Renovating a Gite in Brittany

The picture shows the initial state of a farm building, barn, that we are renovating into 2 new gites, or holiday cottages. We currently have 3 gites that are rented out, mainly during the summer months, but in order to make a living solely from gite income at least 5 gites are needed. The story is abridged until we get to the dated entries. I’ll update when anything significant happens.

The process of renovation started in August 2003, towards the end of our first season. We had spent the previous 10 months working flat out to build a new business and completely renovate the 3 current gites on our own. It was tough, too tough to do again, so this time we decided to get a building firm in to do all the work, just leave us with the decorating and furnishing. It also means we have time for general maintenance, improvements and a chance to have a bit of spare time for ourselves and with the children. After all that’s one of the reasons for coming to France, quality of life.

Before starting any building work you usually need a permit of some sort. The two main permits are the ‘Permis de Construire’ or ‘Declaration de Travaux’. The best analogy is that the ‘Permis de Construire’ is like full planning permission, which may also involve change of use etc. The ‘Declaration de Travaux’ is for more minor works, ranging from new fencing, installing a swimming pool, and (in our case) new openings, windows and doors, in a building. A visit to the Mairie’s showed our barn classified as a house on the cadastral plan. This was fantastic news, because that meant only the ‘Declaration de Travaux’ was necessary, a quicker and simpler process.

We set to work using Visio to draw before and after scale plans of the current building and the proposed gites. The drawings did not need to be that detailed, just showing the position and sizes of the new windows and doors. We also provided internal room layout plans, however these are fairly flexible as all the internal walls are non-structural.
Downstairs the barn is approximately 110 meters squared, and 95 meters squared upstairs. It’s a big barn.

September 2003

Lots of discussion, drafting and redrafting. Eventually we came up with two spacious three bedroomed gites. We considered many factors during the design of the gites, expected business, occupancy levels, finger in the air etc. However much of the design was based on the standards as set out by Gites de France. Caroline had long conversations and meetings with Gites de France to explain our position and what we wished to do. They have a set of requirements for a gite based on a ’star’ rating. These include the minimum room sizes, ceiling heights, supplied appliances, private terraces, noise and light rating for rooms, number of toilets, baths, showers. A whole host of specifications.

Being the best French speaker Caroline also met with the necessary people to enable us to get a complete list of regulations to help with the renovation. Along with Gites de France classification there are also a number of other restrictions which we had to meet. Planners are favourable to gites but they want to be sure it is actually going to increase tourism in the area.

Finalised our plans, based on everything above, filled in the appropriate forms and submitted them to the Mairie. We should get a result within 2 months.

October 2003

Asked three companies for ‘devis’ for the worked based on our plans. In France everyone provides a devis. A devis is NOT an estimate, it’s a fixed and firm quote for the work. It usually details everything including a start and end date. If an unforeseen problem crops up then the cost is borne by the tradesman, not the client. It’s swings and roundabouts but at least everyone knows where they stand.

In general there are not builders in France. Every trade is separate and highly skilled and qualified. Each provides a 10 year guarantee. You can employee each of the tradesmen separately, managing the project yourself (the cheapest option) or use a project manager to manage everything for you (at a cost). For us the latter option was really the only option. Chasing and organising French workman in a second language would not be easy. A project manager gave us a single point of contact.

Eventually we got various quotes from three different enterprises, in increasing order of cost:

1. A local English speaking general hardware store that do renovations
2. A specialist Maconniere enterprise who do all the major structural work but we would have to get separate electrician and plumbing quotes
3. A project manager who arranged for all the separate trades to come and quote.

Note – We have used individual tradesmen since, and their work has always been excellent. It’s just hard work getting anyone to come and give a quote and start date. Everyone is SO busy.

November 2003

We arranged for the Septic Tank man to come and perform a soil study for the Fosse Septique for the new gites. It’s now a legal requirement to have a soil study done to check that waste water soaks away properly and does not contaminate any wells or ground water. There are a whole raft of regulations around septic tanks.

The septic man was really nice and took loads of measurements, ground levels, soil structure, drainage etc. After a couple of weeks we got a very detailed dossier showing the planned position and sizes of the septic tank and the soakaway. In our case the soil had too much clay and we needed a large gravel and sand pit.

