Merida Colonial Home Purchasing Tips
In the process of putting the final touches on our new home, we were lucky enough to meet a man named Jorge Sosa, whose business is called The Handyman. Jorge, who was raised in California, worked many years for large maquiladoras here in Merida, managing their buildings, building their buildings and dealing with construction issues. He struck out on his own and created this small company, Handyman, to provide a wide range of services to homeowners in Merida.
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While Jorge's service is a bit more expensive than hiring the guy down the street who may or may not know how to put up that wall you've been wanting around your garden, he earns that extra money with a good understanding of how things work around here, an understanding of the tastes of most Americans and Canadians, and a team of capable, clean workers who clean up after themselves. And he guarantees his work, so if something isn't right, he'll come back and fix it. And for those of you still learning Spanish, Jorge speaks perfect English.
We asked Jorge to give us a few tips about what he looks for when evaluating a colonial home in this area, something that he has helped various friends with over the years. Since he has experience fixing everything, we figured he might be a good person to tap for this information. The following are some tips on what to look for when buying a colonial (or any other) home here in the Yucatan.
First Things First: Walls
When inspecting a colonial home that you want to buy, the first thing you'll want to do is review the condition and placement of the walls. You are probably going to find cracks and even plaster falling off the walls. These are nothing to worry about as they can be easily repaired. The most important thing to determine is if the walls are made from cement block or from stone. The stone wall construction is called mamposteria, and walls made this way can be anywhere from one to two and a half feet wide. Of course, we all love the old stone walls, but there are some things to keep in mind when you are assessing them.
Repairing these walls is done all the time, and if the house is more than ten years old, some repair will probably be in order. If there are spots of excessive humidity on the walls, repair will consist of digging out the old plaster around the stones and replacing it with new plaster. This is a messy process (one you don't want to have to live in the midst of...) because it creates a lot of very fine polvo (dust).
Look carefully at where the walls are placed. Cement block walls are easily moved or altered. You want a door there? a window? No problem! But if that wall is made of mamposteria, creating a new door or window in that space may not be so easy... in fact, it may not be possible without tearing down a large section of the wall. These walls were often built without supporting columns or reinforcement, so removing or altering them may compromise another wall or the ceiling. It can be done, but no contractor can give you an honest bid for this type of project, since it is impossible to know what the opening will need in time and materials until the job has been started.
Run your hands along the walls. If a very fine dust comes off on your fingers, that probably means the walls are painted with cal paint. This is basically a form of very thin plaster with color added to it. While this type of paint allows the old stone walls to breathe, it also tends to stain and flake off. You should count on having to repaint every few years, depending on the humidity in your house. If the cal paint is on an outside wall, you will probably have to paint every second year to keep it looking beautiful. There are vinyl paints here, of course (called vinilica), and they can be used on any kind of wall. If you use vinilica on a mamposteria wall, you run the risk of bubbling as the wall releases its humidity over time. Vinilica on a cement block wall will last for a long time, as long as there are no humidity problems.
Another thing to keep in mind is the height of the walls. When assessing how much it is going to cost to paint a room, keep in mind that many of these old colonials have very high ceilings. This fact almost doubles the cost of painting a room because of the increased area of the walls. Painters will also have to set up andamios (scaffolding) in order to paint the walls and ceilings. You haven't lived until you've watched painters setting up scaffolding around your precious furniture, balancing on old boards with full buckets of paint twenty feet in the air! Plan to paint before you move in if at all possible.
Up On The Roof
When you decide to get serious about a house, make an appointment with your realtor to see the roof (if you haven't already). It is important that you go up on the roof and inspect it for yourself. If you are unable to climb, bring a friend who can do this for you and perhaps take photographs for you as well.
All colonial roofs need to be sealed with a very heavy latex sealant called impermeabilizante. (Working Gringos Note: we felt we had really become locals when we could finally pronounce that word!) Unlike with walls, with a roof you do need to worry about cracks. The slightest crack in a roof will mean a leak in your house. If the roof has not been sealed at all, you will need to consider the additional cost of doing this in your estimates. A perfectly sealed roof will look perfectly clean and painted white (there are black and red impermeabilizantes, but they are rarely used). The proper sealing job for a colonial roof requires several coats of sealant and cloth in between to reinforce the layers. If the house appears to have been sealed, get down on your knees and feel the surface. If it feels thick and slightly rubbery, that's a good thing! You also should be able to find traces of the cloth that was applied. If instead it looks like the roof was sealed with paint and you can see fine cracks everywhere, that probably means that the sealant was watered down and/or no material was used.
