Southern Tablelands Shipping Container Build

[Beardy]

So obviously things are different in the bush, as one would expect.

We also had a staged development, but to move into stage 1 it had to be finished in its entirety - a home within a home. Then it had to be sealed off from the unfinished portion - not just with a door but with something ‘that required tools’ to remove. Plus it had to be on separate power circuits with separate subboards so power could be off in the portion under construction while life continued in the lived-in portion.

Obviously your requirements are not enforced so strictly. Lucky you. It would not have been hard for us to manage the risks associated with the two stage build so I would not have hesitated to do it as you are.

I think you will find the rules are exactly the same they are just not being enforced. If you want an easy ride through the building process I found council was much easier to use than private certifiers. As a result I purposefully used private inspectors as they were a form of QA for me, the council inspectors were just to lax and it concerned me.

Private certifiers are so scared of litigation and deregistration that they are vigilant with the process, council inspectors are not part of the scutiny regulation process so don’t care.

[r3nov8or]

Stairs! The one thing I was pulled up on too. I had set the top step at the same height as the threshold. With the door opening out over that step, the step was considered a landing, and if there is a landing it must be at least the length of the door when opened/perpendicular to the wall. But zero landing is ok (!) so I 'simply' lowered the stairs so the first step was below the threshold

[rwbuild]

Stairs! The one thing I was pulled up on too. I had set the top step at the same height as the threshold. With the door opening out over that step, the step was considered a landing, and if there is a landing it must be at least the length of the door when opened/perpendicular to the wall. But zero landing is ok (!) so I 'simply' lowered the stairs so the first step was below the threshold

What year was that and how many treads in the flight?

[r3nov8or]

What year was that and how many treads in the flight?

It was about 2004 and 4 steps

[ErrolFlynn]

Re: farcical regulations - friends of mine on QLD on 5 acres bought a property with a pool. They decided to replace the 30 year old aluminium safety railings with glass and had to jump through numerous hoops because of new regs. The pool backs onto the house so they had to seal a glass sliding door from a bedroom permanently. The glass fence had to extend one metre past a right angled junction at one point (for some reason which escapes me.) 30 metres down the paddock from the house was a completely unfenced 2 megalitre dam!!

That's interesting about the dam. Perhaps the assumption is that no one would want to go swimming in a dam. Perhaps true if there are a few yabbies there. Though, kids might love to play in a dam. Splashing around, building a raft. Now that you've mentioned it I've never seen a fence barring access to the seaside, jetty, dock, river, lake, or public fountain. All of which are potentially dangerous. Though, there's nothing stopping them playing in the creek, jumping into a river, or dangling their legs off the side of the dockside with a fishing line, or going surfing, and they often do that unsupervised.

[Beardy]

That's interesting about the dam. Perhaps the assumption is that no one would want to go swimming in a dam. Perhaps true if there are a few yabbies there. Though, kids might love to play in a dam. Splashing around, building a raft. Now that you've mentioned it I've never seen a fence barring access to the seaside, jetty, dock, river, lake, or public fountain. All of which are potentially dangerous. Though, there's nothing stopping them playing in the creek, jumping into a river, or dangling their legs off the side of the dockside with a fishing line, or going surfing, and they often do that unsupervised.

The rule is the same for waterfront properties, the pool needs to be appropriately fenced and comply with the other relevant requirements but the natural watercourse requires nothing

[419]

I'd be careful in doing that. I can imagine paint getting blocked by the edge of the blade as intended, but it might find its way to the underside. The effect of gravity. Then when you go to try again a blob of paint appears on the carpet or floor or whatever. The only way to stop it would be to continually wipe the blade clean.

That's my experience. I have several sizes of this idea, some specifically sold as paint shields and others just being plaster taping knives etc, and have yet to find them satisfactory in all circumstances as they misbehave exactly as you predicted and require frequent wiping. One issue with using some plaster knives is that they have a slight curve along the edge which just introduces another problem in getting a neat finish. I also have some homemade much larger thin metal shields for spraying and they behave the same way. Might as well use old beer cartons, of which I have a steady supply, to get a similar result and throw away rather than wiping.

