French Property Renovation

House is nearly complete

2018-01-21T14:31:00.000+00:00

We are almost there with the French House. We have spent many weeks their enjoying what we have created. . We have completed the landing and the bedroom that has an ensuite - bathroom

We have also started to tame the garden and started to set out it out with plants. That will be in another update

Planning for 2013

2015-07-19T21:00:00.000+01:00

As 2012 came to an end we decided that we really needed to concentrate our efforts on getting the ground floor of the house completed. The floor screed needed to be laid, floor tiling to put down and the purchase and fitting of the kitchen. We also needed the clear the debris and rubble from down the side of house.

As it worked out the temporary kitchen that had served us for our last two visits was stripped out after our September 2012 visit and the sand/cement floor screed laid. We were happy for this as this allowed for the screed to dry out sufficiently for when we needed the floor laying.

So in January 2013 we embarked on the design of the kitchen. The only thing we really knew at the outset was that it needed to stretch out along the back wall as this was were all the services had be installed and where the temporary kitchen had been. Initially we had looked towards purchasing the kitchen from France but soon found this to be difficult because of the amount of time required to get it sorted. With sourcing the right kitchen, obtaining initial designs, re-visits for finalisation of a design and details bearing in mind we are only over in France for a week or two at a time. The exchange rate was also against us at 1.12 Euro to the Pound. After several weeks of initial planning, re-planning and tweaking we went eventually to see Sam Neal at Sam Neal Kitchens with a design idea. Sam took this on and turned it into something workable. Below are a few images that Sam produced for us.

Here's one of the original design where the hob was placed against the wall.

Here's the design that we eventually chose with the hob moved onto the island unit. We thought this changed the entire the feel of the kitchen area and whilst making it more user friendly.

Nice perspective of the island unit. Although the this was eventually tweaked again.

As regards the transporting over of the flat pack kitchen, the appliances and the floor tiles we used a man with a van that basically operated between Brighton and France. All the goods were delivered to his store in Brighton. In fact he lived in a village near ours so it was quite convenient and reasonably economic.

More to follow.......

BLOG UPDATE

2015-07-19T17:08:00.000+01:00

Although I haven't updated the blog for a long long time that's not to say that the renovation of our house hasn't progressed somewhat. In reality we are practically complete with last major work being carried out at the beginning of the year. The following posts are a record of what has been happening over the past 36 months or so that bring things right up to date. So please keep coming back over the next few weeks to see how things have changed.

Boarding the bedroom floors

2015-04-20T22:24:00.000+01:00

September 2012 update

During the trip to our house in France, the last for this year, we made a little more progress on the final finishing works to upstairs area of the house. This time around we took a couple of enthusiastic volunteers, or son Nic and a friend of our James.

After taking time out on the first day we set about laying parquet flooring to the two smaller bedrooms. James lead on the project teaming up with Nic on laying the boarding. I got the "easy" job of cutting the boards to size. We spent two days completing the bedrooms and into the landing area before running out of material. Off to Leroy Merlin to see if we could get a couple more packs but as is the way in France we left empty handed. Fortunately we were able to order the extra packs for collection next year.

We had decided before going out to France that we would treat all the skirtings and door frames with Danish oil. Di had spent the previous few days doing this so next job was fixing skirtings to the bedrooms and bathroom. James did and another excellent job on whilst Di and Nic painted the main Bedroom. We built up the double bed for the middle sized bedroom and built up a double wardrobe, a chest of drawers and two bed side tables.

Once the door frames were oiled any doubts we had in using it evaporated. The natural look of the skirting and frames against the white walls and doors was exactly the contemporary look we were hoping for.

Having been attacked two nights running by Hornets I decided to PV foam around the new door and window openings which they were managing to squeeze through. That was not before I had captured six of the blighters using a coffee and releasing them.

Last job before we left after seven days was to treat some of the remaining original timbers with wood work treatment and fit the remaining Georgian bars to the windows.

A long and busy week punctuated with a bit of site seeing, swimming in our neighbours pool and evenings spent playing cards that got more serious and competitive as the week wore on.

