Chamonix studio renovation - build thread
Discussion
The Moose said:
Get ready for a whole heap of people to start buying places in Chamonix 
There are about 100 apartments over three blocks and there always seems to be some for sale. I'm learning a few tricks and processes that would speed up a second build. I suspect there's enough value in the renovation that it may be worth offering it to other owners next spring/autumn. Once it's done I'm definitely going to float the thought to the local estate agent and the development's caretaker.Here is an identical apartment in the same block, albeit the mirror image. It has had the two-bedroom upstairs conversion that seems popular, but no meaningful work to the rest of the property. That's on the market at €180k, as a guide.
Day 8
More channeling for the electrics.
Treated myself to a dual cutter last night, thinking that'd save a whole heap of time.
That turned out to be a waste of €100 as it wasn't strong enough to cut two discs at the same time. It was skipping around all over the place. Back to using the little one, which does a fine enough job if the blade is fresh enough.
Grinding off the excess extractor pipe so that we can run the conduits where we want them.
I think we're about halfway through with the rewire. Quite a lot of wiring for a small studio apartment but I didn't want to compromise on the switching and electrical layout.
The new workhorse, bought for the renovation and the coming winter season. Very quickly falling for this ugly shed. Best buy I've made since the apartment itself. Argentiere glacier in the background.
More channeling for the electrics.
Treated myself to a dual cutter last night, thinking that'd save a whole heap of time.
That turned out to be a waste of €100 as it wasn't strong enough to cut two discs at the same time. It was skipping around all over the place. Back to using the little one, which does a fine enough job if the blade is fresh enough.
Grinding off the excess extractor pipe so that we can run the conduits where we want them.
I think we're about halfway through with the rewire. Quite a lot of wiring for a small studio apartment but I didn't want to compromise on the switching and electrical layout.
The new workhorse, bought for the renovation and the coming winter season. Very quickly falling for this ugly shed. Best buy I've made since the apartment itself. Argentiere glacier in the background.
Edited by Gruffy on Wednesday 2nd October 12:43
I need a little help from the PH masses please.
The apartment is called Grand Roc (Big Rock) and I'd like to be able to dress the vertical face of the mezzanine floor to make the whole floor look like one giant slab of rock. Only, I've no idea how to achieve that. The joist that would hold it is also holding just under 100kg of glass, so I wouldn't want to do anything too heavy. Otherwise I guess the solution would be to cast something out of concrete and have at it with a chisel before bolting it on.
The obvious default option is to use those stone tiling systems, but that would be quite a cop-out I think. I'm really hoping to make it look like a single slab rather than bits of rock added on afterwards.
In my office back home I have one of these, which I love. Even this kind of symbolic texture could work, but I wouldn't know how best to recreate that either.
Any creative ideas?
The apartment is called Grand Roc (Big Rock) and I'd like to be able to dress the vertical face of the mezzanine floor to make the whole floor look like one giant slab of rock. Only, I've no idea how to achieve that. The joist that would hold it is also holding just under 100kg of glass, so I wouldn't want to do anything too heavy. Otherwise I guess the solution would be to cast something out of concrete and have at it with a chisel before bolting it on.
The obvious default option is to use those stone tiling systems, but that would be quite a cop-out I think. I'm really hoping to make it look like a single slab rather than bits of rock added on afterwards.
In my office back home I have one of these, which I love. Even this kind of symbolic texture could work, but I wouldn't know how best to recreate that either.
Any creative ideas?
You can buy mdf panels from CNC companies that are routed out in 3D the same as that; my factory in Italy has made them before. There are quite a few UK companies that make them too. Then a bit of floor paint mixed with sand could have them looking a bit concrete-ish.
Personally I'd just use a digital print concrete wallpaper- a lot of the wallpapers I use on jobs have people stroking them and going "I can't believe that's not padded / stone /wood" - they look that good, check out
http://www.concretewall.no
Personally I'd just use a digital print concrete wallpaper- a lot of the wallpapers I use on jobs have people stroking them and going "I can't believe that's not padded / stone /wood" - they look that good, check out
http://www.concretewall.no
Edited by jke11y on Wednesday 2nd October 22:42
Edited by jke11y on Wednesday 2nd October 22:45
I've found a company in the UK who offer stone veneers. This one looks pretty good and I love that it's a real piece of rock.
http://www.naturalstoneveneer.co.uk/stone-veneer-c...
It's a shame I couldn't do the 3m span in a single panel though.
http://www.naturalstoneveneer.co.uk/stone-veneer-c...
It's a shame I couldn't do the 3m span in a single panel though.
Great customer service too. He's just setting off to Brum for the Grand Designs Live show and offered to drop a single sheet of the stuff off in Cannock on his way, so my joiner can bring it with him this weekend. Only £70 including the adhesive. Very pleased with that. Those wallpaper options looked very promising but there's nothing quite like the real thing.
Day 9
Bit of a grind today. More channels in the concrete. Christ they're a ball ache. This one is a double width for the 4m high spots and a switch on the staircase corner.
Started work on breaking down the fireplace. Have to be a bit delicate as there are water pipes inside it for the communal underfloor heating.
Finished with a bit of a tidy up. Grinding out concrete doesn't half create a mess.
I'm looking forward to getting through this stage, to the point where I start to create things and make visible progress.
Bit of a grind today. More channels in the concrete. Christ they're a ball ache. This one is a double width for the 4m high spots and a switch on the staircase corner.
Started work on breaking down the fireplace. Have to be a bit delicate as there are water pipes inside it for the communal underfloor heating.
Finished with a bit of a tidy up. Grinding out concrete doesn't half create a mess.
I'm looking forward to getting through this stage, to the point where I start to create things and make visible progress.
Great work and fairplay for the updates - makes for great reading!Day 10
I managed to cut through a live wire this morning. It took a bit of head scratching to figure out what it was doing there and why it was live. I eventually realised it was for the apartment next door; the feed to an upstairs spot light. It's literally just underneath the paint on my wall so I reckon it's moved there while they poured the concrete for the walls.
Very fortunately, our neighbours are a very sweet French couple who happened to be there this morning. Also lucky, I caught it early and haven't cut clean through any of them. They flicked the breaker back on and it's working fine, so hopefully we can just tidy it up and insulate it well. Could have been a much bigger problem. I initially thought I'd cut through a main feed to another apartment, most of which are unoccupied most of the time.
I managed to cut through a live wire this morning. It took a bit of head scratching to figure out what it was doing there and why it was live. I eventually realised it was for the apartment next door; the feed to an upstairs spot light. It's literally just underneath the paint on my wall so I reckon it's moved there while they poured the concrete for the walls.
Very fortunately, our neighbours are a very sweet French couple who happened to be there this morning. Also lucky, I caught it early and haven't cut clean through any of them. They flicked the breaker back on and it's working fine, so hopefully we can just tidy it up and insulate it well. Could have been a much bigger problem. I initially thought I'd cut through a main feed to another apartment, most of which are unoccupied most of the time.
Here's the wiring after exposing it a bit better. 2 cut through, 1 that can be saved and 2 still clean. We'll drop some terminals in there to patch the knackered wires and run our conduit underneath it.
Made a start on the downstairs plumbing. Not a great deal to do in all honesty.
No tapering threads in France so it's the old school approach of paste and hemp. How quaint.
Made a start on the downstairs plumbing. Not a great deal to do in all honesty.
No tapering threads in France so it's the old school approach of paste and hemp. How quaint.
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