thunderhorse

I haven't seen the term reinforcer. Does that mean it firms up wormy and soft wood? 5 litres of Diamant from Brico-Depôt is €13.15 by comparison.

The last owner of the property moved out last Christmas - he was in his late 70s, and remembers drawing water from the well as a child using leather buckets and a rope. It was built/sunk by his grandfather...

Our well in the new house is 29m deep to the water surface. Assuming (not sure) 1m depth of water (it flows and links 4 other wells through the hamlet), what would be a cost-effective pump/method to: a.    lift the water 30m to the top sufficient to fill buckets; or b.   pump the water another 30 - 50 metres for watering. Would the pump need to be submersible, or could a surface pump do the job? And is there a formula for working out power/lift/volume/pressure etc.? I'd like to draw the water the cheapest way possible (not by hand...) as long as it could work out cheaper in the long run than turning on the tap. Many thanks. [:D]

What really surprises me - I know it shouldn't now - is that very little is earthed. All the earth wires are generally snipped and folded away. It's nice to know the real reason why all jobs take ten times as long... [B]

E.g. I have a 2kw electric radiator. Should/ought/must it be hard-wired on its own circuit? If so, I also have a 2kw portable radiator which can be plugged into any socket... Secondly, any comments on this: a 6mm two-core cable runs from the old fuse box to a junction box in the grenier. The grenier box is double fused with 2 x 20amp fuses, one on live and one on neutral (like the old Brit system). From the box run two single 1.5mm socket circuits, and another heavy two-core cable to the rear of the house. The initial impression is that the heavy cable has been tapped to supply the two single socket circuits. However, when the power was chopped, the cable at the rear was still live. After a lot of checking, power for this 6mm cable at the rear was taken from a 1.5mm lighting circuit at the rear... via a short cable to a junction box, then up in to the grenier to supply one of the 1.5mm circuits from that particular box. In other words, the box in the grenier had two live feeds. Is this normal by French standards? The layout was so illogical, that it's got me checking everything most carefully. Cheers

Most mowers have a Briggs and Stratton engine. Blades are freely available. Just compare the price against the equivalent bought over here. If it packs in, who is going to fix it under warranty?

The last item we bought 'Made in Turkey' was an electric oven with no insulation. Highly dangerous, and what a job getting the store in Ruffec to change it. I'm wary of anything made in Turkey.

The smoke bombs worked for a couple of days, then they came back and opened up the runs with fresh hills. So I'm now trying the sonic devices. No moles for a week, now, and the battery devices were cheaper than the bombs. They've also cleared out from half of my neighbour's garden.

Many thanks for suggestions - I'll have a look on ebay. Cheers

I'm about to sell 7 of these cast iron monsters, varying between 19 element (desperately heavy) down to 5 element (just heavy). I read somewhere that they are efficient, and still have plenty of value. To restore their image they only need cleaning and painting, having been removed this year. Can anyone hazard a guess at what may be a reasonable price to ask for them? Here's a previous thread Our rads are the same as in the photo. Cheers

What condition is the wall/plasterboard behind the tiles? Is anything starting to crumble because of prolonged damp? Can you bite the bullet, remove the old tiles, let it all dry out, and start again? It's difficult to make perfection out of imperfection...

Many thanks, guys. The rear of the house currently (no pun intended - hell, why not?) is supplied by two major cables: One supplies the bathroom only, the other supplies a variety of sockets, lights and switches to the rest of the rear. I was considering simply extending the cables as part of the grenier renovation, or alternatively dividing up the looms and running two more gaines to the rear from a secondary tableau. Think I'll go with the latter - it'll give me more flexibility in the future. Many thanks again. [:D]

So after 2 pages of thread we're talking about 4.5 kw max. Yes?

[quote user="powerdesal"]Not strickly a yes, you have assumed 240v, its not in France, at least mine isn't. I seem to remember reading 228v on my meter at one time. [/quote] But we're still talking about 4.5kw @ 20 amp @ 230v, or thereabouts?

I'll take that as a yes.

From the charts and as best as I could work out, we're looking at 20 amp and 4.8 kw. Is that about right? Cheers, guys.

Is there a formula or rule of thumb for working out a safe maximum current/wattage on various cross-sections of rigid wire, particularly 2,5mm, 4mm and 6mm? (Max length of gaine, say, 15m.) Many thanks.

Up to you and whatever you find easiest/quickest. My French neighbours showed me the trowel method and how to prepare stone, but a friend has donned marigolds and stuffed it in by the handful. I'll try that next...

If you use a good tile-on-tile adhesive cement, then there's no need to abrade, but it certainly wouldn't hurt (a lot more labour, though...)

[quote user="trees 2"]Anyone know HOW MUCH the wood hardener is in France? It's £7.19 per 500ml from Screwfix...... [/quote] Again, how long is a piece of string? Depends where you buy it. There can be significant variation between outlets like Brico-Depot, Mr Bricolage, Weldom's, Rullier etc. For example, Brico-Depot polyurethane foam was €2,50/can, Mr Bricolage was €10,50/can. I bought it at Rullier for €3,50/can to save a two hour round trip... I've found it's paying to phone people up and ask. Then you know.

[quote user="ErnieY"]One of the things which come over from UK in my trailer was a petrol cement mixer. I used it only last week when extending by a metre or so the concrete base on which my new above ground pool stands. I've had it with mixing concrete manually [:'(] [/quote] You want to see my next-door-neighbour's wife's muscles...

[quote user="FairyNuff"]Please can anyone tell us the price for a lorry-load of concrete for the base of a shed and car-port, with glass fibre in the mix? We have a bill for labour, sand, shuttering and concrete which seems a bit high (but which hasn't been itemised).  I'd like to have some guesstimates before starting discussion over the final sum!  [blink] FairyNuff [/quote] How long is a piece of string? Small lorry or artic? How far to travel? Didn't you ascertain the price before you ordered it? The price seems a bit high compared to... what? You need an itemised bill - get the answers before you ask questions of the supplier.

[quote user="krusty"]sorry coudn`t resist [;-)] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTi7CbQn84I [/quote] Nice to have a laugh so early in the day.

A photo would be interesting. Smooth-walled - how? Colour? Any residual smell? Do the neighbours have any idea?

Albizia or Persian silk tree. We had a 50 footer. Beautiful, but the blossoms make a mess when they fall.