Felting, battening and slating!

Very frustrated wiating for a relatively windless day to start laying the felt we eventually managed to get started. The weather has been relentless, either snow and ice or wind and rain makes working on a roof very uncomfortable! Once the felt was in place we started what seemed like the endless process of nailing on the battens....lots of them.

Battens in place, we have now made a start on the slates. We are hanging the slates on hooks and not nailing and are very pleased with the rustic look of the beautiful slate. The amount of weight the roof is supporting is worrying! First velux window is in now just the rest of the roof and the other four velux windows!!!

The start of the roof!

The house is beginning to look like a house! With the floor joists securely in place we could at last make a start on the actual roof timbers. A good friend spent a couple of days with us to "show us the ropes" of roof construction - thank goodness for good friends! Having completed what seemed like a taxing mathmatical equation, we eventually arrived at the angles we needed to cut for the rafters to fit to the ridge board and for the "birdsmouth cut" where the rafters would meet the wall plate. Our aim was to try and have a sufficient number of rafters in place to have the ridge board secured across the length of the house. This would make it much easier for us to complete the remainder of the roof with just two pairs of hands.

By the end of the two days with the help of our friend (and saviour!) we managed to complete our goal.

We continued just the two of us, albeit much slower, to add the remaining pairs of beams. A few days later (a couple of them very wet!) we completed the rafters.

Our next tasks are to build up the gable end walls, concrete in a steel reinforced ring beam on the gable ends and fix "outriggers" for the overhang.

Floor joists

We're working with timber at last. We have secured a wallplate to the top of the walls ready for securing joists and rafters. We are using joist hangers to lower the floor joists by 100 mm both for ease of securing and to allow more head room in the roof rooms. With all 60 hangers in place we have secured all thirty 225mm x 75mm joists. The size of the joists are to compensate for having no internal loadbearing walls. We cut each joist to allow 75mm of the depth to sit over the wall plate. This will have the rafter bolted to it.

We were able to continue further with the gable ends and, at last, have cast the final lintel for the first floor window.

Next stage is to sit the ridge board in place and start to cut and attach the pairs of rafters. Thankfully we have a good friend coming to help us get started next week!

Gable ends

Rain stopped play for a week...following a very dry summer we had our share of rain over just a few days which was great for the gardens but impossible to work in. So now the sun is back shining the building continues. The concrete ring beam has now had chance to completely harden off so the start of the gable end walls commence. Our house will have quite a steeply pitched roof at 51 degrees so we have started with the centre of the wall to enable us to secure a timber through the middle to "string out" our finished angle. The remaining angles of the wall will be built and finished with a further reinforced cement top.

We have now had all the wood for the roof delivered, it's quite scary how much it weighs and that our poor four walls will have to support that weight! The slates we have collected from a supllier about 15 kms from us. Five trips with the trailer and aching backs and arms and they are stacked ready to finish the roof. We chose slates from Spain as we had been warned to avoid the Chinese imports. You know you have been bitten by the building bug when you can spend 15 minutes admiring pieces of slate!

The ring beam

Finally, the house has a big collar! After hours of tediously shuttering the beam and the lintels, the concrete has been poured and voila the ringbeam and lintels are all in place and make it look a little more like we are building a house. Leaving a little more time for the concrete to cure and then we will be ready to start building the gable ends. Still waiting for some of the timber yards to finalise their quotes but we have found a great place to buy the natural slate to eventually cover the roof so we can get on with ordering those at least!

More blockwork!

Well, it's been a while but at last we are at the full height of the walls (excluding the gable ends). Looks like we've built a very large shoebox now!!! Next step is to pour a concrete ringbeam which will incorporate the door and window lintels. We now have all the shuttering wood so just need to get it firmly secured and we're back to mixing concrete!

Once the ringbeam is in place, it's time for the gables and starting the roof....pretty scary stuff!!!

We've planned the wood we need for the roof and are now in the process of obtaining quotes from various timber yards and merchants ready for delivery at the beginning of October.

