Elaborating and Latest on Construction

 

In the post Glitches, I mentioned that I would elaborate further. So here it is. I was pretty happy with Marcelino and Jorge. I had booked them for two weeks a month until December end, the previous site owner who had employed them announcing vociferously that he’d employ other workers rather than give these two the small raise they wanted. In the circumstances, I fully expected that Marcelino and Jorge would respect our agreement as it did appear to me that they would no longer work for the previous employer. However, on the Monday of August 1st, after finishing one week only, they showed up saying that they were going to the other site. The previous owners whose house was already finished had insisted that they had priority as far as urgency was concerned. The workers, not wanting to displease them, agreed to drop the work at my place, thinking that I would welcome them back later. Not so. And I told them why.

I had already ordered the materials for the week’s work and felt pretty incensed at being treated in what I considered a very disrespectful, if not devious, way. Furthermore, if they could be swayed in not keeping to our agreement, I figured that they’d probably do it again. So, regretfully, I let them go and called it quits with them.

Thanks to Yvonne, I got two new workers on Wednesday, Demetrio and Ruben. In three days, they achieved what I had expected Marcelino and Jorge to do in one week. Not a bad decision, after all.

Back to construction.

Holes in the mamposteo were left strategically placed where castillos  (meaning castles or fortresses) would serve to arm the concrete to be poured into them. Here, I’m taking my time in explaining because it is all quite strange to me and I want to convey how different construction is to that of up North. The most obvious ones were the ones at each corner of each room. Others are where windows and doors are to be. Since the roof to come would be a boveda (brick dome ceiling) in each room but the bathroom, the weight of the bricks could upset the vertical integrity of the walls. This in turn may cause cracks in the walls. Not a happy outcome.

Here is a photo that gives an idea of the placement of castillos. You will also notice how the mamposteo is based on the floor plan and will support each and every wall, inside and out. The walls of bricks and cement blocks will be first erected vertically, then tied at both the top and bottom to the castillos, thus solidly anchored horizontally. Vertically then, a form will be built around the open parts of the castillos and concrete will be poured into the forms. I wouldn’t be surprised if my casita lasted as long as the pyramids… And we don’t even get earthquakes or other natural disasters here in the wonderful and safe state of Querétaro!

The next photos show two different types of castillos : this one is prefabricated and referred to as Armex:

The next one is made of 4 re-bars (3/8 inch) cut to desired height and around which annillos or rings (which happen to be rectangular…one word fits all) are affixed by the mason with metal wire. Here’s what it looks like. They are sturdier than regular Armex. I’m told that the corners are crucial for integrity of both the walls and the ceiling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the case of the holes in the mamposteo, they went pretty deep. The soil had to be excavated until the solid layer of tepetate (calcium carbonate many meters deep) could be encountered. So I had to ask the mason to elevate the bottom of the base to leave about 70 cm. height for anchoring the castillos. Solid planks or whatever could serve to complete a form in which concrete was poured with larger stones added to make a more solid base for the castillos. These forms are removed when the concrete is sufficiently matured. Afterwards, the trench in which the mason works will be filled with soil or tepetate or… whatever material is available and cheap. The photo on the right shows how deep the trench was made to arrive at the solid level of tepetate.

Much earlier than I had thought, I ran out of materials. The mortar mix for the stone build-up is 4 parts lime to one part cement. The mix for concrete besides gravel is pure cement and sand. At that rate I ran out of cement pretty quickly.

Here were my costs:

20 bags of cement at $110 each               2200 pesos

25 bags of lime at $35 each                       875 “

1 load of sand                                          650 “

11 varillas (re-bars) at $87 each                 957 “

4 varillas at $89 each (price increase)          356 “

65 kg annillos at $15.96/kg                         958 “

5 kg metal wire at $112/kg                           80 “

9 Armex castillos at $112 each                   1008 “

Manpower 1 week                                    2600 “

Manpower week 2 less 2 days                    1530 “

                                                         _________

                                            Total     $11,214 pesos

For ease of reading, I have rounded the amounts.

Since I will return to construction only at the end of August, this should leave me time to make a table that will make the reading of the costs easier to read. 

I also intend to work (I may have said this earlier?) on my other blog, which has been seriously neglected.

LiveJournal Tags: Details and Costs of Construction in Mexico,An aside about elaborating on perfidy...

Glitches Galore

 

Far from me to complain, but doesn’t it seem that at times one glitch begins a domino effect? A bit like losing a clasp on a pearl necklace and seeing all the pearls follow down the way of the ill-fated clasp…

Well. First glitch. Let me start with 3 or 4 viruses on my computer. I had temporarily lowered my firewall and consumed as I was with all things construction, neglected to put it up after downloading what I wanted at the time. I can’t even remember what it was that had seemed so important! So mechanical Einstein here did prevent me from doing anything of import on the internet. It was all quite maddening. Nothing more to do than take it to the computer doctor to get proper medicine. It did take a few days.

Now that I had my computer up and running, I got ready to take some pictures. Marcelino and Jorge were here last week and I had been all gung-ho witnessing how they were advancing. But…more glitches put up their mean ugly faces. Rain (even hail in Tequis—a definite rarity here!) got in the way. Let me state that this year’s rainy season has been a minute-by-minute happening. One definite glitch in planning.

Then, I got in need of TLC. I’m grateful for my good health-even factoring in ageing-so I can’t really complain. But I have been accident-prone since my youth. Immoveable objects insist on getting in my way, especially in the dark. Such was a stone that my unsuspecting foot encountered. The result was my falling forward to forcibly kiss the ground. I couldn’t use my arms for 3 days on account of the pain.

Finally, I was ready to tackle my blog this past Sunday, only to find out that Telcel had cut off my internet service! Saturday and Sunday banks were closed and it was the only way that I could pay my bill. I figured that one day late if I paid on Monday wouldn’t matter that much. It did.  My cut-off date is the last day of the month and I usually work well around that deadline. This time though, I wrongly assumed that with banks closed on the weekend, Telcel would grant some leeway. Wrong! To re-instate my service, I had to go to San Juan del Rio. All of this robbed me of time and $$ that were already in short supply.

I will have to postpone going through the many obstacles that found their way to moi. Suffice it to say that after being forced to stay away from my computer while it was at the shop, followed with being cut off from the internet, and then being forced to immobility on account of the pain, some further events brought me to a complete halt until today. I had to resolve these issues and some brought me a measure of despair, I will humbly admit. But this will be the subject of another post for elaboration.

I recall that another full-timer got some financial help through PayPal by asking for it on his blog, as well as posting AdSense. I had asked him when he was in Tequis to help me with AdSense, but got a flat refusal. Oh, well…

As the saying goes, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’.

That’s what I’ve done and will keep on doing.

LiveJournal Tags: Obstacles,Plain bad luck,AdSense,PayPal

Please excuse me for not being my usual sunny self…