New reno just completed in Centro, contact us to discuss your project.

One of our latest builds hits the market

This modern oceanfront home has just hit the market and it will not last, it is stunning, for more information contact our customer and good friend John Schwartz, https://www.facebook.com/CasaSeaEstaChelem ,if you are looking for a custom build or full reno, just call us.

A little creativity is all you need.

With a little planning and help from our Architects you can transform an old home into a beautiful functional space.

Our latest home build in Conkal

We just finished this custom home in Conkal. The delivery was only slightly delayed due to Covid related construction closures and was delivered on budget as agreed to in the estimate. Plans were drawn to include the customer specific specifications. If you are considering a new build or reno, now is the time to book it for 2021. Give us a call and lets get your dream home started.

Ever wonder how houses are built here? Follow us to watch a build

This is your chance to follow a tear down of the old and rebuild of a new beach house located in Chelem. Our customer and friend John Swartz has given us the contract to demolish the old  structure and build a new spectacular seafront home. It took time to get all the associated permits, but we are now away to the races.

John has decided to chronicle the build as it proceeds on Facebook

Watching this build, is perfect for those of you that want to do this process at some time for yourselves or maybe you will want to buy this project when finished. Either way follow the link and see how a well established construction company builds in the Yucatan.

After all we are your Yucatan Construction Specialists and this is just one of our many spectacular builds and you can follow from the ground up.

Just follow the link https://www.facebook.com/CasaSeaEstaChelem/

New build or total renovation

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No matter, whether you are building a new beach house or renovating a classic colonial in Merida’s Centro district. We can assist to in doing it right. We build in both locations and know the specific techniques required to build properly, in both city and beach. We are happy to work with your architects plans or we can assist you to have your dream home, designed or remodelled from the ground up, We have taken on staff Ana Burgos. Ana is a an experienced, architect designer, who can capture your ideas and thoughts and make your dreams a functional reality.

Pool Plaster Issues

One of the complaints companies that build pools get after a period of time is, “The pool plaster YOU GUYS put on is failing”. People like to blame the builder, when in reality it is beyond our control and is usually the fault of the pool maintainer. Pool surfaces or plasters are made of a cementitious mix and part of that mix is Calcium Hydroxide. Calcium hydroxide (traditionally called slaked lime) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ca(OH)2. It is a colorless crystal or white powder ..

Calcium hydroxide is one of the main reaction products resulting from the hydration of Portland cement with water. Calcium hydroxide, is susceptible to acid leaching. This is where things get complicated, Pool water is often treated with chlorine to correct the PH level, but more importantly pool tablets which contain Cyanuric Acid. Cyanuric (CYA) is a pool balancing product used to help chlorine last longer. Chlorine, in its natural form, is unstabilized—which means it degrades when exposed to sunlight. Adding Cyanuric Acid reduces the sun’s impact on chlorine loss. A lot of pool shock products also contain Sodium Dichlor: Dichlor for short, is stabilized pool shock, meaning it contains Cyanuric Acid to protect your chlorine against degradation from the sun. However, Acid is heavier than water and will sink to the bottom. This is part of the reason why dilution is so important; pre-dilution reduces the average density of the acid.

A typical situation like this occurs, during the regular season the pool is kept balanced with the addition of an acid. But at some times of the year an algae bloom can occur. The typical response is to add a few more Chlorine pucks to the float to try and stop the algae and most likely get some pool shock to rapidly raise the chlorine level and kill the algae that way. But in doing so you are raising the cyuranic acid levels as well. The other critical issue is the shock pellets have to be completely disolved in a bucket of water first before adding them to the pool, failure to do this will have severe consequences, as I will explain.

It is extremely common for discoloration and leaching of Calcium Hydroxide to occur on the top step of a plastered pool. You may wonder why but the answer is simple and it lies with your pool float. If you leave the float to just float free a lot of times it gets stuck in a corner, being in a corner is not bad thing, unless that corner happens to be the area of the top step of your pool. If the pool float sits in a corner just above the step as the pool pucks degrade they release cyanuric acid, since acid is heavier than water this acid will leach the Calcium Hydroxide out of the plaster leaving a rough surface with pitting. Pitting while small, is a big problem it allows water to carry the cyuranic acid into the plaster it self, leaching out more Calcium Hydroxide and can also introduce chlorine which is a powerful oxidizer to metals under the plasters surface which will cause rapid corrosion of most metals.

