Personally renovating or building a home
 

I searched the forum for these topics and the only thread I found was several years old.
Wondering if it is possible to do the renovations of a ruin or an older house ( very poor shape) by myself (I do have building experience but not officially qualified)? Looking at Tuscany or Umbria.
Would the communities allow to rebuild a ruin using straw bales instead of the traditional stone?
Thank you.

Re: Personally renovating or building a home
 

You have to find a Geometra who works in the Comune where you propose to build. They will tell you what you can and cannot do. The Geometra will submit the plan to the Comune and you should wait for approval before starting any work. The rules are very strict especially if they think you are a wealthy foreigner. This advice is based on putting a new roof on our garden shed. The Comune took 1 year to approve the project.

Re: Personally renovating or building a home
 

Thank you.
Sounds very Sovietish.

Re: Personally renovating or building a home
 

When you drive through Italy you get the idea that there is no control on building but when you want to do something yourself you suddenly find there are plenty of rules and regulations.
It is important to get a good Geometra because if he gives you bad advice you can end up being fined by the Comune.

Re: Personally renovating or building a home
 

Well I don't think any country in Europe is without controls and quite rightly so. Okay some are a little stupid and hard to understand, but here in Italy, nothing like Russia!

Re: Personally renovating or building a home
 

If you are doing work whcih requires permissions ie anything whcih involves the structure of the property, the. you must provide a Durc - a certificate which shows you are up to date with your taxes and contributions in Italy. this will be your biggest problem, that and you have no insusrance for health and safety on a site. As to straw bales, its a bit too avantgarde for Italain planners who assume you always want to build more then you can get away with. Also there surely will be no italian document that attests to the seismic efficacy of straw. in tuscany where vurtually no new build is allowed, you can only build/restore 'traditionally' which would preclude straw.

Re: Personally renovating or building a home
 

Thank you.
That settles it for me regarding Italy.
I can just stay here, repeatedly bang my head on the wall and achieve the same outcome in life.
That is the one (only one ;)) nice thing about the US. You can pretty much do anything you can think of.
(btw... I'm not American:rofl:).

Re: Personally renovating or building a home
 

;)


Not too sure about that statement. Before the kick off of Bologna v. Napoli yesterday, they were playing the Russian National Anthem.