More fosse fuss

2012-09-19T21:05:00.001+01:00

During our holiday in July it became evident that the submersible pump to the fosse wasn't working and constantly tripped out the house electrics We've had a catalogue of issues with shorting out of the electrics within the fosse manhole and has been subject to early blogs. All came to a head when eventually we couldn't re-set the main fuse because it had tripped out so many times that it took out the whole of the ground floor electrics. I decided to take a look in the manhole to see if I could dry out the electrics.

This is where it went went wrong and my day was going to get worse. The concrete manhole lid was cracked and unfortunately I let one piece of it drop into the manhole taking out the riser pipework on the way down. I now was left a problem of how to repair the damage. The first problem was how to lift out the pump as this depended lifting it out by its riser pipe. Unconventional as it may be this also depended on the strength of the connection between the bottom of the riser pipe and the pump casing. So I decided to lift it out by its electric cable whilst guiding its ascent by the riser pipe. Once out I worked out a repair and returned from Bricomarche with the bits and made good the break putting in a removable link so the pump could be separated from the riser pipe for ease of future maintenace. I then found that the connection between the riser pipe and pump had not been made correctly and been taped up to stop the parts separating. This soon came apart when I examined it and try as I may I could get the bits to screw together properly.

Fortunately, I was able to get hold of the Contractor that fitted the fosse and he attended that evening and installed the correct fitting and approved the repair I had carried out. He also installed a water proof electrical connection and even used the piece of rope I tied to the lifting handle on the pump to lower the pump back into position. Privately I think he was impressed with the modifications I had made to the installation !! At least now I can disconnect the pump form the riser pipe and lift the pump out with a rope instead of the cable and above all my insistence on using a waterproof electrical connection has resolved the problem with the electric tripping out.

So all is well and I bless my good fortune in breaking the pipe in the first place as otherwise I would still be writing about this in months to come.

Our first stay in the house

2012-09-19T19:43:00.004+01:00

Its been far too long since I last wrote a blog about our renovation project in France and I have been thinking that I should put this right. The last blog talked about our viewing of the house in March and reported what had been done up to then. Since, the builders were asked to make the house habitable for us in readiness for our two week vacation in the middle of July. Basically we wanted all of the first floor fully plastered out and the bathroom complete, all the second fixes carrying out upstairs and a temporary kitchen installed. On top of that we asked for all of the new doors and windows to be fitted. Also at the last moment we instructed a company to sand blast the oak beams and the stone quoins.

All of the work was completed only hours before our arrival. There air was full of dust with the builders just having finished cleaning out from the sand blasting. The temporary kitchen had been fitted complete with a sink with hot and cold running water, microwave, mini fridge and oven.
We arrived with a trailer and a car boot laden with a double bed, tables, chairs and all manner of small kitchen appliances,crockery, kitchen utensils, bedding, towels, tools, paints etc. It was really like setting up a new home. Having arrived at the house after 9pm we slept on the mattress not having time to set up the bed frame.

Although it was great to stay in the house it soon became apparent that this wasn't going to be holiday. Every thing you touched was covered in grit and building dust and only after few hours we both had dry and sore throats.There was no chance of keeping your clothes clean and after a few days our hands also became dry. The floorboards to the bedroom were covered in plaster dust as was everywhere else. Having said that the bathroom was complete and looked great, and the new doors and windows transformed the whole property.

Having had a meal - a salad that we had brought over with us and a glass of wine we threw down a few dust sheets and pieces of cardboard over the bedroom floor and retired to spend our first night sleep in the house.
We spent the next two weeks painting up the shutters, decorating the bathroom and the two smallest bedrooms and landing and carrying out a few odd jobs. As the two weeks wore on the comfort level increased and we found that after a few days the dust had settled and after a coat of paint on the walls things seemed far better, The temporary kitchen worked really well and we had an endless supply of hot water. The weather hadn't been great but it didn't matter as we were working in the house most of the two weeks.

Not much of a vacation but we left the house having achieved everything we set out to do and above all we actually stayed in it albeit rather less comfortably than we would have liked. However, having talked to other Brits that have moved out to France they recall exactly the same experiences of living in partially completed properties.

Nearing completion

2012-03-26T22:33:00.000+01:00

We have just got back from a week in France having inspected the work carried out to our little house. Last time we saw it was last July when it didn’t have a roof on. So with so much work completed it was amazing to see the transformation. There are now three bedrooms, a bathroom and an en-suite shower room. All the first fix electrics and plumbing work is complete together with the plaster boarding work.

