France v UK prices & products
Tools? Trevor, who likes to spend hours comparing prices and performance of these says that Mr. Bricolage & the Weldoms chain http://www.weldom.fr/ both have their own power tool range at rock bottom prices. Just as good as the brands but usually half the price in France. Look for the plain brown packaging/boxes on your next visit.
He says they work; and they last.
We certainly needed our big 850v hammer drill as we burnt out two of Trev’s regular drills on our literally rock hard two foot thick stone walls.
Insulation? We bought our carbon zero, fireproof, high performance insulation from homebase in UK http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/diy. We paid under £5 a roll in their seasonal sale
, so wait for that!
Could not find exact equivalent in France, this is made from recycled bottles and is effective heat and sound insulation.
One of our very best buys.
Boilers We cannot compare like for like prices as our new one is by Frisquet http://www.frisquet.fr/ Our baby beast is economical and efficient and one of the best on the European market. The proof is in the performance, and it does. France wins
Blog-sur-Aude 
Ooh, Carbon zero insulation. Too late for me, as my insulation is mostly already in the walls, but geeky minds… So how thick is it? And that photo of your corridor is pretty interesting. I had no idea the scope of your work was so extensive. So you completely gutted the place? You are moving walls? You are doing a lot of the hard work yourself? Bravo.
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Insulation is about three inches thick, but can be doubled of course or squished to suit.
That photo of my “corridor” is actually photo of our cave.! I am profoundly wounded
The floor is now level, & block construction on left has now gone, it was the original big beast’s boiler cupboard
The cave will be guest room as has it’s own front door as well as lockable access door to rest of house via studio/workshop plus a cute little interior courtyard out back. It will also have glamourous roll top bath and it’s own en-suite.
It is toughest room to plan as is 30 feet long but only eight-ish feet wide, so I suppose for yo’ folk in big houses it is a corridor (tugs forelock in irony)
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Oh now, there, there, it was a slight misunderstanding. With the boiler enclosure gone that does become a proper space. You could easily do a whole apartment in that sort of area. Bedroom at the back, then bathroom, and in front a combined living and kitchen area. Or put the bathroom in back and do a big studio apartment. Hey presto, you have a very rentable gite. I adore my friends but they have to visit in the off-season.
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Just teasing you and amusing me.
not quite big enough for an apartment but will make cute little gite.the fact that this space could be made entirely separate to main house was one of the main reasons we went for it
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Okay, good. With the written word, it can be hard to tell. Gites can be tricky, as the cost to improve that open space can far exceed the income they generate. Plus, you know, maybe you just gave up your garage or home office or something. Yours looks like a great setup.
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Well it’s all still in the mix on the gite thing, but it was wasted space as a cave and the money had to be spent whether paying guests or friends/ family in there. It is coolest room in house and I can see us sleeping in there ourselves in high summer when it’ s hot at night. Ideal if we aren’t speaking to each other also as v long way from other bedrooms!
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Honestly, if I ever make repair to a house in france, I shall use this guide as a reference for all. It is brilliant and I live in an apartment in Oxfordshire!
I will pass it on to some friends who own a place in Bergerac, they are new to all of this so could well benefit….
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Thanks WBFM, if your friends have any sense they will take all the advice they can get! we learned the hard way………….
tell them to start with my earliest post and work forward, when they have finished laughing at us they may learn something
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I will pass on those sage words of advice…!
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