loopy1981

hi guys,

My partner and i are thinking of moving to the Piemonte or Valle d'Aosta area. I am a Painter and decorator and my partner is a builder, we are worried about he work aspect of moving to italy. Does anyone know if these trades are in demand or if being British would effect our employment oppertunities.
any info? or any one situated in the areas, would be great to hear from you.

thanks

CarrieW

Hi there,

I am in the North but sadly not in the areas you mention.

There is certainly a lot of house building going on in this area right now. Do you speak Italian as that would be a key factor I think in how employable you are to Italian firms (or were you thinking of setting up on your own?). There may be more demand further south for English builders/decorators as there tends to be more expats down there, from what I have seen, renovating old properties.

Not sure if others would agree but in my experience the level of interior decorating here extends to a coat of white paint so I am not sure if this would be challenging enough for you

Whatever you do and wherever you go I hope it works out for you both.

Carrie

duffer

Ciao,

I haven't heard of anyone here in our area hiring anybody thru a local ad so if you are thinking to start your own business it's all done through word of mouth. But you have to start somewhere. A low cost advertising campaign like mailing out flyers and some sort of promotion would certainly help.

Otherwise if you are looking for a firm I cannot imagine the language to be too much of a problem because there are many Eastern Europeans working in the trade with just a basic grasp of Italian.

Anyway, good luck no matter where you start off!

loopy1981

hi again,

Thanks for the replies.

We will be going self employed rather than working for a company. do you think this make it easier to find work?

between us we are looking to earn at least 2,000 euro per month, do you think this is realistic based on local building / decorating charges?

many thanks for you info.

duffer

Hi.

The wife's father is a retired builder so I'll ask him what could be expected. Although it is difficult to quantify because some assignments are charged by the hour and others per job.

I certainly mean this without any offence whatsoever however building work here is on a different level to a lot of the work I've had done back in London. Going down to a Wickes-type store and DIY is something not really done here in Italy. The buildings, fixtures and fittings are on the whole better quality and if a job requires time you give it time. Just by looking at shop windows and signs you learn that there is a different requirement here. You should have no problems adapting to this though.

Having said that we had our offices painted not so long ago and to be honest the only difference I noticed was the paint odour!