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LesFlamands

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Everything posted by LesFlamands

  1. [quote user="Bill"] Dear Charles   I  do mean , when I buy from an artisan, then I pay 7 percent vat on both work and materials..   your web site seems to confirm this is the case.. quote We are TVA (VAT) registered and most renovation work we carry out benefits from the lower rate of TVA, 7% in place of 19.6%, on both materials and labour.     However what else is not clear is the bricos , who so far have said its renovation and they charge 7 percent.. just for materials, but then maybe they dont know I am not vat registered.. (yet) . So what you are saying is they can not charge at 7 percent they have tyo charge at 19 percent.   I am using artisans, I might  (was intending to )  just buy some stuff myself thats all     rgds  Bill [/quote]   Bill, yes I'm banging my own drum but I do find it frustrating that so many homeowners assume it is exactly as per the UK when in fact it is the complete opposite. All Artisans are very careful with their pricing and any markup is minimal so with care on an average refurb most people would save significant amount of money using  Artisans as opposed to Auto Entrepreneurs whilst still benefitting from an invoice they can set against CGT and a guarantee.
  2. Artisans will charge 7% for renovation/refurbishment work. Any 'new' work should be charged at 19.6%. Artisans still pay 19.6% for materials - there's no magic ticket which allows you to buy materials at the low rate. Part of the idea of the low rate is to encourage home owners to use legit Artisans and benefit from low rate of TVA on materials as well as labour. If you use an AE or unregistered labour aprt from all the other downsides you'll pay full whack for all the materials, as you would if you buy them yourself. The consequence is that if you're doing a refurb which involves a lot of materials (new kitchen, bathroom, central heating etc. you'll be quids in using a TVA registered Artisan - plus you'll have an invoice which can be set against CGT when you sell and the work is guaranteed. Sorry to bang on but a lot of home owners don't seem to know about or understand the benefits of using proper Artisans - just because a lot of small tradesmen are busy de-registering for VAT in the UK to keep their prices down, it isn't the same here.
  3. I've had my R100GS for 22 years. I tried an 1150GS (same colour) for 3 years but never really got to like it, dead reliable tho'.
  4. [quote user="Théière"] Panic'd a few years back and did, those people never stop asking for something else +,+,+,+,+.   [/quote] Same experience - we offered a discount a few years ago to fill a sticky week, guests from hell so never again
  5. We get a lot of enquiries that have obviously been sent to a number of other owners. They usually ask if the property is available for the dates they want and for confirmation of the price. As both the availability and price are clearly stated in the advertisement   we assume 'confirmation' is the same as asking for a discount. We never offer a discount and never hear from these enquirers again so we assume they've gone for the best price/discount offered - is it you?
  6. Anglo Info - lot of scroungers on the local site here, all wanting something for nothing - even cars sometimes! [:D] And when they do turn up it's usually not the colour they were looking for!
  7. My lot (client and workers) are being processed by the authorities it turns out - nothing to do with me, but then neither did I get paid.
  8. [quote user="idun"] We lived on the first floor, where I fire was, so we would have needed things in the loft, very very well insulated tanks in the loft and you reckon that would have worked? Also, please remember we used a lot of wood, far more than anyone we knew, I do believe it was because of heating the water in the system, is this wrong? [/quote] It is possible to have the entire system running on gravity circulation without a pump. I've come across a number of installations where a large wood furnace is fitted in the cellar heating a large hot water cylinder 2 floors up and several radiators at ground and first floor level. A pump is used to get good circulation through the rads. but in the event of a power cut the gravity circulation is sufficient to sink the heat from the boiler without it reaching boiling point. This system relies on your house fitting the system requirements rather than the other way round! This would also be the issue with the accumulator on the gravity circuit - you have to have a space, preferably directly above the stove, to fit the accumulator. You then connect your radiator circuit to the accumulator with a circulating pump. Once again in the event of a power cut the accumulator should be large enough to sink the heat from the stove whilst the fires dies down. Boiler stoves are often not very efficient in terms of heating the water. In a purpose built furnace the boiler jacket wraps around the firebox and is still heated when the fire has died down to embers but in some wood stoves the boiler is fitted above the firebox and needs the fire to be going full blast to heat the water, which uses a lot more wood.
  9. Recently working for British clients who had unregistered UK workers on site as well (paid cash). Trouble started when we were asked to quote for other works and then told we were too expensive and the UK guys could do it for half the cost. The French system may mean that legit entreprises are very expensive but in my opinion if you embark on a renovation project in France you should be aware of and stick to the rules.
  10. [quote user="idun"] Les Flamands ours was really simple but it still needed a pump to circulate the water and therein lay the most simple of problems for us. The electricity going off, sometimes for minutes, sometimes for hours and as we have seen in the recent past, it can be off for days in very bad weather. And when it was off we could not use our fire, I would have loved to, but the water boiling in the system was frightening. My husband installed a system with spare batteries so that if the electricity went off the pump would change over to the emergency system. But strangely as soon as that happened we didn't have a cut in winter for a couple of years, and something went wrong with this 'emergency' system when he tested it. I would never have another stove with the heating linked in, for all it sounds like a good idea, I wouldn't. I now have two stoves and know that come what may, I can cook on them and heat the living areas. kiss is the best thing for me. [/quote] I have to agree that keeping it simple is often the answer. It may be possible using a large accumulator heated on a gravity circuit to overcome the problem of power cuts (from a safety point of view) and still have warm radiators when the fire has gone out - overcoming the two main shortcomings with wood burner central heating but the installation cost is high and as the boiler is not controlled you would still not be using the fuel efficiently. Stand alone woodstoves are a good solution for some houses but they are a lot of hard work.
