My Roof is Leaking and It's Rainy Season
Just another day in the Nayarit jungle
Last month it stated raining, and our little town rejoiced. Lurko and I like when the hills change from brown to lush green. We like not having to water the plants. We like when the cistern starts filling up.
What we don't like is finding all the new leaks! And this year there have been a lot.
Last year we battled with the roof between the two bedrooms that covers the outdoor kitchen. During dry season, the concrete roof separates from the two concrete buildings, resulting in two huge cracks above each wall. During dry season, the cracks becomes hiding places for scorpions and lizards. During wet season, the rainwater pours through the cracks, drips down the walls, and floods the concrete floor of the outdoor kitchen. The water that drips over the two doors often finds its way inside the bedroom and the guest room. We stuff towels under the bedroom doors, and a lot of squeegee-ing and mopping takes place after every rain.
During dry season, we did a few things to try and mitigate this. One, we called the solar panel techs and asked them to seal the roof around where the panels had been installed. Two, we attempted to patch and seal the two big cracks where the roof met the east and west walls of the kitchen. Unfortunately, there was no way to test any of this until it rained again... so we waited.
The first couple weeks of June, we had only light sprinkles, so nothing got too wet. Then in mid-June, the thunderstorms began. (This is also the time we start feeding Xanax to Dutchy. If we don't, she gets so scared by the thunder that she'll paw at our heads and no one sleeps.) The first thunderstorm was a very wet time. The runoff from the roof filled our 50-gallon rain barrel in under an hour. Water also flowed over the outside walls, into the doors and into the bedrooms. The kitchen had water pooled along both walls (but so far this year, it has not completely flooded. So maybe less water is getting through?). We were both scrambling for towels and mops, and our clothes were wet. The floors were wet. The dogs were wet. Everything was wet.
New this year: water also started seeping through the ceiling and dripping into both bedrooms. It was time to act!
First, Lurko took the doors off and moved the frames further back, so they were no longer flush with the outside walls. He also chiseled the concrete at the bottom so that it slanted downward, like a tiny ramp towards the outside. It worked. The water still dripped down the outside walls, but now instead of wicking inside the door, it dripped straight down to the tiny ramp and rolled toward the outside floor. The outside floor was still pooling, but none of that water was getting inside the bedrooms anymore.
Next, we called our friend Jorge and he sent two of his construction crew to take a look at our roof. We learned a couple of things were happening:
The rainwater was pooling on the roof, on both sides. They cleaned out the drain pipes, which helped, but they also told us the pipes were set too high and they weren't draining properly. So one day was spent chipping away at the concrete around the pipes, then repositioning the pipes and re-setting them with new concrete.
The roof/wall cracks had gotten bigger, probably from the house settling. They filled those cracks with concrete (though I'm not sure what would happen if the house settles again).
The concrete roof needed to be re-sealed, so they went through two 5-gallon buckets to finish that.
Materials and labor cost $9200 MXN when all was said and done (about $488 US). For two days of work that was not bad.
About 5 hours after the work had been completed, it started raining again. We were not sure it had time to fully cure, so we reserved judgement for the next rain. But even then, we saw definite improvements. The roof was draining more efficiently. We were no longer getting leaks through the ceiling into either bedroom. Some water was still coming through the big cracks and down the walls of the kitchen, but not as much as before and the pools along the walls were smaller. The important part was that no water was getting inside either bedroom. We’re calling it a win.
Here's what you can look forward to in the next few posts:
7/6: Helping Out the Parental Units
7/9: Teaching English
7/13: How to Have an Outdoor Summer Birthday Party and Not Die
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Rainy season can really be something. You guys jumped right to and figured stuff out. We had to MacGyver stuff too at first, then finally, things seem to stabilize. Suerte!!!
Hope you continue to be mostly leakless and that the concrete helps with the scorpions too!