Demolition discoveries!

1960s wallpaper discovered in the bathroom of my new apartment, during demolition

I’m very excited as I got the keys to my new apartment last Monday at 6pm! And Monsieur Hamlil, my absolute favorite contractor, started the renovation works the next morning at 8am. Not bad, eh?! It’s what I do for my clients. No point in wasting any time! 

I prepared everything in advance: the floor plan, the list of works to be done, the contractor visits the site, sent me his quote, we adjust it, agree on the price and start date. I paid a deposit and the work started on time. Love it!

And obviously, as I’m changing the windows to double glazing, the window supplier and installer had already come to visit the apartment (on the same day as Monsieur Hamlil so that they could discuss any foreseeable difficulties) and I did the same clarification process with his quote. And the same thing for the kitchen supplier. I know how much it will all cost and have budgeted a 10% excess for surprises discovered during the works. 

So I have all the quotes approved, all the works planned. I know that the windows will be installed at the beginning of April and the kitchen will be installed mid April. And that Monsieur Hamlil needs 3.5 months to work his magic. So, if all goes well, I’ll move in mid-May. 

We are currently in the demolition phase, which is always slightly nerve-wracking! I plan more site visits during demolition, as this is when the surprises come to light. I always see for myself what the contractor has discovered and discuss with them the implications and possible solutions.

And also, this is the most exciting part! I get to see how the building was made, and more importantly, if the plan is being optimized and volumes are being opened up, this is when I actually see the space that I have been imagining for months!

But as Robert Burns said ‘The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, Gang aft agley’ - they often go awry. And Monsieur Hamlil usually finds out what is ‘agley’ during the demolition phase which we are currently going through. This is when he can actually get his hands dirty (literally and metaphorically) and gets his head around what he hadn’t been able to see before, and how to ensure that, even given these surprises, he can still make my vision become reality.

The apartment I have bought is in an apartment building (‘résidence’) built in 1964. Its design and plan were influenced by modernist post-war architecture, and as such it was built from slabs of concrete and has a very rational plan with separate parts for day and night (with a door between them) and great volumes for the rooms.

Like all apartments, no matter when they are built, this construction period has its advantages and its inconvenients. In terms of technical advances, the concrete slabs used for the construction mean that the rooms have wonderful big windows and so lots of lovely natural light! On the other hand, acoustics between rooms are not great as the non-supporting walls are made of hollow blocks made of brick. With this in mind, I’ve asked Monsieur Hamlil to install some thin sound insulation between each of the three bedrooms so that we can all sleep more peacefully!

I’ve also been in contact with the Présidente du Conseil Syndical - the president of the committee who helps run the building, in collaboration with the ‘Syndic’ whom the co-owners all pay to do the actual administration of the building. Madame la Présidente is very nice, helpful and practical, and I was very glad to talk to her about the building. She bought her apartment, four floors above mine, 30 years ago, so she knows the lay of the land!

Madame told me that the weakness of our building is the plumbing, especially important here as both hot water and heating is centralized for all occupants. She asked that my contractor check whatever pipes he could access so that they could be changed if necessary. This is very good to know, and en effet Monsieur Hamlil has discovered that all six of the cut off taps for the water supply (one each for hot and cold water for the kitchen, shower room and bathroom) need to be replaced as they are very old and stiff. Even though they will remain accessible, it’s best to replace them now rather than risk having to break through what we renovate to replace them later!

When removing the original slabs of travertine around the bath and the shower (which was unfortunately necessary to replace the faucets) some of the underlying red brick crumbled as the travertine was cemented to the brick. This did enable us to check the pipes though, which luckily aren’t leaking, and to report this back to Madame la Présidente. 

The next step was the kitchen. Having removed the old kitchen units, we saw that the inbound hot and cold pipes are in the wrong place for the plan of the new kitchen. These pipes stick out by 12cm (just over 4.5”), which is quite deep. I asked Monsieur Rault (the kitchen designer, whom I mention here and here) to come and discuss this with Monsieur Hamlil and I.

Monsieur Rault came to visit the apartment for the second time, and in fact there’s nothing we can do to change these pipes, as the gaine technique (service shaft) used by the whole building cannot be moved! So he suggested two changes to the kitchen plan to accomodate them. I’m a bit disappointed, as I had been looking forward to having a good 130cm (4’3”’) of uninterrupted counter space to prepare food. But with Monsieur Rault’s changes, I should still have enough space!

And the last issue is the floor in my elder son’s room. Monsieur Hamlil took up the flooring - damaged contre-collé parquet, which is a thin layer of oak stuck onto less expensive pine underneath. Unfortunately, the layer of oak was too thin to be able to sand and revarnish the flooring - always preferable, in my view, as it engenders a lot less waste and expense! 

Anyway in my apartment, the flooring couldn’t be renovated as the layer of oak was too thin, so it has to be replaced. Having removed the flooring in my son’s room, Monsieur Hamlil discovered traces of another wall which had been demolished. And the two sides of the floor on either side of the remnants of this wall are not at the same level (which also explains why the flooring was damaged in the first place). So a skim layer of concrete (ragréage)is necessary to create an even surface for the new solid wood flooring he’ll install.

Monsieur Hamlil assures me that, now that the demolition phase is over, the surprises are over too! He’s going to update his quote, and we’ll see then if the 10% I budgeted for surprises is enough. 

I’ll be writing about my apartment renovation project here, as I think it’s an interesting case study. If you have any questions, just get in touch, I’d love to hear from you! antonia@bluesparks.paris