Builder in Santa Pola and Guardamar
Two coastal towns, one shared issue: salt, wind and sand take their toll on façades, pools and anything made of metal. Done properly, it still lasts for many years — that's what I work on.
What I do in Santa Pola & Guardamar
Santa Pola and Guardamar are both very exposed, and you can see it on the houses. In Guardamar a whole pine forest was planted into the dunes more than a hundred years ago, because the drifting sand was threatening to swallow the town — the forest is still standing today, and so are the sand and the wind. Santa Pola sits between the fishing harbour, the salt pans and the cape, with Tabarca offshore and Gran Alacant up on the hill in the wind.
For my trade that means: whatever is out in the open here ages faster. Façades and walls, pool edges, joints, roller shutters, railings, window fittings. Not because it was badly built, but because salt and sand work away at it every summer. The mistake I see most often here is still self-inflicted: painting over instead of preparing properly. After one winter the crack is back.
It takes me about twenty minutes to Guardamar and about forty to Santa Pola. For larger outdoor projects I stay on site for several days at a stretch with my fully equipped camper — that saves travelling back and forth and gets the work finished faster than a team that has to arrive fresh every morning.
What's different in Santa Pola & Guardamar
Guardamar: dunes, pines, sand
The sand doesn't stop at the property line. It sits in joints, tracks and roller shutter boxes and acts like fine sandpaper. That's how I choose surfaces, seals and fittings here — and terraces get a build-up that can be cleaned rather than one that clogs up.
Santa Pola: harbour, salt pans, cape
Between the sea and the salt pans, the air is permanently salty. Metal rusts from the inside, render sands off, paint chalks. With cracks properly opened up, the right primer and coast-proof materials, a façade here lasts considerably longer than many people think.
Villas, chalets, Gran Alacant
Unlike in the city, these are often detached houses with their own pool, garden and plenty of outdoor space — and in Gran Alacant a wind exposure that puts real strain on privacy screens, awnings and fences. Out here the outdoor area is the main job.
What I deal with most often in Santa Pola & Guardamar
- Façade repairs: opening up cracks, rendering, coastal-grade painting
- Re-waterproofing and re-tiling pools, renewing coping and pool surround
- Terraces in travertine or natural stone, non-slip and easy to look after
- Repairing walls, boundary enclosures and fences against wind and salt
- Complete refits of bathrooms and interiors in holiday homes
- Neatly reinstating roller shutters and window and door junctions
My services in Santa Pola & Guardamar
Façades
The key issue on this coast: the substrate and the material decide the outcome, not the colour.
Find out morePool & outdoor areas
Pool shell and coping in an exposed position — the waterproofing and the joints are the weak points here.
Find out moreBathroom renovation
Holiday homes with bathrooms still original to the build, stripped right back and rebuilt.
Find out moreRenovation & refurbishment
Bringing the interiors of chalets and villas back up to standard, often just after purchase.
Find out moreThe jobs that come up here
All photos are from my own projects on the Costa Blanca — drag the slider.
Wall repairs & rendering
Cracked, damp wall repaired, freshly rendered and painted — with a clean finish up to the roof edge.
To the service
After
Pool refurbishment — completely retiled
Flaking coating, porous steps: the pool was completely refurbished, waterproofed and re-tiled with new mosaic.
To the service
After
Shall I come and have a look at it for you?
Send me 2–3 photos from your phone and a couple of lines — you'll get an honest first assessment, usually within 15 minutes.
In Santa Pola & Guardamar you'll find me working here, among other places
Santa Pola Zentrum & Hafen · Gran Alacant · Playa Lisa · Santa Pola del Este · Guardamar Zentrum · El Moncayo · Urbanización Campomar · Playa de los Tusales
What owners in Santa Pola & Guardamar ask me
Why does everything wear out faster here than inland?
Because three things come together: salty air, a great deal of UV and, in Guardamar, fine sand on top of that. Salt creeps into pores and keeps working away in there, sand abrades surfaces and mechanical parts. That's no reason to give up — it just means that here, surface preparation and the choice of materials decide how long something lasts, not the coating itself.
My façade was painted two years ago and already looks bad again.
I hear that a lot on this coast, and the cause is nearly always the same: it was painted, but not prepared. Loose render has to come off, cracks have to be opened up and filled, and the substrate needs the right primer. Only then will the paint hold. At the survey I'll tell you straight whether patching up is enough or whether the whole surface has to be built up again.
Does it even make sense to refurbish a pool this close to the sea?
Yes — you just have to know where the weak points are. Close to the coast these are the waterproofing, the joints and the transition from the pool shell to the surround, because that's where salt and moisture attack together. If that is built up properly, a pool lasts just as long here as it does further inland.
We're in Gran Alacant, where it's very windy. What do you need to bear in mind?
To the fixings, more than to the material. Privacy screens, awnings, fences and pergolas only last out there if the anchoring is right and the wind can pass through or be deflected, instead of finding a surface to pull at. I tend to build these more solidly than they need to look — anything less catches up with you in winter.
You're based in La Zenia — is the journey even worth it for you?
Guardamar is about twenty minutes away, that's everyday work for me. Santa Pola is around forty, and there I mainly take on jobs that run over several days — façades, pools, outdoor areas, complete bathrooms. On bigger projects I park the camper right on site and work straight through, rather than driving there and back twice a day.
I also work here
Torrevieja
Renovations, bathrooms, façades and pools in Torrevieja — from a German builder who lives a few kilometres up the road and speaks your language.
To the local pageAlicante
Flat renovation in town: older properties in the centre, upper-floor flats at Playa de San Juan — with a tradesman who plans with you in German and keeps the site under control.
To the local page