In this case, you don't know what you are getting into. The thick coat may have been applied just to groom the house for sale, but it could also mean that the house has leaks and the job was done to temporarily plug the leaks. If you go inside the house, look up and you can see water marks or humidity stains on the ceiling, then you can assume that the job was not done well. Yes, this can be fixed, but fixing it right usually means resealing the entire roof.
In Merida, everybody has a friend who has a cousin who seals roofs. Most people believe that sealing a roof is as simple as applying paint. If you ask around, you'll find that the plumber, the painter and even the gardener will do the job if you pay them. In reality, sealing a roof is tricky. Although it isn't rocket science, it does have certain procedures that need to be followed precisely. And it is a very difficult job. Imagine a guy on your roof in the middle of the day in 90-plus degree heat, applying blinding white material to the roof. There is a lot of room for error here, but errors are the one thing you need to avoid. Even professionals can make mistakes, but at least a professional applier will honor a warranty and will repair the mistake.
One last thing while you are on the roof. Look around and see what kind of water storage unit is on the roof. Although the old cement type of tinaco blends in beautifully with an old house, they aren't particularly healthy. These cement water tanks do not seal well and are not hygienic. Replacing this with a plastic, germ-free unit is a must.
Going Down... the Fosa Septica
In the Yucatan, we do not have city sewers like many cities in the world, so we depend on individual septic systems. Please read this very informative Yucatan Living article before you ask any questions so you can understand how they work.
As a buyer, the important thing to know is what kind of system is in place. In a newly renovated home, you probably don't need to worry about this. But in homes that have undergone little or no renovation, there are some things to consider. Many homes downtown were originally part of one single mansion that occupied most of a city block. Over time, these homes were divided and sold as independent houses. If this is the scenario for your house, keep in mind that the house you are buying may share the septic system with one or more houses on the block. So when you are starting to plan for renovation of that house, be sure to count on putting in a new fosa septica that serves just your home.
Plumbing and Electricity
As I've mentioned above, if you are planning to buy a renovated home, none of this applies... probably. When a house has been occupied by a Yucatecan family or closed for many years, these things will almost surely be an issue.
With a renovated home, be sure to ask for the electrical and plumbing plans from the seller, so it will be easier to find pipes or installations. You can't use a stud finder in an all-cement house! If the home is not previously renovated, you will probably be able to see the electrical wire running outside of the cement or stone walls. When these things came to this part of the world, families put in galvanized pipes for plumbing and single hard wire for electrical wiring. All of it was done on the walls, so nothing is hidden. If this is what you see, it may be functional, but it probably won't work well with modern appliances, computers, etc. Most likely, these installations will need to be totally replaced.
Even if the seller says that this sort of work has been done, and some of the installations are already hidden, check the faucets, rooftops and gardens to see if you can see any old and deteriorated galvanized pipe that will need to be replaced. Take a screw driver with you and open an outlet to see if it is a single wire with its installation bristle. If you find this, you can probably count on rewiring the house and having some major plumbing jobs. If instead you find copper pipes or, better yet, PVC or CPVC and flexible multistring wiring, then you probably won't have much work to do.
Last Thoughts
From stories we have heard, the earliest immigrants to Merida from the US and Canada were often unpleasantly surprised by things they needed to do to their homes in order to live in the comfort they were accustomed to. Still, they bought the houses, they renovated them and now they are very happy here. Hopefully, you will take the comments above as tips to improve your buying skills, not as stories to scare you away from buying. There is nothing in a colonial house that cannot be fixed... it's only a matter of money and time. And dust. Now that you have read this article, you won't be caught off guard and will have a better understanding of what you will need to invest in the house you are buying.
Comments
Jorge ¨The Handyman¨ Sosa 16 years ago
Ray , I have never dealt with vertical axis wind turbines before. But I'm always interested in new technology and learning new things. So if you ever decide to go ahead with this project, count me in to help you anyway I can. If you want to buy the equipment, I can provide all the tools and manpower you need. And then we can post the results for other people to learn as well.
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Jorge ¨The Handyman¨ Sosa 16 years ago
Hi everyone, sorry to come in so late into the forum. I had some technical problems but should be OK now. However I don't think I was missed, since the Working Gringos, as usual, are very accurate in their advice and posts, and I couldn’t agree more with CasiYucateco´s comments.
I would however like to add my two cents on some of the things you have written about.
WINDMILLS
As much as I like windmills and would like to encourage you to use them, I must comment on the downsides. Other than a company in Monterrey, I don’t know of anybody else making new ones these days. I hope I’m wrong and somebody can tell me otherwise. But your most likely option would be to get an old one and have it reinstalled in your home. New or old, it will be costly to have it installed.
