CAVE RENOVATION . . . ELECTRIC AND WATER

If you are considering buying a cave in a state of reform and doing it up yourself, then this section will help you through the process of getting your own water and electric to your property. Some people are put off by the lack of these essential amenities but with a bit of patience and perseverance, you can organise these things yourself and perhaps come away with a bargain as a result

Water installation

The first port of call if you need to arrange a water supply to your property will be the town hall. You will need to pay a small installation fee and they will take relevant information from you for billing purposes and their records. They may also put you in touch with a local plumber to carry out the work.

Once you have made contact with the plumber, it should only take a few days to get things moving.

Our situation was unusual in the fact that, when we applied for our water, there was a more serious problem further up the road which needed fixing urgently. It took, however almost a month to fix the problem and as there was only one plumber working in the village at the time, well we had to wait and a month is a long time without water in August, especially with a small child - luckily we have very good neighbours who helped us out and gave us as much water as we needed.

When your plumber turns up, he will check out where the nearest source is to connect you to and will ask you what ideas you have in the way of where your bathroom and kitchen are likely to be. The first thing to do though is to get water to your door. A JCB will turn up to dig a trench for the water pipes from your cave to the water source. Take care to check with the town hall beforehand if there are any other water pipes under the road or indeed any electrical cables. This is important to avoid any unnecessary problems as our local digger driver (fondly known as 'Rambo') left the whole row of caves without electric for an entire evening as he tackled his job a bit too enthusiastically and ripped the main electric cable up. He checked it was indeed an electric cable by giving it a flick with his fingers before trying a bit of tape round to insulate it while we waited for it to be fixed.

Assuming your trench is dug without any problems the pipe will be laid, connected to the water supply at one end and fitted with a tap-come-meter at the other end. The whole lot will be filled in again and you have your very own water supply. Usually from start to finish the job takes about half a day and is very inexpensive.

If, like us your cave is totally unreformed you need to decide where you want your sinks, bath or shower, loo and washing machine etc. For ease many kitchens and bathrooms are at the front of the cave, this is simply because a trench has to be dug from the bathroom / kitchen out to the mains sewerage line or cesspit. Similarly water pipes need to come from outside to the relevant places inside, so the less distance to travel, the easier it is. We had no choice however because of the layout of the cave and our bathroom is quite far inside so we had a long trench to dig. Once you know where things are going, get your plumber to tell you how to prepare the space which will usually involve digging a shallow trench from the outside to where your fixtures will be and channelling a bit of the wall, so pipes can be buried slightly and you will have a flush finish, to tile over if you wish.

Once you have purchased all your kitchen and bathroom goodies and prepared the ground for your plumber, it is very easy for him to fit pipes and your equipment. Once again, the cost is usually competitive and before you know it you will have a fully working bathroom and/or kitchen. When we first got a fully functioning bath, we were so excited that we filled it straight away and all three of us got in that very afternoon. Never mind the fact that the hot water boiler hadn't arrived and the water was freezing but after such a long time without the luxury of a bath, it was heaven - if not a little cold!

Electric installation

While getting your own water supply and organising a new bathroom is fairly straightforward, if you haven't already got one, organising your own electricity supply can be such a nightmare. We have tried to explain the process as logically as possible based on our own experiences. This process is not just for first time electricity installations, but may well apply if you have very old electrics in your property which need redoing before you can change names or get an upgrade.

I was told on my third day of being here that "Sevillanas Endesa" was the most frustrating of Spanish companies who to top it all off, took the longest summer holidays of the lot! Great news for the new arrival who has to organise an electricity supply. I then did the sensible thing which is, if in doubt, go to the town hall and make enquiries. My reward, I got a €875 bill and was told that the electrician they usually used was really busy and couldn't do anything for months! The huge bill was explained to me as the town hall had some years prior paid for electricity to be taken out to my hamlet and any new installations in the area had to pay a percentage of those costs. This is unique to our area so may not affect everybody. As for the electrician, well we were recommended another who did into the bargain speak a bit of English. We called the said electrician and he explained the process:

1. Your electrician will apply to Sevillanas (Spanish electricity board) for a new installation who will process the request and tell him where the nearest supply is and how best to make the connection.
   
   
2. Decide where plugs and points are going, your electrician will then come in and draw lines all over your walls detailing the best route for your cables to take.
   
