Occasional tales from a French fixer-upper

[mangocrazy]

As some of you will know, I have a place in the Languedoc, also known as the Occitanie region, and specifically the departement de l'Herault. I've been fixing it up for over 20 years now... A friend of mine asked me when it would be finished - 'never' came the reply.

But I really don't care, in fact I stopped caring some years ago. It is what it is and I will continue to try and get it to where I want it to be as time goes by. The house is about 20kms from the Med and is at the point where the coastal plain starts to get a bit lumpy and eventually merges into the much wilder Haut Languedoc, which in turn blends into the Massif Central. We're in prime wine production territory - we are slap bang in the middle of the Cotes du Thongue IGP wine appelation and the village is pretty much surrounded by vineyards. Heaven.

The house is of typical old Languedoc village construction. All (original) walls are a minimum of half a metre thick and composed of rocks, rubble and mud. As a result the house warms up slowly in spring, but retains heat well into late autumn and early winter (which is mecifully brief). So today, as the outside temps are a balmy 27 deg C, I've been throwing open all the windows to encourage heat into the house and generally warm up the fabric of the building.

Once I can get my arse in gear and start doing stuff, I'll post up pics.

[Skub]

27°? I'd settle for 17°. Hell,I'd settle for 7° if it stayed dry for a few days.

[DefTrap]

Yeah my place is similarly in a state of constant falling-down-a-bit / repair. I should be sanding doors today but, as you say, it's beautiful out today, so I'm on the beach.

[KungFooBob]

How are the locals?

I spent a couple of days in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and no one spoken any English and they did not even try to understand my broken GSCE Fronch. They weren't overtly rude, just had no interest in trying to communicate in anything but French in the bars and restaurants. It was mildly amusing when my wife ended up with the worlds sweetest white desert wine when she wanted a dry red.

I know it's French France, but everywhere else I've been (and I've seen lots of it) people were happy to try and communicate, menus were often available in English, I wondered if it was just a South Coast thing (but saying that I got on fine in Nice and Sainte-Maxime)?

[Cousin Jack]

IME starting in broken French is usually good, they can usually understand, and they give you credit for trying. Shouting in English however is guaranteed to get you nowhere.

[KungFooBob]

IME starting in broken French is usually good, they can usually understand, and they give you credit for trying. Shouting in English however is guaranteed to get you nowhere.

The broken French works everywhere so far, except the Camargue.

[mangocrazy]

Our locals are great, but the response you get is proportional to the effort you put in. As CJ says, shouting loudly in English will get you a Gallic shrug and completely ignored but if you make an effort in schoolboy/schoolgirl French they will respond and will unveil surprising levels of spoken English. Our immedate neighbour, the late and much lamented Nadine, was the best neighbour I've ever known anywhere. She used to go foraging and bring back wild asparagus and give us instructions on how to cook it (in an omelette was excellent). She also used to make us fig jam from the fruit of her fig tree.

Unfortunately she passed away in September 2020 from an agressive strain of cancer. She'd only retired a few months previously. We arrived to be told that her funeral was the next day. Horrible news. She used to collar me every time I set foot out of the house and have a conversation in French. It helped my spoken French enormously.

We are fortunate in that the local cafe is run by a woman who is bi-lingual in French and English, and the guy who runs the Tabac also has very good English.

As long as you're well outside Paris, I find the French to be at least as hospitable as the English, often more so.

[mangocrazy]

Just to completely confuse you, I'll show you the floor plan. You will immediately notice that there are no right-angles anywhere in the house(s). The house is actually two old dwellings joined at the hip. What you cant see is the elevation change - from right to left the street climbs very steeply and goes round a bend. So ground floor level on the 'cheese wedge' house is approximately level with the first floor on the 'not square at all' house. How someone figured that out I have no idea. There is a floor level mismatch of about 18 inches between the two houses.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

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[mangocrazy]

Anyway, today has been working in the attic, which is level 3 in the cheese wedge side. Level 1 is the garage and level 2 is the living room/kitchen. The living room has a wood burning stove fitted, and I'm currently trying to finish off the flue. As you can see from the pic below, it currently terminates below the roof, which is not ideal.

