Plumbing in Dénia, Jávea and surroundings

How we install new plumbing

The first step is understanding the starting point: the material of the existing pipework, the pressure coming in, where the stacks are and whether the building has an individual or communal meter. In many pre-1990s flats in Dénia and Gandía we find galvanised iron with the bore narrowed by limescale; there, the decision to replace is an easy one.

Once the strip-out is done, we route the hot and cold lines along the shortest path, chased into the walls or through the suspended ceiling where there is one. We use multilayer pipe in most bathrooms and kitchens (as we did in the complete renovation with two bathrooms in Dénia, with all-new plumbing) and heat-fused PPR for risers and larger homes. We insulate the hot-water pipe so it does not warm the wall and lose heat along the way.

Waste runs are in PVC with the minimum fall each section needs, accessible traps and a rodding point wherever possible. For flush-to-floor shower trays, the drain is chosen to suit the tray (linear, central or corner) and the available depth is checked before anything is fixed.

The concealed tap bodies go in level and at the depth the manufacturer specifies, allowing for the thickness of the tile and the adhesive. A millimetre too far out and the trim plate will not sit; a millimetre too far in and the rosette is sunk into the wall. With that done, we charge the system and carry out the pressure test. Only when it holds do we tile.

At the end, the sanitaryware and visible taps are fitted, the wastes connected and everything sealed. In the bathrooms in Dénia where we only fitted sanitaryware and taps, the holes in the porcelain tiles were drilled with a water-cooled diamond bit so that not a single tile cracked.

Materials and solutions we recommend

• Multilayer pipe with press fittings for internal distribution: it does not corrode, does not scale up, bends without elbows and goes in quickly.
• PPR where there are long hot-water runs or risers serving several floors, for the reliability of the fused joint.
• Wall-hung WC frame with concealed cistern: easy to clean, space gained, and the boxing-in gives you a niche above it, as in the bathroom with a bath in Jávea.
• Thermostatic taps in showers used by children or older people: fixed temperature and no nasty surprises.
• Isolation valves in every bathroom and kitchen, something that almost never exists in older flats and saves you shutting off the water to the whole house.
• Pressure-reducing valve at the inlet when the mains arrives with too much pressure, common in low-lying parts of Dénia and some urbanisations.

If you want to save money, the visible taps and the vanity unit can come from more affordable ranges without affecting the installation. Where we do not cut corners is on the pipework, the fittings and the concealed valve bodies: replacing those later means breaking out the tiling.

Common mistakes we avoid

1. Joining new pipe to an old iron section without the proper adaptor: the galvanic couple corrodes the joint and the leak appears inside the wall.
2. Shower waste with no fall, or a trap too tall for the chosen tray. The result: water that will not drain, or a step nobody wanted.
3. Tiling without a pressure test. If there is a leak, it gets discovered by the stain on the neighbour's ceiling.
4. Concealed valve body set at the wrong depth relative to the tile. The most expensive tap in the catalogue ends up crooked and loose.
5. Forgetting the hot-water return loop in larger houses: minutes waiting for hot water in the furthest bathroom.

Indicative timescales

• Plumbing for one bathroom as part of its renovation: around 3 working days split across two phases (installation and final fitting).
• Kitchen: 1 or 2 days, plus fitting the sink and appliances at the end.
• Replacing the entire network in a 90 m² flat during a complete renovation: 5 to 7 days, coordinated with the building work.
• Villa with several bathrooms and a hot-water cylinder: from two weeks.

Every timescale is adjusted in the itemised quote, and if the renovation is complex we would rather take a few days to work it out properly than give you a figure off the top of our heads.

Plumbing for homes in Dénia, Jávea and Gandía

The water in the Marina Alta and La Safor is hard. Limescale narrows old iron pipes and punishes water heaters, taps and shower heads. That is why we propose materials that do not build up scale and, if you want it, a water softener or at least a filter at the inlet.

In beach apartments that sit closed for months, the traps dry out and the smells come up. Fitting the right traps and a main stopcock reachable from inside the flat avoids an unpleasant welcome when you come back in summer. It is also common to find electric water heaters hanging on terraces with the salt air doing its work; we move them inside or replace them with an aerothermal system when the renovation allows.

In country houses around Pego, Ondara or inland Jávea you find storage tanks, booster pumps and wells. There, the plumbing starts before the stop valve, and it is worth checking the pump set and valves as part of the same renovation.

If you will not be at the property during the work, we send you photos of the installation with the pressure test done before tiling. For any renovation involving plumbing in Dénia, Jávea, Gandía or the surrounding area, tell us what you need and we will look at it on site.