While in a major hardware chain store the previous week, I had bought a different brand of the same product. It made much of the promise that it was possible to control the setting time and that there was a 15 minute window in which the product was soft and could be rapidly shaped. Also, that when hard, it could be sanded and scewed. Plus that the product set from the inside out.
I had used up my earlier batch by Saturday morning so I moved on to this new brand.
I mixed it in exactly the same ratio as before, and it "went off" (ie went crumbly and friable) within 3 minutes just like the previous brand had - so I was quite sure I was mixing in the correct ratio of catalyst.
However, after 3 hours it still had the consistency of crumbly cheese.
If I attempted to sand it, it just filled my paper up with glaze.
So in summary - I wasted an hour applying it, I wasted an hour attempting to sand it, I wasted an hour going back to Solver in Midland to buy a product that I knew worked, I wasted an hour digging the failed product out of the beading and I wasted another hour reapplying a bog that I knew worked.
By the end of the day I had managed to bog up all the beads and apply a coat of primer.
Sunday
I went out to site today hoping to install some flashing, the building wrap and the window sill dam.
I thought the first task would take me just 5 minutes - ie pull of the covering over the edge of the temporary roof, pull of some of the temporary veranda decking, and apply a plain piece of flashing to cover the bottom stud plate and the existing Z flashing below.
When I pulled of the sheeting I was dismayed to find a huge amount of leaves and compost matter had worked their way in between the side of the building and the existing Z flashing.
I attacked this with a small brush initially and removed the worst of it.
Next, I obtained a thin sheet of plastic and shaped it in to a hook - so that I could run it between the building and the Z flashing and hoik out the leaves. I used a vacuum cleaner at the same time.
Fortunately, in most places, I could also push downwards with this homemade tool and it would push any debris out through the bottom of the flashing.
At first sight, it also looked like the colourbond flashing had rusted. However, I filled a bucket with detergent water and with a cleaning cloth wiped down each accessible piece of the flashing. I was relieved to find that it was in perfect condition and what I had taken to be rust was in fact an accumulation of tannin.
All this cleaning work took me up to 3.30 pm.
I had just enough time before dark to drop in the strips of overlapping flashing and nail it off to each stud.
