Hi Guys, first post here, refreshing to see so many engaging and helpful people in one forum!
My wife and I have had a second home property in Charente since 2020 and we were lucky as the lady who owned it previously did lots of upgrade work on an old Charantaise house with a barn, so double glazing, heating, electrics were all up to date which finished a beautiful house off.
We have a large barn as part of the house which at first was “wow, great space to use”, but as often with things you first see in a property that is unique or novel or something you would have at “home”, we rarely use it and so would like to demolish it, build a walled garden with pool and summer kitchen. Touches that are ours and something to get use of in the beautiful and warm Charentaise summers.
So far we’ve only dealt with handymen, plumbers and artisans who’ve dealt with tree removal, so a building project is quite intimidating.
Any advice as to the process of getting permission, then demolishing a large barn, clearing away rubble etc then building a pool and walked garden would be welcome. I understand the generality of this post isn’t particularly helpful but would love a steer on general cost to demolish something, take everything away, and whether that would be an entirely separate artisan than building the pool.
Ideally we’d like to have it done by this time next year but obviously need our ducks in a row first on the process. I’ve looked on various forums and media such as The Local but the information is fairly general.
Look forward to hearing from you, and any tidbits gratefully received.
Its all changed since I was building pools so I will keep quiet except for ideas on the pool and running it super efficient. Best place to start will probably your Maire although a lot of planning is now centralised they may offer guidance
If it’s a second home and you are not French resident it may pay in the long run to get a maitre d’oeuvre or project manager to organise all the other trades. And there will be other trades, as much of this is different qualifications and artisans.
We were extremely lucky in having a truly wonderful maçon who sourced the other trades for us, basically independent artisans he worked with regularly.
You need to start by discussing with your marie to see what they will require by way of application - full planning or just a declaration. Start here:
Have you talked to your Mairie? If not, it’s very important you do so. Not least, you may be proposing to knock down an agricultural building on agricultural land and to replace it with something quite different. All the time things are being tightened up about what can and can’t be done and increasingly communes have urbanisation plans in place.
Without doubt you will have to draw up plans and show photos of before and drawings of after. Gone are the days of a nod and a wink and just get on with it (especially if you are not French).
Might be worth having an informal chat with an architect or maitre d’oeuvre to get their input.
Probably you will be using two different artisans for the task and maybe more.
Don’t want to be depressing, but better to know sooner rather than later. Maybe you’ve done all this already - in which case, ignore me!
(Sorry, typing this at same time as Jane, so repeating what she’s already said.)
