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friend of stouby

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Everything posted by friend of stouby

  1. Hello chocccie. I have drilled (3) 125mm holes through a 500mm sandstone wall this year and  have to do more of these later too plus some smaller sizes. On the first hole I cut I used a long 10mm drill bit then a hammer and chisel. The result although successful was very messy so decided to make the job easier. As I have so many holes to cut through I bought a Makita diamond drill bit set (for dry cutting with an SDS+ drill) and now have the 4 sizes that I will need. The drill that is used has a torque limiter so that when, not if, it snaggs the drill bit stops turning so no broken wrists etc. I also decided not to use the hammer action as the diamond bit cuts sandstone quite well, although the build up of dust has to be removed regularly as does the cut material that fills the bit. It has taken on average about 20 minutes per hole of very hard work but the result is fabulous. No loose stones and a really smooth hole of the exact diameter required.  There is a short pilot drill bit with the kit but I decided to drill all the way through the wall with a different longer 10mm bit first, just to get the angle and direction, then found that the shorter pilot bit with the cutter follows the first hole easliy. Hope this is of help to you, I am not a professional (as probably shows) and not even a very keen DIYer, but with a little thought and a little money this time it has worked out great. ps: The diamond bit set cost around £115 which I will sell on when I'm finished with it. I don't know what a drill bit hire cost is but as all our internal and external walls are 500mm thick, I have a lot to do so the initial outlay is to my mind worth it, plus it is always available at the moment it's required. Jamie      
  2. Just off topic slightly, no there is nothing new: To replace a battery on a Citroen SM it was advised to remove the front RH wing...  
  3. Hello Gerry   We had a large-ish colony of hornets last summer which were always around our house and fruit garden. We worked outside all day and every day but didn't feel threatened. Our movements were not always slow and deliberate as we working, but with the exception of when 4 pear trees close to the house had ripe fruit, there wasn't a moment of worry. It appeared as though there was a flight path to the favoured tree of the day, and it was better not to stand in it, plus during the afternoon the hornets appeared to become drunken and less predictable, at that point we worked elsewhere. Apart from losing most of the pear crop, they were quite interesting to observe as we had only ever seen the rare one or two in our whole lives. We still don't know where the nest was, but in April this year saw a few in a different part of the property. A question for you Chris. How far from a nest will the hornet travel for food? Hope this reasures you a little as we were both brought up in London so do not have a countryside background, but we are both quite calm too. Jamie  
  4. As Anton has mentioned previously, we also use a large wood burner and this has been the largest single factor to drying our cottage out too (walls and floors). We are in France for about every other 2 months, so the interior heats up and cools down, not the best. While we are there, the wood burner manages most of the damp to the point that within 3 or 4 days of arriving the humidity is at just the right level and the floors and walls are noticably drier. On leaving the property we leave the stove door and a cleaning hatch for the chimney open.  After installing the wood burner, we found that when we returned that damp was still obvious but to a lesser degree. We then removed soil piled against an end outside wall down to just under interior floor level, followed by installing through the wall vents on opposite walls in each room, one near to floor level and one nearer ceiling level. We now return to a cool but pretty dry house. The vents have insect screens and a slider for when it is really cold. Two rooms have floors that were very prone to damp, which may be underground channels or even a water course (a tip picked up on this forum), but I guess that to make a long term cure there we will have to do some digging on the uphill outside wall to effect a really effective solution? With the simple but very effective measures above our house has become very comforatble to live in although I'm sure there are other things that you can do to help as well. Jamie  
  5. Not sure if they are available, but why not buy a plastic tank such as a mini fosse septique? Or maybe what was used previously which is pre cast concrete rings about 1m in diameter which slot together one on top of another to the depth you require. Guess they were sealed with a water proof cement? I still think that plastic tanks are the modern way to go and a lot easier to install.
