The Resident Builder podcast: December 22, 2024

This week on the show, ZB's Resident Builder Pete Wolfkamp answers questions on construction.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Resident build Up podcast with Peter
Wolfcamp from News Talks at Bay.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
House a whole, even when it starks, even when the
grass is overgrown in the yard, even when the dog
is too old to bar, and when you're sitting at
the table trying to stop scissor home, even when we

(00:35):
are bad, even when you're there alone, house is a hole,
even when those ghost even when you got around from

(00:58):
the ones you love your most, stream, those broken plaints,
feeling from the wood locals vestball when they're gone leaving them,
even when wilbra Ben, even when you're in there alone.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, a very very good morning to you. Welcome along
to the Resident Builder on Sunday here at News Talk CB.
My name's people of Camp for the Resident Builder. And
this is well the last It's not the last opportunity
of the year. I know lots of hosts are saying
at the moment as they look forward to Christmas in
just a couple of days time and the extended summer break.
And I'm looking forward to Christmas as well. But in

(01:50):
between Christmas and New Year, so for one more show
and December we will be back. But today is the
last show. Before Christmas Day, and it's an opportunity. I
do get that sense with people looking at little projects
around the house, and but some peace is that you know,
now the pressure is on. Basically, if you're going to

(02:12):
line up a project for the Christmas break, you need
to be thinking about it now. You need to have
materials ordered before suppliers shut down. If you're going to
be using trades people during the Christmas break, look, chances
a you'll probably find a few. I've got this little
metric for determining whether or not for trades people it's
been a good year, and that's all about how quickly

(02:36):
trades people returned back to work in the new year. So,
you know, if it's been a good year, then good
luck getting a plumber or a sparky or a chippy
to come around and start work on your project until
the very end of January. Pretty much. If it hasn't
been a great year, then typically as soon as the

(02:56):
stats are over, they're backswing and a hammer. So the
number of people I know who are back to work
on the sixth of January is considerably higher this year
than those perhaps who would be looking at you know,
the thirteenth and beyond as a return to work. That's
a pretty straightforward metric that has served me well over
the last couple of years. And even an article that

(03:17):
I was reading. You know, normally we talk about in
the trades the Christmas rush, right, and people wanting to
get projects finished, get kitchens installed, get the bathroom finished,
get the deck finished, and that sort of thing. A
lot of pressure on trades people to get these jobs finished.
This year, it's been kind of a fairly casual stroll

(03:37):
to Christmas. The demand's not there, the work is harder
to find, it's more competitive, and the Christmas rush has
not really been that much of a rush for most
people anyway. Lots of good trades people still busy, but
lots of people scratching around, a lot of people still
a bit uncertain about what twenty twenty five has in

(03:58):
store for their businesses as well. But if you've got
a project that you intend to do, then we can
talk about that. So it might be, you know, of
a reasonable scale, it might be something that is just
a little bit more compact, or it might be a
job that I did yesterday. And then we had a
bit of a catch up with friends in some of
their friends yesterday and we were chatting and I said,

(04:21):
I think my new word for the day, for the month,
for the year pretty much is puttering, and puttering is
is defined and I don't know somewhere that I saw
online the active of undertaking a task, so's it has form,
it has process, it has an outcome. Right, you're doing

(04:43):
a task that's going to result in a change. You're
going to work on something, but it's of such a
significance that nobody will notice. So puttering. It was kind
of my word of the day yesterday. It might even
be my word of the year. So maybe your intention
over the summer break is to do a little puttering,
to fix a few things around the house, to make

(05:05):
a few modest changes to how things work. Maybe it's
the squeaky door and I noticed that on the door
this morning as I tried to gently close it before
heeing me out quite early this morning. Or maybe it's
another little maintenance task that will fix something, adjust something,
get rid of a squeak, get rid of something binding,

(05:27):
do a small task that maybe most people won't notice,
but you will. And that, my friends, is puttering, which
I think is just a tremendous tremendous word to keep
in mind over the summer months. Putter along through the
summer months, achieving small tasks and we successes, but no
one else will notice. But you'll be busy all day

(05:47):
if you've got a workshop. I think you really need
to have a workshop in order to do puttering successfully.
Or that's what I found. I had daylight that the
other day where I had sort of like a couple
of hours spare and I went in and just went
and fixed a certain number of things, you know, repair
that straight that, clean that up, and I'm like, that

(06:10):
feels quite good. If you're doing something more significant though,
that you'd like to talk about chat about, then the
lines are open. The number is eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty. The text is nine two nine two, which
is ZEDBZB from your mobile phone. I'll get the email
sorted out and if you'd like to email me, it's
Pete at newstalksb dot co dot NZ. So Pete at

(06:30):
newstalksb dot co dot ENZ. Can I just say a
small hallelujah as well. I've only just noticed this. I
went to glance at the clock to see what time
it is and something. Thank you ed is all I
can say, thank you, Ed. For the ten years that
I've been in the studio, we have had in this

(06:52):
particular studio an old analog clock that hangs on the
wall that is terribly unreliable because it never quite lines
up to the digital clocks obviously that run the studio.
And I just glanced up now expecting to see this
old analog clocking and almost here at ticking and God

(07:14):
bless them, but there is a flash. New screen has
been installed with a digital clock, which has been in
the other studio for ten years. And I've said on
a number of occasions in my grumpy moments, Ed, can
we have one of those in this studio as well?
And here it is the best Christmas present ever. Seriously,

(07:36):
that's awesome. Sorry. I know if you're listening to this
you're going, what the hell is he ranting on about?
But it is. It is transformational. The progress now that's
more than puttering. Actually a job like that, that's not puttering,
that's progress. That's awesome. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
I'm very happy this morning. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty.
If you've got a building question, if you've got a

(07:56):
project on. If you've got if you're struggling with the
legislation or the compliance side of things, gives a call
eight hundred eighty ten eighty, because I can tell you
quite precisely it is exactly six fourteen twenty nine back
in a moment your newstalks, the'd be and the lines
are open. The number to call eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty at around seven twenty five this morning, Jay,

(08:19):
our painting expert from Razine, will be with us as well.
So last opportunity obviously before the break for you to
ask your very specific painting questions of Jay from Razine.
So if you've got you know, again, I think typically
summertime kind of paint all year round, but summertime lends

(08:42):
itself to it. Then we end up with the sort
of the opposite problem that we get during the winter,
which is, gosh, I can paint from you know, maybe
ten in the morning till two in the afternoon, then
I've got to knock off to allow it to dry.
To challenges Now, if you're trying to do some painting
over the summer and its exterior is staying out of
the sun, because ideally shouldn't be painting in direct sunlight.

(09:05):
But if you've got a question around getting some jobs
painted over the summer break, then Jay, our painting expert,
will be with us for your text questions at around
seven twenty five this morning, seven thirty this morning, so
in about just over an hour's time right now. Though
it's your opportunity, it is a little bit quiet this
Sunday morning, so inevitably we get busy later on in

(09:28):
the show. If you've got a question, oh, eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty, now is the perfect time to call.
I mentioned puttering for your information, says the Texter. Puttering
is just the worst pottering, having been morphed through misspelling.
The original word is pottering, which we all know. Well,
I probably agree with you in the sense that maybe

(09:49):
it's a word that has changed that. This was part
of the discussion yesterday over a few drinks and some
very delicious sliders put on by friends of ours yesterday
around well, how is it different from pottering? I think
pottering is one of those things that you kind of
just mooch along, but there's no real outcome to it,
whereas puttering has in the distinction that I saw anyway,

(10:14):
is that you've achieved a task. It might be relatively
minor and it's of a nature that no one else
will notice it, but you do get something done. And
I'm like, I get that. I like puttering. I'm happy
with puttering. I don't think it's a misspelling. I think
it's a new word and it's a great word. Oh,
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to
call quick text, Hey, we've got some soot on the

(10:36):
We have some soot on the curling around our chimney.
What's the best way to get rid of it? So, yes,
if you've got some soot on the ceiling, then any
housewash prep or any painting prep product. Razine make a
really good one that I've used successfully this year getting
mold and mildew off a bathroom ceiling, so to treat that,

(10:56):
and it's a it's a good preparation before painting indoors anyway.
You know, regardless of how well you look after your house,
there will be dirt basically that collects on the wall.
So before you do the painting, you want to be
able to strip that off. So I think have a
go with the house of the paint prep that you

(11:19):
can get from razine, so mix that up. Don't wear
a good shirt when you're using it. If you like
me and you're a bit sloppy with the application. It
took the color straight out of the old shirt that
I was wearing, but it did do an excellent job
of getting rid of the mold and mildew on the ceiling.
I'm sure it'll take care of the soot as well.
Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number

(11:40):
to call and mark a very good morning to you.
How are you doing this morning?

Speaker 4 (11:44):
Yeah, I have to.

Speaker 5 (11:45):
Add good thanks thanks backing the call.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
I've just got a couple of quick questions.

Speaker 5 (11:50):
I've just going to Dick about a couple of months ago,
and we seem to have a bit of cupping in it,
and I'm just not sure ye solution for that. So
it's less than one. I happy to the ground, built
to code, so I've done it, and then forty by
ninety Mili couilla yep, and some of the boards seem

(12:11):
to be cupping of it, and they've got our used
twelve gauge back screws too board the joist, but I'm
just not sure there's any solutions to try and reduce it,
minimize it. We haven't got around to the ailing it
yet that I don't know if it's going to help
or not.

Speaker 3 (12:31):
Funnily enough, it may well do, I mean typically like
if hardwards tend to perform a little bit differently to
soft woods. But there's depending on which way the board
is sawn, you will get cupping in the board, right,
so all timber is prone to doing it. Is it like,

(12:52):
is it significant to the point where the cupping is
such that the water sits in between it.

Speaker 5 (12:59):
Coup of the boards?

Speaker 6 (13:00):
It is?

