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Beyond Blue Home Improvement Thread

geoff
Champion Alumni
Champion Alumni
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
1,301 Replies 1,301

Hello Music_Freak, I'm very sorry I haven't replied earlier and to answer your question, always start with taking the top off first and if the rivets are rusted and probably not doing anything at all, you can hit the other side of the panel, it will then give way, or if you have an angle grinder then use it on the rivets, it won't take much, this all depends on whether you are going to use the panels for anything else or to reassemble it.

Just be careful you don't hurt yourself, but please get back to me if you want the panels to be kept in good order.

Many thanks.

Geoff.

Guest_1584
Community Member

Haaa yeah , bloody no gaps and things like that pretty pricey these days , that would've been nice. And 7c a ltr eh , wow , l wish . Not sure if your still driving or mowing but my diesels 220 a ltr atm , that's an ouch let me say. lt's worth it though and the least we can do for Ukraine.

Cheers Geoff , hope your rolling ok.

rx

Hello RX, thanks so much, my son (carer) doesn't want me to drive anymore because of the last hospitalisation I had a while ago, by falling onto the road, caused by my big shoes, so he drives me around where ever I want to go, so I give him fuel money, he helps me so much.

Take care.

Geoff.

Hi Geoff,

I do plan on reassembling the shed, so I'm not sure how to go about doing this.

I haven't emptied the shed yet, so there's no hurry for a reply, I will save your replies for when they are needed.

Hello Music_Freak, sorry I'm late, if the bottom of the panels have any rust on them, then can you clean them up and paint some anti rust on them, especially the thin bottom and ten pain with a paint that has anti-rust.

Probably a good time to clean out your shed, but I remember when I did this, I always wanted what I threw out the next day, so to speak.

I've given you this to look at 'assemble a tin shed where do I start' this might be easier than me trying to explain, but if someone can help you, that would be good.

Just quickly assemble one side with another and because the pop rivets may have been rusted, either use bigger rivots or screws to attach them together, any open holes can be filled with bog or place a rivet in them, not that they are doing anything and paint anti-rust paint over them.

If you moving the shed to a new position make sure you place plastic on the ground for the shed to sit on and before concrete is laid.

Try and brace these panels so if a wind suddenly comes it doesn't blow them over, and just be mindful of what you have painted, give them another coat, or perhaps have you used a small spray gun before, then paint the entire shed.

It's good practice for you to learn and it's not difficult, a hardware store sells them for $50 odd dollars or may be you know a friend who has one, but depends on your finance.

I would paint it first before the concrete is laid, but give it a few days to dry, by the natural atmosphere.

You can't dry it by a heating fan because if it's force fan dried (especially with oil based paint) it may crocodile on you, in other words the paint will look like crocodile skin and you'll have to scrape it all off, even though it may feel dry after a few hours, still give it a day or two to fully dry.

Let me know if you have any questions or I have missed out on something you want to know, I will look at this thread daily, like I should have been and very sorry.

Good luck.

Geoff.

geoff
Champion Alumni
Champion Alumni

Hi All, best heaters in my view,

-wood heaters, although cons are having to cut wood, sharpen chain, find wood and leaves dust, pros are a good even heat

-electric panel heaters (not all) with a timer, you can mount on wall or have castors, another good heater

-gas but too expensive

- and last split system but would have to replace gas because of cost but do a great job in cooling, the best.

Any ideas.

Geoff.

Guest_1584
Community Member

Hi geoff

Yeah using my wood heater again this yr , def' no comparison. Although ex had a gas heater for a long time that was a just as good but it'd be expensive where l am running on bottles . Don't know what piped gas is these days . But yeah the labor involved with wood heaters is pretty silly though if you get your own wood and to buy it now , you could be just pressing a button for the same price. So she's a tricky business these days isn't it.

We tried the panel heater last year but that costed a lot too. On full bore it warmed the place up not bad really , not as much as the wood heater though. But even with a thermostat used a lot of power. My lounge is pretty big and opens to the halls and kitch, something more closed of it'd do better.

Don't like reverse cycle heating not cosy. We're also using low powered radiators a bit to this yr when there's no fire. Having the fire going all the time gobbles up way to much wood even on low.

Rx

Hello RX, gas bottles are atrocious and it's ridiculous the price of gas these days, years ago everyone wanted to replace their electric heater with a gas heater/hot water, now it's a joke.

Isn't it amazing how the world changes, even LPG for cars is so expensive, I remember when I could buy it for 7 cents a litre.

I recall I had a full brick wall up to the eaves of fire wood, when I came home after an operation, most of it was all gone, I was devastated, the kids just piled wood into the heater, but to buy firewood is expensive, nothing these days is cheap, knew I should have become a politician.

Geoff.

Guest_1584
Community Member

Hi Geoff.

Yeah that's the thing with gas isn't it. l think ex's gas heater was on mains so at that time was really cheap, years back, and pelted out the heat. My place here had bottles and a gas heater when l came here and it was great but even with sparing use it went through a bottle in 3wks. Well they were 125 then , they're probably a lot more now.

Could imagine how you felt seeing all your wood gone , ouch. Funny when they haven't cut it or payed for it they think it just falls out of the sky for free right. My brother and l have lots of wood discussions haha, bc he likes chainsawing and l hate it. But even he says by the time he spends all day going out to some bush patch , if he can find one, works he's bum of cutting it loading it bring it home unloading it stacking it in the drum then taking it into the house every day bit by bit, then messing around with the fire all day and night , the labor involved is ridiculous. l think the same so l stopped doing all that , l just go out and pick up small loads now still in log forms and cut it up at home for a wk or two at a time. But you've still gotta handle it 4 times by the time it's in the fire.

l never ever cut trees just fallen stuff but the wood supply in this country really worries me to bc our bush has disappeared and that's really bad stuff, and so are is our wildlife. My area bush has been cleared for 100s of k mostly.It's just no good. Property and farms yeah but firewood must take a lot too. And when l see guys selling red gum , where are they getting that from ? We hardly have any red gum left which is just bloody terrible . Are they cutting down what's left of our beautiful old river red gums . You know, l hate to think.

The crazy thing is , you can go to any bushy area and the amount of wood on the ground is still incredible , even outside of major regional where 1000s of people would be running wood fires. All towns and areas had to do is leave some decent clumps of original bush there near the towns and there'd be enough wood on the ground for everyone. With no need to cut down anything or destroy habitat .

Wish you did become a pollie mate bc the ones in place just have no damn clue. Such a shame.

rx

Hello RX, yes I should have become a pollie and at one stage I was actually considering it, to join the young ** but didn't, often I wished I had.

We had LG bottles for our hotwater on the farm and with kids, their friends and a spa, I put in, the bottles emptied quickly.

I didn't find cutting wood, this only altered when I began feeling unwell but there was plenty to cut which I had to do myself.

It is a great heat, not if you have to buy it, normally it's green wood and doesn't burn properly.

My best.

Geoff.