The importance of water management when renovating in the South of France

It's raining. Again. It's day 2 with another three days forecast and more next week. No, I mean proper rain, not that UK drizzly stuff that makes your hair curly. This is heavy get soaked walking to the car type of rain - continuously.  It comes as a surprise to some people who view and buy property in the summer months to discover how much it can rain in the French Mediterranean. On average there's 629mm of rain a year in Montpellier.

“On average it rains 35mm more per year in Montpellier than it does in London.”

According to London climate records the average rainfall in London UK is 594mm. Yes, that's right. It rains more in Montpellier than London, on average 35mm more, but the clue is in the frequency. See that table below. On average it rains for only 57.8 days a year in Montpellier. That means for the other 307 days it's dry, mostly sunny and you can organise a BBQ without having to cancel it 2 hours before. You don't have to be a weather forecaster to work out therefore it comes in heavy continuous downpours. That's a challenge for any building and it's very often overlooked by buyers when they plan their renovation & buildings works and especially when they are viewing potential properties.

People are too often preoccupied with aesthetic stuff in their renovation plans and ignore the functional boring stuff that causes the problems. If you pick the wrong shade for your bedroom feature wall you'll be annoyed. However, if you don't make sure the roof is sound when you sign the final contract in August, during the next rainy onslaught in October the ceiling may end up on your vi-spring [you might want to look up Vi-Spring, you'll never regret owning one.]

And here comes the sensible advice. Make sure the roof is sound and verify the guttering and water management around any property you're thinking of buying or have just purchased, whether or not you are going to renovate. Look for stains on internal ceilings on upper floors. Other areas prone to leaks and potentially expensive remedial works and fixes are leaking roof terraces.

Even if you hadn't planned a building project the rain gods my just create an expensive one for you.