Are the repairs to your house covered by your insurance? If so, talk to them and see if they will take it up with the owners of the lorries.
Hi Georgina,
Assuming that this photo shows a near miss and all that would be different is that the lorry would be closer then I would have thought a super sturdy steel post on the corner would help, I would be thinking solid steel and a very deep bore filled with concrete. I think this might help with a non-head-on, ie if the cab clears the corner but the driver mis-calculates and ends up "rubbing" the corner halfway down the trailer. I think only an engineer could say whether this is feasible. It might also prove beneficial to have a re-enforced concrete pad around the base of the corner to deflect wheels - I have seen this kind of construction and it can be shaped sympathetically of course the concrete alone would provide no protection against "rub" from the mid section of the trailer - that would be the job of the post.
Another option might be a "sacrificial" stone obelisk on the corner, its not going to stop the lorry but it might do two things...
1. Make him compensate a little more on the bend.
2. Alert him when he has mis-calculated, hopefully he can hear or feel the "rub" and will correct or stop meaning the obelisk takes a hit but the wall remains unscathed. I cant see simply placing stones will help as they will probably "move" in the night.
Jon
Is that a gravel road or is it tarmac? Does the lorry hit at the top?
Just wondering if you can lay some gravel/hardcore near to the house to create a camber on the road which would keep the trailer away from the house when it passes?
I cant see how that would work in France.
Some Pyrenean mountain villages have just enough space between buildings for the road, I can remember farmers taking up people's doormats and replacing after passage of a tractor. It would be a challenge to retrofit any such legislation.
Thank you Jon. Nipping out just now but will consider your points soonest. The quick update is that the road is too small and is a corner that is less than a right angle.
Hi Georgina,
Just a thought, have you considered taking a photo and posting so people on this forum can the layout?
Hi,
Sorry to hear about that.
Do you have any options in terms of barriers? What is the nature of the impacts, full head on to a wall or a glancing blow on the corner of the house? Is the lorry going out of control, is it sliding or skidding or is the driver mis-judging width?
If you own land infront of the vulnerable area then perhaps you can install a steel post? If its a slide or glancing situation then can you "guide" the lorry away using something along the lines of a kerb. A kerb could consist of reinforced concrete or just horizontal telegraph poles anchored on the ground, not much use for a head on collision at speed but good for deflection - I have a tractor and I can assure you I cannot get over a telegraph pole unless I take it head on otherwise I just get deflected.
Is the problem the ground - slip or slide - are wheels getting caught in ruts? If the quality of the road is in question it might be a case of laying down some hardcore on the part of the road that passes your house.
It would of course be an effective if barriers on your land were sturdy enough to ensure that the lorry driver understood that his vehicle would come off worse next time.
I would certainly have hoped that the lorry driver or the people he drives for would be legally responsible for damages if proof were forthcoming, if it were me I would be checking out my options in that direction, not sure I would have shared your easy going approach.
Jon
I feel for you, there is so much red tape here too, made better if you speak French. I would be looking for another house by now if it was me.
Thank you Shelley AND Roz for your replies. Honestly I am hopping mad today having discovered it has happened again. The entire wall was repaired from the last collision only a year or so ago.
We put a big yellow sign up on our building telling them to be careful as it is very tight. It seems this has helped somewhat - but it's still happening and i don't see why i should have to look at the bright big sign outside my kitchen window on the other building every day. Grrrr.....
Out of interest there is no EU law that I can find that says a vehicle must have xfeet or meters etc... clearance from a building or structure. It's so frustrating.
Hi Georgina - sorry to hear about your problem - it must be very frustrating. I think you have a genuine case to go to the gendarmes armed with the détails of the delivery vehicles and damage caused etc. We had a problem with a neighbour (completely different issue) who loads and offloads cows during the night at the bottom of our garden and we found them to be very sympathetic and able to offer advice as to how to proceed next. If you've got photographic evidence, its should be fairly striaght forward and as your complaint is against the drivers and not the neighbour directly, you surely can't be accused of creating a problem de voisinage. We installed some CCTV cameras here which have proved an excellent deterrant to some of the issues - you can get very good imitation ones for around 25 Euros if you don't want to invest in the full monty. Coupled with a "sur surveillance" sign this might encourage the drivers to be more careful? Good luck!
When buying the house we were made to understand that we can build nothing permanent outside. Making the great (and simple) idea of building a wall prohibited :-(
Maybe you should build a wall to stop them getting so close to your house, that would give them a bit of a surprise, we had friends that had a similar problem as there house was last but one in a dead end lane and they were right on the bend, the lane being very narrow, they had a gravel driveway and lorry's would come down for a farm which was before them but they would miss it and then use our friends driveway to turn always knocking a large flower pot over, so they filled plastic buckets with concrete and laid them out across the driveway leaving only a small gap for their car, it certainly did the trick - a gateway might do lol
Yes we have the lorry company's name and will be going to the Gendarmerie shortly. Sadly the vehicles come through about midnight or 1am waking us up as the lorry scrapes our walls. I'm done running out in the middle of the night in my nightdress as this happens about once a week.
Oh no that's not good especially if it is an old house but someone has to be responsible for it, did you get the company name of the vehicle or the drivers details, if so I would take them to the Gendarmerie, good luck - Roz