Block construction can be done well or poorly, depending on design and execution - whether you reinforce the sills and plates and corners, and how well, that's what counts. Nothing wrong with those rammed earth blocks if they're made well and used properly. Cow manure can be used in place of cement as long as the blocks are kept dry with wide eaves. Structural support comes from timbers or steel, the block walls provide triangulation through compression only, no tension obviously. .... I didn't mean to knock the rammed earth concept, it is a good one imho, it just shouldn't work as a bulletin board promotion come-on since there are no barriers to entry and your customers are going to be very very poor.
Yes, lots of poor construction in México, and don't think that those plastic Gringolandias are free of it either - there have been several scandals about shoddy work in them, Huatulco being the most recent. In el DF [México city] there is a more or less uniform building code, but it is enforced only in the business district and more visible places, very seldom in the colonias [and then as a stimulation to la mordida mostly], and not at all in the barrios ... well, they are supposedly illegal in the first place, until they obtain colonia status.
The states have building codes, some of them anyway, i think Chiapas does, but they are seldom enforced in the towns and never in the villages. It is considered a gross violation of individual rights to tell a man what to do on his own land, quite rude even to suggest such a thing. People in the villages don't have the money to buy fancy manufactured stuff, and the municipios don't have the money to hire building inspectors anyway, so a person is pretty much left on his own to make his own decisions. As it should be, imho.
There is a lot of quality construction as well. It may not have sparkling white plastic siding but that doesn't mean it isn't strong. My wife's uncle is an albañil, a master mason, and i've worked with him, among other things on a house we are slowly putting together. We finished the walls in January, they are well reinforced and strong enough for three stories although we only intend to use one. People did think it a little odd to pay extra for the 12mm rebar, it's beyond local norms, but it wasn't so much and many others use it. Concrete block of the same design and quality as here in Canada is used in the great majority of construction in México - in the south especially you build to keep heat out, not in, and massive tonnage of shaded material helps. Most leisure time is spent outdoors in the shade of trees anyway, the main kitchen is always outdoors under a separate roof.
One house I spend a lot of time in was built around the turn of the century entirely from hewn timbers and whipsawed planks, stone foundation with cement floor added much later. On the shadey side part of the sheathing is coconut palm lumber, quite soft and weak but then so is gyproc. The frame is very well put together, not many nails used but it's bound well with wire and bolts at the critical points. The roof is not secured strongly, theory being that it's better to lose a roof than to lose the whole house, the hurricane is a powerful force. But i would trust the place in an earthquake, no problem.
The earthquakes happen more and stronger around el DF, though. The '85 one was devastating, many people killed and buildings down all over. The main cathedral stayed up, but just barely. Now it's all reinforced inside with huge amounts of steel tubing, which kind of spoils the ambience but they say it won't come down now no matter what. There are lots of colonial buildings that were undamaged beyond superficial things like needing new jointing and windows. Not so much as a crack in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.
You actually get good quantity and quality for your construction dollar in the parts of México that i know. Many large buildings are government projects, and when funds get skimmed off [which happens less lately] they just end up without some of the frills like bathrooms and paint and glass windows until more funds come along - they don't skimp on the concrete and steel, since those come first and people are watching when they go in. My friends are involved with an artisan's cooperative which built a three-storey building in one town, they must have gotten free cement from the government because the walls are two feet thick, it's cool inside all day if you keep the doors closed. Very solid, i would trust it. But that place across the street ... well, i dunno -g- |
