Wozza

Dave What thickness do you manage to get the render to? I have some walls that slope quite a bit and I need them to end up vertical, so it will need to be quite thick in places. Yours looks to be a couple of inches thick around the exposed stones. Warren

Thanks for reply Dave. I'll give it a whirl!

Gabe We bought a UK range cooker - Falcon make - in France, so comes complete with warranties etc. It is dual fuel - gas hob, twin electric oven and gas grill. We had full choice of colours, and was delivered in two weeks from our local electrical / white goods retailer. We liked it 'cos doors open sideways, not drop-down, and it has a grill! Cost under €2000. Have also seen other UK makes in the shops, so they are available here. Warren

I did a search on multibat that only gave two results, neither of which really answered my question, which is: Is Multibat suitable for rendering old stone and mud walls internally? I understand that Multibat is lime and cement based - will it allow the wall to breathe sufficiently? We have used Parex Monodecor to repoint some of the walls, but think that this will be a little expensive to use to render. Is it OK to paint the walls after rendering with Multibat? Apologies if this is covering old ground, but I couldn't find a definitive answer and the Multibat leaflet I have is full of technical words that don't appear in my dictionary. Warren

Lime can be extremely dangerous, depending upon what type you use. Hydrated or slaked lime is less dangerous, but can still cause burns if you are not careful. Quick, or unslaked lime, is potentially very dangerous - I used to build equipment to de-acidy industrial exhaust gases to prevent acid rain etc, and we used quicklime to neutralise the acids. The lime would be slaked on site, an exothermic (gives off heat) reaction that makes the lime slurry boil. When training operators, we would demonstrate the dangers of quicklime by putting some in a glass and adding water - the heat of the reaction would cause the glass to shatter within seconds. Buxton Lime of the UK produce an extremely good lime safety booklet - you may be able to find it online. Having said all that, I have a friend who got very serious burns when trying to shovel concrete whilst laying foundations for his house - it filled his boots, literally! Cement just being calcinated lime, guess it makes sense (cement plants produce a lot of acid gases too, you know, just for the eco-warriors out there!)

I'm sure that I have seen a number for EDF in the English Press that is specifically for Brits. Try getting a copy of French News or Connexion at your local newsagent, if you are in France. The best idea is to get your agent to do it, though - that's what you paid them for.

Christine I use linseed oil. I put it on neat onto planed wood (3 coats), and diluted 50/50 woth essence de trebenthine on old beams that have been sanded. I love the results! Warren

Ian I don't know about anyone else, but I get my oak from our neighbour, who has a smallholding and spends most of his winter weekends chopping trees down. He sells a lot for firewood, but anything big enough and without too many cracks, he puts aside. When he has enough, he rents one of those trailers that planks trees and cuts out beams etc. I got all the wood to make a staircase from him for nothing in exchange for a days labour loading logs onto his trailer. Unfortunately, none of it comes straight-edged or planed. Having said that, there is a huge amount of satisfaction seeing a finished staircase all planed and oiled, when you know you started with a stack of rough sawn timber. Warren

I found it very expensive here, so bought some in Spain. Managed to get a 6m long by 4m high (6m working height ish) tubular steel scaffold that slots together - easy to assemble alone - for under €400. My folks brought it up from Malaga, but I think you are close enough to pop over with a trailer, if I've got your location correct. Might take a bit of research to find somewhere that sells it first, but possibly worth it. Warren

Rog Not sure I'd like a fosse below my kitchen either, but I couldn't tell you if it permitted. The other thing to consider is the size of the existing fosse if you connect to that. I believe a 3000 litre fosse should serve a 4/5 bed house. Adding the gite on may overload the existing system. I also believ that if it was ever decided to sell the gite separately from the main house, a separate fosse would have to be installed anyway, as I don't think two separate properties are supposed to share a fosse. Just a couple of thoughts, sorry I can't help more. Maybe ask someone at the DDE? Warren

It may be worth trying to get in touch with a roofer to see if you can strip a roof before he starts. When we had our roof done, it was cheaper to chuck them all down and use them to hardcore the drive than to get the roofer to strip them off so we could re-use them.

