Services

Bricklayers, metalworkers and electricians for the house:

most hiring starts with the building trades. A bricklayer raises block walls, lays floors and plasters; a site foreman runs the crew on a bigger job and answers for the result. The metalworker makes and mends gates and the window grilles over Guatemalan windows, the electrician changes breakers and fits the electric shower, and the plumber clears drains and chases leaks. Someone wanted every day on a fixed schedule is an employee, and that vacancy belongs in jobs. A mixer or scaffolding you would rather own than hire sits in business and industry.

Single runs, house moves and the January rush:

the smallest job is one load, a sofa or a fridge in the back of a pickup; a full move brings a truck, helpers to carry and sometimes wrapping for the furniture. Both are quoted by the trip, and distance, stairs and the number of helpers move the figure. Guatemala’s school year starts in January, so December and January are when families change house, drivers fill up and quotes rise, while a mid-year move is far easier to book. The same calendar drives tutoring: maths and English tutors are busiest before the October finals, and holiday courses fill the long break after them.

Chairs, tables and a marquee for the christening:

party rental is a trade of its own here, bringing plastic or Tiffany chairs, tables, table linen and marquees to the house for a christening, a first communion or a fifteenth-birthday party. Ask whether delivery and setup are included, agree beforehand what a chair returned broken costs, and count the pieces with whoever delivers them and again at collection.

A bricklayer’s day rate against a price per metre:

paying by the day is still how most building work gets settled. A bricklayer earns around Q150 to Q250 a day, more in the capital and Antigua than in the interior, and a labourer about Q100 to Q150, with the site foreman asking more than either. The day rate suits a repair nobody can size in advance, but it rewards a slow week. Once the job can be measured, a price per square metre of wall, floor or plaster puts the slow day on the worker, and one closed price for the whole build only holds when there are plans behind it. Then settle who buys the materials. Buy them yourself and you know what every bag of cement cost; let the foreman buy and ask what is added on top and which brand goes in. A modest advance for materials is normal. Paying for the whole job before it starts is not.

A flat render and a labelled breaker box:

finished work says more about a tradesperson than any logo. Ask for photos of jobs they did themselves and a past client nearby whose wall you can go and see. Lay a straight edge across a rendered wall: it should sit flat, with no hollows for the afternoon light to pick out. A careful electrician leaves the breakers labelled and no taped joins above the false ceiling, and a metalworker’s welds run continuously, with anticorrosive primer under the colour. Get the quote in a message with materials and brand written in, and pay in stages against what you can see built.

Photos of your own gates, and the towns you reach:

an ad for a trade opens with the job in plain words. “Gates and window grilles made to measure, installed” tells a client more than “all kinds of work”. Say whether you charge by the day, the metre or the job, and whether materials are included. Name the places you actually reach, Coatepeque and Malacatán, or Salamá and Rabinal, since whoever writes wants to know if you come that far and what the journey adds. Photograph your own finished work in daylight, and if you rent out party furniture, show it set up. A client in Rabinal who sees a gate you hung recently, with the town written under the photo, has nearly everything needed to call you.