Fixing the Leaks on the Roof
Go to the August, 2008 
Plumbing the Outside
1 October
Leaks, from everywhere. The SolCasa roof and walls leak like sieves, but we've got a plan. Sorta. Actually, we have
three or four plans, which is the problem with having two skippers onboard.
Rain accumulates in low spots on our roof and the
neighbor's roof, then soaks through the ceiling and walls
Low spots on our roof collect the rain, which has to be
removed after each storm - the red paint collects the
sunshine
Pile of bathroom rubble up against Lucy's retaining
wall and underneath our roof drain, which needs a downspout
It's hard to imagine how this house was built. On the west side, our wall is smack up against our upper neighbor's
retaining wall. Her retaining wall extends along our driveway, but ends three feet from the roofline.
On the east side, only pillars and a partial roof have been built, but no walls. The west property is vacant so we can
clamber all over the roof to effect repairs. The roof on the east also ends a few feet below our roofline. Both neighbors'
properties cause leaks in our house by creating huge splash zones and water puddles.
Fillet and roof drains
The plan that we're sure of is sealing the walls from the outside. Stan's been tink, tink, tinking away with a hatchet,
preparing the cracks in the wall for a smooth coat of stucco and then a couple of coats of sealer. He also created a
fillet to deflect the water from the wall on the east side, as well as adding really classy downspouts (overspouts) to
divert water from puddling at the edge of the neighbor's roof. Except for the sealing part of this plan, the fixes are mostly temporary until
we decide on what to do with the roof....
And so we come to fixing the roof, the plan we're not so sure about. A couple of the possibilities are
1) to simply level and seal the roof, then cover with bright, heat reflecting paint, or 2) to plan farther into the future and
slap a second story roof over the whole shebang.
7 December
Decision Made
Roofers' equipment
Again, a decision was made for us. The first Armando, the contractor we asked to cost out a second story roof, was
too busy to reply. We haven't heard from him since his survey. Another Armando, however, returned with an estimate and
we immediately agreed to his price (high) so we could
snagged his crew before he could otherwise engage them.
Hacked off
rebar and tools for breaking up concrete
Washing and pounding
The day's rubble pile
Thursday Armando showed us the estimate and Friday morning a crew of six dumped off a whole truckload of equipment and
sand. The crew hit the roof running ... and banging. All day they pounded at previous fixes, pulled up old patch
material, and then started power washing. By Friday evening excess rebar had been cut off and much of the roof had been
stripped to the bare bones.
The rebar removal may come back to bite us, but it was another one of those decisions practically made for us. Water had
been seeping around the pillars and rusting the rebar for years, causing unknown havoc within the supports. To prevent
further damage, we had the rebar hacked off at roof level and the new sealer will cover those spots and fill the old leaks.
Now that the building has no rebar sticking up, it is no longer "under construction" and can therefore be taxed as a
finished building. That's what the rumor is, anyway; that the tax
laws were changed so that finished and unfinished buildings will be taxed the same, but we're not sure if that change has been
implemented. We'll be very interested to see what happens due to the remodeling.
Property taxes are fairly low, so whatever happens to our rate, it probably won't make a huge dent. The last owner's annual
taxes were around US$45. In my opinion, the government would do well to raise taxes a peso or two. Seems to me that they're
missing out on revenue, but then they tax the hell out of us on their value added tax at 15%, so maybe it all evens out
in the end.
Two government types wandered through the neighborhood while the guys worked. Strangely
enough, one was checking out vacant lots and assessing whether or not the city needs to clear the lots of growth and garbage.
If absentee landowners let their property go, the city will clean it up, and then charge the land owner for the pleasure.
Unfortunately for the roofers, the property where they were dumping their rubble belongs to our neighbor, an absentee land baron.
Early Saturday morning, one of the crew spent most of his time wheelbarrowing the stuff off the neighbor's property and
dumping it elsewhere ... we're not sure where, probably on a vacant lot that's for sale down the block?
