A building services engineering practice in Palma
PROBUILD writes, signs and supervises the installation projects a building or business premises needs in order to operate legally. Installation projects, activity licences, legalisation and self-protection plans, all over Mallorca.
Behind it is a background that isn’t the usual one for an engineering practice, and it’s worth telling because it’s what changes the result.
Where the practice comes from
PROBUILD wasn’t born as an engineering practice. It started in 2018 with a development of our own — two semi-detached houses with a pool — contracted to a builder with the idea of delegating the whole process. It didn’t work out that way: there were delays, invoices nobody had planned for and workmanship below what we wanted to deliver. We had to take the reins, replace the trades that weren’t performing and finish the houses within the original targets.
That led to a few years on the other side: a construction company of our own, hiring trades, paying invoices, arguing over valuations and closing out builds. And that’s where the idea behind today’s practice comes from — that there’s a gap between what’s designed and what gets built, and that gap ends up being paid for on site.
Why installations, and only installations
Today the practice is focused on building services engineering, which is where it comes from and where the work is done with our own judgement rather than someone else’s.
We say so because you’ll notice it as you browse: there are still articles from the previous stage on the blog, about construction management. They’re still useful, which is why we haven’t deleted them, but what you commission here today is engineering.
Who’s behind it
The practice is led by Francesc Orfí, an industrial engineer from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), registered with the COEIB under no. 756. He started out designing installations for hotel chains, spent some years leading data analytics teams outside construction, and came back developing and building his own projects.
Design, systems and site. Three trades that don’t usually come together in the same person, and that mix explains how we work here.
We design the installation knowing what it costs to build and supervise it, because we’ve spent years on the other side, closing out builds.
Very few people in Mallorca can say that. There are practices with more years of regulations behind them; none of them has paid a plumber’s invoice.
How we work
- We don’t sell equipment or build what we design. We don’t distribute any brand and have no agreements with installers. Our only income is the fee.
- A fixed fee, agreed before we start, with corrections included. Never a percentage of the construction cost.
- With a bill of quantities and specification, so you can ask for three comparable quotes instead of three that look nothing alike.
- Regulations with their revision date. Every justification states which version it was checked against. In the Balearics the rules keep moving, and half of what’s out there is out of date.
- We don’t sign what we haven’t seen. An activity project isn’t signed without setting foot in the premises: the engineer who signs answers for the accuracy of the data, and that’s not a turn of phrase, it’s the law.
Work with us
If you’re an engineer, technical engineer or draughtsperson with experience in building services, or a freelance professional in the sector, we’d like to meet you. Also if you have a background in activity licences and permits, which is where we need most hands.
Send your CV and a cover letter to jobs@probuild.es.
We reply to every email we receive. It may take us a while, but if you haven’t heard back after three weeks, write again: it may not have reached us.
Project or technical report? We’ll tell you in one call.