Frequently Asked Questions About Building Work in North Cyprus

Yes, and it is one of the main reasons foreign owners come to us. You are never agreeing to a scope of work you have only half understood, and you do not need to find someone to explain a problem back to us six months later. We work in Turkish as well, so suppliers and anything local sit with us rather than with you.

Always, and it is a document rather than a figure in a message. It names the system we intend to use, not just the word waterproofing, so it can be compared with another firm's price on the same basis. It also gives the duration and the payment terms. Query anything in it before you agree to it rather than afterwards.

The survey is free and there is no call-out charge anywhere we cover. Having us look costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. If we think the job is smaller than you feared, or that the cause is something other than what you called about, we will say so at that point rather than after the scaffolding is up.

Yes. We survey the property, send the quotation wherever you are and agree the scope by email or phone before anything starts. Photographs follow as each stage is completed, so the job is documented rather than described. If you fly in twice a year, the work happens between the visits instead of during them.

A written quotation with the scope and the system named in it, a company that will still be trading when the guarantee is called on, and someone you can hold a conversation with in your own language. If a price is only ever given verbally, there is nothing to hold anyone to.

There is no useful rate per square metre, which is why we will not give one over the phone. The price turns on how much of the existing build-up has to come off, whether the falls run to the outlet or away from it, and how many details the membrane has to be dressed around. Two terraces of the same size can differ substantially on that basis alone.

The quotation states what is included. The one thing that can move a waterproofing price is what we find when the old covering comes off — a saturated screed, or falls running away from the outlet. If that happens we stop, tell you what has been found and price the extra work before carrying on.

Waterproofing we install carries a 5-year workmanship guarantee. The materials carry the manufacturer's own warranty on top of that, which is a separate thing and worth understanding: a material warranty is no help to you if the installation is what failed. We have been at the same address in Alsancak since 1999, which is what decides whether a guarantee means anything.

You call us and we come back and put it right. That is what a workmanship guarantee is for. It covers our installation; it does not cover a membrane later cut into by another trade, or damage from alterations made after we finished.

The whole of the north. We are in Alsancak, so the Kyrenia coastal strip is where most of our work is — Lapta, Karaoğlanoğlu, Karşıyaka, Çatalköy, Esentepe, Ozanköy and Bellapais — and we also work in Nicosia, Famagusta, İskele, Boğaz and Güzelyurt. There is no call-out charge for the survey wherever you are.

We walk the property with you and look at the affected area and at the places water is most likely to be getting in: the falls, the outlets, the parapets, the pipe penetrations and the junction between balcony and wall. We tell you what we think is happening, and the quotation follows in writing.

Age is not much of a guide. What decides how long a roof or terrace lasts is the number and thickness of the membrane layers, whether the falls genuinely take water to the outlet, and how carefully the membrane was dressed into the parapets and around the pipes. Where those were rushed, two winters pass and the third one finds it.

Sometimes, if the membrane is otherwise sound and the failure is at a single detail. Often not: a roof that leaks only in heavy rain is usually one where water stands instead of draining, and patching the point it comes through does not stop it standing. The survey tells you which of the two you have.

Not always. Where the existing layer is sound and well bonded, a new system can go over it. Where it is blistered or split, or there is water trapped underneath, covering it over only hides the problem and the new work fails from below. We tell you which case you are in before we quote.

Yes. Elastic systems can be applied over sound ceramic surfaces, which avoids stripping the terrace out and re-laying it. We have used this approach on hotel terraces in Kyrenia. Whether it suits yours depends on the condition of the tiling and what sits underneath it.

Yes, but the work is on the balcony above, not on your ceiling. Sealing or repainting from below hides it for a season at most. The repair is normally under-screed waterproofing on the balcony above, carried up the wall at the junction, with the falls corrected so water reaches the outlet.

Yes. Raft foundation and retaining wall waterproofing is a large part of what we do on new developments, and we also deal with it on existing buildings where ground moisture is coming through below ground level.

Evaporation here is real but steady, and it does not come and go. A level that keeps dropping faster than that, wet ground around the surround, or cracking in the render or tiling all point at the shell rather than the weather. We look at the structure and at the pipe penetrations to establish which it is.

It may be, or it may be condensation. Water tracking in through a wall and moisture condensing on a cold internal surface look similar and need entirely different work. Establishing which one you have decides whether the answer is waterproofing, insulation or ventilation, and it is worth doing before spending anything.

No. Paint over a damp wall lifts again, usually within a season, and the mould comes back through it. The patch is a symptom. Until the water is stopped where it is getting in, redecorating is a cost you will simply repeat.

It does not create a leak, but it makes the consequences worse. A closed, unventilated property holds moisture through the winter, so a small amount of ingress turns into mould and the musty smell that greets you on the way in. It also means nobody notices a leak for months.

Between late spring and early autumn. A membrane will not bond to a damp deck, so once the rains have set in the work waits for a genuinely dry spell, and those get shorter as the winter goes on. The practical consequence is that a leak appearing in November may have to wait for a dry window before a permanent repair can go down.

It depends on the area and on how much has to come off before the new work goes down. The written quotation gives the expected duration for your job before you commit to it, and if weather or a delivery moves the dates you hear it from us rather than working it out yourself.

For external work — roofs, terraces, balconies and facades — usually yes. Internal work is more disruptive: a bathroom being tanked and re-tiled is out of use for the duration. We set out what to expect at the quotation stage rather than on the first morning.

No. Alongside residential developments and hotels, a large part of our work is private villas and apartments for individual owners. A single leaking balcony is a job we will come out and survey.