Gas water heater not lighting: causes, repair or replace, and 2026 costs
An esquentador that will not light is usually batteries, gas or water flow. Here is what to check yourself, what fails inside the unit, when to repair or replace, and what it costs in 2026.
Your water bill jumped: how to find a hidden leak in an Algarve house
A water bill that jumps for no reason usually means a leak you cannot see. Here is how to confirm it with the meter, check the usual suspects and find the rest without breaking the house.
Leaving your Algarve house empty for winter: the plumbing shut down checklist
Closing your Algarve house for the winter? Frost is rarely the problem. Slow leaks, dry traps and a heater left on are. Here is the plumbing checklist we use, from the meter test to the restart in spring.
Weak water pressure in the shower, and how to find out whether it is the tap or the whole house
The shower has gone weak so you buy a new shower head, and it makes no difference. Because the shower was never the problem. Here is the five minute test that finds where it actually is.
Why your house smells of sewage, and the two minute fix that solves it nine times out of ten
You open the door after two weeks away and the house smells of drains. Nothing looks wrong. Nine times out of ten this is a dry trap, and it fixes itself in ninety seconds. Here is how to be sure.
Septic tanks in the Algarve: the guide nobody gives you when you buy the house
The tank in your garden is a live biological process with a legal file attached, and most owners in the campo know the location of neither. They find out the week the house is full.
The plumbing survey nobody does: what to check before you buy a house in the Eastern Algarve
Portugal has no homebuyer survey, and nothing in the buying process obliges anyone to look at the plumbing. Here is the forty minute walk through we would do before you sign anything.
What plumbing work costs in Tavira, and the four documents that decide if you overpay
Two neighbours in Tavira pay 6% and 23% VAT on the same repair. Nothing was done wrong. What a plumbing quote is really made of in the Algarve, and the paperwork that protects you.
Hard water in Tavira: why your street decides how fast your plumbing wears out
Two houses ten minutes apart in Tavira can be on water that differs fourfold in hardness. Here is what is actually in your supply, what limescale costs you, and where your responsibility begins under Portuguese rules.
Before the summer water bill: the spring check for your garden irrigation
How to restart a garden irrigation system after winter, find the leaks that hide under gravel and lawn, and set it up so the summer bill does not jump.