Some of the exposed stonework has been pointed and both the new window openings formed. Although alot had been done there remained second fixes to the electrics and joinery works the fitting of the bathroom equipment, tiling and floor finishes as well as the last major structural alterations of forming two external door openings and the fitting of the kitchen.

It has became evident but to no great surprise that we aren't going to be able to finish the work within our budget. Unfortunately having to fit an entire new roof and renewing the whole of the first floor coupled with a poor exchange rate has taken its toll on the bank account. We always set out on this project with a budget “set in concrete” so we agreed with our builders to finish off the first floor works and all the second fixes including the staircase together with the plumbing, hot and cold water and heating services.

A temporary kitchen will be fitted so we will be able to use the house from the end of June. The remaining work will be carried out by ourselves which will be the tiling work to the ground floor, remainder of the pointing work to the ground floor and painting throughout. We shall take the flat pack kitchen over to France ourselves build it up and pay the builder to fit it, hopefully towards the end of the year. The installation of the doors will be done next year.

We don’t see this as a set back but as an opportunity to do a few things ourselves, something that we have not been able to do so far. This will also save us a bit of money and help with overall costs.

Super foil insulation

2012-03-10T21:27:00.000+00:00

Reflective foil insulation for roofs has been around for a few years and is something that has been used in our new roof. Generally in England for roofs to comply with the U values laid down in part L1A of the Building Regulations using fibre glass based material requires thickness's up to 250mm.

In our roof because of the raised tie the area where there is a slope in the ceiling there is only the full depth of the 70mm deep rafter were insulation can be placed. Bearing in mind that a 25mm air gap is required over the insulation then there is only a maximum of 50mm available for insulation, well short of what is required.

The answer for us was to use reflective insulation fixed to the underside of the rafters prior to fixing of the plaster board.

So what makes reflective foil insulation so high performing when compared with glass fibre materials. The answer is radiation and conduction. Reflective insulation is made from layers aluminium foil, wadding and air bubbles and works by reflecting radiant heat and is around 95% efficient. Whereas traditional materials such as fibreglass blankets relies on its ability to resist the passage of heat by the trapping of air in its mass. Reflective foil is may times more efficient as a insulator and does this with far less material.

Free Heat

2012-03-08T19:49:00.000+00:00

We will be installing a wood burning stove in the stone fireplace of the house. We already have quite a lot of timber that we will not be able to use either in the house or around the garden so it will be burnt over the winter months to keep the open plan ground floor heated. The stoves can generate between 6kW and 9kW of heat which is quite a lot for room of an area of just 48sq.m. Also, the heat is not that controllable. It’s either too hot or not quite warm enough or just right but only for a short while.

So I got to thinking of what I have seen in old houses and offices were there are grilles within the ceiling to the floors above. These may have been ventilation grilles but will serve equally as heat transfer grilles. These could be positioned in the corners of the bedroom away from any bedroom furniture and fitted with an adjustable louvre to the top side and a decorative cast iron grille to the ceiling side.

I would like to think the heat will escape to the upstairs via the stairway opening which of course it will but doubt it will ever heat anything but the landing area. The heat won’t escape through the downstairs ceiling as we have 15mm flooring on top of a 20mm of boarding on 12mm plasterboard. Good for sound but a barrier to heat.

The downside of all this of course being the transfer of sound between upstairs and downstairs which would be hard to control and couldn’t be achieved by simply closing the louvre. It would require some sought of damper that starts to make the whole idea quite complicated unless you had both the time and ingenuity to devise a simple damper system that could be worked from the bedroom side of the heat transfer grille.

However, if sound transfer isn’t a worry then I think it’s great way of keeping air moving round the house whilst keeping the bedroom heated during cold winter months.

Plastic Fantastic

2012-03-06T22:38:00.001+00:00

More than ever there is a move towards the use of plastic or more accurately chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVQ), polybutylene (PB), and cross- linked polyethylene (PEX) pipe and fittings for hot and cold water and heating services. Tradesmen are moving towards the use plastic pipe and fittings for several reasons including the high cost of traditional materials such as copper and steel. Also the ease of fixing is another significant factor giving companies a competitive edge on the cost of labour as well as cost of the materials. It is said that a 40% saving on labour cost can be made by using plastic pipe.