   
3. Then the fun begins, you have to channel out along all of these lines creating enough room for an insulated tube to fit into. This tube will carry all the necessary wires needed to connect plugs, lights, switches and sockets. How you do the channelling is left up to you, we opted for an angle grinder to go along and get straight lines, followed by a hammer and chisel to get the desired channel in between. Such is the rock in our cave, that we had whole sections of wall fall away whilst we were doing this, annoyingly it always seemed to happen when we were on the last few inches of that particular section.
   
   
4. Once that is done, you will be asked to insert the conduit into these spaces along with any backs of plugs or switches you have been given. At this point your electrician will usually explain all the technicalities, for example depending if you are connecting a boiler or a light, a different sized bit of conduit will be needed etc.
   
   
5. We had what seemed like miles and miles of conduit piled up around the place. As it comes in a big roll, unravelling it can be a lot of fun - we often ended up with more wrapped round ourselves than left on the floor, it really is like large black spaghetti. Our electrician charged us a set amount for each light and switch, double or single socket. All materials were given and included in the price. The best and only way to stick your conduit into your channel is using "yeso rapido" - fast setting plaster. After much trial and error and emptying whole buckets of solid plaster, we discovered the best way to do this is to mix a small amount up at a time, put the conduit in place, chuck a blob of plaster on, hold it in place until is seems reasonably secure, then move along a bit and do the same until you have a length of conduit held in place by various blobs of plaster along the way. Once in place, you can cover the whole lot in more yeso and smooth it off so it blends into your walls again.
   
   
6. Similarly for your sockets and switches, once you have a hole made for them, stick them in place with a bit of yeso and once secure you can tidy it up afterwards. Always remember to feed a few inches of conduit through the holes in the side of the socket/switch to allow your cable to go through right to the middle.
   
   
7. Once the conduit and switches are secure, your electrician will come and pull the wires and connect them up. In some places we had up to ten different wires squeezed through the conduit. Some electricians are happy for you to pull wires through and connect yourself while others will want to do the whole thing themselves. This is worth bearing in mind before you employ an electrician as it can have a huge effect on price.
   
   
8. Once satisfied and the fuse box in installed (very similar to the above process but a bigger hole and bigger conduit!) The electrician will draw a plan of your electrics and send it to Sevillanas for approval and the all important stamp. You will also probably put in an earth rod at this point too.
   
   
9. It is then time to move onto the outside. You will have to cut out a hole in the front of your cave for the electric meter to go into along with another channel to connect wires from your electric meter to the fuse box.
   
   
10. If your supply comes from a pole or pylon, then Sevillanas will take a wire from the source and feed it into the electric meter. If, like us your supply is underground then there are more trenches to be dug. Ask permission from the town hall before you arrange any trenches to be dug on public roads, they may charge you for the privilege or just ask you to return the road or track to its original state - which for us was not really a problem as the dirt track was full of ruts and holes anyway! Things to remember when putting wires and tubes into your trench: order half a lorry of sand as you will have to line your trench with sand and then put more sand on top of the conduit. This is to protect the conduit from the soil; it will eat away at the plastic eventually!
    
    
11. Once all the wires are in place and connected up your electrician will have got your certificate back from Sevillanas. You will then need to go back to the town hall and get a certificate of 1st installation from the town hall (certificado de la primera instalacion).
    
    
12. Take all of this information along with a photocopy of your passport and escritura in some cases and Sevillanas will fill out a form so you can be billed. You will also be asked what supply you want we opted for the minimum which is 3.3 but you can get up to 5.5 on a normal licence. We find that with 3.3 we can have the computer, TV lights, boiler, washing machine, fridge etc on at the same time. However if you have electric heaters or a lot of other electrical appliances it may be worth opting for a larger supply to avoid blow outs.
    
    
13. Once satisfied, an engineer will come out and "turn you on!" A fantastic moment if, like us it takes 6 months of living with candles, torches, firelight and a generator which we filled by candle light halfway through a DVD, before you get connected!
    
    
14. Once connected and fully legal, then you can add points and plugs as you see fit and as your cave grows including outside lighting etc.

If you plan to take on the installation of water and electric by yourself, then this is intended as a guide to help you through the process. We always recommend that you use a fully qualified, registered plumber and electrician.