Speaker 5 (13:00):
So we're not too sure because it's not every board,
and it's more where the sun hits. We're not sure
if the only solution is to replace the odd board
that it's got it or not. But then there's that
game to.

Speaker 3 (13:14):
You, yes, and are the boards it's the type of
quilla that you've used. Was it grip tread on one
side and smooth on the other or is it smooth
both faces? Okay, because I was going to say, you know,
you could undo the screws, flip it over and it
would cut the other way and maybe eventually settle down.

(13:34):
But I guess the so the cupping you're seeing is
that the outside edges of the board have risen and
it's now concave. Sorry, concave rather than convex. Yeah, yeah,
that's okay.

Speaker 5 (13:50):
We were you sure if we should put end seal
on the on the bottom of the board, like we've
done that. We all caps out of the end seals
and stuff like that. But yeah, I'm just not too sure.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
Look, timber is what timber is, right, So you will
get a little bit of cupping, and it'll be and
way that the board is sorn, and from which part
of the tree it is. It's probably how I would
say it. I think if it's really troubling, look, I think.

Speaker 5 (14:14):
It's not troubling. I don't have a problem with it.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
It's just yeah, I know, and that's what I'm saying.
You know, Like I've seen boards that are cupped and
let's say, if you put a ruler over the top,
it would be five millimeters from the ruler to the
bottom of the dip, let's say. Or in some cases
you'll get cupping that'll hold a little bit of water
and it'll be a millimeter or so. But it's still
more like that. It's more just the milk Yeah. Look,

(14:40):
if it's really troubling you, probably the only solution is
replaced the boards, saying that I would probably wait to
do it until after I had sealed the boards. So
was it always your intention to clean the deck after
a period of time and give it a coat.

Speaker 5 (14:58):
Yes, So we thought we'd just leave it a little bit. Yeah,
and then we were going to look at doing some
oiling on it.

Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yeah, good idea.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
We're just wondering if we need to do that ahead
of time, like we were thinking, you're doing it.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
May No, I think when when did the decking go down? Yeah,
it's probably long enough, I would say. And again this
is you know, in the conversations I've had with Jay
and with Bryce from Razine, use a deck wash proprietary

(15:32):
to prepare the timber, because what that does is it
gets rid of any sort of mild moss and mold
that might have started to grow on it, which is inevitable.
But also it opens the fibers up a little bit.
So when you use the product to clean the decking,
it opens the fibers up, and once it's dry, but
not too long afterwards, that's when you want to apply

(15:52):
your I would probably go for a penetrating oil stain
onto that and it will suck into the fibers because
they've been opened up as you've washed it. And that
may also, you know, help reintroduce some moisture into the
board and that might be enough just to relieve the
board as well, and it might settle down a little bit.
So and then if next summer it's still cupping and

(16:15):
it's still annoying, replace the board.

Speaker 5 (16:16):
Then they could be again.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
But I think, I know there's a lot of you
always have these discussions with after you've done a hardwood deck,
where you go, oh, should I put some coating on it?
I think that it's wise in New Zealand to put
a coating on.

Speaker 5 (16:32):
Yeah, that sounds quite hard. Yeah's part of it, quite noticeably.

Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah. I was back at a place where we did
a it wasn't a Kuila deck, it was a Vitext
deck in roughly the end of twenty twenty, and I
was looking at it the other day thinking I know
that you know, there was there was a lot of
discussion around, oh do we just leave it natural, let
it whether off and dah dah da da da. But
I can also see the mold growth starting to grow

(16:57):
on it and that sort of thing, and I'm inclined
to go. I think now I'll give it a clean
and apply a coat of decking stain to it.

Speaker 5 (17:06):
I had a second question, saw blade, So after doing it,
after the deck of the lots of pine and colla,
how do I clean them? So just behind the tungsten, Yeah,
how do I clean that?

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Shimmers?

Speaker 5 (17:24):
Because it's quite hard.

Speaker 3 (17:26):
It's really Yeah, there's a lot of resin in the blade,
or there's a lot of resin in the timber and
it tends to adhere to the blade and sort of
gum up the blade.

Speaker 5 (17:34):
Because I've got a brand new blade before doing the
night Yeah, yep, from Makida drops or yes, I'm just
I'm not sure how to how to clean off because
it's like it's plugged up quite quick.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Yes, I'd be inclined just to take it off user.
I've got in a drawer in the workshop a whole
bunch of little wire brushes, you know, like soft wire brushes.
But I'd probably just use some turps to be fair,
all right, I'll go yeah, yeah, And I mean look,

(18:08):
you know, chances are by now it probably needs a
sharpen in which case, if you take it in and
get it sharpened. And I'm still a big fan of
getting my blades sharpened rather than just biffing them and
buying another one and they'll probably tidy out of there.
But I think some turps and a little not sort
of super harsh wirebrush and just go through and just
that could be puttering. You see, that's puttering. You do

(18:30):
a little task that has an outcome and it might
take you a lovely half hour of just quiet time
just cleaning the blade. Cool mate, all the best, take care.
Thanks Mark. By way, then oh eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty, if you've got a question of a building nature,
by all means, give us a call. Funnily enough, last
week we were talking about sort of stocking stuff as

(18:53):
in a sense. Last week on the show, I happen
to mention the fact that I popped into Devenport Timber,
which is kind of like my local, and they had
some of the good rules sitting on the by the counter, right,
and it reminded me of the fact that I've got some.
In fact, I gave I gave one away the other day,
which means I need to go and replace it now.

(19:15):
But I I was looking at those mentioned the good Rule.
I quite like them because they're a New Zealand designed product.

Speaker 7 (19:21):
Right.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
So it's a little folding ruler that is unlike most
folding rulers, it's slightly wider, it's a certain thickness, the
measurements are set out in the way that's particularly useful
for Kiwi's building, et cetera, et cetera. So that's that's
an option. I've got some other ideas actually for stocking
stuffs as well. If you're still doing the Christmas shopping
a little bit like I am, then I've got a couple.

(19:43):
I've had some I've been doing some thinking about that.
Eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the number to call
if you'd like to join us. We'd love to hear
from you. Eight hundred eighty ten eighty the number. Now
just for the break, Hey Pete, how about running a
sharp hand plane along with cup decking. Yes, but what
you end up doing sometimes is then taking the surface off,

(20:03):
which will help flatten the board, but you lose the
arras that's typically on the edge of the timber, and
then that will be a little bit obvious. And planning
hardwoods not that easy. Oh, eight hundred eighty ten eighty
is the number to call back after the break the vain,
Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty the number to call
and a very very good morning to you, Anne.

Speaker 8 (20:25):
Morning Pete, long time listener, and I've never called you before.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
Welcome, thank you.

Speaker 8 (20:31):
Over the years, my husband and I had a bit
of development in the three houses, and someone gave us
this hint. When you're at the stage before the light,
before the installation and the lining goes on, take photos, yes,
and then later we put them in an album yep.
And then when somebody wanted to know where a pipe

(20:53):
was or where the I was, you just get the
book out and it was really useful.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah, And I guess, you know, going back a few years,
that a little bit of a process in terms of,
you know, if you had to use a camera and
then you had to print off the photographs. But today,
with you know, almost everyone having a smartphone or having
a phone with a camera, it's relatively easy. And certainly

(21:21):
actually I had exactly that the other day. I got
some guys in to do a small project for me,
and then I came back to install some benches and
that sort of thing, and I was like, oh, now
I'll grab my stud finder and try and figure out.
And I was a little bit worried there was old
plumbing in the wall and that sort of thing, And
of course the contractor, because he's organized, just went, oh,
hang on a sec, here's the wall with the insulation

(21:44):
and with the lining. Before the lining goes on, all
the services are there, and we could work out exactly
where the studs were, where the pipes might be, and
that sort of thing, because he'd kept a photograph of it.
And so yeah, I agree. I think it just tangentially
to that. One of the things that's been discussed an
enormous amount at the moment is the idea of remote

(22:05):
inspections for building consents. Right, So, rather than having the
building inspector physically visit the site, one of the options
is for a building inspector in a remote location or
in their office to be able to dial into the
contractor on site and then use their phone or the
camera on their phone to view things inside the building.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Right.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
Might be a pre line inspection, so that way it
also captures images of all of those critical stages. There's
also there I saw someone who had started a business
in New Zealand where his service is essentially he will
come to site prior to the lining, so you've got
the house closed and you've done all your services and
that sort of thing, and he will do a complete

(22:54):
scan of the inside of the building photography and it
will record dimensions and that sort of thing and then
give that to you as for record keeping later on,
which is pretty nifty as well. But yeah, I agree.
I think it's a really useful thing to do. It's
just it's as simple as you finish the inside of
the room, you're ready for plaster board, and you just

(23:16):
stand there and you go photograph, photograph, photograph, photograph. Ideally
take a moment and you know how you can add
notes to your photographs just on your camera and just
go bedroom one north, bedroom, one south, bedroom, one east west,
that sort of thing. You know. It's great.