However, the most recent and most significant driver to the use of plastics is theft of fitted metal pipe purely for its scrap value. Most theft from building sites is being carried out during the small hours but increasingly over the weekend when buildings are not occupied. Incidentally it’s not just pipe work but other fixed items such as steel radiators and lead flashing that is stolen. An immense amount of damage is caused to the fabric of the building as very often the pipe work is charged and pressurised with water and is simply cut and ripped off walls and ceiling s flooding the premises.

So how good is plastic piping? Without doubt some tradesmen have reservations in its use and will not use it and can probably give you examples of where it has failed. I would say that most of the failure has been simply bad fitting and lack of knowledge of the product. For instance the care still has to be taken to ensure that the pipe is cut square and the ends prepared before pushing fully into a fitting. Fittings can also be over tightened to the point of failure. Simply because it’s faster to install doesn’t mean than the same care doesn’t have to taken in its fitting.

It cannot be denied and fittings are manufactured to BS EN ISO standard and quality... Installation standards are also governed by BS. Also manufacturers have gained acceptance from British Gas for various types of heating systems and are eligible for acceptance onto Home Care Central Heating System Cover.

Finally, I cannot solder, I don’t own a blow torch or a tin of flux, a pipe cutter or bender but I do own a saw and a file and can now take on those small plumbing jobs.

Probleme de transport de meubles

2012-03-05T22:53:00.000+00:00

Over the last few months we have been buying one or two items of furniture for the house. We have been taking advantage of sales and so far have picked up a dining table and six chairs from Homebase , and a double bed from Dreams. Also we have bought a shower screen and tray from Victoria Plumb and we are now looking to buy a mattress.

It was never our intention to buy furniture over here and transport the goods over to France but we have found that the exchange rate hasn’t been in our favour and we are never over in France when the sales on. Also to be honest we find some of the furniture very quirky and not to our taste unless you deep pockets then some of the furniture is really is nice. Together with the other items we have bought such as crockery, cutlery, kitchen knives, bedding, duvets, etc we have collected quite alot of things. All of this leads to a problem. We need to transport these things over to France and the cheapest option is to use a trailer. We can use this time and time again as we have a lot more things to buy over a period of time such as wardrobes, chest of drawers, bedside tables, another two beds and whatever else takes our fancy which will need to transported over.

So we are in the market for a trailer, new or second hand. Something big enough to take a double mattress either laid flat or its side. A box trailer or camping type trailer would fit the bill nicely. Any one got one to sell?

Below are links to the sites we have used all of which appear to have on-line sales. Incidentally we have found that if you order beds from the Dreams high street shop they will charge you around £35 for delivery. Buy it on-line its free delivery .
www.victoriaplumb.com
http://www.homebase.co.uk/
http://www.dreams.co.uk/

Blog Upgrade

2012-03-04T13:31:00.002+00:00

February saw a record month for visits to the site so I thought readers should be able to get more from their visits. So I have decided to ring in the changes with regards to how I present my regular blogs and that these changes should be very bold.

I hope you like the all new French Property Renovation blogsite. I really like the magazine feel together with the dynamic views that looks far more professional and are far easier to navigate. All the blogs are accessible from the front page which is great as some articles were getting lost within the archives and therefore would never see the light of day. A simple click opens up each blog in more detail.

This is the first of the changes that are being made and very soon a new and exciting development and direction of the site will be announced - so please keep returning and look up some of the old blogs. Oh and please leave a comment and let me know what you think to the changes.

Paving

2012-03-03T19:18:00.003+00:00

I am thinking of laying various types of exposed aggregate finished hard landscaped areas around the outside areas of the house, These can be easily achieved with a bit of experimenting, first on small areas that can be easily removed before embarking on large areas. Careful batching of materials in a hand mixer is the key to ensure consistency of colour and texture. The concrete must be placed into form work and tamped to level and finished with a wood float and then allowed a set. The time taken to achieve this will be anything up to an hour depending on the air temperature. The surface of the concrete then needs to be sprayed with a concrete retarding agent. After a further six hours gently power wash the surface to expose the aggregate and then leave to cure. By using combinations of different natural sands and aggregates various interesting colours and textures can be achieved.

