dresser au plomb

13:33 Dec 7, 2016 

It is unclear to me whether this is lead flashing or lead packing, but you could not use lead sheet for levelling, as it is too soft, not to mention too expensive.

13:18 Dec 7, 2016 

Good to have insights from thoughtful experts!
@Clive: yes! Thanks for drawing attention to the obvious "context" aspect and the inference one might draw (i.e. because a window sill).
@Tony: somehow I doubt you do this sort of manual construction work yourself, but I'm sure any work you did would match anything master craftsmen did many years ago when such work lasted for hundreds of years.

12:45 Dec 7, 2016 

Could be as simple as the fact that the first-mentioned mortars are of coarser granularity, while these other ones involve lead (and hence possibly have different granularity); were one trying to bed a sheet of lead into a mortar joint, it would make sense to have a finer texture.

12:42 Dec 7, 2016 

Two possibilities:
1. 'sealed with lead flashing'? Often used below window sills.
2. 'levelled with lead sheet'?

12:35 Dec 7, 2016 

Just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons for the sake of linguistic titillation, perhaps, I did say to the client (I've now submitted the job), that I'm slightly puzzled by the "en revanche". Chances are probably quite high that this is not particularly significant in the mind of the author, who is probably just saying, "oh, yes, but in the other bit it's different", but one might be justified in asking in what way finding bits of lead in some joints makes these "the converse" to a mortar with a "charge granulaire plus grossière et plus dense"...

12:29 Dec 7, 2016 

@Tony, bohy: oui, le verbe "dresser" dans Wiktionnaire a de multiples définitions, dont certaines assez vagues. Synonyme donc de façonner, faire, réaliser...

11:59 Dec 7, 2016 

Il arrivait autrefois que l'on coule du plomb fondu pour réaliser certains joints devant être particulièrement solides ou étanches, mais je ne comprends pas bien le terme "dresser" ici, sauf s'il signifie simplement "réaliser".

11:08 Dec 7, 2016 

I think this is simply describing the use of a plumbline to check something is straight, common enough in construction, all the more so when describing techniques used in old buildings, pre-laser days.

"dresser" here means to prepare, to make, to do.

10:20 Dec 7, 2016 

Some pointers, perhaps:

The fact that they mention "accès possible" makes me think they are talking about the actual presence of the metal lead.
Normally, i'd have expected 'dresser' to mean 'smoothed' or 'trowelled' etc. — but I don't quite see how a) lead could be used for that; and b) even if it were, why that would leave harmful residues. So perhaps there is some other meaning of 'dresser' here — I was trying to think if it might mean that actual sheet lead was in some way incorporated into the joint?

10:13 Dec 7, 2016 

Raise applying lead