The house in SW France had suffered serious damage from humidity.
The culprit? A water cistern in the cellar. This clever system had allowed generations before us—centuries ago—to collect rainwater, a precious resource in a hilltop village with few water sources.
Green and mold were the tones of the place
But over time, all the original ventilation channels, designed to let excess moisture escape, had been sealed.
The result: water from the cistern had nowhere to go and started wreaking havoc. Wooden beams rotted, mold crept across the walls.
It looked like an abandoned (zombie) movie set.
When my sister and I first visited the house, it was dark, rain was pouring outside (and even inside the barn), and the smell was awful. Despite every reason not to, I decided to make an offer. Why?
Because beneath the moldy drywalls, we found thick, undamaged stone walls.
Because we passed through semi-hidden carved arches and a stunning vaulted cellar.
Because spaces like this are rare in the area.
Because, despite all the rough conditions, the base structure was solid—heavy-duty masonry and carpentry still healthy.
But at this rate, it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
Suiting up for the Big Clean
In a nutshell, the house was a diamond in the rough, but it needed an urgent rescue operation!
Before: mold from floor to ceiling
Getting started with demolition: removing drywalls and insulation to uncover the healthy stone walls
Removing the dry walls started showing us the big volumes of the house
Removing the wood floors. They are high-quality oak boards and we hope to reuse them!
From morning to night, removing the old plasters from the stone walls
All construction methods were found in the house: the ceiling of the bathroom was made of bricks
This very old ceiling plaster was the worst! A mix of sand, lime, wood
Removing old insulation in the attic
Cleaning the attic revealed a cosy corner
Who wants a nice cable salad?
Pressure-washing the cellar stones
Pressure-cleaning the beautiful stone stairs
The toughest part was still ahead: getting rid of all the waste. In the end, it took four dumpsters to haul away 13 tons of rubble, waste materials, and rot. That experience made me think about the materials I’ll choose when rebuilding—ideally ones that won’t turn into tons of trash for the next generation.
Evacuating the molded drywalls
Evacuating the old furniture and insulation
Removing and evacuating the wall plasters
Fast forward to now: after a year and a half of cleaning work and allowing ventilation, with the air pathways working as originally intended, there is no trace of mold, no remnants of a bad smell - at all! 🥳
When we see how healthy, bright and full of light the house is today, it is hard to remember how scary it used to be.
I am really happy with the result, it exceeded my expectations. Going in, I wasn't sure that the house would ever be healthy again, but it improved way faster than I had hoped given the damage.
Personally, I definitely learned a lot about demolition, materials, and construction methods over the years (centuries). The only regret I have is that we wasted a lot of time and energy transporting everything from the house to the barn, then to the dumpster later.
So, if I were to do it again, I would organize things differently:
first, I would remove one of the garden walls immediately. It was in the way of the dumpster trucks and we ended removing it anyway
then, I would place the dumpsters just under the windows of the house
finally demolish and evacuate at the same time
Other than that, all went well with a lot of elbow grease, and I am glad that this nasty dusty moldy part of the journey is over.
Time to start building!
