Gluestick

Heidi: Further comment. Are you happy that you have a good barrier (membrane) beneath the tiles? There can be a significant problem when either natural or synthetic materials are laid over tiles. Older French floors are designed to breathe. Covering them up causes all sorts of probs, including mold, which sadly destroys carpet. Do any of the quote include sealing the floor? If so that's why it appears so expensive. For the record, this information comes from my closest friend, who is founder and chairman of probably the largest industrial and commercial floor covering biz in the South East of England, who also has an old farmhouse in Northern France. He does know what he's about with floors.  

Mac: no need to apologise and keep right on asking for assistance! BTW, what I meant about "Migrants from other fora" was not you: it was a number of the oldsters - in terms of longevity of membership -  here with excellent knowledge: they can appear to be terse at times and I believe (my own conclusion subject to correction!) that their earlier membership of other fora has invariably lead to a certain level of understandable frustration. At the end of the day, if you don't ask: you don't learn, so keep right on asking. Another aspect often forgotten is that once someone asks a question and it's answered, this thereafter becomes a searchable body of knowledge for everyone to trawl through when they are seeking solutions and guidance.  

Heidi, that sounds like a lot of dough. As a rough guide - from recent work done - commercial carpet fitters in the South East UK are paid £2.50/Sq. M laid. "Retail" price works out at circa £3.50/M + VAT. Obviously, a small job would be charged a premium to cover travel all plus material cost, i.e. glue. Are there unusual aspects to this? For example, have they to float a synthetic screed first, or lay a resin membrane? What's the surface?  

Thanks, Doc. Will check up on the nearest one.  

W Spencer Churchill to Lady Astor over dinner when she accused him of being drunk: "Yesh, Madam: and you are ugly. In the morning, however, I shall be shober!"  

No one can help, here Surely someone has bought one recently! Help!!! [:(]  

Kate: Re-Read the posts to date and honestly don't feel the earlier posters were "Scary". If you think is scary, then don't read posts- or worse respond to threads - in the House Renovation section if Nick's around! [:D] and posters are writing nonsense! [6] Apols to Nick: he does know certain subjects inside out and has excellent working knowledge of others and at no time comes through as an "Expert", just a genuine guy kindly sharing his absolute knowledge with all of us. Seriously, I believe that many members here migrated here from other fora which are inundated by what we might call the Great Brit Abroad, where they never bother to learn even minimal French and expect everything to be the same as Bootle or wherever................................... thus, perhaps, there is a vague sense of frustration from those who have bothered to put the time in, do the research and find some of the answers. Of all the French fora aimed at Brits, Kate, you will find this the best for core information, hints, tips and a genuine will to assist others, therefore please don't be afraid to post your questions. After a bit, you'll graduate from Newby to regular (BTW, the only reality that separate newbies from regulars is in the Newby's own mind!) and, I'm sure, you'll be contributing your own useful information. Stick with it, Ma'am.  

You beat me to it, Clair! I have been using this sevice for over three years now: works well. The one thing I did refuse to do was set up any form of hunting license on my French bank account: I have had enough problems with DDs on UK accounts! I also ensured from the off, that EDF and all other utilities sent mail to my UK address. So far so good.....................  

It is an excellent idea, John- Eric. (In joke for motor racing affecionadas of the 60s/70s). Also having thought about this since it was posted, perhaps Russethouse, there is an excellent further opportunity for Archant to run a classified ads section in conjunction with the new thread? After all, the reason people come to this site, is to seek information about living/buying in France?  

