In the absence of football again this weekend (for us anyway), I've turned my attention back to the DIY today. A few years back, I put up a couple of remotely operated motorised awnings across the back of the house where the sun (when we have any ) blasts in through the patio doors in the afternoon - one is 4 metres long and the other 5 metres. They are the full cassette type (totally enclosed when retracted) and motor out to 3 metres (10') max projection - bloody marvellous. Now when they arrived on a carrier, I got them off (bloody heavy!) but as they were well packed, I signed for them unchecked. When I eventually opened the packaging, one of them had a slight (very slight) bend in the top aluminium cassette cover. I rang the Company and told them to just send me a replacement top cover and I'd change it myself rather than returning the whole thing. No-can-do said the Company, we don't do that - we'll have to send you a new one and we'll collect the damaged one. The replacement duly arrived on the carrier and I offered the original (fully re-packed) to the driver. No way Pedro he said, I'm not taking anything back, I've got no paperwork. Fair enough, so I rang the company back and told them the problem. They said don't worry, we'll get back to you with a collection time - that was about 4 years ago.... The result is that I've had a perfectly good motorised 4 metre awning with a very slightly bent top cover in my garage. Now I thought what a waste. These things are well over a grand each and they're obviously not interested so I'm going to find somewhere to put it up. Hit on a spot round the back of my house off the side wall of my garage that will nicely shade an area on the patio for the odd Peroni (or three) in the summer. Now the problem starts - these things weigh over 60 kilos. When I put the original ones up, I'd hired a cherry picker at the time to clean the roof and paint the house. I'd fixed the wall brackets and then put the awning cassettes onto the cherry picker platform and lifted them into position to bolt to the brackets - simples. This time the brackets are no problem off a ladder, but should I hire a cherry picker again to lift it, or work off ladders because the wife and her sister aren't up for it?....
That's just not on Sparks. Not the right way to behave at all. No consideration. Send them to the gym to develop more muscle power.
A couple bottles of Peroni for a mate (drunk under the awning, of course) should see you sorted Sparkey. Two of you on a ladder each should be fine (Just don't ask health and safety). When working on our agricultural shed, I obviously use a safe working platform.
Remote - I hired one of these Genie pickers (see below) - what a smashing piece of equipment to use for a fortnight. Can't remember the exact height and reach it gave me but it took me right over the roof and up each pine end of the house for cleaning and painting. The only problem was that it was a very, very heavy machine (about 6 ton) on solid rubber wheels as opposed to pneumatic tyres. So much so that when I went next door (with owners permission of course) to reach one side of the house, I had a problem. They had a block paviour drive laid on dust whereas I had concrete on mine at the time. I was OK on my concrete drive but the reach and leverage on the wheels of the machine on the block paviours sunk them into a rut. I spent two days lifting and relaying them for him......... What surprised me when I arranged the hire was the fact that you needed no training or certificates to be allowed to use it. It was delivered on a flat bed lorry, driven off and into my drive. The guy who delivered it spent 15 minutes explaining the controls and off he went. Having said that, it was simplicity to use and although I think it cost me about 150 quid for the hire, it was much safer, quicker and less fuss than working off ladders or a mobile scaffolding platform. please log in to view this image
It is surprising what you can get your hands on Sparkey. Power tools, chemicals, machinery, all sorts. Its one thing buying stuff for use (got some stuff that would make a mess of you if you weren't careful, chain saws, nail guns, bailers, toppers - a flymow with an 8foot cut that turns fence posts into matchsticks-, tipper trailers), but the fact that you can just go out and hire this stuff is scary.
I know a guy that teaches for the CSCS cards and when he told me people can hire such stuff I was incredibly shocked.
