Apparently mineral turps is an excellent weed killer

[rod1949]

Could you call this multi skilling? or jack of all master of none?

[Bob38S]

Possibly, today, I guess we should plead total ignorance of anything described in the posts above as the environazis would be screaming "contaminated ground".

[HOOKED.UP]

" ENVIRONAZIS" . I love it Bob. Paul.

[Bob38S]

Sorry, I can't claim it as an original but it certainly seems to describe the radical ferals reasonably well.

[Optimark]

In my apprentice days and early in the piece when I was only earning 5 quid a week, with a 100% pay rise when decimal currency came in, we used to collect all the used engine oil from all the mates and their extended families. Pretty much everyone we knew used to change their car oil themselves back then and disposing of the oil could be interesting.

As a sideline, the mate and I mixed the oil with a reddish ochre powder stuff obtained from the local hardware and painted peoples fences with it. We painted like there was no tomorrow, we usually made a weeks wages and a bit on a weekend. Used to come home on the pushbikes with trailers on the back of each with empty drums and ourselves covered in red oil specks; sometimes the specks were pretty big.

Mick.

[HOOKED.UP]

I also remember as a youngster, "painting" paling fences with a mix of sump oil and diesel . The fences never ever rotted and there was no grass or weeds growing directly below those old fences. The posts would eventually rot just below ground level. I do remember my dad "recycling" a lot of those old palings, which were "old" to start with. Could this be an environmental POSITIVE, ? Do people still build paling fences. ????? PAUL.

[FenceFurniture]

Do people still build paling fences?

Almost exclusively Treated Crapiata, if they do. I'm going to have to change my forum name in about 10 years.....

[AlexS]

Built a couple of hardwood paling fences with my dad when I was a kid. We always painted the bottoms of the posts with creosote to stop them rotting. Don't think you can buy creosote now, as it's carcinogenic. Just as well CCA is quite safe.

D1 has just built a short hardwood paling fence, so hardwood palings must be available. Probably Masters - didn't ask her.

[chambezio]

The M-I-L had a new paling fence put up along the side boundary. They used concrete posts with 75 X 50 Hardwood rails and palings. She was really pleased with the end result because the there was no gap between the palings. Roll on 18 months....ALL the palings have shrunk and now the palings have a minimum of 10mm gap. At the time I didn't have the heart to tell her that the palings would shrink. She is definetly not as happy as when the fence went up.
We still have a Hardwood Mill in town cutting logs from private properties. The "big" logs they use would be 450mm diameter and never real straight. The mature trees that used to be cut have long gone or have been protected by the Forestry Department. A huge amount of what the Mill cuts is trucked to Sydney for the Landscape market. The boss bloke was saying one day he had an order for 6mtr lengths of 150 X 50 and 100 X 50. He was annoyed because the logs were hard to source but when they got to the landscape outlet they would be cut to customers requirements which could be as short as 1200mm. He was annoyed because he could easily cut packs of shorter lengths.

[Bob38S]

The M-I-L had a new paling fence put up along the side boundary. They used concrete posts with 75 X 50 Hardwood rails and palings. She was really pleased with the end result because the there was no gap between the palings. Roll on 18 months....ALL the palings have shrunk and now the palings have a minimum of 10mm gap. At the time I didn't have the heart to tell her that the palings would shrink. She is definetly not as happy as when the fence went up.

Just as a possible solution to the gap problem as well as earning some brownie points.

Get enough palings ( equal to half the number of gaps you want to fill). Rip each in half and bridge the gap with the half paling. This will give a sort of 3D look to the surface and fill all of the gaps. Possibly an expensive fix but if the gaps are a genuine problem - this should cover it.