Thanks Sweets. Hope so Cooperlola; I do feel that once it starts, many members can chuck in their own hard won experience as we go along and this should then build up to quite a good knowledge base. Normally, Cassis, it doesn't actually bother me too much. However, since it had been cold and particularly wet for November and December, it took 36 hours at least to bring the fabric of the house up to a reasonable temp. Hopefully, the new oil-fired central heating should be in later this year and then we can leave it "Ticking Over" much of the time. I am also looking at installing one of the telephone controlled switches, to be able to turn the heating on remotely, so I could switch it to "normal" hours On/Off, two days before we arrive. All rather depends on where the price of oil goes! [blink] Had lunch with English friends who are about 35 minutes further inland. He leaves his gas heating on 365 days a year at 10 degrees. When he told me how much he spent on gas last year I was horrified.[:'(]  

Anyone any ideas, please? Who, in France, can supply a bunded external (green) solar-stable plastic heating oil storage tank? Toute Faire, apparently stock them: however my local agent (it's a franchise), don't seem too keen to want to help. Which is strange, since they are a main Shell agent for heating oil!  

Must admit I am quite surprised, too, sweets! I am in touch with one qualified member and we have already kicked around some first level ideas for content and once finalised, I will float our ideas past the Mods and see how we go from there. I am hoping that we can create a dedicated new area (same as Chris Head did with his "Working with Wood" section) and sub-divide this up into various key headings. We shall see. Unfortunately, I managed to contract an awful cold virus which was galloping around the UK prior to Christmas and have been suffering ever since! Did go to our French house for five days: but it was cold! That probably didn't help too much. Watch this space...................  

[quote user="heather"] On the subject of heating systems, I've seen ones which run on little wooden pellets and wonder if anyone has tried this. are they economical to run?; expensive to install? Heather [/quote] The boiler and installation is quite a bit dearer than a conventional oil of gas equivalent. Pellets are a very cost-effective fuel: you need considerable storage space and at present, pellets are not readily available all throughout France.  

My pleasure Sweet! [:)] In theory, the concept of combining aircon with air heat extraction is logical, since the core engineering method (i.e. heatpump) can act in both functions: i.e. take latent heat from outside and pump it in or take latent heat from the inside and move it out! It did seem to me, when I looked into air heat extraction heating, that as temps drop, quite a number of units used a resistive heater (electric fire!), which of course would not enjoy the "Free" heat element. Still you pays your money and you makes your choice............  

The site provides a huge variety of languages and alphabets. However, you can always Cut 'N Paste from symbols in Word, e.g. ó   ò  

Sweet 17: Here is one thread: try the search function on this site, there were quite a few more, I recall! http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/554061/ShowPost.aspx JR: From memory, I think it depends on the effectiveness of the pump. Many spurious claims have been made for cheap systems. Some comments elsewhere on this site. Obviously, if the pump's efficiency is really good, then the capital cost rises, significantly. Sweet: Loads of info on the web: here's some more! http://energysavingnow.com/hvac/energymove.shtml http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12620 http://www.chelanpud.org/1870.html http://www.ilea.org/articles/heatpump.html http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ageng/structu/ae1015.htm  

All the accents you will ever need can be accessed via your number pad: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/french.html  

This one has been covered earlier on. They are a heat pump but use ambient air to take advantage of the latent heat in the external air. Whilst there are many claims made (one includes all air has latent heat, even when the temp is zero C), if you stop and think about it, if the ambient air temp is hovering round 0 C, then the heat pump has to work very hard indeed to extract latent heat, as there is so little! The whole point about ground heat source is that ground temp stays fairly constant once you reach a few metres down, as the ground above insulates and prevents rapid heat loss. If you google Air Heat Pumps, there is lot of info on the web. e.g.  http://www.est.org.uk/housingbuildings/calculators/hardtotreat/matrix/airtoairpumps.cfm    

Try and get the new airing cupboard done in 2007. It will use a pair of superb 19th Cent. oak doors and needs to be built with fielded panels so it will look right; and it needs some easy way to detach a whole section to provide service access to the ballon. Thinks...........................[blink] Then I suppose to finally finish the old golden oak cupboard; fit the styles in the middle of the doors and get the bevel-edged glass fitted and then make up and fit the shelf supports and get the plate glass shelves cut. I feel tired already! [:(]  

Or it could be and probably is a typical spamming email which is automatically sent to as many logical email addresses as possible. The process is totally random: however since a large percentage of people have GPS, it's a bit like saying, "PC" instead of "GPS"! The carrot - prize -  galvanises some people to respond: and then, Gotcha! Your details are sold on to yet another mail marketing biz, which creates and sells lists to spammers. They should all be shot at dawn.  

