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Hi all,

I'm out of the country and I've leased my house, but now the bath is leaking and causing water damage on the storey below and I'm not sure exactly what the cause is. Can someone recommend...

Hi,

I've done my kitchen floor in slate. Are you doing random (crazy) or rectangular paving? I bought a $90 electric wet tile saw from Bunnies and got heaps of use out of it before I finally...

I'm nearly finished building a fence of my own - here are some photos

http://www.castle-walls.blogspot.com/

1. I'm not sure why, but the fences in my neighbourhood tend to have the fence...

I bought a converted Bosch LPG water heater (converted from LPG) from a second had gas appliance shop in Moorabin recently. They owner told me the conversion process costs about $250 for a Bosch.
...

Hi all,

I'm building a boundary fence between my and my neighbours yard which is a bit different to any I have seen, because I've avoided using rails.

You can take a look at the photos here....

Trouble is, because DIY wiring is illegal in this country, if you ask this kind of question, you will get more abuse that advise.

It's too hard to explain how to wire lights without a diagram. ...

I've not heard of a 480V machine before - I'm not sure how you would obtain that voltage in practice.

You are correct in that you need at least 2 phases available to get 415V. If you are...

Not really, pipes shaking is the symptom, not the cause. Water hammer occurs when water is travelling at high speed & suddenly stops (cause somebody turned a tap off) - then you get a pressure surge...

I replaced the galvanised plumbing under my house with polyethelyne. No tools required to join poly, you can tighten the joints by hand. you can get threaded adaptors to join to brass fittings. ...

Bunnings have got a couple of products that you can use. Polyethelyne pipe goes together a lot easier than copper and is cheaper.

A light is a light - the wiring termination is the same regardless of whether it's fluro or incandescent. A sparkie could sort this out in a minute and save you a lot of time - but if you are...

Yeah, you would think so, but I think I've seen fences around like this - pitty there isn't one near me that I can take a close look at. I want to use 1500mm pailings with plinth boards at the...

My neighbour and I want to build a boundry fence about 6' high and I'm interested in the type of construction which has a capping rail along the top of the pailings, support at the bottom and no...

I think solar boosted gas is good for people who live in remote areas (and use bottled LPG) or people who want to help the environment.
The additional installation cost (about $3k) with a savings of...

Thanks for the info. It's hard to find good info on small cnc machines - a lot of sites want to sell you plans so don't want to give much away.

Neat little machine Rod.

Could you, or someone who knows about these machines take a look at this link and tell me if you think it's a good buy? I'm considering bidding on it, or...

You're only talking about 3 square metres of wall here.

If it were my wall, I would frame out the space with 30x70 on top & bottom & both sides then fill in some studs at 450mm spacing. You can...

I think the answer to your question is yes - in practice you would need to be an REC.

The electrical safety act in Victoria has some extreme wording.

The electrical worker needs to issue a...

Very interesting machine. I'm considering building one myself. Just trying to think of enough useful projects to justify the investment.

What do you make with your machines?

I don't think that's correct because MCB's work on thermal trip similar to a fuse. I know they trip lightning fast when you get earth leakage, but the overcurrent protection seems to be a slow...

It would depend on what kind of slab, how much excavation, crushed rock bed, reo, grade of concrete, how deep the concrete, how much trowelling & finishing was involved etc.

Depending on what...

You're saying that you trusted a contractor to give you a good price without an upfront quote even though you are not assertive enough to ask for a reduction.

You paid $400 dollars to learn that...

The only advantage of wool is the softness and look. Having used wool carpet myself, I would avoid it (especially if you have kids & pets & not much time to look after it). It looks nice, but being...

Avoid horizontal chases because they significantly weaken the wall, vertical chases don't. Also I wouldn't bother with conduit. You'll just need a wider chase. That white double insulated pvc...

FWIW, I've used FCG windows in Thomastown, VIC and their stuff was quite ok and the price was the cheapest I could find. I didn't use any "heavy" frames though - but you probably only want fancy...

Fair comment. When I was working in factory maintenance years ago, all the sparkies used them. I've heard there are better devices on the market now and workplace safety is getting better all the...

That's a pretty dramatic effect! I don't know where you get those things, but if you were tripping on acid you wouldn't need them.

There is an australian standard that the professional property inspectors use. You might want to get a copy if you are looking at a lot of houses.

AS 4349.1-1995 : Inspection of buildings -...

Sounds like LED lights. I saw some last time I was at Bunnings. Using a combination of red, green and blue led's you can make any colour light you want.

For an $80 tile cutter, you don't expect to get a good quality cutting disc. I changed the cutting disc on mine - had to go to a specialist shop to get one and it cost about $50 for a new disc.

Isn't it amazing what you can learn talking to tradies.

When I bought a house and found the water pressure was low, it turned out that the last owners had tried to turn the water off at the mains before they left.

It's your home and your safety - so if you want to do it yourself who's to say you shouldn't. All the gear you need to do the job is available from Bunnings so I expect a lot of people are doing...

Hi all,

I want to replace the galvanised fence between by house and my neighbours with a picket fence and was wondering how this type of fence is aligned. Do the centres of the posts go on the...

Another thing - how come the old transformers are damaged? Are the overloaded or is there an existing wiring fault which needs to be corrected?

I recon that if you are going to do wiring you should take the time to learn what you are doing. You can see almost anything that can hurt you, but the nature of electricity is that you can't see it...

This discussion about load bearing elements may be getting a little bit ahead of itself. Does the back of the cupboard even go up to the ceiling?

I've got one the same as yours. It makes a buzzing sound sometimes (then again some other times you can hardly hear it), but it hasn't bothered me enough to tweek my curiosity to investigate what...

Very philosophical stemail. I would say that the best way to tell for sure what methods of support work well is to go into a laboratory with a test rig to simulated kitchen benches and test them by...

I'm not saying that's what should be done, only that's what I did. My installation probably has some overkill.

Anyway for $2000 worth of bench tops it seemed like a good idea to support it well.

Hi all,

I'm restoring some blackwood kitchen cabinet doors for my new kitchen and I don't have enough. Can anyone suggest a cabinet maker/ supplier to make about 6 more?

I had granite benchtops installed recently, having built the carcasses myself first. The granite seems quite strong, but supporting it is an in-exact science.

The supplier persuaded me to...

Actually, after checking the Building Code, I can't find any distance of travel requirements, exit signage requirements etc for private, single dwelling houses.

Perhaps sombody could correct me...

I haven't consulted the Building code lately on this, but I think it all has to do with distances of travel to an exit. If you don't excede the maximum distance of travel, you can remove an exit.

I would have thought a steel edge was the way to go for any exterior angle. Won't chip if somebody knocks it and gives you a sharp edge to work to.

I was under the impression that engineered stone was usually more expensive than a cheaper granite.

I went with plain black natural granite for my benchtops which turned out well.

My bathroom is about that size and it's got a bath and toilet. I'll post some photo's if you like.

I've used some space saving ideas - shallow vanity cabinet with semi-recessed sink, replaced...

Surprised that nobody has pointed out it would work out cheaper to lower the window that to get a taller wife.

I've known people to put single width doors in single brick walls without a steel lintle - just the timber frame. I'm not sure what the building code requires, but it seems to work ok for openings...

Umm people have been known to kill themselves with DIY structural modifications. I definatley recomend you get a builder, or a bricklayer to do the structural mods.

When you talk to contractors...