Articles by Argile

On the ground, a good pellet heating appliance often comes down to three simple points: the right output, a well-thought-out air intake, and maintenance planned ahead to avoid callbacks. By asking the right questions right from the quote (actual demand, flue constraints, bag storage), you secure the customer's comfort and your margin, without spending your evenings on it. Let's sort through it together, step by step, to choose confidently based on the home and how you install.

5 min read

On site, you're looking for insulation that holds up without piling on precautions. A bio-based material in granules or panels can simplify installation, especially for interior lining, under screed, or for acoustic correction. The goal is simple: consistent performance, sound moisture management, and a durable result, without the headaches.

5 min read

On a job site, it's not your margin that gets you into trouble, it's the gap between your outgoings and your incoming payments. Between the deposit, progress payments, and retention money, a few weeks of slippage is enough to freeze your purchasing and your schedule. With two or three simple habits, you stay in control of the timelines and secure your jobs without wearing yourself out.

5 min read

In rural areas, when the gas network isn't there, you need to offer a reliable solution that's simple to maintain and acceptable both on the quote and in use. Tank propane often ticks these boxes, with comfortable output and an installation that adapts well to older homes. Here, the challenge is to secure the sizing, the tank's placement and the right settings to avoid overconsumption and callbacks.

6 min read

In winter, your clients don't judge a renovation by the thickness of the insulation, but by what they feel room by room. As a tradesperson, you can secure the result by relying on a few simple adjustments, even before talking about the work itself, to gain usable heat and limit cold spots. That means a more legible job for the client, and reviews that feel good to read.

5 min read

An hourly rate is built on chargeable hours, not on paid hours: a 39-hour contract pays a little over 2,000 hours a year, and statutory leave, travel, collection, surveys, callbacks and admin take several hundred of them back before anything reaches a customer. Two further gaps do the rest of the damage: the employer costs a bare wage figure ignores, and the margin coefficient, which is not one plus the rate you are aiming at.

5 min read

On the ground, a supplementary gas heater can help quickly, without major work, but it doesn't suit every home or every project. For your clients, the challenge is simple: gain comfort right away, without cutting corners on safety, ventilation and the bill. Here's a rundown, with clear benchmarks, to know when this solution makes sense, and when it's better to pass.

5 min read

An underfloor cooling system is not air conditioning, and the CSTB technical guide that governs it in France assigns it no cooling output at all. It even accepts that indoor temperature will rise once the load exceeds what the floor can absorb. What it does impose is written down: a minimum flow water temperature by geographic zone, a safety cut-out at 12°C, and limits on the covering's thermal resistance. Here are the figures, and what belongs on the quotation.

5 min read

A micro-storage combi is not compared on a flow rate quoted in litres per minute, it is compared on the load profile declared under Regulation (EU) No 814/2013 and the reference energy Qref that goes with it, from 2.100 kWh for an S profile to 5.845 kWh for an M profile. And the temperature setpoint is not a free choice: the French order of 30 November 2005 imposes a floor of 50 °C at every point of the distribution. Here is how to size on figures rather than on an impression of comfort.

5 min read

When you insulate from the outside with an applied facing, you're playing on two fronts: thermal comfort for your customers, and clean moisture management thanks to the air gap that helps the wall stay healthy. Properly installed, this system also lets you make up for irregular substrates and deliver a clean, durable facade, without piling up compromises on site.

6 min read

The pressure of a sealed circuit is set cold, from the water column height of the building, then checked hot to validate the expansion vessel. That check is one of the mandatory service points on a heat pump connected to a water loop. This article gives the setpoint table by height, the cold-to-hot reading and the diagnostic tree for a drifting gauge.

5 min read

Past a certain scope, pairing a facade renovation with external insulation stops being a commercial opportunity and becomes a duty. Article R. 173-4 of the French construction and housing code treats a renovation touching at least 50% of a wall, excluding openings, as major works, and that classification forces you to insulate. Here is the threshold, the exemptions, and the two thermal resistances that do not say the same thing.

5 min read