maggierobson

Hi
We live part time in a small village called Alcaria da Serra, near Videgueira in Portugal not far from Beja. We need some building & tiling work done. Does anyone know of a good builder, preferably one who speaks English
Thanks
Maggie & Toe

peterfc

Hi Maggie

Ask in the local bars or Builders merchants but avoid English builders who want English rates.

Peter

maggierobson

Thanks Peter. We've tried that but no luck as very few English here. We wondered about Beja........Does anyone know anyone there please?

GeniB

Get a Translator App for your phone or iPad Maggie Not perfect (some howlers at times) but with patience it does work for simple questions. You have a couple of options. to speak or write..( Google Translate)

maggierobson

Thanks, we do have a translator
Regards
Maggie

liveaboard

We had the same problem when we wanted to do up our house; I asked around for a building crew with at least 1 person who spoke English.
We were told we needed to learn Portuguese; that's a fine idea but might take too long.
In our highly expat area, there was only one bunch we could find; they had a tri-lingual German working with them.
It seems anyone from here who learned English and was willing to work that hard was working in England already.

So I can only wish you luck. Keep at it, if someone really wants your job they'll just have to hire on a person who can talk to you.

maggierobson

Thanks for that. The English speaking isn't absolutely essential as we,ve had work done here before and managed to communicate. The problem was in the quality of the work so we're looking for a really good builder - english would be a bonus but not completely necessary.
Thanks for taking the time to respond & for the encouragement
Regards
Maggie & Toe (Tony)

GeniB

Oh oh might be treading on a few toes there. Portuguese builders are excellent Maggie so I wouldn't worry.. not so sure about some English ones though. Plus they charge a lot more.

maggierobson

There was certainly no intent here to say all Portugese builders are bad and all English ones good. It is just that our experience of Portugese builders has not been good. Hence the search for a 'good' builder regardless of nationality.
Thanks
Maggie

liveaboard

I read it that Maggie was looking for a good builder who speaks English, not an English builder.

As I said, our crew had 1 guy who did the translating; as time went on, we picked up a few words but it was still tough when he wasn't around.
There are always details, choices, ideas to be discussed.
He died recently; very sad.

maggierobson

That's exactly it! Thanks maggie

jromao

Hi Maggie, I'm portuguese living abroad and soon also starting new house construction in Portugal, I suggest you do that management through your Architect (who should speak english almost for sure) if building means new/change current structure. If that tasks are smaller and just repair/corrections and tilling floor/walls then go also for an Architect/office and ask them, they work with several constructors and probably get you a good contact. Of course don't order nothing without the cost ("Orçamento") in your hands first.

maggierobson

Thank you that's really helpful

EMR

Tempting as it otherwise might be always get an factura with full details payment of IVA.
If you do not when you come to sell you will have no evidence to offset against any CGT.

jromao

I forgot to mention. In Portugal we use term "Constructor/Construtor" to define a entity as construction company, while "Pedreiro" define person who can provide work on construction and that's probably what you look just for some repair or tilling. This is important because can lead you to hire expensive or cheap service.