Construction Methods

Just down the street they are remodeling an old house.  It is is pretty bad shape but from a construction standpoint I am most interested in these techniques.  There are adobe walls inside, some brick a little wood and other materials.  I have had a lot of comments about the techniques so I thought I would take a few minutes and go over some things that might be of interest, especially if you are thinking about building here.

First the city is divided into zones.  The historical, the protected and the non historical or protected.  In the historical area you may not do anything on the outside, and some things on the inside, that affect the historical period, which is sort of undetermined.  There are maps at city hall that show the areas.  In the protected you can make some changes but not nearly as liberal as the non-historical or protected.

If for example you are in the historical, which includes most of the downtown area and have an adobe wall and it falls down, as one did a couple of years ago, you must rebuilt it with Adobe.  You may also not change the outside of the structure.

In the protected area you could replace with wall with concrete block but you still must make every effort to keep the appearance authentic.

The non-protected and non-historical you can do pretty much anything you want.  In the lobby of the Vista Mombacho apartments are some sample of the various construction methods that we uncovered when we were remodeling the property.

 

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