Eleven years ago we started work on the renovation of Frelon Cottage by removing the old plaster and lime render inside the house and creating dust https://freloncottage.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/dust/
This trip we embarked on removing the concrete render from the front of the house, once again creating large volumes of dust! This time thankfully outside, but still everywhere, on all surfaces, plants, skin, hair and clothes!
Removal of the render and the recreation of the Pierre Apparente walls to the exterior of the house was something I had wanted to do since the purchase all those years ago but other more essential work took precedence, such as running water, electricity, heat and a comfortable interior.
Then just as I though all was done and I could start on my pet project, the roof of the cave began to fall in, sparking a four year, Covid interrupted, additional project!
Now in 2024, I am ready to embark on this ‘Gros Travail’ as described by Robert the farmer when he stopped to see what was going on!
Enlightened to the perils of this work by watching many French Youtubers removing their render and armed SDS Hammer chisels and picks, I headed down with my son Percy to help. The plan was to start at the bottom removing the render and gradually working up to the ridge. On YouTube some render came off easily and others took quite an effort with progress slow. Luckily ours fell into the former category with the exception of the plinth at the bottom. By the end of day one we had reached the top of the door. Setting targets for each day, we worked steadily upwards until a few hours into day four we had removed all the render from the front of the building.
Beneath the render, the stone walls were dry, a little cracked and were held together with little more than clay. The biggest surprise was the lack of dressed stone blocks at the quoin. These being of large flat boulders. It should have been no surprise, as the corners of the building are curved and slope inwards at quite an angle!
The last day was spent raking out the joints in preparation for the application of a lime mortar. This was then applied by hand, filling larger holes with chalk stones and smaller cracks with fragments of broken roof tiles.
At this time of year lime mortar is slow to cure so the morning of departure was spent raking back the lime to expose the stone……..hence Pierre Apparente.
With the render off and all unknowns removed, my work for the rest of the summer is now set!
Timelapse video of the removal of the render can be seen here on YouTube https://youtu.be/LMKGiWTjG-Y
Frelon Cottage 