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

[Guest_1584]

Gday geoff thanks for that . No need to apologize mate no dramas no hurry..

6 lined rooms l think.

Yeah the two back rooms , oldest part of the house still have the old brown switches, bit cracked up too. as well as some new light stitches and power points too. Funny my bedroom has an old brown power point but fairly new light switches but l'd also say the original light ,

Yeah smart meters, bloody joke l reckon , knew they would be. But that's got it's own new box on the front of the house. Then there's a new power/switch board a few meters away under the porch separately. .l get pretty good bills here actually l've figured out as long as l don't use the electric heater but l bet it's no thanks to the silly smart meter eh , they'd probably be even cheaper without it's my guess. l was gonna put solar on here as soon as l moved in but not sure if l'm staying so everythings on hold and stuck with the power bills for now.

weird to where they fitted the new power and switch board ob porch , they still have some of the original old wires going in in places , pretty old and crackedy stuff too so it sounds like they just did what they could get away with.

But anyway , the good old no gaps it is then yep , l use a lot of it at work , mericle in a bottle isn;t it haha.

Thanks very much for your help too Geoff very appreciated.

rx

[Guest_1584]

Funny l'd love you to wonder through this place, no one can figure out wth they've done.

The lady across the road would probably know everything but l don't ask her because l could hear something l don't wanna hear.

[geoff]

.Hi RX, the brown power points I would be hesitant in using a heater and if you are game enough I would unscrew the brown light switches and see what colour the wiring is.

I have a friend who put the solar heating on, cost him about $5000 or thereabouts but the money he gets back from the electricity company is hardly anything, I'll find out today if I remember, but I think it's about .03 c kWh, whereas someone else put it on his house when the government helped out with payment/installation and I think he still gets .33 kWh.

Please get back to me.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hi Geoff, thanks for that and l hope your well mate to btw.

ok might do that , take a bit of a look at the wire. Cheers.

I've put in a wood fire too last year but on night's l couldn't be bothered or cold mornings l'd just turn on the panel heater on low .. But holy crap power bills still wnet up 400 a quarter so this year l'm gonna collect a bit more light wood l think for those days and putting that thing away.

My brother said he just uses the baby bar heater when he can't be bothered with the fire or cold morngs and his bill hardly changes , think l'll get one of those for now .

Let ya know how the wires look, hope your wkends been ok.

rx.

[geoff]

Hi RX, I asked the chap on Sunday how much he got back from his electricity company and he said it was 'half a cent', those were his words,and the other problem he's had over the past couple of years is that the switch on top of the roof, I think it turns on and off the heat switch, kept on breaking down, so he had to pay for an electrician to come and replace it or fix it.

I'm not meaning to turn you off, but he's sorry he outlay so much money for little in return.

Can you afford a 'split system'?

I know that the rooms lined with masonite are going to cost more to heat and cool, not unless there is insulation behind it.

These rooms interest me.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hi Geoff, thanks fir that.

Those systems your mates got the typical yeah they're call tie in bc they tie in with the power companies..

l use they call a stand alone system , completely disconnected from the grid , ya not gonna get any money outa them l wouldn't even bother. last l heard they buy any of your excess for like one cent , but if you run out they sell it back to you for 9 cents of something , no surprises there though , of course they would, scammers all of them. but they must at least save their power bill not sure.

l just wanna get rid of the bill. l've built three of them myself ones over on my cabin , never go back l love it but as this places bills weren't too bad and l dunno if l'm staying l haven't bothered as yet. Meanwhile forked out about 3k on power bills , enough to build my own system damn it but anyway.

yeah l'd def' get a split system if l stay here , they're great standby's aren't they.

funny thing about the walls here geoff , l didn't explain it properly or had trouble explaining it but they're actually double lined . wit's not the old plaster underneath it's that what is it , boltic pine is it, lining boards right through the house underneath. They've just put the masonite straight over the the top of the old original pine board walls . So they're actually 2 layers thick and then it's got the 4inch bats right through the ceiling too so yeah she's not too bad.

l don;t know why they would cover over the beautiful only pine lined walls though , people usually love those wall don't they.

l know what your saying about straight masonite only walls though yeah , lived in another house with only masonite walls and God yeah that place was freezing.

[geoff]

Hi RX, I forgot to say that this other chap's last bill for electricity was only $97 compared to the bills without solar which were $350, but this is the first time he's mentioned how pleased he is.

He was going to buy the 'batteries' for his solar so he won't have any bills (?).

I remember the baltic lining boards I had a mate years ago who he and his wife bought a run down house in Camberwell and we had 'dress' them up again and I don't know why people would put masonite over them, whether there were wind drafts creeping through maybe the reason.

You mentioned before about lino and/or carpet.

Geoff.

[Music_Freak]

Hi Geoff, I hope you and your puppy are both well 🙂

Sorry I haven't been around, I have not forgotten all of your wonderful help, but everything has been put on the back burner with uni plans and resulting financial stress. Even the powerboard I was going to put on tiles blew up, so not much luck coming my way of late...

Anyhow, I just "stole" some timber (some is painted red on the ends - don't know what this means?) and colorbond roofing off cuts from a building site next door and I thought I may be able to use it all for garden edging. I have no tools for it, but for a cheap hand saw and possibly some old tin snips of my dads.

What tools would I need and could I hire them, rather than buy (limited cash as I mentioned), from a Kennards type place?

Also, what about screws etc? One thing I did notice when my dad put the blanket up, he used screws with a hexagon(?) shaped top (not phillips head type etc.) How would I get these back into the fascia? My drill is basic.

[Guest_1584]

Haha proud of ya MF.

When l was a kid l was always knocking off timber .

Gday Geoff. Yeah if his bill wasn't pretty well gone , it should be all gone but ofcourse the people that fit the solar are in with the power companies making sure they still squeeze some cash out of the,

But never the less , that's still a great bill eh. If you hgotta have a bill that's a good one.

yep there's still a few walls and part of a ceiling with the boltic boards on them. Maybe they ran outa cash to finish the job.

It's got lino kitchen and back hall , loo, rest is carpet. l was gonna rip up the lounge capet and have polished boards but l discovered underneath some of the floor where they'd extended the lunge was chipboard flooring , and some the other section was boards. So if l wanted exposed boards l'd have to put down new boards right through over the top l guess. The packet ones or something.

[geoff]

Hi MF, that's OK that's a great idea about using the colour bond, however, can I get back to you and RX first thing in the morning.

You can all come up with some great ideas yourselves, that's terrific, it's just you need the confidence from someone else.

I suppose that's how we all learn to do things.

I'm proud of you, but I hope all of you don't stop posting.

Geoff.