Speaker 8 (23:33):
We were and recently we sold a development and we
gave them the album. I mean, this is a long
time ago that one was done, yeah, more than twenty
years ago, and so they were very happy to receive it.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
And I think too, you know, in terms of as
a developer, as a sales pitch in a sense it
says that you care. You know, it says that you've
got an attention to detail, that you've got nothing to hide,
because literally you're showing them photographs of the inside of
their walls. And if that goes into a folder or
it's on a USB stick and it's it's organized, I
think it's tremendous. In fact, I've been doing some sort

(24:14):
of investigative work trying to uncover it's a situation where
a building consent was issued, wasn't signed off, there was
a notice to fix, there was a subsequent building consent,
et cetera, et cetera. And I happened to contact the
building surveyor who was involved in the project, and this
is twelve years ago and chatting with them on Friday,

(24:35):
and he goes, Yep, I'll go to my files and
I'll put it on a USB stick and give it
to you. So that sort of record keeping I think
is really really good. Yeah, I'm all for that. Good
on you, great idea. I love it. All the best
to you man, You have a great Christmas. Take care.
Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty. If you've got a
question or a comment, eight hundred eighty ten eighty is

(24:57):
the number to call. Oh, Merry Christmas, Pete, and then
it gets worse from there. We've just replaced our windows
with aluminium sum sausage, which has scratched the front window.
Is there a product to go over it that will
sort of fill in the scratch, maybe a color polish
or something like that. Love the show. Always get up
early on a Sunday to listen. Thank you and it's

(25:18):
lovely to have you with us. I know that there
are a couple of specialist contractors out there who will
do repairs to aluminium jewnery for exactly that reason, because
it happens a lot, right, so it's probably a thriving business.
I'd suggest you go back to the manufacturer. No one's
going to own up to the mistake, so go back
to the manufacturer. They will have a contact, get someone

(25:39):
out to do it professionally, particularly if it's an area.
We had someone scratched the aluminium front door, right, so
it's the first thing you see when you arrive at
the house. We had someone come do a patch and
it might have even involved a complete respray of the
door on site. Absolutely fine, you'll never notice it, but yeah,
get a professional and thank you too. For the gentleman's

(26:01):
tech through to go up presuments. Gentlemen, Morning peat over
the last fifty two years of building. To remove gum
from the saw blade, I spray the blades while I'm
using them with diesel or CRC. Probably see RC's a
bit easier to get your hands on, and it comes
in an aerosol can. So try that. That was to
mark our earlier caller who wanted to clean up the blades.

(26:23):
So it's going to be a bit messy, it's going
to spray all over the place, but yep, that'd probably
work as well. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty
is the number to call another quick text as well. Morning.
A puttering question. I've noticed some discoloration mold in the
gray silicon in the shower areas. The house is about
five years old. Can you suggest a product to remove

(26:43):
and clean it up? Please? A couple of options there
was it mold killer exit mold works remarkably well if
it's you know, sort of surface mold. Failing that, if
the silicon itself has started to break down or the
molds got in behind it, then maybe it's time to

(27:04):
just strip out the silicon. You can use a little
tool to kind of peel it off, and then there
are silicon cleaners or dissolvers to remove the residue, let
the area dry thoroughly, and then redo the silicon. Makes
a big difference herby a very good morning to you.

Speaker 4 (27:20):
Yes.

Speaker 9 (27:20):
Look, I've got a concrete block garage. The concrete block
garage is on my boundary, and my neighbors planted bamboo
right up against that.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
What I do?

Speaker 3 (27:32):
Right, So your fence or your block wall definitely inside
your property on the boundary, but obviously right on the boundary.

Speaker 9 (27:41):
The extent the boundary is outside of my concrete block
law yea.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
And now it's covered in vegetation.

Speaker 9 (27:47):
From and and I painted the inside of the wall
and it's.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
All bubbling, ah, because you're getting moisture and from outside.

Speaker 9 (27:55):
Yeah, yeah, what can I do?

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Look, it's just got to be a conversation with the neighbor.
And maybe the neighbor is reluctant to do anything about it.
But if they give you permission to go, I mean,
the bamboo is going to grow back.

Speaker 9 (28:10):
Isn't it current it's it gives up.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
High, yeah, and it's it's only going to keep going. Look,
it's just got to be a conversation because I think
I don't think it will be because I you know,
I'm assuming that if you were just to simply into
your neighbor's property and you know, pull the bamboo back
or something like that and do the painting, well, that's

(28:37):
kind of trespass, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
You know?

Speaker 9 (28:39):
Yes, ah, in terms of the coloring like that.

Speaker 3 (28:49):
Yeah, I think if you decided to paint a vibrant
red color or something like that, theybe would probably not
be too happy. Look, it's it's unfortunate. If you can't
have a conversation, then I really don't know what your
options are. You know, potentially under the Property Act, you
could enforce notice that allows you to get access for
reasonable tasks like maintenance. But criky, that's you know, swinging

(29:14):
an awfully big hammer.

Speaker 9 (29:15):
Isn't it actually cut the bamboo a way to be
able to paint it?

Speaker 4 (29:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (29:21):
I mean, look, and I have seen painters, you know,
where trees are up against buildings and that just kind
of wrapper just a drop cloth around them and then
tie you know, to a strop or to an anchor
point and pull the tree away for a period of time.
So if you didn't want to go, but you know
you could hack half a meter off the side of

(29:41):
the bamboo and it'll be back in a year's time.
So it's not like your neighbor's going to lose anything out.
But it's got to be a conversation.

Speaker 9 (29:47):
Yeah, okay, mate, Well thank you.

Speaker 3 (29:49):
Unfortunately I think it's it's all about contact, all right,
all the best, do you hear me? Take care all
of this by by oh, eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty that number to call discolouration of the mold. Yep,
we've dealt with that. Seal the inside of the wall
with armitek. Yeah, not a bad idea. If you can't
get to the outside, you'll need to strip off the

(30:10):
inside layer of painting. You need to have a bear
surface typically with these types of seilants to use. So
that is another option though. And we're starting to get
some questions in around four j our painting expert who
will join us at about seven twenty five this morning,
Jay from Razine. So if you've got any specific painting
questions like the couple that have come through already, that's

(30:34):
you're more than welcome to send them through and we'll
address those with Jay at seven twenty five this morning.
We are going to of course be talking with Red
Climb Past at around eight thirty this morning, So for
all of your gardening and entomological questions, we can do
that at around eight thirty this morning. Oh, eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty is the number to call before

(30:55):
we grab our next caller. Just another text as well, Pete,
how do I adjust an aluminium door as it catches
on the bottom of the frame at this time of year,
but it's okay in winter. Sometimes aliminum doors drop because
they rely in part on the glass to keep them square.

(31:16):
So if you've got an aluminium frame, maybe with a
center rail in it and two pieces of glass, when
the glass is installed, it needs to be blocked correctly
so that the glass and a sense offers up some
support because glasses not going to move. So maybe what
you'll find in this instance maybe is that the door

(31:39):
has dropped a little bit because they haven't done the blocking.
But in order to do the blocking correctly, you probably
need to get a glazier to come through and redo
the way in which the glazing has been installed. That
might be part of it. If it's only a couple
of millimeters. You can. I've seen it done. It's a horrible,
horrible sound. If you really wanted to, you could plane

(32:01):
a little bit of the door off. I think it's
probably worth getting some of the companies that specialize in
elimentum maintenance to come through and maybe adjust the door
a little bit. You can have a go yourself, but
I think if you want to do it well, it's
probably a job for some professionals. Oh eight hundred and
eighty ten eighty is the number to call. Ah. He's

(32:23):
a great text as well, Pete. I'm desperately wanting ideas
for a last minute present for Harvey. He's really hard
to buy for. He's a great di wire and very practical.
Any ideas of tools or whatever that wouldn't that you
wouldn't be without many many thanks and Merry Christmas from Ann.
I'll tell you what, if he hasn't got a good rule,
I'd throw one of those in. That's quite nifty. I

(32:45):
happen to be in a tool shop funnily enough this
week and picked up and I was a little unsure
about buying this because I have been dismissive in my
attitude towards these a little a pencil sharpener for a
carpenter's pencil. So carpenter's pencils typically are sort of rectangular,

(33:07):
they're not round, and all of us who are tradespeople
just use our knives to sharpen them. But there is
now a sharpener for them. So I bought I actually
bought two, and I might give one away as a
bit of a joke gift. It's they're not terribly expensive.
I think it was like four dollars sixty or something
like that. I did use one yesterday. I'm going to

(33:30):
go back to using my knife, to be fair. I can't.
I can't make that shift. That's an option. And then
the other thing I was thinking about the other day
is if I was wandering through a different hardware store,
as it happens, and looking at the vast range of
Ryobi tools that was out there. And one of the
great changes I guess to battery power gear with some

(33:54):
manufacturers is that you can just buy the skin. So
in the past, whenever you bought a new cordless tool,
you ended up with a battery and a charger and
so on, and a certain point you don't need twelve
charges right, A couple are useful, but twelve is a
little bit profligate, whereas now today you can just buy
the skins, so you can extend the range of tools

(34:16):
from that particular brand by just buying the skins. And
so I was cruising along looking thinking, Ah, I didn't
know that you could get a clamp with a fan
on it, and hush, maybe I should update my torch.
Or perhaps having a little bluetooth radio that I can
connect to my Aden Vault Ryobi might be a useful tip.

(34:37):
So there you go. If you figure out sort of
in this case here and if you figure out what
brand of tool, you might be able to find just
a skin for that, and hopefully it's Ryobi, and you'll
find I don't know, you know, there's one hundred things
to choose from, literally one hundred things to choose from.

Speaker 6 (34:56):
There.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
I will keep thinking though about other little stocking stuffers
in terms of tools and useful gear. Gloves are always
good to get good pair of gloves lust for a while.
Oh eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty. I'll keep
my thinking cap on there. John, A very good morning
to you.

Speaker 10 (35:13):
That's good morning people, hey, John. An extension to your
talk about having the photographs available from the building. So
this property I bought here were seven years old when
I bought it. The person was a bachelor that had
built it and he didn't have any family around. But

(35:36):
when I bought this property, I walked down and on
the kitchen table was seventy or so photographs that were
taken right from a bare section up to nearly the
completion of the building. But also all the accounts.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Wow, and the.

Speaker 10 (35:54):
Accounts have been useful and that I can go back
to them and see who's supplied that, and if I
need to, I can go back to the originals supplier
and by a replacement p sort the one in one
protective case. I had to replace the garage.

Speaker 3 (36:12):
Door, right, yeah, And.

