GRIPES

[Jerry_Atrick]

6 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Wow I'm impressed by the technical expertise here. It would all be way beyond the ability of the west wimmera inspector to understand for sure.

To bring the collective down to the West Wimmera inspectors' level, I have not the foggiest of what you chaps are talking about...

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

23 hours ago, onetrack said:

Many shed uprights come out of the ground thanks to being lifted out by ferocious winds. As a result, plenty of concrete in footings is better than less concrete, and it doesn't really matter whether the footing is round or square. But a footing that is wider at the base than at the top is going to be more difficult for any savage wind gust to lift out.

The engineer specified separate shallow square footings for my western verandah posts. It’s an exposed location, so I dug a trench, hung the verandah structure off the house, with posts dangling in the trench, then concreted them in. Much better anchored and perfectly in line (which I could not have done the traditional method.)

[facthunter]

Drill a hole and put creosote in it occasionally to stop rot.   Nev

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

Drill a hole and put creosote in it occasionally to stop rot.   Nev

It's been banned for domestic use for a long time. As far as I know it's only for sale in 20lt containers these days. I don't know if the general public can still buy it or not.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I think you can still get it here.. when the FTA comes into effect, I'll send some down :-)

[Marty_d]

18 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

The engineer specified separate shallow square footings for my western verandah posts. It’s an exposed location, so I dug a trench, hung the verandah structure off the house, with posts dangling in the trench, then concreted them in. Much better anchored and perfectly in line (which I could not have done the traditional method.)

I always do footings that way - or if using stirrups, suspend the posts with the stirrup screwed on and a J-shaped piece of threaded rod dangling from it, and then concrete up to the base of the stirrup.

[facthunter]

Creosote is only a tar extract and you don't drink it.. The hole, drilled at an angle to the horizontal  and then plugged allows the liquid to access the centre of your poles , otherwise it's likely to disappear where it's touching the soil in about 20 years.   Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

When we bought the farm, there was an old cow-shed which had gradually fallen over, and I was surprised it had not blown away. We did lose a dog-kennel from near the ( east-facing) back door. It was weighed down internally with a gas cylinder and it blew from the west  across a paddock to be stopped by a fence. We sure do get some ferocious winds, but the effect of these winds on structures mystifies me.

So you are right, onetrack. We need to assume the worst, and that is in the codes. We need to work on 42m/sec wind here.( Cat 2).

[willedoo]

My driveway runs up the spine of a ridge, and at the end of it, the house is on stumps being short stumps on the north side and longer as the ground drops away to the south. Driving up the driveway, the optical illusion is that the house is starting to lean downhill to the south. Not so when the spirit level is put on it. The illusion is caused by the fact the surrounding trees all lean slightly to the north toward the sun. The house is plumb, all the trees around it are not.

[Bruce Tuncks]

Creosote posts do not last as long as pressure-treated pine posts, where the best grade reaches 100 years. Apparently a longer life than concrete posts.

But creosote posts you could make yourself. I think you needed to boil the stuff and then let it cool down with the posts sitting in it. But I've never made any myself...  I have put in lots of treated pine posts though. We have what I call a driller donga machine on the tractor and the posts are hammered into an undersized bored hole. This compresses the soil around the post and increases the strength.

[spacesailor]

Willedoo

PICS PLEASE ,

IT may be an ' eye defect ' . LoL

spacesailor

[facthunter]

Radiata Pine is not very strong  particularly if something impacts it Most street posts were creosoted repeatedly through a hole about 2 feet from the base and plugged with a wooden Bung.  Nev

[old man emu]

I don't think creosote is anywhere near a poisonous as the cyanides that are used to treat construction timber. It seems that to be adversely affected by it you have to be working with it constantly - like asbestos workers.

 

Creosotes and related complex chemical mixtures containing phenols and cresols are used in agriculture for the protection of timber and timber structures against attack from insect pests and from fungal decay. Creosote was also previously used in Australia as a veterinary treatment of lameness in horses. In October 2004, the NDPSC reviewed the safety of creosotes and their scheduling. The result of that review was that creosote derived from coal and beechwood was rescheduled and placed in schedule 7 of the Standard for the Uniform Scheduling of Medicines and Poisons, based on concerns about carcinogenicity. As a result of the rescheduling, creosote products used for the treatment of timber can no longer be supplied for use around the home. 

[onetrack]

There are no cyanide compounds used today in timber treatment, and in fact I don't believe any cyanide compound has ever been used officially in timber treatments.

But the current (pressurised) treatment system - CCA (Chrome-Copper-Arsenic) is approved for general use, and is perfectly safe if the guidelines are followed.

The bottom line however, is that the treatment is basically a pesticide treatment, so the CCA-treated timber must be handled accordingly.

Burning it is a No-No, this releases arsenic in gaseous form, which can be inhaled and affect ones health.

 

https://www.softwoods.com.au/cca-treated-pine-safe/#:~:text=The most common treatment that,120 plants across the country.

[old man emu]

Got my poisons wrong.

[facthunter]

Insecticides (organo-phosphates ?) are the worst of the farm Poisons. Herbicide called Sprayseed if you can still get it is positively deadly with skin contact.  Nev

[red750]

Sorry to divert from the above serious subject for something a little less, but I am getting fed up with Channel 9. Morning, afternoon or evening, virtually every day, when I tune in, all I get is Lego Masters. Really? Something you might expect from some obscure channel on Foxtel, but Channel 9?

 

If that's not enough, there is another intellectually stimulating program starting soon, featuing things made out of balloons, called BlowUp. Also on 9 I think.

[facthunter]

Yes it will blow your mind. Say Nein to nine. Those shows are a waste of good technology and an insult to your intelligence.  Read Cook books a door to a whole new world of achievement.  Most of the world's greatest Cooks are....... Wait for it .....MEN .. Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

Yes.. and appaently the world is less 1 from a couple of days ago.. taken at 46.. new Masterchef judge from memory.

 

[Bruce Tuncks]

Bugger, I thought that you lot were referring to James Cook, the famous navigator. He was about the only guy who could manage a ship and work out his longitude by the lunar distance method. He had figured out how to keep his crew alive on a long voyage too, a good hundred years before scurvy eradication became known.

He sure is a hero of mine.

 

[Old Koreelah]

4 hours ago, facthunter said:

Yes it will blow your mind. Say Nein to nine. Those shows are a waste of good technology and an insult to your intelligence…

Tonight we watched the latest episode of Alone on SBS. The only “reality” TV I watch and quite absorbing. The tension as each hungry castaway tries to find food is enormous. 

[old man emu]

Those programs only fulfil one requirement: the meeting of the Australian content requirement. Cheaper to make than theoretically based programmes (drama and comedy), or educational programmes. I'll accept quiz shows like Chaser. At least they are a test of General Knowledge and viewers can pick some up. It seems that it is only Aunty ABC that continues to employ thespians in worthwhile pursuits.

[red750]

16 minutes ago, old man emu said:

I'll accept quiz shows like Chaser.

No offence O.M.E., but you should go on The Chase - as a chaser. You seem to have an answer for everything.

[red750]

I was watching a 60 Minutes tribute to Barry Humphries tonight, and missed most of the new 1% club, which tests not what you know, but how you think. I also like Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, trying to solve the puzzle as the letters are spun up by the contestants.

[old man emu]

8 minutes ago, red750 said:

you should go on The Chase

I know all sorts of obscure facts, but even playing Trivial Pursuit of in pub quizes, I get knocked out by music, movies and TV.  I have never taken enough interest in them to develop the required encyclopaedic knowledge in those fields. A lot of things I quote or bring up are based on memories from the distant past.