Fixing the landing

Dear readers, we are writing these posts, because we want to write some D.I.Y. Brickwork, building retaining walls and mix your own cement, so that you can learn how to built something yourself, at least in theory. But in these blogs we are also trying to get you interested to become a tradesman. So, keep reading please. Anyhow, this blog we are going to talk about house repairs, since we have talked about the rest. 

You can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

Anyhow, you can also see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  

 and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  To see more, Fixing the landing 

Fixing those external timber landings 

This is the building where we are going to fix those landings. It is a brick-veneer building, this means that the building is a timber building, but the outside walls are covered in bricks. They work okay, but have their own problems.  

Fixing those timber landings

Welcome to our article, Fixing the landing 

Dear readers, in Australia and mainly in Queensland, timber buildings that consist of one story high have stairs and landings outside. They are built like that to save money, anyhow in this article we are going to talk about how to maintain and fix those outside patios or landings. 

The reason that in Australia we have stairs and patios or landings outside the main building, is to save space under the roof of the building itself; we do that, because it is cheaper and also easier to build, the Australian climate is hot and in most places dry, so, people like to live in the open, therefore stairs and the landings are outside. 

Now, because they are outside, they need more maintenance. Here we need to add that even though in Australia the climate is hot, and in most places dry, it is not so everywhere, so, those buildings that happen to be near the seaside tend to receive too much rain, so, they need more maintenance that those building that are in a dry place. 

This type of work must be done often, and it is better if we do them as soon as it is obvious that they need to be done, whether they require fixing or painting or both. Because when we don’t paint often enough, some flooring boards may start to rot away to the point where you need to replace them, sometimes this can be a few pieces of flooring boards, at other times most of them; anyhow today I have to fix this long landing, in this block of flats, which can be said is an open long balcony, depending on the way that you see it. 

With this landing, I have been able to repaint it without having to do any repairs on it, looks like that it can last several years before this decking needs to be repaired or replaced. 

This timber landing has been fixed and painted and now it looks better than before, I believe that it will last a long time, since the flooring timber I used is hardwood and of good quality.  

Today fixing this landing problem.

Anyhow, today I have this other problem to solve; the edge of this long landing that was fixed about fifteen years ago with hardwood timber, it was supposed to last a long time, but it is again rotten away, so, I need to fix it. I believe that the timber that I bought was not properly treated and low grade. I believe that today because there is a shortage of mature trees, the timber mills use any timber and some of this timber does not last long as it used to last in the past.

Now if you look at the photo below here you will understand, that this is not going to be an easy job to do, because there is this long steel handrail on top of it and cannot be removed easily, as it would cost a lot to remove it and then replace it again; so, I have to try to remove the rotten timber from underneath a short section at a time, while at the same time I prop up that section of handrail. As I have said this landing was renewed about fifteen years ago, and at the edge we used a larger piece of hardwood timber instead of the simple flooring boards, because we needed good grounds to attach the handrail to it, anyhow, it has worked out all right for fifteen years, but now it needs replacing.

Today because the grounds have rotten a bit more, I have decided to use a larger piece of timber, so that it can bridge better the outside edge of the landing to the timber joists, the timber joists come from the building itself and in this case work as a cantilever, like a very long balcony in a concrete building. Now because the hardwood has rotten in a very short time, I am going to replace them with treated pine slipper, because they are cheaper, lighter and easier to nail, I know it is a new approach and most builders may not approve what I am going to do, but I am going to try, I believe that the sleepers will last at least as long as the hardwood did. Anyhow, we will see how it works out soon; and then we will see if they are going to last in a few years.

This is the landing that needs fixing, what you see here, is a section of landing seen from the side. Note the bare patch of timber where the paint has fallen off because the timber is rotten.   

Replacing the timber edge

I have started to work to replace the old hardwood landing edge, with these new pine slippers, it is going to be harder than I thought it would be; to remove the old edge is very hard because there is the hand rail in the way, but in any other way is going to be more costly, I know it is going to be a real struggle for me but I am stuck with it. You see, we don’t want to spend a lot of money on these landings of this old block of flats, because the building itself is becoming old and in fifteen to twenty years is going to be demolished and a brand-new building will be build. We are saying this because this is how these timber building usually last in Brisbane Australia, old timber building reach a stage when it becomes necessary to replace the existing building with a new one; very likely the new building will be a concrete building, nobody really knows, what it would be the right thing to build, in fifteen to twenty years’ time, because the local by laws may change and also the way we build changes.

Anyhow, the other day I have pulled up some of the old edging and I have set the first sleeper in place, but I still have to replace about another three of them, and also remove and replace any other timber that needs replacing and then paint at least what I have replaced; but really I am going to paint the entire landing and also the steel hand rail that is rusting, it is going to be a long job, since I am doing it a bit each time, when I have some times to spare. Anyhow, I believe that it is going to turn out all right, as you can see from the photo below in this article. 

