Renovation Work

great. can't wait

The windows on the south and west side of the house are rotten and need to be replaced. The glass is actually falling out of one of the double hung sahsh windows





New windows arrived yesterday and the chippy has installed them today.

What's your annual precipitation there, DP? I realize that it's an old house but what causes that kind of rot? Do insects contribute to any of it. The new windows look like they are wood too. You'd think that PVC windows would be big there.

Its possible that those old windows are 80 (or more) years old so I'm pretty happy that they have done their job.

Yes insects are a problem. we have had an ant problem here for some time. Whilst the ants didnt really start the rot they moved in and made the problem worse. They like slightly damp conditions and the sub floor ventilation has been less than satisfactory for many years.
They are the tiny black sugar ants not a problem from a biting point of view just nusiance value.
the new windows are wood. meranti I think, I like wood. Its afforable and siuts the style of the house. the other affordable option for me, aluminium. would not have suited the house at all.

rainfall is 750 mm per year

New windows are installed.

The architrave needs to be fitted yet but i wont do that till I have painted the windows.






The archatrave needs to be fitted yet but i wont do that till I have painted the windows and i need to seal the joints in the plasterboard.
Cost of new windows to be made and fitted $4500

The plasterboard lining is on the toilet walls but i still need to seal the joints in the plasterboard.



Not a bad effort for a days work. Never underestimate an old bloke.

What's an architrave?

I just learned a new trick for taping and filling drywall seams. I'll track down the online video for you. Saves a guy, or even a taping girl, a ton of time.

Considering the house is 80 years old, is that stuff that you replaced gypsum board/drywall or is it actually plaster? If it's plaster, what did you replace it with?

In Australia, are the long sides of a drywall sheet beveled to give a recess for tape and mud when they are put together?

I can't locate the specific video but I'll tell you the gist of it.

After you apply the tape [I'm assuming that taping is the same in Aus] and embed it with that first coat, subsequent coats are applied with a paint roller. That's right, a paint roller.

The mud, in the bucket, is mixed to a REALLY thick paint like consistency. The roller is dipped right into the bucket so that it's quite loaded, manageably loaded and then it is painted on the seam. After you have a nice even coat, you use a wide drywall knife to remove the excess and pull it down smooth.

There should be little to no sanding, I hate sanding drywall, for obvious reasons, perhaps a wet sponge to clean up the seam.

Here's a link to a lot of how to videos for drywall. There are also loads of other videos on a lot of other house topics.

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/How-To/Interior-Wall-Finish/65806.aspx?channel=3&sort=2

Maybe you can find the video describing the above, DP.

Here's some great stuff, unbelievable stuff for fixing rotten woodwork that you don't want to remove and replace or it would be expensive or troublesome to remove and replace.

I don't know if this particular company is in Australia but if it ain't, I'll bet that there's one making a similar product. It's fairly pricey, but not so bad for the larger size containers. And for some situations where tear out and replacement would be a big hassle, it's cheap.


http://www.abatron.com/cms/

Interesting video.
I've not done plasterboard before so I'm kinda making it up as I go along. yes we use tape at the joins.
The lining that I replaced was cement sheet. no idea what it might be called In US. The old stuff might have asbestos in it so I have to be a little carefull removing it.
the plasterboard has a beveled edge however in this case that makes no difference as I had to cut the sheets down.

I wont join the plasterboard for a few days as I need to get the windows painted before they get wet, then get the arcitrave around them.
Arcitrave is the finishing piece that surrounds a window or door and covers up the joint between the plasterboard and the wood frame. same as skirting board where the wall joins the floor.

Just stopped for a coffee. I'm masking out the window glass for painting. then painting. I hate doing the prep work.

Wheres boomerang when you need her. She loves painting.

The house is a mess/disaster zone, dust and shite everywhere.

great stuff jtt and dadpad

Is 'arcitrave' the overall name for any molding used for those purposes? Does it denote a particular molding profile?

