Scaffolding removed

The maçons tell me they will be finished on Monday lunchtime apart from pouring the concrete for the kitchen floor on Tuesday morning once I've tied in the electric cabling for the kitchen. Most of the afternoon was spent tidying up and removing scaffolding etc. They do work fast. We've had four blokes for the last couple of days, and the kitchen is finished. They only put in the foundations two days ago !

You can see from the picture the outside is almost finished. Some slate roofing on the kitchen (far left) and the two new lucarnes (same as the middle one), a bit of blockwork in the central opening to make two windows then some cream coloured enduit on the blockwork for the kitchen and in the middle.

It's difficult to see but under each window sill they have deliberately left out stonework from the center. There is just a void. The head maçon told me it was to stop the stone breaking if the supporting stone at each end dried at an uneven rate. For example if the right hand side sunk very slightly any central stonework could act as a fulcrum on a lever causing the stone to be bent and break. Once dry and any danger of settling has passed they plug the hole.

I've been very impressed with our French builders. We've used English builders in England, English builders in France and obviously French builders here. Our best experience has been with the local French builders. They are a little more expensive but the work is guaranteed for 10 years and because they specialise (there is a strict demarkation of trades) the quality of their work is superb.

 7:54:01 PM   Scaffolding removed   

Wood and water

A profitable day and a stressful day.

First the profitable part,

With the granite lintel in place the maçons propped up the wall, window and floor above it so they could remove the two old oak lintels. For the first time I've actually seen them use steel girders for support instead of wood, so I guess there must be an awful lot more load this time. They also 'chocked' up the lucarne with zig-zag bits of wood, I assume to prevent collapse due to the lack of support. Once supported, the oak was chainsawed out in sections, ready for concrete and stone infill.

Of course, having two wood burning stoves in the house I pounced on the wood as if they were made of gold. A few hours chainsawing and splitting gave us a substaintial pile of wood for the winter. I got over 1 cubic meter of logs, which is not too bad. Based on last year we reckon that we need 8 or 9 m³ (3 cordes) to last the winter.

---

...and the stressful portion,

The digger man (and digger lady) arrived this morning to demolish the lean-to and dig the foundations ready to rebuild it into a kitchen for one of the gites. Those of you that have followed progress will know about the rising water main in the lean-to. It's a rigid plastic pipe sticking out the ground next to a wall that has the stopcock, water meter and pressure reducer attached with a supply pipe for our house and the three gites.

As you would expect, just before a man starts swinging around a 1 ton steel articulated hydralic arm, I pointed out this vunerable aspect of the demolition work. Be careful. Well the inevitable happened. The was a ring at the door "The pipes come off. What's the number for the water board ?" says a rather sheepish lady, "Where is the stopcock ?". I go out to turn off the stopcock on the pipe and then realise, that's the bit that's come off. There is water everywhere ! We can't find the main stopcock in the road or the verge, so whilst I divert gallons and gallons of water into a nearby ditch with old bits of rainwater pipe and guttering lashed together with sticky tape, the water board is called.

This has put a bit of a dampener on the day.

A very very grumpy water board man arrived and before even trying to turn off the water, started to complain about us having a water meter outside and it should be inside a building. Well 10 minutes ago it was inside a building and next week it will be back inside a building, but this didn't cut any ice. "It should be inside a building", he says. Arggg!! OK, armed with metal detector and stopcock key water man (WM) stomps up and down the verge looking for the main stopcock swearing under his breath.

In the meantime the bread lady arrives and informs us that the village upstream from us hasn't got any water. The problem is it's spewing out all over our building site and we pinched all the water pressure!

Finally WM locates the stockcock and turns it off. Nothing happens, apart from the village downstream having no water ! Digger man is hiding. WM decides to give up on the main stopcock and just fit a new one onto our rising main with the water still on. Water reconnected and normallity is restored. Apart from everyone being up to their knees in mud.