Now this is how the landing looks like after fixing it and painted the new timber edge, what remains to be done is to paint the rest of the deck and the handrail. 

----------------------

Other building things 

Dear readers, I believe that I have written several D.I.Y buildings articles, so, let us go back to see what we have done. In our last articles, D.I.W. house repairs,  we have talked about stairs repairs, and other things that we are going to review here, since there are many other things that can be done on these old timber buildings. We have also written about, House renovating, where an entire house was renovated; and fixing an old timber landing, of course, there other things that need to be done on a timber building, these things can be done, if the owners feel like doing it, anyhow try to do some D.I.Y, you will be proud you did, you see, I did and every time I see what I have done, I am proud about it.

Anyhow, here I want to add another thing that can be done in these timber houses. For instance here in Queensland most houses have a roof over their patio (veranda) most houses have large verandas, (since these are spaces that have a roof on them but they are open and have a hand rail around for safety reasons, if the building if off the ground) so, if an owner feels like that he is short of space in the house, and he needs a small room for the kids or a study, he can enclose some of the veranda space and have an additional room at this house, because there is no structural alterations and the roof is already there, this can be a D.I.Y. job, as long as you know enough how to do it. Anyhow, this is just an example how easy it is to do some repairs or small alterations to these timber houses.

I believe that I have said enough in this article. 

I also believe that I have written enough D.I.Y. articles in this blog. So, in my next blog, i will start talking about some problems that are happening in Australia.  

See you soon.

--------------------------------------     

Farming today compared to the old ways, part one NOW EDITING

Dear readers, in this blog, we have written several posts about D.I.Y. articles that dealt with building works. Having done that, we started with this post, Farming today is still a risky business. Now in this blog, we are going to write part of an old article called, Farming today compared to the old ways; we are doing this to give farming the importance they deserve, so that you know why we are talking about farming. When we finish with this article, we want to talk about some social issues that can affect all of us. We will start with some Australian social issues that we have already written in the past, when these things happened; then we will follow with what is happening these days. This is only our views of what we see happening, so, we hope we can say something that can be helpful. We are starting with this article about farming and their problems, since farming is the most important part of our society, because it produces food for us to live. We hope to interest lots of people. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

You can see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  

To see this article in full,  Farming today compared to the old way 

                                  THE HARVESTER MACHINE

The best inventions that has helped farming a lot, must be the tractor and the harvester machine. 

Welcome to our article, Farming today compared to the old way, 

Wheat farming the modern way

Dear readers, this article is a long article that I have written in Hub Pages; so, I am going to split it in three blogs, the entire original version can be found here, Farming today compared to the old way. 

Anyhow, we will start with, wheat farming the modern way. I want to talk about farming today compared to the old ways, because I can mentally see the great difference that it has made in our standard of living. So, I believe that today we are better off than we were before; but let me see how I can describe this difference. Anyhow, I am writing about my life story, so, I mentally compare the ways of life of today to the ways of life in the past when I was young; for this reason, I have become aware that there is a great difference; in fact, the difference is so great that it is worth writing an entire article to explain my personal point of view.

Anyhow, we must acknowledge that this modern wheat farming in Australia, and in other parts of the world, it has slashed the present cost of living a lot, and this helps us to live a better life. We believe that this has happened because of the new farming machines available to the farmers, and the fertilizes available to them; so, farmers are able to produce wheat and other produce a lot cheaper than in the past, so, food has become cheaper, therefore, we are better off today in many ways.

In this article, we invite our readers to compare how different farming and farming life was at the time when I was young in the fifties, and also, how hard was life then because most of us had to work hard just to earn enough to feed ourselves and our families.

This difference that we are talking about applies to the farmers and the general public as well, because today it affects both in a beneficial way. So, there is a lot to be said about this great difference in cost and hardship or easiness, and this has happened during my lifetime. So, I believe that our standard of living has improved a lot, at least in the sense of being able to feed ourselves with wheat and other farm products, because the cost of farm products are more affordable today than in the past; so, let us compare the cost of living, perhaps for the sake of seeing where we have come from and how much we have improved since then.

Today we often wonder how easy it is to grow and harvest wheat, at least it seems so when we look at a video that shows harvest time in the wheat farms, we see a few harvester machines in a field collect the wheat in no time at all, and because of this speed of these wonderful combine harvester machine food is a lot cheaper today than it used to be; of course these machines are only part of the machinery that helps the farmers produce the wheat, because there are many more machines required. So, let us talk about some other machinery that the farmers require.

---------------------------------------

House renovating

Dear readers, we are writing these posts, because we want to write some D.I.Y. Brickwork, building retaining walls and mix your own cement, so that you can learn how to built something yourself, at least in theory. But in these blogs we are also trying to get you interested to become a tradesman. So, keep reading please. Anyhow, this blog we are going to talk about house repairs, since we have talked about the rest. 

