Restoration of a 150 year old Barn.

[clockmanFRA]

The Boys helping out.....

Cutting and splitting thermal blocks, they managed all 34 blocks.

[clockmanFRA]

Found some time last week to progress the project.

Eldest and middle boy will be available in 2 weeks, so will get them doing the block work for the 2 sheep lambing pens in this courtyard.

 

[Bruce S]

Nice courtyard!
Is that a grill I see? I'm a firm believer of pallet wood use!
NOT on food of course, but anything from floor repair to pottery benches.
Here it's mostly white oak and has a long out-of-doors life.

Cheers
Bruce S

[clockmanFRA]

When its finished it will be a nice covered Sheep lambing yard/pens with gates.

Nope, its not a BBQ stuff.

It is my Oak planks from the Saw mills.  About 2 years old and 3/4 inch thick and still drying.
They are still seasoning and they require moving and re-selection as some split and some distort and all will probably require re-cutting for trueing up. But at $140 a cubic yard oak planks, the cost is not that bad.

[clockmanFRA]

My boys and I, and dog, operating our BBQ here, today 15th July 2018 in Normandy, France.

[clockmanFRA]

This Photograph is for Bruce.

My friendly Fire Chief has become the first lady Fire Boss in this Region/Department 61 of France.

Bruce, do you have small fireman in your Force.

I just wondered if they need small folk to get into small spaces. hehe

That Small fireman in the Photo looks awfully small.

[Bruce S]

ClockmanFRA;
Thanks for the pic.
I'm going to copy that and send it to our PIO (Public Information Officer)
Yes, we do have shorter people, my Captain is one of those. She's about 1.55 meters.
We have FFs that's been on the job for 20+ years that are in the less than 2 meter range.

Even our Paramedics and EMTs mostly are mostly in the 1.7 range.

Cheers
Bruce S

[clockmanFRA]

oooopppss,  sorry Bruce, I will keep my comments on folk to myself.

My Apologies.

[Bruce S]

ClockmanFRA
Sorry it sounded like a rant!!! Wasn't meant to be. Apologies !!!

On the other end of that scale , pun intended , are the 2M guys who tower over others and weigh in at 95+Kg.

Bruce S

[clockmanFRA]

Since Christmas I am on my own here in France, and because of Covid Curfew I don't get out much.

 So I have been plodding along with this project now that the Garage project is nearly finished, and working on the interior of the old 150 year old oak frame mud walls barn. The building since the 2017 Planning works approval is now called the 'Sheep Lecture Theatre'  ( yes Bruce, the connotation's are vast)

I had to make roof ceiling frames to take the insulation and the plasterboard.   And these had to be self supporting and not using any support from the original 150 year old fragile and delicate structure.

Again this old building has a new building built inside it with new raft foundation and a new metal frame supporting and keeping the old structure stable and upright. Thermal block internal walls and lots of insulation that get it to a passive house standard. So the new ceiling frames are on the internal structure and lock together like a hip roof.

The ceiling is 6m high/ just under 20ft so the ceiling frames are dropped a little to allow for 400mm/16 inches of non flammable insulation.

I don't have any building /lifting machines as the job does not warrant the capital investment costs.  Just hand winches and good old chain block and tackle gear.  So its good old thick steel wall galvanised tube scaffolding, that i can erect a scaffold platform that i can wheel about and mount my plasterboard lifting machine on to.

As i get older i definitely notice that i can no longer just lift and secure plasterboard sheets as i used to, these sheets are 4ft/1.2m by 8ft6inch/2.5m and wont support there own weight, ie, pick it up at one end and the board will snap. 

I have to fit the plasterboard around the old building oak frames timbers so each of the 20 off plasterboards are all cut to fit, and the original building is definitely not Square. I kept my ceiling frames square but still alot of fiddly work.

Some pics .......

[clockmanFRA]

The ceiling has used about 5,500 6x 100mm/4inch screws and about 5,000 fine thread plasterboard screws.



[ Specified attachment is not available ]

I will now plasterboard the walls with the French dab and stick, nice thing about the French thermal wall blocks is, that i can drive a 4inch screw through the plasterboard and directly into the thermal block wall to hold the board in place while the adhesive sets.

[MattM]

Nice detail on 'oak sprung joint repair' as it's that proverbial scratch the itch last.  You prominently displayed it in other pictures and I'm sure subconscious minds latched on to it thinking, "Why doesn't he fix that?"  Just to put the kind of one final stamp on the pictures you finally show it fixed.  An old repairman used to talk of that trick.  Keep a customer preoccupied with one prominent error until the last item on the punch list.  It makes that customer numb to all the smaller issues.

It appears you go with no insulation under the roof deck until your subframe.  Where is the moisture barrier?  When cold air meets hot between roof and subframe there's going to be moisture.  On some rather extreme days you may feel there is a leak somewhere but it will only be condensation from mixing temperatures.  Keeping that space air tight will help a lot, but keeping both sides insulated to minimize hot/cold roof meeting sudden atmospheric shifts is ideal.

