More rain preparation

In the previous post you can see the beginning of the drainage we turned around from the yard next door - into my yard. You just can't dump any amount of water on you neighbors no mater how small the amount. It's now all stuccoed, sealed and painted just waiting for impermeabilizante covered cloth.

Second project was beefing up my front sidewalk. Three downspouts dump water on it, ants build caves under it, chickens excavate the edges looking for bugs .... and then there's the kids who like the sidewalk and the dirt in front of it. I told Hugo generally what I wanted and let him make the design decisions. I like what he came up with. A little more on the driveway to go.

The final is my north wall.  Because someday (maybe never) there will be a house up against that wall I didn't worry too much about the stucco and it is pretty sloppy and very ruff. I also cut corners on properly sealing and painting it. Shoe had a couple 5 gallons of cheap paint that was old so I mixed that with a little sealer and some decent paint but not semi-gloss. I'll only paint with semi-gloss from now on.  

So I figured I'd clean it up, primer a few areas and let Hugo go at it with a roller. Turns out I have wire brushed and/or cleaned with Clorox almost the whole wall. Also it's so ruff that doing a good job with a roller is almost impossible and you can't see your holidays 10-12 feet above you.  I will end up painting that whole 20x4 meter wall with a brush. Plenty of other painting for Hugo.

The second sidewalk

North wall mostly painted - sealed the bottom section today

20 meters by 4 high

All about water prep this time

Three water related projects that are mostly done. Only the complete impermeabilizante job of the roof is left. Much of the roof was just a cement wash over tile and then coated with impermeabilizante. Sometimes the wash lifts and sometimes foot traffic wears the coating down. Unfinished tile or cement is porous so you have to paint or seal it somehow. I've done the patching in obvious places, next to paint the whole thing.

While crawling around the gas tank (background 2nd foto) I noticed the seams rusting.  Then I noticed any little scratch had rusted.   Then I noticed on both rounded ends the paint had little bubbles with no apparent damage to cause them.  A few bubbles had broken and rusted in side.  This tank is only 3 years old.   I know it sits in sun and rain uncovered but still ....  can't they coat something as possibly dangerous as a gas tank a little better.   So there it is, sanded and painted and I'm thinking about a cover.

The final foto is of the not quite aesthetically pleasing solution to keep roof water out of my yard and into the street.   I really preferred the ceramic scuppers on that side of the house but the first one was removed because water was draining right over the front door.   This one was removed because I don't need lots of water in my yard in a heavy rain.  It all ends up in the street anyway so why not direct.   The plastic pipe off the roof is kinda funky Mexicanada but it'll do for a few years.

Cement wash lifted

Whole roof after some patching

Rusting gas tank

No more ceramic water spout into the yard

First rain of the season

... and my roof leaks. Same places it was leaking before we put on the Tacata layer.

Guess this means I get a power washer, wait for a dry spell and roll on impermeabilizante - probably Fester. Fester was quoted at about 1200 a cubeta. A cubeta will do about 20 meters in 2 coats. My roof is about 110 sq meters.  An unexpected cost and work 

Last week at the place

Spent last week in Melaque moving stuff down and cleaning up the place. So much rain and water everywhere I only spent a day and a half on the lot. Roads were almost impossible if not paved. The tarp covering the trailer was in shreds from an earlier wind storm so now it's uncovered.

Lots of weeding and moving dirt around for better drainage. With another trip to CFE I finally got the power turned back on even tho I'd paid the bill over a month ago plus extra to carry over into November/December. More storage shelves for the trailer and bodega. No water again so I couldn't test for the one water leak I found last trip. It's an incoming line in the ground so not a big deal.