You can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

Anyhow, you can also see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  

 and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  To see more, D.I.Y. house repairs, House renovating 

This house has been raised and renovated, it looks a lot better than before. You need to compare how it was before to see the real difference. It takes a lot of work to do that, but it is well worth doing it. 

Welcome to our article, House renovating.  

Dear readers, today because some friends in the suburb that I live are going to renovate their house, we have this opportunity to talk about house renovating. Anyhow, we want to point out that the timber houses in Australia can easily be renovated to various degrees, it all depends on what you want done, and how much money you can afford to spend, just look at this house that is being raised and renovated in Brisbane, look at the great difference of how this house looks now, and how it was before. Today this house looks like a new house, but it was an old house before these renovation works were done. So, in this article we are going to talk about this house renovations and show you some photos to see how the work progresses.

---------------------------- 

After removing the old garage door and the old timber enclosure. This house is now ready to be raised and re-stumped, or walls can be built around and under it, so that a few rooms can be added under the house. Anyhow, this is how this house looked like, when they were working to get it ready. 

House renovating needs trades people to do the job. 

Now, in this article we are going to talk about major renovations, so, it is not a D.I.Y article. Anyhow, we have been talking about building and how to do it yourself, in our last posts, we have talked about stairs repairs and fixing an old timber landing, but there are lots of other things that can be done on a timber building, so, in this post we want to talk about how to renovate a house. We invite our readers to follow how these things are done, and then, compare the difference.  

There are lots of things that can be done to renovate a house, some of those things can be done from the owners themselves, if they know how to use a paint brush, a hammer and a saw and a few other tools, they don’t need to be trades people ether, since owners can do a lot of things to their own houses, they can take their time and learn as they go while doing the job, after all if they make a mistake nobody will say anything, as there is nobody to answer to, so, try to do some D.I.Y work sometimes, you will be proud you did, you see I did and every time I see what I have done, I am proud about it, it gives you a good feeling.

In this article, most of the work must be done from tradesmen, because we are going to talk about raising and building under an existing timber house, you see, by raising a house you can add more living space to it, but there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of people involved. We will talk also about some jobs that can be done from the owners themselves, like painting the house after the house has been raised and fixed properly from tradesmen, so that the owners can save money. 

---------------------------------------

Timber houses are easy to renovate.  

As we know, the timber houses need maintenance, therefore, most people when there is a lot of maintenance to do, they will renovate. They may decide that they are going to raise the house higher, so that, they can build a few rooms underneath their house, this sounds strange in some countries that have only masonry houses, but with timber houses it can be done. In fact, timber houses are the most versatile houses, you see, you can even move the entire house from one place to another; but this must be done from experts that specialize in house renovations or removals, because this requires a lot of know how and a lot of heavy equipment, but it can be done, and the outcome of it, is that it is cheaper than building a new house from scratch.

Now that I have introduced the idea of what can be done with these timber houses, let us follow one of these houses that the owners have decided to raise it higher and build a few rooms underneath. You see, this house not only needs fixing and painting, it needs also re-stumping, because the original wooden stumps are rotting away, perhaps one or two have been eaten from the white ants, the house is too low to make decent rooms underneath, at the moment it is high enough to park a car and to store a few things, but that covered space can be put to better use if the house is raised. So, we need to think first how that can be done safely, and then, we must do that according to the local building requirements.

-----------------------------

Need to follow the local building laws.  

The local building laws here in Brisbane Australia allows the owners to fix the houses, replace the stumps and other things without consulting them, if there are no changes to the structure of the building, so, we can change the stumps replace any timber that is rotting away outside as well as inside and even carry some minor alteration inside. For most people that is enough freedom to carry on the works themselves, or employ a tradesman to do the job, but in this case of wanting to raise the house and fully enclose underneath the local authorities require the owners to submit a plan of the works they want to carry out.

Once you start with plans and everything else you know that it is going to cost a lot of money, so, before you make you last decision make sure you have a fair idea what they can cost you; you can ring a few firms that specialize in these works, and hope that they are willing enough to give you a rough estimate. Another way is to stop by where they are doing similar works and ask the contractor or the owner what is going to cost them. Anyhow, you need to know what it could cost you, even if it is a very rough estimate.

You have have done that, so, now you look for a firm that makes these plans; after that tell the person you have chosen to go ahead and make the plans for you, they should be able to tell you what the plans can cost, and also they can give you an idea of the cost and a few other things that you must do.

Once you draftsman or architect has made the plans and they have been approved from the local authorities, it is time to have a few quotes from builders or contractors, some people suggest that you get at least three quotes, and I think that it is the right way to go. After that you can chose who is going to do the job for you. You can decide this easily if you know somebody that does this work; if not go for a firm that is really specialized in raising and re-stumping houses.

