Rtony

Thank you Andy, I'll give it a go.

Thanks for the useful reply Al

Sorry but can't get photobucket to transfer photos.

How are pics posted?

More plasterboarding questions. I have a door & frame in the corner of a room. The doorway is in a stone wall and there's another stone wall at right angles, with the door frame very close to it The question is: How can I stud, insulate and plasterboard around the frame to be able to open the door. The only way I can think of doing it, is to have a recess where the door opens. I need a gap behind the boards for the wiring. Any thoughts?

Thanks. I've plasterboarding questions so I'll start a new thread.

Thanks everyone. I just need some email addresses of decent plasterers near Fontenay le Comte now. Regards. Tony

Thanks all, that's a lot to consider. To take the advice of the majority I think I'll be doing the following: Fill the deep voids with a sand and lime mortar, then have studding (wood, or double thickness metal at 40cm centres) erected, fit the electrical wiring in conduit, insulate, plasterboard, skim, fit sockets and switches. The room is 480cm high at one end sloping down to 240. Is metal studding stable/strong enough for 480cm? When that's done, the ceiling can be insulated and boarded, leaving the bottom half of the beams exposed. Have I missed anything?

In some areas of the walls there are voids at least 15cm deep. We have some rooms with stone feature walls which are enough for the moment. There are another 5 rooms to do where we could have them. This is what one of the builders said: Your walls are dry stone walls and are not suitable for plastering. Also re-pointing will take a long time and the walls will remain cold. The main requirement when renovating houses with dry stone walls is insulation. It is not necessary to point the gaps in the wall before boarding. The other builder said the opposite! I've seen no end of stone houses that have collapsed. I always assumed that it was because the pointing had failed.

Hello Quillan. Thanks for that. The plaster was very old and the house had been empty and shut for over 2 years. I would say that there's no moisture (or very little) in the stone. 3 of the walls are internal. I think I'd be inclined to have the walls insulated. Isn't it essential to fill the joints between the stone?

I've looked through the many posts about interior stone walls but can't find an appropriate answer. I've removed all the old (rotten) plaster and raked all the joints in the stone walls in the back room of my old house near Fontenay le Comte. I was going to have all the stone repointed then fit metal or wood studding, insulation and plasterboard with a skimmed finish. One builder said I should have all the walls 'rendered' with enduit then skimmed. Another builder said don't repoint or render the walls, just fit metal studding, insulate, plasterboard & skim. Any helpful comments would be appreciated.

Well, I got the answer to one part of the question anyway. I won't be doing the work until I'm familiar with the french wiring system, that's why I asked. When I bought my french house there was an old on off box next to the meter, wires of differing sizes went around the house on one run, cooker to lighting to switches etc, some switches wired with bell wire.

My previous post about putting cable into conduit has been answered so I've started a new post. I'm fitting sockets and a light in a room with the stone walls pointed and left bare.The room has a concrete floor and a pitched roof (so no ceiling to hide anything). Am I right in doing the following: Dig out a channel in the walls, deep enough to take the flexible conduit (and mortar), in a straight line all around the room, (over doors and across chimney breasts?). Using a fish tape pull the 3 individual cables through the conduit, put the conduit & cables into the channelled wall up to where the socket is required then do the next one and so on. Then fill the channel with mortar. When the mortar's set wire the sockets and attach them to the wall. Do I need to use a box buried in the wall to put the conduit ends in and connect the sockets to? I want to use English 3 way light switches with metal patresses. Tony

Thanks for replying PaulT. There'll be a lot of digging out to do then. A couple more queries: Is it better to thread it through the conduit first then fix the conduit in the wall? I have a reel of conduit, what's the metal wire that runs the length of it for? Regards

Hello all, I've removed the old plaster (most of it fell off) from the walls in the back room of my old stone house. Now I need to run some cables around the walls, preferably in between the stone, for a light and some power sockets. The question is: Do I need to run the 3 core cables through flexible conduit? Thanks, Tony  

Thanks for the reply Théière. I did buy a 40kg bag of coarse mortar sand, mixed that with lime & that didn't work either. I have in the past used 16 sand 5 lime & 1 cement in the Durgun with varying degrees of success. 0/2 was the sand recommended by Point P (couldn't remember yours). If you're right about needing 0/4, and I'm sure you are, then I've got a problem, I've bought a tonne of the 0/2 (so I'll have to use it). I have generally mixed 2/3 of a 10 litre bucket at a time and used c2.5 sand to 1 lime and added I think about 1 litre of water. Where do you think is the best place to get the calcium stearite/shredded soap and how much would need to be added? Tony    

Just returned from France. I bought a Pointmaster and took my Durgun too. Using 0/2 jaune sand and lime the Pointmaster was absolutely useless, even with plasticiser. The Durgun was good for half a tube. With deep areas to fill, these would have been very useful. Had to resort to a trowel and a stick (and raw finger tips).  Not to worry, there's only another 18 walls to go (inside). Very disap'point'ing. Tony  

I've used the guns in England, (they're called Durguns), with no problems. I've used a soft sand and lime. Where's 'your pages'? Thanks  

Like a lot of people on here I've got loads of pointing to do. Can anyone advise me on which grade of sand to buy? I've bought a couple of cartridge guns which are a bigger version of a mastic gun.The cartridge is filled with mortar and squirted out between the stone with mortar. These require a very soft sand, any grit and they just compress it and nothing comes out the end. Also, a cream coloured mortar would be good (not the bags of ready mixed, too expensive). Our house is near Fontenay le Comte, if anyone can recommend a place that supplies & delivers at a fair price I'd be grateful. Thanks, Tony  

Thanks alot for the info. Will

Thanks Will, Do you know if there's an online form to fill in/download? Tony

I had to go to the local A&E for treatment when I was on holiday in May this year. They took a copy of my EHIC but now I have received a bill for 79 Euros. Isn't emergency treatment paid for by using the card? Thanks, Tony

My wife is now in England and being cared for in our local hospital. We used an air ambulance company called Aviastra and they were excellent all the way through. So everything's starting to go our way at last and I'm having my op. next Tuesday. Just need the wife to get better now. Thanks to all that helped. Tony

I rang the British Embassy in Paris on Saturday and they were shut! Has anybody heard of a company that deals with repatriation named AVIASTRA. Tony

Thanks Quillan, I've looked at Aeromed and they seem ok. My only fear is selecting one of the hundreds of firms online, paying the cash and they turn out to be phoney. Having seen Watchdog, some dodgy firms put approved by Bupa, NHS, Home Office etc and they're not. I could do with a recommendation from somebody that's used a medical repatriation service. Do you know of any? Thanks again, Tony