Progress pictures

Progress pictures

Progress shots

Viguetas and bovedillas above pool terrace area. It will be finished to be a nice sun deck.

Viguetas and bovedillas above Kitchen area making what will be the master bedroom floor.

Framing what will be the balcony out of the master bedroom overlooking the pool.

Back view of the kitchen area overlooking the pool.

Walls going up at the formal living room.

Viguetas going up at the breakfast area.

Viguetas up over kitchen area.

Masonry walls at the main house going up

Progress shots

Building Colonnade Arches at the pool terrace

Building the knock-out portion of what will be an arch. The shape is formed an allowed to cure then the structural beam is poured on top and down the pre-formed sides of the arch. After concrete cures the formwork is removed and the knock-out portion taken down leaving the arch in place.

Viguetas y Bovedillas in place. The pre-tensioned concrete beams and the masonry planks in place for what will be the kitchen floor. It is unusual for the Yucatan but my house will have a crawl space. This resulted from having the kitchen area elevated a little more than a meter over the natural grade level. Initially this area was to be backfilled and compacted but after a cost comparison came about even I decided to have a "losa" floor put in. That will give me some storage room under the kitchen and makes for easier installation of gas lines and water.

. Some of the masonry walls along the back terrace area are starting to go up.

This is a view of the terrace and the pool area from the kitchen back door.

Working on the second half of the kitchen floor. The kitchen is about 7 meters wide by 16 meters long.

A few progress shots

A pool view from what will be the steps coming down from the kitchen area.

Back of the pool area where the wooden pergola will be.

The pool inner reinforcing which will be covered by a 2 inch concrete wall. As I mentioned before I had #5 vertical bars added to counter any pressure caused by the backfill at the top of the wall.

Compacted backfill at the terrace area where columns will support arches which will carry the "losa" slab on top.

Mamposteria pool in the making.

This is what a mamposteria pool looks like before the final concrete layer covers the walls and floor. The floor slab will have a double layer of reinforcing and the walls a single two way layer.

Walls are 30cm (12") in thickness on the average and are built from the stone broken up from the excavation and put together with mortar. Those walls seem to be pretty heavy and solid but I have seen what backfill pressure can do over many years so I am having added vertical reinforcing placed on them. They have placed concrete piers every 2 meters (6 feet) or so, but I don't think this helps since those piers are not extended below the footing base. Having those piers does split the wall into smaller panels but it also creates a cold joint which can develop cracks under uneven pressure. The added reinforcing placed at the inner shell should help keep the wall from shifting.

Our pool will be about 7 x 9 meters (23 x 29) feet. It will not be very deep, only 1.5 meters (5 feet).

Leveling beam (Cadena de cimentacion)

Placing the leveling beam on top of the footings. As I mentioned before the purpose of this beam is to start the masonry wall from a level even surface. The wire cages (castillos) have no structural value and their only job is to hold the concrete together and serve as crack control.

Another view of the "castillos" being placed on top of the mamposteria footings.

Framing of the "cadena de cimentacion" ready for concrete.

This is how it looks after the water proofing (moisture control) has been applied.

Another view

Rebar Column cages

Rebar column cages full height to second floor. A word about rebar use in Mérida. Having worked with rebar for the last 30 years I can eyeball if a footing, column or beam is over or under required design. When I first came to Mérida I would stop at construction sites and observe how they did things. I would take note of the column or beam cages and their span then I would go home and run calculations on them. I found out that in many cases they run extremely close to the lowest tolerance and sometimes deficient per ACI (American Concrete Institute) code standards. I knew that I would be building one day so I figured is best if I understand their methodology. What we have to know about reinforcing is that "more" is not necessarily better. The key is the placement of the steel where is needed and often if you place it correctly you need less. When we get to pouring beams in place I will be sharing rebar calculations to show how I came up with the right steel distribution.

Poured in place concrete piers. As you can see in the picture to the left there is a "castillo" cage extending from the footing. Ideally this would have been poured monolithic with the foundation but since it is a mamposteria footings that is not the case. the mamposteria is stopped at each side of the pier and because it is a stone wall it is a very irregular surface which provides adequate bonding to the concrete.

There will be a leveling beam (cadena de cimentacion) placed on top of each of these footings. This is a wire reinforced beam which only purpose is to provide a level starting point for the CMU (Concrete Masonry Unit) wall. This beam is painted (covered) with a tar like substance which serves as a vapor (moisture) barrier up the wall.