Speaker 10 (36:15):
I and the chap that came to do that, it says,
do you know what color it is? And I was
able to go to the accounts and see whose ride
the garage door and so there's the exact color of
the door, yep. And so you can imagine that that
was very helpful.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
And I tell you what, there's also you know, because
obviously this is you know, this is practical and useful, right,
And it's one of those things that it's sort of
become well. People will take the initiative you've done it,
or the previous owners you your property, you've done it,
and it's done it. I try and be a little
bit methodical about projects that I'm doing, where I'll do

(36:52):
exactly the same thing, you know, photograph important stages of
the build and then keep that in a file. And
then when you're talking about keeping the receipts and so on,
there's an online tool. There's a cloud based system called
gt SO. It's GTE dot com and it's New Zealand developed,
and it's a facility where you can upload documents from

(37:16):
your building project and then hand them over. So once
you finish the project, you hand over the password essentially
to this file to a new owner and they will
be able to keep access to that for the next
ten years as part of the subscription service, and for example,
you will be able to record like we did on

(37:37):
a project a little while ago. It's a color steel
roof and as it happened, we had color steel cladding.
One of the important things in the warranty for the
color steel is that if it's on cladding, you wash
it once a year, so once you've entered the information,
so you go into the portal, you go you've got
color steel. It automatically goes out, finds the warranty documents

(37:57):
and the producer and the warranty documents and the guarantees
for it, and uploads that to the portal. Then it
goes ah. One of the things that you have to
do is wash it. Every year. I will send a
reminder to the new owner, have you washed it? Then
the owner can go out do the washing, take a
photograph of themselves doing it or something like that, upload
that to the portal, and keep a maintenance record as well.

(38:21):
So there's there's some very smart thinking in terms of
online tools and cloud based tools for exactly that as well.
Pretty nifty and John, I think the main thing is
that it speaks to an owner that has some consideration, right,
if you've done good record keeping and you're able to

(38:41):
hand over to a new owner, Hey, here's a copy
of Ideally, I think like it's not typical, but I
reckon that if you're selling a property that's reasonably recent,
you should be able to handover copies for example, of
the certificate code compliance.

Speaker 10 (38:59):
The record drive are even of a person's solicitor's accounts.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
Well, wow, look it's great, it's great. It just offers surety,
which I think is awesome. Yeah, much appreciative. John.

Speaker 10 (39:13):
Then one of the things that helped with that, I
suppose was that the person who passed away so right,
so there was no for them.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
To go yeah, yeah and look older stuff. It's harder
to keep the records, but these days, with the phones
and the technology we have, it's so much more convenient.
Thank you very much for that, John, all the very best.
We'll talk to Ravens straight after the break.

Speaker 7 (39:38):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (39:38):
We're going to Raven's. Is going to wait till after
seven o'clock because we're a little bit tight for time.
Thank you to this to Bert. I think who's text
through Pete Regarding the tall skins. My wife was listening
asked what the heck is a skin? So I explained,
and she said, well he should say that on air,
as the woman is asking question may not understand. Yes,
good point. So skins is a way of referring to

(39:59):
being able to buy a cordless or a battery powered
tool without buying the entire kit. So let's say you've
already got a drill and a driver, and it came
with a battery and a charger. And then you want
to buy, for example, a torch, well, if you can
just buy the torch right, doesn't come with a battery,
doesn't come with a charger. And when you do that,

(40:20):
you buy just the tool, not the battery or the charger.
That's a skin.

Speaker 10 (40:25):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
Hopefully that explains it. It's very useful. For a long
time that wasn't possible, but it is. Now we are
back after the break. Your news talk said, be welcome
back to the program. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty is the number to call. At around seven twenty five,
we'll catch up with Jay, our painting expert from Razine.
Got some great texts coming through or ready, so we'll

(40:49):
we'll deal with those at about seven twenty five. Right now, though,
your opportunity to talk all things building and construction, and
I like the discussion that we've just started around record keeping,
which it's one of those things you can do it
ever need it, and then you kind of go, why

(41:09):
did I bother? And then every now and then you
encounter a situation where if someone had have kept records
and I'm talking about you know, like photographs of a
wall prior to lining, or copies of the receipts. Our
conversation with John just beforehand, you know that I think
the one instance a property had available at time of

(41:31):
purchase all of the receipts from all of the contractors
who are involved in the build. That's fantastic. And he
talked about, you know, needing a replacement garage door or
some maintenance on a garage door. Well, there's the copy
of the invoice for the supply and the installation of
the garage door. It's got the installer's detail, it's got

(41:51):
the manufacturer's details on it, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
If there's an issue, and if it's within a warranty period,
then you can go back to them and go, hey,
you need to attend, or even if it's outside of
the warranty period and you're just looking for advice on
that particular one. If you've got the records, it's there.
And like I say, there's now digital and online cloud

(42:11):
based platforms as well which you can use to upload
all of that information as well, so you can't lose it. Oh,
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. If you want to
talk about anything to do with building, the lines are
open for you now. And Rawan, thank you very much
for waiting. How are you well?

Speaker 11 (42:27):
Some thanks pee. Look, I rang a few weeks ago
regarding a leak that I've got coming somewhere from the shower. Yes,
through about a meter of tiles from the shower door
to the carpet where the carpet work joins the living area.
They've had a lot of had plumbers look at it,
builders look at it, and they all reckon that the
water is coming across the top of the tiles. Now

(42:48):
I don't know how they can stay the top of
the tiles. Yeah, coming from across the top of the
tiles that I walk on, and I can't see how
they I'm having a shower there every morning and I
check for water. There is no one. There might be
about a teaspoon worth right outside the shower in the corner,
but there's no way that the water is tracking along

(43:09):
the top of the times. That's coming from underneath. And
I've been putting a handytawel underneath the carpet, underneath the underlay,
which is very thin, and the carpet, and every morning
by about ten thirty ten to fifteen, there's half of
that that handytail is wet, and then by that twelve
fifteen it is soaking wet. And they've put some a

(43:33):
strip of silicon on with the piece of aluminium step
over to get into the shower. They've put some silicon
along there under there on the inside of the shower
part and somewhere up I didn't watch them. We put
it somewhere up going upwards as well. That they obviously
thought that would it solve the problem, but it hasn't.
It's just I'm keeping a diary now and I just wondered,

(43:58):
is there any other place that can be coming from?
I mean, it's got to be coming some in term,
it's got to be coming from underneath the tiles, but
on top of concrete, and it's got to be tracking
trekking along to the carpet to get to get to
making it so silly. Underneath it's been black mold. That
the piece of wooden strip that's got the text on

(44:19):
it that that the carpet.

Speaker 4 (44:20):
Yes, that is like black.

Speaker 11 (44:24):
I guess this black mold.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
And after that it will start to decay, right, that's
what's going to happen.

Speaker 11 (44:32):
It's not gonna.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
I'm not gonna right, so the floors decay. I mean,
I'm a little bit surprised by their advice in the
sense that you know, if you're if you make the claim,
well it's water that is flowing over the top of
the tiles, and you're in there having a shower, and
you you know that there is no water flowing on
top of the tiles, then that that's not the answer,

(44:53):
is it. I think that it's tracking along between the
tile and the waterproofing and then exiting out and and
there's potentially a whole lot of things going on there.
Is it a level entry shower.

Speaker 11 (45:10):
Level entry? They can't put a level on it, And
to me it looked like it was level because I've
got a level too, But it might have they reckon
it could be that three mill out like three mil
on a on a lean, but it's not leaning enough
to make a torrent of water. There's no water on
the top of the tiles anyway to flow down there.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
It won't be on top of the tiles, it'll be
tracking between the tile and the waterproofing through the adhesive.
And then there's issue. You know, there might be. It
often becomes really small things. I suspect there's no water
stop between the shower area and the floor, which there
should be if it's a level entry shower.

Speaker 11 (45:46):
And an entry shower, and it's got I mean it's
a level.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
So when you walk from you on your if you're
walking on your bathroom floor and then you go to
step into the shower, do you step over like what
we call a hob or a little upstand or is
it level?

Speaker 11 (46:02):
It's just a little aluminium about not even maybe a
ninch eie, not even a ninch, just a bit of aluminium.
Then I stepped over. So then the water tie, then
the tiles slope down towards the drain hole.

Speaker 10 (46:14):
Obviously on a very light How old is the job.

Speaker 8 (46:19):
The house?

Speaker 11 (46:20):
Well, it's in a retirement village and it would be
her twenty years old, I guess.

Speaker 3 (46:27):
Okay, so it's outside of warranty. But with respect, if
it's in a retirement village, then you have a license
to occupy, but you don't own it, in which case
it becomes an issue for the property manager.

Speaker 11 (46:42):
That's right, So it does, and he's been here and
they just he gets a builder to come and have
a lock, and they just said me, they come and
check it out while I'm not here, run a whole
lot of water, and then there might be a tiny
bit of water on the floor, and they say, oh,
it's coming across the floor, it's coming across the title. Hey,
when I get out of the showering morning, I check
to see there's any water there.

Speaker 4 (46:59):
There is no water.

Speaker 11 (47:00):
Maybe there might be a little drop, like a teeth thingful,
and that ain't going to run along towards a meter
across the noted look.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
I wonder whether in the end, I think you you know,
the people who are coming to look at it are
being a bit dismissive and they are so on, So
I rather than continue to deal with them, I think
you need to go to management, to the owner of
the complex and just go, look, this is in the end,
you're going to stop occupying the building and it's going

(47:28):
to be somebody else's problem. But the owner of the building,
it's in their best interest to deal with this, and
the people that they're sending are not dealing with it.
So I would go to management and go, hey, you
need to give me a better contractor to look at them.

Speaker 11 (47:42):
The manager's already been to have a look at it herself.
But to rectify the problem they would have to do
at the tiles.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
And they I think so someone has text through and said, look,
potentially there is a leak and a pipe in the slab.
That does happen, it's relatively rare. It could be a
blockage in the wastewater pipe that is causing the water
when it goes through the drain to block and but

(48:10):
you know, it's a long way through the slab, and
if the water appears at the doorway not long after
you've had a shower, then the shortest direction is traveling
between the waterproofing and the tile, and that will involve
the replacement of the tiles. But you know that's quite
a big job, and they probably reluctant to do that
while you're there.