Chris I lived in Poland for a while and bought some oak furniture off a firm called Ludvik - thought you might be interested, especially in the chunky stuff they do for churches - see website: http://www.ludwikstyl.com/witamy_ang.htm Warren

Rog I believe it is 6m maximum from house for fosse, no limit for drainage system (that waswhat I was told - we wanted it much further away). I guess minimum distance depends upon how much of a risk you want to take with digging close to your foundations. Warren

Matt We had ourroof done last Dec / Jan. All new Douglas fir chevrons, chestnut boarded, felted and insulated, new tiles (Roman Canal) and a part new ridge beam plus one new oak hip beam - cost about €18,000 for 180m2. Done by an artisan too! Warren

David Try www.lamborghinicalor.it - you need to make sure you put the 'h' in the lamborghini. Warren

[quote user="Philmco"] Introduced in 1937 ..[/quote] That's why I didn't know what it was! I still haven't lived to see England lift the world cup either! Back to ladderframing - I'll post pictures of my door frame when I finish it Chris. It will be a bit different from yours, as I'm using old oak timbers from our old roof and barn. Having to be careful when cutting etc to avoid old nails. A related question for the threepenny bit crowd - one of the old chevrons I am using at the moment has dowel pegs in it instead of nails that were used to fix the voliges in place. I assume that this means the beam is quite old - were pegs used because there weren't any nails then, or another reason? Older than the thrupence??  

Chris / JR Thanks for info on making pegs - I will have a go. I'm sure it will look better than dowelling. Warren p.s. what on earth is a threepenny bit?

Yes there is - weare using it at the moment! It is called Monodecor GM by Parex Lanko, and you just add water. If you go to your local brico (Reseau Pro sell it, for instance), they should have a catalogue from which you can pick from a choice of about 30 colours. That's the difficult bit! Don't mix it all up at once - it takes ages to use up. Costs about €13 a 25kg sack. Warren

Replied to this on duplicate post!

Ann I think that you may have misunderstood what Steve was saying. The vent pipe needs to extend beyond the eaves / roof line significantly - if it just pops up past the gutter, say, you may get what is known as inversion - this is where the wind blowing over the roof forces the smell back down to the ground. Without getting too technical, as wind passes over your roof, it creates high and low pressure zones. A high pressure zone will force the smell down to the ground (this wind effect is basically a crude version of wind passing over an aeroplane wing - depending on the wing angle determines whether the plane goes up or down). A good sign as to whether this is indeed the problem is whether the smell is more noticeable when the wind blows from a certain direction. Extending the pipe by 50 to 100cm will take the top of the pipe out of the pressure zone and should eradicate the problem. You could also try fitting one of those whirly things that acts like a fan and sucks the smell out of the fosse - about €100 at our local brico. Warren

There is one at Ansac near Confolens and another just outside La Rochefoucauld. Both within an hours drive of you. I think the Confolens one may be best bet for the floorboards. You can PM ore-mail me for detailed directions if required. Warren

Chris I am in the process of making a window frame in a similar vein, and will then be making a door surround. A quick question, if I may. Do you make your own dowel pegs? If so, how and from what wood? I was once told the pegs should be from a softer wood than the main construction - don't know why, just remember being told. Warren

Couldn't find any cloves, so tried Opas' recipe first - absolutely divine. Just did a trial run with the quantities on the recipe and had some with my tea tonight - tastes great. Up atthe crack of dawn picking figs so I can get a serious production run going tomorrow. Had a bash at tomato relish too today, but it just wouldn't thicken, so have lots of jars of tomato sauce! Thanks again for all the recipes.

[quote user="Pun"]   (YOU DIDNT THINK MY MUM CALLED HER SON PUN DID YOU?????)   [/quote] I did!

Tony We also have loads near us, and were looking at Elderberry wine recipes. We shocked the neighbours by producing an old bottle of wine we made from strawberries earlier this year, so not sure if he has recovered enough yet to try elderberry wine! I,m also not sure where to buy yeast over here. Warren