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OILY
RAG
INDEX
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Handyman
hints
Fridge
If your seal has
started to go on your fridge simply change the direction the
door opens. Most of them are able to be adjusted to the
other side for left or right handed opening. Our fridge seal
needed replaced at the cost of $120.I asked hubby to try
this idea first and it worked. Door has excellent suction
and closes fine. - S.J., Dunedin.
General tips
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Thanks to my resourceful husband, I have just saved up to
$60 on the cost of a new cutlery basket for my dishwasher.
My old cutlery basket was badly damaged, with large holes
mostly caused by sharp knives. I was shocked to discover
that a replacement basket was not only difficult to source,
but could cost up to $60! When I told my husband, his
thrifty side appeared and he suggested we use some mesh type
plastic to replace the worn sections on the old basket. We
went to the local supermarket and bought a cutlery drainer -
the type you use on the sink, ours is made by Starmaid –
for $2.99. It has a lattice type plastic on four sides and
the bottom; hubby cut the plastic lattice with a Stanley
knife to fit and used plastic cable ties to secure the new
plastic pieces into the six bottom sections of the damaged
basket. The holes in the plastic are large enough to let
water flow but small enough to not let cutlery slip through.
It's also strong enough to withstand the heat from the
bottom section of the dishwasher. - B.T.
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Youtube has literally
thousands of "DIY" uploaded videos on how to fix
any house/car problem-plumbing, electrical, mechanical etc
etc. The great thing about this is you get to watch a
guy/woman show you step by step. Just use the search term
& your bound to find what you want! I used it to show me
how to change a washing machine hose. Which before Youtube I
would have just rung the plumber! - Rene,
Brooklyn.
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When
drilling on a slippery surface, place on a strip of tape,
such as masking tape, on the surface to prevent the bit from
slipping.
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A strip
of masking tape along the cut line will prevent plywood from
splitting.
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Dip the
tip of screws and nails into a bar of soap. They go in
easier, prevent splitting and makes screws easier to remove
should you need to.
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Pencil
stubs make good plugs for plaster walls. The lead makes it
easy to screw into.
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A bit of
Talcum powder stops squeaky floorboards and stair treads.
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If
your paint brush has dried hard, try boiling it in vinegar.
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Before
buying a stove check out the classified ads. Good used
stoves can be bought for a fraction of the new price.
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Sanded
floors look good, they are hard wearing, and can be
decorated with rugs to add a dash of vibrant colour.
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Dry
rot in timber can be treated by bruising with petrol. Hint:
don’t do this while smoking!
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Saws
will not jam so often if you rub both sides of the blade
with candle wax.
House paint
- Double to the life-span of paintwork
on weatherboards by washing it once a year. Washing takes away the
grime that degrades the paintwork. – O.R.
Paint
-
After partially using a pale of paint, paint a stripe on the
outside of the pale. That will show you how much paint in
left in the tin, and also the colour! - Handy Fred, Blenheim.
Repairs
- Learn how
to do basic repairs. First step – read the manual! It is
amazing how much money the do-it-yourself-dunce wastes by
not knowing how to do some of the basic stuff. Jobs like
repairing a broken window, fixing a toilet cistern,
replacing a light fitting, and so on. If you still find you
are just not up to even the task, scout about for a friend
competent enough do have a quick look at the problem for
you.
Spray cans
- When using paint in spray can, do
not turn the can over to clear the nozzle. This wastes the paint
that is in the tube and uses the pressure to do so. Take the spray
nozzles off and keep it in a small jar with turps. Re-attach when
needed again. I use a lot of cans for small touch-ups and I find
this method saves quite a lot. – G.B.
Tradesman
“It
can’t be, it must be a mistake, they must have overcharged
me”
– I thought as a raced out the door of my local hardware
store. “They stuff I just bought was on special. They’ve
charged me the full quid!”
“No,
it’s not a mistake”
the store attendant said. “We always show the retail price
on the packaging slip. The invoice you get in the mail will show
how much you actually pay”.
Why’s
that?, I wondered. A
bloke in the trade explained it to me like this. Sometimes
tradesmen charge stuff for jobs to their own personal account,
and then claim the “cost” back from their clients (showing
labour and materials seperately). If a client asks to look at
the paperwork about the materials they are shown the packing
slip showing the retail price, not the actual cost.
“So
it’s a scam then?”, I asked,.
“Well… um… er….no… um…yea”,
he replied.
It
seems that this practice is fraught with the potential for
people to get ripped off. No problem if a tradesman makes it
clear to a client that they will be charged full retail price
for the materials used on the job, as evidenced by the packing
slips, and makes it known that they will make a margin on those
materials because they get a trade discount.
The
problem is where the benefit of “everyday specials” are not
passed onto clients and where tradesman claim they are using
packing slips as "evidence" of their "cost”
(after all, it takes a good couple of weeks for the invoice to
arrive in the mail - and by then the job is probably all
finished).
Consumers
need to be aware that the packing slip price is a normal retail
price, which excludes everyday specials and excludes tradesman
discounts.
They
also need to know that they can usually go and negotiate their
own discount from the merchant (10% “cash” discount for
payment on the spot is no problem) and that they will miss out
on any specials deals that any member of the public could
receive.
Clients
may be a better off getting list of materials required by the
tradesman and buying the goods themselves.
I
need to share with your readers my experience with a tradesman
(plumber). I had some work done on remodeling a bathroom. The
cost included 5.5 hours of labour at $39.50 an hour (which was
fair enough I thought), but what I had not expected was the
$653.06 charged for materials. When I queried the account they
advised I was charged for material at the retail price. Problem
was, I personally could go down to a plumbing supplies company
and buy the goods at substantially less than retail by simply
asking for a discount. For example, I could buy one of the items
for $176.89 but was charged $277.13 for the very same item by
the plumber. There
are a couple of lessons to learn from this experience.
First, don’t be fooled into thinking all a tradesman is making
on your job is their hourly rate. In my case, I estimate the
plumber a profit of $236 on the materials (or another $42.90 per
hour charged). In other words, they made as much on the
materials as they did the their labour. They REAL cost of my
plumber was therefore $82.40.
The second lesson is you can save a heck of a lot of money if
you buy the materials yourself, rather than have your tradesman
do it and charge you. - A.P.
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