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 RX, thanks for your concern I also appreciate it, but I'm trying to come back slowly as I'm changing the hours I used to do once before, that will only be temporary as I miss not being available.

Many thanks.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Ahh , no worries mate hope your well anyway.

This is probably a silly question , but fences and palings .

l don't believe it , some fence l did 6 or so mths back , l only put palings side by side, like not with the middle paling over each two in between , the way they normally do palings.

Unbelievable , one section is like a crucial to my privacy from the road so l took extra care to leave no gaps and a nice tight fit. Well as the palings shrink with the weather, they now how like a 1 cm gap between each paling and you just see straight through the damn fence. So l took one section off, and redid all the palings jamming them in as tightly as they'd go to close the gaps, , be damned a mth later there's another cm gap between them, that's how much they shrink. l can't believe it.

Anyway , lm thinking the only way to fix it once and for all and get 100% privacy block back would be to lash out on more palings and put a 2nd row of palings over each two underneath and the gaps , the way they normally do palings.

Would that be it ? like l can't for the life of me figure out any other way to get rid of the gaps in between, it's gonna cost a lot extra though.

Cheers. rx

[Birdy77]

Dear Geoff,

I hope you are taking good care of yourself and giving yourself plenty of time to heal. Go gently with everything.

Hey Rx,

I grow plants on all my fences, it adds extra privacy.

If you grow something like Chinese Virginia Creeper it will attach itself to the fence palings with little plugs. Only problem is it's deciduous, so you lose that privacy in the winter (very pretty in the autumn though).

Another plant i use is Chinese Star Jasmine - i staple lengths of wire mesh (with squares about 100mm × 100mm) to the fence and this supports the growth of the plants. It might take a year or so to get your privacy, but it's evergreen, so fills the gaps all year long. Wisteria grows quickly too (but is deciduous).

I just thought climbing plants might be a cheaper possibility than adding all those extra palings to your fence.

🌻birdy

[Guest_1584]

Hiya birdy

great idea and that stuff looks so cool to doesn't it, wish l had the time only problem is , just so that l can enjoy the spot right now through holidays and summer , think l'll have to go with more boards asap/ Can't believe it .

Trouble is l made a beautiful little private spot on that side , l need my privacy but the roads outside and l get really nosy walkers going past slow as they can and having a good old look through the gaps.

l can save a fair bit though because it only needs skinnier boards if they don't have them l can cut the wider ones in half save a lot ,

Anyway , happy christmas to all. rx

[geoff]

Hello RX, stretch some 'shade cloth' from one end to the other, it's cheap then no one will be ale to see through this.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hey Geoff.

Thanks mate and actually l had two strips in the shed screwed those on and did exactly that.

l'll still need to do the extra palings but at least there no hurry now .

Hope your doin ok mate

Cheers. rx

[Birdy77]

Hello Geoff,

I hope you are taking extra good care of yourself, and that you are being patient with that hand of yours.

Hey Rx,

Now you've put the shade cloth on, you could grow some plants to cover the shade cloth!

This is probably waaaay too dodgy for you, but on one section of my fence (in the backyard though, not front), i was impatiently waiting for a vine to grow to give the privacy between the palings.

I couldn't wait, so i dismantled a pallet and screwed pieces of palletwood to the middle beam of the fence to cover the gaps between the palings.

I painted it grey and it actually looked really arty, which was a bonus.

Now it is awesome because the vine has grown over it and through it, but i was able to have privacy (for free) while i waited for the plants to grow 👍

[Guest_1584]

Haaa thanks birdy , an don't worry , my joints full of dodgy haha. This bit of new fence is the only really nice and normal thing in the place yet, should see the rest. oh yeah that and my new porch l finally finished.

Funny you talking about creepers and vines, l'm doing the same with the rest of it as we speak , for privacy across the front for now, over the old tin fence, l dunno what this creeper vine thing is but my other place had heaps of it and it was great cover. Well my brother took cuttings from mine back then to cover his front fence, and now 5 yrs later l took cuttings from his , for this place, but it's taking it's bloody time l tell ya.

Nice job with the pallets l can see what your sayin, gotta respect the pallet haha, you know somewhere l saw a whole fence made from pallets which usually just end up looking like a fence made of pallets and very crappy, but you should've seen this one truly a beautiful fence, and now birdy's cool fence work , so there ya go.

l actually know a lady builds sculptures and furniture out of pallets too, she sells them from around a grand and upwards.

All the best. rx

[geoff]

Hello RX and Birdy, both great replies and having the initiative not to be convenable is always exciting and definitely intriguing.

Wednesday week I'm back on the operating table for more surgery to my hand *&^:">?

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Gday Geoff.

Thanks for that mate but don't worry we're safe with my stuff, not much convenable going on round my place haha and yeah your right , l love all that stuff.

Rebuilding my canoe this week over some holidays , mainly because l'd love to get out and and back on some water over the summer. l was gonna leave it and maybe buy another one because l'm terrible at fibroglassing and it needs a lot, but l got inspired watching youtube stuff and another one was too dear anyway sooooo, l'm giving it a go. lf l mess it up tough.

Hope the hand goes ok mate , best of luck with that.

Cheers . rx