The walls rise

The site is really beginning to look like the beginnings of a house now! Four course up on the blockwork and going up. We now have two doorways and a great place to have an apero at the end of a long, hot day!

Completing the floor slab

After the compressing of the hardcore, a layer of sand was laid to stop the hardcore puncturing the insulation and damp proof membrane.

We laid 80mm of polysterene insulation and a damp proof membrane before embarking on the pouring of the concrete slab.

As always wanting to achieve as much as we could without heavy machinery, we poured to concrete by hand...well four hands, one cement mixer and 3 and a half days of hard labour!!! We were knackered but over the moon to have the slab done.

Our first bit of machine power

Hardcore all in place we now needed to damp it down substantially to provide a stable base for the floor. Not being able to do this ourselves we have relented and hired a wacker plate compactor.

Filling the hardcore

At last we reach the end of the digging (for now!)

Having let our backs recover for all of 12 hours we then started the process of laying a bed of hardcore. This would need to be 40 cm deep at one end and 20 cm at the other. We had luckily retained a lot of hardcore when we previously knocked a hole through one of the barn walls to fit a door. Also, we have very helpful neighbours who let us have several trailer full loads. The weather has been beautiful whilst we have been digging and lugging stones around...very nice if we had time to sit in it but far too hot to be working in!

Digging again!

Having completed the arduous task of removing the excavated soil we then started on the removal of the turf. Due to the natural slope of the terrain, at the back end of the foundation it was not only the turf to be removed but another 30 cm of soil. Now we are beginning to realise the merits of a digger - even our clothes are beginning to give up!!!

With the concrete for the foundation laid our next task was to lay the foundation blocks. Here in France they use an almost solid block for the blockwork beneath the floor level.

We have a fair slope on the site so there was lots of time spent making sure we had every angle and level correct. The blocks now in place, we coated the exterior with a waterproof membrane.

We had planned to utilse the earth we had dug for the foundation to refill the excavation. Our first mistake! We only had to fill the exterior excavation and as we had almost filled the original excavation with concrete and block we had a lot of surplus soil. Another mammoth digging venture. It took the two of us almost 3 days of back breaking work to shift it!

Laying the foundation

We woke up to a beautiful day on Monday 8th March (well it was still dark when we woke up!) but when we started work at 7.30 am it was sunny, cloudless but there was a bitter wind. We were eager to get on knowing that we were working to a strict time table to beat the weather.

One final check of the levels and we were underway. We used a "step strip foundation" system to overcome the slope of the ground. With the rains we had had deteriorating the initial bottom of the trenches we had to dig down another 10 cm to ensure the ground was solid. This meant in places we were pouring almost 1/2 metre deep of concrete.

As we had had the materials delivered to our courtyard the work was backbreaking! During the two and a half days of continuous moving, mixing and pouring I had moved 12 tonnes of sand and gravel 4 buckets at a time to the site and Tony had lifted, mixed, poured and damped down.

12 tonnes of materials 3 buckets at a time!

Finally, time for a long glass of wine at the end of 3 very long days!

Tomorrow....start laying the concrete foundations!!!

Having studied the weather forecast for numerous days we think tomorrow will be a good day to satrt laying the foundations. The forecast is saying dry for over a week so enough time to get the work done and for the cement to start to cure. Fingers crossed they are right!

Deliveries!

The deliveries arrived of the sand, gravel and blocks!

More digging!

The digging continues but at least the sun is still shining!

The start of the dig!

We welcomed guests to La Cour during early February so after their departure we started the dig!

Unfortunately, Bubbles our cat became very poorly and after rushing her to the vet this week she had to be spayed as she had an infection of the uterus. The plan was for us both to dig like mad but Bubbles has been told to rest and recuperate in the house for 10 days. We understand this is essential to keep her well but ever active and outdoor loving Bubbles is very, very unhappy and is spending every waking hour (which tends to be between 11pm and 7 am) trying to escape through any means necessary. She is also very put out by the strange thing she has wrapped around her neck!

Therefore, through a distinct lack of sleep and trying to stop Bubbles from escaping Tony has been alone in the digging efforts. He is making a great job and the beautiful weather has really helped.