|
NEWSLETTER No. 13 - NOVEMBER 29th 2005 Wood is seeing renewed interest with home builders and indeed the construction industry as a whole. Of the 200,000 new house builds in France in 2005, 6,000 are wooden built, a good 20% more than the previous year. New aesthetics brought about by creative architects have refreshed the concept of the wooden house. In addition, innovation in wood preservation and assembly have made building and maintaining a wooden house easier - a recent innovation being solid wood blocks that assemble like jigsaw pieces to make a wall. Perhaps though most important are the environmental issues that drive people to be more environmentally conscious and attain a closer link with nature. This newsletter outlines the benefits of using wood to build a new house or extend an existing one. Top property is a village house beside Uzès in which the heavy restoration work has been done, yet requiring finishing work, including the installation of kitchen and a staircase. Should you wish to be removed from this mailing list, please use the link provided at the bottom of the page. Otherwise, kindly read on. Theme Of The Fortnight: Why and how to build a house in wood ... "Warm" aesthetics: Most would agree that wood lends itself well to creativity, and is harmonious with the outside world. Yet it also works well with other materials in a house, its warm and rugged finish linking well the cold plain surfaces of concrete and steel. "Green" material: The facts are very clear. French forests, currently 40 million acres are growing by 100,000 acres every year. Wood requires low energy input to transform it to a final material. But perhaps the best fact of all from an environmental standpoint, one square metre of wood locks in one tonne of carbon dioxide. Young trees lock in more carbon dioxide and give out more oxygen than the mature trees that are cut down for construction purposes. Excellent thermal efficiency: A wood house requires less heating than a stone house. In addition, considerable progress has been made on acoustic insulation, such that hotels and blocks of flats can be built with wooden floors. Rapidity and ease of construction: The structure of a wooden house is prepared before assembly on site. Wood is considerably lighter than traditional building materials, meaning that foundations can be shallower and up to 5 times less in volume. Also building is significantly easier on plots that are difficult to access or steeply sloped (e.g. the Cevennes). Proven Structural qualities: The "I" beam used typically for steel girders, has been adopted for building in wood. The resulting 'Masonite' beams have flanges made from solid timber and a middle section in hardboard. They can be bought in perfectly straight lengths of up to 12 metres and contrary to steel, can be lifted by one man! Connection with the outside world: In particular the use of decking, balconies and terraces at different levels. Fire resistance: Contrary to common thinking, wood is naturally fire resistant in that it consumes very slowly and remains structurally resistant for a long time. All individual homes are required to comply with regulations enabling occupants to exit the house within a minimum of 15 minutes. Wood easily complies with this requirement. To sum up, wood is non-toxic, reusable, durable, good to work with and blends well with the environment.  There are 4 main ways of building a wooden house: - Firstly, the log house, created from piling up horizontally positioned logs. This technique gives great flexibility with interior volumes and enables large openings for windows and doors. Log houses are common in North America, however various examples can be seen in the south of France. The result is a very uniform finish - interior is identical to exterior and the feeling of connecting with nature is noticeable. The house in the photos below is currently for sale. It is situated 5 miles from Anduze and stands on a half acre of ground with a pool - see http://www.jamespropertiesfrance.com/viewprop2.php?id=271   The other 3 main types of construction require vertical structural elements: - Half Timber, using wide uprights, horizontal beams and consolidatory diagonals, and walls filled by bricks or cob earthen walls are still built in Normandy and Alsace. Examples from the middle ages are in view in many town centres throughout France. - Timber Frame is an evolution on the half timber house, thinner section wood is used and less widely spaced, which when bolstered with boarding creates a very rigid habitat. Excellent thermal and acoustic insulation can be achieved with this method. Indoors, walls receive a plaster or wood boarding, while outdoors, cladding, stone, brick or rendering are the options. - Post and Beam construction uses wider section and more widely spaced beams than the simple timber frame structure. This constitutes the structure of the house and enables large spaces to be created inside, and large openings for windows and doors. Many contemporary designs make use of both of the latter, the simple timber frame for the benefit of excellent acoustic and thermal insulation, and the strut and beam to create large living areas.   