  6. Yes I thought of this type too, but without the accumulator attached. It is possible to get the same pump without an accumulator but not sure if the pressure switch comes with the pump on it's own ? Guess a quick trip to a brico will soon tell. Used one of the combi units to supply all onboard water requirements on a large live aboard barge for 5 years, worked a treat with never a problem, just purred away. The only maintainance is to check the accumulator pressure about once a year, but that is easily done.  As Chris is watering a garden, he wont be too bothered by smoothness of flow created by having an accumulator ?? Jamie
  7. have you seen this thread? it is covers good long term water storage quite well  http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/2/926517/ShowPost.aspx#926517 Jamie  
  8. ... another thought It will be helpful to have a pressure on/off switch fitted in the hose line as is fitted to caravan taps, so that when you want to stop the water flow you only have to turn off the hose at the nozzle rather walk back to where your pump is  
  9. It is a great idea Chris. We inherited a 1.5 m3 underground cistern filled by a rain water guter, the water is cool, very clean and clear compared with a water but, and in fact we are so impressed that we will be installing a tank similar in volume to yours, during this summer. Jamie
  10. There are two points I can add to this thread. We use a 10kW Petit Godin coloured cylinder model, it is a multifuel capable of  burning 50cm pieces of wood and coal/coke. We use it as the sole heating source for 3 smallish interconnecting rooms with the stove in the central room.  The rooms are about 4.5 x 4m each We have a good installation that works well, ie the stove is very very controllable plus is easy to use. Our min temperatures this winter were around -12 C . The house is not occupied continually, but after we have had the stove alight for 2 days the 50cm stone walls absorb the heat and start to act as storage heaters, and from this point the stove is turned down gradually so that only once a day (first thing in the morning) do we let the stove burn up a little to keep the system clean. We are burning both seasoned wood (oak and hornbeam depending on what we want from the stove) and coke, again depending on what we want the stove to do. At this time of year with maybe +5 C night time temperatures, the stove is kept alight but now keeps the house too warm during the afternoons. The next stage in our heating plan is to fit a smaller capapcity stove for the spring and autum which will only be lit during the evening as required and use an adapter to connect into the existing flue/chimney set-up. It all works for us although has taken a winter to work out the small detail for our stove, in our house, with our chimney, in our location, but it isn't rocket science only common sense and instinct whilst bearing in mind safety at all times. Our stove looks fabulous when lit, and is often worth just sitting in front of to stare at ...... The second point is a friend had a new large house built and enployed a chimney manufacturing company to design and build a chimney sytem for his house. It is a large open fireplace in a very large room. The house had a stair case in a small tower off of this room, with the tower being 1 storey higher than than upper floor. There was no door between the staircase tower and the large living room/kitchen diner. The open fire would not light or stay alight until by various methods the chimney was heated thoroughly. The outcome was a very powerfull chimney suction fan was fitted to the top of the chimney to create a draught, then the stove stayed alight as it should. The chimney heating engineers found that the staircase tower was drawing air from the entire ground floor therefore no draught for the fire. Hope this helps a little and Aitch if you neded more detail just come back to me. Jamie    
  11. Thanks everyone, as usual we learn from every post, it's just great that people are prepared to give the time and thought .... We had phoned 4 tree surgeons listed in the Pages Jaunes, but only one returned our call. Our neighbour ( the local physio who knows everyone) also contacted a local woodsman, but he forgot to come and see us. We live opposite a very large oak forest and thought that people working with trees would be around every corner, but apparantley not? So when a pleasant tree surgeon turned up and came across as very knowledgable, we thought that we had cracked it, but have to admit that the estimate was at least 200 euros above what I was expecting, and having re-calculated hours and hire costs etc still feel the same. A few years ago in the UK we had 5 very tall poplar trees reduced in height by 50% , two men did this job by climbing and sending the sections of timber down on ropes. The job was difficult as there were buildings on either side of the line of poplars that could have been damaged, but they were