Bad News, our planning application was refused because we needed change of use of the barn from an agricultural building into a habitable dwelling. The cadastral plan showing the building as a house was either wrong or we misinterpreted it. This meant we were almost back to square one.

December 2003

The SHON (Surface Hors Oeuvre Nette) of the two proposed gites is more than 170 m2 and according to planning regulations this requires the involvement of an architect. We think this regulation exists because using an architect ensures that the building conforms to all the regulations. This is a bit of a pain because architects are expensive and very busy. There also don’t seem to be many of them around the area. We arranged a rendez-vous with a local man but he failed to show up, even after phoning his office to chase him up. Not a good start.

Based on the quotes we got before we had decided on the building firm we would like to use. They where expensive but had a good reputation and a friend had recommended them. We had also seen examples of their work and had good dealings with the firm from our initial round of devis. We explained the architect problem and they arranged a on-site meeting and a reasonable price for the work. The architect would only draw the plans and submit the planning application. After that the builders would project manage the whole job.

The original local architect (foolishly we gave them a second chance even after the first no-show) arrived on-site and discussed our requirements. We gave them a copy of our original planning application, measurements, drawings and photos. They would do the plans in ‘quinze jours’ two weeks.

Two weeks came and went, three weeks, four weeks. Various phone calls with the architect and project manager to chase the drawings. It was always promised next week. More chasing. We and the project manager are getting a bit frustrated.

Eventually 8 weeks after the initial RdV we get an urgent call to visit the office and view the plans. We need to agree the drawings and any alterations and sign the planning application because the architect going on holiday. He could then submit the plans that week. Hurrah.

Caroline checked with the Mairie to see if our plans had been submitted. Yep you guessed it. Nothing. Again we chase once the office is back from their holidays and the architect has lost our dossier with the alterations. I know things move slowly in France but this is starting to get laughable.

21st April 2004

The architect, arrived at La Lohuas to take some photos as part of the submission. We had already supplied photos 12 weeks ago but either they got lost or were not acceptable. Submission planned for tomorrow.

23rd April 2004

Finally the Mairie has received the dossier today. However the word ‘gites’ is not mentioned anywhere on the application. The last application the Mairie received without gites specified was refused because they only seem to be granting permission for gites, i.e. tourism. General new housing seems to be restricted to lottissments (small estates within the confines of a village/town). So we have had to get the architect to change the dossier to remove ‘logement’ and replace it with ‘gite’.

29th April 2004

The man from the government environment agency came to check the position of our new septic tank soakaway. Apparently they used to do the soil studies but not a private firm does it, and they come and check (occasionally ?). Got the thumbs up. Obviously something is happening with our planning application if the department have sent an inspector.

6th May 2004

Visited the Tourist Board regarding our new gites. Basically just paperwork and administration stuff. The French have alot of administration.

18th May 2004

We received a letter from the planning office about our Permis de Construire. Judging from the translation it says that we will definitely receive a decision by the 23 July 2004, Normally there is a statutory limit of 2 months for the process, and if you don’t receive a decision by that date then you get permission by default. However, for some reason there is a delay for an extra month, so our maximum goes to 3 months. Not sure why, but it still seems better than the planning system in England.

30th May 2004

Just for reference an extract of our ‘Permis de Construire’ showing the proposed external view of the two new gites

7th July 2004

The Permis de Construire has arrived in the post approved. Hurrah.

26^th July 2004

We had a meeting with the builders today. Because of the high price of the work and the withdrawl of most of the grants, I’m am going to do a large proportion of the internal works to save money. The builder wasn’t that happy, but c’est la vie. We signed the devi for the major works and he will be starting at the beginning of October 2004, once we are empty.

2^nd September 2004

Finished clearing all the old junk from upstairs in the barn and removed old steel sliding gate from the front ready for the builders who are starting at the beginning of October. Some of the floorboards were a bit rotten and there was evidence of woodworm. I think I may have to get the garden spray out and dowse everything with woodworm treatment before the plasterboard and insulation gets fitted.

9^th September 2004

Started a separate category to blog all my entries regarding the renovation in one place. All the renovation posts will still be logged in my main blog but will copied and collected together in a separate gite renovation blog.

So to continue reading about the renovation visit gite renovation blog.