Hi, we have recently purchased a house in Central France near Saint Benoit du Salt.
My sister lives 1km away from said house and has offered to supervise/faciliate work on the house as we live in New Zealand presently . Any ideas /referrals of how to locate a reputable, reasonably priced builder in the area?
It may help if you give more details of the work you want done and what “general” involves because artisans in France tend to specialise in one trade. A builder builds, and will not usually paint or do plumbing or electrics. Your sister will be aware of this if she lives in France.
I have always relied mainly on local recommendations, asking neighbours, noticing the tradesmen’s vans to see the ones that have a presence locally and what properties they are working on. Your sister is well placed to do this. I have on occasion accosted artisans who have been working nearby and asked them for a devis for work I wanted doing.
Good luck with your new venture.
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Hi Deborah and welcome to the forum.
As you sister is so close… perhaps she can see who is doing work locally… many artisans will have their “board” in plain view and also the Mairie might have a bulletin/magazine with local information plus (often) details of businesses/artisans…
Many individual artisans work in quite a local area, and it is the bigger firms that are prepared to have a wider catchment zone. So much depends on the scale of the work and the timescale. Are you planning a major renovation involving all trades (new roof, windows, plumbing, electricity, etc etc) all in one go, or someone to come and refurbish and fix bits? If the former then need a bigger firm, if the latter then a series of artisans can do it.
As you have no reputation and track record in the area it could take a while to get estimates, so if your sister is able to ask friends and neighbours in the area for recommendations that can help.
Thank you very much for your advice.
Assuming you mean Saint-Benoît-du-Sault, 36170, you could try the guy I used who was very good, Gavin Withey. He’s just over half an hour away from you I think, but he was happy to do that journey for me so he’s worth trying, He’s a specialist in using traditional plasters but he takes on bigger renovations too, and if he’s not able he may well be able to point you in the direction of someone who can, he’s done a number of places locally and everyone seems very happy with his work. You can contact him at gavinswitheyatgmaildotcom
You certainly have picked a beautiful village, I love to take the dogs on a double; round the lake at Challiac then up to St Benoit for a wander round and a coffee and cake outside!
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Thank you so much for your prompt reply!
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Thanks very much, Jane.