The building sand in the Charente is light grey in colour and mixing this with 5mm-10mm sized white sharp aggregate, again which is common to the area should produce a good look for a patio area to the front of the house. There's not too much you can do about the colour of the cement as this varies between different manufacturers i.e. between dark grey and light grey, but it has to be taken into consideration when you are trying to come up with a desired colour and texture.

I am reliably informed by Philip Voice who runs a landscaping network and lives in France that the local materials I have seen is sharp sand (sablé batir) and castine (white limestone scaplings). Phil's site is well worth a visit by the way http://www.landscapejuicenetwork.com/ .

A another good source of information is the Lafarge website. Lafarge is a major player in cements and aggregates and are leaders in engineered concrete paving solutions. They have a site that illustrates in more detail the spectacular effects that can be achieved with concrete when creating hard landscaped areas. http://www.lafarge.co.uk/wps/portal/uk/3_D-Construction_Solutions If you have any technical issues or need advice I know they will be only to pleased help

Under floor heating and electric boiler

2012-02-26T16:06:00.000+00:00

Back in February 2011 I posted a blog about underfloor heating something that we have decided to use in our bathrooms but of the electric type. Also in an October 2010 blog I wrote about an electric boiler which could be used to in conjunction with a piped hot water UFH system. Now I can report on project that incorporates both.

Even better this current project that I am working on. It has a piped UFH system and the Contractor has cleverly incorporated a temporary heating rig utilising an electric boiler to help dry out the floor screed. The rig is connected directly into the header pipework and can be moved around the building as required to other headers so over a period of time the screed is helped to dry out slowly. The building is not yet watertight and is waiting for the windows to be fitted which will over the next week. The temperature through the screed has to be carefully controlled to prevent the screed from drying out to fast and cracking.

Below are are a couple of photographs showing the floor before screeding together with the temporary boiler arrangement. Hopefully you can work from the photographs how the rig works without explanation. However, if you need more information please leave a comment and I will get back to you

Stonework preservation

2012-02-25T22:11:00.001+00:00

A common mistake many people make when renovating a stone built property is to use cement based renders and mortars. Raking out the lime mortar and re-pointing with sand/cement mortar or even worse rendering the stone with a sand/cement render will literally prevent the stonework from breathing. Likewise rendering the internal surfaces of the external walls with cement based renders and plaster will cause decay of the stonework. Literally the walls will weaken, crumble eventually collapse.

The tradesman of the past knew a thing or two when building stone properties. Stonework needs to breath otherwise trapped moisture together with the extremes of weather in the form of freezing and thawing will permanently weaken the stone. Lime based mortars and renders allow the passage of moisture through the wall construction. and allow the surface to dry out. Poor choice of materials including vinyl based emulsion paints result in the formation of salt stains and paint flaking on internal surfaces.

So use lime mortars and renders if you want to preserve stonework. Lime based paints must be used on the walls. You may get the odd damp patch here and there in the winter months but these usually dry out with minimal damage to the decorated surface. At worst patch painting of the wall with spare lime based paint is all that will be required. Better this than rebuilding the entire wall.

A really good site that goes into greater detail and should be consulted in all matters stone wall damp issues is http://www.heritage-house.org/damp.html

Latest Photos

2012-02-24T23:29:00.000+00:00

Our builders have been motoring on with the work to the first floor and the rooms are now formed with almost all of the first floor first fixes complete. The ceilings are fully boarded together with at least one side of the metal stud wall. We have decided to insulate certain walls to cut down the sound between rooms and adjacent to Bathrooms.

Much of the telephone conversations with Tony and Steve over the last week has been about plumbing. All the hot and cold supply pipework and drainage connections are being hidden behind stud walls and then terminated at the right position for the appliances that have yet to be purchased. I think we have just about eliminated all of the surface fixed pipework which we would have had to boxed in.

One thing that needed us to compromise on is the shower tray which has to be built up off the floor by 100mm as we have an exposed beam ceiling. This is to enable fitting of a trap and the waste and to achieve the correct fall into the main drain pipe and soil stack. In short we don't want to see pipework hanging through the ceiling when we are sat in the lounge.

The weather is much warmer in France at the moment so we are hoping that work on installing the new windows and doors can re-start. This will be just about the last major work item to be completed and will transform the ground floor and give a view out the back of the house onto the garden.

We are heading out to take a look at the work next month staying at our friends house literally a stones throw away. It will then have been seven months since we saw our petite maison at a time when it didn't even have a roof so we are getting really excited.

