If you are English, I should really say British- i’m sorry, and have decided to employ an English/British Builder, it would certainly be a good idea if the builder is registered and insured.

I have used the word English because of the link with the language rather than a regional definition. I will try to use the word British where appropriate.

If the builder is registered he will have a Siret N°.

Any registered builder will give you his Siret N° on his quote and will not feel offended if you ask about his credentials.

If you would like to check the builders’ credentials there is a web-site you can use.

www.manageo.fr

On this site you can click on ‘Recherchez une Entreprise’ and you have the option of searching under various categaries.

You can use any of the following to find out whether the builder is registered with the Chambres de Métiers:

1. Raison Sociale …….this is the name of the company

2. N° Siren ……… please note this is not the same number as the Siret N°. The Siren N° is usually only the first nine numbers of the Siret N°.

3. Dirigeant……. Name of the Boss.

4. N° de tel……. telephone number.

When you fill in any one of these pieces of information, you will receive the name and address of the person if they are registered.

This site does not give you what the person or company is registered to do but it does tell you if they are registered.

It’s very easy to use and at least gives a small piece of mind.

If you fill in the telephone number, for instance, and nothing comes up, try using a different criteria for your search. Perhaps the telephone number you have been given was not the same number as was given to the Chambres de Métires when the company was registered.

Perhaps try searching the company’s name and also the Siren N° in two separate searches.

My advice is find a builder who is registered and insured.

1. Competence for the job

2. Price

3. Ability to communicate

4. Quality of finish

5. Availability

and many more.

How can you know whether the builder is competent, trustworthy, and honest?

This remains a problem whether you are talking about English or French builders. There are some people who have employed numerous French Artisans and have only been impressed by their attitude and work. Others have had rather negative experiences.

There are plenty of stories of unreliable English builders, some of whom are not registered, which cause people heartache and less than satisfaction for their money.

The truth is that you are more likely to hear about bad building experiences than good ones. After all where is the story when you say to someone else, I asked the builder to do a job for me and he did it?

Wherever you turn there are good and bad experiences.

If you employ a registered builder there is the legal angle you can follow if you are not satisfied with the work. This option is not possible when employing workers ‘on the black’.

Some clients are not aware that if a they are caught employing black labour, they are the ones who will be heavily fined, much more so than the worker himself. The French way of thinking is that if you can afford to have work done, you can afford to pay a large fine. People who work on the black are often short of money and therefore unable to pay large fines.

There’s some logic there somewhere.

Builders who are registered have to give a ten year guarantee to their work. This is a legal obligation and their insurance will cover them for ten years after the work has been done. (Assurance de responsabilite civile et responsabilite decennale)

I have found living in a fairly rural part of France, that bad news travels fast. If you do a bad job for someone then it is not long before the neighbours know. Generally I would say that if the builder often works locally, you are more likely to find that the builder has a good reputation.

Normally if you are living in France it is much easier to spend time asking around before deciding who will do your work. If you live in England and are trying to renovate a house in France, the risks are obviously higher.

Look on the internet at the forums and other peoples’ experiences.
My advice is to gather as much information as possible before deciding who to employ. If it doesn’t ‘feel right’ don’t do it.

In French; Chaux Hydraulique and Chaux Aerienne. These limes are used in two different situations and it’s important to realize their differences.

Chaux Hydraulique is used in the undercoat layer when using lime in a render. When lime is mixed with Hemp (Chanvre), Chaux Hydraulique is used in this insulative layer. The properties of this lime make it suitable as it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere when the air is damp, and gives it back into the atmophere when the air is dry. This property means that the conditions inside a house where this lime render is used, are more constant. This phenonomen is known as a house which ‘breathes’.

Chaux Aerienne is the lime used in the top coat. When this lime is mixed with Hemp it produces a fairly hard surface which resists wear. The lime will still allow moisture to pass through it but it does not absorb moisture like Hydaulic Lime. Consequently, this top coat acts more like a plastered wall and can be wiped clean without damaging it.

