Wet spots on the wall

 A few years ago we had all our walls replastered inside and out because the plaster was bad, and painted with non breathing latex wallpaint. The inside walls were done with a special breathing plaster (MuroSeco by Kerakoll). That worked very well. Still, we have some weird damp spots on the inside of the walls, below ground level. 

Like the stairs to the cellar:

And in the lavatory downstairs that is below ground level, too:

Those spots don't really change, and they don't disappear either. 

Inspected the lower side of the walls outside: especially where the toilet is located there is a jostle stone (click link), and there were seams between plaster of the wall and the pavement, and the jostle stone.  Gaps quite big enough to let rain water that comes down the walls enter between wall and pavement, down the wall!

Same for the wall outside the cellar stairs. Gaps up to 1 - 2 mm!

Engineer Jansen still has a full bag of 15 kg Sikalastic 127 that he used 6 bags of on the roof. He now has 14 kg left. 

A 2 cm band of waterproofing was applied along the bottom of all walls and onto the pavement and terrace:

Front of the house

Side, the cellar stairs are here

Arrow points at the jostle stone (link), with quite big gaps, the toilet is behind there!

Back and side

It will take time to know if this has fixed it. Years probably.

Covid + gripe + water leak

Tuesday November 21 we had an appointment for a vaccination for covid and flu at the Centro Salud. Leaving the gate we saw:

Yes, that is a wet spot. Two wet spots actually, each at a side of the road. 

Then we remembered, our Galasa water tube is crossing the road, but it has a tube around it, for protection. That seemed like a really Great Engineer Jansen Idea™ at the time.  But, it has caused trouble once before, when the water tube was accidentally dug up, causing the tube to be pulled from a connector under our then just that day finished terrace, causing a leak. Thing is, if you use a single unprotected tube the tube will break when dug up, but with protection it does not, and will tear somewhere else. Like, under a new concrete and tile terrace.

So, two leaks.  Noo, just one leak, but seeping from the two ends of an outer tube. 

The local water tech guy still had a digger standing here, that he had used a few weeks ago for work on the water line of our neighbours, so we contacted him. He intended to come that same day, but didn't. Mañana. Mañana arrived, but no plumber. Let's do some digging ourselves then.

This is one end:

Repaired that with two connectors and a bit of tubing:

It is exactly where our water tube crosses Endesa's electric line (pink). 

However, with the water on again, water spouted from the top tube, so there is more leakage, and we need to replace all of the length that is under the road. Not an easy task, as the soil there is compacted by passing cars and very very hard. 

Progress was slow. Wetting the soil and hacking at it, we were about ti give up, and try the fontatero gain. Messaged him,  but hours later the whatsapp remained unread. Lunch time..

More wetting and hacking, and all of our tube was open to the air, with both leaking ends exposed.

The arrow here points at the junction. This time Engineer Jansen™ and Engineer de Waal™ devised a triple water conduit. Outer tube 6 cm, middle tube ehh. 4? inner tube 2.5 cm. 

All done.

Then Engineer Jansen(™) thought to protect the water conduit by digging in a series of flat stones where car wheels go. So there. 20 cm above the tubes a protective layer of flat stones.

No water is not great!

And all this the day after the covid vaccination, which is especially sad for Engineer Jansen(™), who always suffers from a covid jab.  Next time he will tell all about the repeating feverish dreams he had experienced all that night, then having to co-dig a trench in concretish soil. 

Washing the walls

Two years after the Sahara mud rain ("barra") engineer Jansen is cleaning the walls.

Brush no. Soap no. Kärcher strong jet no. Wide: jet half and half. Terrace cleaner YES!

And yes, the Kärcher is hung up sort of half way the ladder.

The side wall was the dirtiest, the front wall is the highest, and the most difficult. It needs a contraption to reach the top of the wall.

Fantastic Contraption

(Not finished yet)

Tejado, roof FINISHED

 Milestone: after 1.5 years the roof is now finished. All rooftiles re-set where loose, stuck into place with special pur para tejas (pur for rooftiles), the gaps filled with lime mortar, and the sides and the lime mortar now covered with Sikalastic 127. This is the biggest physical job engineer Jansen ever did, and he’s not keen to repeat it.

To see all posts about the roof project: click here