Now all the decisions have been done, you have this firm that is coming to do the work, in most cases you have to move out of the house for a few days, or a few weeks, for them to raise the house and re-stump it. Here we need to point out that you need to have chosen a firm that has good tradesman and enough of them to do the job quickly, most of these firms know that and they are ready to do your job as quickly as possible. So, you are ready to move out as soon as they need you to move.

------------------------- 

Raising the house is a specialist job.  

Now, let us assume that the house remover team has come to do the work. so let us follow how they will do it. They start by reinforcing the house with steel beams attached to the bears of the house, because to make normal size room under the house, some stumps will be removed for good, so, there will be less stumps to support the house, and the steel beams will support the house, where the stumps have been removed.

They have done that, and now they make two rows of these large piles of timber, made from squares block of timber as shown in the picture beside here, they place across these square timber-piles two long steel beams one on each side right through the house, they put these big jacks under this steel beams three or four of them on each side depending how long the house is, and they start working the jacks up. They work as a team and they all pump the Jacks up all at the same time, first on one side of the house and then on the other side of the house.

Once the house is raised to a certain level, they pack more timber on these square timber piles and work a way how to move the jacks to a higher level, once they have done that they start pumping the jacks up again, they will repeat this operation several times until the required eighth of the house is reached.

Now that I have described to you that, it does not sound that hard to do it, but in reality, it is, because there is no room for mistakes, as a single mistake may put in endanger the workers that carry out this dangerous job, because they are under the house while they are raising it. Also, to do it, whoever does it needs a lot of material, see the large piles of timer columns made up from these large pieces of timber, they have to carry it around from job to job, not only that, but also the large steel beams that they place under the house, so, that they can use the jacks to lift the house, and all those jacks and other things, so, you need teams that do this work, to be on the safe side.

Anyhow, the team that raises the house, has successfully raised the house to the right level, and checked that the house is level, so, now a different job needs to be done, to replace the stumps with steel columns, or in some cases walls can be built to replace the stumps, instead of replacing them with steel columns. Anyhow, there are a lot of other things that need to be done as well. Sometimes the same people continue to do this job, at other times another team is required depending how this firm or builder works.

------------------- 

This is how the house was before raising it, one needs to compare this photos, with what it will be like when the house is finished.

Here the steel beams have been set in place and bolted to the timber bears of the house. These beams can carry more weight at a longer distance and some posts could be eliminated

This photo was taken while the work was being done. There is indeed a lot of work involved, and only people with the know how and a large gang of worker should attempt to do it. Just look at those big stack of timber that they use to hold the house

 Earth work and steel columns. 

In this case under this house all the timber stumps had to be removed, and there was an old concrete floor that had to be completely removed and taken away, then the foundations for the steel stumps were dug, after that the steel stumps were fixed to the timber bears and the concrete poured after making sure that the building was level. While the concrete is setting and becoming stronger as the time goes by, a steel worker is making and fixing these steel braces in a few places, as it is shown on the plan, these braces attach two columns one to the other, one end of the brace is attached near the bottom of one column and the other end at the top of the other column, a second brace is placed in the opposite way, so that the braces form like an X, this bracing makes the two columns very strong, because it transfer the strength of the concrete foundation of this column to the top of next column, in a lineal way.

After a day or two when the concrete foundations become strong enough to take the weight of the house and the stress of any movement of the house above; the house remover will come back to remove their jacks, their steel beams and their piles of timber, then the house will be fully on the new steel columns.

Once the house remover team has taken away their heavy equipment, the builder will come in and start by digging the rest of the foundations and concreting them as required; and then, they work out of to lay a concrete slab under the house.

-----------------------------------

Concrete slab and things to do next.

Anyhow, the house raisers have come and gone, now a builder and concrete workers lay the concrete floor, they level the ground under the house, work out the level that the floor is going to be, and start boxing accordingly. After boxing around the house, they lay the steel reinforcement, as shown in one of our photos, they get it inspected. When they are ready, they lay the concrete floor.

Now that the concrete floor has been laid, and the house is setting permanently in the right position, the builder can start to reconnect all those things that have been disconnected to raise the house, so, the plumber, the gas fitter and drainer will come to reconnect these things, there are plumbers that can do those three things, so, you don’t need to call three individuals to do these jobs. It is very likely that the power needs to be reconnected from an electrician, and many other electrical work, not only for the old house, but also for the future rooms under the house, perhaps a new power box is required, anyhow, the electrician will know what to do. But that is not all.  

Because the house has been raised, now the existing stairs don’t reach the ground anymore, so, the builder needs to extend or replace the stairs. After that the house upstairs can be occupied again, if there are no other major works to be done.

