Turning point

It’s been over a month since I’ve been locking horns with my builder over the roof problems on my house. Work didn’t completely come to a halt during that period but things certainly slowed down to the point that I can’t now see how the target completion date of 8th March can possibly be met. The builder and I came to a bit of an impasse, although I knew that if push came to shove and the matter became legal, it could then take months if not years as things go in France to be resolved.

But I decided to stand my ground and today I feel fully justified in doing so because having shaken hands with one of the builder’s directors a week or so ago on a solution that he undertook to personally guarantee for me, today was the day when that solution at last began to be put into action.

It all started at about 8.45 am when the local manager whom I’ve been dealing with arrived on site together with two workmen from the roofing company. He instructed them on what had to be done and they set to stripping off the rear of the roof and the edge tiles that had been put on the last time they were here.

Shortly after they’d started a small truck drew in bringing the new wooden components that would be needed to extend the rear of the roof. The driver was one of the builder’s own employees who was working on the house a few weeks back and it would be his job to carry out the necessary repairs to the gable end blockwork that I’ll show later below.

This shot was taken after the living room end had been stripped and that’s Didier taking a look to see how the job was progressing.

The next shot was taken a bit later in the day when the weather had brightened up considerably and it was much warmer. By this time the extensions had been added to the joists at the living room end of the house and the roofers were busy working on the bedroom end.

It’s not that clear in the following shot because of its brightness, but the extensions were fixed to the sides of the existing joints and as they are higher, they raise the roof line a bit but extend further beyond the house walls. Initially they are pointed but the points are then cut off to give the desired width of soffit, or overhang, and a vertical face on which the fascia board that carries the gutter can be fixed.

You can also see the builder’s ‘maçon’ working on the corner of the gable end over bedroom 2.

Here’s how things ended up at the end of the day. New waterproof membrane was put partially in place but couldn’t be fully installed because the shuttering put in place by the builder’s ‘maçon’ can’t be removed until tomorrow when the mortar it contains has cured.

So what was actually achieved today? First the ‘debord’ (soffit or overhang) on the rear of the roof behind the living room. Here’s how it looked previously, with only a very small overhang, much less than on the front of the house, tapering to almost nothing at the angle end.

If it had been left ie if I hadn’t been on site and spotted it, by the time ‘Crépi’ rendering had been applied to the wall there would have been no overhang at all at the angle end. This would have been totally unacceptable for both practical and aesthetic reasons.

And here’s how it looks after today – much more acceptable, with the overhang being about the same as on the front of the house.

The builder’s ‘maçon’ did a splendid job and was here until nearly 6.00 pm finishing off. Before he left I thanked him for his efforts and he said that he could only sleep well knowing that the job was done right. Here are the rectifications that he did on the gable ends.

First the corner of the roof on the front of the house at the living room end. The following shot shows how it looked previously with the roof supported on wooden blocks and a large gap between the wall and the end of the roof that was unacceptable for two reasons. Firstly, the gap wouldn’t have been filled by the ‘Crépi’ and secondly, the ‘Crépi’ wouldn’t have stuck to the wood. As the roofers had fitted end tiles, these had to come off before the repair could be made.

Now several shots showing the huge improvement after the’maçon’ had finished his work.

Now the corner of the gable end in the front of the house over bedroom 2. This was similar to the corner on the other end of the house but not quite as bad. Even so, the wooden blocks supporting the roof can clearly be seen in the next shot.

And now the same corner after the ‘maçon’ had worked his magic. Perfect.

And the cherry on the cake was that while he was here, the ‘maçon’ also drilled new holes through the walls and raised the height of the two errant exterior lights that I preferred to be at the same height as those over the doors.

So all in all, a very satisfactory day. The roofers and the ‘maçon’ will be back to finish things off tomorrow and then it will be the turn of the contractors to come back to fit the internal walls, ceilings, partitions and insulation. But I think that today marks a turning point in the project as a whole.

There’s still a lot of work to be done but it’s mostly ‘routine’ and the most important thing is that the house’s external appearance has been safeguarded. As I said to Didier before he left today, this was the most important thing for me because how it looks will be for the rest of its life.