Frequently asked questions

No. Preparing and sending you a quote is free and commits you to nothing.

Where a reliable figure requires seeing the installation in person, we tell you before we travel and confirm whether that visit is chargeable and how much. A charge you were not told about in advance will never appear.

The more specific you are, the smaller the margin of error. It helps a great deal to know:

• Exactly what is happening, and since when
• The type of property and roughly how old it is
• The town or district
• Photos of the affected point and, if possible, of the consumer unit or stopcock

With photos we can rule things out and give you a realistic range. Without them we can usually only give a broad bracket.

It depends on the urgency and on that week's workload. We would rather give you a date we can keep than one that sounds good.

When you write to us we sort the job into one of three: something that can wait and gets scheduled; something worth dealing with soon; and a situation with real risk, water escaping, a burning smell, a consumer unit tripping constantly. The last group goes first. Our reply gives you a specific date, not an "as soon as possible".

Outside normal hours we handle emergencies for a surcharge, which we tell you before we start.

For well-defined jobs, moving a socket, swapping a tap, fitting a split unit on an ordinary wall, usually not: photos and a few measurements are enough.

We do ask for a visit when something has to be opened up to know what is behind it, when the installation is old, when the work affects several rooms, or when access shapes the job (upper floors without a lift, internal courtyards, façades with restrictions). In those cases a price given blind is almost always too low, and that hurts both of us.

On small jobs, on completion, once you have checked everything works.

On renovations and jobs with significant materials up front, payment is normally split into stages tied to actual progress: a deposit at the start, interim payments as each stage closes, and the balance on handover. That schedule is written into the quote before you accept it, with the amounts and the timing of each payment.

We accept cash, bank transfer and Bizum. In every case we issue an invoice with VAT.

Two separate things.

Materials and appliances carry the manufacturer's legal guarantee. In the EU that is a minimum of two years, extended to three in several member states for goods bought from 2022; many air conditioning units offer longer if registered after installation. We hand you the documentation so you can enforce it.

Our labour is covered separately. The exact period is stated in the quote you accept, so it is in writing rather than resting on what was said in conversation.

Specifically, our labour is covered by the legal warranty that applies to this kind of work: if something fails through a defect in our workmanship within that period, we come back and put it right at no cost.

Yes, and sometimes it makes sense: if you have already chosen a particular tap or a specific appliance model, we will fit it.

Two things worth knowing. First, material you supply is covered by your own purchase warranty, not ours; if it arrives faulty, you claim from the seller and the second visit to replace it is chargeable. Second, it is worth checking dimensions and connections with us before you buy, a good share of client-purchased parts that arrive on site do not match the existing installation.

We work with manufacturers that have local distribution and spares availability. It is not about prestige: in five years' time a replacement part has to be obtainable in a day, not ordered from abroad.

The quote lists the intended material by brand and model. If you would prefer a different range, cheaper or higher specification, we recost it before starting.

A full bathroom usually takes two to three weeks of actual working time; a kitchen a little longer where bespoke units are involved.

What stretches a programme is almost never the work itself, it is lead times on the chosen materials and decisions still open. A shower tray from stock arrives in days; a made-to-measure one takes weeks. That is why we close the choices before the strip-out starts, not during the job.

The quote gives you an estimated duration by stage and which milestones depend on a particular delivery.

During a partial renovation, usually yes. We work zone by zone, protect what is not being touched and clear up daily.

There are two uncomfortable stretches worth planning for: the strip-out days, with noise and dust, and the days when water or power is off for work on the main services. If you have one bathroom and it is being refitted, you will have days without it, better planned than discovered.

On a full renovation it is almost always more practical to move out: the programme is shorter and there are no restrictions on working hours.

Once a year, before the warm season, covers normal domestic use. In premises running long hours or in greasy air, kitchens, salons, workshops, twice is sensible.

A service covers cleaning the filters and the indoor coil, checking the condensate drain, measuring temperatures and inspecting the outdoor unit. Most of the expensive summer breakdowns we see follow two or three years of the unit never being opened.

In most cases, no. The three most common causes, in order, are: dirty filters, a blocked indoor coil, and low refrigerant from a small leak at the connections.

The first two are fixed by cleaning, and the unit recovers its performance. The third needs the leak found, repaired and the system recharged; recharging without finding the leak is money wasted, because within months you are back where you started.

A proper diagnosis is made by measuring, not by eye, which is why we would rather see it before telling you what the repair costs.