When we bought the house it had no guttering what-so-ever, which lead to many of the rooms to develop dampness. As a result, we were reluctant to do anything with those rooms (paint, furnish etc.) until the guttering was put up. Although that wasn’t so easy!
In England you can just nip down to B&Q, buy some lengths of the stuff and fit it yourself. Not in Portugal (surprise, surprise!). In Portugal you cannot buy guttering anywhere and instead you must contact a builder who will ‘make’ it on site. Portuguese guttering comes in a roll form, which is put through a machine. The machine shapes, dyes and then cuts it to size on site. It’s hard to explain until you see it done.
We were reliably informed by our neighbour to fit the guttering in the summer as it is cheaper (supply and demand), so that’s what we aimed to do. I’m going to make a huge generalisation now but I am speaking from personal experience. I’ve found that the Portuguese tend to take maybe twice or three times as long as English people to get anything done. It’s not because they’re incompetent, they just love their two-hour lunch break and have a much much more relaxed pace of life. A part of me finds this pace very appealing as there’s no stress involved, but it can be frustrating if you have deadlines (rain!).
We called the builder around May, he gave us a quote in October and fitted the guttering in December. It was a slow process but we managed to get a superb rate. If you are going down the same route as us then you should expect to pay around €10-14 euros per metre (including tax/IVA), although it might vary depending on what colour you choose. From what I remember we had the options of black, white, dark green and dark red.
When the builders finally arrived they were exceptionally efficient and did a fantastic job. We were very impressed! Although, Portuguese health and safety is another thing to be desired. As far as I’m aware, builders in the UK must use scaffolding of some kind when working above a certain height but these guys just took their lives into their hands:
Nonetheless, now we’ve got a house that is no longer leaking! *fingers crossed*
6 Responses
Laura,
What a glorious place. Would love to have seen it before. I just came across your blog and will relish reading all of it. I'm researching Portugal and considering retiring there. Thank you for your time and efforts in sharing your life from Portugal.
Alena.
Welcome to my blog, Alena! :) I'm back in the UK for the winter (it's FREEZING in Portugal at the mo because there's no cloud cover during the day to keep the warmth in and we also don't have any central heating!) so my posts might be a bit few and far between but hopefully there's still enough content on here to keep you interested. :)
We have a property between Praia Da luz and Bergau and want to install guttering, down-pipes and storage tank.
Not too sure how old this article is, but as there is no equivalent B&Q, can anyone suggest where we can get appropriate guttering and fixings?
Hi Iain,
Thanks for asking! I would recommend going into your local hardware shop and ask them who they would recommend. Or, if you have neighbours or friends in the area, ask them. We’ve found that Leroy Merlin is the closest they have to a B&Q but guttering is a ‘specialist’ job so you have to find someone to install them for you. I think we paid around something like €8-10 a metre, but I can’t recall exactly and prices have probably gone up. There are plenty of cowboy builders in Portugal, so be cautious as you may get taken for a ride. Get a quote first. All the best :)
Hi Laura can you recommend the name of your aluminium gutter suppliers/fitters
Hi Peter, they were arranged by the local architect in our town, so I don’t know what their operating name is. I’m sure you could find someone local to you if you ask around. Good luck!