Stone cistern and its catchment channels at an old Mallorcan finca on a dry stony plateau

Renovation in Llucmajor

The plateau is high, dry and stony, and the old buildings on it were designed around collecting and keeping water. Any renovation up here has to answer the same question the original builders did, and it is usually the largest item that is not the house.

Mouth of an old stone cistern at a Mallorcan finca with a new pump and pressure vessel by it

Where the water comes from, and where it is kept

Traditional buildings here caught rain off the roof and stored it, and the cistern was as much a part of the house as the kitchen. Many of those cisterns are still there, still watertight, and still capable of doing the job if anybody bothers to look at them. Rediscovering one is frequently cheaper than the modern alternative.

What a renovated house needs is more than the original one did, though. Showers, a machine or two and irrigation use water at a rate a nineteenth-century household did not, so supply, storage volume and pressure all have to be sized for how the house will actually be used rather than for how it was.

It is worth pricing as its own project. Where the supply comes from, how much is stored, what treatment it needs, and what pressurises it are four separate decisions, and they interact with the building work only at the point where pipes go in walls. Owners who treat it as a footnote to the renovation usually meet it again as a surprise.

What the water question actually contains

  • Where supply comes from, and whether more than one source exists
  • Existing cisterns, and whether they are sound and worth reusing
  • Roof catchment, and what the roof covering does to what it collects
  • Storage volume sized for how the house will be used, not how it was
  • Pressure, and the plant needed to provide it across a spread plan
  • Treatment and filtration appropriate to the source
  • Waste treatment, which is a separate question from supply
  • Irrigation, which usually uses more than the household does
  • Pipework runs across a large single-storey plan
  • Somewhere to put the plant, which needs deciding early

Most asked for on the plateau

Finca renovation

Rural property, and everything that is not the building.

Complete refurbishment

Where the services are being put in properly for the first time.

General builders

Mixed work on stone buildings and the structures around them.

Nearby areas

Campos

Low, wide farmhouses on open land, with the nearest services a long way off.

Palma

Flats and town houses behind a facade nobody may widen, down streets a lorry will not enter.

Santanyí

Golden marès, quarried close by and used for very nearly everything.

How your request reaches a company

Mallorca Renovation is a comparison service. A request for a renovation on the plateau goes to the renovation and building companies on our list; they quote the work and carry it out, and any agreement is between you and the company you pick.

  1. 01

    Describe the job

    Tell us the property, roughly what you want and where it is. Photographs and a rough plan help, though neither is required.

  2. 02

    We match it

    The request goes to companies that work in your area and take on this kind of job at this size.

  3. 03

    They quote you

    Each company contacts you directly with its own price, timing and approach. We do not set any of it.

  4. 04

    You compare and choose

    Put the quotes side by side and take the one you want, or none of them. Using the site costs you nothing.

Is an old cistern worth restoring?

Frequently yes, and it is worth having looked at before anything new is bought. Many are structurally sound and only need cleaning and a sensible connection, which costs far less than the equivalent new storage.

How much storage does a house need?

More than the original building had, because a modern household uses water differently. It is sized from how the house will be used, including any irrigation, and that is a calculation worth doing rather than estimating.

Should water be sorted before the building work?

Decided before, at least. It affects where plant goes, where pipes run and what the budget actually is, and all three are cheap to arrange at the start and awkward to retrofit into a finished house.

Get quotes with the water priced properly

Describe the property and its supply, and let several companies price the same scope.

Mallorca Renovation