Anyhow, after doing a few other things, the owners move back to live in the house, because they want to save money, as they are on a budget, they realize that they don’t have the money to finish everything, So, they decide to enclose under the house and finish the external walls only. The rest of the walls will be left bare for when they can save some money to do it. Here we can say that for the time being, all renovation works on the house have been done. To save money the owners are going to paint the house themselves, which is a job that most of us can do. But after all this works on the house, the garden is a mess and the owner will do that themselves since they know how to do that. 

----------------------------- 

Anyhow, today I need to say that I do not have any more photos that I could show you, so, you need to click on this link to see the entire article, how it appears in Hub Pages,  House renovating. 

Gardening and other things involved.

Now, the yard needs to be made nice again, starting from removing those pieces of building material that are left over. The ground needs to be leveled, because there are hips of dirt and the ground is uneven, what we are talking here is not that we want the ground level, like we do when we build something, but we want the ground to follow the natural gradient of the land. After the yard is cleaned and leveled, we need to landscape the yard, or at least plant some trees or shrubs and then lay some lawn.

There are many other things that the owners need to do as well, to make the house and yard look beautiful. You see, the owners want their house to look beautiful and inviting, to do that it costs money, so, most times the owners do it themselves.

But it is worth to make the effort. After all, when we visit somebody house, the front yard and the garden is the first thing that catches the eye, from this view in mind, we start to imagine what we can find inside and what sort of people are living there.

Having said that, now we can go back to talk about our house and its garden. The owner of this house that we are talking about have done a lot of work and have fixed the yard and the garden, as you can see from some of these photos beside this article. I believe that they have done a good job.

------------------------------------

Fencing and other things

After doing all this work on the house, now the house looks great, but there are fences that are so ugly that need replacing. So, these owners have replaced also some fences. They have also built a brand-new fence in the front, as you can see from to photo above. Today they still should finish the rooms under the house, and they will do that when they can save the money, but most of the work has been done and they are happy about it.

I think I have said enough in this article, so, see you in our next article, where we are going to talk about, fixing an old landing.

 See you soon.

----------------------------------------- 

D.I.Y. House repair

Dear readers, we are writing these posts, because we want to write some D.I.Y. Brickwork, building retaining walls and mix your own cement, so that you can learn how to built something yourself, at least in theory. But in these blogs we are also trying to get you interested to become a tradesman. So, keep reading please. Anyhow, this blog we are going to talk about house repairs, since we have talked about the rest. 

You can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

Anyhow, you can also see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  

 and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  To see more click on, D.I.Y. house repairs

This is a typical old timber house in Brisbane that we call workers cottage, it is smaller version of the real Queens-lander house, just because it is smaller and more affordable. Anyhow, this could have been my house when it was built, but today it went through some alterations. 

D.I.Y. house repairs. 

Welcome to our article, D.I.Y. house repairs

Timber houses repairs or renovations

Dear readers, in our D.I.Y articles we have talked about, how to lay bricks in, DIY brickwork , and other articles about building, the last one, Bricklaying needs to be competitive. In this article, we want to talk about house repairs and renovations. So, it will be a mix up of trades including timber work.

You see, if you want to do any job on old houses, you need to know how to do a bit of this and a bit of that, so, you don’t need to be a carpenter to cut a few pieces of timber, drive a few nails, paint the house or build a wall.

Because, if the work is for your house, you do not need to be a tradesman, except for those trades that are forbidden from bylaws, since it is dangerous if you make mistakes; like electrical work or plumbing work. So, don’t do electrical work, except changing a light bulb, and plugging in any electrical devices; plumbing work you can change a tap washer valve, or unblock the kitchen sink drain, if you have the right tools, and that’s all. Other trades you can do it ourselves. 

Anyhow, let us talk about what we can do ourselves, if we own a timber house say in Queensland; we want to talk about Queensland houses, because that is the place I have been living for many years and I am writing from, therefore, I know what can be done here legally, in other parts of the world it can be different.

Now let us talk about the timber houses, the timber houses need a lot more maintenance than the brick and masonry buildings, because they need to be painted regularly, otherwise the exposed timber outside can rot, and then you need major repairs, but not everything affects these timber houses in a negative way, because they are easier to fix and to do alterations, compared to bricks and mortar buildings, so, let us talk about the latest work I have done, which was replacing some flooring on the veranda and then replace a set of old timber stairs with concrete treads. To replace the timber flooring was easy, because you need to pull the old rotten board out and replace them with new ones, to replace the stairs was a lot harder, because first I had to decide what I wanted to use, as the existing stairs were rotten beyond repair, but let us see what I did.     

 

Repair or replace stairs

I am writing this article now, because after fixing the patio floor I had to replace the front stairs where I am living now; I knew that the stairs were rotting away and soon or later we had to replace them, but I was trying to delay it as much as I could, because stairs are not easy to build and anyone that attempts to fix or replace them will find it hard to do unless he knows how to build them. But since I am a bricklayer, I knew what to do. 