Speaker 11 (48:32):
I'm an old lady and I don't know what I'm talking.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
About, but look, I think you've just got to go
further up the chain in terms of the communication that
you're having all the best your own, you take care
of pleasure, all the best. By then, oh eight hundred
and eighty, ten eighty, it is seven fifteen here at
news Talk, said be Mike good morning.

Speaker 12 (48:52):
Retra foot in a house, it's going to be it's
underneath the floor. It's only three hundred between the ground
and the bottom of the joist. Now, I don't think
it actually specifies a height, but it just talks about
health and safety as normally you can do it. That
would be too tightn't it.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Yeah, I would say so, and especially when you're saying
it's three hundred to the joist, and then typically the
joist will be sitting on a bearer, in which case
the bearers would be well at the very least two
hundred and fifty millimeters. Well maybe a few years ago
I could have got through two hundred and fifty millimeters,
but not anymore so, no, I think because in terms

(49:36):
of the Healthy Homes legislation, it's required to put insulation
in an accessible underfloor space, and I would declare that
that is inaccessible due to health and safety concerns.

Speaker 12 (49:47):
That you know, they don't actually specify a height, do they.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
No, No, there's not actually, and I have read through
it because at one stage I thought there was there
was a detail around not having to have a vapor
barrier if the floor was a certain height above the ground.
But in fact, that's I can't find that in the
legislation either. So yeah, I think in terms of if

(50:11):
you're doing a healthy Home certificate, you would probably say
insulation underfloor no, and then add in a comment there
that says due to health and safety concerns, it's not
accessible and so there won't be a retrofit of insulation,
which is unfortunate. We all know that it's a good thing,
but realistically no, I.

Speaker 12 (50:32):
Mean, even when it's tight, even if you can get
under the you've still got to be able to work.
That's the problem as well.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Yeah, that's right, and ideally you need to be able
to roll over. So typically when we're building from new
the requirement is I think, off the top of my head,
you need four hundred and fifty millimeters from the underside
of the bearer to the ground. Yeah, and you won't
have that, all right, no trouble. It may pay, you know,
just in case, if you are the landlord or if

(51:00):
you're doing the insulation statement, just go through and maybe
attach a copy of the regulations, just so that people
understand that you're not just trying to get out of
the job. Oh you know what I mean, you know,
you know what people are like. All right, mate, all
the best to you, take care, Thanks Mike. Eight hundred
eighty eight is the number to call. And Galvin, good

(51:23):
morning to you.

Speaker 7 (51:25):
Yeah, good morning morning.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
What's up?

Speaker 7 (51:28):
Yeah? Okay, I've got an eighteen year old houses built
eighteen years ago, solid concrete block, solid field of course,
and then the parapets that stick up above the roofline
they have they're on a very generous angle good so
absolutely no water pools. But at the time they decided

(51:52):
to put mutiny old capping around the top, which they
did and it looked fine until the years later the
black stouts are leaps down off the angle. Part that's irrelevant.
I just want to would like to remove it. And
I believe there are quite good razine products around now
that you can actually put on there that are silicon

(52:12):
based or whatever that are quite good waterproofing. But I
think I don't think that's the issue. I'm thinking about
the glues that would be there. How would you remove it?
Can you remove it or can you treat it or whatever?
And could the job be done?

Speaker 11 (52:27):
Do you think?

Speaker 3 (52:29):
Let me just ask a couple of specific questions. So
the block wall extends up and then there is a
fleshing over the top, and have they created that fleshing?
And Bututanyl correct.

Speaker 7 (52:41):
Yeah, at the time, the architect didn't even ask for
the He just says, look, I've got a generous angle
on there as the way overseas and and the next
thing come back and it's the end. I thought it's okay.
It looked great until the black starts leaching. It's aged.
Now it's sounding crack. I thought I could replace.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
It, Yeah, I'd rather Why wouldn't you replace it with
a metal fleshing.

Speaker 7 (53:05):
Because of the look. The appearance would not lend to it.
And it's very very rounded. It lots of round parts
on it. You know, it wouldn't couldn't know it was
the way to go.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
But can I do that?

Speaker 3 (53:19):
I just think that's such a poor detail, you know,
And I'm hesitant to criticize the architect and all the
rest of it, but you know, for something like that,
for a flashing on top of a parapet wall, you
want that to be robust, right. Look, I wouldn't rely
on a paint system for that, and you know, I

(53:40):
trust the paint systems when they're used in the right application,
but using it on a not quite vertical surface, even
if there is let's say there's fifteen or twenty degree
pitch on there so the water doesn't pull on there.
I still don't think that a painted system is the
right application there. I wonder whether if you can get
the buttantnoll off, whether you look at getting a waterproofer

(54:03):
and to do either a torch on membrane, so like
a bitumen based product or a TPO which is a
plasticized product which can be adhered down and is quite flexible.
So it will but it will be a lot more
robust than what you've had there. So I don't think
it's a painting solution. I think it's a proper flashing

(54:26):
type solution.

Speaker 7 (54:28):
Okay, all right, what was the first one you suggested?

Speaker 3 (54:32):
So there's torch on membranes like Viking membranes for example,
and then there's TPOs. So Viking will have a range
of products and they've got their own licensed applicators to
do it as well. So that the beauty of either
the Viking type product which is an asphalt based one,
or the TPOs is that they are you know, you

(54:53):
can be a little bit creative in terms of the
shapes that you create with it. You still don't want
any sharp corners. So if it's pitching, let's say, and
then it drops down, you'd want that rounded off. And
you probably find that if the has been formed over
a reasonably sharp corner, that that that will break up
over time as you would expect.

Speaker 7 (55:13):
It is exactly right here. And yeah, okay, oh no,
that's great. Okay, thanks very much.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Yeah, that's that's where I would head. Yep, thank you, alrighty,
all the best of you, Calvin. You take care. We
can take a short break. Then we're going to get
Jay on the line, and then we're going to talk
about your building or your painting questions. Still got time
for a couple more texts nine to nine two Jay
from Razine and just a moment, righty oh, this morning

(55:39):
we're a bang on time actually, and I know that
we're bang on time because I got this flash new
clock in the studio. It's a great Christmas present. Ten
years I've waited for this to be installed, and here
it is today, the last Sunday before Christmas. I am
so pathetically happy that it's it's remarkable anyway, it is
bang on seven twenty five, which is when we said

(56:00):
we talked to Jay and here is a very good
morning to you Jay house things. Well good mate, yeah,
very well. Actually, can I say, I know you probably
didn't send it to me, but I thank you anyway.
I got a lovely little package from Razine with some
nibbles and bits and pieces in it for Christmas, and
most usefully and probably most excitable for me, a really

(56:20):
nice four leader painting that I can use this summer.

Speaker 4 (56:24):
About it, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
It's an empty painting and it was like, I'll take
all that really nice stuff out, but the painting's going
to be awesome. So thank you to the team at
Razine for that was very nice.

Speaker 7 (56:39):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
Look, typically, and I mean, if I think back to
my childhood, let's say summer, my dad seemed to spend
all of summer painting the house. Right, maybe he did
a side a year or something like that. He built
his own bit of scaffolding and so we used to
drag that out, put the planks up, and we'd be
out there sanding and prepping and painting the summer. And

(57:01):
that's pretty typical for most Kiwi households. I'm also convinced
that at that time, sandpaper must have been like two
hundred dollars a meter, because there was no way that
if I presented him with a piece of sandpaper that
still had one bit of grit on it, it would
be like no, no, no, you can still keep using.

Speaker 4 (57:19):
That sometimes, very similar to man.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
But look, we tend to crack into a bit of
outdoor painting first up. Safety is really important, eh, Yes.

Speaker 4 (57:31):
Safety is always important. A cringe when you said built
your own.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Scaffold, Hey look pretty robust. To be fair, he didn't
build anything shonky. So yeah, it's always have a certificate.

Speaker 4 (57:47):
Safety is always paramount. Everyone wants to come home safe
at the end of the day, especially this time the year.
So like, if you're not feeling confident, I'm just looking
at my roof. Yeah, yes, don't do it. It's always
best to get somebody else in. If you're feeling confident,
you're all good. Just make sure you're taking as many
precautions as possible. Yeah, absolutely, same with scaffold, same with

(58:10):
like ladders as well. Don't reach. Yes, work in a
sensible area and it's yeah, it's a bit of a workout,
but up and down and move along and finish safely.

Speaker 3 (58:22):
Yeah. Yeah, that's right. And the other thing I guess
with painting at this time of year is, you know,
typically during winter we're always looking for a little patch
of sun in order to work. But in summer is
the general rule don't paint in direct sunlight.

Speaker 4 (58:36):
Yeah, don't paint in direct sunlight, kind of follow the
sun around the house. Yes, use hot weather additive if
you're painting. It will help sort of slow the paint
drying time down and just increase the flow of the paint.
Makes a massive difference to the finished especially if you've
got any gloss in the paint. Yeah. And I mean,

(58:59):
like you're saying with your dad doing the painting every year,
and if you've got timber windows, it's it's really good
to keep on top of those splits and cracks or
just sort of sooner you can tidy those up or
help the whole paint system last a whole lot longer.

Speaker 3 (59:20):
I mean, I'm in the same boat like most people. Right,
So we did a lot of painting about seven eight
years ago. It's lasted well, but there's the beginning of
you know, some gaps and cracks and that sort of
thing coming along. And I'm thinking, now, what type of
paint did I use so Again, this comes back to
an earlier conversation about record keeping. Ideally in a diary
or something like that or online, you keep maybe a

(59:42):
photograph of the tin, so that when you go to
paint the window, you go, ah, now did I use
oil based in them? Or did I use a water
born da? Da da da da. You know exactly what
keep the records?

Speaker 4 (59:54):
It's I mean most people nowadays have a smartphone. Ye
just take a picture a lot of the time. You
can then edit that picture and write on it. So
you can do windows, you could do exterior inter Yeah,
you can really break it down or or like say,
have a diary in a book in write everything down.

Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
Yep, absolutely right. Let's up into a couple of takes.
This is great in terms of like prepping the house.
Someone sticks through and they've they've named a particular product
to use. I'll leave that out. But in general, before painting,
we need to wash in print.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
Yep. You know, we always recommend moss and moldle yes,
so you really want to kill any spores and any
moss and mold that's not made. Don't just sort of
paint over it. We then recommend if it's most houses
are paint prepping house wash. If it's a deck, it
would be timber and deck wash, and that the paint

(01:00:52):
prepping housewash is just really good at removing surface contamination,
sort of the old chalky residue from the paint on
the side of the building or on a roof. Remember,
like when you're repainting the new pint sticking to what's
on the surface, and just there's any surface contamination are
you sticking to that? It might not be very well

(01:01:13):
adhered to the building or the surface. So that's why
you really want to clean it and remove everything light sand,
so the new paintin really key in and stick in
last at seven eight, ten plus years.

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
Yeah, just in terms of the moss and mold killer
that you've got, if you've got lichen on the roof
and you spray there the qushion from Chris's how long
after spraying it could you sort of scrape that like
and off if it's really heavy.

Speaker 4 (01:01:44):
I mean, you can make up the directions for mixing
all on the side of the container, but you can
make a pretty strong solution up spray on. I mean
you can spray it on and scrub straight away or
some like them. You might take a couple of treatments
to actually spray on, leave it a couple of days,
give it a scrub, and then spray again. I mean,

(01:02:05):
I've seen some that kind of comes off it fairly
quickly if it's pretty new, And I've seen other roofs
that look like they were made out of liken and
take multiple cleans to kind of remove it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:15):
All right, Okay, thank you very much for that. Now
this is an interesting one only because the advice I
got from Bryce a little while he goes is counter
to what I would intuitively do. So I'm interested in
this good morning. I've got a new timber fence. Do
I paint it or stain it? I want it to
be black, Okay, so hard.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
Difference between paint and stains really personal preference and how
it looks right, And then like painting tends to love
a little bit longer. So that was saying seven years
ten years maximum, I suppose before repainting, whereas staining you're
restaining every couple of years. But you've got the sort

(01:03:02):
of grain look in, the more natural look to it. Yes,
So I'm in the same boat at the moment. I've
got new fencing, and I'm looking at it, going do
I paint it or do I stain it? Because I've
got other bits of fencing that's painted in my house sustained,
So I think the stuff next to the house I'm
going to stain, and the stuff next to the already

(01:03:22):
painted black fence, and then the paint, Yeah, would obviously
paint it jobs more heat, so you'd like me to
get more walping cupping of the boards in potential splits
and cracks. So I would always say, if you're going
darker colors, use the cool color.

Speaker 3 (01:03:38):
Yeah, system, Yeah, okay, brilliant right now, paint Can you
ask the paint guy that's you why the deck paint
has a mottled appearance after we've put two coats of
a light gray paint over a previous coating that was
normal in appearance. They just wanted to refresh it by
applying two coats over the top. But it's gone mottled.

Speaker 4 (01:04:00):
So they were paint in the deck deck was already.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
The deck was already painted, I presume, and so to
frish it up, they've put two new coats of light
gray over the previous coating. So let's assume that it's
paint on paint and the top coat is modeled.

Speaker 13 (01:04:19):
It.

Speaker 4 (01:04:20):
God, there's this number of things. It's one could be
how they prepped it. Two could be depending on when
they finished and the weather. Yes, if they've finished a
bit later in the day and it's been hit by
jew or I had it a couple of years ago
when I stained my deck. Forecasts looked good looking out

(01:04:40):
the window looked good. Stained it, and within an hour
of finishing it rained and I ended up with a
modeled appearance through the stain. So it could be that.
If not and none of those, maybe take some pictures
in poppingcher locals in color shop and see what they
say I mean. It could also be not stirring the paint.

(01:05:04):
If it's been sat for a bit. You might have
some tints that have here that sit differently. That's where
we keep and stir the paint whilst you're using it,
just so your colors stays consistent through it. Yeah, it
could be a couple of things.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
Excellent. Okay, here's a slightly unusual one. Someone is making
some food chopping boards out of remove what's a suitable
oil for that out of your wheelhouse? Isn't that.

Speaker 4 (01:05:34):
Sorry, Yes, I'm not sure what we've got that you
could use for that. Again, maybe I'm not too sure.
Maybe you could jump on the razime website and do
ask an expert or check with the people where you
got the remove. I bought microcarpa before from Cypress Sawmill,

(01:05:57):
and they've got plenty of options in the place like
that that sells them to look.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
Yeah, perfect good thinking. I've just used olive oil sometimes
because yeah, chance that's in your kitchen anyway. Right, painting
are retaining or made of telephone poles, I mean something
like telephone poles. Typically it's a hardwood, right, So trying
to paint onto hardwood would be a bit of a challenge.

Speaker 4 (01:06:25):
I think it's also if what have they been coated in?
Ah anything. I've got some old railway sleepers that I got,
but there it's absolutely soaked in career, so it's there's
not much you can really overcope them with. So I
mean you'd be best to try a test area really

(01:06:47):
on them to see if something's going to work in
it here, but I'd probably go witheing wood primer, followed
by I mean you could try a test spot, which
is usually um lumbersider and just see how it goes
before attempting to do everything right.

Speaker 3 (01:07:02):
Perfect morning, Pete and Jay, I have a new bathroom
with a shower. Can I use the shower before the
bathroom gets painted and then get it painted in the
new year. So let's assume that the bathroom's being rebuilt.
There's exposed plasterboard, yep, and they need to use the shower.

Speaker 4 (01:07:25):
Now, I would at least try and get a coat
of shore seal and all the plaster board. Right, zine
color shops are sort of open apart from the stat day,
so you could just jump into one of those, grab
a small port of shore seal. The Soltnborn Shaw seals
what I'd recommend, although I think you can use the
water borne as well, and at least get the sort

(01:07:49):
of jib board or sealed up field just the subject
dear thing you want to get in moisture in any
issues in the jib before you seal it, because then
you're going to end up sealing any of that in
down the line.

Speaker 3 (01:08:03):
Because the challenge would be, let's say, use the shower
or the bathroom for a period of time and you know,
like you say, moisture will be absorbed into the surface
of the substrate into the plaster board. Then if you
go and coat it and you seal that in, you know,
are you creating a problem for later on? Or just
get a coat of sealer.

Speaker 4 (01:08:22):
On it now, I think that would be the best thing.
It wouldn't take too long, just to coat it all
up in shr cell and then then then you could
use it give it a clean down before painting in
the new year.

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
Yeah. Perfect. Now this is one that be fairly common
to a lot of people. So in this instance it's
linear weatherboard, so a five or cement board that's been coated.
The boards are an extremely good condition. The existing paint
is also in very good condition, no flaking or chalking.
It was last painted fifteen years ago. That's impressive. My
question is do I need to sand the weatherboards or

(01:09:00):
can I just apply two new top coats. I'm using
the same paint in the same color, which happens to
be semi gloss from David.

Speaker 4 (01:09:09):
I would still obviously clean down we talked about earlier.
But if it's semigloss, or if you've got any gloss
when you're repainting, it's always good to give a light
sand just to be gloss. Yes it was water based previously,
it will just be a light sand and then yes,
you can go over with the same paint. If again,
if you're painting this time of years, think about there

(01:09:30):
was in hot weather additive because it'll just help the
flow and help keep that web edge. Especially when you're
painting with any sort of gloss, any stop start marks
become very apparent. So anything that can help, like the
hot weather additive, will go a long way to make
the overall appearance look really good once you finished.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
Yeah, I'll tell you what. Just if you're painting with
the boards on the exterior of a house, and let's
say the house is eight meters long, right, and normally
these windows and but some pieces that intersect it. But
there will always be those boards that run continuously from
one end of the house to the other. So do
you try and keep working on one board from one
side to.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
The other, or do you you know, like we say
when we're staining, like just stick to a couple of
boards at the time, right, and just work along the
whole length. Yeah, Like you say, with windows, you're going
to have bits where you can do multiple boards in
a very short short space. Yep, But you're going to
have boards, so it's going to run that pretty much

(01:10:29):
full full length. Obviously you're going to have joined the
natural stop start points, So I just work to sort
of a place where you can stop and it's not
going to be apparent if you just brush sort of
thirty centimeter sections in front of you and then move on.
All those stop start marks will be really apparent when

(01:10:52):
you finished, and it's going to look not great. So
is the only whole.

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
Length to avoid those stop start marks literally going from
one end of the board to the other, or working.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
Very quickly and using some and like hot weather orlatives
to help keep the wet edge and slow down the
dry time. Yeah, Obviously this time of the year, the
surface is hot and the air temperature is hot, and
to theay it doesn't seem like there's much air movement,
so everything's going to drive pretty quickly.

Speaker 3 (01:11:20):
Yeah. Yeah, No, it's always you know, because typically you're
thinking like often if we're working off mobile scaffold, for example,
we might have two and a half or three meters
of working platform and then we'll move that to the
next area. So in that time, you know, if you've

(01:11:41):
got those boards that run above the window below the windows.
In some cases you're going to come down, you're going
to re establish the scaffold, and you're going to go
back up. So you're going to have that cold joining,
aren't you.

Speaker 4 (01:11:54):
Potentially it's on summerreas it's ideal to have more than
one person working. Sometimes that can't isn't the case, and
you've just got to kind of plan around it and
try and stick to those areas and move as quickly
as you can to stop that MRK being really apparent.

(01:12:18):
Sometimes it kind of is what it is, but kind
of look at the job you're about to do and
plan it, think what you can reach and see if
there's a way around, sort of just stopping in the
middle of the wall and then starting again perfect. Sometimes
there will be brilliant brilliant.

Speaker 3 (01:12:37):
Hey, look, as always, I really appreciate your expertise and
I love to throw out the occasional clearly question that
it's always bettered back so to you and yours are
very merry Christmas again, thanks for your advice and looking
forward to working with you again next year.

