anyone worked out in spain?
- Thread starter floats
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Fatarm
Trainee mod
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floats
New Member
A.plasterer
Private Member
Hola, where you at over here? Or just a passing thought? Takes time to become established and don't rely solely on plastering or you'll be going hungry.
I'm on the Costa del sol so southern tip looking out to North Africa , you can get multi here €11 a bag.
It's all metal stud here or placas plaster slabs they put up with jute grass.
If your any good it would be hard to go wrong but as said if is your only skill you may struggle especially starting out.
Best if you have enough dosh to rent and see how you go picking up work, when s**t hits the fan it gets desperate I survived through 2008 crash but I'd established myself and plenty of contacts .
Doubtful you would get on site here or want to , maybe Gibraltar an option work there and live this side of border (is cheaper) most do that.
Prob not ever gonna earn what you can back in uk but is better lifestyle for sure. You can but try many fail but I and plenty more are testament that it can work is with all things down to you.
P.s. Loads of champagne Charlie's down here talk is cheap and I would be a millionaire if all that was promised was true.
I'm on the Costa del sol so southern tip looking out to North Africa , you can get multi here €11 a bag.
It's all metal stud here or placas plaster slabs they put up with jute grass.
If your any good it would be hard to go wrong but as said if is your only skill you may struggle especially starting out.
Best if you have enough dosh to rent and see how you go picking up work, when s**t hits the fan it gets desperate I survived through 2008 crash but I'd established myself and plenty of contacts .
Doubtful you would get on site here or want to , maybe Gibraltar an option work there and live this side of border (is cheaper) most do that.
Prob not ever gonna earn what you can back in uk but is better lifestyle for sure. You can but try many fail but I and plenty more are testament that it can work is with all things down to you.
P.s. Loads of champagne Charlie's down here talk is cheap and I would be a millionaire if all that was promised was true.
A.plasterer
Private Member
P.s are you anything to do with river dance 
mr flatley
mr flatley
A.plasterer
Private Member
Squarehead
Well-Known Member
You watched the news lately floats?
A.plasterer
Private Member
A.plasterer
Private Member
They do have a vacancy at benidorm zoo however.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/female-zoo-worker-mauled-death-8335727
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/female-zoo-worker-mauled-death-8335727
CTPlastering
Well-Known Member
PlasterCraftDundee
Well-Known Member
I worked out in Spain once, lifted a few weights and done a few miles on exercise bike. Was far too hot and I dehydrated, wouldn't recommend it.
floats
New Member
was thinking malaga/benidorm? in a couple of week for 10 days with the missus.was 2nd guessing it today while skimming a loft out an it was goin off like a t**t in the heat! would prefer contract eork if i could get it any advice welcome cos it seems a long shot,cheers
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A.plasterer
Private Member
It's a long shot.
john simpson
Well-Known Member
I worked out there for a good few years.
everything A.Plasterer says is right , its not easy and you have numerous hurdles to overcome.
Nice lifestyle though if you make it work , in my case i did lots of jobs and plastering was a nice one for extra dosh when you got it.
Takes a while to get used to the heat but not as bad as you would think , depending on the wind direction.
Work is pretty much the same and pays well if you live in Spain and work for sterling in Gib ( well was in the peseta glory days)
Personality goes a long way , loads of work i got was from making mates in the local bars and letting everyone know i was a plasterer.
There were a few construction companies when i was there but forget the names , they would be in Biancas with the work logo gear on , seemed a bit grim to me , more labouring doing roadworks and stuff.
Wouldnt put you off but you wont be landing there and on the tools just like that , but likewise i turned up with about 50 quid and a pregnant girlfriend and we ended up with a great life with our daughter there.
Its not impossible , good luck
everything A.Plasterer says is right , its not easy and you have numerous hurdles to overcome.
Nice lifestyle though if you make it work , in my case i did lots of jobs and plastering was a nice one for extra dosh when you got it.
Takes a while to get used to the heat but not as bad as you would think , depending on the wind direction.
Work is pretty much the same and pays well if you live in Spain and work for sterling in Gib ( well was in the peseta glory days)
Personality goes a long way , loads of work i got was from making mates in the local bars and letting everyone know i was a plasterer.
There were a few construction companies when i was there but forget the names , they would be in Biancas with the work logo gear on , seemed a bit grim to me , more labouring doing roadworks and stuff.
Wouldnt put you off but you wont be landing there and on the tools just like that , but likewise i turned up with about 50 quid and a pregnant girlfriend and we ended up with a great life with our daughter there.
Its not impossible , good luck
BigBruvOfEnglandUK
Private Member
As has been said above, you would probably need to be able to turn your hand to other construction work or even non construction work to tide yourself over.
I'm actually a bricklayer by trade but I can plaster and render. Here in Ibiza if you build a wall you are also expected to be able to plaster or render it and and also tile or paint it. I have also done a lot of digger work and groundwork back in England and a little bit of tiling (Which I hate btw, lol) so all of that helped when I got here. There's tiles everywhere here so it will probably help if you at least know the basics of tiling.
The building work in Ibiza is very seasonal. I have to work like f**k in Autumn, Winter and Spring because building work really dies down in Ibiza in the Summer. I imagine the mainland is the same?
