Blast

Events in May and June 2010

Blasting appeared to take on a whole new meaning. 

Everyone was exhausted, stressed and almost killed off by the end of May. 

All the delightful, leisurely moments that as a team we had enjoyed, appeared to be meaningless, as if they had never existed. 

I'd performed at my piano teacher's pupils concert and the practice required probably got on everyone's nerves! I was annoyed with myself when I made a mistake playing too fast and had to stop, start again!  One Sunday I did a 10km walk alone but with the village group.  

In May there are a lot of feast days. Brocantes were galore at the weekends and on the hottest day ever we went to La Villeperdu, Valencay and St Maure but really it was just, just too hot.  

After sand blasting there was the neck-breaking sanding of the beams.  Men on site were covered in more dust as new plasterboard replaced the damaged board between beams. This was not envisaged!  Then taping, jointing, filling 'dinks' in walls and ceiling and much, much more sanding of plaster.  This required repetition, time and patience.   

BUT ... Oh what a beautiful result was produced and I AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL.

Every time I look at my huge beams I remember the cost involved and I don't mean just monetary.

I remember too that machine and the scaffolding and I continue to appreciate the effort that two men contributed to making a difference in what was a former barn before it's conversion about 26 years ago.

Wall paper stripping continued....the scaffolding was mine  to reach the top of the extremely high walls! 

Sand blasting beams within a month of owning my house

May 2010
The cost of La Sableuse to be delivered and collected was almost 100 euros, then add hire costs and the many bags of sand. My little Clio with its small remorque would never have managed. In fact the size of this professional machine was scarily impressive.
A French neighbour remarked that the "sableuse industrielle est pour les specialistes".  Fortunately, my son had worked with these machines before when he removed 25 tons of rust and dirt from his steel vessel. We would not recommend this unless you have a very strong team as it is more than a one man job!

It was ENORMOUS and made a lot of noise with the extremely loud humming drone of the compressor, its rising tones sounding like a factory signalling the time of the working day, whilst the phwshshshsh of the sand was sucked into tubes and splattered against the beams. Every now and then the pop of the sand eater indicated that it needed to digest more sand. Trickling, tinkling sand sounded against the walls and the glass window panes of the French doors before falling to the floor. (Later we discovered that the glass panes and some of the secondary glazing had been ruined.)

It was important not to let the sand get into the respiratory system, nor into eyes, nor onto the skin.  Silica sand on skin starts to softly tingle and almost burn. The two men couldn't see through their protective masks because of the cloud of dust which made it dangerously unsafe whilst reaching to the ceiling from the scaffolding. It was a gloriously hot day.  The clouds of sand billowed from the dusty room and silvered the climbing red roses on the outer wall.

Eventually when everyone felt that the beams were free of the brown lasure it was time to clear the beach!  In the silence we scooped sand into empty sacks as we sang "Oh I do like to be beside the seaside".

I was proud and in awe of what these two men had achieved. Apart from their own personal satisfaction of a hard job well done, the next most important reward was to wash away the grit in a warm bath, then relax and enjoy a glass of Saumur accompanied by duck with onions, apples and orange in a cognac sauce plus haricots verts beans.

The job continued the next morning and was completed in time for collection. After pushing the machine along the street it was hoisted by crane onto the lorry! This in itself was a fantastic, regimented procedure.  The French know how to make tasks easy using machines.

325 kilos of clean sand was blasted into used and dirty sand. A year and more later it is in dry storage waiting to weigh down the fabric around newly planted hedging plants. The grit took several weeks to be eventually vacuumed from nooks and crannies! 

The beams are now a lighter colour and do not dominate and oppress the room.