Speaker 4 (01:12:54):
Have a great Christmas and you.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
Too, take care all very big and Jay and Bryce
will both be back with us as the expert and
their expert segments in twenty twenty five. Righty oh, we'll
take a short break. We're back to your call. So
if you've got a question of a building nature, eight
hundred and eighty ten eighty is the number to call.
It is seven forty two here at News Talks. He'd

(01:13:17):
be taking your calls on all things building in construction.
Jay from Razine was with us just a moment ago,
and so the opening comment was around, if we are
going to be doing jobs around the house, particularly painting,
which often involves working at heights, safety has got to
be paramount. I bumped into a guy yesterday that I

(01:13:37):
did some business with a few years ago, and a
painter that worked with them. We were chatting and he said, oh,
and then such and such died And I want to
be a little bit cautious around sort of too much detail.
Died at work, died after falling from heights. So you

(01:13:58):
know when we talk about being cautious, and I know
that often there's so much conversation about health and safety
that people can become dismissive of it. But it's incidents
like that where you go, actually you know what a
moment's in attention in this case caused a loss of life.
So you know, when we're saying be careful, there's a

(01:14:21):
reason that I'm saying be careful. Oh eight one hundred
eighty ten eighty is the number to call if you've
got a question about building. We can talk about that.
And I just in the back of my mind and
someone texts through before I mentioned last week about sort
of I mean, what do you buy people have got everything?
Typically you buy them tools, right or if someone's got

(01:14:43):
lots of tools, chances they don't have everything. And if
what's that one thing that they might not have? And
I mentioned the Good Rules, which is a New Zealand
designed folding ruler, and it's particularly good for working in
New Zealand because it's it's set up that it's forty
five mil so on and so forth, in the way
that it's got a divide or on it all sorts

(01:15:03):
of things. It's pretty nifty. And then I was thinking
about we were talking about buying skins. So for years
and years and years if you bought cordless tools, and
the range of cordless products was quite limited years ago.
It's now extensive so you can buy just the skin.
You don't have to buy the battery and the charger.
If you've got enough batteries and you probably only need

(01:15:25):
two or three charges at most, then you don't need
to keep buying charges. So you just buy the skin,
which is the bear tool without the battery and without
the charger, and that makes it certainly more affordable, extending
the range of tools that you've got for the cordless
gear that you've got all your batteries. So I was
thinking about that and wandering along looking at some of

(01:15:47):
the Ryobi gear where they've got little bluetooth speakers or
a fan that you can clamp, or like a little
engraving tool or a blower like I was using yesterday.
So I cleaned up a piece of furniture, saturated it,
which isn't good for furniture typically, but I need it
to wash it down thoroughly, and then rather than just

(01:16:09):
let it dry, I just got the Rhovii blower out
and stood outside for five minutes and just blue all
of the moisture off it to make sure that it
was nice and dry again. Those sorts of things, and
then the other thing that here you go. Here's My
last tip for tools or little things is bit holders. Again,
I've kind of always been a bit dismissive about them

(01:16:30):
and wondered about their usefulness. But if you're fossicking around
in your apron or around the workshop looking for that
you want to swap from a square drive to a
possi drive, to a hex or to an impact driver
bit or something like that, then you just have a
little carabina with a number of holders on them, and
you've got your most popular ones on a carabiner attached

(01:16:52):
to your apron or to your belt buckle or something
like that, and they're all there. So bit hoolders are
another useful little stocking stuffer as well. We will take actually,
just on the food grade. You know, we were talking
about the remove chopping board. A couple of people have
made some really good suggestions. Someone who makes wooden egg

(01:17:12):
rings they use food gray tongue oil, so that's tung oil.
Or they recommend walnut oil. Haven't heard of that walnut oil.
But follow the complete application. Food grade mineral oil, which
is like liquid parafferm, is what you need to seal
chopping boards. Cooking oils can go ranse it. Thank you

(01:17:33):
very much for that. That's good info. We're back after
the break with Gavin. If you'd like to join us,
the lines are open the number eight hundred eighty ten
eighty You and News Talks, it'd be the lines are
open the number to call eight hundred eighty ten eighty
Gaven a very good morning.

Speaker 14 (01:17:48):
Good morning to you, Good morning Christmas into you. I've
just bought a nineteen nineties house in the last year.
It's three stories high, and it's a two story house
on top of a.

Speaker 11 (01:18:07):
What do you call it?

Speaker 14 (01:18:08):
A tandem garage on a sloping hill.

Speaker 3 (01:18:11):
Yes, and there's a there's a wall in.

Speaker 14 (01:18:14):
The middle floor that I was thinking of removing. Yes,
that seems to be not mode bearing, but I was
a bit nervous about removing it because of being the
middle floor, whether bracing comes into play or anything like that,
and I wanted to do the job myself.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
So okay, okay. So there's there's little little explosions and
red flags going off in my head right now. Probably
the best thing about the situation is that if it's
a nineteen nineties build, council will have a record of
the plans, right, so I would I would go to

(01:18:58):
council in the first instance, and.

Speaker 14 (01:19:00):
I've seen those. Okay, it's a it's a wall that
hasn't had any additional racing put on it.

Speaker 4 (01:19:07):
Yep.

Speaker 14 (01:19:09):
That's because it's quite a it's about two three meters long.
There is a really large wall going in the same
direction down the other end of the.

Speaker 6 (01:19:21):
So but.

Speaker 14 (01:19:24):
It's quite an unusual as Actually this wall is basically
dividing the kitchen from the dining room and goes all
the way up to the ceiling. There's not actually a
door in it's just like a gap yep, from floored ceiling.
And I ripped out the carpet when I moved in,
and I can see that all the floor joists are
going in the same direction as this wall. So I'm

(01:19:45):
assuming it's not load bearing, and I'm so.

Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
That the direction of the floor joist is parallel to
the wall. Yeah yeah, yeah, Okay.

Speaker 14 (01:19:54):
So then because there's no additional bracing on it, does
that mean that it is doing some bracing but it
doesn't need any additional or or does it mean I
can just it doesn't It isn't required for embracing, and
therefore I could take it out. So I'm just not
sure about the whole brace look scenario.

Speaker 3 (01:20:12):
I think in this instance here, if it's not on
the plans, if it's not specified, even if it you know,
like the most the the lowest form of bracing, and
I don't mean that in the pejorative sense, the least
amount of bracing in it. So we get from what
we call a GS one, so just a jib standard.
It's got standard jib on one side and it's fixed off.

(01:20:33):
So let's say it's not even a GS one, then
it is likely that it's not load it's not bracing.
But there's two things. One is bracing, the other is
load bearing. Now I'm going to crash into the news.
Can you wait and we'll pack this up straight after
the break because we've got news at eight o'clock rightio,
Welcome back to the show. Pete wolf Camp's my name.

(01:20:54):
This is the resident builder. On Sunday at around eight thirty,
we change gears, jump into the garden with red climb
passed from eight thirty. But right now we're talking building.
Just before the break before the news, Sport and Weather,
we're talking to Gavin about potentially taking a wall out
and to be really really honest, as soon as people
start talking about taking walls out, you know the little

(01:21:14):
explosions that the red flags go off. So Gavin, just quickly,
you've obviously got the plans. It shows that the wall
is not a bracing wall. So if you look at
the bracing plan on a mid nineties set of drawings,
it'll it'll say whether it's a GS or a BLH
or whatever it's going to be. So that's not on there.

(01:21:35):
The joists that the wall sits on run parallel to it,
they're probably have less concerned than the ones that sit
on top of it. So you'd also want to look
at the drawings and go, okay, the floor above, do
the joyst bear on that wall, in which case it
is load bearing because it might be where the Joys's intersect,

(01:21:55):
for example, and that wall is there to provide support.

Speaker 14 (01:22:01):
You should be to the end of it's parallel to
the end of the stair internal staircase which runs up
up the middle. I mean it's flush with the end
of the staircase which runs up the middle of the
house and seems to be the main the staircase seems
to me the main central structural support for the entire house.

Speaker 3 (01:22:23):
And that's the wall that you're thinking about taking out.

Speaker 14 (01:22:26):
It's it's it's at a right angle to the staircase.
There's a gap between the staircase and the.

Speaker 3 (01:22:33):
Wall that's hard to I think the most simple response
to this is, I think you need to go and
go find a designer, an architectural designer, architect who could
assess the plans and tell you whether it's critical and
how to safely deal with it the other and then
I would get some documentation from someone who says, yep,

(01:22:56):
I've assessed the plans and I have determined that it's
it's not either load bearing or provides bracing, and therefore
you could remove it. Because let's say when you go
to sell the house, someone looks at the floor plan
that's on file, sees that a wall has been removed,
and that will then ring alarm bell.

Speaker 14 (01:23:14):
So that's the two things. One house, integrity to cover myself.

Speaker 3 (01:23:19):
Legally absolutely, and and you know, getting an LBP to
do the work probably wouldn't be a bad thing either,
or at least to supervise it just in case. You know,
do you know whether there are services, for example, that
run through that wall, So if there's PowerPoint there might
be water mains or you.

Speaker 14 (01:23:38):
Know, there's a fridge and a pantry up against it
at the moment the power but there's definitely no.

Speaker 3 (01:23:45):
No water is on the other side. Okay, But either way,
I think you know, take it to someone who suitably qualified,
so either an engineer, architect architectural designer. Have them determined
whether or not that wall is offering up bracing or
load bearing, and then if it's not, then yeah, go ahead,
but do the homework first, and do they do like a.

Speaker 14 (01:24:06):
A report to counts. Then I lodged that with the
council or the or or don't need to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:12):
I just know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:14):
If like you can undertake building work that doesn't need
a consent under schedule one of the building acts. But
again I think you would want some evidence to say
that you get, yeah, you want something in writing, which
isn't a problem, and then it just you attach that
to your own documentation from the house and should someone
ask later on, I don't know that you necessarily have

(01:24:37):
to go to the extent of submitting because the consent's
being signed off, right, So if there's not like.