With old windmills, you will have to perform intensive maintenance, oiling and greasing up all moving parts, finding spare parts will become harder to do, and keeping it operational, drawing water, will take a lot of dedication. At the end, you will be drawing water from a well, and most likely the water will not be clean enough for human use.
If you have the time, patience and money, it would be great to have one to water your yard. But as a primary source of water for your home, I would not recommend it.
NEIGHBORS
I agree 100 percent with CaseYucateco on how you should deal with your neighbors. Fortunately almost every Yucateco I know both thinks and acts this way. However I believe it is very important to point out that every neighborhood has its own ¨scrooge¨ and nothing you do will make them happy. In addition, in many regions of Mexico, people do not think the same way, And Merida has a large population of Mexicans from other regions moving in. Unfortunately, in my work I often see conflicts between neighbors when someone wants to build something. Bottom line is that by law, you can build whatever you need regardless of your neighbors opinion. You are not obligated to smooth or paint his wall, BUT YOU SHOULD.
RUBBER ROOFIING
Kim, Some modern buildings in Merida have used rubber roofing (EPDM) on new roofs. Properly applied they are very durable, but much more expensive than what is being used today in Yucatan. Besides the cost, there are also a few things to consider. As far as I know rubber roofs only come in black which will draw more heat to your home. Also, the system is basically rubber sheets glued to the roof, which leaves seams. There is a lot of room for error when these are being applied, and one single seam not properly sealed will ruin the whole project. In colonial homes, almost all roofs are made of mamposteria, basically rocks and sand, so once you have crack on the roof, you will always have a fine coat of dust that will prevent the adhesive from working properly.
WELL WATER
Greg, as you might now Yucatan´s underground is full of cenotes and underground rivers. As with any river, contamination does not need to be close by and can actually be many miles away. The problem with well water inside the City is not so much caused by septic systems but by old business buildings and factories. It’s virtually impossible to know how deep their wells are and what they have been used for. Yucatan natural filtration system is good enough to get rid of most problems, but well water should be used with caution.
The faculty of chemical engineering from the Yucatan University has a lab that tests water .and it is open to the public at a very reasonable price. Reverse osmosis alone will not work to make water suitable for human use. You need a water softener to eliminate minerals, reverse osmosis to eliminate organic materials, and finally, UV rays to eliminate bacteria. You cannot store purified water in large quantities, so it is best to store it after reverse osmosis, and use a UV ray system on demand.
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Ray 16 years ago
One of the things we are looking at to be as green as possible is the installation of vertical axis wind turbines to generate power. The units sit on a corner of the house and generate power at much lower wind speeds and can also withstand much higher winds than the "normal" wind turbines.
More research is required but it looks to be a very viable alternative to the big propellors people are used to seeing (even Jay Leno has installed them at his large car garage).
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Greg 16 years ago
Jorge " the handyman":
I am looking at a home in Merida and have some questions that need professional answers. Can you help me? The home I am looking at has a natural well on a very large lot. The well however is 20 feet from the property line, so close to the neighbor.
Since Merida is mostly on septic systems, some very old and some used by multiple families on one system, I would like to know: How effective is the filtration of these systems with so much rock and mostly, if not all, limestone beds with cavities and little soil to help purify the grey water before it contaminates any natural well? Is this a common problem?
Can one have this tested before purchasing? and finally is reverse osmosis an option to get the water clean even for at least showering?
I have found your past articles extremely informative. You know your city and your trade. I look forward to doing business with you once I purchase down there.Thanks for keeping us educated on what to look for in buying homes in Merida.
Keep it up
Thanks Again
Greg
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Laura 16 years ago
Hey Gregg,
Thanks for the reply, I want to be off the grid as much as possible. I am looking into rain water and gray water collection and ultraviolet technology for it and the pool, cool air flow, solar panels and anything else to be off the grid.
Let me know how it goes for you. I won't be moving for a few months yet but I will be visiting soon. I'll let you know when, maybe we can meet.
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CasiYucateco 16 years ago
Aside from restrictions in the historic center (colonial Centro), second stories only have a few rules, like WGs said. And en Centro, besides distance, sometimes the authorities require that the 2nd (or 3rd) story addition not be visible from the street.
On windmills, high walls, and other potential neighbor-annoying issues, I've been advised the best thing to do is to know your neighbors and prevent anything from annoying them. If you want to raise the wall, for example, talk to your neighbors, assure them you will finish their side of the wall smoothly and offer to paint their side whatever color they wish. In other words, just be a "decent Joe" about things. Any change is an imposition, so smooth the change by sweetening the deal.
