cheryl Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 The house we are buying has dry rot in the sous sol due to lack of ventilation.The current (wooden)ceiling of the sous sol (which is the floor to the ground floor) needs to be replaced, which we thought we would have in concrete, incorporating insulation. Obviously we'll be sorting out the ventilation and treating the stonwork to kill off any spores, but what we were wondering is if anyone has a rough idea of the cost to have the ceiling/floor replaced. The overall size is approximately 48 square metres.Many thanksCheryl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyh4 Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 For about half this area plus a set of cast concrete stairs cost 1700€. Construction was prestressed concrete beams inset with blocks and then covered with cement. We were in the same position as you except that instead of rot it was the dreaded capricorn that had put paid to the floor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheryl Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Thanks a lot for your reply Andy. That price doesn't sound too bad - hopefully it should cost under about €3000 then.Cheryl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheryl Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Thanks a lot for your reply Andy. That price doesn't sound too bad - hopefully it should cost under about €3000 then.Cheryl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blahblah Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 Hi We<recently had the same problem and deliberated for a while on whether to replace the wood with new or to put a concrete beam floor down. We decided on the concrete option as we liked the idea of tiling the entire downstairs ( looks much better and glad we did)The area we had to replace was just under 50sq m.We had several "builders" promising the earth for hardly and money !!Most of whom were english!!and several french builders who couldnt do the job for ooohh!! at least a year!! which i think is most common here!But finally settled for a local english guy who did the whole job ( less tiles ) for just over 7000 euros which were happy to pay as he did "extras" for no added cost!Hope this helps your task in hand !ThanksPaul and sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David M Posted November 25, 2005 Share Posted November 25, 2005 We're just halfway through the middle of this... because of the kind of problems identified and because our suppliers are so helpful, we decided to do it ourselves...We had a mixture of wooden floor boards (dry rot) and early C20 concrete on original beaten clay.We identified the cause of the damp and went about a fix (1) we spent about €2800 on a gel injection damp course that seems to have been extremely succesful and (2) with help and advice from our local Marie and direct labour department, we started a DIY improvement on our land drainage. I'd guess we spent less than €50 on that, which had an immediate beneficial effect, but we will be putting in some small land drains this summer.Then we used a chainsaw to fetch up the floor (new quality saw cost us around €200) and rented an electric hammer to fetch up the concrete floor. (3 day rental, plenty for 50 sq metres, was a little over €100).Shovels, picks, masonry tools, cost us about another €100 (including 32€ for a 2000w 230mm angle grinder for cutting some stone) And then about €157 for a skip for a week to get rid of the buidling rubble (€8 a tonne disposal tax). We got rid of all the bad wood in the local benne with the permission of the Maire... no charge.. and sawed up the rest for firewood.We paid around €108 for 4 tonne (I think) for gravel and a similar amount for sand. We laid and levelled the gravel, and blinded it with the sand. It cost us around €70 for a number of levels, including a really useful laser level and for planks for walking on.Now we are laying a non permeable membrane on the floor, to stop any rising damp, we are foding it up the side of the wall to rise beyond the walls damp course...All that's needed now is the screed. In our case we've decided to use this as an opportunity to install underfloor accumulation heating (heures creuses), so we are laying 47mm insolation board (specific for under floor heating) (from TMS) which I think is around €19 a square metre, then on top of that goes about 80mm of screed in which is set a steel armature (to stop the concrete fracturing) attached to which is the Vivrelec approved heating cable.The cable will have three control areas which will add to the cost... but should be around €1200..the screed (with fluidifiers) and armature I'm expecting to cost us around €250, we spent about another €200 on a cement mixer, floats and other tools.So at the moment I'm guestimating that the whole job of about 48sq m will cost us around €3000 to cure the damp problem€755 for the basic materials for the floors€2050 for the heating related parts€600 on toolsJust looking at the floor part, we will probably lay the floors for less than €1500 and spend about 262 hours doing it (3 of us)... Additionally we've over-bought on 20mm quarry tiles, (2 palettes) because it was much cheaper by the palette at about €1800 for the two.And we've commissioned a number of steps in local "used" stone at about €150 a step plus the masons charge for installing.. but these are added "luxury" details.. it's been great fun though.. this is not something we would usually do...there's dust everywhere.. and we had to move the kitchen into the entree for a while.. but hey.. we will get our Vivrelec standard electric storage heating fully tiled floors for less around €5500... oh did I say I ache a bit... a lot actually... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poppy Posted November 25, 2005 Share Posted November 25, 2005 If you haven't already bought the TMS boards suggest you have a look at DOW Floormate insulation. If you want any further info don't hesitate to email me.Jan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David M Posted November 25, 2005 Share Posted November 25, 2005 Yes we already have the TMS... it's a styrofoam product, like the DOW... it's supposed to have a lead-setting U value for its thickness/density...the particular one we have comes tongue and groove and with a special skin (not foil backed) presumable for handling the radiated heat...and designed specifically for the type of heating (inscreed cable) that we are installing......actually we looked at several products... in the end it came down to how we rated the supplier... that' why we ended up with the TMS...... however a project for later this year ...might.. be to install insolation to the loft... the new roof goes on in Jan (5.5% or no!) and we are putting a sandwich insulation material under the ardois (slate) principally to reflect heat from the sun (it gets incredibly hot in there in the summer) ... everyone is saying that will be enough... but I suspect we will want something else to retain heat in the winter...styrofoam might just be the answer.... I'll take a look at Dow again then...so thanks for the pointer....D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alane Posted November 25, 2005 Share Posted November 25, 2005 DaveA couple of questions as we will be doing something very similar next year with around 80 sq m. Did you use a compactor on the gravel and how deep did you lay it. Are you planning to use ready mix concrete or mix it yourself. I'm trying to get my daughter to round up a few of her male friends to come and help us with a mix and lay day. At 10cm thickness giving 8cu metres of concrete is a lot or 6.4 at 8cm. That much readymix frightens me a bit in case something goes wrong and I'm left with a large lump and if the spring weather is wet the delivery truck is going to make a hell of a mess of the garden.Best RegardsAlan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David M Posted November 29, 2005 Share Posted November 29, 2005 [quote]Dave A couple of questions as we will be doing something very similar next year with around 80 sq m. Did you use a compactor on the gravel and how deep did you lay it. Are you planning to use rea...[/quote]Hiya Alangravel... we discussed this a lot with various people...including one of my business clients whom are a very large building consultants... in the end we went for a 20mm smooth pebble...to allow easy compacting...we were laying on compacted clay... to a variable depth of 40 to 100 mm. We were originally aiming for 100mm minimum, but it was clear we were working with an old beaten clay floor, (at least 200 years old) so we decided to keep that and not fetch too much out... the deeper areas where were we investingated various things in the floor to make sure it was ok... and dig out the odd "time-team" artifact... anyway you are prohibited by law from digging down more than a metre We compacted it with boots... and a couple of 7 Kg hammers....ours was such a relatively small area and a shallow depth so I don't know if a compactor would have helped at all... we also try to make such things a bit social... time for drinks and chat.. then we followed the same process with the sand... finishing with a couple of wood and aluminium section levellers... we are both travelliing/working now so we've left it for a month... but I did the same with my mothers house in around 1974 and it still seems to be ok...Ready mix yes.... I've done this before... with my dad, and two cousins...and we were all fit and young then... this time there is likely to be only three of us and not so young... we didn't even consider readymix... it's not really viable for us... It would be going off before it got here...So we bought a cement mixer... our advisers tell us that we should easily manage the first part (22sq metres) in a little over half a day... I think the time consuming part will be making sure the armature is ok... I last did this about 4 years ago in Ireland, and that's what took the time...that and vibrating...we will use additive fluidifiers...to help it run smoothly....we've thought about using a vibration wand, but decided against it, we are going to just bash it with the floats... at the moment we are using brick to set the depth of the armature, but I believe platic widgets are available in the UK, so I'm going to take a look when I've over there in December...we'll work from one corner and always keep a wet edge... you could of course subdivide the work area with wooden battons (which you could use for your levels) and then do each area over a different day, though you would need to plan your cable path to suit, it shouldn't be difficult. You'd need to reove the battons and fill-in to finish - but you'll need to do that anyway with your levels.Hope that helps... I know a few people are interested so I'll try to keep you all posted on progress.. I was hoping to do a brief this weekend, but work intervened... we are planning to do the next bit at the begining of the new year...work permitting...David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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