La Studio - Downstairs Boarding

 23rd February 2022

Great day and nearly got all I planned completed to cut the Insulated Board to the downstairs wall. Just a couple of small sections to do now, as I was just too tired to do more.

West Side Wall Boarded

East Side Wall Boarded

East Front Wall Boarded

West Rear Wall Boarded

There is a small section on the East Side Rear Wall to do by the stairs and the West Side Front Wall, where the Fuse Box will be located.  I have ordered  a large 500x500mm piece of toughened glass for the opening here and will fix the boarding on this wall below the opening and wait until the next visit to fix the upper section once the glass is received.  A made to measure window here would have cost Euro 500, but the glass will cost less than £50!.

Boarding Pile Reduced

I used the Insulated Plasterboard that Gedimat delivered in November and stored the second pallet load of 20 board outside, properly covered, so was delighted to discover it was dry and in excellent condition when I unwrapped it today.  Once I finish tomorrow I will move the remaining boards into the barn.  There should be 4/5 boards left, so the 10% spare will not have been used.

It was much easier to cut the boards today on the pallet pile and I limited the mess by vacuuming the dust and polystyrene after each cut.  I also discovered it was much easier to just cut through the plasterboard and lift up to part the unit, than cut all the way, less mess as well.

Was very lucky there was not rain or drizzle today and the sun was shining.

Thursday 24th February 2022

Downstairs Boarding Fix

As hoped the boarding downstairs went up and was fixed without much problem and all the cut piece from yesterday are now installed.  I still have a few bits to finish, but that will now have to wait until the next visit in April/May 2022.  

Some tidy up tasks and the gardens to do next few days before return to UK.

East Front Board Fix

East Side Board Fix

West Back Board Fix

West Side Board Fix

La Studio - Upstairs Boarding Fixed

 Monday 21st February 2022  

As hoped, I managed to complete the fixing of the Insulated Plasterboard to both West & East Gable Ends today and used 2x25kg bags of the Gedimat Adhesive.

See Pictures Below

I managed to finish in time to tidy up and get a shower before Francis from SAS Adam came as agreed to take the final measurements for me to order the Door and Large Windows.  So there will be a Front Door, glades to within 30cm of the bottom and a pair of doors at the back to allow access to an eventual patio.  The small East Side Door will now be a top opening Window, as well and an East Gable End Window to let plenty of light in upstairs.  Hopefully, these will be delivered in May for fitting.

So tomorrow, I should be able to get the upstairs low walls boarding fixed.

Tuesday 22nd February 2022

Today, I completed the fixing of the Upstairs Lower Wall Insulated PB, that took 1.5bags of the Gedimat Adhesive.  Some of the first batch went off before I had finished, but the second batch of a 1/2 bag was enough.

East Back Boarding

East Front Boarding

West Back Boarding

West Front Boarding

The task for tomorrow is to cut the Insulated Plasterboard for the downstairs exterior walls.  This should be reasonably straightforward, using full width boards cut to 1.9m high.

La Studio - Electrical Cable Run Tests

 Saturday 19th February 2022  

An easier day, as I cleared upstairs of all the plasterboard offcuts and swept up.  I also removed the loose old render from the West Gable End to ensure good adhesion of the plasterboard adhesive.  

As I plan to fix the board to the wall next week, I carried out a test on the electrical cable runs, as I did in La Grenier in La Maison.  I connected a lamp to the end of the run and a plug to the fuse box end, that I connected to an extension lead to provide power.  So far so good and will finish all the run tests tomorrow.  It has highlighted that I forgot to run a cable to the downstairs East Side for the under floor heatmat, despite my checking!  So will, add a cable run tomorrow.

Once all done, I will fix all the upstairs boards to the walls and then cut and fix all the downstairs wall boards next week.

La Studio - Gable End Insulated Plasterboard Cutting

 Friday 18th February 2022

Pleasingly, the task of cutting all the Insulated PB for both Gable Ends Upstairs was completed today and I have it all in position.  Need to clear the remnants of boarding tomorrow and then on Monday will mix the boarding adhesive and start fixing all the cut boarding both sides.   It will probably take 3/4 bags and 2 days to adjust and fix. 

