Flying visit!

Earlier this month we went on a "flying visit" to the house to meet with a builder and a chap who was a cross between structural engineer & carpenter.

We left Brixton mid-afternoon on the Wednesday, arriving at the hotel just off the motorway about 11.30pm; by mid evening Thursday we were back home & unpacked - a glorified day trip!

At 8.30 on Thursday morning we arrived at the house to find the two builders waiting! That's got to be a good sign.

Once we'd apologised for not being there before them (we weren't late), we started opening up the house to let in some warmth & light.

My thermometers (I've got a small collection of minimum-maximum ones) showed that outside & upstairs it had dipped to -8°C, but downstairs it had only dropped to 2½°C - that's got to show that the insulation & new windows/doors/shutters are making a difference, surely?

I'm hoping that when it's been properly insulated (including under the floors; see below), and the gaps under the doors are blocked, the difference will be even more marked.

M. Petipas had the builders drill through the cover of the well (took 2 goes, as they hit a reinforcing bar the first time - the only one that day that would inconvenience them!), and they dropped a line to try and gauge how far below the water is and how deep.

The well seems to be 22.6m deep, with (I'm not sure I'm remembering this?) about 10m of water - everyone agreed this will be plenty for us to connect to for flushing the loos/watering the garden.

If we want to use the water we will need a filter - one level for loo-flushing/garden watering, a higher level if we intend to use the water in the shower/washing machine (which we do hope to do), and an even more rigorous one if we intend to drink the water.

We will need an analysis by a laboratory before thinking about using the water for drinking - and the well will have to be pumped out for a long time (to clear the standing water & re-establish the flow) before that can be done, so we might put that on hold till later; it will depend whether that is possible.

We will have to be guided by the plumbers when we have the forthcoming meeting with all the firms that the project managers have lined up to give us quotes...

So we started the day on a bit of good news.

Lucky, really, because everything M. Huguenot looked at after that just reconfirmed our suspicions about the corners Dominique had cut!

M. Petipas had the builders dig holes in the concrete in the kitchen (no damp-proof membrane, no insulation), the bedroom (damp-proof membrane that was thinner than the supermarket bags they put out for fruit & veg - NOT adequate! - no insulation).

We'd already seen from the hole that appeared by itself in the back hall that that floor was like the bedroom one.

No floor was laid correctly: dug out; hardcore compacted to form a stable base; sand to provide a smooth surface that wouldn't puncture the damp-proof membrane; thick damp-proof membrane; non-compressible insulation (of adequate thickness); at least 10mm of reinforced concrete.

Oh, well, next time!

Pretty much what we expected behind the plasterboard that the builders removed - not enough insulation, inadequately fixed in position (one piece in the bedroom had crumpled up & slid down the wall because the gap wasn't narrow enough to hold it in place).

One interesting development that we hadn't expected: one of the joists in the back hall ceiling didn't quite meet the wall!

Instead of the joist supporting the floor boards upstairs, the floor boards were holding up the ceiling joist!

It happens!

The ends of joists do rot/get eaten away, especially in older buildings that were constructed before wood-treatment became widely available.

But that doesn't change the fact that no reputable builder would leave a joist like that and attach plasterboard below it!

A joist hanger would cost less than £10 & would cure the problem in less than half an hour; the rest of the beam looked completely solid.

At least we've found out at this stage!

But it does make us wonder what else is waiting to be discovered...

The carpenter/structural engineer took a look at the roof timbers, and pronounced that the mezzanine will be OK being supported on the truss beams (not sure if that's the correct term - got it from a French/English translation of carpentry terms).

Great news that we don't need a steel cage constructing within the house to support the mezzanine - in terms of cost and time.

So, we ended the morning on a high!

Quick look around the garden - quite a few bulbs coming through, and primroses popping up; with the sunshine it felt quite spring-like - and then back to the motorway.

We were at Troyes having lunch at the service station in good time.

Our next visit will be to meet with various trades who are coming in two parties to quote for the work.

Please keep your fingers crossed that this means we will get work started sometime soon!