The Home Improvements Thread (2)

[Düber]

Alright clever folks, any bright Ideas on sealing these overlapping seams so they are rain tight..?

I put up two tarpaulins, cause I could not find a single one big enough to cover the area at a cheap enough cost to justify the temporary usage of it, and I now need to make this water tight.. I was thinking contact adhesive with a waterproof tape of some kind on either side..?

I will be installing at an angle for any rain to run off and not gather and putting strain on what would hopefully be the sealed overlapping seams..

With some shade cloth I have used a thin strip of wood and wrapped both pieces around it a few times, fixed with staples and fitted with the "top" piece spilling over the "lower" , if that makes sense.
With it being shadecloth waterproofing was not my main goal but it worked fairly well and kept it taunt.

 

[D tj]

Double sided tape the seams on top of each other and then x2 strip of wood, one underneath, the other on top screwed together 75- 100 mm apart (closer better) will be very strong, put contact adhesive over stitching if there is or better paint waterproof paint over the join......can last a long time.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Yeah a thin strip of wood with the shade cloth wrapped over it and stapled to it and then overlapped on the lower piece should do the trick, maybe with some contact adhesive and a waterproof silicone sealant to finish the sealing of the joint.

If its temporary I wouldn't go to the ends of the earth to try solve the problem.

If the idea is possibly to go more permanent with the idea though, get in touch with these guys : http://www.sashade.co.za/
About 4 years ago I got a quote from them for a 6m x 10m custom water proof shade cloth that was hemmed with eyelets every 2m for R2700

 

[SAguy]

I need to buy some pine boards and have them cut. This is for redoing the door jambs/stops after the previous building nightmare.

Do I just go to timbercity and tell them what pieces I need and then they calculate the cutting layout and which size board to buy? Or how does it work?

 

[ToxicBunny]

I need to buy some pine boards and have them cut. This is for redoing the door jambs/stops after the previous building nightmare.

Do I just go to timbercity and tell them what pieces I need and then they calculate the cutting layout and which size board to buy? Or how does it work?

Yeah can do that with timbercity yeah, you give them the cutting list and they will do it for you.

Even builders claim to do the same, but I am not sure how much I trust Builders with that sort of thing, at least Timbercity has a proper cutting layout program that they will sit down with you and do the layout.

 

[SAguy]

Yeah can do that with timbercity yeah, you give them the cutting list and they will do it for you.

Even builders claim to do the same, but I am not sure how much I trust Builders with that sort of thing, at least Timbercity has a proper cutting layout program that they will sit down with you and do the layout.

Yeah I've used builders in the past, but that's when I know what cuts I want on the board. In this case I would just want someone to do the cutting layout for me to get the most out.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Yeah I've used builders in the past, but that's when I know what cuts I want on the board. In this case I would just want someone to do the cutting layout for me to get the most out.

Then definitely TimberCity would be your best bet I think.

 

[V1rus]

Hey all.

My wife and I are currently in the process of buying a new house and we want to do a bunch of renovations before moving in. We had a contractor recommended to us by an estate agent (which we have known for a few years).

The house is a 140ish square two story townhouse and we want to repaint all the walls, the house has tiles everywhere except the bedrooms which have ugly carpets so we want to redo all flooring (Vinyl hopefully), add white marble counters, repaint kitchen cupboards, add some black fixtures everywhere, redo bathrooms with new tiles and paint, and add a new roof on the patio with a built in braai.

Most of the prices that were given to us are decent except for the flooring which looks like this:
Ground floor renovations tilework (60m2 × R510pm2) = R30600.00
Upper floor renovation vinyl floors (82m2 x R656pm2 , stairs and all upper level as discussed with client on site ) = R53799.80

The guy seems super unsure about click vinyl and wants to remove all tiles and add stick vinyl. As far as I could see there is no damage to any of the tiles and there is no weird slant on the tiles.

My questions are:
* How are these prices compared to some of the work you guys have had done?
* What is your experience with click vinyl over existing tiles vs stick vinyl?
* What is a good PM2 price for click vinyl/stick vinyl on existing flooring?

 

[jezzad]

I need to buy some pine boards and have them cut. This is for redoing the door jambs/stops after the previous building nightmare.

Do I just go to timbercity and tell them what pieces I need and then they calculate the cutting layout and which size board to buy? Or how does it work?

Handy online tool if you want to DIY - https://www.cutlistoptimizer.com

 

[GrootBaas]

This morning I had to replace my kitchen sink wall tap (the very old unit cracked when trying to open it up to replace a washer). But now I have a problem in my solar geyser that there seems to be an airlock in the pump/piping that runs between the geyser and the roof panel. It's a geyserwise system that should pump when the temperature differential is 7 degrees. But now it is trying to pump continuously but not getting it done it seems.

Roof panel temperature now up to 98 degrees.

Any idea how to fix this? Probably need to bleed something somewhere but not sure what or if it is even a good idea to attempt this myself.

 

[kanzen]

Hey all.

My wife and I are currently in the process of buying a new house and we want to do a bunch of renovations before moving in. We had a contractor recommended to us by an estate agent (which we have known for a few years).