West Gable End

East Gable End

     

Once completed, I will start on cutting the board for the downstairs, which hopefully will be easier and use full boards, cut and install vertically and then the ceiling in between the beams.

La Studio - Upstairs Low Wall Insulated Boarding

Thursday 17th February 2022     

Had a good day and succeeded to get all the Lower Wall Insulated PB in both the East and West Sides cut and ready for securing to the wall.  Installed a Full 2.4 x 1.2 Board down the back wall by the stairs and all the electric socket holes drilled in position.

East Back Lower Wall

East Front Lower Wall

West Back Lower Wall

West Front Lower Wall

Made all of the low board 50mm taller than needed and removed the poly insulation from the back of the top 5cm to allow to overlap the bottom of the roof boarding.

A few adjustments needed and just to to double check all the electric cabling position tomorrow, before starting the work to cut both Gable Ends- East and West boards and place into position ready for the adhesive mix to secure each board to the stone walls.

La Studio - Lower Roof Insulation and Boarding

Wednesday 16th February 2022

Well, what a tough session!  What I hoped would be straight forward proved difficult and exhausting.  However, I succeeded in getting most of the Lower Roof section below the Purling Beams completed, except the East Side Rear, by the stairs completed.  The front sections now have added insulation between the vertical roof supports as well and I  have added Insulated PB to the top of the wall section.

West Front Lower Roof

West Rear Lower Roof

East Front Lower Roof

The problem was the uneven vertical roof supports on the lower roof section, that made it difficult to secure firmly all across each board and I will still need to make some adjustments, once I figure out how best to approach the issue.

La Studio - Upper Roof Section Boarded

Tuesday 15th February 2022

I managed to complete the Insulated PB to the Upper Roof Sections of both  the East and West Roof, front and nearly all the back today.  I also added extra insulation to the voids between the beams on the front of the building where the sun shines all day.  Hopefully, this addition and the Insulated PB will help a little in the height of the summer.

West Upper Roof

East Upper Roof

Went to Gedimat to collect another pack of Insulation Sheets to cut up tomorrow and insert in the  Front Lower Roof Sections tomorrow, before applying the Insulated PB.  Also collected some more long washer head screws that I ran out of today.

La Studio - West Central Wall Rendering

Monday 14th February 2022    

On this special day it is LOVEly when a plan comes together!

Central West Wall Rendered

I completed the Central Wall rendering, firstly by doing the section on the East Wall above the stairwell and then all of the West Side wall, as shown.

It again proved critically important of getting the mix consistency right, so that it sticks to the wall when flicked on.  It then stays in place until all is applied and you can then work the mixture into the gaps between the stone.  It does not have to be perfect, because as it dries a little it is first easy to gently work with stiff nylon brush, then remove from the stone with a wire brush and finally brush all over.

East Front Roof Board TEST

Having finished early I went to get a new plasterboard saw and proceeded to cut the bottom of the board to better follow the irregular purling beam and ensure the top was level.

A pleasing result, which leaves 35cm along the top edge to the ceiling that should make cutting and fixing the top section easier.  So this the job for tomorrow, to apply all the roof boards and then the top sections.

La Studio - West Side Upstairs Ceiling +

 Sunday 13th February 2022 

Decided to do some 'lite' tasks to help catch up and succeeded in not only doing all the West Side Ceiling, but finish the East Side as well.  

Also added extra Insulation into the ceiling edges both sides, so all done a ready to apply the Insulated Plasterboard to the roof sides next week, once I have done the West Side Central Wall Rendering on Monday, so erected a test board to decide which approach to adopt.  

Decided to cut the bottom of each board to follow the irregular nature of the each purling and ensure the top each of the board in horizontally level to provide a good base for the second part board.

Roof Side Test

East Side Ceiling

West Side Ceiling

Things are progressing well and taking shape!

La Studio - Upstairs East Side Wall Render

 Saturday 12th February 2022

Whilst normally doing garden work at the weekends, I needed to catch up on my underestimate of the rendering work so did one side of the Upstairs Central Wall today. However preferring to socialise with a neighbour meant a small section of the upper wall by the new stairs didn't get finished, mainly because it meant doing a new bucket mix.