The two common types of lime which I use are:

1. Chaux Hydraulique;

Chaux de St Astier, NHL 3.5.

(Be careful as you can find sacks of lime which are marked similarly, NHL 3.5 Z , but this is a lime that also contains cement!!! ……not so good if you want a lime to breathe! )

2. Chaux Aerienne;

Batidol.

Usually, if you are not sure about which lime to buy, there will be someone at the suppliers who understands the differences ….. but not always.!!

So before choosing the lime you will use it is necessary to understand the job it will do.

Generally, ‘builders lime’ (Chaux blanche) contains cement and it is that which is used for pointing, and general building use. Just because it is used by builders does not mean that it is the best choice. If you are trying to build a home which breathes and is kind to the environment it is best to use pure lime.

Well I’ve been reading a few of the forums about English Builders.

It seems to me that there are the same problems here in France as in England.

I think these problems seem to be exaggerated here because of the extra problem of the language. Wherever I have lived I have always known good builders and ‘people it was best not to trust’.

When your choice of workers are limited by a foreign language it does make the situation a little restricted. I appreciate that a lot of British people who have chosen to live in France don’t necessarily have a lot of money. In fact for some couples I have met, it is exactly that reason which has brought them here.

It is tempting to employ unregistered builders because of the cost of their wages. I’m sure there are many happy unregistered builders out there and clients who use them, but these will not be the first people to advertise on the internet! After all it is illegal, and I don’t think most people are that stupid.

Obviously, my advice follows the advice of most people in these forums and that is to employ registered builders. I would be foolish not to say that as I am registered with the Chambre de Métiers at Laval, and I would be ’shooting myself in the foot’ if I suggested otherwise.

Unfortunately, I also realize that just because someone is registered, does not mean that their ability is guaranteed.!! They can have qualifications but their quality of work can still be less than perfect. I am pleased to say that almost all of my clients have asked me back to do more work for them. This seems to suggest that my quality of finish must be acceptable at the very least.!

I think asking people who are having work done are one of the best people to get an honest opinion from. Although, even in that situation you can make a mistake because the work you require is not the same as your neighbours.!

I did read what I thought was a good suggestion, that is to ask for the builder to do a small job first. In this way you can judge whether he is reliable in his time keeping and whether he is good to his word.

This has happened to me before. I have been asked to do a small job and at the end of that have been asked to continue to do further more extensive work.

If anyone had ‘The Answer’ to this problem, they would become a very rich man.

Take your time, and listen to your instincts…..

Each material has a capacity to absorb heat or sound, and a capacity to reflect sound or heat.

The quality of absorbtion or reflection of energy gives the characteristics of that material as an insulative material.

Many materials have been tested and been given a numerical value. There is a value which corresponds to the sound qualities, measured in dB, and a value for the thermal qulaity usually given as R. R is infact 1/K where K is the coefficient which measures the amount of heat lost over 1m² when there is a difference of one degree either side of the material.

One problem with measuring the acoustic properties of a material is that they vary depending on the frequency of the sound used.

To be accurate, the frequency used in the test should be quoted.

Another point to be aware of is that some of the latest materials to come onto the market have not been tested by an independent governmental body. Comparisons are given as to the insulative values but these have been determined usually by the manufacturers themselves.

In my view insulation in all parts of a house is very important and in general I think it isn’t given a large enough budget considering its importance.

If a house has no insulation or is poorly insulated you could expect to loose about 30% through the roof, 25% through the walls, 13% through the windows, 7% through the floors, 20% through the recycling of air, and 5% through small leaks and ‘heat bridges’.

Knowing this one is more able to decide where to use quality insulation……everywhere infact.!!

Group 1; Insulation against heat loss (or heat gain).

Group 2; Insulation against sound.

Considering both groups, many manufactured solutions exist.