But even though I knew what to do, because of the several set of brick stairs that I have built as a bricklayer, I did not like to do this job. However, one day I saw that the timber stairs were becoming dangerous, because the timber stringers were rotting away and some of the treads were just about to fall out or break if a heavy weight got on them, so, this job that I was trying to delay suddenly became urgent, because this steel brace that was holding them tight together suddenly broke. 

I did not want to replace this set of timber stairs with brick stairs, because brick stairs are very expensive, they take a lot of bricks, a lot of concrete and a long time to build, you see, brick stairs are build where a building is made of bricks. We can say that they are the most expensive to build using just simple building materials. Now at the same time I did not want to get somebody to make new timber stairs because today they are very expensive and the timber is not of that grade that lasts a long time, as it used to be.

Building the new stairs

Now the problem is that we need to replace all the steps. So, we want a new set of stairs that are not expensive, they must last a long time, they are almost maintenance free, so, how we can achieve that?

After thinking it over we decided to build a new set of stairs using concrete treads on a pair of galvanized steel stringers; you see these two types of material last a long time as they don’t rot and because of that they are mostly maintenance free; they are ready made and available if you shop around a bit in Brisbane QLD. Anyhow, I remember that a few years ago, I lot of suppliers had them in stock, today you must look for them.

Anyhow, it pays to look at direct supplies, because they have a larger stock to choose from, and can save money. I bought my concrete treads from a concrete product supplier; this is their link;

Crosby Concrete Products - Domestic Concrete Step Treads ..,

Anyhow, I went there and picked them up and saved some money. 

Buying galvanized steel stringers

Next, I bought a pair of galvanized steel stringers from Scott Metal, here I did not save a lot, but they were the closest with a reasonable price, so, I went there and picked them up.  

This is their web address; www.scottmetals.com.au/, Scott Metals, Woolloongabba Brisbane - Metal Manufacturers 

I visited the closest hardware to buy some bags of concrete, these bags of ready to mix concrete cost more than is used to cost, but this is what is readily available today; I bought also a couple of galvanized brackets that I could lay in the concrete to hold the hand rail firmly up and some screws. These are the main materials that I needed to do the job, as for the handrail, I was using the old handrail. All I had to do is to fix the handrail to the timber post that would be fixed to the galvanized brackets at the bottom of the stairs, any other adjustment would be done while working on site. So, let us replace this set of stairs. 

This is a typical pair of steel stringers, they come in many sizes, all you have to know is how many treads you need before you buy them. They are also available in hot dip galvanized, but they are more expensive, I believe they are worth the cost, and that is what I used to fix my steps. 

-------------------    

Describing our step-by-step procedure. 

Now that we have bought the materials that we need to replace this set of stairs, we are going to show you, how we did this job. 

First, you need to remove the old set of stairs; but before you do that you need to know if there is anything that you can save, in my case I decided that I could save the old handrail, if I could keep it attached to the house and so I did. To do that, I cut all connection between the handrail and the rest of the stairs that had to be demolished. After doing that, I started to remove the old timber treads one by one, you see you need to be careful here, because they are heavy, and it is easy to get hurt. Anyhow, you need to use a sledgehammer to knock the treads out of there housing, because some of them may still have some old nails holding them in place. After you have removed all the treads you remove the old timber strings, here again you need to be careful specially if they are long and heavy.

Next step you make sure that the part of the house that you are attaching the new stringers is solid and if it is not fix or replace whatever it is needed. Then take one of the steel stringers and lift in position to see if it fits and where it ends, because you may have to dig a hole in the ground if your stringers have an in-ground leg. To do that, you should get your stairs approximately in the right position, once you have done that, you need to work out the height of the top step; because the top step needs to be the same height of the rest of the steps, so, this is one of the critical measurements, the other one is the distance between the two stringers, as we will explain soon.

Now, mark the center of the stairs and sit the two stringers at the same distance, generally the top flange of the stringers would be level or one inch below the existing floor, which will be your last step. Temporary fix the two stringer with a small coach screw each at the distance that you have worked out, these screws are only temporary but they should be strong enough to hold the weight of the stringers easily; now if you are using concrete treads you virtually need to fit the top tread on the two stringer, you need to do this because the holes for the bolts of the concrete treads most time are not in line with the holes on the flange that holds the treads, then fit also your bottom tread on the stringers. If everything has been marked right the treads should be level both ways (level the full length and level across) and the top tread should be the same height as the rest of the stairs, if they don’t work out the first time make any adjustment necessary. Once you have achieved that you can fix the top flange properly with larger coach screws or bolts.

Now that we have fixed the top of the stairs to the existing building, we need to fix the bottom with bolts or concrete. So, let us assume that we have to concrete the two legs of the steel stringers; here we need to make sure that we have dug deep enough and there will be about 6 inches of concrete under the stringer leg and also that the holes we have dug allows about 4 inches of concrete around the legs. Here we need to say that if the bottom treads that you have placed at the beginning to get the right distance between the stringers is in the way, you need to change it one step higher, but keep it as close as possible at the bottom, just because the stringers might move and then you will not be able to fit the rest of the concrete treads, in fact, if it is possible and you can think of something that can temporary hold the weight of the entire set of stairs, then you may as well place all the treads on except the bottom one and then concrete, after concreting you can also fit the last tread and the job is done. 

