Voila! *PIC*

[Anonymous]

We visited builders' merchants and wine makers in a ratio of three to one. Nobody seemed to use or sell lime putty but there was an amazing range of lime products in dry powder form; hydrated and naturally hydraulic at various strengths, qualities, colours and with various additives. It was all very mysterious, and not helped by my French being as bad as French builders' English. They did seem to be usung a lot of NHL where the British would use Ordinary Portland Cement. There would typically be more bags of the various lime products than cement stacked in a builders' merchant's yard. Most houses are rendered and the trade literature had a lot of stress on the breathability of the materials used for rendering. There seemed to be a much greater awareness of good conservation practice than one finds here.
I was a bit worried that putting a window made of unpainted oak in a medieval house in a conservation area might not be appropriate but was relieved to find quite a few very similar windows in the neighbourhood. Here it is:

 

[Anonymous]

Where is it? I just see a red cross (

Jaqy

 

[Anonymous]

It was working earlier this morning but seems to be getting stuck now. This is the URL:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/biffvernon/IM001714b.jpg
Paste it straight into your browser

 

[Anonymous]

It's working for me - looks good!

Puzzled though about that roof - why is every slate fixed with a wire?

Interesting about lime in forin parts though!

Freezing in here this morning (still no heating) so typing difficult with stiff fingers!

Brrrr and grrrr!

 

[Anonymous]

It's working now......looks great!

Jaqy

 

[Anonymous]

Tres jolie!

Now get back to the important work of visiting wine producers.

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, I was intrigued by the slate wires. Well spotted, Evelyn. I think we had some correspondance about this practice a long time ago with the conclusion that this method was a bodge. I checked lots of roofs, old and new, and it seems to be the normal practice in this area. The slates are fairly small but of a high quality. They use two nails, but I'm not sure whether this is in every slate or just every few courses. Each slate is held by a wire clip. They are easily visible on this new roof but the wire weathers to a colour similar to the slates and become pretty much invisible.
I was also very impressed with the rainwater goods. They seem to be of aluminium but very substantial and designed to cope with French rain which, it seems, arrives all at once in big dollops. Here's one for the roofers:

 

[Anonymous]

Evelyn picked it up, 'wire hung' slating is not a good example Biff, you must have noticed it, so I think you must be testing us - or mocking zee French.

Bryan

 

[Anonymous]

No, I'm not mocking zee French. All the roofs in this town were made like this. It is clearly the way they do it and have done for a long time. I was impressed with the quality of the workmanship. To the bemusement of the house owners, the slates were layed by one firm who left leaving the job 'unfinished'. No pointing round the edges - just a gap. "Mais non! We do not do the pointing. We are slaters. You must get Monsieur xxx to come and do your pointing. He will will come with his chaux."

 

[Anonymous]

that is a common way of doing slate in europe, it is supposed to be much quicker to lay and easier to inspect /repair than using nails, I guess they have a lower breakage rate as well.

I have seen it a couple if times on new builds in the UK.

 

[Anonymous]

When we had a spectacularly good and complex (dormers and stuff with lots of lead) roofing job done on a previous house we had a similar thing - the slaters did (beautifully) the slating. The carpenter did the woodwork (with lots of complex bits and much muttering about 'birds' mouths'). Then we had to wait (with great reverence from the other two trades I add) for the plumber to do all the lead work with some wonderful welding, which was a small work of genius.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd like to know what mix was used for this pointing though - and I'd suggest that the oversize guttering should be impotrted here. When it rains it really rains in many parts of Britain. I think they would cope well with the run off from our roof!

 

[Anonymous]

These are what I call slate hooks. I've used them a few times in the past although I don't do a great deal of slate work. I reckon they're great. They hold the slate at the bottom which is really where you want it held. They are a sort of s shape with one end being a spike. this is knocked into the batten and then the slate simply pushed into the hook. No holes, no nails - a hell of a lot easier. They are stainless and you can get them in a black anodised finish that does'nt twinkle in the sun. Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

Very interesting what you say
Nice pic............

 

[Anonymous]

It may be easier, but they don't look good - very disturbing to the eye.

Give me a beautifully (and traditionally) laid slate roof anytime! They should, if looked after, last a very long time indeed, especially now that copper nails are readily available.

 

[Anonymous]

Surely this is a question of the quality of the building and the depth of the owners pocket. It's horses for courses. I would love to peg and torch them all but we don't live in that world. There are plenty of old farmhouses and barns in Devon that would have collapsed had it not been for wriggly tin! Incomers with money can afford to thatch them again if they want to. Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

Hang on - we aren't talking wiggly tin v thatch (I am a great fan of tin) nor repairing a roof with a few slipped slates, but that roof in France was done from 'new' like that - I hope it doesn't catch on here.

Here we have a history of wonderful traditional roofing...

 

[Anonymous]

Now I'm not claiming to be an expert in French vernacular architecture after a fortnight's worth of trips to the pattiserie and the bottlebank, but I got the impression that the local roofers did what they considered was a beautifully and traditionally laid slate roof. I think their methods are as valid as ours and it adds to the richness of the world that traditions in different countries are different. I'd be hesitant to argue that one was better than the other. There's plenty of examples of#####modern building in France but I found it easier to find examples of sensitive care of old buildings and examples of fine craftsmanship whilst wandering round a French town than I would expect in a British town.
This 15th century house has a local stone ground floor below oak framing with brick infill and lime render. It has recently been given a new roof with wire-hung slates and much new stonework to the right-hand ground-floor elevation and some replacement of window joinery. It's now good for another few hundred years. And it's for sale.

 

[Anonymous]

What would you rather see - a roof in natural slate fixed in the cheapest (and very effective) manner or Eternits? Unfortunately this is often the choice. How much money can people afford to lavish on buildings that are just a drain on their resourses.
I know a farmer nearby who has the most sensational range of trad buildings. His family has farmed there for generations. The buildings are totally useless to him. They are a constant drain on his money - but he does his best for them. All of them are suffering from severe nail sickness. Are you seriously suggesting that this man only reroofs them in the approved manner. In his position he might consider putting back the slates if the price is right. His other choices are to just let them deteriorate or strip the slates, sell them and put on a tin roof.
Don't forget, I'm on your side but filthy lucar is the bottom line for most people. Mike.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm suggesting that I prefer roofing without all that metalwork, that's all. I find it distracting. I don't know how traditional it is in France but it's not a traditional method of hanging a slate roof in this country, and hopefully people won't start using it here.

Can't see it working well with diminishing courses, bet you can't get the wires in so many sizes, or many of our wonderful varieties of roofing materials which aren't regular. It certainly wouldn't work with sandstone roofing.

I can't see the need - if barns require re-roofing and they have traditional slates which have been nailed, then it's surely as easy to re-roof using nails? Can't see any advantage in changing to wire hangers etc.

We need our roof doing - and an outbuilding - one outbuilding and an offshot roof already done - and we aren't what you call rolling in it either! We are simply having the slates removed, and then re-hung on new nails. It's a question of doing without many other things in order to afford it, of course.