Once again in the absence of any "decent" football to talk about, I thought I'd resurrect this thread from 2 years back - anybody used concrete screws? Although used for a while now by window installers especially, I hadn't had the need to change old habits. Always used to drill holes in blockwork/masonary, knocked in plastic plugs and then fixed items with woodscrews - not any more. Had to replace some 8ft x 3" x 3" (in old money ) timber fence posts which had literally snapped in those freak high winds a few weeks back. They'd been up there for a dozen years at least, and were secured to a 3ft 6" high concrete block wall. The force of the wind was so strong, 2 of them had snapped and others just pulled out the old plugs and screws. Got myself half a dozen new posts delivered and picked up a couple of packs of various length concrete screws from my local Toolstation. With the right size (6mm) long series masonary drill, it was a breeze. Drilled straight through the timber and into the blockwork - tapped the concrete screws through the timber and drove home into the concrete blocks with T30 torx bit. Re-fixed the fence panels (nothing wrong with them) and two coats of Blackfriars Gold Star solvent based red cedar preservative later, everything is back to life. Incidentally, apart from environmental issues, why the hell does anybody bother with water based fence products? It's nowhere near as good as solvent based for preservation and longevity. (cue lawsuits from Cuprinol and Ronseal )
Glad to see you've been a busy boy Sparks. Having been away for a couple of weeks my little lawn needed a mow. Unfortunately my 6 year old mower decided to expire. Some plastic bits broke and I couldn't be arsed to try to order spares to fix. Bought a relatively cheap new Flymow from Homebase, a bit smaller than the old one but size isn't everything, is it? Once assembled, I spent the afternoon mowing my patch then trimming my borders, spiking and fertilising. All done so sat down to watch the second half of the hubcap steelers versus their poor relations. Sod's law, WiFi down so missed the first 15 minutes. All okay now so footie it is.
Im in the process of replacing a few fence posts. Just rotting where they are in the ground. That and a horse or cow leaning on them. Take out the staples, knock them in with the post knocker, replace the staples on the stock netting. Fortunately its the odd couple here and there. Did have a 9" strainer snap. A bit hard knocking that one in. On the concrete screws, use them to put gate brackets up on poured concrete panels. They have a hex bolt head on them. Hang 15 foot gates with them without issue.
Mentioning those hex headed concrete screws/bolts reminded me of something that hadn't occured to me at the time about 6/7 years back. Had a low wall to one side of the house which was effectively made "higher" by bushes growing just inside. I decided they'd gone a bit scruffy so hacked them down and dug them out. It was only then I realised just how low the wall was. The dogs could probably have made it over, or worse still some dognappers (bastards in other words) could easily have got hold of them. Didn't want to obscure our "new " view on the outside world by building the wall higher, so got our local Nottage Forge to manufacture about 30 ft of 2 ft high galvanised railings to sit on top of the low wall between two concrete pillars. Incidentally remote, it's now run by ex Springbok rugby player Ockert Booyse - you may remember him playing for Bristol/Bath about 20 odd years ago if you were playing there at that time. Bit of an animal, he came to the house to measure up - all 6' 8" of him but really nice bloke! Anyway, when he came back to fit the railings I remember he drilled the concrete pillars and drove the fixing bolts straight into the concrete with a power wrench - no plugging or fiddling. Solid as a rock.
Most springbok forwards are brick sh!t house animals. Bristol and Bath were a few levels above my efforts. Played their 2nd teams quite a few times, though did follow them on TV. There seem to be a number of fixings you can use, some you drill and screw in, others you drill and insert metal 'rawl plugs' that expand and jam in when you tighten them. Unless on big pieces of concrete I worry that the concrete will fracture if you screw into it.
Yes remote - "expansion" bolts (Rawlbolts, Feb bolts etc) have been around a long time - I used to use them in another life when I started installing over door GRP canopies and porches on new build housing developements. In fact, all my awnings (really heavy!) are fixed to the house with the expansion bolts supplied by the manufacturer - no problem and they certainly won't ever pull out. The "newer" concrete screws are far more convenient, lightweight and less likely to cause fracturing as they cut their way into the concrete rather than expansion bolts that can literally lift brick courses if not sound as they expand when tightening.
