The renovation work has now started. Being able to find available contractors and workers during the summer holidays turned out to be quite complicated, but we have finally assembled a serious and competent team.
The separation wall
The masons just finished elevating the separation wall between our garden and the neighbour’s. Because as I sait in my previous post listing all the work needed in the house, until now, only a fence delimited the properties. To make this 2 meter high by 14 meter long wall, we used 20 cm concrete blocks. The plaster still needs to be done, as well as putting protection caps at the top of the wall, but the biggest part is done now. Building this wall wasn’t an easy task, we had to organize the order and delivery of all the needed materials (several pallets of cement bags, concrete blocks, metal reinforcing rods, wall caps, and plaster bags) that were delivered to us with a crane truck directly in the garden.
The sewage disposal
The garden, which was already fallow, now looks like a battlefield / wasteland / dump: trenches had to be dug all around the house and then all along the garden to the sidewalk, because we had to recreate the entire sewage system of the house. All the PVC pipes have been assembled, and all that is left to do now is to put the soil back into the trenches.
All these exterior work (elevation of a wall, sewage system, landscaping of a garden) is definitely a first for us because until now we had only renovated small flats (to see these renovations it is here, here and there). And even if the workers are serious, we have to manage them as well as all the logistics at the same time, and check that all the work is properly carried out. So, the least I can say is that Google and Youtube videos have been my best allies so far to teach me new diy skills!
Inside the house: Knocking down the partition wall between the kitchen and the living room
In order to create a larger living room (the initial layout of the house offered a 10 m² kitchen and a 15 m² living room), we decided to knock down the partition wall between the two rooms and create an open living space including kitchen, dining area and living room. The partition wall is now gone, well almost, because as nothing is ever simple when it comes to renovation work, the radiators were also on this wall, so we had to keep the wall section that holds the radiator until the plumber comes to remove it.
Electricity
We defined with the electrician the electrical plan of the house (number of sockets, locations, etc.), and he has already almost finished to make all the trenches in the walls to pass the electric cables. Electricity should therefore be done quickly, which is a good thing.
Sous-sol : Nettoyage des murs et coulage d’une chape en béton
The basement needed to be renovated to make it functional and more pleasant, because we plan to put a laundry space there. So we had to get rid of the existing earthen floor and planned to pour a cement screed over it.
As this is our first time managing this type of work, we sought advice from “professionals”. According to them, it was necessary to proceed as follows: put a polyane film, then pour the concrete screed. But I felt like I still should dig deeper on the subject, even though we had ordered and received all the material, the bags of cement, sand, gravel, etc … And it turned out after my researches that if this method is good for more recent constructions, it’s on the other hand totally unsuitable for old houses, because the beaten earth is used to let the soil breathe and to prevent moisture from entering the walls. However, if a concrete screed is poured, the ground will no longer be able to breathe, and the risk is great that moisture will go into the walls, and then create recurring problems of infiltration by capillarity, mold, etc. For old houses, it is more recommended to use lime to create screeds, because this material is breathable and also has a sanitizing power.
So we narrowly avoided the catastrophe because it was the day when we were going to start pouring concrete that I discovered that we were about to commit the greates mistake of all times.
I am quite happy that everything is moving forward, even if for the moment the whole house, including the exterior, looks like a war zone … But we must be patient, soon this house will be magnificent for sure!
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