Pierres Apparentes

After cleaning out the wall in the salon it's time for pierres apparentes.

The wall before we started

All the cement render is chipped off

The joints between the stones are cleared out

Susan and I started at 08:30 on Tuesday, laying protection for the floor and preparing the tools.

Dennis came over to show me how it's done, and ended up staying the whole morning. This means that the job I was fearing would take two days of hoping I was getting it right, turned into one day of an expert and his apprentice. The process involves flicking the mixture into the joints, making sure it fills all the nooks and crannies, and partially covering the faces if the stone.

Dennis left just after midday, and I finished applying the mixture - referred to as enduit in French - at 15:30. The enduit is a mix of one part lime to 3½ parts sand. We used 115 kg of sand and 35 kg of chaux blanc (hydraulique lime) to cover about 5m².

I then returned to the house at 21:00 (9 pm) to rub back the enduit to expose the stone faces, finishing at 00:30 (half past midnight). The finished enduit and stones will lighten as they dry out.

The Sahara dunes at the foot of the wall is 45 kg of excess enduit which has been rubbed off. Susan and I bagged and removed that yesterday morning. I'm exhausted, Tuesday was the longest day of intensive physical activity I have done for many a year, but the signs so far is that it's been worth it.