Renovation of the Maison des Sept Colonnes in Alençon

The Maison des Sept Colonnes is a 15th century building situated in Alençon in the Orne region of France, and is classified as a Historical Monument.

In 1999, the building was hit by Storm Lothar, which brought to light the structural damage. The building was emptied of its tenants and then shored up in 2004.

In 2021, the real estate company that owns the building obtained a grant to allow the renovation work to be carried out on the roof structure, the roofing, the carpentry and the thermal insulation, in order to create a shop and five social housing units on the upper floors.

The work is scheduled to last eighteen months in a single phase.

Tubesca-Comabi was selected for this project and is involved in assembling and dismantling the scaffolding.

Since April 2022, our teams have been on site to carry out the assembly phase, which is estimated to take 4 weeks and involves 4 fitters. The work is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023.

25 tonnes of M368 scaffolding

The scaffolding chosen for this project is the multi-directional M368 (8 positions).

About 25 tonnes of material are being used. The structure has been entirely designed to facilitate access for the different trades that will be involved in the renovation work.

270m² of umbrellas for comfort and protection

In order to ensure that the work is executed safely and to protect the workers from bad weather, 270m² of Master Alu umbrellas of 18 metres in length are being installed with a clearance height of 3.00m.

The trusses are made of aluminium beams so they can be assembled quickly and easily without using tools, and guides are positioned on them to fit the protective tarpaulins.

Site constraints

The work includes creating overhanging lower falls, which means that our fitters need to take the future architecture into account when erecting the scaffolding.

In addition to this, one of the major challenges of the project was creating a bridge over the surrounding roofs without leaning on them so that the umbrella could be supported on the other side of the building. We therefore had to look for supports inside an adjacent 0.50 metre wide courtyard.