If we introduce shock into a pool to stop algae growth and there are some grains of shock that are not dissolved, they naturally settle on the bottom, and dissolve over time, but meanwhile they release cyuranic acid in close contact with the plasters surface. Once again the cement reacts with the acid and the Calcium Hydroxide is leached out of the pool plaster, leaving a tiny pinhole, and a very rough patch, which allows further corrosion over time. Very typically you will see a small quarter sized area of discoloration but eventually that area will show a small pinhole in the center. The more undissolved shock granules the more spots appear blending together and if the shock process is repeated every so often the leaching of the Calcium Hydroxide in those pinholes gets worse. Eventually allowing the pool water under the plaster layer.

When pool water gets below the plaster layer several things may occur. It may cause spalling and lifting of small areas of plaster that will get larger with time. The pool may show signs of rust on areas of the finish, due to the oxidizing effect of the chlorine leaching into the pools subsurface over a length of time.This process can easily occur within just a few years.

The first place you should look for discoloration and issues is that top step as it is an indicator of issues to come. But the most important thing to remember is pool tablets contain acid and your pool is also balanced with acid, too much acid is not a good thing nor is over chlorination of a pool. Pool shock granules have to be completely liquefied prior to putting them in the pool, one whole grain can ruin a small portion of your pool’s finish resulting in a cascade effect with time.

This started out as a pinprick and grew

Upper right is small pinhole, center is about 1 years progression
Area of discoloration with pinhole from Shock granule allowed to rest till disolved
Pinholes from shock after 6 months.
Top step damaged from pool float and cyanuric acid release.

Another custom home being built in Cholul client is an architect. PART ll

more pics of construction underway.

Need more help?

Another custom home being built in Cholul client is an architect. Have your own plans? Call us.

Tile Work

We have been busy doing some reno’s at a Merida hotel.

Another reno finished

Have a nice home and want to modernize and expand? No problem, we added a second floor and pool to this structure, on time and budget.

BEFORE
AFTER

New custom build to clients plans Updated

Clients reached out to us, to help them through the process of dealing with the Privada’s criteria and arranging all the permits From Merida and building their custom home in Parque Natura. The clients were super nice to deal with and also great people. We will post some interior shots of this cool house, when the colorful personal touches complete the project.



Lets talk about estimates

Lets discuss estimates, let me start by saying I don’t think customers know how much time and money a good estimate takes. So lets walk through the process for a typical renovation. Usually contact is made via the internet and the customer asks questions about doing a renovation. We give the customer advice on his ideas and discuss the methods of construction used here. Usually customers ask if we can open up walls or add a second story. We tell them for that, we would have to go see the house in question to know if it is feasible. We set an appointment to meet at the house, so we can see what we are dealing with. We meet the client on site and discuss the clients ideas and give him our opinion on what will be required to make the renovation as per our discussions. We also will give the client a ballpark number so they know roughly what their ideas will cost them. Here is when the client usually says OK or that is more than my budget. If it is over the budget we suggest ways they can reduce that amount, if it is possible on that project. This process so far takes 3 or more hours and fuel.

If the client says OK can I get a proper estimate this is were things get more complex. We need to send someone to measure the existing building as we need to know things like M2 of wall areas, areas of flooring, existing electrical, plumbing and all the other details we need to have on hand to do a proper estimate. This takes more time and involves 2 people. If it is a renovation that requires an architects drawings then that has its own costs. But for this article we will say he is not needed. Depending on complexity this can take some time, so lets say 8 man hours and fuel.

We need to take all the information and dimensions back to the office and calculate all the materials required and the man hours. We also need to calculate cubic meters of rubble that has to be trucked away and determine all the latest costs for the dump trucks, as they change by location. For example, in Merida centro they will not let you load during the day. So the trucking costs change. Our office staff has to contact suppliers to get pricing on all the sub trades like granite on counters or the aluminum window maker.

Once we have all this information gathered, we then need to have it all put down in a line by line spread sheet so we can produce a simple 2 or 3 page estimate. Getting the costs and doing a proper estimate takes 2 days or more of office time

This all takes time and money. All too often customers say can you give me 3 different estimates for a bathroom outside, a small casita and the main renovation and we will maybe do it in stages. Well, an estimate is only good for a certain period of time. No point in doing and estimate for things you may build 6 months from now, when prices have changed.

Sometimes the customer gets the estimate and then takes it to shop around for a better quote. In other words using our effort to get an advantage over us. The fair way is to ask other contractors for an independent estimate of their own and see what you get.

Remember we do not charge for estimates, but they are far from being free at our end.

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