Speaker 14 (01:24:43):
An official form or any you know, when you get
I've used the engineer to get a code yep, code
done for something, and he filled out some sort of
form and attached it to my consent to that job.
But obviously that this is not consent job.

Speaker 3 (01:25:02):
So no, if it's not a consent job, I mean they.

Speaker 14 (01:25:08):
Would know what happens. They must do the stuff all
the tropes.

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
Yeah, actually get the professional advice. Go from there. Good
luck with it, enjoy, take care all the best mate.
By by then, oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty
is number to call. It's eleven minutes after eight. We're
talking building through to eight point thirty. We have been talking.
Two things we've been talking about. One is sort of
like if you've made a chopping board, do you oil

(01:25:31):
it or put some preserved. Someone's going, hey, look, surely
sealing a remove chopping board. This is someone who's making
their own chopping board, which coincidentally happens to be one
of my little projects at the moment as well. Having
surely sealing a remove chopping board defeats the whole point
of having a wooden board. Keep it natural, they work
better and they'll stay clean. Yeah, there are inherent antibacterial

(01:25:56):
elements to timber, and so There's been a long running
argument as to whether or not you know, the plastic
chopping boards that probably most of us have, are they
more sanitary, Are they from a food safety point of
view better? Or timber chopping boards better? And then if
you've got a timber chopping board and then you then

(01:26:16):
treat it, does that introduce bacteria? Does it hold bacteria?
So I'll be actually flip me a text if you've
got a particular opinion on that. So keeping it natural
they will work better and stay clean. Other people have
suggested particular types of mineral oil, and then also some
tongue oil or some walnut oil, or perhaps you do

(01:26:37):
nothing at all. What's the name of that magic ruler
for someone who is everything? There's nothing magic about it.
It's just good technology, good design, good rule. So if
you just look up good rule, what I like is
it's a keywi idea. There's someone who sat down thought
about what a folding ruler needs to do in New
Zealand and made one, which is awesome. So good rule

(01:26:59):
is the one that I've been talking about. I've also
been talking about bittholders. This is stocking stuff as right,
and especially if you've got Ryobi gear. You can buy skins.
You can just buy a tool without having to buy
a battery or and a charger. That's a good little
stocking stuffer as well, if you're onto the Rhiobi gear.
Like I've got a fan that I hang up, and

(01:27:21):
it's a cordless one, just a little rotating fan that
I hang up in the workshop. And when I'm in
there yesterday and it's reasonably warm and i've blocked up
or well, I didn't have any windows anyway, I would
have blocked them up so I can get more shelving.
And regardless, it gets a bit stuffy in there. So
I just have a little fan that hangs on the
ceiling and while I'm working, it's just taken away in
the background. Great, Oh eight hundred and eighty ten, A

(01:27:43):
will take a break. We'll talk to Sherry in just
a moment. Oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty is the
number to call, just quickly on the chopping board. Thing
is interesting miner oil. Never use any vegetable oil because
it can become rancid, or it will become rancid and
then someone else's taxed through. Butcher's blocks, massive wooden blocks
in their shops. When the shops such as they are

(01:28:05):
exuit that nobody died, they shaved them regularly. Maybe that's
the key to it, is give them a good scrape
from time to time. Apparently there are bees wax safe,
food safe finishes that you can use. I haven't even
started making the chopping board, but it's an idea that
wandered into my mind the other day. And I've got

(01:28:26):
some timber that I'd like to use up and I'm like, hmm,
never made a chopping build before. Might have a crack
at that. Oh, eight hundred eighty eighty is the number
to call. Sherry A very good morning to you. How
are you this morning?

Speaker 4 (01:28:41):
Good?

Speaker 14 (01:28:41):
Good?

Speaker 11 (01:28:41):
Thank you good. The question I have it's a bit
of a strange question, maybe for a builder, but it's
regarding fixing. This is a brand new build and the
plumber has fixed both toilets and either bathrooms. Rather than
putting a screw through the two holes in the base
of the toilet bowls, he's just filled those up nicely

(01:29:02):
with silicone. And I said, he's siliconed around the the
base of the bowl, quite quite a wide margin of
silicone to hold the bowl there. But he hasn't put
any screws and is that normal?

Speaker 3 (01:29:15):
Before I answer that, I suspect that up and down
the country, if there are plumbers listing, they'll be standing
by going don't ask a bloody chippy about plumbing questions.
I guess the screw holes are there for a reason,
right to secure them the pan to the ground, saying
that pans typically don't move around a lot. So you know,

(01:29:41):
a decent bead of sealant well applied and the right
type of sealant will probably keep the bowl in place.
And yes, the advantage of that is that you know,
because especially if it's on a tiled floor, for example,
there is always a small risk that you could crack
a toll while you're drilling through it or screwing into it.

(01:30:04):
Maybe concerns around the water proofing, you know, because if
it's and then it's waterproofed underneath, and then you go
and put a screw through into the floor. And is
the floor a concrete floor, a timber.

Speaker 11 (01:30:16):
Floor, it's a concrete floor, is a concrete floor. But
what I wondered was if the plumber had done that
to avoid maybe piercing the underfloor. Heating pipes are.

Speaker 3 (01:30:30):
Okay, so you've got actually hydronic systems, so you've got
water pipes, the electric pipes electric. Ideally, I wouldn't have.

Speaker 11 (01:30:45):
Imagined I put the pipe that put the pipes near
the toilet. They would have sort of avoid that.

Speaker 3 (01:30:51):
So typically when you're doing an under tile so above
floor under tile electric heating system, you tend to, you know,
before the people come to do it, you mark out
where things like basins and baths and toilets go, mark
those on the floor, and then they tend to stay
away from them. Ideally, you actually want to be reasonably

(01:31:13):
close to where your feet are when you're on the toilet,
because you want those to be warmed. That's the whole
point of having undertill heating. Yes, and be like me
twenty years ago where I thought I'll save myself a
bit of money and not do the half a meter
just inside the door. Right, that's by the by, But
that's a decision that I regret every winter. Right, And look,

(01:31:36):
I'm happy for plumbers to criticize me, but I suspect
in this instance it's probably not going to have any
negative impact.

Speaker 11 (01:31:45):
Right, So oh okay, just as long as I'm going
to start moving around or something and shifting around with
a silicone the only silicone holding.

Speaker 3 (01:31:51):
It all right now, texts have already come in. Most
toilets aren't screwed to the floor. Pete Yes, silicon is
normal and the best method for securing toilet pans also
avoids a lot of problems. So I think it's probably okay.

Speaker 11 (01:32:05):
Fantastic, very much pleasure, all this with a new house.

Speaker 3 (01:32:10):
Take care. Fantastic. So there you go, morning peak. Where
do you purchase a good rule? Good question? To be fair,
not all stores have them. See now I've got I've
snookered myself, haven't I I could suggest, I know, didn't

(01:32:33):
put timbers not open today, they will be open tomorrow.
And to be fair, it's a long drive just to
come pick up a good rule. Search for them online,
order them online. Probably won't get them by Christmas. Flip
me a text if you know where they are. I
have a feeling that they might be in placemakers, they

(01:32:55):
might be in the itms, they might be at Carter's.
See now I've snookered myself. Oh eight hundred eighty eight.
We actually, I'll tell you what we're going to do.
We're gonna We're gonna get rude on just a fraction earlier,
and I'm going to indulge myself by playing my favorite

(01:33:15):
all time Christmas song. Here you go.

Speaker 6 (01:33:36):
Mhm, m hm.

Speaker 13 (01:34:01):
The Lowser come out. In the First World War, bloody
red Barren spying once more, the Allied command ignored all
of his men and calling on Snoopy.

Speaker 10 (01:34:14):
To do it again.

Speaker 13 (01:34:15):
Was the technical Christmas reported below. The Snoopy went up
in search of his bow spy the red barn. Seriously
they bought with ice on his wings, swooping who he was?

Speaker 6 (01:34:30):
God?

Speaker 4 (01:34:33):
Transmas?

Speaker 6 (01:34:34):
Well? Was Christmas? Bang up?

Speaker 8 (01:34:38):
Bobo?

Speaker 6 (01:34:41):
Ask him be so?

Speaker 13 (01:34:44):
And the build that the barnhead Snoopy did in his sights.
He explore the trigger to pull it up tight. Why
he didn't shoot, well, we'll never know.

Speaker 6 (01:35:01):
Or was it the.

Speaker 13 (01:35:02):
Bells from the village below christmasspell?

Speaker 2 (01:35:10):
Those christmaspells ringing through the land, raining peace through the
wall of the world.

Speaker 6 (01:35:20):
And the to.

Speaker 13 (01:35:25):
The baron made Snoopy flight of the riot and forced
him to land behind the enemy lives. Snoopy was certain
that this was the end when the baron cried out,
Merry Christmas, my friend. The baron then offered a holiday toast,

(01:35:51):
and Snoopy our hero saluted his.

Speaker 3 (01:35:54):
House, and then when the roar, they.

Speaker 13 (01:35:56):
Were both on their way, which no one made meet
on some other days, Christmasbell expands.

Speaker 3 (01:36:37):
Variety.

Speaker 13 (01:36:37):
Oh the ego.

Speaker 3 (01:36:38):
It's my favorite, and it brings back very very evocative
and pretty much happy memories of as a kid growing
up in the seventies, and it was you know, you'd
lift the lid on the three and one pie record
player and radio beautiful mahogany finish and all that sort
of thing, and put on the forty five and listen

(01:36:58):
to that at Christmas time. So there are more religious
songs that I might enjoy as well, but I like
that one. It gives me a nice smile of a
very very happy time. Eight hundred and eighty ten eighty.
Let's jump into the garden A redcline past is with us,
will be with him in just a moment.

Speaker 1 (01:37:19):
For more from The Resident Builder with Peter Wolfcamp, listen
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