Even old=fashioned looking windmills can be virtually silent. There is one spinning in a good breeze about 30 yards from me right now, and I don't hear a thing. If I try to listen hard, there's an occasional soft clank. If you put in a windmill, be sure to have a regular maintenance plan with the company that puts it in or your handyman. Monthly oiling, adjustments, etc, will keep it quiet. As long as it isn't squeaking loudly and banging the thrusting rods or otherwise preventing the whole block from sleeping, you may be fine. However, historic centro is always a precaution, due to increased rules and casual inspections from the street to see what's going on.
Rubber roofs. I suppose they'd work fine, if they could hold up to the tropical sun. The thing is, I think they'd cost much, much more than the bucket or four of impermbilizante (sp?) and a roll of cloth. I've heard of a person or two who installed a "flexible barrier roof" which may have been some type of rubber. The cost was enormous at the time and that was several years ago. Probably would have been better to have knowledgeable albaniles repair the poor condition roof in the first place.
Some roofs - in excellent condition - are even perfectly waterproof without the reinforcing cloth. There is a old process calling "milking" the roof, where albaniles mix up a certain combination of lime, cement, maybe some fine sand (who knows?) (probably some coca cola?)? When spread over the roof, the watery mix seeps into cracks and seals them. The impermibilizante (I likely misspell it as I mispronounce it!) then can cover the "milking."
P.S. My albaniles assure me that Squirt is much better than Coca-cola when working in the sun. "Quita sed", he told me, "Cuts thirst." And there it was, "Quita sed" printed right on the bottle. I've been providing Squirt, along with Coke, as an option ever since.
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Working Gringos 16 years ago
As far as we know, you can build a second story (with the appropriate permits, of course) as long as you are at least three meters from the street property line and as long as your windows don't look into your neighbors' yards. You also may need to fortify a roof to build a second story if there has never been one there before.
Windmills used to be THE way to pump water from your own personal well here in Merida. If you look at photos of Merida before electricity, there are windmills everywhere. We don't know about restrictions, however.
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Kim G. 16 years ago
Hola Working Gringos,
I am curious about roofs. Does anyone in Yucatan use rubber roofs? They seem to be a very durable, modern solution to nearly-flat roofs, that is probably a lot easier to install than the traditional sealant and cloth.
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Donna Ward 16 years ago
Thanks again for all the great information here.
We are researching retiring to Merida sometime in the next year or two and I hope to redo an old home for us. Since we'll be on a fixed income unless boredom drives me to find something that brings in a little extra, we're looking for any way we can cut expenses. We were happy to learn there are companies to call on for solar water heating. Being from Florida, I know how well something as simple as a black hose in the sun can work to heat water.
Something my husband has mentioned looking into is a windmill. I know we've occasionally seen them in the gardens in Merida homes. Are there any restrictions to where and how they can be used (generators, pumps, etc)? Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated.
Another question I've had is regarding building up. Some areas seem to be single story only. Is this because of building restrictions or simply because no one has added a second story yet? Several of the listings I've been interested in, I would want to add a second story master suite and back terrace. What do I need to know about looking for homes that lend themselves to something like this?
Muchos gracias,
Donna
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Jorge "the Handyman" Sosa 16 years ago
Hola Carlos. In my experience, it is the Home owner who pays for the repairs of the house. I am often called for jobs in rented homes and usually, either the homeowner takes care of the bill, or the renter pays me and later deducts the cost of repairs to the rent. It is my understanding that this is how it is done traditionally in Merida and I rarely hear of a problem between parties.
I consulted with my lawyer, just to be able to give you a complete answer, and he told me that by law, the renter is obligated to pay for the maintenance and up keeping of the house, and the homeowner is liable to pay for any repairs. However what is maintenance and what is repairs can sometimes be hard to define. A homeowner can say he rented the house ¨as is¨ but the renter can also claim ¨Hidden problems¨. (Repairs not able to be detected in plain view). Both of these scenarios are contemplated by law, so fighting over these issues, as anything else, can get more frustrating than a friendly arrangement.
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Carlos Daniel Gallegos 16 years ago
May I offer to your readers an option to rent a home in Merida or the Yucatan. Many gringos get down there and find out it was not what they expect, and return back to the USA. I've found affordable, nice, homes for rent around $300 usd and less in the Diario de Yucatans Classified section.
The last time I rented a home in Merida, I paid 3 prices: The last months rent, Deposit, and a Contract Fee - all in the equal amount. For example: $1,400.00 Pesos X 3. Is this typical?
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