The set of concrete stairs on galvanized steel stringer have been built, and I believe that they will last for 50 years maintenance free. I have also fixed the old hand rail, and it could last for 20 years.  

------------------------------------

This is all for this time. See you next time with our blog, house renovating.

----------------------

Block and brick laying is competitive

Dear readers, we are writing these posts, because we want to write some D.I.Y. Brickwork, building retaining walls and mix your own cement, so that you can learn how to built something yourself, at least in theory. But in these blogs we are also trying to get you interested to become a tradesman. So, keep reading please. Anyhow, this blog is more advanced, since we are talking about how to lay as many blocks as you can in one day. 

You can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com, 

My other sites; http://frankmenchise.com,http://diybrickwork.com,http://manneedsgod.co.uk  

Anyhow, you can also see more at this addresses, DIY brickwork  

 and,  http://diybrickwork.com,  To see more, Bricklaying is competitive

These cement block in Australia are called Besser blocks, they come in various sizes what is shown here is the 200 size, (also called eight inches) they are heavy and you need to lift them with both hands to lay them, so, it is hard work and you need to know what is the bast way to lay them.   

Block and bricklaying needs to be competitive 

Welcome to our article,  Bricklaying is competitive

Building workers need to be competitive;

Today because of the way the economy has been set up, if you want to succeed you need to be competitive, therefore, we must try to do things better and faster than other people. Most people have this inborn need to excel in whatever they do; and those who don’t, will become losers. For these reasons, we must try harder to be successful in life.

This need applies also to the building industry, because the building industry needs to be competitive, to a higher degree than other industries, so, it is important that we can build better and cheaper houses, because that is the only way that the buyers can afford them, and when they are sold, the builders can build another one to sell again.

As we have said, we know that whatever work we do, we must do it well and quickly, so that we can beat our competitors. So, the trade people that work in buildings, they are looking for ways to improve their output; you see, a tradesman needs to perform well, if he is going to be employed from a builder or contractor, because he needs to earn his wage and a bit more for his employer. So, if you are a bricklayer you must be able of laying a certain number of bricks or blocks per day, before you can be employed gainfully, but this can vary greatly depending on the job that needs to be done.

Now, in our previous building articles we have talked about brickwork, we have started with, DIY brickwork,  then we have written  Building a brick base, and  House brick base continues, so, we have talked how to lay bricks in these three articles; anyhow, these three articles were written to show people, how to lay bricks and how to go about building this brick base. We have also pointed out how to lay more bricks by using bricklayers’ profiles and other things, but the aim was mostly for people that were not tradesmen. But what we are going to write here is for more advanced, it is for tradesmen. 

To build a Besser block wall is harder for the bricklayer, because the blocks are heavy to lift and you need to lift each block with both hands, so, if you are not well organized, it is hard to lay many blocks in one day, but there are ways that can help you lay more blocks.   

Written for the block layer tradesman

Now, we are writing it this sub-article for the block-layer tradesmen, because we want the block-layer tradesmen to challenge themselves, to see if what we are claiming here can be done more than just a few times; of course, to do that, we are going to show you how you can lay more Besser blocks in one day than you did before, but you need to follow some rules that we have found helpful ourselves. In this example we are going to make it easy and we are going to talk only about straight forward work, otherwise it is going to be very hard to achieve and also to explain or measure what we want to do.

You know, for the bricklayer to lay blocks is even harder than laying bricks, because the blocks are heavy, each block needs to be lifted with both hands and carefully placed softly on the mortar bed that the block layer has laid, so, it is hard to lay many blocks in one day, but there are ways to make it a bit easier and a block layer could lay up to 250 in one day, when the job is easy enough to do; so, let us see how that can be achieved.

Now it is necessary to explain to the public, what happens in the building industry and how many bricks or blocks a tradesman is supposed to lay in one day. In the building industry the best tradesman will exaggerate a bit their capacity of laying so many bricks or blocks per day, so, we go around boasting that we are able to lay 1000 common bricks, or over 500 face bricks, or 200 eight inches Besser blocks in a single day.

Here we need to say that perhaps we have done it once or twice ourselves, and we want to boast about it, as if we can do it every day; but really that is hard to achieve, anyhow, if you have been able of laying down that many bricks or block even one time in your life, you are a good tradesman. But the reality is that on average, when we work on houses or small building at the end of a job the figure can be half of what we are boasting about. Now that we have explained that let us see how we can do better. 