On glass, tiles and similar hard surfaces I find it's better to load the brush very lightly and start at the edge of the trim away from the glass etc and work towards the glass etc with a steadily less loaded brush. For the occasional accidents use a dry rag wrapped around a putty knife or thin flat scraper to clean it up.

What works even better is to get a professional competent painter to do it, and marvel at how they can paint skirts over carpet and not end up with paint on the carpet or carpet fibres and other junk in the painted surface. Don't know if they're still available but I have a fair set of very thin plastic strips about 50mm wide which can be slipped between skirts and carpets to protect the carpet, but again this works best with a lightly loaded brush starting at the top of the skirt.

FWIW, don't believe the advertising about Frog masking tape being this wonder product that stops paint bleeding under the edge. It still bleeds, just not as far as cheaper tapes. If you're going to have to clean it up anyway, use the cheaper tape.

[419]

Because I painted the skirting before I siliconed it where it meets the tiles ...

Painted before installation or painted after?

As I'm a crap painter, on new work I paint skirts before installation and fill and touch up nail holes afterwards as it's easier and quicker than doing it afterwards.

Archs I install first and paint later as even my crap painting can produce an acceptable edge between the wall and arch.

I'm impressed with your build.

I envy you with that lake on your land.

[turnstiles]

One issue with using some plaster knives is that they have a slight curve along the edge which just introduces another problem in getting a neat finish. I also have some homemade much larger thin metal shields for spraying and they behave the same way. Might as well use old beer cartons, of which I have a steady supply, to get a similar result and throw away rather than wiping.

None of the plaster knives I own have a curve in them. They are ultra thin metal blades that allow you to create a curve when feathering the plaster. I don't think I'd like to use a blade with a curve! Also, having done quite a few walls of skirting with this method it is important that the blade slides along with the brush as if it is one object.

[turnstiles]

Painted before installation or painted after?

As I'm a crap painter, on new work I paint skirts before installation and fill and touch up nail holes afterwards as it's easier and quicker than doing it afterwards.

Archs I install first and paint later as even my crap painting can produce an acceptable edge between the wall and arch.

I'm impressed with your build.

I envy you with that lake on your land.

Thanks 419, I am also not a good painter - though much better now having had to do so much!
Like you, I now paint skirts etc before installation though that was not always the case. Lots of my installed skirting only has the primer that came with it. I only have one architrave in the entire house (don't like 'em!!) and that was prepainted as were all the soffits.

[419]

None of the plaster knives I own have a curve in them. They are ultra thin metal blades that allow you to create a curve when feathering the plaster. I don't think I'd like to use a blade with a curve!

Taping knives are often curved or, perhaps more accurately, bowed. Hold the knife vertically and look along the edge of the blade and you can see the slight curve or bow between the ends. It's used bow down onto the mud to keep the ends off the wall and assist feathering the mud over tape. If this knife is used as a paint shield it won't have a straight edge, at least unless it's turned upside down and forced flat against the floor.

[turnstiles]

One of my knives resting on my level:
20231003_133448.jpg

Straight as!!

Perhaps they sell different types - mine are all like this! Though I can imagine them developing a slight bow after a lot of use. (When feathering one end is pressed down quite firmly creating a bow in the blade.

[turnstiles]

Hey look - I just discovered how to make the pix bigger!! Now you don't have to click on them to see the details!!

[419]

Perhaps they sell different types

They sure do. I have several of the curved ones.

They're fairly easy to make by modifying the flat ones, although the first example in this video is a bit uneven in the curve. Bending a sheetrock bedding knife - YouTube

[turnstiles]

Just watched a youtube clip by Vancouver Carpenter (he has mainly plastering vids) where he compared the flat to the curved trowel.
Flat Trowel vs Curved Trowel (Drywall Trowels) - YouTube

Like many things - what you first learn becomes your preferred. I think I'll be sticking to the flat!!