Renovation work in Chamonix

Chamonix has a particular building stock: stone and timber chalets from the early 20th century, buildings from the 1960s tourist boom, and apartments squeezed into attics with complicated roof geometry. Snow load, freeze-thaw cycles and the age of the networks are part of every project.

Much of the town is also subject to architectural review, and exterior changes — windows, balconies, roof coverings, colours — may require authorisation. We establish that before ordering anything, and we keep the existing details where they define the building.

The old chamoniard chalet

Stone base, timber upper floors, low ceilings and small openings: the old chalet in Chamonix was built for a climate, not for a catalogue. Its weaknesses are known — thermal bridges at the floor joists, roofs that hold snow for months, networks added one generation at a time.

Renovating it means deciding what carries the character: the stone, the beams, the staircase, the window proportions. Everything else can change. When that decision is made before the drawings, the project is coherent; when it is made at the end, it becomes a list of compromises.

Commercial premises and the season

Shops, restaurants and rental apartments have a hard deadline: the first week of December or the last week of April. After that, the work waits until the following season, whatever the contract says.

We build the schedule backwards from that date, with the materials ordered early enough and a buffer for the inspection. A kitchen or a bathroom delivered late is a season lost, not a week lost.