  11. I've installed dozens of wood burner central heating systems usually based on the Villager stoves with integral boilers and sometimes with bolt in boilers. The systems need to be carefully designed so as to not overrun the boiler which can reduce it's lifespan. Also open vented to avoid problems in the event of power or pump failure. These are simple installations as the customer spec. is usually minimum cost, minimum technolgy. There are much improved systems available that overcome some of the safety issues and allow better regulation of the heat but these are generally a lot more costly and none of them overcome the need to keep putting logs on the fire. The obvious advantage of gas, oil and pellet boilers is that they can be switched on and off as required (by timers, thermostats etc.) and can therefore work out to be more economic in the long run.
  12. can't really say without looking at the job but it's not outrageous in my opinion.   Get another quote!
  13. If you're burning wood only you should not have any grate fitted. Steel plate stoves with a brick lining are best - some of the cheaper cast iron stoves crack. Make sure that the stove will burn at a low rate and stay in overnight.
  14. Finding work is difficult for everyone at the moment. I think setting up as AE may be your only option as none of the larger entreprises are recruiting at the moment. Any jobs going seem to be CDD due to the economic uncertainty. Whilst getting a 4/6 month contract may help in a way it's putting off the inevitable. I would bite the bullet now, move to your location of choice, register and start making contacts. By the way. I think you'll be eligible for a grant if you set up your own business after being made redundant (and exoneration of charges).
  15. Artisans register with Lapeyre who then pass on work if the client buying kitchen, bathroom, door, window etc. requires fitting. From the clients point of view this is a no hassle solution in terms of finding someone to do the work but quality can vary depending on the artisan.
  16. The strength of the existing floor is an issue but if you can overcome it then I would suggest that the most reliable way to make a waterproof unit is to use the wedi board 'receveur' and wedi board for the walls and seal all the joints using the proper band. We've used these trendy pebble type 'mosaics' which are too thick to fit under the edge of the conventional trap supplied so you end up forming a bevelled edge with grout which is not ideal and would almost certainly crack if there was any movement at all
  17. For bikes and cars more than 10 years old this lot seem cheap http://www.assurancesclavel.com/publicite.php
  18. Regreage is the universal term. Doesn't work on wood (even if it says it does) if there is any movement at all
  19. If you're using insulation backed boards, in my experience it's hard to get the joints flat so any time saved fixing the boards is lost when jointing the wall.
  20. The devis/quote is a fixed price for the work described, You need to check that the quantities shown in the devis are correct and it describes the work you asked for. If for some reason the job cannot be completed without carrying out unforeseen additional work (finding rotten timbers in a roof for example) then this work should be detailed in another devis and agreed by you. The contractor who says that the price will not increase no matter what is leaving himself open to doing a lot of extra work for free
  21. Nostalgia not what it used to be. I'd agree with Devon. Go for an airhead BMW (R75/6 for example) It will do everything the R850R will do with, perhaps, a little more fettling (owner involvement) between times, you'll be able to go on the classic runs and it won't be depreciating whilst sitting in the garage
  22. [quote user="crossy67"]We have a 6" flexible flue liner and want to have it connected to the rear of the burner and the burner placed against the wall as flat as possible. I am thinking of a 90 degree elbow into the liner, would a length of solid pipe be needed or would I be ok going log burner, 90 elbow, felxy liner [/quote] You need to use the correct adaptor between the 90 degree elbow and the flexible tube. Also this should be accessible. The other solution if you have space is to bring the liner out through the wall and fit the adaptor on the flue outlet of the stove but the bend radius will be larger than an elbow.
  23. [quote user="Anton Redman II"]Forgot to mention that by the time you have worked your way through a properly equipped kitchen etc you will probably need at least another 26 disjointers. Do the plan first and buy the picquets and disjointers early[/quote] Really, 26 more on top of those already provided - I'd love to see a list of what you consider goes into a properly equipped kitchen. But in principle, I agree that a pre equipped fusebox is not the way to go especially if you want to comply with the regs and leave 20% spare for expansion.
  24. It's the rating and cable size that are linked not the use. on a 10A/1.5mm2 circuit you can either have up to 5 power outlets or up to 8 light fittings. You can't mix power and light on the same circuit. A 16A circuit breaker on a 1.5mm2 circuit would not meet the Norms
  25. I've had EDF change many houses to mono from 3 phase and apart from their reluctance to do it on occasions it has always been free of charge. They do charge for fitting an exterior sonde to allow them to read the meter in your absence which I think is a con and they also charge to move the meter location or the point of entry of the cable. Changing the meter, tarrif or from tri to mono has always been free.
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