Well, that's quite a wide remit your are setting me there, sweet 17! I am hoping that some other members with specialised finance, legal, tax and investment skills - there certainly seem to be a few! - will agree to participate; this at present, I am quietly waiting to see. As they say , Watch this Space!  

[quote user="allanb"][quote user="Gluestick"]I suppose that one has to realise that not only are forex markets as fickle as all other markets: they are not wholly predictable, nor are they rational![/quote] Why do you say they are not rational?  They are based on expectations, which may be wrong: but it is perfectly rational to base a decision on whatever information you have, recognizing that it may not be reliable. Incidentally, you missed one of the most important determinants of any FX rate, which is the expected difference in price inflation between two economies. [/quote] To me, making a decision on unknown factors is not rational: it's gambling. What's price inflation? Depends whom you believe! For example, do I believe, well, the present UK stats? [:P] Not really, since they tend to be politically driven. Additionally, they suffer from reporting lag: and as I'm sure you would agree, Forex markets are probably the most volatile of all capital markets: and the most short term for the bulk of transactions. And with the smallest spread. In any case, my earlier comment about economic potential: [QUOTE] Finally it must be remembered that a Forex investor only has one underlying assurance: the strength of a country's economy: since there is nothing else to back up currency value. All major tradeable currencies these days are what is called "Fiat Currencies": their value is predicated and underwritten by the relative value of the issuer's economy and its debt (Both Internal - i.e. budgetary: and External - Balance of Trade).[/QUOTE] surely factors in inflation/deflation /stagflation forecasts? If not, then it is not much of an analysis!  

Perhaps other retired and semi-retired professionals interested in contributing to this proposed new thread would be  kind enough to PM me and we can draw up some guidelines? Thanks.

[quote user="Jonzjob"] Sods Law is more in my line of work! [/quote] Lawns, Jonz? And there's me thinkin' your consuming passion was wood.................  

[quote user="Wozza"][quote user="Gluestick"] (Boyles Law- hmmm or is it Charles Law?? Or even a bit of both [/quote] Boyle's Law: P1 V1 = P2 V2   T1         T2 As in P1xV1 divided by T1 equals P2xV2 divided by T2. So, assuming temperature inside container and outside is the same, then this makes sense - open the regulator, you increase the volume, but decrease the pressure (as liquid turns to gas). However, irrespective of the ambient temperature, the temperature inside the bottle will always be lower in this case, as the gas is in its liquid state inside the bottle, therefore at a lower temperature (as in water is at a lower temperature than steam). So, unless you know the gas pressure and temperature inside the bottle, compared with the gas temperature and pressure at the nozzle, prior to combustion, then this is of little use. I've forgotten Charles's Law, so can't advise if it is of any more use, but I have my suspicions..... [/quote] The temperature inside the bottle, when the valve ( any device connected) is closed, will always be identical to the external ambient temperature, once its condition has stabilised: if not, then the bottle would "Give off cold"! Since cold, per se is the absence of heat - in relative terms - rather than physical (Kinetic) energy (Remembering that energy can either be Kinetic or Potential and that energy cannot be lost [law of Entropy] it can only be transmuted: ie.electricity to light; heat etc.), cold does not exist. Excepting according to my dear old Mum, of course, bless her, who always used to say, "Shut the door! You're letting the cold in!" She could never be convinced that actually, we were letting the heat out! Gasses can be induced to undergo a change of state by either being under pressure or being frozen by extracting the heat stored at the time. Actually, I am beginning to feel the Butane/Outside/ Cold/Won't Work thing is explained by Charles- Gay-Lussac's gas law, rather than Boyles, 'cos Boyles sets out the direct relationship between pressure and volume: Finally, if the mass and pressure are held constant, the volume is directly proportional to the temperature for an ideal gas. This relationship is called  Charles and Gay-Lussac's Law, in honor of the two French scientists who discovered the relationship. Possibly................. [8-)]