Going through this at the moment with our insurers.
Carmaux Mairie made the ‘declaration’ and we acted upon it pronto by notifying the insurance company - no estimates or anything, just putting them on notice that we were making a claim. Ins Co sent an ‘assessor’ whilst we were not there (our ‘housekeeper’ met with them) and his verdict was that our oak trees on our boundary were too tall and needed to be lopped by 50%. He did NOT say that our claim was dependent upon this action.
Then, just after new year (whilst we were there), the Ins Co sent an ‘expert’ (essentially a contractor) to take a look and their conclusion was as follows:
Take the render off the wall where the cracks are showing (which would be a good 15% of the total wall area).
Staple the cracks with structural ties and then fill the cracks with mortar.
Leave to simmer for 2 years to see if there is any further movement.
If no movement after 2 years then the same company will return to make good the render on the wall.
When I asked about under-pinning the dropped corner I was told ‘not necessary’. Clearly this is polar opposite to what would happen in the UK as it is obvious that the foundation has dropped on the corner and under-pinning would be the obvious course of action. Ho hum - when in France and all that…
At the risk of striking terror into your hearts, have you thought about doing nothing?
Our farmhouse is more than 300 years old, has no foundations and the 50 cm stone and rubble walls sit directly on clay on top of sandstone (no foundations). Our part of Lot et Garonne tends to have very wet winters and very dry summers, which means that the clay is constantly expanding and contracting and the house is constantly moving. Which means we have cracks. But there is little or no point in doing anything, because the clay will continue to expand and contract depending on the amount of rain there has been and the walls will continue to move. So, attempting to “fix” any cracks is actually pointless. We occasionally (once every 10 years or so) seek to fill the worst cracks when we paint the walls. After a while the cracks are visible again.
We looked at the local old properties around here that are about the same age as ours and realised no-one bothers to do anything.
I’ve seen old buildings with these “staples”… holding some enormous cracks together.
Useful markers/guides to whats going-on currently… especially important now that conditions are so dramatic…
Hope your Insurers give the go-ahead and pay for it… asap.
If they’re going to “make-good” afterwards, your property will look much better than those crumbling around here…
