Coup De Coeur #4: Moulin de Chateaurenaud

(A series of "Pierre, what do they not have" posts)

Now and then you can buy enormous properties in France for relatively little money. Sometimes because the place really is a dump, but sometimes because a property is inherited by children who don't like the place, and it only costs them to keep a house from totally falling down. Sometimes because of a lot of reasons. Here is a place that qualifies for many of those reasons.

It is a (very) old mill in the Charente area, near Mansle: le Moulin de Chateaurenaud. Already mentioned in the Middle Ages, but rebuilt a few times. The current set of buildings was probably erected in the middle of the 1800's. It was at least partly a wood sawing mill. At the beginning of the 20th century it was converted to generate electric power, with a giant waterwheel. I guess it stopped working before World War II, and was more or less abandoned since. The family kept up the place as far as they could, apparently replacing the roof in the 1980's in an attempt to at least conserve the building as it is.

It had sustained a lot of damage already, with the old roof leaking like a sieve with a hole in it, which made wood rot, and some ceilings collapse. They just replaced the roof, but did not restore the interior. So that was untouched since ca. 1940-ish. Untouched by man. Not so much untouched by nature's hand. Wood worm, mould, fungi, damp, rot, all had their "hands" on the place.

But, you don't have to restore everything you can, and if you have the time, the means, the skills, the willingness, the determination... you can do a lot. Chateaurenaud certainly has that certain je ne sais quoi, at least for me. Here at home it was mostly frowned upon though.

There are two parts in a property like this: 1. a place to live 2. a place to do a bit of production. The production part was promising (to me). The big waterwheel was still there, with all the machinery intact. Even the old electric generator was still there. The wood of the waterwheel was all gone, however. But, that can be restored without too much difficulty. It's just planks of wood. Or aluminium, as I would have done. A new generator, et voilá! d' electricité!

A bit more complex was the living part. This house has no modern amenities. No water. No electricity. No sanitation. No telephone. No heating. And, no proper floors, any more.

I was aware of these pictures before visiting, but could not quite determine the state of things. Nor could a surveyor I contacted to look at the photos too. He did suggest the following: these are floors that are simply constructed by laying wooden beams onto the bare soil, and put the planks on top of that. He was quite right. And you know what? Floors constructed like that don't last 150 years. They get damp, they get woodworm, mold, and in general, they get eaten.

I had asked the owners what had happened to the floors. He rep-lied that probably something too heavy was put on the floor, and that that had made the floor collapse. However, my surveyor was right. I stuck my finger through a hole in the floor: damp soil.

There is a big kitchen there. And that is the only positive qualification. It was quite obvious this house has a water problem, the nice and big stones on the floor are wet at the edges. If you jump up and down on one you can see that water wells in between...

This is the so called "champignon de plâtre". It grows on old plaster, where the humidity is above 80%. This house has nice plaster ceilings in most of the house. Plaster ceilings are constructed by first attaching thin wooden slats to the beams of the ceiling, and then just slapping on plaster to get a nice and even white surface. But, this leaves a space between the plaster and the wooden floor on top of the beams. That space gets occupied by fungi, mold, mice and anything that does not like the light of day.

A bit like this, yes.

And this.

Did I mention there's a room where there was only a small chimney fire?

What to do about this place? Well, it can be restored. The roof is not bad, the stone walls are fine, but all woodwork is beyond repair. The house needs to be stripped, completely, including windows, doors and shutters. No idea if the floor beams for the upper floor and attic are still ok, but the floor planks themselves aren't.

The floors of the ground floor need to be removed and burned, and the soil underneath them excavated so a space is created that can be ventilated, so the floor stays dry. You can then construct a floor with "poutrelles" and "hourdis", and finish that with underfloor heating and a layer of concrete. Poutrelles are smallish concrete beams that you can carry with two people, and put in place. Then you fill the space in between two such beams with "hourdis", lightweight panels. Sometimes polystyrene, sometimes lightweight concrete, or even terracotta. Then you put an iron reinforcement mesh on top, call for a tanker car loaded with concrete, and a layer of liquid concrete is poured on top of your modular floor. And it's done. (More or less.) It is something you can do yourself. A very useful site is http://www.klussen-in-frankrijk.eu/ by Christian von Klösterlein, also known as "le bricoleur" on a certain forum for Dutch people in France. A forum that is inhabited by some very nice and helpful people, but also some completely irritating ones. Like a talking vegetable stew.

And, the house needs drains around the building. It is located next to the Charente river, so at the bottom of the valley. All water flows down, and towards the river. Also underground. The whole property is wet, squishy, swampy. The house does not have gutters. That means that water splashes down from the roof onto the ground, and back up the walls. So, the walls are wet too. See the picture on the left, the plaster has fallen down.

Drainage is a risk for the building too. I think it was not constructed on solid rock, but more or less on a bank of clay and sand and stones. What they do is dig a trench, put big stones, or big wooden beams, on the bottom, and construct walls on top of that. If you start to take the water out, the soil will dry, and shrink. Consequently, the walls may crack.

It will take a few years of hard work, quite a lot of money, but most of all determination, and love for this place. And a partner that shares those feelings and determination. And the willingness to camp there in a caravan at least half a year without running water, electricity etc. I did mention the family was frowning on this place? That did not become any better. Au contraire.

Add that the asking price for this property was such that not enough was left for the restoration. The owners would have had to at least halve their asking price before I could have confidence in the finances. We did not even try that. (i.e. I was not allowed..)

Getting electricity and water connected would have cost a lot, although you can generate your own here, and there's plenty water.. Generating electricity is very possible here. The water rights for the mill are still there!

Oh, I haven't mentioned sanitation yet. Of course there's no mains sewer here. There's no septic tank either. Millers just peed in the Charente. (There is a dry toilet in another building.) Near rivers septic tanks are no longer allowed, nor is it allowed to have the septic overflow field near the river. That means you must construct/buy a "microstation d'epuration", a sort of above-ground septic tank that is mechanically stirred, and breaks down waste quite quickly. For a house this size (12 rooms) you need a big one. Expensive.

Someone has bought it though. And with the purpose to generate hydro power, apparently. See their site: http://www.moulindechateaurenaud.com I will follow closely, and a bit jealously, though not enviously, what happens there the years to come. I might even give them the old postcard I bought, with the waterwheel before the current wheel.

PS
There was an amusing misunderstanding where someone mentioned that he bought pineau by the jerrycan, and someone else replied that she absolutely loves pinot.