These solutions can be grouped again into two main groups, in my opinion. Group one would be the ecological solutions which are being chosen by more and more clients, and group two can be classified as the rest.

In both groups there are different types of insulation such as rigid panels, rolls and loose particles.

So, ecologically speaking;

Panels; glued wood particles

cork

recycled paper

plant fibres (linseed)

duck feathers and wool

on a roll;

wool

Hemp fibres

plant fibres (linseed)

duck feathers and wool

and loose particles;

cut pieces of wool

Hemp

pieces of cork

recycled paper.

In the other group, there is;

glass fibre

polystyrene

expanded polystyrene

plaster board

wood

Of course there are many others such as the very thin reflective materials and materials such as breeze-blocks, thermal blocks, bricks and many ecological building blocks which basically trap air whinin themselves.

There will be further information on these products in future bloggs.
Which insulative material you choose will depend on numerous factors; how freindly it is to the planet, how easy it is to handle, how much space is available, how it will perform, how long it will last and of course how much it costs.

My advice is to take your time and choose well.

Once it is installed it is there for a long time.

If wood is used as a structural material they have the opinion that you should continue to use materials which can move with the atmospheric conditions. Materials which are not effected by humidity or heat can be used together….. such as plaster board and metal.

The strength seems to be in the entire system but the wall can not be a load bearing wall.

There are many variations of sizes of rail and thickness of insulation used. The thickness of plaster board and whether one or two layers are used depends on how much thermal and acoustic insulation is required.

Using this system two separate walls can be built side by side giving an almost absolute division in very little space.

This is a system which is not expensive easy to install and has many benefits, a system which has grown on me through use.

This is a system that is very flexible and I think should be considered.

I will try to compare the normal builing ideas with alternatives, especially those which are kinder to the environment.

I aim to give fair information but my preferences will undoubtably filter through.

I hope your comments will be useful to me and to others…..

Happy renovations……. 

Natural tiles and rendering with lime and hemp go very well together.

In the above photo you can see the differences in the colour of the render.

This is due to dampness in the wall from the undercoat.

There are many results using natural products which vary from the expected result usually because of different conditions at the outset.

This is one aspect which some people love and others are not so pleased with.

I always advise test s to be done as far as possible and try and give a true explanation of the array of results which could happen. The truth is that nobody really knows what the effect will be until it is done.

These tiles were laid in the traditional style.

As the tiles were hand made there was a great deal of difference in size between the tiles.

On average the tiles were 150mm square but there was a difference of 6 or 7mm between the largest and the smallest.

Using the traditional style of laying the tiles, an overlap of approximately 1/3 of a tile was used. With this overlap there is not a regular pattern for the eyes to follow.

Every third row a straight line was determined before continuing on the next three rows.

With these natural tiles the method of judgement has to be by eye. Before starting the average grout width should be agreed and followed as the tiles allow.

By opening several packs at a time a varience in size and colour is more easily attained.

This is a job which really can’t be rushed as you’ll stare at the result for a long time in the future.

Not only the grout size around the tile and the colour of the tile compared to the surrounding ones but also the natural shape of the tile needs to be judged to give an overall level surface.

If you want a glass like finish, old tiles or new hand made tiles should not be chosen.

Some of the beauty of using these natural tiles are the faults or ‘differences’ they have. Sometimes it is difficult to imagine the finished result.

Remember where using natural tiles, you can stain them by using the wrong type of glue. There are specific glues for natural tiles and some of them don’t guarantee a stain free finish. Usually it is the cement contained in the glue which leechec through.

There are products (mild acids) which can be used to reduce the staining prior to putting a finishing coat on the tiles.

Often oil is used to seal these tiles but again there are specific products for sealing natural tiles aswell.

I would advise to try different products on spare tiles before choosing which you will use on the entire floor.

This way you’ll attain the effect you want, not an effect which is expected by others.