France Property Renovation

Colombage walls – often known as ‘half-timbered’ walls – consist of wooden uprights / supports, usually about ten centimetres thick, with gaps between these struts about 20 centimetres wide. Historically, these gaps were then filled with some kind of thin wooden structure or thin wooden struts, that join the larger posts together, and on to which torchis (‘cob’ in the UK) is placed. This torchis consists of wet clay, with the addition of chopped straw, cow manure or sand according to local practice and local availability.
This torchis, on the outside of the property at least, is then (traditionally) covered with a render, made from lime and sand. Sometimes the wood is also covered over with this render, sometimes it remains visible. You will be familiar with the appearance of a wall like this from old houses in both France and the UK and almost always with an appearance of age and beauty (the header picture of this site shows our cottage with its colombage wall, not visible in the ‘before’ picture, but visible in the ‘after’ photo).

With old houses in France the torchis has often started to fall out of the gaps, and the exposed and unprotected wood has started to suffer from the ravages of the weather and wildlife. So it is necessary to restore the wall.
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