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

[Hanna3]

Hi Geoff,

That's what I'm doing now so thanks for your help - it's getting warm enough I don't have to use it much now! Cheers.

[geoff]

Hi Hanna, that's good, here in October it gets very windy.

Take care.

Geoff.

[Guest_1643]

Hi Geoff,

How did your rib heal?!

Hope you are okay

[ecomama]

Hi Geoff

Thankyou for keeping up with everyone's posts and helping with your advice earlier in the year with the many issues at our house.

I'm sorry to hear you injured your rib, are you feeling any better now? I hope so.

I'm also having difficulties opening jars now grrrr.

I ended up having to put in an insurance claim after possums were fighting on my roof and they displaced quite a few tiles and pushed the barge board way out and exposing the roof cavity!
Ridiculous what happens here some times.
We'd also had flooding so it was a multi claim.
Took MONTHS for Assessor to visit the house bec of the urgency of bushfire victims, which I completely understood ofcourse.
They sent a "Make Homes Safe" team out for a patch up job so my roof wouldn't flood.

That night it poured. Phew.

Besides raising the kids and all that entails, I decided to try to find people who could do some pretty urgent things for us instead of doing stuff myself. This way I could concentrate on removing the 600 sq m of lantana.
Yeah fun.
My daughter removed about 40 splinters of it from my hand tonight and I was wearing leather gloves lol.

So we're propping up the 2nd storey from collapsing from ex's damage. Hopefully I can afford some louvre windows.

My question is... do you think it's ALWAYS a good idea to install insulation in a wall?
Or is it only mainly for ceilings?

Thankyou EM

[ecomama]

Dear Hanna3

I read about your gas heater issues. A client of one of my children's had awful gas poisoning this year in a Housing flat. My child made it just in time to save her life actually. It was very scary.

Please put something in to Housing about that heater. It sounds wrong.

Also I use styrofoam to insulate the hottest windows and my skylights during Summer.
I feel the heat being blocked the moment they go up.

About your fur baby, this week my Aunty gave us a "cooling pad" for our heat sensitive poodle. I'll let you know if he likes it lol.

My friend rescues lots of animals and asks everyone to put a freezer block or ice in their animal's water bowls if we have to go out for the day.
IDK if it's a good idea or not but I do this for my chickens on hot days.

A mama ringtail possum left her baby near one last Summer on our hottest day, so some animals like it.

Love EM

[geoff]

Hi Sleepy, much better and thank you for asking, I really hope it stays that way.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[geoff]

H EM, lantana, an obnoxious weed that grows an acre per minute and even though it may look pretty, it takes over and if your hands are what they used to be like, I know how you're feeling.

Insurance companies love taking the money, but stubborn when it's time for them to pay and to 'make homes safe' is just a temporary solution, hope they have come good.

If you can afford insulation in the walls is a great idea and I would definitely recommend doing it, simply because it helps reduce the utilities running costs and it prevents noise from penetrating.

Thanks for helping Hanna out that's terrific advice.

Take care.

Geoff.

[ecomama]

Thanks Geoff and great to hear your rib is healing!

Part of our Home Improvements was getting into the Under the House Storage and chucking out stuff.... I did this over about 10 days. We had a deadline because I hired a Handyman / Builder to install LONG, deep shelving. About 20m long x 2 shelves then 3.

We had 8 square metres of rubbish. Council took it ALL away. ex used to bring garbage back here. And we threw out things he'd destroyed also that couldn't be repaired.

But there's more lol. That was one quarter of the storage area.

We found some good stuff too though. INSULATION. 2 packets of it. So tonight I asked my Uncle to install it in the new room downstairs (old under the house porch) after I got your advice. He said that was a great idea. It will mostly be glass though. Uncle has ordered 4 louvre windows (I LOVE THEM) and giving us a glass sliding door with glass panels on either side, which saves us around $3000.

Doing the insulation! Yay.

Thankyou!
EM

[Guest_1584]

Hi Geoff and one and all.

Hi sleepy how's your panel heater going is it doing the job , had a bill yet ? Reason being l dragged mine out about that time too getting sick of firewood but hadn't hardly used it until this wk. Hope yours is doing you well though because l'm really surprised mine did a great job. The fire place tends to be very up and down and some nights not too good at all depends on the wood at the time and how much you can be bothered messing round with it. Great when it's great but a pain when it's not and always a lot of work. Gees the panel heater though, took an hour or so to sink in the warmth properly but after that l can turn it down to 5 1/2 -6 rest of the night and the place is really toasty warm all night .

Must admit , the old press button is growing on me , not sure what sort of bill l'll get though. rx

[Hanna3]

Hi Geoff,

I went to look at a box window air conditioner for the bedroom on Saturday but realised even if I bought it it would be too heavy for me to lift out of the car boot...

I had a look at other fibro houses around here and a couple have one in a window but with a bracket on the outside wall of the house which appears to be screwed in somehow.

Do you have any idea how much a handyman might charge to put a box air conditioner in a window for me, and if they will do it in a fibro asbestos house like mine as apparently the bracket has to be screwed in somehow?

The one I was looking at is a kelvinator enough for the bedroom but still almost $500 and I don't want to waste the money if it can't be installed but it looks as though a couple of places near me have had one put in... maybe they've done it themselves... i'd really appreciate your thoughts? Thanks Mate!