Layer after layer

It does not appear to be super exciting. But they are working really really hard. Just in time before the first autumn storms hit the mountain, work is finished. And then it is exciting to go to the building site and take a look. Will the house still be there? Is the roof leaking? Did we get a new lake around the house? How many frogs will we find this time in the pool?

Asfalt and Tela Pitonada

As I explained last time, they first add a layer of asphalt in a form of paint. Next to that a layer of asphalt sheets is melted against the paint. Then enters the famous so-called actress, Tela Pitonada, who lays her sturdy nubs along the outside of the house.

In the trench around the house there are in the end 3 networks of tubes to carry water away:

• rainwater via the 4 edges of the roof
• waste water from inside the house
• a drainage pipe, with a perforated membrane, wrapped in tissue, that can absorb and dispose of other rainwater in the ground
  

And all these pipes go in combination with the other pipes for water coming in, electricity, pumps etc. In the end we need to purchase no less than 18 drain covers for all the control pits. Luckily we can obtain them in galvanized steel. In stainless steel they would cost 10 times as much! All these extra’s we have to spend…

The ditch around the house then will be filled up with gravel. And this is a super intergalactic lot of gravel… boss needs to order more. And more. But they succeed in filling it all up just in time. So now the house is also watertight below ground level! And in came the rains and the house remined in situ!

Foundation vents

Along the façade of the house you see these small closets. They are the air-holes of the ‘cellar’, and connected to the small rooms under the floor. They keep the crawl spaces ventilated. Normally these are simple pieces of pipe sticking out of the ground. This architect designed them especially for this house and has them made locally from stainless steel, prepped for the salt in this air so close to the ocean. Dutch water management and design into Portuguese grounds.

Pouring

Now our building specialists can continue working on the floors inside the house. They are covering all the cables and pipes with a layer of leca, like they put on the roof. All nicely covered and tightly in position. This layer ends with a very smooth surface. On the veranda’s this layer will be covered with wood. Inside the house we will firstly install the layer of floor heating. A thick layer of 4 centimeters will cover this for warmth conducting. and then we will finish it of with the final floor of Polyurethane. But first things first.

Autumn weather

The air is moist. It can drizzle for a couple of days. The atmosphere in our apartment is also becoming a bit damp, we need the dryer for our laundry. But it is not cold outside. And once the strength of the sun wins from the mist, the sky becomes clear again, and you can see miles away from the mountain.