A quick discussion with WM and the builders and we decided the best thing was to position the water meter etc. outside the new building in a plastic box buried underground. It means that the WM can read the meter without bothering us. I go off shopping to get the necessary plumbing supplies to re-route the pipes on our side of the meter (the private side) and expect the WM to re-route his pipes (the public side).

By now the digger man has finished the foundations and the pair of them leave, sharpish.

I'm expecting to do a bit of plumbing in the afternoon, but now find out that the concrete mixer is en-route to fill the foundations ready for building. This is now getting stressful, water meters in the wrong place, no time for plumbing, and it all about to be covered over with tonnes of concrete.

Fortunately our trusty builders sort it out and put a conduit under the foundations before they are poured so I can thread a pipe and get water into the building from the proposed new meter position outside. Once the new meter is installed we will just cut off the old rising main pipe.

Voila. Beer time.

 9:26:31 PM   Wood and water   

Positioning Lintel

The new granite lintel for the old barn door was placed in position today. You can just see in the photo the original oak lintel above with a metal runner for the door. The old plan was to directly replace the oak lintel with this granite version, but once you see things in the flesh they look quite different to on a plan. So in order to make the building look less like a barn and more like two gites, we have lowered the new lintel to align with the tops of the new doors then the old oak lintel will be removed and the space above infilled with stone. The large opening will then be 'hidden' and hopefully it should look less agricultural but still retain the charm and appeal of an old stone breton building.

The three maçons didn't seem that stressed by the whole operation, but we did notice them puffing away on several cigarettes beforehand and very quickly lit up another round of fags once the stone was safely in position. It's a big piece of stone to be swinging about on the end of a fork lift.

 8:08:18 PM   Positioning Lintel   

Lucarnes

The stonework for both the lucarnes is in position. Once the uprights have set hard, they will pop on the two lintels then it's over to the carpenter and roofer. Because the stones are 'free' standing they have actually drilled a hole in the tops and bottoms of the stones and passed and glued a metal bar between each pair to add strength. The top two smaller stones on each side are actually one piece with a groove cut around the middle to make it look like two stones. Once it's all pointed you would never know.

The digger man was meant to arrive today to demolish the lean-to (new kitchen) and dig the foundations for it's replacement. Originally we just expected to put a new roof on, but when they dug out to lay the new concrete floor in the barn they noticed that the lean-to had no foundations and was very fragile. Hence the extra work (and cost). He's hoping he arrives first thing Monday or else our builders will run out of work very soon.

 8:42:46 PM   Lucarnes   

Started Lucarnes

The front doors are finished, as is the back window and side door. This morning they started on the new lucarnes, (dormer windows), but it threw up a problem. The A-Frame beams upstairs that support the roof would foul the proposed position of the windows. They architect had drawn them directly above the doors, and had not taken the beams into account. I think it was fairly obvious that he not been upstairs and just drawn them in the most aesthetically pleasing position.

The builders' have been really helpful, visiting the architect, getting a carpenter on-site within 10 minutes to see what options we open to us, getting the plans re-drawn and taking the time to explain everything. We had the option to invoke the architect's insurance to move the beams and put the windows in the original position, but being pragmatic and to save time, we decided to move both windows (the left one right and the right one left) to keep the symetery.

It's quite humbling living here in France, compared to what things were like in the UK, everyone has been really kind, generous and taken the time to be patient and help us enormously. The language is still a bit of a barrier for me and the cutural differences take some getting used to, but the fact that people seem to have more time (and space) for each other makes everything a whole lot better.

 8:20:45 PM   Started Lucarnes   

Recovering old stonework.

The maçons are back up to full speed this morning and the roofers arrived to remove the slates for the new lucarnes. At the end of last week there was a small hicupp and a change. A few weeks ago we had two pallet loads of granite corner stones delivered for the new window and door frames. Over time the number of stones has been reducing as the maçons have built the windows and doors. At the end of last week it dawned on us, and the maçons, that there were not enough stones to make the side door to one of the gites. Neither ourselves or the builders noticed that there was not an entry on the quote for the side door. It was on the architect plans but somehow got left off the quote.

