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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

topsy_
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

Hi Geoff

I have a quick question. One of my doors isn’t latching properly each time. My hubby screwed a screw back in tighter but I think it only works it’s way loose again. I’m not really sure if it’s the handle bit or the bit on the door frame that’s wonky. I think I read somewhere years ago that I could hammer a match into the loose hole then screw the screw in again & it would be tighter. Would that work?

Just for your interest my hubby is/was a carpenter so that explains why nothing gets fixed here lol. He hammers screws in - can you believe??!!

No rush to reply Geoff. Thanks in advance, Lyn.

geoff
Champion Alumni
Champion Alumni
hi Lyn, the screws become loose because there is a problem with the door where it's sticking somewhere, although the sticking may have been rectified by weather conditions, such as in summer the timber dries out, making everything work, but in winter time the wood swells, which will make it difficult to close the door, putting pressure on the screws.

You can put a match into the hole so the screw will tighten up, that will work, but if the latch on the door won't connect with the hole in the door jamb, then you can do something else.

Have a look on the door jamb and see if there are any scratch marks on the door or on the door jamb and let me know if there are.

Put something on the door latch, like some butter, then try and close the door, see where the butter is on the door jamb and let me know.

Please let me know if you can't understand what I have said, sometimes it is difficult. Geoff.

topsy_
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

Hi Geoff,

Thanks so much for your reply. There are scratches on the door latch & jamb. There are so many scratches the jamb is worn smooth. (The unit is about 30 years old). I checked all the doors & they’re all scratched to some extent but this one is the worst.

I did the butter test. I put it on the latch & shut the door & all the butter was on the door frame before it even got to the jamb part.

So Geoff I will await further instructions.

Thanks again,

Butter fingers, Lyn 😀

geoff
Champion Alumni
Champion Alumni
hi Lyn, when you try and shut the door is there a wide space between the door and the jamb at the top or the bottom, if there is then the bottom hinge can be packed out using cardboard.

Another query is whether all the doors have slowly been doing the same over a period of time, doors sticking, latches not going into the hole in the jamb and not been able to shut.

Are there any cracks in the ceiling or the cornices, what these are is when the wall goes up to the ceiling, sometimes if there are, then we may have to do a couple of other things.

To add to this what do you have on the floor beside carpet, lino, tiles, a floating floor, please let me know. Geoff.

topsy_
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

Hi Geoff

Paragraph 1 - I’m not sure how to explain this one. I think the answer is no. But my hubby (God bless his little cotton socks!) has just shown me that when you close the door, the door hits the back of the frame before it’s fully into the jamb. So because it’s not fully caught in the jamb it often pops back open again. I asked him how to fix that & he said maybe you can move the jamb forward a bit but .... blah, blah, blah (that’s code for he’s not going to do that lol!).

Paragraph 2 - no the other doors seem fine.

Paragraph 3 - no cracks in the ceiling or cornices

Paragraph 4 - ceramic tiles on one side of the door; carpet on the other. No rugs, mats or anything.

I don’t know if any of that helps Geoff. Please don’t feel obliged to keep answering. Look after yourself first & foremost. I’ll miss seeing you around but I’ll imagine you enjoying your life with new & interesting pursuits.

Cheers, Lyn.

geoff
Champion Alumni
Champion Alumni
hi Lyn, thanks for that, check to make sure the screws are tight if they keep turning around and won't tighten then get a matchstick or a little piece of wood and put it in the hole, then try and screw it back in or you can use a larger screw instead.

Another option is to get a piece of wood 3'' by 2'' and only a size that fits into your hand and place it up against the door jamb and hit it with a hammer, it may move or not.

The stick plate is where the hole in the jamb is, a thin metal plate.

The strick plate on the door jamb needs to be moved up or down, so try and close the door and have a look where the door latch is compared to where the strick plate is on the jamb.

The bottom hinge needs to go deeper into it is now, this is trial and error so only take out a little bit of timber each time.

Get a long piece of timber and hold it against the door to see if the door has warped and if so then maybe the door needs to be replaced.

Keep asking me no problem at all. Geoff.

Elizabeth CP
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member

Hi Goeff, Back to my brick wall. I have finished my kitchen including fitting new cupboards & oven where the old oven sat in its brick tower. Looks so much better. Thanks for the advice.

Now I want to paint the brick walls in the lounge. Hate the dark brown. There is a hole where I imagine a heater once sat. It's hidden by my settee. I need to fill it in otherwise it will stick out like a sore thumb if I rearrange the room. I presume I need to knock out the half bricks so I can fit whole bricks so it matches the rest of the wall. What is the easiest way to do this? Any hints of how to make the brick laying easy. I think I've got enough bricks left from smashing down the brick oven tower.

There is a metal bar at the top of the hole supporting the bricks above. It is resting on half bricks so i presume I can't remove the bricks to match the rest of the brickwork.

Any hints for making the process as esy as poss appreciated

hi Elizabeth, the metal bar is to support the bricks above it so that an opening can be made, such as to install a heater or an opening for a fire place.

At the moment the bricks are painted a dark brown, probably mission brown, everything was painted that colour ages ago, windows, fences, doors etc. it was fashion back then.

Can I ask what colour you are going to paint it?

The gas pipe and/or the electrical connection have to be terminated depending on whether it was a gas or electric heater.

Is the hole not the size of the heater but rather a few inches long and a half that in height, that would be handy to know.

What are you going to do about the missing carpet?

Hope to hear back from you. Geoff.

Elizabeth CP
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member
The heater has long gone so the flooring is not an issue. I'm just assuming the hole was from a heater because of its size. The hole in the wall is 700mm X 800mm so about 3 bricks wide & 8 bricks high. I don#t want to disturb the metal bar as I don't want the wall above crashing down. I will either paint the bricks white or the same as the rest of the walls =probably a creamy yellow. I painted the bricks in the kitchen which act as a splashback to check how it looked. I used 2 coats of a good undercoat & 2 top coats. The bricks are not currently painted. They are just a very dark brown similar to mission brown.

hi Elizabeth, you have described it well and I will get back to you tomorrow morning. Geoff.