Finding the right words for buying sand in France

There is a funny video online of a British comedian acting the part of a tourist who is trying to explain the concept of 'crazy paving' to a German with little English. He gives up in exasperation unable to find the right words.

My version of this is 'sharp sand', common in the UK. I wanted to tell a sand and gravel merchant (yes, there are such things) about it but I could not make myself understood.

Sable trenchant (sharp like a blade) did not sound right even with some limp gestures to indicate cutting. I soon realised I was dealing with a cultural discrepancy that I was never going to be able to translate.

Later, I found out that there is such a thing as sable aigu (sharp as in angle, music or pain) but no one that I know ever uses the term.

If you are going to order the materials you need, you must know the words and concepts used in France.

Sand vocabulary

Sand, a granular material made from the breakdown of rock (natural or artificial) is vital to all forms of construction. You are going to need it in quantity to make mortar (mortier), plaster or render (enduit) and concrete (béton).

Read more: How to solve higher DIY challenges in France

If you just ask for sable in any builders’ merchant in the country, by default, you will be served up sable à maçonner and this will do for general purposes.

However, it is worth knowing a little more on the subject in case you have special requirements. Whatever you do, do not get soft sand marked sable de jeux, which is for children’s sandpits.

Sand is graded by the average size of its grains in millimetres. 

At its finest, the grains can measure an infinitesimal 0.063mm but you are more likely to find sands of 2mm to 4mm (sometimes written 0/2 and 0/4 respectively). Over 4mm and we are talking about gravel.

Sourcing sand for construction

In the old days, builders took what they wanted from local river beds but this has been against the law since 1994.

Modern sand is mostly extracted from quarries and is denominated sable de carrière. It is either scooped up from the ground or created artificially by breaking down rocks. Some quarrying companies dredge it up from ancient alluvial gravel beds, hopefully creating lakes for wildlife when they have finished.

Some sand also comes from the seashore but it needs to be thoroughly washed of its salt content before it can be used.

‘What about desert sand?’ you may ask: there is loads of that on Earth. Unfortunately, it is the wrong kind of sand for construction; its grains are too round, meaning that it does not bind well with cement or lime.

Read more: What repairing our French farmhouse taught me about tiling

Sold by the wheelbarrowful

Its particles may be small but sand is heavy stuff to move around. You can get it delivered at a cost but if you are going to use a lot I would advise buying a trailer. 

I do not have one and I have been reduced to buying my sand by the dustbin load. I take a couple of 80 litre plastic poubelle bins to my builder’s merchants and they sell it to me by the charming measure of the brouette (wheelbarrowful).

There is one last consideration when buying sand if you are doing up an old house.

Modern sand is clean and homogeneous which makes it suitable for laying bricks but unsuitable for the visible parts of renovated old buildings. What do you do if you want imperfect, non-industrial sand for your project? That is what I will look at in my next article...