Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Chape
07:45, yes, 07:45 the concrete mixer arrived with our 4 cubic metres of chape. It's really strange stuff. A very dry mix, almost like slightly sticky damp grey sand. The first job was to barrow in the chape into approximately the right positions in the gite and the adjacent kitchen.
With the wood strips resting on the mortar beds for levels you can rake it out and tamp it down firmly to an approximate level. After that it's a series of dragging and shuffling a long straight edge across the wood. Once the chape is flat the wood can be slid back and the holes filled, then the whole area smoothed with a flat trowel. On the larger areas it took all three of us to manage the straight edges. Once you get a build up on the leading edge it starts to get very heavy.
The downstairs of the gite is over 40 m2 and when you can only work at an arms length at a time, it takes a long time. Thank goodness for the 8 hour retardant, otherwise it would have all gone solid on us before lunch.
After yesterday and today Caroline and I were absolutely wacked and in bed by 9pm. Unfortunately we've got to do it all again next week for the other gite!
| 8:08:07 PM
Chape