Progress Indeed

2012-02-12T21:59:00.003+00:00

Here's the latest photos sent over from France kindly taken by our builder Tony. They were taken a week or so ago and show the first floor bedrooms and bathroom spaces taking shape together with the first fix electrics. All the walls are being formed in the metal studwork that was the subject of one of my first blogs.

The sloping parts of the ceiling have been insulated and plasterboard fixed to these areas. I noticed something in the photographs that appeared to look like a trestle but after a bit more of looking at I worked out that it was a piece of equipment that is used to load a sheet of plasterboard on then it is mechanically raised to the ceiling for fixing. This certainly takes the back breaking work out of the operation. These can be purchased or hired and the link below will take you to a typical site.
http://www.brandontoolhire.co.uk/lifting-hire/prodview.asp?idproduct=142

I am hoping for some more photographs to be sent this week so will do another post soon. If you missed my blog on the studwall you can find it on the listing on the right for Saturday, 27 November 2010

Stair Crazy

2012-02-11T17:43:00.003+00:00

The builders have asked for the details of the staircase. We have always said that we wanted something unusual, simple and chunky looking that will be hidden completely behind a wall. The French seem experts in producing creaky staircases and given our exacting requirements this would need to be of a bespoke design and hand made. These are the details that we quickly drawn up.

Together with the drawings the builders were also sent a photograph of a similar staircase that was found on the Internet. If ours turns out like this one we shall be really pleased.

The baluster at the landing level was something else that was a thought about hard and long.First of all we were thinking of glass then developed into something a bit more simple in the form of stainless steel posts and wire. It moved onto wrought iron and is always the case back to our original idea of glass.

For more details on stairs in oak and glass that can be purchased in kit form here are a few links.

http://www.tradestairs.com/acatalog/Vision_Oak_Grooved_Handrails.html

http://www.stairplan.com/townsend-oak-staircase.html

One last thing is that we had a bit of surprise with the discarded floor joists in that they are of oak and have enough to make the treads and risers. Cutting the timbers down to the right dimensions and building up the staircase is going to be a really nice job for the joiners right now particularly as the temperature in France is around about -9 degrees during the day. The inside of the house is bitterly cold especially when the wind gets up and we think on more than one occasion Tony and Steve had to head back home early to get warm.

Build update

2012-02-04T15:17:00.001+00:00

The internal block support wall running up alongside stairway opening is now complete. The new first floor joists all in oak has been installed and trimmed back over the stairwell.

As the floor joists are to be exposed I suggested to the builder that we lay the plasterboard on top of the floor joists before laying the floor board. This would save time later plaster boarding from underneath. This has worked out brilliantly well and all that needs to be done is to carry out plaster skim work and we are done. I had thoughts about the plasterboard crushing under the weight of furniture loading but decided that the floor board would distribute the load sufficiently not be an issue.

We have issued an electrical layout to the builders giving switching positions/arrangements as well as power outlet positions and tv outlets. So we had to carefully think out were we wanted beds and furniture to be put. There has been a change in programme and with the freezing weather setting in any stonework operations is out of question.The builders efforts over the coming are now concentrating on the first floor works,first fixes, insulating and boarding the ceiling.

Floors

2012-01-07T16:28:00.008+00:00

The beginning of December saw an insulated solid concrete floor being laid in the house. This is a vast improvement on the brick tile floor laid directly on the ground. We have salvaged the tiles and hope to eventually lay them back down as a floor finish.

The last few weeks leading up to Christmas has seen focus switching to the first floor structure. With the chestnut floor boarding removed the builders have been able to inspect the ends of the timber joists that are embedded in the walls.

We were prepared to replace the odd timber or two and also support the joists from the underside with a timber frame to provide additional support and to take some of the deflection out of the floor, re-using some of the old oak roof timbers for the support frame. However, as ever, things have not worked as planned.

The majority of the floor joists are rotten and there is a dip in the floor of about 50mm from one of the building to the other. Weighing up all the options we decided to renew the floor joists in oak. These have worked out to be 200x80 at 450 centres for a span of 5.4m.

So we go into the New Year hoping that the new windows and doors will go in over the next few weeks followed by plastering of ground floor walls. But this is France so who knows!

Roof complete.

