Brittany holiday Gites & cottage Renovations - Week 1

SparrowLegs first week!

Week one has been and passed. In fairness this is the easiest part of any renovations, its to knockdown, remove and clean the existing internal structure.

(Walls Removed - Sorting of materials)



Before anything was removed, for example -Walls, a few things needed to be ascertained and carried out. Disconnecting the electrics and powering of the master Fuse (RCD). I usually disconnect everything, just to be sure that there is no possibility of electrocution when taking down the walls.

Second item to ascertain is working out where you are going to take the waste. This may sound silly but it is important to know this. In France, especially Brittany we don't have the luxury of skips. Not to say they don't exist, but at 600+ Euros per skip, this is expensive and generally difficult to hire.

I have a crap old van, so this gets used and abused, but it does force me to think about wheatI'm disposing of (dues to size and will it fit tin the old girl) and whether anything can be recycled?

Once you have located you nearest dump (dechetterie), its worth popping in and finding out what if any are the weight limits and if materials have to be separated.

Last thing not to forget is disconnecting the water and plugging up any exposed evat (waste pipes.) Working around the smell of shit really doesn't appeal to me, especially the clients! ;)


Removing walls, door and generally anything that isn't holding the house up was done in a day of two. To the inexperienced renovator, this doesn't mean that it's a frenzied attack! You will miss a trick if it were.

When renovating, there is an order to assembling, ceilings, studs, doors, electrics, plumbing, plasterboard etc etc. By removing these items in reverse order you'll be able to stockpile materials such as doors, metal/wood stud and recycle. (This method does take a little longer, but it can pay for itself in reducing the number of trip to the local dump, as well as saving money on buying new materials.



(Clean and tidy workspace)

 

 

Items needed:

 

Safety gear - Gloves, Glasses, dust mask, etc.

Something to ferry rubbish to the tip - Van/Trailer

Rubble sacks

Hammer, Crowbar (Wrecking bar) Impact Drivers and basic general tools.

MANPOWER!!!

 



 

 

 





Central Brittany Holiday Gite Renovation - 10 Week Challenge

The 10 week Challenge!

What's the challenge I hear you say? Renovate 100m2 Gite Cottage in 10 weeks. And when the word renovation is used, I mean complete and utter remodelling of the abortion which was erected 20 plus years ago.

Two guys, a boat load of tools, to rip out and replace everything but the exterior walls and roof. To start off you need to DESIGN!

For a successful build it is important to have some sort of design work finalised, it will never end well if you try and make it up as you go along.

If you're on a budget and can't afford an interior architect, I recommend Sweet Home  3D - http://www.sweethome3d.com/. It can be used in conjunction with other software such as Sketchup, or solely for just mapping out the interior layout.

One key point about designing a layout for a future renovations is it will allow you to estimate to some accuracy the amount of materials one might require.

 (New Layout proposed.)

 

Carpentry and wood flooring Central Brittany and Finistere

Wood is a great material to work with; I just wish I got to use it more often. Well, soon the worm will turn as I have 65m2 of new wooden flooring to lay. Though this isn’t as demanding as cabinet making, there are many things to consider which affects the look of a room, price of installation and material cost.

(Bespoke Wooden Workspace made 2012)

From the material point of view, my flooring project is price dependent, so I will be using solid Pine boards. I have the intention of painting of staining them in the future, so using a solid hardwood such as oak seems a bit of a waste.

The way you lay the boards can change outcome of a look of a room as well as price. It may seem strange, but the difference of choosing vertical, horizontal or even diagonal lines on the floor really does matters.

The room in question will be the living room, currently it’s divided into a kitchen, hallway, toilet/shower room and a living room. The plan is to knock the walls down to make a large open planned space which will be used as a living space and kitchen area. The space will be long and thin – 13.5m x4m.

As with all jobs, I like to use the computer to design my interiors as it saves money in the long run, give you a feel of what the finished look will be and the proportions of the room.

With a long thin room, you have to think that the way the flooring is set out is not dissimilar to a woman. A more rounded woman would never wear a dress with horizontal stripes as this will accentuate the areas she may not want others to notice. This concept is also true for tall women. Though this time it’s the vertical lines which are generally avoided, as this would make her look monstrously tall.

So before any work commences, I have done a 3D diagram of the three options available to determine my final choice.

(Floor-Boards Length)

(Floor-Boards Width)

The last option is to run the floor boards on the diagonal, this is extravagant due to the extra time it take to lay, however, I have always loved the finish result, especially if you frame the boarders of the room.

(Floor-Boards Diagonal)

 The final consideration of which way you chose to lay my come down to price. As with the diagonal option, choosing a horizontal option is also costly due to the amount of cuts involved and the time it takes. As stated earlier, the room is 13.5m x 4m and the flooring will be 2m x 15.5cm. So on the vertical run, every row two boards will have to be cut, whereas on the horizontal, though it is true that every row to will also require a cut, you will get to lay five to six boards which don’t have to be chopped.