Also, attempted the little bit of ceiling support by the Central Wall where there is no bean to attach a cross support.  My idea of yesterday did not work, so I attached two brace supports to the last cross support and the wall; both sides  This will work!

End Ceiling
Supports

Upstairs East Wall Render

La Studio - East Side Upstairs Ceiling Install

Friday 11th February 2022    

Other work determined it to be a 'lite' day today and after some tidy up bits I got the first strip of Plasterboard up on the East Side Upstairs Ceiling this morning.  Having already got the insulation up and the lighting cables run I marked up the downlighter holes before securing the board to the cross supports, thinking I had got the measurement right, BUT NO!.  Good job I only lightly scored the holes as once up I realised they were totally wrong. So, having cut the correct hole positions I was able to put the cable through and will fill the error marks later.

Despite a 600mm section still to fit once the rendering of the central wall is done, it already sounds different up there!

At the Central Wall ends there is no roof beam to secure a cross support, so I have been thinking how to resolve this.  I have decided to use Expanded Foam to secure a cross support to the wall, and once dried I will be able to install the end section of plasterboard.

La Studio- East Side Downstairs Wall Render

 Thursday 10th February 2022

Started early on the East Side Downstairs Central Wall and again it took 2 bags of  VPI Enduni 65 to cover the whole 3sqm area and took me 5 hours to mix, apply, grout in between the stones and brush off.

Using a wire brush on the stone to polish and create an outline certainly produces a good end result and it will look lighter once totally dried by early next week.

East Front Downstairs

East Back Downstairs

So now the upstairs walls to do, but not until next week.

La Studio - Central Wall Downstairs West Side

 Wednesday 9th February 2022

  Having collected the render yesterday I was ready to start the work on the West Side Downstairs Wall which is 6 sqm and I had estimated would need 2 bags.

I wet the front door end wall and mixed the first bag as instructed and used 7L of water.  It is recommended between 6.9 to 7.5 depending on temperature and before in the height of summer I had used 7.5, but at the lower level the mix was still a little too sloppy.  The consequence was that is was not as easy to use and apply, and needed careful application.

For the second batch i only used 6.5L and was a nice sticky mix, that as before could be flicked onto the wall and I found it was good to use a garden trowel for accuracy and just enough to fill the holes and gaps between the stones.  I then used a small flex scrapper to smooth over an into the gaps all over.

Allow to dry, but NOT totally and then gently brush into the gaps all over and brush off the excess.  Whilst I left it to dry future I mixed another batch and partly applied until the first batch was firming up.  I then used a wire brush carefully on the main stones to get the right outline and remove render, followed by a gentle circle brush across the wholes area to get a smooth covering.

West Side Central Rear

West Side Central Front

So created a pleasing wall area retaining the stone appeal that will work nicely with the other plasterboard wall that will provide external insulation.  I will have more than enough to finished the other 3 wall sections, BUT, it will take 4 days to complete and not the 2 days I scheduled.

La Studio - Central Wall Render Prep

Monday  7th February 2022

Over the weekend I realised I had omitted to include in my schedule the old render removal from the Central Wall, so I was not able to start the rendering I had planned and I also discovered I did not have enough of the render to finish the job, so need to collect more!

Nevertheless, I managed to remove and scrape out the old render to reveal many of the stones on both sides Upstairs and Down. So I will now ready to start the work on Wednesday.

The work today went well, once I got into a rhythm to get the old removed and then scrape out the render grooves between the stones.  Once the new render is applied and then lightly brushed off from the surface, it should look good as it does in La Maison, hopefully.

Down Stairs East

 

Down Stairs West

Upstairs East

Upstairs West

Tuesday 8th February 2022

As planned, I collected 10 sacs of the VPI Enduni 65 Render from Gueret this morning and did a few other chores.  This should be more the enough for the 
re-rendering of the Central Internal Walls and will give me an estimate of what extra is needed to do all the outside walls in the summer, which will weather secure the whole of La Studio.

