Just finished filling the holes and cracks and are ready for the skim coat, Just waved goodbye to two jolly frenchmen who wanted 2500 euros to do one room and they wanted me to buy the stuff, so question is how hard will it be to do it myself, I think it might be better than learning p**s off in French as I don't want to upset the natives as word gets around.
Treacodactyl Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004 Posts: 25795 Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism
Posted: Fri Jul 13, 07 5:40 pm Post subject:
If it's anything like plastering you'll be quite good at it once you've done the whole house.
I'd also be interested to know about lime, I assume it's workable for longer than gypsum plaster?
Yes.
This is really Gervase' topic but in the meantime...
Lime (chaux) and sand. Different ratio's and grades of sand depending on what you want to do. You can probably buy it pre-made quite easily in France although I know that 'ordinary' french plaster sets very quickly so check that it doesnt have any pozzelan added to spped the set.
I've just base coated three walls 3:1 sharp sand to lime. I'll do a tidy up (very wonky wall in places that I want to smooth a little) with 3:1 ordinary sand:lime then finish with 2:1 silver sand (or any other very fine sand):lime.
then limewash on top.
Using a wooden float rather than steel is recommended because you dont get surface tension sucking the moisture to the surface and weakening the mix.
Make sure that you dampen the walls well before starting - again you are trying to stop the plaster drying too fast and either cracking or coming away from the wall. Dont make the layers too thick (I do about 1cm for the base coat and thinner after that - but i dont use hair in my mix). I find it easier to get the base coat on by hand - using good rubber gloves, press/smear onto the wall, then go over with the trowel to smooth it.
periodproperty.co.uk has lots of discussion on this stuff. Gervase is the specialist there.
Mark's pretty well covered it - but bewar that the French are far fonder of hydraulic lime than the Rosbifs, and that has a shorter workable life when knocked up into a plaster or render.
Proportions are the same though - 3:1 sharp sand to lime. Quickest way to dub out a bare stone wall is to hurl the stuff on with a small coal shovel (the sort of dinky thing that sits unused on most hearths). Put a polytarp down on the floor at the base of the wall, and everything that falls off can be scraped off to go back in the bucket and be used again.
Here's some fact sheets on lime work. You may not be able to find lime putty very easily where you are, but it's easy enough to make using fresh slaked (hydrated - not hydraulic!) bagged lime and water in a plastic dustbin.
There's an excellent French book on working with lime (and other materials) that you should be able to order through any bookshop or Amazon.fr - "Les Materiaux Naturels - decorer, restaurer et construire" by Jean-Francois Bertoncello and Julien Fouin, published last year by Editions du Rouergue. I was given a copy by a French builder friend last summer and it's one of the best books on conservation and restoration I've seen. It's around 20 Euros in paperback.
Saw the builder in the local restaurant last night , he gave me a piece of paper with 900euros written on it, still sounds a bit high to me, 2 men 2 days with me supplying the gear, what do you think?
remember that they have v.high cotisations (or whatever it's called) to pay. �600 for 4 man days = �150/day. Where are you in france - destitute rural bit or central paris?
Are they going to do the whole lot in 2 consec days ? I'd be a little concerned about the speed of drying etc.
Northern_Lad
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 14210 Location: Somewhere
Posted: Tue Jul 24, 07 12:20 pm Post subject:
madmonk wrote:
Saw the builder in the local restaurant last night , he gave me a piece of paper with 900euros written on it, still sounds a bit high to me, 2 men 2 days with me supplying the gear, what do you think?
�900?
�450 per day
�225 per man/per day
~�140 per man/per day - doesn't sound too bad for professional builders to me.
Sounds a very fair price to me - although you could probably haggle if one of the guys is merely mixing and humping and the other is doing the trowel work, in which case I'd reckon on �250 for the plasterer and �150 for his assistant. But, like all these things, it depends on how plentiful plasterers are in your neck of the woods and how much work they've got on.
To be honest, what's his work like? If you like what he's done for others and have had him recommended, go for the �900. In the UK you could pay a lot more than that for a sh!te job. And, in a small community, a little goodwill goes a long way - he probably knows other trades who will give you a fair price and a good job if you need them, which is worth a few Euros of anyone's money.
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