Sorry for my first post being something that’s probably been done to death…but here we go.
We bought our house in The Alps last year, and moved in right at the end of November.
The winter was really harsh here, especially as we had to learn all of our lessons the hard way,
One thing we quickly realised is that our current heating system is in no way up to our demands, so we’re looking at granule stoves.
We’ve seen one we like in Bricodepot, but we have nobody here who can install it for us.
I would 100% do it myself, as there is already a suitable flue in the position we want to fit it, but we’re going to be running our place as ski accommodation, so are concerned about the insurance implications of not having it installed by someone qualified.
So, has anyone any experience of Bricodepot suggesting installers? I can’t see this an an option on their page?
Or, does anyone know of an independent installer in the 73/74 area?
Hi and welcome to SF
Just a quick administrative thing… is your first name Mark or Eaton? To save confusion and people misaddressing you, can you change your registration as the convention is first name then last name. Thanks.
To your question, if you are intent on renting out as ski accommodation, is there a route to finding this out from your insurer, the mairie or the relevant certification agency as a starting point?
We will need to have this installed by a registered installer. If it was just us in the house then I’d be perfectly happy with me installing it, but with the public being in here too we have to be completely above board.
When you say no-one here I presume you mean your specific village/small town?
My suggestion would be you search hard for a chauffagiste near to to you and build up a relationship. If running a business it is invaluable to have that relationship when something goes wrong e.g. at 17h on a Saturday with guests arriving in 40 minutes. In 73/74 there must be a fair few! Ask your neighbours. And then you can cross reference with list from Brico-depot, reviews, etc etc. to find your perfect person.
Ours is brilliant and realises the importance of heat here in winter, so will respond pretty instantly. .
Suggest Mark gets similar with snow plough, or at least a blower. Once you get busy you could find heavy snow fall at most inappropriate times becomes an issue.
We’ve been very lucky. The track that we live up is in the process of being given a proper surface right now, and the plough comes every morning since we moved in.
We’re the only people who live in our hamlet all year, so we’ve been really looked after!
There were days last winter though that we needed 4 chains on our Nissan Pathfinder to get to the house
There are obviously people here with far more money than us!
Unfortunately, we’re on a real shoe-string budget until we open and get some trade, so manual labour is the order of the day until then
and as Mark says… have you seen the cost of weight loss services such as commejaime - the enormous amount of TV advertising these people do is clear testament to the amount of profit in tempting the French overweight to reduce their IMC and Mark can offer it for free!
Boot camps in the Alps perhaps Mark?