Running a Gite and Renovating in Brittany

Staircase

The staircase guys came this week to fit the stairs. Two men and a lorry arrived with all the bits Wednesday morning and they finished Friday lunchtime.

The photos show the construction process. I didn't actually see much of process first hand because for the two days we were trapped downstairs we finished off bits of plasterboarding in the kitchen and lounge and had a major tidy up to move all the materials and tools into the garage ready to tile the kitchen floor.

The staircase is made of a hardwood (not sure of the name) but during construction it did look quite yellow, however right at the end it was all sanded down and a light oak tint was applied. That really made quite a difference to the look and brought up the grain.

The guys suggested that I should apply a clear wax coating to stabilise the tint to prevent further darkening over time and also to protect and nourish the wood.

The stairs were quite expensive, but I'm really pleased with the result. They just seem to curve and sweep up the stairwell and walking up and down is really comfortable. Each step is about 30cm wide and the rise is very shallow. Compared to an off-the-peg staircase it's a world of difference. But then I have to say that to convince myself of the extra expense.

|   12:04:09 PM   Staircase   

Living room and hall

With the floor finished the metal studwork has been built in the lounge, insulated using 100mm glass fibre with a vapour barrier.

The photo was taken a couple of days ago and the room has now been plasterboarded. There is also a wall for the hall that runs across separating the stairs and front door from the lounge. You can just see the edge of the wall as the camera position is in the hallway.

Yesterday I started taping and jointing the stairwell at the end of the hallway because the staircase guys are coming on Wednesday to fit the stairs. If I can get the stairwell prepared and an undercoat painted before then it will make life much easier protecting the stairs from dust and muck.

Once the staircase guys start, we can start work on the kitchen as they reckon it will take a couple of days to fit the staircase.

brittany renovation

|   10:28:48 AM   Living room and hall   

Floor finished

It took a little longer than expected but finally the oak floorboards are down ! I'm really happy with the result and very pleased with the look of the boards.

The photo only shows progress half-way across the floor, but you would get the general idea.

After my previous experience of laying pine floorboards I was much more careful about getting every row straight and flush before proceeding with the next row. Every plank was checked for splinters, or muck in the groove and all the tongues swept of dust etc. before the next row was placed. Occasionally a board did not quite seat correctly and needed clamping to pull everything together. This time I used some old sash cramps in reverse to squeeze the boards against each other to ensure I always had a straight edge to work against. Fortunately there were only a couple of instances where I needed the cramps but it does slow up the process. Compared to the pine planks before these were much much better.

One thing that made progress quite slow was the nailing. I did do some research and found that there is a special floorboard nailing gun that fires the nail into the tongue at 45 degrees and punches it home. The perfect tool for the job. However all the hire shops I visited with picture of tool in hand either gave me a shrug of the shoulders or said, 'Yeh, seen one of those on tele, but we just do it by hand'. I did find a local shop that could order and sell me one, but at 500+ euros it seemed a little expensive for a one off job.

Impatience and the cheapskate in me decided to do it by hand. How difficult could it be to bang in a few nails :-) Well it turned out that getting the right nails was a challenge in itself. I wanted lost head nails with serrations (barbs) down the shaft because I was nailing through hardwood into softwood and wanted the extra grip to hold the planks down and stop and squeaking and movement in the future. Again, trips to several DIY stores and builders merchants turned up nothing. Even the builders merchant thick nail and screw catalogue had nothing suitable to order. In the end I settled on a stainless steel nail with serrations, but a rounded head. Therefore every nail had to countersunk, and banged home (with some difficulty) with a punch. My hammering skills have certainly improved over the last few days, however I did catch the edge of some boards with the hammer head, so a few little dents here and there. Oak is tough, but not that tough. Any ideas on how to remove the dents on the edges of the planks would be appreciated.

BTW - If you are wondering about my crazy multi-coloured floor laying plan, the inventory of planks supplied by the sawmill might explain things.

So after four days, 1000 nails, a sore back and forty square meters, we have a floor. No more mud.

brittany renovation

|   9:06:57 PM   Floor finished   

Progress update

Progress has been fairly good recently. I've been a bit tardy updating the blog because of the long days and general tireness.

Some more of the plumbing has been completed with piping runs to the kitchen area and bathrooms. The hot water tank has also been installed, however not operational yet. Most of the pipework is turned off, isolated at the valves, whilst the bathrooms are being tiled. The only other work upstairs that has been completed is that the floors have been cleaned (with methylated spirits) and varnished.

The majority of the work is being concentrated downstairs at the moment, the reason being is because the staircase is due to be fitted in a couple of weeks and the lounge and corridor was still a mud floor. Also the oak floorboarding we ordered was available for collection. The floorboards have to rest in the room for a couple of weeks before laying to acclimatise, so we had to dig out the mud floor to lay the joists. Each joist is 6m long by 15cm by 5cm. The mud floor was covered with a plastic membrane then each joist laid at 40cm centers on the membrane and packed with concrete 'pads' every meter or so to ge the levels correct. This had to be done before collecting the floorboards, and the floorboards have to be laid before the staircase arrives. Everything has been a bit hectic, with everything, tools, equipment etc. all packed into the kitchen area, which still needs tiling, but there's no floor space, so the floorboards need laying, but... arrggg!!!!

Before laying the floorboards we have had to build the fireplace hearth using an old granite lintel and some other bits of stone, install the stainless steel chimney liner and woodburner (don't want rain and/or soot all over the new oak floor), new front door (the old one was rotten and too small and the rain blew in underneath), run electric cabling in the lounge/corridor for lights, cockets, TV, Telephone, heating etc, varnishing the oak beams, and what seems like dozens of minor jobs that should be finished before the floor and staircase.

Oh, the crazy picture at the top. That's the floorboard laying plan. The floorboards came in a variety of lengths, about 80% of them between 1.3m and 1.7m with some other shorter ones. Hence to avoid wasteage and cutting we have the plan :-).

|   9:22:27 PM   Progress update