Who to Call for Home Repairs in Delhi NCR: Match the Problem to the Trade

The map: which trade fixes what

Find your symptom in the left column. The middle column is the trade that owns it. The right column is the one-line reason — and where two trades overlap, it tells you which way to look first. Every linked problem has a full guide behind it.

The notes below unpack the rows where two trades genuinely overlap — the ones worth reading before you call.

Damp wall or seepage: a waterproofer, not a painter

This is the single most expensive wrong call in the list, because the wrong trade appears to fix it. A painter can scrape the damp patch, apply a coat, and leave you with a wall that looks perfect — for a few weeks. Then the stain bleeds back through, because the water was never coming from the paint. It was coming from behind it.

Seepage is a plumbing-and-waterproofing problem wearing a painting disguise. The job is to find and stop the source of the water, and only then repair the surface. Skip the first half and you are painting the same patch every monsoon.

Before you call, do a two-minute triage on where the water is coming from — it changes who you need:

• A patch on a wall that shares a side with a bathroom — often a leaking concealed pipe or a failed floor seal next door. That is a plumber first, to find the leak, then waterproofing.
• Damp along the ceiling of a top-floor room, worse after rain — that points up, to the roof. A terrace waterproofing job, not a wall job.
• Damp low on an outside wall, rising from the floor — external ingress or rising damp; a waterproofer assesses it.

The wall seepage and waterproofing guide walks through diagnosing the source, and if you are timing the work, the best time to paint and waterproof in Delhi guide explains why doing this mid-monsoon rarely holds. The one rule: fix the water, then fix the wall. Never the other way round.

Geyser not heating: electrician or plumber?

A water heater sits exactly on the seam between two trades — it is an electrical appliance full of water — so it is one of the most common "who do I call?" questions in a Delhi winter. The answer depends entirely on what the geyser is actually doing wrong, and you can usually tell in a minute.

• Water runs, but it is cold or lukewarm — no leaks. This is almost always electrical: a burnt heating element, a failed thermostat, or a tripped MCB on the geyser circuit. Call an electrician (or appliance technician).
• Water is dripping from the unit, the wall below is wet, or the tank overflows. That is a plumbing fault — a failed valve, a leaking connection, a pressure problem. Call a plumber.
• The geyser trips the MCB the moment you switch it on. Electrical — very often a leaking element shorting to earth. Electrician, and do not keep resetting it.
• You are installing a new geyser, or moving one. That needs both a mounting-and-pipe job and a power connection — a geyser installation covers who does what.

The quick test: is it a heat problem or a water problem? No heat and no leak means electrical. Any leak means plumbing. The geyser not heating guide goes symptom by symptom if yours does not fit neatly into one box.

No water from the tap: pump, plumber, or the municipality?

"No water" feels like a plumbing problem, but calling a plumber first is often the wrong move — the plumber arrives, finds nothing wrong with your pipes, and charges a visiting fee for the trip. Spend two minutes narrowing it down first:

• The whole building has no water. Then it is not your pipes. It is the municipal supply, an empty underground tank, or a common motor for the building. This is a supply problem, not a repair.
• You have an overhead tank and the motor is silent or just humming. That is the water pump or its electrics — an electrician or pump technician. A humming motor that will not turn is a classic electrical symptom, not a plumbing one.
• Water comes, but only a dribble, from one or a few taps. Now it is plumbing: a choked aerator, a partly closed valve, or a supply-line issue. The low water pressure guide covers the usual causes.
• The tank looks dirty or the water smells. That is a water tank cleaning job, separate from any repair.

The order that saves you a wasted call: check if others in the building have water, then look at the motor, then think about the pipes. Most "no water" panics resolve before a plumber is even needed.

AC not cooling: an AC technician, not "an electrician"

An air conditioner has wiring in it, so people reach for an electrician. That is usually the wrong trade. A split or window AC is a refrigeration appliance — its cooling depends on gas pressure, clean coils, a healthy compressor and clear airflow, none of which a general house electrician works on. The right call is an AC technician.

• Running but not cooling — dirty filter or coil, low gas, or a compressor issue. The AC not cooling guide sorts the common causes, and note that "needs gas" is over-diagnosed — a sealed AC does not consume refrigerant, so if it is genuinely low it has a leak.
• Cooling weakly and it has been a while — often just due a service. See how often to service an AC in Delhi.
• Leaking water from the indoor unit — a blocked drain pipe, an AC-technician job, not a plumber.
• Making noise — fan, blower or compressor; still the AC technician.
• Completely dead, no lights, no response — this one can be electrical: check whether the AC's own MCB or plug point has power before you assume the unit has failed.