fast, tidy and proffessional. That cost was 400 euros with perhaps double the work on this tree. The idea to make sure we get other quotes is a good one. When we return to France in May we will go and have a chat with the local bar owner, he will know a few people I'm sure. Also the idea of talking to the Mairie is a good one, it doesn't hurt to ask advice. We want to try to have only half of the tree cut down as the root system is largely responsibe for holding the 3m high bank down to the road in place, so that the half leaning inward away from the road remains. I guess the idea of the tree having a commercial value will not apply then. Our first attempt was to France Telecom with the slant that the part of the tree that was above a public road and verge was damaging their line ( it comes into our garden further down the road), but their view was the tree started off in our garden so therefore our problem ! They did very kindly add that if the tree did damage the line that they would be very happy to come and repair it..... just to let them know. Thanks once again to everybody, I'll let you know the outcome next winter.   Jamie      
  12. Hello   Have just received a devis of 865 euros including TVA for the following :   One large Walnut tree (about 10 - 12m high) overhanging a public road by about 5% of it's width. We have a 2.5m verge between our garden and the road. The road side main trunk (it splits in two low down) leans towards the road and sits on our phone line in three places. We like trees a lot, but can see that at some time half of this tree will end up across the road and maybe injure someone, plus one day will damage the phone line too. The edge of the garden (where the tree is) is about 3m above the road which adds to the height it is necessary to work at.   We have asked for a quotation for the road side half of the tree to be removed and hope it survives the major surgery. The tree surgeon will have to hire a platform to work from too. We have agreed to dispose of all timber and waste to keep the quote down but this is no hardship.   Is this quote fair and reasonable ?   Thanks
  13. ....  but are wall thicknesses deductable? and apart from the stair well and roof eaves (1.7m/1.8m?) what else is ? Thanks
  14. Thanks Nick, Cooperlola and Paul, there are some points there that will help us go forward. The 170 m2 rule was has been taken on board and I believe that we can stay easily within that if there is no extension. The cost of 600 € for an architect would be an acceptable cost to draw the new ' A ' frame structure plus the new staircase etc and to take the responisibilty of submitting the plans to the Mairie. We were under the impression that even to talk to an architect in France will cost thousands € upwards, so that was our fear that we spend thousands of €'s only to realise that we can't afford the project anyway. We struggle with our French but are determined to do so ! The vast majority of French people we encounter try quite hard to work around our lack of reasonable French, and most are quite kindly too. But the point was well made that maybe the builder found that a larger technical building idea needed a more formal approach? so I will now try to draw something that will at least allow builders to understand without language the outline of our ideas and see if ball park figures are then forthcoming. The land area is 2 Ha so I assume that extensions will not be a problem, and as this is a relatively poor region anything that creates jobs appears to be welcome. One further question, after the PdeC is granted, what is the maximum time lapse allowed before work must begin ?  Thanks Jamie   
  15. We have a small fermette 5m x 19.6m in area (to the outside of 0.5m stone walls) and are making plans for refurbishment of various parts of the building. We need to make repairs to some of the toof tiling and have decided to re-tile the roof completely plus want to make 2 bedrooms in the roof space. We will use local tradesmen for the roofing and carpentry but will fit the bedrooms out ourselves.  We are at the beginning of asking for Devis for the re-roofing and the alteration of some of the roof timbers to allow a clear walking space throughout (currently there are 2  'A' frame structures which separate the roof space into 3 sections due to the horizontal part of the frame). At this point we came up with the idea of increasing the depth of the building by about 2m down the entire length and reshaping the roof on the rear of the building to run from the current apex to the (maybe) new rear wall, thus allowing more space on both floors. We asked a local builder what he thought and he came back with the statement that he will need to see plans before he can comment, which is quite understandable. And here is the crux of the question : we don't know if the larger project is beyond our means and wish to have ball park figures to guide us to making a decision. We also understand that to employ an architect may be quite a costly way to learn that we can't afford to extend the property. Is there a middle way to have plans drawn with enough detail for a builder to be able to give an estimate, or is it only the architect route for plans, the cost of which may just put us off even asking for a quote for extending the building? Many thanks for sticking with this question, and any help or direction will be very appreciated. Jamie      
