For over 1 year dave has been planning to have a mezzanine built. He has had various quotes, comments and recommendations. After considerable research and planning he decided that he could do it himself and set about the task when Alanea went to Canada for a few weeks. He was delayed by the rain and flooding in parts of the Var however the real lessons were in the process. Dave opted for a chemical fix (cheville chimique) of the joist hangers to the cement block (parpaing) walls instead of expanding lag bolts. This was interesting because Dave had never used the chimique and some holes had to drilled into solid concrete and some into hollow cement block. Perhaps the most annoying and laughable part of the process was purchasing the 5 70MM X 150MM joists which support the floor at 500MM centres. The pieces are sold in 4 metres lengths and Dave needed 5 @ 2.7 metres. Imagine Dave's surprise when he was told that the lumber yard did not have a circular saw to cut the lumber. The guy driving a fork lift gave Dave a tree pruning saw and told him to cut the lumber himself. What the guy did not know was that Dave had frequented lumber yards with his father (JL) and grandfather (George) since he was 5 years old and he had no intention of cutting with a pruning saw. Dave went into the store, took a new Stanley saw (cie) and set square off of the wall and cut the lumber in no time. When he was finished he put the saw and set square back on the wall. The really dumb thing is that like so many stores Chiffreo closes for lunch at 12PM. Had the dumb guy helped Dave he would not have had to wait 30 minutes and close at 12:30PM. Dave was pissed but amused, see the pic of him cutting lumber. The mezzanine is finished, strong and costs about 1/3 (400 Euros) of what a contractor would have charged. Now the garage looks tidy and the only thing left to do is paint the floor.