Installing or moving a unit is its own job — see AC installation and uninstallation. The rule: a cooling problem is an AC technician; only a no-power-at-all problem might be an electrician.

Sparks, tripping, warm switches: an electrician, promptly

Some problems are unambiguous, and this is one — but people delay on it because the house is still "working". Anything on the electrical system itself is an electrician, and unlike a sagging door, a sparking socket is not a job to sit on.

• A switch or socket that sparks, buzzes, or feels warm. A warm switch plate means a loose or overloaded connection heating up inside the wall. Electrician, soon.
• An MCB that keeps tripping. The breaker is doing its job — something is drawing too much current or there is a fault. The answer is finding the cause, never fitting a bigger MCB.
• Lights flickering, or a fan running slow. Could be the fitting, the regulator, or a wiring issue — an electrician traces it.
• Frequent tripping, browning walls near switches, or very old wiring. These are the signs house wiring needs replacing — worth an assessment rather than another patch.
• Bills climbing for no obvious reason. Sometimes a wiring or appliance fault; the reduce your electricity bill guide separates the fixable causes from the habits.

Bigger electrical jobs have their own trades too — an inverter and battery install or a CCTV installation is planned work, not an emergency call. For the general run of faults, the electrician charges guide covers what typical jobs involve.

Drains, RO, and the water appliances

Water throws up its own set of "is this a plumber?" questions, and the answer is often a more specific trade.

• A blocked drain, choked sink, or slow floor trap. Plumber. If it re-blocks quickly, the problem is deeper in the line, not at the opening.
• The RO has stopped, drips constantly, or the water tastes off. An RO technician, not a plumber — purifiers run on membranes and filters a general plumber does not stock. Routine care is in when to change the RO filter and RO service cost and TDS; if you are choosing a new one, RO vs UV helps.
• The washing machine will not drain or is making noise. An appliance technician — the drain pump and bearings are inside the machine, not in your plumbing. General repair scope is in the washing machine repair guide.
• Kitchen chimney greasy or weak. A chimney-cleaning or appliance job, separate from plumbing entirely.

The pattern: if the water problem is inside a machine, it is that machine's technician; if it is in the pipes and drains, it is a plumber. The plumber charges guide covers the genuinely plumbing jobs.

Pests: a treatment, not a repair

Pests confuse the "who to call" question because the damage looks like another trade's problem — termite tracks look like they need a carpenter, a roach problem feels like it needs a deep clean. It does not. Live infestations need pest control, which treats the cause; the carpentry or cleaning, if any, comes after.

• Mud tunnels on walls or skirting, hollow-sounding wood, or wood dust. That is termites, and it is a termite treatment, not a furniture repair. Replacing a damaged shelf before treating the colony just feeds them a new shelf.
• Roaches in the kitchen or bathroom. A cockroach control treatment — cleaning helps prevent, but does not clear an established infestation.
• Bites at night, spots on the mattress seams. Bed bugs — see how to get rid of bed bugs. A mattress deep clean alone will not do it.

The pest control cost guide covers the general treatments. The rule here: treat the infestation first; only then repair or clean what it touched.

The "handyman" question — and when one trade is not enough

None of this means every job needs a different person. Plenty of problems genuinely sit inside one trade, and a good professional will tell you honestly when yours crosses a line they do not work on — that honesty is itself a good sign. What you are avoiding is the opposite: the person for whom every problem is one they can do, because that is the person most likely to guess.

Some jobs really do span trades in sequence — a bathroom that needs plumbing, waterproofing, tiling and paint is a bathroom renovation, and a modular kitchen pulls in carpentry, plumbing and electrical. There, the point is not one magic all-rounder; it is knowing the job has several parts so nobody skips one. And once you know which trade you need, the how to hire without being overcharged guide covers getting a fair price from them.

A seasonal note: Delhi problems cluster

One reason the "who do I call?" question spikes at certain times is that Delhi's home problems are seasonal, and knowing the season tells you which trade to line up before the rush.

• Pre-monsoon and monsoon — seepage, damp walls, terrace leaks and drain blocks all arrive together. Waterproofing and plumbing get busy, and the monsoon home maintenance checklist is the pre-emptive version of this whole page.
• Peak summer — ACs fail, MCBs trip on the extra load, and voltage sag stresses everything electrical. AC technicians and electricians are in demand exactly when you least want to wait.
• Winter — geysers come out of six months of disuse and reveal their faults on day one, which is why the electrician-or-plumber geyser question above peaks in December.

If the fix is not urgent, booking a trade slightly ahead of its season — a geyser check in autumn, an AC service in spring, waterproofing in the dry months before the rain — usually means a calmer job and more choice of professional than calling at the peak.