Upon my return, I swept up all the old render removed from the Internal Central Wall upstairs and down.  Got about 6 large bucket loads that I spread on the side and rear path patio area of La Studio that already has a base of stone and old concrete rubble  and will eventually be topped with the grey/black stone.

Laid the electrical Sockets cable for the downstairs floor area around the perimeter and left loose at the movement and will be secured when I lay the Cement Insulation Board. I had confirmations that the the 10 bags of adhesive flex to lay the boards will be delivered tomorrow and will be laid once I get the insulated plasterboard fixed to the walls, hopefully next week if all goes to plan!

La Studio - Upstairs Room Threshold and Door Opening

Easier day, but a problem was uncovered when I removed the stone and soil I have left at the bottom of the new opening between the West and East side rooms.  Obviously, when the farmer constructed the building he was not concerned with identical level of the rooms with a dividing wall, but the West is about 4cm higher than the East.

Having measured and mulled over the options I realised a level threshold was not possible so there will be a small slope on the East Side once I finish and it will hopefully be ok when I lay the Livyn flooring.  So I laid a chipboard across most of the threshold, once I had laid a concrete base up to the west side beams and once dried tomorrow to create a slight cement slope of 8cm wide down to the East side floor and hopefully all will be OK!

I removed some some stone on the front side of the opening to ensure an 80cm width of the opening and then started to level this vertical side from the bottom up.  Had to stop when I used all the cement I had mixed, as the weight on some stone would have been too much and will finish tomorrow, in readiness for this wall being Rendered both sides next week.

Try mot to work at the weekends, but on Saturday I finished the stone placement on the Upstairs Door Opening and the Threshold. I also did some clean up scraping to the window glass to remove the foam.

East Side Door Opening

West Side Door Opening

Upstairs Door Threshold

I also did some testing of the downstairs central wall to remove the old render next week and suspect this will take all day on Monday to clean up both sides up and down, which is essential to get the right effect of the new render on these wall and ensure the beauty of the stone remains exposed in most places.

Render Testing

La Studio - Small Windows Installation

 Thursday 3rd February 2022

Frosty again this morning warmed up by mid day and I started by doing a tidy up of things that I was too tired to do yesterday. I opened the pack of 6off 40x40cm Toughed Glass panels I ordered from Aspire Glass and took the labels off and tested against all the small window holes, as I explained yesterday.

A couple of openings needed to have protruding stone removed to allow a fit and I then proceeded to use the support poles with a wooden block to support each glazed panel. I applied Expanded Foam to each stone surround and applied a smaller amount to each panel, before presenting them to the opening and resting on the support.

West End Upstairs Window

East End Floor Window

East Front Window

These were left for 30 minutes in which time the foam dries a little and can then be pressed and compressed inside and out to create a firm fit.  I will clean up next week, once all is firm and dry.  On the exterior I will render to seal and apply a White Coating of Bedec Masonry Paint to maximise the reflection into the interior. 

The interior of each wall will be surrounded by the 5cm Insulation Board, that I will shape to create a larger opening inside and render, plus use of the White Bedec to reflect the light inside.

La Studio - Ground Floor West Side

 Wednesday 2nd February 2022

As planned, I commenced work at 9:00am and finished the creation of a concrete floor base in the West Side at 3:00pm, tired but satisfied. All is cleared away and tidied up in readiness for the work tomorrow. 

West Front Floor Base

West to East Floor Base

Again, it was tough work to lay a 50mm base across 11sqm area on my own and would have been a lot easier is someone mixes, whole a second persons deposits the mix, spreads and levels.  However, I got in the rhythm of unloading the one mix and loading the next batch to mix, whilst I deposited and levelled.

it certainly helps in a small area to have laid the levelling strips to get the level right and smoothing across two strips.

The downstairs floor is nearly ready, and I will give the floors both side a 'Scrap' to remove high bits and ridges.  This is perhaps not really necessary as I will be installed Cement Insulation Boards for the Heat Mat.  However, it will help take out any high points and as I have cement and sand spare I will be able to mix a cement screed to create an additional smooth surface upon which to lay a 'vapour barrier'  before the cement board, for extra protection.