You get work by putting your face about. If you work for another builder you might only get €8-12 an hour, especially if you only just got here. You probably need to aim for working for yourself eventually and even then the money isn't great but I enjoy life much more here than I did in the UK. On day work I can only charge about €20 an hour for myself which would be less than I would get in England. I had to get a labourer so I could earn an extra fiver an hour for myself so that wasn't so bad and eventually I got a lot more work in so I got some more lads in and was also subbing some stuff out. Getting paid here can be a real pain in the arse because a lot of the customers live in the UK so it's not so easy to chase them up and sometimes they don't want to pay up until they are back down here to inspect the work.
Brits that own houses here, need to get something done on their house every year even if it's just some painting (Nearly all exteriors here are painted). They don't want the hassle of trying to find a new builder every year because it's not so easy to do so here as it is in the UK. Spain is crawling with cowboys so a lot of people are looking for somebody trustworthy because they have had the piss taken out of them too many times. If you do a good job at a reasonable price, the customer is very unlikely to look for another builder next year when they want more work doing. After a while you build up a regular customer base and then hopefully you end up with too much work.
I'm actually a bricklayer by trade but I can plaster and render. Here in Ibiza if you build a wall you are also expected to be able to plaster or render it and and also tile or paint it. I have also done a lot of digger work and groundwork back in England and a little bit of tiling (Which I hate btw, lol) so all of that helped when I got here. There's tiles everywhere here so it will probably help if you at least know the basics of tiling.
The building work in Ibiza is very seasonal. I have to work like f**k in Autumn, Winter and Spring because building work really dies down in Ibiza in the Summer. I imagine the mainland is the same?
You get work by putting your face about. If you work for another builder you might only get €8-12 an hour, especially if you only just got here. You probably need to aim for working for yourself eventually and even then the money isn't great but I enjoy life much more here than I did in the UK. On day work I can only charge about €20 an hour for myself which would be less than I would get in England. I had to get a labourer so I could earn an extra fiver an hour for myself so that wasn't so bad and eventually I got a lot more work in so I got some more lads in and was also subbing some stuff out. Getting paid here can be a real pain in the arse because a lot of the customers live in the UK so it's not so easy to chase them up and sometimes they don't want to pay up until they are back down here to inspect the work.
Brits that own houses here, need to get something done on their house every year even if it's just some painting (Nearly all exteriors here are painted). They don't want the hassle of trying to find a new builder every year because it's not so easy to do so here as it is in the UK. Spain is crawling with cowboys so a lot of people are looking for somebody trustworthy because they have had the piss taken out of them too many times. If you do a good job at a reasonable price, the customer is very unlikely to look for another builder next year when they want more work doing. After a while you build up a regular customer base and then hopefully you end up with too much work.
floats
New Member
cheers for the advise.ive done a fair bit of roofing.bits of tilling on jobs nothing major built smsll walls out of block/bricked up door ways put lintels in built pillars mucked in doin most jobs too be honest so i dont mind.going to go out there in 3 weeks wiegh it up save a few quid an give it a crack! missus is coming over she picks up work in bars so she can ask about too.ill do abit of labouring for a while not fussed prob end up getting bitter on pay like whats that?as long as i can eat ill be right.whats rent like on a one bed?.ill have no van or tools like ill have to put my biard an trowel in my luggage probly have to labour at first..keep up with the advise appreciate it
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BigBruvOfEnglandUK
Private Member
You would be lucky to find building work at this time of the year. August is even worse. Just about every builder in Spain will be having August off. You might find contacts in the ex-pat bars for work starting in the Autumn. Mind you there is always big talk of jobs that will start in September but then never get going until Spring so you really can't bank on anything. The way a lot of owners see it is there isn't much point doing improvements in September on a house that isn't going to get rented out until late May so some of them put it off until the last minute.
I don't rent so I'm not really the person to ask about that. I am told that rents in Ibiza are very expensive this year though. I have heard that a lot of the seasonal workers from the mainland went back because it has got too expensive. Mind you, Ibiza and Marbella are the most expensive places to live.
Short term rents are probably going to be expensive anywhere near the coast at this time of year.
You might be better off waiting until early next year before heading down. Also bring a car or preferably a van. You can't register right hand drive vans down here though so you only have something like 3 months before it becomes illegal. Cars you can register here though. I had a Spanish, transit tipper. I was sometimes picking up or disposing of materials for other builders or moving furniture for people and I often ended up getting building work later on from those same people. Transport really wasn't what I wanted to do but it helped to get me established here.
I don't rent so I'm not really the person to ask about that. I am told that rents in Ibiza are very expensive this year though. I have heard that a lot of the seasonal workers from the mainland went back because it has got too expensive. Mind you, Ibiza and Marbella are the most expensive places to live.
Short term rents are probably going to be expensive anywhere near the coast at this time of year.
You might be better off waiting until early next year before heading down. Also bring a car or preferably a van. You can't register right hand drive vans down here though so you only have something like 3 months before it becomes illegal. Cars you can register here though. I had a Spanish, transit tipper. I was sometimes picking up or disposing of materials for other builders or moving furniture for people and I often ended up getting building work later on from those same people. Transport really wasn't what I wanted to do but it helped to get me established here.