A leak under the sink, a toilet that will not stop running, no hot water on a Sunday morning, or a tap that has finally given up. Describe the problem, get a free quote with the price known before anyone comes out, and the job goes to a plumber who works in your area.
Free and without obligation.
Handyman Algarve arranges plumbing work in the Algarve: leaks, blocked wastes, taps and mixers, toilets and cisterns, water heaters, pipework in walls, and the pressure problems that come with boreholes and hillside urbanisations. Quotes are free and given in English or Portuguese before any work starts, so the price is agreed rather than discovered afterwards.
Three things about houses here shape most of the work. Water hardness varies sharply by supply zone, so scale ends taps and cartridges early in some concelhos and is barely a factor in others, and it is worth knowing which one you are in before buying a softener. Pipework in older village houses and 1980s villas is often chased into solid masonry rather than run in a stud wall, so a small leak stays hidden until plaster starts to blister. And a great many properties stand empty for months, which dries out the traps under basins and showers and lets drain air straight back into the room. That last one is usually mistaken for a serious drainage fault when it needs a jug of water and a return visit to the habit of running the taps.
If water is running and you cannot stop it, close the main valve first. In most Algarve houses it is either in a small box on the outside wall or beside the water meter at the gate, and it is worth finding it now rather than in the dark with a torch. Switch off the electricity to any circuit the water is reaching. If the leak is on the hot side, close the valve on the water heater as well. Then send the job through with the urgency set to emergency: a request marked that way is treated as one, and the more specific the description, the faster the right plumber can be put on it.
As of 2026, a plumbing quote is built from a small number of concrete things: whether it is a call out at a normal weekday hour or out of hours, how long the work is expected to take, what parts it needs and whether they are standard or have to be sourced, whether a wall, floor or tiled surface must be opened and made good afterwards, and how far the property is from the rest of that day's work. A job that can be diagnosed from a photo is quoted more tightly than one described as "water somewhere under the kitchen", which is the honest reason the form asks for a description and a picture.
Where a fault turns out to be something else once the panel is off, you are told before the work continues, not after. See how it works for the process from first message to finished job.
Free and without obligation.
We reply within one business day, usually much faster.
A plumbing job is normally priced as a call out plus labour, with parts on top, and the call out is the part that does not change whether the work takes twenty minutes or two hours. Out of hours and weekend work costs more than a weekday morning. As of 2026, Handyman Algarve quotes plumbing free and before anyone comes out, so the figure is agreed rather than discovered at the end.
It depends on your supply zone more than most people realise. Where the water is hard, scale shortens the life of mixer taps, shower cartridges and water heaters, and published Algarve figures range from 30 mg/L in Portimão in 2026 to 150 to 170 mg/L in Albufeira surface water zone in 2025. After that come dried out traps in houses left empty, which let drain smells into a bathroom, leaks in pipework chased into solid masonry walls, blocked kitchen wastes, and running toilets that quietly add to the water bill.
Ask three things before agreeing to anything: what the call out costs, whether that figure includes the first hour of work, and whether parts are quoted separately. Ask for it in writing, even a message. A plumber who will not put a call out fee in writing before travelling is the one to avoid, in an emergency more than ever.
Water you cannot stop, no water at all, sewage backing up into the house, and any water running near electrics or into a neighbouring property. Everything else, including a dripping tap or a slow drain, is urgent but not an emergency and is usually cheaper to fix on a normal weekday than as an out of hours callout.
Hard, in most of the region. Mains water here carries a high mineral content, which is why kettles fur up, shower screens film over and cheap mixer taps fail early. It is safe to drink where the supply is municipal, and the practical consequence for plumbing is simply that scale is the thing most likely to end the life of a tap, a valve or a water heater.
What exactly is being replaced, whether the price includes making good if a wall or tile has to be opened, how long the water will be off, and what happens if the fault turns out to be something else once the panel is off. Getting those four answers in writing before the work starts is what prevents an argument at the end of it.