Occasional tales from a French fixer-upper

[cheb]

The room side of the ceiling. The organic filigree bunting is optional.



The other side of the ceiling:



As it goes through the sarking under the roof:


I don't think there's anything special about the plasterboard, it looks like standard 12.7mm board.

[mangocrazy]

Thanks for that @cheb , much appreciated. The wood burner is on 'level 2' of the house (level 1 is a garage) and for the flue to reach open air it has to pass through one ceiling/floor and then the roof itself. Where it passes through the ceiling/floor I have an arrangement very similar to yours. I made a box of fire rated plasterboard ( the pink, heavy stuff) and lined it internally with foil-faced 50mm Rockwool sheets. There's an air gap between flue and Rockwool and a perforated/ventilated steel plate sits on top and prevents the ingress of curious felines and allows heat to enter the attic space. This is the best photograph of it I can manage without dismantling the plot.

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On looking more closely at the pic it seems that I used two layers of pink plasterboard on one side, but I can't be sure. But I'm reasonably confident that I've taken sufficient precautions agains heat from the stove. What do you think?

The bit I'm now fretting about is where the flue exits the roof. The photo below shows the pieces of timber that are in the way. The top piece isn't really serving any particular purpose and will be cut back in line with the joist. That means I can then bolt some fire rated plasterboard to the joist. The piece of wood that has the roof fixing going through it will need more careful thought, though...

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[cheb]

I've edited the last photo, I'd posted the same one twice.

It looks like there's a plasterboard box up the sarking. That's boarding over the joists but under the felt etc. Makes for a much stronger roof and that's needed out here. I have no idea what happens after that, the house has a living grass roof and I've not been up on it yet. That'll happen one day, I need to look at the buried watering system and more.

[DefTrap]

Can you not just remove/slightly-move that piece of wood with the roof panel fixing? (I realise this may involve taking a roof panel off, which is a ballache - ask me how I know!)

(This is exactly how my roof is by the way! With those wriggly cement boards ...)

[mangocrazy]

Yes, I imagine roof loadings can be pretty extreme at times. Presumably there is some kind of impermeable membrane underneath the living grass roof? I haven't a clue how such things work - nice idea though. But your flue system obviously works without any flammable bits getting too warm, so that gives me some pointers.

The supplier of my wood burner gave strict instructions that no wooden or other flammable materials should be used in the construction of the stove housing, so we used Dexion for the main skeleton mixed in with metal profiles as used in stud walling. This is the stove part way through the construction of the exoskeleton:

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and with its clothes on showing access hatch(es), but before all the tedious filling and sanding operations:

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[mangocrazy]

Can you not just remove/slightly-move that piece of wood with the roof panel fixing? (I realise this may involve taking a roof panel off, which is a a ballache - ask me how I know!)

(This is exactly how my roof is by the way! With those wriggly cement boards ...)

I'd need to partially dismantle the roof to do that, and those wooden support beams are 3-4 metres long, so I'll only consider that in direst emergency. I think I should have enough wriggle room to make the joists and support planks safe from any flue heat.

Yes, those cement boards are much easier to use than individual tuiles canales, but they do weigh a bit more...

[Sadlonelygit]

When we bought our place, we both agreed no more do-er uppers (last place we replaced every sheet of plasterboard and threw in dormer extension for good measure)
So far I've moved the doorway in the downstairs loo to create a walk in wardrobe, replaced 4 wooden windows with upvc, fitted a new rear portes coulissantes, built a monstrous decking, sanded and refinished 150m2 of flooring, repainted a 30' (220m2) high ceiling, replaced lintel knockouts with stone work, fitted numerous curtain poles and curtains.
Glad we didnt decide to buy a place that needed work!

[mangocrazy]

Yesterday I spent most of the day refitting an uprated (and fixed) motor and control gear to the 3 phase pillar drill I've owned since about 2008. It's never worked in all that time and I'm not clued up enough to troubleshoot French 3 phase electrics.

So last October I took the 3-ph motor, control gear and mains lead back to Sheffield, all in one piece, to a fans and motors specialist. I didn't know which component was faulty, and gave it to the experts to find out. It turned out it was the control gear/switching that was at fault and they fitted an entirely new control box and electronics to my existing motor and mains lead. This was a relief, as a faulty motor would have probably cost more than the whole thing was worth.

I tried various mounting options for the control box but eventually decided that the best way was to fit the original (empty) control gear housing back on to the drill body, then bolt the new control box onto the old shell of a housing. It was going to look pretty ungainly, but I never bought it to win any beauty contests. So that's what I did.

And I now have a working 3 phase pillar drill, which is nice. The only slight fly in the ointment is that the quill bearing does sound rather noisy... But for the moment it's working and drilling holes, so that's a win. I'll get my mate Andy to have a listen to the bearing and see what he thinks. Pic of the old/new control boxes:

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And of the drill in its position next to my surgically clean and tidy work bench (ahem)...

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[mangocrazy]

I'd just like to say that, after months of moaning about how shit, cold and wet the weather has been in the UK, I can now justifiably moan about how hot it is in the south of France and how it's too hot for motorcycling.

35 degrees C, FFS! It's like a sauna in the attic (where most of the work I need to do is located) so I'm reduced to sitting by a fan, perusing RTTL and drinking beer.

And soon the beer will run out. It's hell, I tell ya...

[Noggin]

Typical Brit - always moaning about the weather!

[DefTrap]

I have to say it irritates me that the hot weather down here is too hot to comfortably ride AND also coincides with the roads being chokka with tourist traffic.

