Permis problems

[Charles Nicholls]

Hi,

We are about to go to the Marie with a begging bowl to make changes to our house and garage.

1. We will be demolishing the garage which contains Asbestos, so need to have it professionally taken away - does anybody know the steps involved?

2. We have a Fosse Septique that probably will fail the ensuing inspection when our permis is submitted. How quickly do they expect the repairs to be done to the Fosse once it has failed inspection?

3. I have prepared some drawings for the planned extension/improvements to our dependance and taken photos according to the Permis de Construire. I don't want to pay out for an architect, but would appreciate any ideas on the submitted drawings that are more likely to work.

4. Painting the exterior on one side (where it is rendered) and pointing the other (en pierre). There is one good article here about the pointing problems. Also there are big differences on the chances of different exterior colours being acceptable or not. We live in North Creuse (Gueret). Anybody got any ideas on this ?

5. Do we use local French or local English tradesmen? My feeling is to use French, but I've heard so many sad tales that I'm not so sure. I hear that to do so means you have to get a mason for the wall, a chippy for the wood etc. etc, as it's not possible to engage a general builder. This would mean managing the operation ourselves, whereas the local English builders can do the lot.

Many thanks,

 

Charles

Longechaud

[Iceni]

Re No 5, I think that you will find that each trade has to be registered and insured to comply with French rules. An English builder working in France has to register for each and every trade he does - so if he can do the lot you need to ask to see insurance for each and every trade (as a French builder would have).

If they are registered as masons but offer to put your electricity in - they need two registrations etc. There are not different rules for the Brits than for the French, some just seem to think that there are. General Builders can be found but it is very expensive to register for each trade,  I think Val2 will vouch for this.

Just personal experience.

[Deimos]

Re: different colours. Probably depends on the commune. Ask the Maire if there are rules and if so what (if any) choices. May be better to ask in this rather than just say what you want to do.

Re: architect. I believe (from what others have posted and what I’ve been told) that the requirement for an architect is pretty “black & white” – if the habitable floor area of the house (after proposed work is completed and measured externally) is 170 sq m or more than you need an architect (and that is the sum of each floor area on the house, not the plan (or “footprint”).

[Charles Nicholls]

Thanks to both of you.

I look forward to my meeting with mr. Maire !

Charlie

[Linnorton]

It may be useful to you to know that I spent an hour looking at the plans a French friend submitted for radical alterations to her house.  Her husband (tractor driver not an architect) drew the plans.  They took photos of the original exterior and assembled a folder that showed the exterior views and then the alterations added on tracing paper filed on top of the photos to show how it would look after the alterations.  They got the permission without problems.  I think from what I read that it's important to show that you are respecting tradition and the local environment. 

On the subject of builders, I have always believed it was possible to engage a "maitre d'oeuvre"  and I think that is a builder who co-ordinates all the other tradesmen engaged on a project.  We're planning alterations ourselves at the moment so I would be interested to know what other peoples experiences have been.