Hot Glue

[poliphilo]

There's a crack in the bathroom ceiling where the rain got in from a gap in the flashing many years ago. I sort of fixed it- back in the day- by painting over it with textured paint, but the mend eventually ripped- probably under the weight of the paint-  and the paper has been sagging away from the plaster more and more.  Yesterday we asked Carl to look at it. This isn't really his area of expertise, but he thought it looked like an expensive job, so- always the cheapskate- I went up his stepladder with a hot-glue gun and had a go at fixing it myself. I'd never used a hot-glue gun before. It was fun. You load it with sticks of what look like milky plastic, work the trigger and out comes a hot slime that sets in fifteen seconds. I got my eyes full of plaster dust and there are spidery strings of dried glue hanging from the crack- but I seem to have succeeded in bonding the paper to the flaky plaster behind. No more sag. Just a long, dirty wound. Today I intend to finish the job with filler and masking tape. It's not going to look wonderful, but it'll look better.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I've been settling for "looking better" lately. That's fine and I've discovered the wonders of spackling compound (which might be the same as "filler"?).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Spackling compound- what a wonderful name! I should imagine it's very much the same as the stuff I'm using.

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I always get burnt on those glue guns!
The kids at school were always wanting to use them and I refused... making them quite unhappy at times.
My partner used them with the kids, and after she left I would always check her room because she was forever forgetting to unplug them!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

This glue gun was a free gift- that came with some purchase we made- and has been sitting in a drawer for years. I never thought I'd have a use for it- but I'm a convert now.