  16. We too have had holes appear in different places around our property, often in the middle of a field which is only used for hay as well as in the garden area. We don't have lavender either. We have moles, quite a few of them, but these holes don't appear to have hardly any dug or loose soil around them ( almost as though everything that is excavated is taken away !! ).  The holes vary in size from approx 5cm up to maybe 15cm in diameter. We have once, about a month ago, seen a hare but it appeared much too large for these holes. If it were rabbits surely there would be droppings? but there are none. We think we may have the odd fox around because of their droppings, but not neccessarily on our land. The holes first appeared in any number about 2 months ago and have increased an amount, but as we are not in France permanently it's diificult to say whether it's gradual or overnight. I can take photos and acurate holes diameter sizes if anyone is interested, and one last thing, someone suggested deer. Why would deer dig burrows like holes instead of just a plain hole? Thanks, Jamie  ps: we  have a source that forms a small pond (4m across) about 150m away from the nearest holes plus a seasonal stream about 80m away from the same. I have to agree that the coypu I have seen in France (we used to live on a barge and they were permanent neighbours) appeared to be very gentle creatures, although it is known amongst the live-a-board community that it was not a good idea to swim in the same stretch of water due to the possiblities of disease.       
  17. Sorry if I slipped up there Chris, but somewhere this morning I read that cabbage was the only vegatable likely to be eaten. The trouble is there are a few look-a-likes so may have been one of them and not this specific insect ( Pyrrhocoris apterus ) that I identified as being exactly what we have. Jamie
  18. Hello again Jay Jay thanks to you and the forum I have now got it down to   Pyrrhocoris apterus   As we don't grow cabbage (yet) they will not both us at all, and often just walking around outside they are such a striking sight when massed together that we just have to stop and watch them for a while, we are fortunate to have them. We have a second bug which we wish to identify as we think it may have a more serious agenda, but don't have a photo of that. It's found indoors and outdoors (near to the house), flies badly, is a little flatter and larger than these, and is a grey brown in colour. It sometimes appears singly during the evening indoors and is on occasion attracted to the lights, although we see them during the daytime too but mainly outdoors then. Hope to have a photo of one of these in around a couple of weeks time when we retun to France and hope to be able to prevail on your generous help again. Thank you Jay Jay Jamie          
  19. Thanks Jay Jay, I did try a quick search but didn't find your info .....  it was late. A photo should appear here but if it doesn't will someone please tell me. The photo is restricted to 400 pix wide but if it is possible to insert larger now I have much larger. Or if it is better cropped to one beetle just let me know. These are on an old fruit tree with a lot of moss and they appear in greater numbers on the old trees, but they are found all round the outside of the house too (often on shutters or just on the wall), plus many shrubs. We live opposite a very large oak forest, so don't know if that is relevant. Thanks again, Jamie   [IMG]http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w9/stouby/1094aa.jpg[/IMG]  
  20. Can some knowledgeable person tell me how to insert a photo in the text please, as we have quite a few orange beetles that appear to have been active the entire winter as well as during the summer. Hope they are not harmful as they are a pleasure to look at. Thanks
