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 MF, thanks for asking a good question.

Depending on your budget can I suggest a good $99 cordless drill

-from the cheapest AEG, Markita or another brand on special at the hardware/Bunnings store, a cheap brand from K-Mart, online or another store for $25 or so, sounds to be good, but won't last and won't be able to do the jobs you might need to do.

The Renovator Better Grip Pro sold on TV seems to be spanner to fit all, but again it maybe too expensive, so please let me know.

A set of Stanley screwdrivers, buy them one at a time, but try and buy a Phillips tip drill bit for your cordless drill, you can buy a double tipped one, that is, Phillips head both sides.

-electrical tape

-pliers, pointy tipped, or set of 3 or 4 different types

-hammer

-saw, jig-saw, hand saw, hand saw (little one ) to cut through plaster

-chisel, one that's sharp and one you can hammer the daylights out of if you need to

I've probably forgotten something that someone else could mention, but please get back to me, that would be great.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hi geoff and thanks as always.

But nope l did a deal with the other owners and part is l pay for the fences.

Anyway , sorry to bug you yet again but l have a slight problem.

The poles are 1,8 above ground right and 600 in the post hole. And that's as deep as the borer went anyway.

Do you think 600 deep was ok . And also is there anyway now that they're in l can firm them up more . ?

Problem was it was raining and packing them down in the holes was all muddy. So l rambed them more today it's dried out a lot but they're still fairly looseish. Maybe they'll solid up but l dunno. l might have to somehow firm them up better if you have any ideas ? Bit late for concrete.

Cheers mate

rx

[geoff]

Hi RX, you never bug me, it's great talking to you.

600 is great.

I remember I had to put up a treated pine fence with horizontal boards for 4 units, so it needed 4 gates to each unit, so I thought that the holes for all the posts would be OK filled up with the clay, but the landlord via the real estate agent inspected the fence and wanted all the posts to be filled with concrete.

A mate helped me dig the clay out, not all of it, and fill them up with concrete.

The only way to make the posts solid is to dig out some mud because once it rains again they will be unstable, sorry mate.

Has the colourbond been attached yet?

There are other options but these will cost you more money.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Thanks for that Geoff.

there's only a few sheets on , and some palings on the other stretch. All the rails are on though and ready to go apart from the poles being a bit loose.Hasn't rained again , yet , so they've had nearly 2 days to dry out a bit.

But eh , it all looks great haha , just a bit wonky. Unreal seeing fences around the place. l was gonna put the sheets on today actually but if there's something l should do with the poles first l can hold of the excitement a bit longer ahh, l suppose haha.

[geoff]

Hi RX, doesn't it frustrate you when you want something finished but there's a snag, a slight problem to overcome.

Just for curiosity, what colour is the colour bond?

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hey Geoff , thanks mate.

Yeah you ain't kidden , l get exited and can't wait to see jobs all finished , funny really , like comeonnnn, hasn't rained 3 wks l finally start fences and it messes things up, ahhhh.

l re rammed all the poles they've had a few days now they packed up pretty good. Some the borer wouldn't go 600 so they're a bit shallow but l built up the mound around so rain will run off once grass grows, hopin they'll be right. Spose l can always get creative if l have too later eh.

Haha all mixed colours l'll paint it later. Scored a batch of second hand new sheets for 1/3 the price, bargain.

Bloody lookin good mate , can't believe the difference. My place was sitting in the middle of 3 other blocks all open , all part of this place originally. Only an old falling over front fence nothing else, looks unreal now . It's not just one fence outside see. l'm building 1mtr high stretches running between house garage and yard parts and work area, gonna make nice gates for those and a pergola off the kitchen it be a lovely little area . Another section into a courtyard , one day haha, areas around the sheds for storage and to put my jobs. Changing the entrance around to the front , nice posts and a new curve driveway, ripping the back wall of Garage and the cars will go in across instead of longways in from the old back entrance.. So it's all totally changing the property, creating yards and spots and a 7 x 7 mtr workshop with half of the garage separate.

So the place is transforming from a big white ugly duckling in the middle of nowhere among other blocks to a whole new place with all interesting spaces, new entrance, workshop. So l've got 5 different fences and pergolas going on too see

l wanna put grape vines over the pergola too just in case l stay, it'll create a beautiful summer spot for coffee .

But l'm realizing there's so much work and costs in all these fences and separations and new areas driveways and God knows what else it's changed the place so much so as the inside is quite neat anyway , between all that and my new very cool porch maybe just go on with the outside cosmetically from here and if l do sell leave just leave it at that . A new owner can go on with the inside if they wanna later. What would you think of that idea from a selling point of view ?

Cheers mate

rx

[geoff]

Hi RX, sorry I haven't got back to you, but what you've just said, wow, you're a champion.

If the holes couldn't as deep as 600 shouldn't really matter, just curious whether it gets any strong winds, but if the posts next to this one have gone down to 600 then there shouldn't be any problem.

Please let us know how you're going, and I promise I won't be so long in replying and although I've been answering queries on other threads, my photo has gone, that's been difficult.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hey Geoff , and no worries at all mate l don't even think l've been back myself.

Thanks very much anyway. Haven't done much more since that post , back to work and stuff, but the basics are all up and looking good.

But yeah unfortunately yep we get pretty hairy cross winds here when it comes up.Think l'll have to reinforce one stretch a bit or dream something up. But over all looking good l'm really pleased.

How have you been mate l hope things are traveling ok.

All the best. rx

[geoff]

Hi RX, you can screw 'L' brackets from the hardware store and screw them from the post to the rail on both sides is one option, and another one is if you can allow a patch to be cut out from a section of the fence, so the wind can pass through and lessen the pressure of the wind.

You could do this in every section of the fence, even by making holes at the top, but it has to be through the solid part.

The drill that holds the 'hole saw' just be careful because cutting through tin, does blunt the hole saw very quickly and they aren't cheap to buy.

You could drill a hole then use a jigsaw with a metal blade or an electric saw with a masonry blade, these used to be rather cheap, depends on how neat you want it to look.

Please any questions 'fire away'.

Geoff.

[Guest_1584]

Hi Geoff and thanks a lot as always.

Geez though mate , couldn't bring myself to cut whole or sections of my nice new back fence .

Funny , my mates over the back on 1 acre and he just fenced that across in colourbond, borrowed his borer haha. And we were looking .at his nice new fence 2 weeks ago , looked as solid as a rock, he did a great job it's 90mtrs across, exposed poles looked really nice,. Over there today and the top blew in about 300ml the other night, so he put angled wood braces down and into the dirt on every post for now to hold it up until he figures out a new plan.

Can the pole to rail brackets stand up to much ?

rx