Upstairs Walls

Although Ludovic and Edward have been busy with their son’s arrival, Ludovic’s dad had been hard at work on the house. We also hired someone to help with the masonry on the interior stone wall and all the inner walls (these are the red brick walls).

Right now the walls are composed of stone, then a layer of recycled wine bottle cork, then a layer of brick filled with sand and earth for mass. This provides an even temperature inside the house whether it is cold or hot outside.

The main task for the next two weeks is to complete all the inner walls for the upstairs. All the walls for the downstairs have been completed over the last 12 months. For the upper floors, this involves measuring the floor plans for the bedrooms and bathrooms, raising the walls and covering them with drywall. We have decided to go for the best sound insolation possible: (1) we glued felt pads to the wood track on the floor, (2) we are building the walls below the floor joists (joists have not been added yet) – to prevent lateral sounds transmission (3) we staggered the studs and made sure that one side of the wall is not touching the other side, and (4) one of the walls will have a double layer of drywall. We need to get most of the walls finished so that the plasterer can start on June 24.

Some panoramic shots courtesy of the iPhone (click image to see a larger picture):

Downstairs – living room and dining room
View from the dining room into the kitchen and living room
View of the upstairs – bedrooms and bathrooms walls are still to be built
Another view of the upstairs
Some progress on the upstairs walls by the end of the first week
Exterior view – North side
Exterior view – South side

Although Ludovic and Edward have been busy with the arrival of their son. Ludovic’s dad, Michel has been hard at work on the house. We also hired Patrice to help Ludovic’s dad with the masonry and all the inner walls (you can see these as the brick walls).

Right now from the outside, we have stone, then a layer of re-cycled cork, then a layer of brick filled with sand and earth for mass. This provides an even temperature inside the house whether it is cold or hot outside.

The main task for the next two weeks is to complete all the inner walls for the upstairs. All the walls for the downstairs have been completed over the last 12 months. This involves measuring the floor plans for the bedrooms and bathrooms, raising the walls and covering them with drywall. We have decided to go for the best sound insolation possible: (1) we glued felt pads to the wood track on the floor, (2) we are building the walls below the floor joists (joists have not been added yet) – to prevent lateral sounds (3) we staggered the studs and made sure that the walls are not touching, and (4) one of the walls will have a double layer of drywall. We need to get most of the walls finished so that the plasterer can start in a week.