  21. Thanks everyone, have been away for a few days and everything working fine again??? The initial panic was due to the French mortgage payments being locked in our Nationwide E-savings and not being able to draw on it !! It does appear as though this is a case of a problem (which one I am not qualified to say) being denied by a large company (Nationwide / Wanadoo/Orange) while they are working to fix it.  I had access to tens of other UK sites at the time I couldn't access Nationwide from France and looked up several phone numbers for Nationwide, including our own branch. I asked if there was a method that they could transfer our money from savings to current and was told no, not at all by everyone I spoke to. As the E-savings account is only accessed by internet, you are stuffed if you can't access it even if the problem lies with Nationwide. I did ask two different departments what I should do as our money was almost entirely in the E-savings and we were about to run out of same, the answer was "sorry I can't help" and "contact Orange".     Have to say that we are very happy indeed with Nationwide, and apart from this problem haven't had any cause for complaint over many years, so going to put this down to a blip that happens when using the internet. Maybe if the companies were more open about problems there would be more tolerance in waiting for the problem to be sorted ? Hope everyone else who had a similar problem has it sorted too, and thanks again for an amazing response, what a knowledge bank this forum is. Jamie   
  22. Same again this morning, everything but  www.nationwide.co.uk Switched all off yesterday evening and powered up this morning in the order above, but the same result. The only difference in the current setup to 3 days ago in England is, the ISP and the modem that was supplied by Wanadoo plus accessing the internet from France. Everything else is identical including the same computer that operated correctly in England. No setting have been changed at all (except the location). Thanks for the help and advice, I'll try some of the other ideas tonight. Jamie    
  23. Have just arrived back from the UK and wanted to work on my internet banking. Tried logging on to  www.nationwide.co.uk  and came up with ' The page cannot be displayed ' and on subsequent attempts Orange stating I have typed the wrong address.  I cleared all my cache and internet files and have tried today maybe 30+ times over about a 6 hour period, but I can't access the Nationwide website. We have an Orange ADSL connection which is incrediably stable and without problem, so far ... and using Windows 2000 Pro system. I had logged on to this website many times in the last week as I had the day before while in the UK, and have checked many times that the address is correct. I phoned Nationwide to ask if there was an internet problem and was told that there wasn't and that the ISP in France (Orange) was the problem. By this time I had logged on to about another 15 UK websites, many of which reqired logging on, 2 were banks where I accessed accounts. All that was done without any problem at all and in some cases a little faster than usual. I tried to contact Orange but after hanging on for 35 minutes gave up. I phoned my brother in the UK and asked him to access my account at the Nationwide which he did plus carried out the transfers that I needed. He said it all worked as smooth as silk.  So the Nationwide web site is working ok (from the UK?), I can access all my other UK websites from France, but cannot get even the home page of the Nationwide from France .......   am I missing something ?? Thanks in advance, Jamie
  24. Thanks for that, it is reassuring to read both these comments. One little thing though in your reply Sunday Driver was  " if you have the carte grise in your name " .  At the point the car was bought, I believe the then owner de-registered it in his name ?? although not 100% on that. I know that he had to do something official as we had to wait an extra day to leave, so that an office that dealt with vehicle details was informed of the vehicle sale. Also we told him that the car was to go to England to be registered there (even though it never was registered in the UK), so maybe the car was marked as exported? But I am reasonably sure that as we didn't attend any official office that we didn't register the car in our name in France, although maybe the seller did? I am sorry to be vague but it was a long time ago and we didn't have the faintest idea of what was required in France, and were led by the seller in matters of the paper work. Thanks 
  25. We bought a French car in the summer of 1990, drove it from Paris to the UK, paid the import duty at Dover (yes there was import duty to pay in 1990!!), UK MoT'd it the next day and have promptly stored it since then. We now own a property in France and wish to register it in France as our local transport. All the original paper work including the carte grise is with the car and also the original Parisien number plates. The question is, as this car hasn't been registered in France for 16 and a half years, is it possible to re-register it now or is there some form of time lapse that means that we have to start at the beginning as if it were a new car or worse have to scrap it ? The year is 1978 if that has any bearing on this. I know that is may be as obscure a question as will ever be posted here, but there just maybe some soul out there who has come across this. I would be eternally grateful for any info that will help us to register our lovely old car. Many many thanks in advance, Jamie  
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