy now on the longer gate doesn't go into the hole made for it to slide into , the hole is in the cement strip under the gate, it's out by around 12 mil or half inch..

I will see if I can undo the bolts holding the gate in then drill some holes and make it a bit higher and I'll see how I go and get back to you..

Thank you very much for your suggestions/help..I'm much appreciated.

Karen..

[Ggrand]

Hello Geoff,

Thank you for your help. I was outside for around 3 hours today, I cannot undo the bolts, nor can I get the gate level enough to close, I'm not strong enough to do either, for now I've put a chain on the gates to keep them closed, There is no one here that will help me as they want $$$ per hour..

Feeling a bit useless Geoff... but I need to do something.. atm, I'm hot, tired, sore and feel miserable...will try again tomorrow. I really appreciate your time..

Thank you very much..

Kindness only,

Grandy..

[geoff]

Hello Karen, no worries.

2 things,can you put a car jack under the gate to raise it.

You may have to dig a small hole so that the car jack can get under the gate.

or can you put a brick under the gate and get a pole or a piece of timber say 45 mm by 75mm or in inches 2 1/2inches by 3 inches, ( only approximate) then put this wood on top of the brick but under the gate, then sit on it, that may raise the gate.

I know what you are saying about the 'long pin', can you drill another hole in the concrete with a masonary piece that goes into the drill, it's a piece that drills holes in concrete, because if you use a normal drill bit, it will blunt it in 2 seconds. (drill bit and drill piece or the same they both go into the drill so you can then drill a hole).

Don't worry and never feel you are useless, some people automatically know what to do, while other people don't have a clue, that doesn't make any better or worse than me.

Please get back to me, because what ever you do is not silly, that's why there are handymen, I used to love doing it. Geoff.

[Ggrand]

Hello Geoff,

I found my jack and the jacked it up, enough to close the gates, When I took the jack away, the closing pin the one that the other goes into popped out, the gates open and am back to where I started plus the lock mechanism is not broken just stripped the thread and fell off on bigger gate...

I can't do it anymore Geoff at least for a while, over it atm..

Ill try tomorrow or next day, I've just tied rope around it for now...my fur buddies are safe, they can't get out..

Im sorry Geoff, your ideas are spot on, they will work but I'm afraid my body and mind is not..

Geoff, please be kind to yourself ,

Kindness always,

Grandy..

[geoff]

Hi Paul, you can always paint over the existing paint and if I was in your position all I would be doing is sanding the windows, (with the paint that has still remained) then sand back existing paint so that there is no height difference between existing paint and bare timber because the water will most likely sit at the lip.

If you are painting windows that have been painted before and 50% of the paint has gone and the other 50 % remains doesn't mean that you have to remove paint, it can be painted over.

Painting over new Red Cedar and not old cedar that has been painted before, and you want the top coat to be white then you will need to prime it first. Geoff.