BUILDING A SOLAR HOUSE IN FRANCE - WEEK 21 - plastering and more wiring »  Viewing imgp0496     [Image 7 of 14]  :: Jump To  
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Comment: First light fitting - a flush light in the poplar boarded ceiling over the entrance lobby. All the lighting in the house will use low energy bulbs, many of them LED's.
The plasterer Mr Laurent Maziere arrived on Monday morning to do the ceilings in plasterboard - something I decided I did not have the skill or the time to do. After the galvanised rails were hung from the rafters, the semi rigid panels of hemp insulation were pushed behind them - 2 layers to make 200 mm.

A plasterboard sheet being lifted into place in the mezzanine bedroom by Laurent Maziere and Benoit, his young assistant. Note the shiny multi-refelctive insulation just behind the plasterboard. The decision to use this was difficult because it is not favoured by ecological building theorists. But I thought about it very carefully and calculated that the extra insulation value and energy saved outweighed the objections to it - it is made of aluminium and thin reflective plastic and is not recylable. Another objection is that it prevents the roof from breathing, but the glue in plasterboard makes it an impermeable vapour barrier anyway. Another objection is that there is sometimes a risk of condensation, but by putting it under the hemp insulation means that its temperature will be above the dew point and there is no risk.

Michel, the electrician, was working to keep just ahead of the plasterer ! Here he is cutting a groove in the monomur wall for a switch. I have tried to minimise the number of electrical fittings in the monomur.

In the foreground the framing around the insulated flue of the Godin wood burner.

Another recent aquisition - a Karcher heavy duty vacuum cleaner, here being used to collect the sawdust from the saw.

Ceiling over the living area and mezzanine nearly all finished by Thursday.
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Apr 03, 2008 - 03:31 PM
A late change of planes. To enable the roof windows to eventually to open in, the ceiling planes had to be modified.

While all this activity was going on, I was trying to keep a few steps ahead of the electrician and plasterer by putting in 'Fermacell' wall boards either where plugs or switches were or where the plasterer was going to need them to join his work - here over the stair down to the 'sous-sol'.

Also the sous-sol bedroom and 'buanderie' doors had to be hung before the walls are plastered next week.

The plasterers put angle trim around all the windows.

The finished plasterboard ceiling ready for painting.

View towards mezzanine bedroom.

This stage of the project is very satisfying - the oak even looks cleaner as the whole interior looks lighter and more finsihed.
Album last updated on Apr 07, 2008 - 07:33 PM
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