Those are call window/door moldings and the skirting board would be baseboard in NA.

Pics of various wood moldings

http://www.google.ca/search?q=molding+profiles&hl=en&sa=G&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&ei=M0GdTafrPOPi0gGxncThAg&ved=0CDkQsAQ&biw=1280&bih=685

Is your window glass double pane to save, I guess it would mostly be on air conditioning costs? Does the glass get any fancy chemical treatments to decrease solar heat gain?

Noun 1. architravearchitrave - the molding around a door or window
moulding, molding - a decorative strip used for ornamentation or finishing.
I apply the name to plain as well as decorative ceiling and vertical wall joint cover strips. Dont know if thats what the tradies say but they know what I mean when i say it.
Some of the wall corners have plain 1/4 round quad.
I'll post some picks when i get to that.


Double glazing has been fairly uncommon In Australia until the last 5 = 10 years. Its beginning to seep into peoples conciousness now.
The chippy tells me the factory would not make double glazed for the double hung sash windows.
When asked why they said "cause we dont make double glazed sash windows."
Cant really argue with that. I could have gone elsewhere but time was getting away from me. I needed to get the windows made and installed pronto.

For me its more about saving on heating costs. We only run the A/C for a couple of days each year.
The large west facing cantiliver is double glazed. That window cops a lot of summer sun so hopefullly that will help keep the heat out.

All the masking up us done. I have to remove/dismantle the cant' windows to paint tomorrow.

In addition the double sash windows will need to be extracted from the jamb. THis is causing me some concern as I will have to lever off the guide rails ??? beads (not sure what they are called). the sahes are spring loaded. tension is increased by removing a screw and twisting the spring assembly. I'm not sure how thats all gonna go. I have a cunning plan but we shall see. I'd do some photos but there isnt much to see except a black poly tube that contains the spring.
Cunning plan involves unscrewing the springs from the timber frame and re-screwin them to a piece of two by four whilst not letting go of the twist tension so they unwind. Then removing the bead, extract the windows, paint and reverse the operation. I spent a while researching on the net but could only come up with descriptions of weighted sashes.
Instructions for tensioning the spring involves removing said screw so I cant see why it wont work.
Hopefully I can get two coats of paint on in one day. If not.... well the weather is still ok.

That water level idea has been used for many years. When my mum (an avid renovation ideas person) had our old house restumped about 30 years ago, we thought the workers had got rocks in their heads until it was explained. It is still an acurate method used.

I finished the internal archatraves on two windows today. I'm reasonably happy.

The joints at the top of both windows are ordinary but given that I am NOT ALLOWED TO BUY A DROP SAW (grrr) I'm ok with what i've achieved.

A little polyfilla and some paint will go a long way to making this look professional and besides those joints will be behind the drapes.

What's a drop saw? Is that what we call a miter saw?

Looking at your first picture on the renovation of your floor, we had metal enforcements installed on our floor many, many, years ago - which I've forgotten about until I saw your picture.

I'm sure that adds "value" to our house, but I'm not sure how much. We also had a drainage system installed around the house in 2008 that drains water out to the street when it rains, and it has kept our house settling pretty stable between the rainy and non-rain seasons.

Something you might want to consider for you house.

Drool!

Yes, a drop saw is a mitre saw

Yes its something to be considered A future project.
At the edge of each individual houseblock is a subsurface drainage line that runs to the dtreet. I feel the neighbours to the south may need to upgrade theirs. The biggest problem is just age. nothing lasts forever.
Contributing to the problem is an Ash tree of my neighbours. Roots have lifted the concrete paving at the rear of my house and contribute to unstable soil moisture under my house.
Trouble is it provides wonderfull shade for us both. I like it too much too ask them to remove it.

We have a huge tree in front of our house, but it belongs to the city, and they maintain it along with the sewer line problem it creates by the root system. They're pretty good at responding when we call about plumbing problems, so that's not been an issue living here.