Costalegre Community Message Board

Just ran across this site of a couple who sailed down the coast and ended up buying a funky little house in Santiago. Here's the remodel section

http://www.solmatesantiago.com/remodel/remodel.html

An interesting project.

This is the first time I have seen a elastomeric roof coating used around here. I have used it in the states but noted it was never used around here. This stuff is really great.

I guess metal studs are cheaper that wood also. I never have used them but I guess they are the thing most used for Sheetrock applications around Mexico.

cya,
shoe

But like Wiseguy noted with that container project in Melaque that's using metal stud construction - how do you keep the bugs out of those empty spaces.

If you are already in a brick house - why not use more. No way would I build stud walls of wood

Bricks mean nothing to the ants. Just come see my workshop and see where the ants just eat their way through the brick wall in multiple places. I believe that it is a old fashion idea that the bugs hide in all the empty spaces as these days most people if not all use a bug killer/exterminator for bugs. If you do that there really is no bug problem. I make sure the house is sprayed every three months and I have not seen a live crawling bug in close to a year in this house and the same for the old house I lived in here. Cost for spray is less than $400 pesos for the liquid to spray with.

Wood/aluminum and Sheetrock ares the only way to go and it is much faster construction, less weight, has a smaller footprint and cost. Labor costs are going up and this is going to cause things to be made of something other than concrete and brick. Interior walls are being more and more built of wood/aluminum and Sheetrock. I believe that exterior walls are soon to follow.

This area is no different than the southern Florida area and they do not use brick and concrete construction there. Exterior walls are made of wood or concrete block most of the time and interior walls are 2X4 and Sheetrock or plaster. The interior of the outside walls are also Sheetrock or plaster the exterior stucco. At least in the three houses I owned there and many more I watched being built.

Times are a changing!

cya,
shoe

Ants? Who worries about ants? More like roaches and rats. I own homes in Guadalajara and Barra and have built homes in both places. We never fumigate. A can of Raid Casa y jardin lasts us a year. Then you have the problem of mold. How are you going to control the humidity in houses on the coast? AC? Yeah and your electric bill will be out of sight. Houses in hot humid climates NOB usually have central air and other measures to control humidity.

And how did those houses fare during hurricanes? Probably wound up scattered across the next county.

Wood studs don't exist here. They don't mill diminsioned softwood lumber. No pressure treated stuff. You'll have to use metal studs. To get higher ceilings typical of masonry construction ihere you'll have to spend more. 8' ceilings ain't gonna work, too hot. How would your stick frame house have held up to the flash flood in Melaque last fall? Masonry just had to be washed down and repainted. You'll be replacing sheetrock walls at considerable cost.

If you don't want the normal post and beam with masonry infill walls then foam panel with losa aligerada roofs are quicker, have a better Rvalue and much easier to maintain than sheetrock.

Wiseguy; Not to start a debate on this but I will try to answer a couple of your questions. That is all.

I think Sparks had mentioned bugs is the reason I talked about ants, bu new rental I did have a small mice problem in this house. A cat took care of that problem. I have not seen rats around here but I am sure they are here. I just have not had a problem with them.

Treated Lumber is available at the PV Home Depot as are wood studs. I saw a lot of treated wood there last month and thought about time it was available here. Parota is also used here for wood contact with concrete. It seems to hold up I am told and does not rot. I have used ti but only had it in for a year or so so not rot yet.

Mold? The same mold problem would exist with brick and concrete construction as I have it on this house. In either case there are many mold resistant paints that can be used to help with this problem. Salitre, a concrete/brick problem is also treated with paints.

The Melaque flood. I do not know of any stick houses around here so I can't answer how they stood up. I did see of crumbling of concrete and brick in a few area that were flooded. Some walls had to be rebuilt. My living room floor had 4 inches of water and the floor, now has some new cracks in it but not bad enough to fix yet. Sheetrock certainly would have crumbled unless it was the water resistant type and even then I don't see it holding up but maybe it does.

In general I do not think that either type of construction is perfect and both have their problems. I just think that more and more building is going to be done with wood/aluminum over time. Cost and time being the main reasons. Is it for the best, I do not know but time will tell.

cya,
shoe

BTW: If you consider a geodesic dome a stick home made of wood, they are a lot stronger than brick and concrete construction. No dome went down in the path of Andrew but most everything else did. That same year Hawaii was hit by a hurricane and the domes there did not go down. My dome in KY was hit by a tornado and had no damage as the tornado just bounced off it (scared the hell out of me as I heard it too late to do anything except roll out of bed. I have no idea why I did that but I did, just scared stupid I guess.) . When I went looking for damage all I had one window frame give way some but did not break.

Shoe, I have used sheetrock here in Guadalajara on limited occasions in remodels and commercial work for interior walls. Metal studs always. These were used for non-bearing walls and walls that will possibly be removed in the future.

I didn't know about PT lumber and studs in PV. I occasionally visit 2 different HDs in Guadalajara and don't see it there. I imagine they are expensive because they are imported.

Parota won't rot nor will wood boring insects bother the stuff. That's what the old dugout canoes on the Barra lagoon were made from. Sparks has some pics of those!! If you've milled even a few board feet, you know what nasty stuff it is. And it also absorbs moisture like a sponge making it very unstable. Doors will stick, drawers won't open etc. during times of high humidity. I used to use it extensively, we built and installed 30 entry doors in one project in Barra many years ago but now don't even allow it in my shop. The workers appreciate that. Most of them hate the stuff.

I used to trade hardwoods here in Mexico. Mostly exotics but also common species such as cedro. If you know Gilberto Martinez in Cihuatlan, his father used to cull top grade cedro lumber for me at his mill. He harvested the last of the old growth cedro in the area a long time ago. Back then parota was considered crap.

Thank you ,Wiseguy, for all the information, especially about the boats. I did not know that and have wondered about it.

I did not know that parota would get so wet. I guess I will find out when the rains hit. One thing that I did learn was that the sawdust has a bad reaction and is very difficult if you breath mush of it. I got a rash for the sawdust and having troubles breathing anyway a face mask was mandatory when sanding the stuff or I would cough and wheeze.

I could not find some of the stuff in the Home Depots in Guadalajara that I can find in PV. I do not know why but they carry some different stuff from one store to another. Maybe it is regional, I don't know.

I have looked for exotic hardwoods but have not found any. Bloodwood, Zebrawood and a few other things would be nice to find. Even Red or White Oak and Walnut would be nice. I plan on going to the lumber yard in Tomatlan next week to see what they have there. I have been told they have a over to dry wood so I will be nice to buy some wood that is not green. It is too bad I did not know you when you dealt in that stuff.

cya,
shoe

Typically the sawmills don't kiln dry lumber for retail sales. Depending on the size of the oven, there is a minimum amount of board feet that they will dry. Much more than most small shops use.

There are exotics in your area. The most common is bocote, (known locally as barcino). Other tropical exotics are cocobolo (tampiceran), granadillo, verdecillo and guayabillo. All are heavy and very hard. They don't glue well with normal PVA wood glue. The local mahogany is harder to find now but is a lot prettier than the true mahogany from the south.

There are some shops in Melaque and El Ranchito that use barcino. The others you MAY find up at Tomatlan. They aren't usually found in small amounts at the mills but you may get lucky.

Southern red oak is sold in Guadalajara. Ash, alder, poplar and soft maple also. Mexican walnut is now scarce to nonexistent and I have never seen any imported.