Property Renovation

Lime comes in various categories and types. Not all are commonly used in the DIY environment.

The lime used by ‘amateurs’ is the lime called (in France) ‘chaux aerienne eteinte pour le batiment’ (CAEB). It is prepared from very pure limestone, and is an extremely fine powder. It is sometimes also known as ‘fleur de chaux’.

‘Chaux hydraulique naturelle’ is also sometimes used, but is less pure and has a slight grey tint.

Stand well back after emptying lime into a cement mixer. It tends to come back out in a fine cloud, coating you head to foot ‘Laurel and Hardy’ style, and making you choke at the same time.
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Cement is available in grey and white. White cement is often used where the colour of the finished product is important  - for example as a strenthening product in wall pointing mortar.
The normal building cement is ‘Artificial Portland cement’ (CPJ CEM II 42.5).

Cement should never be mixed with too much water, because this will reduce its final strength. 4 kg of cement should be mixed with up to 1 kg of water maximum (i.e. one 35kg sac of cement should be mixed with slightly less than one bucket of water.

You can see the ‘walls’ page for a list of the differences between cement and lime when used for pointing and stonework. Read more

Plaster is bought in sacks as a fine white powder. It has the main characteristic that after being mixed with water it dries completely hard and unworkable very quickly. This happens much faster than lime or cement and sometimes within a few minutes (it well tell you on the sack an estimated time of use). Synthetic plaster is also available, but there is little reason why you would ever choose not to use natural / real plaster.

Unlike cement, plaster is used alone, simply mixed with water (follow the instructions carefully) - no sand is used in the mixture. Read more

Sand comes in a wide range of sizes, colours and qualities. It is important to recognise these different types and the different projects that they are used for.

Building Sand

‘Normal’ grey building sand comes in two main categories. Sand to be used for making concrete contains a lot of large, very rough particles - strictly, particles larger than 6.3mm diameter. Sand to be used for mortar, as used for brick-laying etc has less of the large grit in it. Both of these types of sand are usually bought by the cubic metre, and are best suited to large building projects.

For smaller jobs, the choice is usually between medium, fine and very fine. Thes will have been carefully wahed, dried and graded. The fineness of the sand used determines how smooth the resultant mix is, since neither lime or cement add to the graininess of the mortar used. Read more

Little do you know if before you start your project, but these are the things you will come to love - builders materials. Types and colours of sand and cement; when to use lime; how to use plaster are all covered.
Even if you don’t want to do the renovation yourself, after the builders have left you will probably still find lots of small things that need doing or finishing off. You may also be tackling a room or two yourself, where the work involved is not too great. If only you knew the best approach to use, and the appropriate materials to use…

This section looks at the different types of sand, lime, cement and plaster and the usual ways in which they are employed. Most of these products are available in small quantities at your local bricolage store, so you can avoid the need to purchase a 35kg sack of plaster just to fill a small hole or two. Many of the materials mentioned throughout this section are available in the SB Mercier range of products, and are available in DIY stores across France. Read more