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 and one and all.

Geoff is it common to re'line walls of older houses with Masonite , over the older boards on walls.? Inside l mean. They also relined the floor with it to in some parts then put down new covers. Not sure how old the house is but it has 11ft ceilings, in regional vic. .The house is very solid , frame in the roof is like a tank and it was re stumped underneath , most of the frame under all looks good and flooring to from what l can see, not much gap for a real good look.

This house was completely relined inside except the hall , over all the old boarding .

Also , some others might know this one but is there some reason houses get a lot of dust inside , is there anyway to stop that. like tables tv stands and stuff , get a layer of dust .

The side road here is dirt but the other road is bitumen , but it doesn't really look like road dust , might be though. If windows aren't open the place is pretty well sealed, no gaps in the arc's or anything

Cheers

[geoff]

Hi Randomx, wow 11 ft ceilings, beautiful, has been restumped that's terrific and has it been rewired?

The decision would depend on how money you have to spend, the magic question, however there are a couple of options, but just a question first of all, sorry, when they relined the interior, did they use masonite over what was there, or did they use plasterboard?

If they used masonite then all the walls wouldn't be nice and even, they would look like a sea of waves, uneven.

What I would be doing and have done this a few times is to remove the masonite to expose the studs and then use plasterboard, this will give you a smooth finish from ceiling to floor, the cornice we can talk about later on.

The plasterboard will stop the dust issue, whereas the masonite won't, it will get through the joins.

Plasterboard is much cheaper than masonite, easier to cut, with masonite you will need a power/hand saw or with plaster all you need is a knife to score it, then break along the line.

Please get back to me that would be great.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[geoff]

Hi Randomx, I replied to you early this morning but it hasn't been posted, I'm sorry, as it's been a long time.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Gday Geoff , thanks very much for your thoughts and time.

But yeah the house was already relined with Masonite and all repainted, not sure when it would've been done , somewhere around 12yrs ago l've been guessing..they've just left the original pine wall boards on underneath and just laid the Masonite straight over the top of them right through the house. So they're actually pretty flat and good to the eye, and bloody solid to with the pine boards underneath.

And then just have the quad strips in the corners and the flat strips down over the Masonite joins.

Yaknow l was here 6mths before l even realize that had been done striaght over the top of the old pine boards underneath and l thought it was a bit odd because most people like to clean nice board like that up and leave them exposed l'd thought.

Is it very common for them to be Masonited straight over the top like that , is there a reason or just a new look or what ?

Anyway so maybe the dust is coming out from under all the joining strips and what have you l guess then yeah ?

l was wondering could l plaster fill the joins between Masonite sheets instead of the joining strips?

And could l put plaster cornices around the ceiling corners instead of the crappy looking quad that's around them now. ?

Yeah the 11 ft ceilings took some getting use too , it's like so much space above when we're use to much lower ceilings these days . You know l have a friend she rents this old farm house and it has 17foot ceilings , , it's a long way up l tell ya.She reckons the acoustics they give off when she's playing music is unreal

Cheers mate

rx

[blondguy]

Hi RX and Geoff

I understand about the dust (fine dirt) as I built here in 1990 and there are 3 quarries within a kilometer...ugh!

The fine dirt (dust) is a pain in the rump

Great to see you RX 🙂

Paul

[geoff]

Hi Randomx, I'm very sorry about the last post I made to you, but it was held back because I used a word which shouldn't be mentioned and it's for cutting the down the size of plasterboard and it starts with k***e, however it has obviously been posted, as it meant nothing more than in the context of my reply, but I won't use it again, I hope I remember.

OK, I know what you mean, so thanks, and then strips to cover the joins, back then masonite wasn't expensive to buy, buy now it is and much more than the cost of plasterboard.

You can correct me and please do, but years ago they used 'wooden lath' of horizontal stripes of wood that were very thin, and were nailed to the studs, then the old plaster was trowelled on by hand.

The best option, I think, is to remove, and I'm sure you are very capable of doing (hallway)is to remove everything off the walls and leave the studs exposed, then either do yourself or get even a handyman to do is put new plasterboard attached to the studs.

This will look cleaner and stop all the dust from creeping through the cracks and quad over the masonite joins.
It will look great because the dust is coming through all the cracks, even though you may not see them, it still does. Will continue. Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Eh Paul , how are ya mate.

Thanks for that and oh yeah , l hear you. My other place was on a dirt road but cars flew down it and covered the house, cars , anything in road dust . A clean car would last one day , it was a real pain. l suppose you'd get the big dirt trucks coming and going there from the quarry too do you , they'd make a mess.

