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

[Birdy77]

Hello Geoff,

I am wondering if rusted out holes in guttering (roof guttering) can be repaired? I thought about getting up there and squirting some silicone or some such thing around.

There are about 3 sections, all corners, of the guttering that have rusted out holes, so when it rains or even if after a heavy dew, it drips and leaves a green mouldy section on the outside wall.

If not, can small sections of guttering be replaced or is it a whole guttering replacement job?

I would like to connect a rainwater tank to the downpipe, but there's not much point until the guttering is doing its job properly.

Thank you so much Geoff for answering everyone's questions and dilemmas here, it is absolutely wonderful of you.

🌻birdy

[Guest_1584]

Hi to one and all.

Just having a lookie and SF , funny l've got that same vinyl floor here.

If the paint slops are in droplet type form , they;ll often just pop off if you dig into and under the edge of the drop with a stanley knife blade . If it's like a brush stoke type thing , that'll often just scrape off with some gentle scraping with the blade. Just scrape in from the edge and work in, might get a few scratches but it's better than paint and you won't even notice them anyway.

Depends what paint it is though , but anyway, give it a try.

[geoff]

Hello Birdy, if your guttering has some holes in it then it's bound to have other rusted holes which will appear.

If you look at the guttering and if rust is about to appear, the guttering will have many small lumps on the outside of it and if so then these are rust, don't poke a stick at them because a hole will appear.

You can temporarily cover any holes in the gutter by making it clean, (don't cut yourself) using any tin, hardiflex or even timber with silicone, or any small holes just use the silicone.

Small sections of the guttering can also be replaced but the joins need to be sealed with silicone, but it has to be dry.

What I used to do is use PVC 90mm stormwater pipe from the gutter to the tank, so I had pipes coming from both sides of the house.

Many thanks.

Geoff

[geoff]

Hi RX, well done and thanks.

Actually going from your advice, there is a Stanley window scraper, it's coloured red and plastic and used to scrap paint etc off the glass panes, so you can use this to get paint off the vinyl flooring, just be careful.

Thanks RX.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Gday Geoff , and thanks mate yeah that'd work really well.

And funny that l drop in and your talking pipes to the tank, that's actually exactly what l dropped in about.

Over at my little cabin , l'm doing it up at the moment, l've tried to fix the roof pipe to tank 3 or 4 times last few years , and l've gotta do something with again next week actually. There's the cabin and then the tank about 4.5 mtrs over to the side away from the cabin. There isn't much fall, but enough really for that distance, about 100ml fall or so. But the roofs only small and so not much pressure , water tends to just trickle across to the tank and collect in the pipe and the pipe keeps getting a big sag in it, then eventually starts tearing away from the guttering .

l'm using 90ml or so pipe , can't really stick a pole in the middle of it for support it goes above the driveway in. ls there any other way l can stop the pipe from sagging .?

l did put in the under the ground set up first , years ago, but again with only a small roof not enough water getting through it to wash the muck through and it got clagged up , don't like those setups anyway myself .

Cheers, hope everyone had a nice Easter .

rx

[geoff]

Hi RX, I know what you're saying because the same happened to me, so what I did was get an old galvanised pipe, doesn't have to be the entire length and unless you had a truck it would be hard to get home, but 3/4 of the length, making sure that one end sits on top your tank and then tape it to the PVC.

If you have any wide timber that will also do.

Are you able to make the hole in the gutter bigger to suit the 90ml PVC?

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hi Geoff and thanks a lot as always.

You had the same huh , yeah if it didn't run across the drive it'd be easy enough but as is. yeah, It's torn off the spout 3-4 times now.

Funny you ask about the spout outlet, l actually put the outlet on the face of the spout instead of out the bottom, just to get the pipe up a bit higher to create a bit more fall. So it's about an 80ml hole max because the face is fairly narrow , best l could do.

But no worries easy carry a length of that home so thanks mate l'll give the galv a go. , could be back in business once and for all , that'd be nice.

All the best.

[Birdy77]

Hello Geoff,

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me with the guttering problem, I truly appreciate your advice and help.

When you say small holes can be repaired with any tin, hardiflex or timber with silicon, do you mean getting very thin slices or whatever of these materials, and adhering them to the guttering over the holes using silicon? Eg, getting a piece of tin large enough to cover the holes and adhering that to the guttering using silicon?

Thanks a bunch Geoff,

🌻birdy

[blondguy]

Hi Geoff....RX....Birdy...Spitfire1

Since there is no question as a dumb one......What type of mortar do I get so I dont have the usual white color in it.....I just want a muddy color that suits my dark paving and volcanic rock. If there is any tint additive available what is it called?

have a good weekend and thank you

Paul

[geoff]

Hi RX, good thinking about the spout outlet, another thought is can you make a few more outlets that you join up to the 90ml stormwater pipe.

This may mean you will have plenty of pipes, just worried that the gutters don't overflow and lose water pouring onto the ground, water which you aren't able to catch.

Best wishes.

Geoff.