Here in the states it's not good protocol to have ground contact with foam insulation.  Does it contain any form of termiticide?

[clockmanFRA]

No, no deliberate policy here on trying to be smart regards photos, photos are photos done and shown as a time line.  I have to take them for my family to see works progressing as its just me here now.

Its 6 years since your last comment on Insulation.

And since then,  things have radically changed here in France, where the French government are massively subsidising Home insulation with the 1 euro requested by the home owner.

So in the last 2 years Insulation has leapt forward in tech and availability of multiple differing insulation products, and i have to follow their rules and their methods.

There are 2off 200mm thick insulation, with there own barriers one in the sub frames and the other above the sub frames attached to the close boarding which is not that close and that was very awkward to get right and still retaining the film barrier.

No ground contact with the insulation Fire foam that i use.

[MattM]

Out of curiosity I went back and read the whole thread again.   At least I'm consistent.

I've had a few friends do some renovations where it bit them back pretty hard so it's a knee jerk reaction for me to speak up.  Sorry to sound critical.  It's not easy for anyone to post pictures in a forum like this and you have all my deepest respect.

I've watched some YouTube series where people build and this project would have put them all to shame.  Well, all except that stuff on Corral Castle.  That guy is hard to beat when it comes to what one guy accomplished.  But you'd rank right up there.

[clockmanFRA]

Update on works on this building Sept2021,

Bruce, this is the Lecture Theatre, i mean the 'Sheep Lecture Theatre'.

'Salon' here, means a large drawing room, large lounge, large front room, large Living room. (select you cultural reference).

Next jobs to finishing in here. ....., Large Floor tiles to put down, 25kg, 55lbs, sacks of tile adhesive on a 3kW electric underfloor matts.  Kitchen fit out, WC Toilet fit out, then all skirting and door window mouldings.   While the weather outside holds, then these jobs can wait.

Those pedestrian doors are all 1000mm wide, 39 1/4 inches, ie good for wheel chair access.

[clockmanFRA]

Finally getting around to tiling the floor with these exterior tiles 45cm x 45cm, (17.7inches x 17.7inches).

And fitting one of the two underfloor electric heating wire element attached to a matt that i cut, no not the wire, to go different directions.

Yep more PV required! yea!

[MattM]

We call it 18" tile in the states.

Very similar to my kitchen tile.  Only you have that subfloor heating.  I'm jealous!

[Mary B]

Friend ha sin floor heat in his garage. It is so nice to work in during winter!

[clockmanFRA]

The 150 year Old barn goes Operational.

Its done and operational.

My general Blurb below.......

Hi Everyone.

The L'amphithéâtre des moutons, or The Sheep Lecture Theater building becomes fully operational.

Another of our 12 buildings is now Finished, yea! .
Just two more left to do.
Fully independent building with its own electricity, water and sewage system. This is a building within a building and does not interfere with the original old Oak framed building and mud walls.
We fitted an internal RSJ steel structure cage inside the new internal walls that now stabilises the original fabric and also supports and takes the weight of the repaired and restored roof.
Minimum concrete used for the slab foundation inside, and this supports the new very thick thermal block walls with Insulation between the new and the old walls, making this building to Passive house standards.
This build project will be fully explained with lots of photos in our ’20 years of our Sustainability Project’.

A few photos here........

From 2002...... The original building.....



Our Sheep, the occupants .......



Today, 27th May 2022. ......

[clockmanFRA]

Inside with small kitchen, freezer room, WC etc.











Hi Bruce,

Getting stuff done here but slowly as its just me, all my boys at Uni with the youngest at Oxford in UK. …….  Slight upgrade of the OzInverter and its design.  …….. PV trackers the Redrock drive circuit do not like European moisture. …….. Wind Turbines OKAY. …….. 9.6Kw PV simple design array going in giving us 31Kw PV……… AC coupling OKAY, ……… ECO salt swimming pool OKAY. ………..  Reed beds grey water recycle system OKAY. ……… Sewage system OKAY. ………… 2 passive house standard Gites fully operational. ……… Plante Battery project back on plan. ……… The Old Medieval house project is now starting, middle boy is at Uni doing Architecture green and sustainability stuff and he is onboard with this project and using it for his course. …… Clocks etc, yes still at them but need to start another build book on one of my designs.
Take care, Leslie.

[Bruce S]

WoW!

[kitestrings]

Wow, that looks great!  Lots of work, lots of attention to detail.  And, your project list is longer than mine.

We have boys; four at last count.  My oldest just passed his board exams for architecture about two years ago.  We just started college visits for the elder of the younger three.  E-gad it is expensive now (if it wasn't before), and we could easily have two, possibly three at one time (currently 17, 14 & 12)!

[SparWeb]

Oh my, I can think of many things I'd like to do in that space - but none of them would get in the way of that vaulted ceiling.
I'd keep it open and airy.  If the acoustics are bad, find some bookcases and tapestries for the walls.