Restoring ruined real estate in Italy

While nothing ever goes quite according to plan on building jobs — it’s the nature of tradespeople the world over to take on every job offered and then juggle half a dozen at once — there’s a lot to be said for the way the Italians do things. For anyone who’s endured the nightmare of building work in the UK, where ‘general builders’ have become the norm, with a corresponding erosion of traditional skills, Italy is going to be like a delightful journey back in time. This is a country where the trades are still highly specialised: plumbers plumb … they don’t also do the electrics, plastering and carpentry.

Restore your Italian property

Assuming you get your guys on site, they’ll arrive at 8am, take a lunch break at noon, and work till possibly 7pm without a tea or coffee break. Any offers of tea or coffee, in fact, are likely to be politely rebuffed. And one word of warning — if you’re going to do it yourself (fai da te) that’s fine, it’s how lot of us restore our homes in Italy. But if you’ve got tradesmen in, leave them to it: they know the job better than you do and you’ll just get in the way and waste time and money.

Labour is cheaper than in the UK or US and, as you head further south, it gets cheaper still, in line with a lower cost and standard of living. If you’re restoring property in Abruzzo, Molise or Basilicata you’re going to get a lot of skills for your money.

Restoring Italy real estate — get an architetto or geometra

Your first stop is to employ either an architect (architetto) or a geometra (you’ll have encountered him during the purchase process). Depending on the scale of work you’re doing he’ll draw up plans and steer your planning application (il progetto) through the planning office (l’ufficio tecnico) of the local council (il comune). It’s the comune which will grant you planning permission (la concessione edilizia) for your house in Italy.

The geometra will draw up a spec of work to do (an capitolato) and ensure things are progressing via his site visits (sopralluoghi). For the six per cent fee you’re likely to pay the geometra, you should be able to hand the job over, happy in the knowledge that he’s hired able tradesmen, and is pushing the comune on the planning permission. As ever though, it helps to do some pushing yourself: just like anywhere, jobs can grind to a halt if you don’t keep on the foreman’s case. And just like anywhere, make careful plans, costings and deadlines: ensure you know what you’re getting, how long it will take and how much you’re going to pay for it.

Restoring Italy real estate — employing builders

Should you elect not to use a geometra (perhaps the scale of work doesn’t warrant it) you can take the route you would at home — whip out the Yellow Pages (pagine gialle casa) and find your nearest builders’ merchant (fornitori edili). They will obviously know the local tradesmen and will be able to recommend a local builder (muratore) who can take on your job. Ideally here you’re looking for someone to take on the role of foreman (impresario). The geometra if involved will assume that role, and they can then subcontract the work out to the various trades: the plumber (l’idraulico), joiner (il falegname), painter (l’imbianchino), electrican (l’elettricista) and the rest.

The artisans (artigiani) are likely to take great pride in their trade. You may find a mason who carves limestone the way it was done by his great-great-great-grandfather in the early 1800s. You’ll encounter trades you’ve never seen before. Il marmista is the marble mason. Travertine marble, from the Lazio region, is extensively used in Italian building, often where we’d use tiles. And though of excellent quality it’s far less of a luxury item than you’d suppose: you’ll find excellent, and reasonably priced work, with skilled men in every area. Of course if you don’t like marble…

Italy real estate — falegnami, intonachini and fabbri

Similar levels of skill exist among the falegnami, the joiners who will construct your doors and windows (collectively known as the infissi (literally ‘infixings’). These carpenters work differently to their US or British counterparts. Rather than working onsite, fitting the woodwork around the holes, they will measure up with painstaking detail, then construct offsite (much of the work is still done in family workshops). The infissi will then be delivered to the muratore who will fit them onsite. Though the art of the bodge is not unknown in Italian building, there is a very high level of competence — largely because Italy has maintained the apprenticeship system that faded a generation ago in other countries. Make the most of it while they’re still there.

And get used to specialisations you’ve never encountered before. You’ll be needing a piastrellista (tiler), pavimentista (floor tiler), intonachino (plasterer: though there are a number of different types of plasterer too), fabbro (blacksmith) and the sabbiatore (sand-blaster).