Building and material costs in France

In my life so far I have done many things, I have had a building company in the UK and had to learn most trades the hard way. When we first came to France I even brought my bricklayers “hod” with me – you could hear the laughter miles away.

Even with this experience and building and renovation my own properties in France, I have had some bad and expensive experiences. Imagine the difficulty in employing people hundreds, or thousands, of miles away and with limited knowledge of French building techniques and prices.

I had this email today which asks about pricing and I hope my reply is of some help.

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Tony,

I have been receiving your newsletter for some time and have found it very useful. A year ago, after about three years of searching, my wife and I finally found the house in France we were looking for. Our plan is to retire there next year. We are at the stage now of trying to do some basic work on the house (which is perfectly habitable at present) and have begun to receive assorted “devis” from local artisans. We currently live in London and so are used to paying slightly over the top for things like building work but some of the quotations I have been receiving seem inordinately high.

I find also that sometimes there is a bit of lack of detail in the quotations such that materials and labour are bundled together which makes it difficult to work out the labour costs. I could of course ask for a breakdown but at this stage I am finding my feet and am not familiar with how things are normally done in France.

I suppose my question is, can you suggest where I might be able to find out what “typical” hourly or daily labour costs are for different trades. I appreciate that there are probably regional variations but it would be useful to have at least a rough idea. Or alternatively a rough guide to “per square metre” costs for various things such as tiling, painting, floor laying, re-roofing etc.

This question is prompted by an item on a quotation I received for a mixed bag of building work. The stonework prices while high were not really unreasonable but the price for the supply and fitting of 14 sq m of standard 15cm terra cotta tiles on to screed on an existing concrete floor worked out at around 200 Euros per square metre and this seemed very to me to be very high. The room is pretty much a perfect rectangle and is empty at present.

I rejected that part of the quotation for the time being and have a meeting arranged with the builder for the week after next when I visit the house to discuss it. It would be useful If I had some guidelines to work from prior to that meeting. I do not want to get off to a bad start by possibly insulting the builder if his charges are actually quite reasonable by French standards.

Regards,

Mark

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Hello Mark,

There is a series of annually printed reference books for all French trades and building work. These give the standard prices for all types of work and can be uses as a guideline. The prices they give always seem to me to be on the very high side, but are really set for government contracts and architects quotations. Most builders I have used will work roughly to a five year old copy and are usually happy to get work at those prices, in my experience they can be negotiated to a much lower price, sometimes half the “official” price. These reference books are very expensive, but you can see copies at all main reference libraries in France – I have not found them online anywhere and I cannot remember the name of them, but ask at your local French library.

I found this site which claims to give comparisons and pricing standards
http://www.batitel.com/revues/
It costs 90 euro a year to subscribe to it and it seems to offer all the costs for all types of work in very fine detail – you could always bluff and say “according to batitel your price is ridiculous”.

I doubt you are getting a “quotation” for work, a “devis” is an estimate and the conditions (in the small print) will include a clause that they can increase the price for any reason (if there is a “r” in the month for example). The biggest single source of problems I get mail about is with builders overcharging, not completing and always never finishing after taking a lot of money.

This is assuming the builders are competent in the first place. I have just today come back from a house the owner has paid a huge amount of money for work and I have found the windows are fitted the wrong way round and the expensive roof terrace slopes towards the house not away from it causing enormous water damage inside the house. I have seen much worse.

It is not easy for builders, to employ anybody in France the employer has to pay about double the wages to the government in social charges, people have a fixed working week of 35 hours and long holidays and are just about un-sackable. Builders frequently go bankrupt and the government therefore makes them pay their taxes and charges in advance each year so this overhead is added to the bill.

As a very rough guide a tradesman correctly registered and giving you an invoice will charge you from 200 to 300 euro per eight hour day (remember half of this goes to the government).

As a very rough rule of thumb – my experience has been that just about all building work on a private house has a cost of about 30 euro per square meter – plus materials – the most I have ever paid tilers is 25 euro per square meter (more like 12 euro per square meter – a straightforward floor glued onto concrete would be nearer 12 euro per square meter), bricklayers about 20 euro per square meter and roofers about 35 euro per square meter (if I were to pay cash illegally, which of course I would never do, the cost is about two thirds of that price and I have heard of excellent plumbers and masons working for 15 euro an hour in this way).

So 200 euro a square meter for tiling is taking the micky, even if it includes the cost of tiles, which sound as if they should be about 20 to 30 euro per square meter max price.

For sure if you insult the builder he will simply walk off – I have upset legions of the rascals and good riddance – plenty more will come if you are known for fair payment for fair work.

The problem is that working,as you are, at a distance is very difficult and you are prone to being exploited. It would be useful if there was a trustworthy person who could supervise things for you. A real registered and insured “maitre d’ouvrage” will not only ensure you pay absolute top dollar for everything, but they charge you from 5 to 15 percent on top and they pocket “commissions” from everyone and for everything. However, much worse can be a “friendly” ex-pat who will look after things for you.

Please let me know how you get on

Bonne Chance

Tony