Timeline: 20 mars: Since starting the barn roof last week, the
weather decided to have a game with us and see just how much rain and hail it
could get through the roof while it was uncovered. We decided that we could win
this game by making sure everything was sheeted up every night, which proved
such a good ploy that the weather lost interest in playing and it’s been mild
and sunny ever since. The roof necessitated scaffolding out the entire front
façade, so ever keen to save a euro or three, I decided to ask my friend Eric,
if he could utilise the scaffold and sand blast and re-point the stonework.
Kev and I popped out to Bricoman very first thing for more
timber and on our return, the blasting process was well underway, with a
willing volunteer from the maçons crew, suited up and leaning into the task of
putting the whole site through a sandstorm!
The result of just three hours sand blasting is amazing. Two
hundred years of dirt has disappeared, making the stonework looking newly built
and the maçons immediately set to work with traditional lime mortar in the
rather longer and skilful process of re-pointing.
At the other end of the courtyard, another highly skilled
artisan is restoring the stone support wall to the external staircase of our
beautiful pre-revolutionary cottage. The tools he uses are exactly the same as
his predecessors who originally build the house and the heavily weathered soft tuffeau has been scrapped back to a
uniform flat surface, salvaged stones from alteration works incorporated as
necessary, including the blocking up of a redundant opening. The only
concession to modernity in the process is the use of a chain saw for cutting
the larger blocks to shape.
Up on the roof, Kev has fitted the zinc gutters and will be
ready to start putting the new slates in place tomorrow morning. He’ll have a
roofer’s mate to start carrying several thousand slates up onto the scaffold,
to keep Kev going non-stop with laying and no, my feet are stating firmly on
the ground for that particular task!
With many hands on site, progress is rapid, so more soon.
A bientôt,
LC
 |
| All clean, battened and ready for pointing and slates |
 |
| Well on the way |
No comments:
Post a Comment