“When people walk in here, I’m ashamed of how it looks,” says the passionate miller Sven Verbeek of the historic De Twee Gebroeders mill. It’s also a hit on Sunday: it’s pouring rain. “The water runs down the walls here on the inside. The walls have turned green, gray and even pink due to the moisture. I have to put down buckets to keep things a bit dry.”
National monument De Twee Gebroeders in Wijk en Aalburg has had a huge moisture problem for years. But it is not only a monument, it is also the mill where Verbeek grinds grain for bakers in the area.
“Because I am involved in food preparation, I must of course adhere to the strict hygiene conditions in our profession. It still works, but I don’t know how long it will last. I keep fighting for it, but flour and liquid just don’t go together. The walls have turned green here and the beams are white with fungi.”
The moisture problem of the mill arose during the Second World War, Verbeek continues. “The mill was then shelled and even hit by a grenade. As a result, hairline cracks have arisen in stones and jointing, through which water is now seeping through. They have tried everything in the past to tackle the moisture problem. Beeswax was even smeared on it once.”
To protect his traditional product, Verbeek has stored the already ground flour on the dry (eastern) side. “The other side is the southwest side, where the rain almost always comes from and the water comes through the walls. Applying a coating, a kind of raincoat, to the outside of the mill would be the solution.”
The fact that the mill does not (yet) have a coating to keep the water out is due to the ‘rigid’ attitude of heritage authorities and committees. They want the mill to look the same on the outside. No coating, but clean masonry.
But despite the resistance, the mill foundation now wants to apply a moisture-resistant plaster layer. An intention that is supported by the municipality of Altena.
“I am very happy with this”, says miller Verbeek. “Because if this problem were to persist, the mill as a monument would eventually collapse and it would also be the end of my company. If I could choose I would go for a gray coating, nothing striking and also beautiful. Do you realize that three quarters of the windmills in the Netherlands have a coating.”