Staircase arrived

Early this morning our two made-to-measure staircases arrived flatpack along with two men to fit them in the gites. They had to be custom built because of the high ceilings in the gites. A few weeks later than we hoped but here at last.

The two workers have been beavering away all day and have erected the framework and about half the steps. It should take about a week to do both staircases in the gites.
It will be a relief once they are finally installed, not just because we are fed up with ladders, but the gites are now starting to look habitable, especially with Caroline starting to fit the first kitchen and my friend Ian fitting the santitaryware in the two bathrooms.
A little visible progress lifts the spirts somewhat after alot of hum-drum preparation work.
 brittany gites
 6:19:14 PM   Staircase arrived   

Filling

This is really starting to be a major chore, taping and jointing and filling all the small gaps, especially round the beams etc. It's very tempting to get some textured paint and cover over everything. The problem with 'flat' paint is it shows all the blemishes too easily, hence extra sanding down and more careful filling.
The good news is I have almost finished both the large downstairs rooms in each gite and broken the back of the kitchen in the left hand gite.
brittany gites
 5:11:54 PM   Filling   

Taping and Jointing

The last week has seen me covered in fine white dust, dried out lumps of filler and decorators caulk. I've been Taping and Jointing the remaining bathrooms for Caroline to tile. The process involves applying several coats of filler over all the screw holes in the plasterboard and filling the joints between plasterboard sheets.

The screw holes are simple, just swipe a little jointing compound over the hole ensuring no filler is left proud. Once dry and quick rub with some fine glasspaper and then apply a little more over any screw holes or blemishes that have sunk.

The joints and corners are a little more complicated. The external corners have a thin metal right angle piece screwed to the edge and then filler is applied over the metal strip and blended into the faces of the plasterboard. It's mush easier if the chamfered edges of the plasterboard are on the external corner. Again apply jointing compound, a light sand down and a final smoothing coat. Internal corners I arrange so that there is a snug fit without the chamfered edge and it's just a matter of running a bead of decorators caulk (acrylic mastic) down the edge.

The joints on the walls and ceilings have a self adhesive glass fibre tape stuck between the two bits of plasterboard. As long as the two chamfered edges of the board meet there is a 'well' between the boards. Apply a coat of jointing compound into the joint pushing it through the woven tape and almost flush with the face of the plasterboard. I've got a couple of spatulas, approx. 10cm wide and 25cm wide that you run over the joints to ensure no filler is proud. Once dry apply the second coat liberally then run the wide spatula over the joint removing the excess and leaving a smooth 'invisible' seam. I've found it is essential to keep the edges of the spatulas clean because the slightest piece of dried compound leaves a score mark down the joint.

It's quite a fiddly time consuming job, and there is still loads left to do, but I can't plaster and once you get proficient at taping and joiting  I don't think it's much slower in actual time, just that the operation is pread over several days waiting for filler to dry. I think it works out a bit cheaper as well.

 brittany gites
 5:40:17 PM   Taping and Jointing