Topic
What to expect when you call a plumber, and how to describe a leak or blockage so the right person comes.
Plumbing in Cyprus homes has a few local features. Many houses and older flats store water in tanks on the roof and heat it with a solar water heater, often with an electric backup element. Pipes run through concrete walls and floors, so a leak can show up as a damp patch some distance from its source. Since July 2024, mains water in most areas has been supplied by the district's District Self-Government Organisation (ΕΟΑ), which took over from the old Water Boards; in some villages the community council still supplies it. Ask whichever supplies yours about a supply cut or a problem at the meter.
Conditions vary around the island. Nicosia's flat roofs carry tanks and solar panels through the hottest summers. Hard water builds up limescale in heaters, taps and shower heads, in Larnaca as in the other cities. Limassol has many apartment blocks where a leak can reach the flat below, and holiday homes in Paphos left empty over winter can hide a slow leak for weeks.
These guides explain what to do in the first minutes of a leak, how a plumber's call-out usually works, and how to describe a leak, a blockage or a solar heater that isn't heating, so the right person comes with the right parts. They also help you tell a plumbing job from an AC job: water running down the wall under an indoor unit is usually a blocked condensate drain, not a pipe.
Written by The Ergo team
Plumbing & water
What to do while you wait for a plumber, how call-out charges usually work, and the questions that avoid surprises on leaks, blockages and solar water heaters.
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