Are plumbers in high demand in spain?? Also are the rates of pay any good? I am a time served plumber/gas engineer I am waiting on my work visa clearing for Canada but quite fancy Spain for the summer before I go. Id be very grateful for any advice!
Thanks, Craig

All I know is, Plumbers here charge the earth, very expensive and live in a Spanish rural town and also hard to find one. Luckily I have a man who does the work for me. So I would say there was work depending on where you live but I am sure people like JDR can give you more insight into that.


pwwm

theres not alot of places to buy "bits" off the shelf, so get up to speed on ur spanish first.

where ever you go to, if theres brits there will be a need.

Too much hassle, give it a miss and go to Canada, beautiful BC

Have to say we have a house in a Spanish rural town and had no problem at all in finding a spanish plumber to fit out our new bathroom and kitchen. The labour charge was 13euros/hr. Maybe you were just unlucky

regards
BW.

We are desperate for good, honest, reliable plumbers that wont rip us off.

I have been trying to find one for months, and no-one bothers calling back or bother to come when they say they will!

In fact, we are always looking for good electricians too.

With so many urbanisations, you only need to do 1 good job for your name to passed over and before you know it you would have a business in weeks. Thats how it works here, its all word of mouth. If people weren´t so busy trying to rip everyone else off and charge a fare price and most importantly..be reliable, they could definately have a successful business!

€13 an hour plus parts, sounds fair to me. my dad and i were thinking of starting up a business together, i labour, he plumbs he´s a plumbing engineer and has been in the trade nearly 40 years.

we live in alhaurin el grande. if there really is that much work avaliable on the urbanisations, that is ideal for us.

j0197 - what plumbing is it you need? or are you saying it generally?

13 € an hour is dirt cheap for a tradesman, I paid my labourers more than that.

Dont say that JDR, 13 sounds fab to me, mind we dont know how much they charge for parts

I am perserviering (sorry bout spelling) with a slow leak that I have heard will probably turn at some point into an explosion of the water tank. Im not too sure if this is true but i know 2 people that have had to replace their boiler. Basically, the whole urbanisation have the same bad boilers and at some point they may all need repairing.

Its a shame that none of the plumbers seem understand beyond making a quick buck on one job rather than doing a good job and getting repeated work in the future or even turning up more like.

My problem is under the boiler (in the kitchen) water comes through the box underneath. I was told by a friend, to undo the box and tighten all the screws diagnosticly. But when I did this, they didnt need tightening. The whole thing is just very rusty and corroded. sometimes its just a few drops, sometimes more of a puddle, but my neighbours boiler just flooded their apartment and has come through to ours so maybe this is what the leak goes on to do?

Also, I was thinking of moving a toilet and changing a sink...so bits and pieces I may do, if I found someone who was reliable and at a good price to do it eventually.

But, for example, there are 240 apartments on our development....probably every week, someone asks someone for a number albeit plumber, painter & decorator, electrician.

Then, we all know other people in other urbanisations, it just takes one name to pass on and then everyone would use you. Many flats that are 4 or 5 years old that have been rented out continuously will soon need re-doing, like now I see more and more kitchens cupboards in the rubbish.

I think there is so much work for trademans out there if you want it!

:scared: can i come and work for you????

I dont know....those faces you put are pretty scary!!!

I am sort of retired now , just do a bit of gardening and pool maintenance for pocket money.
Plumbers get let down also, I did quite a few good jobs cheap to drum up trade, only to find that when gas was laid onto the island where I lived, the gasboard held an open meeting and said they were the only people to do it and if people signed up on the night they would do a special price of blah blah blah subject to survey.
Of course when they did the survey the people were conned left right and center to make the gasboards job worthwhile.
If I had charged the same prices I would have been on about 400 quid a day and that was a few years ago.

Your leak sounds like the gasket needs replacing, but for the price boilers are and all the flexi pipework which makes it easy, replace the boiler as it is obviously not running eficiently.
You will soon save the boiler money by using less electrickery

for the price of the boilers now its alot easier to replace rather than repair. chances are it´ll be full of limescale anyways.

How much are boilers??? i been told by 2 neighbours near on 900 to 1000 euros....That sounds ridiculous to me, or have I no idea whatsoever? It is a big tank though, in my kitchen.

And electricity...although i have no gas...seems very expensive. During the winter when I use heaters its around 175 per month!

Think i may get one of those gas heaters...i hear they are cheaper...do you know?