Food for thought ... - Planning permission: No-one can prevent you building a house in wood. However stylistically, your house will sometimes need to fit local requirements in order to fit a landscape or neighbourhood. A rendering may be required therefore, but this is not necessarily bad in that it tends to break up any uniformity in the aesthetics and give a house added character. - Ageing, preservation and general maintenance. The temperate climate in France requires that wood - and grounds prior to building - receive fungicide and insect / termite repellants. General maintenance depends on individual taste - wood tends to turn a greyish colour under the elements, which is to the taste of some. People that prefer to retain the original colour can apply new solvent free paints. - Wood houses cost typically between 800€ and 1200€ per square metre, inclusive of architect fees. - Building in wood alone is patently 'green'. However many people choose to go one step further on the finishing work. Hence where heating is concerned, a ground source heat pump - that captures energy from the earth by way of cabling routed through the ground - might be a way to go, especially as there are tax credits for new installations. Also new solvent free paints are a way to step up the 'green coefficient' of your future house. Plentiful skylights are a way of generating warmth. How can James Properties France help you? JPF can help by answering your preliminary queries and developing your ideas on building a house in wood in the Languedoc. Other Sources of Information: In French: http://www.maisons-bois.org In English: http://www.woodforgood.com/index.html Top Property Of The Fortnight: Charming village house requiring finishing work at the heart of a small village just ten minutes from the beautiful town of Uzès. Given its numerous windows and doors, the house has a very bright interior. The surface area is 101m², vaulted ground floor cellars measure 40m² and in addition there is a first floor terrace of 11m² and roof terrace of 7m². This three storey house is situated on high ground hence overlooks the village and countryside beyond. Access to the house is by way of a courtyard partially covered by an arch and has vines and a fig tree. Inside on the first floor are living and dining areas and a kitchen, and on the second floor are three bedrooms and a bathroom. Both living room and kitchen give onto the first floor terrace. A discrete roof terrace at the top of the house is accessible from the smaller of the three bedrooms. The house has undergone an extensive restoration – rendering removed from facades and masonry repointed, roof raised and rebuilt, new floors put in and new openings made for doors and windows. Window and door frames are in cast iron and have double glazing. All electrics are brand new. Finishing work required includes the installation of a staircase between first and second floors, kitchen equipment, heating convectors and minor embellishments here and there. The cellars could also be restored to make additional vaulted rooms. Shops are a 5 minute drive, school buses stop at the village. All in all, a high potential character house in a village typical of southern France and only 10 minutes from Uzès. The asking price is 224,200 Euros.         Further photographs are available on request. The details can also be viewed on the web site at the following address: http://www.jamespropertiesfrance.com/viewpropNP.php?id=298 Other News: - A new set of guided tours of parts of the Papal Palace and 'Petit Palais' in Avignon will be followed by Wine and Cheese tastings every Sunday at 10:30am. - Christmas bathing in the Med is now an institution with a charitable cause. Fortunately there are warm baths and mulled wine to follow! RDV: Town hall, Pérols on December 11th at 10am. - Montpellier hosts an annual Christmas Market on the main square (Place de la Comédie) from December 10th to 24th. Next newsletter will: - take a look at the local production of olive oil - olives are harvested at this period of the year - showcase a new property on the market  +33 626 581 415 Enquiries can be made through the following page: http://www.jamespropertiesfrance.com/contact.php About James Properties France: Based in Montpellier in the south of France, bringing to you a carefully picked selection of properties within a 70 mile radius - with the occasional more distant exception - that are chosen for their combinations of attributes, most notably: - Setting of outstanding natural beauty - Distinct character or unusual features - Quality of renovation or authenticity - Value for money James Properties France serves primarily an English speaking, though often highly Francophile clientele looking to move or own a second home in the south of France around such places as Uzes, Nimes, Montpellier, Anduze, St. Hippolyte du Fort, the Southern Cevennes, Gignac and Clermont l'Herault and the Hauts Cantons. Besides being a rich source of housing options, James Properties France represents a useful accompaniment during the process of viewing and purchasing a house. If you would like to unsubscribe from this newsletter, please click on the following link: www.jamespropertiesfrance.com/unsubscribe.php |