Sherry over at Spinners End Farm made a comment recently about the new tiles on our barn roof.
Well, here they are. These pressed clay, industrial, tiles are made by a company in Marseille called 'Guichard, Carvin, et Cie', and are one of the most popular tiles in France; they are generally known as 'mécanique'. The one above was slightly damaged, and therefore rejected.
They are perfect for a restoration job such as ours, as they blend in with all surrounding buildings almost at once; then, as they are pukka clay tiles, they gently mellow with age.
To be sure that you have the right tiles, they have a Bee stamped on the bottom of each one.; the mark of a genuine tile. I notice the roofer's also kindly left me a small pile of them as 'spares'.
And here's the finished job. Looks good, doesn't it (the tiles are considerably browner in reality)!
I must say that Monsieur F (the roofer) has proved to be one of the most conscientious and meticulous tradesmen that I've encountered in a very long time.
Apart from the superb job itself, I saw the men actually SWEEPING the entire roof before they left. And the inside of the barn, which was a bit of a mess up until yesterday, is now spotless. It is often said that you can tell the quality of a tradesman by how he leaves the site each evening; Monsieur F left everything immaculate. He's one person I'd recommend without hesitation.
25 comments:
They are beautiful, a lot better than the mass produced stuff we have at our builders merchant.
Cro, it looks wonderful!
Monsieur F did a fantastic job...it looks great!
It does look good - should I ever save enough pennies (or cents) to make it back to Blighty I must pop down and have a look.
Excellent. I might need to get Monsieur F's details if our ancient roof ever caves in.
Splendid job and done so quickly as well - I love a skilled tradesman who takes a pride in their work.
He comes from Soturac (Nr Fumel).
When I came on to your site I got a very loud running commentary in the background - made me jump out of my skin. Was this intentional - or an accident?
Love the tiles by the way.
I was always taught that you sweep up when you're done because it doesn't matter how good a job you do if the first thing they see is a mess then that's what they'll remember.
The roof looks really good.
Gosh Weaver; I hope it wasn't me! What were they saying?
It makes sense; if only everyone in the building trade understood!
Exactly 7 days work.
Cro - back again without the background noise. It sounded like Radio 1 or something awful, don't know how my computer picked it up, it was on every blog I went to, so I switched off and started again. Silence at present.
What do you use the barn for? It will be a lovely surprise for Lady M when she returns won't it?
It's going to be a huge house for my youngest son. There's still an awful lot of work to be done; much of which we'll do ourselves. About a third of it will remain 'barn'.
All very good - particularly your conscientious roofers. A rare thing in any country.
This one was specially good. I'm still discovering some of his 'fine details'.
It looks very nice. I'm sure your youngest will be appreciative.
The roof looks marvelous, Cro. Finding someone to do the job can be dicey, but having it done right by skilled people is such a relief and a pleasant experience.
Looks wonderful, they did a great job.
In the first photo tile looks like an Art Deco piece of art. Beautiful job.
A job well done! We converted the cow sheds at our place - we now live in the conversion and our daughter and family have the farm house. You have some exciting times ahead.
It looks wonderful. Contractors like that are hard to find!!
Yes, a nice roof. My builder was going to start pointing a chimney and replacing a pot here today but he got rained off. It has been pissing down most of the day, even here in the east, not just Manchester.
Thank you for the close up of the tile! They are truly beautiful. How classy your barn looks and your contractor sounds like an artisan. A toast to a job well done (she raises her hand thrown pottery goblet full of cheap California merlot and imagines it is filled from Cro's cube)!
Nice tiles. I'm amazed they did it so quickly. Looking forward to seeing what else we can get done. Thanks again for getting these good builders in.
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