The other official in the 'hood was the tax man, close enough, anyway. He had a notice that past taxes on our
house are in arrears, Señor Govea still owes, or so they say. It's curious because the notario was supposed to clear
all debts from
the previous owner, so we'll have to take the notice down to him and let him deal with it. As they say: "Not our problem"
(we certainly hope!).
11 December
Surface Preparations - Leveling, Chipping Away
Guide strings leading to SE corner
Using their handy-dandy level, the clear plastic hose full of water, our two roofers laid out the guides for the slope
of the roof. The plumbers already installed a run-off pipe connected to the downspout in the SE corner, so the roof will
slope that-a-way.
Chipped away bad concrete
Once they had a good idea what the slope would look like, the roofers set about chopping off the high spots, one in
particular where a support pillar stuck up. They want to ensure that the leaky part of the roof is low enough to be
covered by lots of new concrete before they seal. In
the process they uncovered more questionable concrete and chipped away at that, too, so that the new concrete will stick.
Beating down the high spots
Spreading Festerbond
New concrete curb on
our roof, laundry on Lucy's clothesline
Next step was to replace the brick curb around the perimeter where the bricks had eroded away or been knocked out to
facilitate drainage (ha!). Then the whole roof was sprayed with water and sprinkled with Festerbond, a magic material
that's supposed to help the new layer of concrete adhere to the old.
Once the Festerbond was scrubbed all over the deck,
the boys cranked up their concrete mixer (automatic, this time) and began laying down guide curbs underneath each guide
string. In the process of leveling the roof and slanting it to the front, the discrepancies of original construction were
pretty apparent. Six extra inches are being stacked onto the back NE corner, but only four inches are required on
the back NW.
13 December
Concrete Pouring
The roofing crew with umbrella, arriba
The roofing crew, abajo
Like I said, the NE corner was way low and needed lots more elevation to meet our slope requirements. Instead of
piling on tons of mixed concrete, the roofers filled the errant area with gravel, then poured four or five inches of
concrete over that. As the boys below cranked out concrete, the boys above raised it to the roof by the bucket-full, and
then smoothed it out with screed and trowels.
Six guys mixed and hoisted and smoothed for more than two days, filling in the whole roof. Next they'll add a thin
layer of finer cement for a prettier, workable finish.
Filling in between the guides
Guiding curbs
Mid-day temps have been in the high eighties - cats on a
hot-tin-roof have been toasty.
Still life with sunset
18 December
King Tinaco's Throne
Brick base for throne
More decisions: to coronate or not? We considered, then decided to go deluxe, throne and all.
Filled in and cemented over
That decision came with consequences, Stan had to
disconnect the tinaco, and while he was at it, he moved the lines around to make the filter reachable down on ground
level.
Revised tinaco lines
The king on his throne, atop impermeablezante
Since street water goes off at night, we filled buckets for overnight flushing. However, the day we moved the
tinaco and shut down auxillary water, we were exhausted and
didn't even notice the lack.
Painting/Sealing the Roof
Sticking on the impermeablezante
Impermeable
In the small print at the bottom of the can, the impermeable is guaranteed for three years. Armando, our engineer,
recommends a powerwash and new coat every year, just to be on the safe side. Stan's added it to our periodic maintenance
chart.
Already the house is five to ten degrees cooler! Okay, so the ambient temps have dropped with the coming of winter,
but that bright white coating and those extra inches of insulation sure must be helping.
Blinding white, reflective impermeable
Summer Update on the Leaky Roof
August, 2008
When Armando and crew finished up the roof work before Christmas, they promised to come back if the rainy season brought any problems. And true to their word, they did.
The first few rains produced some drips and some soaks, but the crew returned with another can of impermeable and painted on another coat. Mid-season, this coat seems to be working just fine ... so far so good.
SolMate Santiago contact: mj(at)solmatesantiago(dot)com
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