[Skub]

I'd just like to say that, after months of moaning about how shit, cold and wet the weather has been in the UK, I can now justifiably moan about how hot it is in the south of France and how it's too hot for motorcycling.

35 degrees C, FFS! It's like a sauna in the attic (where most of the work I need to do is located) so I'm reduced to sitting by a fan, perusing RTTL and drinking beer.

And soon the beer will run out. It's hell, I tell ya...

Yorick has hacked your username.

[mangocrazy]

I'd just like to say that, after months of moaning about how shit, cold and wet the weather has been in the UK, I can now justifiably moan about how hot it is in the south of France and how it's too hot for motorcycling.

35 degrees C, FFS! It's like a sauna in the attic (where most of the work I need to do is located) so I'm reduced to sitting by a fan, perusing RTTL and drinking beer.

And soon the beer will run out. It's hell, I tell ya...

Yorick has hacked your username.

Nah - he's used to it and doesn't complain about the heat just, mentions it when we're all moaning about the the cold and wet...

And typical Brit moaning about the weather - guilty as charged m'Lud...

One year I when was down here in June (normally an excellent motorcycling month) it was 42 deg C! Now that really was too hot for riding a bike.

Tomorrow I will have to brave the heat and the flies and leave the safety of my fan, as I need to hit Bricoman for some DIY kit.

I may be gone some time...

[mangocrazy]

I'm back at the moneypit for the usual round of autumnal house-bothering. Except autumn here is a lot warmer than autumn in Blighty.

When I returned in late July I was more than bit peeved to find that a lot of the tiles I had laid so carefully in April/May had decided to make a Unilateral Declaration of Independence; i.e the fuckers had come loose. Over 20 of them. Upon closer inspection it seemed that wherever there was a joint in the T&G chipboard flooring, the tiles had come loose. I can only suspect there was movement of the substrate due to the change in heat/humidity between April and high summer in July leading to the bond between tile/adhesive/substrate fracturing.

If I'd had time to complete the grouting I suspect that might have held the plot together. But I didn't and it didn't.

So my first job after settling in was to remove all the old tile cement from the chipboard flooring. This was a painful, dusty, vibratory and long-winded job. The best way I found was to use my trusty Bosch multitool fitted with a diamond-tipped blade to grind/cut away all the old tile cement. It took bloody ages and needed to be followed up by belt sanding the surface to get back to the original chipboard. And then I had to re-apply diluted SBR sealant to the chipboard so the next lot of adhesive had something grippy to bond to. This is what the room looked like after those operations:

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As my first attempt with conventional tile adhesive/cement had been less than a success, I decided to try a different tack for the sticky stuff (see what I did there?) I needed something that had good grip and adhesion, but was also flexible. So I decided to use a polymer adhesive, as supplied in 290ml cartridges/tubes and applied by skeleton gun. I had two tubes of No Nonsense I can't believe it's Not Nails and 2 tubes of Soudal Fix ALL. Having used them both, I wouldn't be surprised if they were the same stuff. Anyway, the deed is done and this is how the room looks like now:

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Tomorrow I will be mainly grouting, I suspect...

[mangocrazy]

In fact I have been mainly grouting (off and on) for the last two weeks...

However today's problem is not grouting, but the tiles themselves. Or, more specifically, the extreme difficulty I'm encountering putting holes in them. I need to drill ten holes in the tiled floor to fix the metal channel base that will hold the uprights and ultimately form part of a wall. Ten holes...

I tried drilling the first of the ten holes using a 4mm tile drill in my cordless drill (low speed, hammer action off) and it took me at least 20 minutes to drill one hole. It could have been longer - it felt like it took half a day. So the next day I rode to my local Brico depot and bought the smallest tile drill they had; a 5mm Diager CeraPro item. It cost €10. This speeded things up to the point that it only took 4 or 5 minutes to drill a hole. Not brilliant, but not half a lifetime.

Just as I finished the ninth hole (the 8th with the new drill bit) the tip cried enough and shattered. Eight holes out of a drill bit - not great, is it? I managed to find another 5mm tile bit in my drill stash and started on the tenth and last hole. I'd not even drilled a millimetre into the tile when that bit shattered in similar fashion. So now it's a trip back to the Brico depot to see if they'll give me a FoC replacement when I don't have the till receipt.

Wish me luck...

[KungFooBob]

Did you use any water while drilling?

I imagine the bit overheated.

[mangocrazy]

No, didn't use water but left the bit to cool down after each hole drilled and regularly vacuumed up the dust from the hole. When I'm cutting tiles I have a Rubi tile cutter with water bath and that's excellent, but not sure that water helps much when drilling holes in tiles, as the amount of water in contact with the drill bit is minimal and quickly evaporates.

[mangocrazy]

Drill bit replaced FoC with no hassle and no drama, so let's hope the replacement can manage at least one hole...

[DefTrap]

BricoDepot are surprisingly (for France) blasé about returns at my local place - they credit me back and let me return the goods to the rack myself. I've often considered just putting it back in the car.

[mangocrazy]

My local(ish) Brico store is actually a family owned place (Cauvy et Fils), not a chain. The family also have a 20 hectare estate in the Faugeres appellation and even have an outlet for their wines on site at the builder's merchants! Even more amazingly, I haven't visited their little cave yet to sample their wares. I will correct this omission next time I visit.

As regards the new drill it was fine. I followed KFB's suggestion of using a little water and it definitely increased the cutting speed and kept the tip a lot cooler. So, nice one KFB. I'll follow that routine from now on whenever i need to drill tiles.