Thursday 8 May 2014

Those roof tiles, and the finished job.


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:

  1. They are beautiful, a lot better than the mass produced stuff we have at our builders merchant.

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  2. Monsieur F did a fantastic job...it looks great!

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  3. 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.

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  4. Excellent. I might need to get Monsieur F's details if our ancient roof ever caves in.

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  5. Splendid job and done so quickly as well - I love a skilled tradesman who takes a pride in their work.

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  6. 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.

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    1. Gosh Weaver; I hope it wasn't me! What were they saying?

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  7. 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.

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    1. It makes sense; if only everyone in the building trade understood!

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  8. 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?

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    1. 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'.

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  9. All very good - particularly your conscientious roofers. A rare thing in any country.

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    1. This one was specially good. I'm still discovering some of his 'fine details'.

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  10. It looks very nice. I'm sure your youngest will be appreciative.

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  11. 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.

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  12. Looks wonderful, they did a great job.

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  13. In the first photo tile looks like an Art Deco piece of art. Beautiful job.

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  14. 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.

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  15. It looks wonderful. Contractors like that are hard to find!!

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  16. 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.

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  17. 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)!

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  18. 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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