Hello From Fara Filiorum Petri

10/20/2010 - 12:48

Hello again, Fell off the forums a couple of years ago. then they changed the site and I changed work. Our house in Fara Filiorum Petri has come along loads. Spending most holidays there. ended up doing most of the work ourselves due to the reliability of the local tradesmen. Looking forward to participating again. regards Zeb

Topic

Introductions

Location

Abruzzo

Comment

Keep falling off myself! I find a large glass of Barolo makes for a soft landing. Welcome back.

Welcome back and good luck with all your projects. We all look forward to hearing from you.

Welcome back! We are happy you joined us again!

Hello, how is life in Fara Filiorum Petri. We are new members and still finding our way around the site.We have just bought a house in the countryside near Atessa, which i think is not far from you. We are at the first stages of renovation and looking forward to the days like you, when we can holiday here too. Regards Atessa.

Life in Fara is good. We still have things to do on the house but can go and just chill out if that is what we want. We were lucky to start with a resasonably intact structure so it was mainly internal renovation that was needed. We found it was easier to buy many things in England and bring them with us. Especially if you do not know where you can get some things at a good price. Good luck with your house. It will I am sure be worth it in the end. Regards Zeb

Yes, welcome back. Pat

Hi Zeb Glad you can be so laid back about your project;Was it the reliability of local craftsmen or maybe their unreliablity that got you into ythe work!

For me, it was the attitude I saw from some of the people and price. Added to this the stories i hear about quotes just being enough to get in the door and then raise the price. The people we had round seemed to think I knew nothing about most of the work. I was not Italian so they could push it. We asked someone to put a water mains pipe in. Agreed price etc in September. I told him I would be over for Christmas. Called him in November and he had done nothing. December nothing. I reminded him that I was coming over with my family. The archictect and plumber did nothing. I gave the job to a UK agent that I used to buy the house. He got it done promptly. Although the plumber managed to cut the whole house off apart from 2 taps. I then had to tell him how to fix it, after that he asked if I wanted him to plumb the rest of the house. As mentioned. i started with a sound structure so it was mainly internal work which is not so bad. I am fortunate that I can do electrics, plumbing and quite a few other jobs too. I had a quote of 8.5K to take the roof off and put it back on. Way over priced I thought I was expecting about 4-5K. I did it myself with a little help from the kids over 3 days. I work in IT so working on the house is a hands on change from a hands off job.

Hello again Zeb,just got from my geometra the roof (90 sqm )renovation quote for €11,700 to include stripping back to beams/cleaning/ plus woodworm treatment/ inner tiles cleaned replaced/then an insulated layer/replace outer tiles /includes guttering and down pipes.This i am told brings it up to date for insulation and certification.Did you get insulation and certificate for yours?Just so many different building laws that i am told i need from the commune?Did you have to do anything to reinforce the roof tops for any seismic activity,Is this a requirement also?Just starting its minefield!!Any info would be great.

Hi, We did not do anything to reinforce the roof. As we had intended to take off the tiles and put them back on (with felt and new laths) this is not a requirement. If the roof was being replaced, ie new main timbers then you may be required to install a concrete ring around the structure. I did not replace guttering (just swept the pigeon poo out) So the price you were quoted does not seem so bad. One of the issues is regulation. Any work over 2m requires scaffolding to be used. We painted the house from the balconies, used a big ladder and extension pole with the roller on it. Saved hundreds this way. Same with the roof. As the pitch is quite low, about 20-30 degrees, I was happy to work on it from the inside. So doing the work yourself (if you have the time and inclination) can save loads of money. I did not need a certificate either. My work was classed as a repair rather than a replace. However, please bear in mind I am no expert and just repeating what I was told by my Geometer and agent.

Thanks for that, maybe we are some of the lucky people who have found a good geometra.He did the plans and they are now approved by city hall.He will oversee the roof renovation with the builder and yes it does need scaffolding and for the seismic part they have done a structural survey but will still cement around the wall tops.We need a final certificate for it to be up to date with italian building laws,the house was not habitable,not even a toilet,so needs all up dateing. Looking forward to our next visit to see Abruzzo and the house renovation.

We have renovated one property and completely rebuilt another. We also have many friends/clients who have renovated property in this part of Marche and the tradesmen have all been excellent.

atessa, obviously not knowing your comune or any particular regulations that may be in in place in your region, I would just like to say that on a first impression your roofing quote seems pretty reasonable to me. €130 per m2 for the work that you detailed does not look wrong to me.

Thats very reassuring Capo Boi,that my roofing quote is a reasonable price,you get knocked off track with some of the scare stories/my geometra says the insulation is a fairly new product which gives very good performance.Any structural work must be done by a good builder used to working on rustic property.He says the insulation is needed to gain your building certificate for the roof.My house is near to Atessa/ commune.But do you know if the roof structure needs this seismic reinforcement?Have just asked my geometra this question because its not been mentioned before and the scary people say its very expensive and never mentioned till work starts!!

It's practically impossible to get work done if you are back in the UK but once you are out in Italy things seem to move on a bit -that's except when you try to use the most well known firm of plumbers in Manoppello! We desperatly needed a plumber to redo something a previous plumber had made a hash of before we could finish some tiling.We waited in on 3 separate occassions and they didn't turn up -unfortunately we wasted over a week on these clowns before finding some excellent plumbers who have an office in Manoppello Scalo. I'm happy to pass on names through a PM. http://www.myabruzzohome.blogspot.com