The house is a 140ish square two story townhouse and we want to repaint all the walls, the house has tiles everywhere except the bedrooms which have ugly carpets so we want to redo all flooring (Vinyl hopefully), add white marble counters, repaint kitchen cupboards, add some black fixtures everywhere, redo bathrooms with new tiles and paint, and add a new roof on the patio with a built in braai.

Most of the prices that were given to us are decent except for the flooring which looks like this:
Ground floor renovations tilework (60m2 × R510pm2) = R30600.00
Upper floor renovation vinyl floors (82m2 x R656pm2 , stairs and all upper level as discussed with client on site ) = R53799.80

The guy seems super unsure about click vinyl and wants to remove all tiles and add stick vinyl. As far as I could see there is no damage to any of the tiles and there is no weird slant on the tiles.

My questions are:
* How are these prices compared to some of the work you guys have had done?
* What is your experience with click vinyl over existing tiles vs stick vinyl?
* What is a good PM2 price for click vinyl/stick vinyl on existing flooring?

I'm in the process of getting 24m2 done in 2 bedrooms with glue down vinyl. I didn't opt for the thickest vinyl (R230/m2 for 2mm thick) but all in it's around 12.5k for the lot including having the floors screeded. One room already has glue down vinyl (3mm) and is a pleasure to live with IMO and replacing them vs click system would be easier in theory.

 

[Lukcydog]

This morning I had to replace my kitchen sink wall tap (the very old unit cracked when trying to open it up to replace a washer). But now I have a problem in my solar geyser that there seems to be an airlock in the pump/piping that runs between the geyser and the roof panel. It's a geyserwise system that should pump when the temperature differential is 7 degrees. But now it is trying to pump continuously but not getting it done it seems.

Roof panel temperature now up to 98 degrees.

Any idea how to fix this? Probably need to bleed something somewhere but not sure what or if it is even a good idea to attempt this myself.

I've had this before. Open the warm water tap and let the water run.

 

[GrootBaas]

I've had this before. Open the warm water tap and let the water run.

Have done that, no problems in the normal piping to the taps. Only the roof panel which is separate seems to be the issue. But will open the taps aggressively for a shower later and see what happens. Will only be able to evaluate again when the sun is out though and the differential is above 7 degrees.

 

[Steamy Tom]

This morning I had to replace my kitchen sink wall tap (the very old unit cracked when trying to open it up to replace a washer). But now I have a problem in my solar geyser that there seems to be an airlock in the pump/piping that runs between the geyser and the roof panel. It's a geyserwise system that should pump when the temperature differential is 7 degrees. But now it is trying to pump continuously but not getting it done it seems.

Roof panel temperature now up to 98 degrees.

Any idea how to fix this? Probably need to bleed something somewhere but not sure what or if it is even a good idea to attempt this myself.

Open the shower taps closest to the geyser

 

[Smokey mcpot]

Open the shower taps closest to the geyser

Actually open all the taps and let it run. Then start closing them from the furthest point from the geyser.

 

[PhireSide]

So we ended up putting up a wireless camera watching our verge and managed to spot the neighbour from across the road come and dump his bags on our verge again. We gave it a few minutes and then returned them back to his side.

We'll see if it happens again, and if so, I'll keep putting them back on his side until he gives up. FWIW, I used a Reolink Argus 2 and I am mightily impressed with the Wireless range. Where we placed the camera is a good 40 or so meters from the house, and my AP is in my ceiling so the signal outside in the yard isn't great - but it still manages to keep a connection and is perfectly usable at that range.

 

[Speedster]

So we ended up putting up a wireless camera watching our verge and managed to spot the neighbour from across the road come and dump his bags on our verge again. We gave it a few minutes and then returned them back to his side.

We'll see if it happens again, and if so, I'll keep putting them back on his side until he gives up. FWIW, I used a Reolink Argus 2 and I am mightily impressed with the Wireless range. Where we placed the camera is a good 40 or so meters from the house, and my AP is in my ceiling so the signal outside in the yard isn't great - but it still manages to keep a connection and is perfectly usable at that range.

If you have a community WA / Telegram group post the video on there. That'll be fun.

 

[Steamy Tom]

So we ended up putting up a wireless camera watching our verge and managed to spot the neighbour from across the road come and dump his bags on our verge again. We gave it a few minutes and then returned them back to his side.

We'll see if it happens again, and if so, I'll keep putting them back on his side until he gives up. FWIW, I used a Reolink Argus 2 and I am mightily impressed with the Wireless range. Where we placed the camera is a good 40 or so meters from the house, and my AP is in my ceiling so the signal outside in the yard isn't great - but it still manages to keep a connection and is perfectly usable at that range.

Next time don't wait, go out and carry them across almost literally behind him, he must see you. If he starts kak make him bite the pavement

 

[The_Mowgs]

Next time don't wait, go out and carry them across almost literally behind him, he must see you. If he starts kak make him bite the pavement

And stomp on his neck!!!

 

[PhireSide]

I so wish I could catch him in the act, but that being said I'm not a confrontational bloke...but enough is enough.

I should check our by-laws and see if I can not report him for putting out his rubbish the night before. AFAIK, this isn't allowed as it encourages bag scratchers to dig around and make a mess.