BUILDING A SOLAR HOUSE IN FRANCE - Plastering with new machine - masons back on site. »  Viewing imgp0526     [Image 9 of 23]  :: Jump To  
  First slide Previous slide      Index Page Start/Stop the slide show      Next slide Last slide  
Benoit moved down to put plastic angles on all the openings in the sous sol, after having done upstairs.

Temporary landings I had made had to be partly dismantled to thread electrical conduit under them.

I asked the plasterer to put plasterboard on the vertical walls in the mezzanine. Albert, M Maziere's other assistant, had taped all the plasterboard joints and filled the screw holes.

Downstairs the wall of the shower was done by the plasterer in briques.

Mr Maziere showed me a clever trick for holding a door and frame vertical, using V's of battens held together by rubber bands (sections of car tube). The door was closed to keep it square while it was built in. Mr Maziere found himself inside the room after bricking it in, and I could not find the key to open it to release him. The outside door was locked as well and the key could not be found. A way was eventually found to pick the lock.
Next slide
 
imgp0526.jpg - Apr 14, 2008 - 09:55 AM
On Monday the 14th he arrived with his brand new machine - a sophisticated plaster mixer and pump. Our house was to be the first one on which to try it out. It needed a 3 - phase electricity supply and so he had also bought a new 3 - phase generator. If only he had asked me, he could have used our 3 - phase site supply which I had to put in (at vast expense) for the crane that Francis Guinot used.

Art Work ?

The new machine cuts the bag of plaster on the top hopper, automatically mixes it with the right amount of water, feeds it to a helical pump that pushes the mixture down a long hose that delivers high pressure plaster via a nozzle, greatly reducing the time taken to cover the wall.

But the down side of the machine is that it has to be dismantled and totally cleaned every hour to avoid clogging by the fast setting plaster.

The first day of operation was punctuated by much swearing and rereading of the operating manual, but finally it was mastered.
Comment: Door and shower enclosure partition ready for plastering. Door removed to avoid future incidents.
Album last updated on Apr 26, 2008 - 09:59 PM
Powered by JAlbum 6.5 and BluPlusPlus skin