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At some point I need to cut a hole in the roof panels but before I can do that there is the small question of some of the roof panel support beams which are in the way. As far as I can see I won't be affecting the integrity of the roof beams, but it's going to be a PITA of a job, involving a multitool (the tool that sounds like a thousand angry wasps) and a fair amount of sawdust in eyes, And balancing on a ladder. This is a close up of the offending beams it's a bit out of focus, but I've scrawled on the beams in red pen where they will need to be cut back.

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And lastly, as the day has been scorchio the solar-fed hot water cylinder has registered a new high - 66 degrees no less.

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[DefTrap]

I assume that's twinwall stovepipe? Is it allowed that close to timber?

[Horse]

27°? I'd settle for 17°. Hell,I'd settle for 7° if it stayed dry for a few days.

My mate in the Midi-Pyranees messaged earlier - 29 in the shade.

Dizzy heights of 19 here.

[DefTrap]

Just to completely confuse you, I'll show you the floor plan.
A picture is worth a thousand words...

My place is similar, half our house and garden is behind the neighbours place. Every single room is on a different level, no room is square, most walls are sort of vertical. Installing a kitchen entailed building a vertical wall first, it was easier that way.

[cheb]

I can take a picture of mine as it goes through a wood clad ceiling and up into the roof timbers if you want. I can't do it now, the fire is lit.

[mangocrazy]

I assume that's twinwall stovepipe? Is it allowed that close to timber?

Yes, twin wall insulated. As long as there's no direct contact I believe it's OK. Trying to keep everything away from timber has been a PITA. It may not look like it, but there is at least 50mm between the twinwall pipe and the joists. I'll also be cutting the support beams back to give similar clearance.

[mangocrazy]

I can take a picture of mine as it goes through a wood clad ceiling and up into the roof timbers if you want. I can't do it now, the fire is lit.

That would be very, very helpful - thanks.

[mangocrazy]

Just to completely confuse you, I'll show you the floor plan.
A picture is worth a thousand words...

My place is similar, half our house and garden is behind the neighbours place. Every single room is on a different level, no room is square, most walls are sort of vertical. Installing a kitchen entailed building a vertical wall first, it was easier that way.

Putting a kitchen in was fun. I had to do almost a freehand cut on the worktop to get it to line up. We do have the benefit of a beam and block floor for the 1st floor living room. That helped a lot.

[DefTrap]

Yes, twin wall insulated. As long as there's no direct contact I believe it's OK. Trying to keep everything away from timber has been a PITA. It may not look like it, but there is at least 50mm between the twinwall pipe and the joists. I'll also be cutting the support beams back to give similar clearance.

Yes it's worth keeping an eye on, taking advice and safety first. A neighbour had a stove fitted (by an approved fitter) close to a roof beam. Said it would be fine - burnt his kitchen out!

[mangocrazy]

Yes, twin wall insulated. As long as there's no direct contact I believe it's OK. Trying to keep everything away from timber has been a PITA. It may not look like it, but there is at least 50mm between the twinwall pipe and the joists. I'll also be cutting the support beams back to give similar clearance.

Yes it's worth keeping an eye on, taking advice and safety first. A neighbour had a stove fitted (by an approved fitter) close to a roof beam. Said it would be fine - burnt his kitchen out!

Shit - really don't need or want that. Was that with single or twin wall flue? I can see large amounts of Rockwool insulation being stuffed into every aperture...

[DefTrap]

Shit - really don't need or want that. Was that with single or twin wall flue? I can see large amounts of Rockwool insulation being stuffed into every aperture...

It's too long ago now for me to remember the details (and I only saw the aftermath) but it was a bit concerning that the approved stove fitter did it.

All my installations have been in stone so far. And I've moved to pellet stoves now anyway and those flues are both smaller and seem to run a lot cooler.

[mangocrazy]

I;ve got a number of sheets of foil-backed Rockwool that I'll be placing between the flue and any woodwork, so that should keep temperatures within acceptable levels. But I'll certainly be asking a few questions of the flue suppliers.