In order to save time and money, (ordering and paying for more stones), the maçons have cannibalised the original barn door entrance by cutting out the back of the stones (which will be hidden by the window frame) and using them to build the side door. The new new 3.5m long granite lintel, replacing the current oak lintel, on the old barn entrance will also be lowered to the same height as the lintels on new doors each side of it. This frees up some more stones for the side door and it should all look more pleasing to the eye.

It sounds a bit confusing, but in the front-on pictures of the barn that have been published, the big gapping hole in the middle of the building was the original 3m by 3m entrance. This is where the stones have been 'recovered' from.

 8:18:55 PM   Recovering old stonework.   

Doors almost finished

The workers have not been here for a few days as Thursday (Armistice Day) was a bank holiday and Friday is a pont.

They have finished the granite stonework for the doors at the front with new lintels and filled in most of the surround with stone ready for pointing. The new rear window has been framed with granite and is waiting for stone infill.

 5:49:11 PM   Doors almost finished   

Doors in progress

The workers are coming along fantastically. The two doors at the front have all the granite blocks in place surrounding the door frame and are just waiting for the lintels to be placed on top when they have dried.

Behind the granite blocks is some shuttering (wooden boards in photo on left) which is infilled with concrete, stones, etc. to build up the depth of the wall and hold everything together. It just binds the existing wall and the new facing stones. The walls are over 60cm thick so need alot of material replacing. Existing doors and windows in older parts of the building have been back-filled and finished off with stone layer by layer, but concrete is cheaper, stronger and much faster. It all gets covered over with insulation and plasterboard, so it's never going to be seen. If was done in the traditional way with lime mortar and stone then it would take weeks, not days, and consequently cost much much more.

They have now started on the openings at the rear for the kitchen and access to the patio.

Next week the roofer and carpenter arrive to take off the slates and prepare the openings in the roof so they can start on the lucarnes at the front.

 1:56:46 PM   Doors in progress   

New gite doors

The builders are back in demolition mode. Two large holes for the new gite front doors. Not a bad days work, in fact we have both been very pleased with our French builders.

The large central opening will be bricked up to waist height and made into two windows. Once the doors and windows are finished they should be able to create the two new lucarnes (dormer windows) above the doors.

 7:53:42 PM   New gite doors   

Three new Velux windows

Whilst the builders were working away downstairs my friend Ian and I have been beavering away upstairs fitting three Velux windows in the slate roof at the back of the gites. They are fairly straightforward to fit, but one word of advice, remove more slates than you think are necessary, especially at the top of the window. It's much easier to work and refit the slates when there is a larger gap to create more 'give'. Cutting through the beams to make the holes for the windows was a little nerve racking. The largest window (118cm by 114cm) leaves a big hole in the roof and you need to remove quite alot of the structure. I suspect we over engineered the replacement bracing and strenthening, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I'm a big fan of Velux windows as they let in so much light and really brighten up a room.

 8:34:31 PM   Three new Velux windows   

Dividing gite wall built

The builders arrived yesterday with a huge cement mixer and a fork lift truck with a telescopic arm. The parpaing, concrete blocks, they were using were very very heavy (essential for good sound insulation between the gites) and without the fork lift I think it would have taken all day just the move the blocks let alone build a wall.

At the corners and ends of the wall (the wall has a kink in it to prevent building up the middle of an existing window) they knocked out a precast hole in some of the blocks in order to drop in strengthening metal rods from the top down to the floor. I didn't see it happen but I also think they drilled the foundation of the wall and inserted vertical metal rods which they then built the wall over. Once 2.5m high a special row of U shaped blocks was laid and a metal lattice placed horizontally in the U in and tied to the vertical metalwork. The U was filled with concrete/mortar and the vertical holes also filled. Apparently it's necessary for (free standing ?) walls over 2.5m to stop them toppling over. It's now finished and I wish I'd taken a photo of the wall part constructed.

 

 8:33:19 PM   Dividing gite wall built