2011-11-06T23:41:00.001+00:00

Our roof is now complete, fully tiled and complete with roof lights. We now have a light airy space in what was once the Grenier and really looks fantastic with the natural stone walls that for 100 years haven't seen the light of day.

We now have some really interesting dynamics going on in the building which has again changed our thoughts on how we progress with the renovation works. It would be a crime not to keep areas of the stonework. So we have decided to re-point the front and rear walls and to insulate and plasterboard the gable.

The next stage of the works is to look at the condition of the first floor joists. These are a cause of concern with several of the timbers being in poor condition. The floor is "bouncy" and slopes by around 50mm from one end to the other. So over next few days the builder is going to take a look at things and advise us on things.

Over the next few weeks it is planned to lay the new concrete floor and form the new door and window openings. The new hardwood double glazed doors and windows have been delivered. So it should be all go but this is France so we are not holding our breath!

Roof nearly complete

2011-09-25T22:06:00.005+01:00

Our new roof is nearly complete after what seems an age with house exposed to the elements. The joiners have been taking full advantage of the September sunshine and the timber roof structure is finally in place, fully constructed and trimmed out ready to receive the Velux rooflights.

We were given the news last week that the chimney stack was unstable and needed to be re-built. This came of no great surprise given the age of the property and that the mortar bonding the stonework and brickwork together is clay based (ie mud). The plus side of this is that the stack has been reconstructed re-using the bricks. If you look closely at the photographs you can just see the leadwork that has been built into the brickwork that will be dressed over the tiles.

You will also notice that the there are little columns or pillars to the corners of the stack. These will eventually support a concrete or stone capping slab. This is the french way of doing things although they also have clay chimney pots in much the same way as in the UK. There is also an element of making good of the stonework along the gables and at the wallplate position.

With the rooflights having been picked up by our neighbours and safely stored in their garage and with the tiles having arrived last week together with the felt and battens, fingers crossed we shall have achieved our first construction milestone by the end of the week. At this point we have to thank our friends and neighbours Martin and Angela for taking these photos and keeping us informed on progress and generally "running around" on our behalf ensuring that things dont go wrong - something that often does if you aren't "on site".

Anyone seen my bike?

2011-09-06T22:11:00.000+01:00

During the work to remove the existing roof structure of all things a bike was found in the roof space. This was thrown unceremoniously over the wall only to be caught in the ivy growing on the wall. We are thinking of framing this and sending to the builders.

There was a suggestion that we should extend the renovation project to include the bike. Needless to say the bike found its way into the skip.

Now the roof has gone the next job is to level up and strength the existing wall . This is being done by the casting a reinforced concrete ring beam to tie the walls together. The photograph below shows the timber formwork in position ready to receive the reinforcement and concrete. There needs to be a similar beam casting to the front with tie rods connecting them together to form a rigid box. Then the new roof can be put on.

Holiday report part 2

2011-09-06T20:58:00.002+01:00

During our stay in France, holed up in our little touring caravan waiting for the rain to stop, we had plenty of time to think about how we wanted to renovate the cottage. We decided to discard with the underfloor heating to the ground floor opting instead for a log burning stove kicking out up to 7 KW.

More than enough space heating. We will probably put in a some electric convectors in here and there as background heating for the Winter months when we may not be there.

The biggest decision was to take up the existing clay floor tiles which have been laid directly on the ground and are an original feature of the house. They are 30mm thick so these will be re-bedded onto the new floor construction. They will need a bit of cleaning before they go back down but it will be worth the hard work.

Holiday report part 1

2011-08-08T22:23:00.001+01:00

We have just got back from a holiday in France having spent the best part of two weeks in our Caravan pitched up in the back garden of our house. Our friends opposite had cut the grass down to as far as possible and prepared a nice pitch for the van. The builders had opened up the hedge off the lane so we could drive into the back garden, mains water and electric had been laid on and we have 3000 litre fosse to dispose of our toilet waste.

Everything was perfect except we forgot to order the sun. Ten days of continuous rain, seriously stopped any real work on the house and any chance of topping up our tans The previous week scaffold had been erected around the house and the front wall re-built up to approximate floor level. The roof tiles had been removed and broken up for hardcore. Our poor house is now open to the elements with only the skeleton of a roof for protection and the rain continued to fall day after day.