15 February 2014

A new month - and it is still raining!  In over 13 years here I haven't seen so many rainy days one after another.  Fortunately the majority of the work is inside now - but drying of the plaster and floor is taking for ever.  I still hope to be in by the 1st of March. I will have to be as I've given in my notice for the place I am renting! 

The mine collapse has been sorted. I dug out a long trench about 20 cm deep following the top of the tunnel arch and poured a reinforced concrete slab.  Then covered it with the hardcore. You can't see anything now. It will be tested when the paving slabs are delivered!! From where the stone work ends, I'm going to continue the stone wall at 90 degrees - dividing the area (Christel and Bruno's side and mine).  They are delighted as it has given them a neat parking area not in front of the house.

With all the rain - as you would expect - the well is filling up!  The water table is only 30cm below the surface of the ground!  Talking to a neighbour who has a well further up the valley at the same level, even in the driest of summers his well is never dry.  It should supply me with plenty of water for the garden - and to top up the pond in the summer.  Now all I have to do is organise a pump (submersible) and the pipe arrangement by the house - one towards the future veg garden and one (already laid) near the pond.





Little has changed with the front of the house - we can't arrange the render until the weather is drier. But - on the couple dry days we had Stephane levelled the area at the front which will be the terrace.  Needless to say this is now very muddy!

You can see how neat a wall the bamboos make along the back of the terrace area.  It is going to look so nice once all the paving (a brown-earthy colour) is laid with raised flower beds.





At the moment I am laying the chip-board flooring to the attic room and mezzanine. A bit physically demanding gingerly stepping on the joists only carrying the chipboard sheets.  This weekend I hope to finish this task and be ready for the parquet when arrives.  This will give me a 'clean' area to move at least some of my things into - even if it will be difficult with the stairs.

22nd February

 It wasn't too easy trying to carry the heavy chipboard sheets around when walking on the joists!  But I managed without putting my foot through the plastered ceiling!On top of the joists I had stapled 2mm strips of compressed polystyrene. The options were this or cork however when I checked the acoustic qualities of cork they didn't come close to that of the polystyrene (sadly).  This material came in a big pack 1m x 15m but was easy to cut with a saw to produce the strips I needed. Total cost - 3E.

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 As recommended I left a good 1-2cm around the edges for expansion. Lucky I did - the house is so damp from the wet weather we have had that overnight this gap was reduced to almost nothing!!  I was very luck when laying the sheets, the dimensions were perfect for t sheets end to end, with the centre join sitting on a joist!

The parquet came is 'tiles' of 48cm x 48cm, with the lats of oak arranged in strips of 5. Once I had mastered the art of getting the plastic wrapping off the packs without losing lots of the little strips, they went down OK.  One thing I did learn was that I shouldn't have tried to use an opened pack the next day when laying the second room. The placks has swollen by a good 1cm and caused big problems in trying to keep my lines correct as you can imagine.


 
Another important thing was the glue (very very expensive). The cheapest 'quality' one I found was 83E for enough to cover 15m2. Unfortunately I didn't use the correct comb in the first (attic) room and ended up only covering about 9m2 with the tub!!  Nothing was mentioned on the tub - but when I went to buy more gunge, I found the correct shark-tooth comb rather than square tooted comb next to it.

Cutting the small bits to finish off correctly was tedious - but knowing it would be I'd treated myself to a new fine toothed saw - at last  hear my brother saying!

The wood does need staining to bring out the grain and liven up the colour. You can use a natural coloured wax (very ecological - but needs re-doing about twice a year), an oil (good for the wood but also needs care) or acrylic varnish which protects the wood completely - and for years. I chose to stain the wood with a mix of light-oak and walnut stain - only because I wanted something between both these colours. I mixed well over what I'd need to ensure I didn't run out and applied it with a fine wide paint-brush. You have to work methodically and make sure you don't go over any parts a second time.  The next day I applied the acrylic sealant (an ecological one with no nasties) with a very wide fine brush and stood back to appreciate the result!! Beautiful!!  With a bit of care, the finish with this parquet can look really nice.  Now all I need to do is stain and fit the skirting boards.
Cost : The quote I had had from the builder had been 60E/m2 + Tax at 20% - so about 71E/m2 for pine planking (nailed to the joists). This would still have needed staining and sealing and I have to say I didn't like the idea of 'pine' with knots for a flooring.  Laying water resistant 22mm chipboard (8E/m2), then the  oak parquet (15E/m2), plus glue (6E/m2), stain and sealant, all came to under 30E/m2 and for both rooms - probably a week's work saving me about 1400E for the 35m2 and I now have a lovely oak parquet floor.

 Boxing in the flush system for the suspended toilets is time-consuming would have been an expensive job had the builders done it. So I set up the frame, cut and fixed on the fermacell panels. 6hrs work for the two toilets at a material cost of 35E.  I'm sure the builders will have done it in less time but at 60E/hr - even if it had taken 4hrs it would have significantly added to the price of these toilets.










I should be in the house at the end of the month. Only waiting for the floors to dry enough for laying the tiles by Fred, however - there have been problems with the back wall.  Because of the sharp cold we had in November (minus 7C) the outside render couldn't be put on.  With the genoise (roof overhang) on all sides but the back the unusual amount of rain we have had hasn't been a problem - except for that wall. The law is that when you build on the limit of property, you can't even have a roof overhanging the neighbour or a gutter! So - the gutter has to be set in the top of the wall. The render is then very important to ensure a seal. No render - and even with mortar at the top of the wall, a lot of wet has been seeping down through that wall.  This has been worrying because the walls and ceilings were plastered in December and that side hasn't been able to dry - and the damp has been feeding down and soaking into the under floor heating and screed floor.
This has to be totally dry before the tiles can be laid.  Normally the drying is 1 month. We are now 5 weeks and it is still wet.  Obviously (hind-sight is a wonderful thing) we should have covered the back wall back in December when we realised the render couldn't be done until better weather in early spring.  But it wasn't. So -even if it is protected now - we have another good month to wait for the walls and flooring to dry in those 3 rooms at the back of the house.   Too long. I have phoned Antoine and suggested we push ahead with the tiling of the house - all but those back 3 rooms (guest bedroom, shower room and utility room).  I've checked with the plumber. He can fit the out-flow of my shower room anytime and only needs 60cm2 area of the utility room flooring laid to put in the hot water tank (the heat pump which  is wall mounted is already installed).   So - now I'm waiting for a reply...... If he is OK with this suggestion - I can be in by the 8th of March (and have moved some of my things into the attic and mezzanine rooms earlier). I have to move soon - I've given my notice on this rented place 2 months ago!