Hello all,

we are just in the final stages of buying our barn in the correze region of limousin, as i'm a builder in the UK my plan was to carry out the conversion myself. If i was undertaking this project in the UK i could accurately cost it out to within £100 but as i've no idea to the cost of building materials in France i'm a little in the dark.

A few people i've spoken to tell me that the prices are roughly the same as in UK. Some of the french sites i've been on are totally in french, and mine is not good as yet!!!!

My question is, does anyone know of a french builders merchants site that will quote me, in English, or give me an idea of prices etc, so I can get a feel as to how much this barn conversion will cost me.

Thanks,

Stewart.

It will be as easy as finding a British builders merchant that speaks French.

Best of Luck as I have not come across one

When I first moved to Spain I had a similar problem, but try and speak the language I used to go into a diy type store, look at all the stuff I needed, wrote it all out in Spanish, looked at the Spanish language book and worked out what to say to ask for a delivered price and took it into a builders yard. Its amazing what you can do if you show willing to attemp the language and they appreciate it also.

Oh, sorry, after reading my post I thought I should have mentioned that I don't speak french fluently, or why else would I have been asking for advice on an ex pats site??? But thanks for the help guys, i'll take your suggestions on board and learn to speak french fluently, with all the terminology used in English/French constructional practices, and then, and only then, i'll contemplate undertaking the conversion of my barn!!!!

You dont need to speak it fluently, just try like I said, or even write it down and read it to them, if you show willing I am sure they will help out.
I used to have a real laugh, me sort of talking Spanish and them sort of talking English, but we got by.

Can you make a list of the materials you will need yourself? I presume you can if you are a builder. If you want pm me the list, I could translate it for you and then you may be able to bring the list in french around to the builder's merchants to get a quote. You'll pick up the french as you go along and sign language helps a lot at the start!!

[QUOTE=priscilia
Thanks very much Priscilia, thats very kind of you, i'll get my list together in the next few days and pm you.

Stewart