My side road here , l dunno , being on ethe corner what cars use it are only crawling so this dust thing has had me a bit stumped , but l hate the stuff . Sounds like Geoff might have nailed it though.

Gday Geoff , no worries that wouldn't have crossed my mind anyway but then l'm pretty new around here so .

Anyway yeah right , thanks for that but ahh the walls look great they're all flat and smooth, neat, damn quads look pretty crappy though . And even though they're in good condition yeah plaster looks so much nicer l know and if it beat the dust even better.

But ahh , tbh , that's a lot more than l bargained for right now tbh , big job with this place when it's quite neat as is as well.

Weird , even the bed head and my new bed tables get a dust layer after a week or so but the joins on the walls look tight but yeah it must be like you've said . Maybe l could run up and down the quad strips and joins strips sides with no gaps or something , seal them as tightly as l can or something like that.

rx

[geoff]

Hi Paul, sorry I didn't get back to you, I'm guilty, I'll go and sit in the corner for 10 minutes.

A sprinkle would keep the dust down but that depends on water restrictions, and yes you can use 'no-gaps', they invariably come on special but what I would be doing is sealing the quad between the ceiling and the walls first.

Where I live many years ago the coal dust used to be a real problem where the washing on the line used to be dirtier than it was when first put on the clothesline, and in the ceiling it was laid with coal dust, so when I had to replace ceilings with new plaster all the coal dust came down and no matter how much I tried to protect the carpet they needed to be steamed cleaned.

Don't use silicone because you can't paint over it, although there is one type of silicone that can be painted over, but it's much dearer than no-gaps'.

How is the heating and cooling, 11 ft would be great in summer but would need 'long-johns' for the winter.

Great talking to you.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Gday Geoff, same mate nice to hear from you.

Gees since you've explained what's probably going on l've become like super inspective eyeing off all the strips and quad joins and you know what , l can see little fine gaps . And there's some right over the bedhead and side tables area. Think you've nailed it mate thanks a million for that.

One wkend when l feel like being up on ladders all day l'm gonna seal it all as tight as l can.

Yeah the place was all nicely painted and stuff , probably guessing 10 or 12 yrs ago and they look sealed but exactly as you say have a really close look and there's gaps.

Joint heats up really well actually but she's cold until you get the fire or heater going but once it's warm it's pretty good. It's got those 4inch bats in the ceiling , personally l reckon they're one of the best myself , that helps a lot you can feel it.

Cools down pretty good in the summer if you put the air con on just in spats is enough but gets full afternoon sun pounding onto the lounge and front rooms so unless before l put good block out curtains place was an oven in the arvo.

Like my friends house the high ceilings are great for sound , it bounces all over the place, sounds great.

Funny , when l first move few light globes went and being pretty tall l'm using to just standing on tip toes to change a globe but that wasn't gonna happen here and l hadn't brought the ladders over yet so l had a few dark rooms for awhile there.

You mentioned wiring , not sure. It has some of the old dark brown light switches and power points and some new ones. It's got a smart meter , which l don''t think is all that smart really can get some big power bills. And it's got a new power switch box too. But l also see some of the def' original wiring still about here and there , can't see the rest though so l'm not sure.

One weird thing is for some reason they fitted sliding doors all over, can tell they were put on when they did the walls and ceiling. lf l stay here gonna replace thise for swinging doors they're a bit of a pain. Maybe they got a batch cheap somewhere or something..

Cheers mate and thanks a million for your help.

rx

[geoff]

Hi RX, sorry I'm a day or so late, I apologise profusely.

When you use the no-gaps, use the finest cut on the nozzle, in other words, don't cut it off so a large amount of no-gaps comes out, because you will waste too much of it, and make sure you have a wet rag to get an even finish on it.

If your house heats up and cools down then what's it going to do is put a lot of pressure on the no-gaps, so eventually, over time, you may have to fill the gaps once again.

The no-gaps do a fantastic job and have used it more times than I could count, but with the quad, the wood is going to warm up and cool down more than the plaster would, so the no-gaps is going to be tested.

The smart meters, do they actually work because I still get charged with a 'supply charge' of $124 just for the SEC to read my meter, 1 minute it takes.

If you have a new metal switch box then some new wiring has been done in the house and where the old black light switches are then that hasn't been rewired, because an electrician would never put back an old light switch.

Can you tell me how many rooms you have that are lined with masonite.

Happy to try and help you out so please anytime.

Geoff.