Hello every one, I,m a new member on this group. My brother and I are looking at a property in the frosinone / Lazio area that needs a lot of work, roof, floors underpinning etc.
The geometra who has been working with us has been marvelous, and I know he has tried to pare costs down to a minimum I do trust him. It all boils down to the fact that we could only afford the property if we were allowed to do the bulk of the work ourselves. I would still like to know if chestnut goes hard in the middle like oak. One thing I was finding it hard to get to grips with was the standardised quoting system for building works. I,m sure the builders in Italy are pretty much the same as in the UK , good ones and bad ones,  We are very fortunate in having ½ûÂþÌìÌà friends to help us with these problems, and I,m very thankful for all your advice, but when it boils down to it house buying is a stressy business and thats all there is to it! Patrick
Thank you all very much for the advice, one of the  major expenses of the project was that they were going to have to put up internal scaffolding to do the roof and in order to do this would have to demolish 2 floors beneath that were rotten, I,m afraid the costs of renovation by a proffesional have become more than the purchase price and so sadly we may have to look elsewhere in the area. I'll let you know how we get on. great friendly group! Patrick
Thanks for the advice everyone. we have appointed a geometra as it happens, he has done an extensive survey in which the total building works came to considerably more than the price of the house, but has not mentioned that he could oversee our work. I susspect its probably a matter of not putting peoples nose's out of joint, would a builder be prepared for a fee to over see our work I wonder and sign it off if satisfactory? The house is over 500 years old and has 18 inch Chestnut beams, does anyone know if these become as hard in the middle as Oak ones do? or are they likely to be soft right the way through. The Geometra has advised replacement. Patrick
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The geometra who has been working with us has been marvelous, and I know he has tried to pare costs down to a minimum I do trust him. It all boils down to the fact that we could only afford the property if we were allowed to do the bulk of the work ourselves. I would still like to know if chestnut goes hard in the middle like oak. One thing I was finding it hard to get to grips with was the standardised quoting system for building works. I,m sure the builders in Italy are pretty much the same as in the UK , good ones and bad ones,  We are very fortunate in having ½ûÂþÌìÌà friends to help us with these problems, and I,m very thankful for all your advice, but when it boils down to it house buying is a stressy business and thats all there is to it! Patrick
Thank you all very much for the advice, one of the  major expenses of the project was that they were going to have to put up internal scaffolding to do the roof and in order to do this would have to demolish 2 floors beneath that were rotten, I,m afraid the costs of renovation by a proffesional have become more than the purchase price and so sadly we may have to look elsewhere in the area. I'll let you know how we get on. great friendly group! Patrick
I think you,re probably right Penny,
Thanks for the advice everyone. we have appointed a geometra as it happens, he has done an extensive survey in which the total building works came to considerably more than the price of the house, but has not mentioned that he could oversee our work. I susspect its probably a matter of not putting peoples nose's out of joint, would a builder be prepared for a fee to over see our work I wonder and sign it off if satisfactory? The house is over 500 years old and has 18 inch Chestnut beams, does anyone know if these become as hard in the middle as Oak ones do? or are they likely to be soft right the way through. The Geometra has advised replacement. Patrick