Welcome to Builder Bill's Wrinkles.

Hot off the press, my new e-book

Using a ten dollar calculator, a bit of Pythagoras.

A screen shot from the booklet, "Using a Ten Dollar Calculator To Solve Construction Problems".  If I have done what I have been trying to do then when you reach the page with this on then it will all make sense.

Using a ten dollar calculator, sine ratio calc.

However, I would love to get any feedback from my readers.   The good, the bad and the ugly.
It is not totally finished yet, so before I put it on the website proper, I can alter it depending on what you say.
The sort of stuff I am looking for is:-

• Does it work, in other words did you learn anything?
• Are there any pages that are hard to understand, need re-writing.   I am not a professional writer, do I need help?   (Don't be too cheeky).
• It would be pretty fair to say that most people reading my book have had their maths education more recently than I have, so are there any mistakes in the maths?
• It would be great also if you let me know from what angle you are looking at it.  Are you a student, a tradesman or a DIYer?

I have taken to the PDF format like a duck to water.  I can write most of it directly in my CAD program, so as a result I don't need to change programs if I notice a mistake or if I want to alter a graphic. Also the great advantage of PDF is to be able to zoom in on the graphics and text, so I am nothing like as restricted as I am here, writing a conventional web page.

Download the book by clicking the link HERE. Using a Ten Dollar Calculator To Solve Home Construction Problems

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Painting an old metal roof

Here's a question I had from Justin W. who lives in Bristol, US.

"What kind of paint sticks good to an old Metal roof.  I have checked at a couple of local dealerships , and the really don't cary much roof paint in a color besides , the Aluminum style color.
Justin".

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Building a room in a roof or loft space

"I would like to build a room in the roof space of my house.  I've just read your pages on roofing and I'm trying to work out how to first build a supporting floor and secondly how to replace the trusses I'll have to cut in the roof space.
Any tips would be much appreciated.
Alan

Creating a loft room or attic.

A simple enough question, but not easy to give an answer to.  At least not quickly.  There are many considerations which obviously without seeing the design of the house in question I can't even attempt to answer.   There are a few things I can talk about though.

• One basic fact stands out above all else, if you remove strength from the structure then you must replace that strength.
• A ceiling structure can be very lightweight, it is only designed to hold itself and to brace the bottom of the roof structure.  To turn it into a load bearing floor will take some work.
• All this work must at sometime of other be checked and approved by an engineer. (At least in Australia).
• If you can come up with ideas and concept sketches that partly help out the engineer then you can save some of his time and thus some of your money.

Bearing that in mind, and only in the spirit of giving a bit of general advice, I have decided to write a couple of pages trying to answer Alan's question in some detail, that would take up too much space here.

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Hinge sprung doors

"I am trying to fix a set of double french doors with a transom (installed by others).  The doors will not stay closed....The doors are "hinge sprung" . What do i do to correct this problem?
Thank You jeff "

Hi Jeff,
This happens all the time, you have only to be a small bit out and the door is "hinge sprung" as you say.  We use the term "hinge bound".  That is the door is binding at the hinge.  It is a pain to fix as the adjustments needed are usually so small.   I've seen doors that only do it in the wet season, the humidity swells them just enough.
If you have to move your screws a touch, maybe plug the hole with a sliver of softwood and the pre drill a fine starter hole. Otherwise the things want to run back into the same holes.
Cheers
Bill.

• There should be an even gap between the door stop and the inner face of the door.   I like seeing say 3mm gap all around the face of a door and say 2mm at the door stop or rebate.
• If you can't find where the door is binding, open the door and hold a piece of paper in the joint.  When the door is closed it may or may not trap the paper, so when the paper is trapped, you can usually see whether it is just one hinge, or the door itself that is binding.
• I also like to slightly bevel the edge of the door inwards a touch to give extra clearance.   I have shown it exaggerated here.
• The other edge has also to be beveled in slightly to allow the door to swing.

• There should be an even gap between the door stop and the inner face of the door.
• If it is tight, with a solid rebate, you have to move the door out slightly, that is take the door off and maybe plug the screw holes then fix it further out.
• If you have enough room, move the hinge(s) in on the door itself, otherwise move the hinge(s) out on the door jamb and fill the gap created.
• If it has nailed on door stops, lift off the stops and move it slightly out.

• One or both of the hinge leaves are not set in enough.  Check them in a bit more.
• Maybe the screw heads are put in on an angle, or they are the wrong gauge.
• The screws should fit neatly into the countersink holes in the hinge and not stick out.   It only needs a little bit.
• Another option is that the edge of the door is not square, or even beveled in the wrong way.  It is not unknown that the door is fitted perfectly with a slight bevel pointing inwards on each edge, then the chippie gets mixed up and cuts the hinges in on the wrong side.  BTDT (been there, done that).

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A slight digression on large doors, wharfies and WW11

Timber framed sliding doors, Stokes Hill Wharf, Darwin.

Last weekend I peddled my bike into town and had a potter about around our local city centre and the wharf area.
There is a huge amount of building work going on down there, multi millions of dollars being spent.
A new convention centre, hotels etc. and I got to thinking how long will the old wharf buildings last.
The one in the photo has been tarted up a bit for the tourists and now contains some nice eateries.
A lot different from 1966 when I hung the large sliding doors.  They were built out of timber, with mortise and tenon joints, and later covered with sheet metal cladding.
I can't remember too much about the actual job, we had a crane to lift them into position and it went easily enough.

One thing that I can remember though and it is still vivid in my memory to this day.
There was a Japanese navy training ship tied alongside, and when it left the wharf the cadets lined the decks in their spotless white uniforms, and to the stirring music of their national anthem they saluted the onlookers as the ship pulled away.
Most of those onlookers, naturally enough were Darwin wharfies who proceeded to yell and heap abuse at the departing sailors as only wharfies can.

As a young guy I honestly couldn't understand this at the time, I'd just spent nine months in Japan and I had a great respect for the Japanese and their country.
Looking back now, I can realise now, that for those forty and fifty years old warfies, the memories of the second world war would still be alive.  Darwin and in particular the port area suffered greatly from numerous Japanese bombing raids.
Many of those old guys must have had personal experience of it.

Most of those old guys have gone now, but there doesn't seem to be any less hatred causing conflict in the world.  We might think we are smarter these days, but not in the ways that it counts.

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All for now
Cheers.