--------------------------------

Laying 250 Besser blocks in one day:

Now, let us explain how a block-layer can lay up to 250 eight inches blocks in one day. For a block layer to be able of laying 250 blocks in one day, everything and every movement should be planed, so that there is no waste of time and energies. So, how we can achieve that, is explained here under. 

Now, to lay 250 Besser blocks in one day, it must be a straight forward job, let us say the walls are long and you are on a level platform, let us assume that we are working on a concrete slab, so, the place is level and there is plenty of room to move around, the walls have been marked where they should be, so, all you have to do is to lay these eight inches’ blocks. Now to do this job efficiently it required teamwork, so, if you are the block layer, you need to instruct your labor how you want to set up your mortar board and the blocks that you must lay.

Ideally you want the mortar boards to be set off the ground, so, the labor should put a couple of blocks on the slab and set the mortar board on them, they need to be set at least two feet from the wall and about 6 to 8 feet apart, you see here you want to give more room to the labor for the blocks; then instruct you labor that when he brings the blocks he should set the blocks between the mortar boards standing up, so that you don’t have to handle the blocks many times; this is how the labor should set everything up. Now let us talk about how you proceed to lay those 250 blocks, in one day.

-------------------------------- 

Because, I could not find a good photo, I have been forced to use this photo of a plaster, filling his hawk with his steel float. Anyhow what is important here is that, the bricklayer uses the plaster hawk and the trowel to fill up his hawk and then places the mortar from the hawk on the blocks, so, he does not need to bent, so many times. Hereunder is a typical bricklayer trowel that should be used.  

Describing the block layer procedure

The block layer first of all lays one block in each corner; and then he stretches his bricklayer line between these two blocks and lays the first course of blocks as usual making sure that all blocks are straight and have an even vertical joint, if everything is done the correct way, because the blocks have been made to cover 400 mm each in the wall, but their true length is 390 mm, if you measure the wall it should be an even number divisible by 100 mm and minus 10 mm. So if a wall is 10 metre long and you follow this rule strictly, you will end up with a wall 9.990 meters long, of course this could easily be adjusted from the block layer by making a few joints bigger or smaller as required.

The reason why, we have written about these lengths above, is that we want to point out to people that want to lay blocks themselves, how to work with blocks, so, let us explain it in another way: when we work with blocks it is a lot easier for us to follow the gauge, because they have been made to cover an even number when laid, so, a 200 series block is 390 mm long 190 mm wide and 190 mm high, but when laid in the wall because we have to add the mortar joint it covers 400 mm in length and 200 mm high, so, this is the gauge that needs to be kept, of course sometimes the length in the building do not work with the length of the blocks and this may cause a few problems; but whatever problems there are, it is advisable that you don’t try too hard to adjust it by making the joints too big or too small; you can try to make the bed and vertical joint smaller if possible and it is still going to be a good job done, but if you try to make them bigger it becomes unsightly.  

Anyhow, now we need to write how a tradesman block layer can lay 250 blocks in one day, in order to lay that many blocks he must set everything the right way from the start, so, let us describe how that can be achieved. We have mentioned above a wall ten meters long, but it can be any length, but not short, and you can use the following method. After laying the first course of blocks you build the two corners, say four blocks high and you set your bricklayer line on these corners. Now make sure that your labor has brought the blocks and placed them between the mortar boards standing up us we have described above, this will save you the bricklayer to lift the blocks in that position before you place the mortar on them for the vertical joints.

Okay, everything is ready to go, tell the labor that he can wet the boards and fill them with fresh mortar; now pick up a plaster hawk and your bricklayer trowel, fill up the hawk from the mortar board and start laying the mortar on the block ribs on both sides, you see the blocks ribs are narrow and you cannot use a full trowel of mortar straight from the board, well you can but it is going to be hard to drop the right amount of mortar on the ribs, so, by using the hawk you can pick up a small amount of mortar from it and place is straight on the block ribs, by doing this you will be able to lay your mortar bed a lot faster without bending to many times, so, you can save time and energy, it is up to you if you lay the mortar bed for the entire course, or only part of it, it may depend on the length of the wall and other factor, and a good bricklayer knows what to do just by observing a few things; now that you have laid the mortar bed place some mortar for the vertical joint on the blocks that are already standing up, then leave your hawk and trowel on the mortar board; you see you have to leave these tools there because you need both hands free to lift up the blocks, here you have a choice, you can lift just one block carefully lay it on the mortar without squashing it  and tap it into position with your trowel and when necessary even a hammer, now you can lift one block at a time and tap it into position, or a few blocks and then tap them into position, it is up to you whichever way you prefer.

Anyhow, what we have written above is how you can lay more blocks with less effort, in a day, it is worth to try, as we have tried it and it works. I hope that I have been able to explain this procedure clear enough for our readers, or any tradesman to follow.

That is all in this article. See you in our next article, D.I.Y. house repairs.

---------------------------------------