... I've finished the first part of the base of the battery box, as you can see.
The floor in the house is dreadful, full of cracks that let in the damp (a piece of wood that I laid on the floor across a crack rotted to nothing in 6 months) so I started years ago to dig it up. Earlier followers of my organ woll recall me pulling up a chicken that had been cast into the original concrete floor (such pagan rites are practised here) but I abandoned the demolition of the floor for another idea.
The ceiling is pretty high and there is a large step uo into the kitchen so I'm going to put in a suspended floor and seal in the old concrete with bitumen. This gives me enough headroom to put the batteries under the floor in the entrance hall where they will keep nice and warm, and the gases can vent out via a pipe laid to the outside passing underneath the false floor.
First job was to rearrange everything in the living room so that I had the space to work. And as the fridge is just 50cms wide and the door to the verandah is 54cms past the obstructions, I made an extended worktop in the verandah and I now have the fridge right next to where I'm cooking.
Then I had to dig down a little further, lay a layer of sand to cover up any sharp bits that might puncture the damp-prof course, build a framework, line it with a plastic sheet as a damp-proof course, lay more sand to protect the integrity of the damp-proof course, heap a pile of rubble inside the framework and then cover with a layer of concrete.
That took me until 19:00 and then I had to go to Claude and Francoise's. Claude has given his old caravan to his son but the electrics aren't working and he has to tow it to near Marseilles (it's not moved under its own steam for 20 years and the tyres are totally perished - just like the rest of the caravan). After what seemed like hours , and me tearing my trousers on a nail that was being used to hold up the jockey wheel, I noticed that someone had wired the trailer plug up wrongly. I fixed that and after another few hours I managed to get an indicator light working.
The whole electrical circuit on this caravan is shot to pieces and the light units have all short-circuited. Pascal is going to buy some more stuff tomorrow and wants to know if I can rewire the caravan on Friday evening.
Ahhh well.
After all these exertions I'm off to have an early night. I'm totally worn out right now.
I once rewired a caravan; an old Esterel folding 'van. It took me 2 weeks. Week one was just figuring out the rats nest of wires. 5 days were tearing it out safely. and two were rewiring and testing. If it's as bad as that you may want to renegotiate friday evening! Apart from that, your base looks very neat :-)
ReplyDeleteI would still pull up the old floor and relay it. You never know what nasties will be down there and you do need to do that rather than just papering over the cracks.
ReplyDeleteThere's not many wimmin who would even attempt a job like that. well done.
ReplyDeleteI'm just concentrating on the outside lighting - the running lights, flashers and stop lights and so on
And while pulling up the floor and relaying it is my first option, it'll be a long time in the doing. With a footprint of 30 metres and a depth of, say, 15cms of concrete, that's 4.5 cubic metres, or 4500 litres (isn't it, Krys?), which is 300 loads in Terry's little cement mixer.
(grin) I used to be the intrepid kind in my day. Anything from a staircase to brick walls to a loft conversion. I've never dared a full house though.
ReplyDeleteYep. It's a lot of concrete. The only thing I'd think twice about is using bitumen. It has a nasty habit of out-gassing/smelling when it gets warm even when it's years old. Perhaps a levelling screed of concrete a few inch thick would be better and then build your raised floor over that with damp proof in between?
I don't suppose you fancy a little holiday do you, Krys? All expenses paid?
ReplyDeleteAre you a man or a mouse? 300 loads is nothing for a man of your stature! You can always stuff a few chickens in the mix to pad it out or even some of the rocks from your garden.
ReplyDeleteI'm like the proverbial old footballer these days Eric, all I can do is talk a good game :-)
ReplyDeleteI think that's why I'm enjoying following your progress so much.
ReplyDeleteIt's not my cement mixer though, Rhys and it'll probably burn itself out with the load - not to mention flattening my batteries. 375 watts at 10 minutes a load will require an awful lot of sun, not to mention sea (I mean water), sand and cement.
ReplyDeleteBut sometimes talking is good. Any kind of motivation is useful when there's a task like this in hand ;-)
Hand-mixed cement - that'll make a man of you :D I bet that house was built with hand-mixed cement.
ReplyDeleteThe concrete for the base of the battery box was mixed by hand.
ReplyDeleteAnd although you are perfectly right in saying that the original concrete would have been mixed by hand (and well-done it is too) they had what passed for the equivalent of barn-raising parties and everyone in the neighbourhood flocked around to share the load. But around here these days, with a couple of notable exceptions, they wouldn't even share a bus shelter in a monsoon.
Get some illegal immigrants in to do the work for you for half a loaf of bread.
ReplyDeleteIllegal immigrants be badgered. You and Krys can do it!
ReplyDeleteDon't look at me, I know when a job is a job too far and that one would need a radio-telescope! :-)
ReplyDeleteHence the bitumen!
ReplyDeleteIllegal immigrants are cheaper :P
ReplyDeleteOne smells in hot conditions and the other will get you locked up.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of anybody getting locked up for employing illegal immigrants. Besides - after you use them, you can denounce them as illegals, have them rounded up by the state and thus can get out of paying them :d
ReplyDeleteA girl I know in Brussels was arrested for employing Polish labourers for repairing her apartment.
ReplyDeleteIn the UK, if you knowingly employ illegals then you could in theory get locked up. In practise it's more likely to be a fine though.
ReplyDeleteHow can they prove you know they're illegal. No contract = no proof.
ReplyDeleteThey are supposed to ask for their passport, visa and work permits. If they havent got them and you've employed them then you didn't look! The laugh is that not too long ago the House of Commons were employing an illegal as cleaning staff :-))
ReplyDeleteSo if I go to Britain, I'm to expect an employer to ask for my visa, passport and work permit? Most British citizens have no passport, no need for a visa and no need for a work permit unless (and it's not inconceivable) the government has required all people of employable age to apply for permission to work and pay for a work permit.
ReplyDeleteThere must be hundreds if not thousands of people of foreign ancestry born in Britain. To ask for their passport because they look a bit foreign strikes me as something actionable under racism laws.
Errrr - aren't you still entitled to live and work in the UK? I know my neice is and she's been left the UK for 20 years and married to a foreigner for 17 years.
ReplyDeleteBut I know there's been a whole raft of changes in the UK recently about Johnny Foreigner having to have id cards and all that kind of thing.
It doesn't apply to british citizens. If you have british nationality or are married to one (and are here legally) you can do what you want cos you aren't an illegal immigrant. If you are born here then you are automatically a british citizen and never mind what your ancestry is.
ReplyDeleteAs for permission to work, well we have had national insurance numbers for donkey's years and that is what entitles you to work. You get issued with one when you reach school leaving age (16+). That's what ties us into the tax system. It's something else our hypothetical employer should be asking for that would tell him he's employing an illegal immigrant. Tax dodging is illegal too. They haven't got round to making breathing illegal yet but I'm sure there's a green paper on it somewhere in the beurocracy ;-)
All you have to do is say you've lost your NI number and they take tax at the emergency rate. They don't even bother looking it up for months!
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