After a couple of days of cleaning, sorting, recycling, discarding and moving materials, the ground floor was cleared, swept and ready for wall marking.
Before the cleaning was done…
With the help of a laser, measuring tapes and a ‘cordex’ (thin cord with blue marking powder), we traced the footprint of the peripheral walls and inside walls on the concrete slab.
Laser level
As we progressed with the marking, we started to see what the various rooms and overall living space might look like once finished.
This is where the downstairs toilet and bathroom will be located (Toilet at the front and bathroom behind, bedroom is at the back on the left)
Sadly, we also discovered that the house was 35cm less deep than on the plans…
After checking again and again, there was no doubt, the maçons made a mistake when measuring the house’s footing. The North façade which is supposed to be at a 33 degree angle from the North West façade was placed at a shorter angle thus reducing the overall depth of the house…
Unfortunately, there is not much we can do at this point… Other than visiting the local tax office and requesting a property tax adjustment given the new reduced square footage of the house.
The installation of the slates continues slowly but steadily. According to the contractors, the slates we had bought and recycled from an old farm 6 years ago are very good quality and some of them unusually large. They have just laid down a 1.6m-wide slate which is very rare.
Unfortunately, there will not be enough slates, especially the large ones and we are going to have to purchase more from a different source. Because the North side of the roof is fairly large and particularly long, larger slates are better, especially at the bottom of the roof where there will be a higher volume of water to drain.
The contractors had started to install the slates on the front of the house and recently switched to the back. The back has a North-exposure so starting on this section would avoid having to work on it later when the temperature cools and the winds start again.
Today was one of those memorable days of the construction: the first slate was laid on the roof 🙂
If a slate roof is well made, it will last over 150 years. Traditionally, the wooden roof structure or the wall structure will require repairs before the roof does.
As for the slates per se, they can last almost for ever. The slates we are using on the roof were recycled from an old farm whose roof was ‘de-slated’ to be re-laid using tiles. Unfortunately, slate roofs are very expensive to make these days and there is still very little subsidies available to help owners maintain this type of architecture.
There are comments underneath each picture.
Over the past two weeks, the window contractors have worked hard trying to catch up with their delay. By the end of this week, we will have most of the 33 openings in the house finally closed. The only pieces missing will be the solid-wood doors that won’t be delivered and installed until the end of October.
The windows are all wood-framed with aluminium cladding on the oustide. We found this to be the best compromise for thermal insulation (wood frame on the inside) and minimum wear & tear and maintenance on the outside (aluminum cladding).
The windows that do not open are all triple-glazed 4/16/4/16/4 (each window pane is 4mm thick and there is a 16-mm-space in between filled with Argon gas). All of the other windows and doors with windows will be double-glazed 4/16/4.
Below is the wall structure as concieved by the architect and thermal engineer.
This structure presents very good results in terms of insulation, heat absorbtion and diffusion. However, it poses certain challenges in two areas:
- Reaction to water penetration and humidity coming from outside through the stone wall
- Perspiration and management of humidity coming from inside the house
A stone wall is never completely waterproof. We worry that by putting rye straw directly in contact with the stone wall, we run the risk of having mold issues over time.
Based on the principle of wall perspiration, the outside layer of a wall must be 5 times more absorbant to water vapor than the inside layer of the wall. This is to ensure that water vapour will travel through the wall from the inside to the outside without condensation forming. A stone wall being more waterproof than straw and an earth & lime plaster, we worry that there could be condensation happening somewhere within the straw layer.
We are still looking for answers to the above questions before starting installing our insulation.
Because there is no sewage system to connect to, we are required to install our own ‘water treatment’ system. For the size of our house, it consists of:
- A 4000-litre septic tank (we had the choice between concrete and plastic and chose concrete, heavier but cheaper and sturdier),
- A 200-litre grease tank (not mandatory but recommended), and
- 60 meters of drainage pipes that we installed in four sections buried at 60cm below the ground.
The septic tank was the hardest to install because it’s heavy and it was not easy to access the back of the house where it was placed it. Thankfully, one of our neighbours was able to help us with his hefty hay bale fork-lift.
