Plumber and renovations in Granadilla de Abona and El Médano

There is a factor here that does not exist elsewhere in the region: the wind. In El Médano and Los Abrigos the rain does not fall, it arrives sideways. The water ingress we get called out to diagnose often has nothing to do with a pipe: it is a badly sealed window frame, a failed joint or a flat roof whose waterproofing has been lifted by sand and sun.

That is exactly the distinction worth making before spending money: if the stain is a leak, the installation gets repaired; if it is coming in from outside, it gets sealed, waterproofed or the joint replaced. We say which it is with the evidence in front of us, not on a hunch.

San Isidro is the most populated part of the municipality and the one with most flats: blocks, rentals and communities, where the usual problems are soil stacks, recurring blockages and water coming through between floors. In the town of Granadilla and Charco del Pino, by contrast, traditional housing with tanks, flat roofs and old pipework.

• Diagnosing damp: telling a plumbing leak, external water ingress and condensation apart. Drains and damp
• Flat roofs and sealing after episodes of wind and rain.
• Recurring blockages in the blocks of San Isidro, with camera inspection.
• Bathroom and kitchen refurbishment in main homes and in El Médano holiday lets.

What changes with the season

Here the wind rules. In El Médano and Los Abrigos the strong episodes always leave the same trail of calls: water that has come in where it never came in before, because the rain did not fall — it hit sideways against a window frame or a joint that had held for years.

What we check first in this area. Window frames and joints on the windward side, where the sealant dries out first from sun and sand. Flat roofs: the membrane lifts at the edges and the water finds its way in around the perimeter, not through the middle. Drains and gutters full of sand, which turn a terrace into a two-centimetre pool. And in San Isidro, with its blocks of flats, the recurring soil stack blockages: when water drains slowly in two flats at once, the problem is no longer anyone's in particular — it belongs to the community.

Checking seals and drains before autumn costs a fraction of rebuilding a ceiling in January.