We have recently purchased a house and dependence in need of renovations. I have done a lot of this reno work in the past in the States so I am up to date on work method/supplies but I have no idea the framing styles, sheetrock/plasterboard usage, insulation, electrical etc. Having to use my wife as a translator between contractors for quotes has been a nightmare. Its in the 94370 area. Cheers.
Hello @Stefon and welcome to the forum.
You are fortunate to have someone who can translate for you… 
what sort of nightmare ???
If you are actually in France, I would suggest you ask neighbours/Mairie or even the Agent who sold you the property… such folk generally have a good idea of the local artisanal workforce …
and if not already done so… you’ll need to be contacting your Mairie anyway, regarding the renovations you are hoping to have done…
best of luck…
What is more important, the quality of their work or their ability to speak english?? Without being over critical of my fellow nationals there are quite a few rubbish British contractors who get work just because they speak english. (Also some poor French builders as well, but my impression is that this is rarer).
Invest in a good translation app, and start learning French. You could probably learn the bulk of the vocabulary you need in a few weeks.
Ooh! Thanks for the quick reply. Without getting into to many details, the main issue Im having is trying to tell the contractor exactly what I want done in the depandance. Its an almost total rebuild but I am wanting curtain insolation, certain sheetrock, certain electrical. Lost in translation etc. Plus taking the burden off my wife.
I agree, as I mentioned Ive done this type of manual work myself. I spent far too long with a translation app trying to explain mudding and floating of sheetrock, only to find out that “maybe in France they use plasterboard instead”. That’s one example. Also his French is a little interesting according to my wife.
We actually speak French pretty fluently, and found that our builders (who were great) would still do things their way at times! Our maçon was the best in the area with a well deserved good reputation - but he wanted to do things the way he felt best. This was not a language issue but a cultural one.
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Im basically having trouble explaining I want the dependence ripped to the bones, ceiling redone and the walls framed, insulated with Rockwool, sheetrock floated and mud, electrical outlets where I require. End stop.
I have only been here 27 years renovating but in that time regulations have changed drastically and in the case of electrics for the better.
To save time do you use Deepl translate www.deepl.com/en/translator. I
Then get in a maître d’œuvre to manage the project. What you want (apart from sheetrock rather than placo) is standard.
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Type what you want in English/translate, copy and print or if i get a French document i scan/translate and print. I have found it so helpful since my fluent french speaking wife passed away… Certainly better than Google.
good luck
This publication may be of interest:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1526201410/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There are a couple of references to point you to…
and there are some very useful books to consider from Amazon
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These are great, thank you. Just trying to explain 2x4 has been…weird. If I knew building standards, supplies, etc here I wouldn’t be as stressed. Honestly I would have done a lot of the work myself. We have a 18 month old and we both work from home so I can’t have 2 months down time of me building. The other hassle is the depandance is my office, studio as I am a composer. Once the contractor heard that he went off of soundproofing panels, paint etc. Ive been having to nudge him ever so nicely back to “just build what im saying SVP”.
oh dear… I speak English but have no idea what you’re talking about… and I had to google to find out…
There’s quite a difference between English and American 
a good bi-lingual pictoral dictionary was a great help to us, when we came over to work on the house… easy to see what is what even without understanding the language…
Yeah. Also im trying to source a lot of materials myself to save money.
They tend to call mud, ENDUIT, (sorry for capitals but auto correct driving me nuts), have a look on the internet to see if that’s what you mean, I know mud can cover multiple things in the US.
Do you have the local publicity delivered to your mailbox?
Often, they will include sales pamphlets from local builders suppliers who also provide pictorial catalogues which we found immensely helpful when we were progressing our project.
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we currently aren’t at the house so no mail yet.
I assume you mean inches? When in France (or anywhere else in the EU metric dimensions apply. 1 inch is 25.4 mm or about 2.5 inches?
Isn’t sheetrock just an American term for plasterboard?
Certainly that’s how deepl translates it into French.
@Stefon must be frustrating when you are obviously competent, but as others have said, the reality is that French artisans very much want to do things their own way and your background and doing stuff yourself may only cause you problems later on. We moved into a house where a lot of the electrics had been done using UK plugs and wiring - not great. We rewired. I endorse what others have said about using Deepl - put in your American term and it will find the French for you.
You may also find using a local project manager - maître d’oeuvre - may help you if you are new to the area - local artisans will trust him and not necessarily you. We used one and he was great and yes, he spoke no English and at the time I spoke little French, but we managed. You know what you want - asking your wife to translate I would gently suggest is not fair. This is a monkey on your back. 
Could be worse. With one of our builds we were using a team of Poles. They knew what they wanted in Polish. OH speaks Polish but not building terms, which anyway meant little to us - so we were trying to translate Polish terms into English (to try and understand them) and then into French so we could go into the builder’s yard and ask for what they wanted - that was fun!
And as a by the by, finding an English speaking contractor may not help you if they are from the UK if you are using American terminology.
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