Setbacks are a part of the DIY construction experience. A series of storms have hilighted the need for further work on the runoff for our low-pitch ferrocement roof. Drainage is the obvious Achilles Heel for flat roofing, so we will continue to eliminate everything between uphill and downhill. After the most recent weather system, I have circled the most heinous spots with yellow paint.
Two more trouble spots are shown here. The area circled in green is part of the self-contained guttering system typical for Spanish colonial-era architecture. Rain runs downhill from the inside courtyard walls to the outside, where it is funneled (in theory) to the drainage sepa in the corner. Another low spot is at right, which also needs to flow towards the same sepa.
A similarly dysfunctional gutter as the one in the photo above is circled here in green. Yes, the obvious pun would be that my mind has been in the gutter all week. I'll try to "curb" any further bad puns here. The obvious solution (to the drainage problem, not my puns) is going to be installing foam "crickets" and meshcrete to bring up the lower spots in the roof without adding too much extra weight.
A better look at the corner in Photo #2 above. Readers will remember that a previous round of storms had us marking the low spots and filling them in. I suppose the good news would be that we have 25% of the low spot problems we did previously and that's about the best progress us DIY builders can expect sometimes. The roof is, by far, the toughest part of this particular house design to solve.
You can see the previous round of corrections marked here in black or white and the most recent round in yellow. The setbacks are discouraging but part of the process. With completion of the house being this close, there isn't much else to do but grit my teeth and answer the bell as the boxing match goes into extra rounds and we strive for a TKO on the remaining roof trouble spots. Listen! Was that thunder I heard....?
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