Apologies for the hiatus in posts. I have been unwell and will try to catch up over the next few weeks. Well the saga of the leaking roof continues!
Despite really excellent weather over last winter, with very little rain, another leak in the concrete roof emerged with water dripping down through the roof into the kitchen area. i.e. water had penetrated the earth sheltering, the waterproof membrane, and the waterproofing silicone sprayed layer on the pristine solid concrete roof.
The waterproofing team therefore had to return, yet again.
This was to repair something so vital to get right first time as it would be subsequently and permanently covered over. Again the initial step was to excavate all the earth sheltering from the affected areas. No mean feat with shovels as the weather heated up in the late spring.
Having dug down to the concrete the areas were swept and hosed down in preparation for spraying with a combination of compounds that I was assured would provide a perfect waterproofing seal. Then again I had previously been told the waterproofing contractors were the best in Crete.
The saga of the spraying was something to behold and encapsulated, for me, a major flaw in approach. Time and again, people have been left working unsupervised on this project with no-one turning up to quality assure the job in progress or afterwards.
After carefully excavating all the soil, the team arrived to do the spraying with no source of power for the large piece of equipment that was to be used for mixing the chemicals and delivering them to the spray gun. When combined, these chemicals would form the strong waterproofing. Given that they were aware, from previous visits, that we relied upon a PV system to deliver our electricity, this was unbelievable. Since they could give me no guidance as to the power consumption of the machine or the length of time they would be using it, I was not prepared to risk our batteries in meeting an unknown demand. As an alternative I offered my own generator but had no fuel.
There was therefore a delay whilst one of the team was sent to find fuel. On return, over an hour later, the generator was, after a lot of discussion and many attempts started. The mixing/spraying machine was coaxed into life and when all was ready the chemicals were mixed and the spraying started. However shortly after the picture below was taken the generator suddenly stopped right in the middle of the spraying process. This was critical since it meant the hose gun and the pipes delivering the waterproofing compound had to be immediately stripped down and cleaned as the mixture is very quick setting and would have clogged up the jets and tubing.
The reason for the hiccup in the generator supply was, as far as I could gather from observation, that insufficient fuel had been put into the tank in the interests of economy!! Well a good hour later the system was up and running again and the spraying finished.
All in all a most unsatisfactory job.
Despite really excellent weather over last winter, with very little rain, another leak in the concrete roof emerged with water dripping down through the roof into the kitchen area. i.e. water had penetrated the earth sheltering, the waterproof membrane, and the waterproofing silicone sprayed layer on the pristine solid concrete roof.
The waterproofing team therefore had to return, yet again.
This was to repair something so vital to get right first time as it would be subsequently and permanently covered over. Again the initial step was to excavate all the earth sheltering from the affected areas. No mean feat with shovels as the weather heated up in the late spring.
Having dug down to the concrete the areas were swept and hosed down in preparation for spraying with a combination of compounds that I was assured would provide a perfect waterproofing seal. Then again I had previously been told the waterproofing contractors were the best in Crete.
The saga of the spraying was something to behold and encapsulated, for me, a major flaw in approach. Time and again, people have been left working unsupervised on this project with no-one turning up to quality assure the job in progress or afterwards.
After carefully excavating all the soil, the team arrived to do the spraying with no source of power for the large piece of equipment that was to be used for mixing the chemicals and delivering them to the spray gun. When combined, these chemicals would form the strong waterproofing. Given that they were aware, from previous visits, that we relied upon a PV system to deliver our electricity, this was unbelievable. Since they could give me no guidance as to the power consumption of the machine or the length of time they would be using it, I was not prepared to risk our batteries in meeting an unknown demand. As an alternative I offered my own generator but had no fuel.
There was therefore a delay whilst one of the team was sent to find fuel. On return, over an hour later, the generator was, after a lot of discussion and many attempts started. The mixing/spraying machine was coaxed into life and when all was ready the chemicals were mixed and the spraying started. However shortly after the picture below was taken the generator suddenly stopped right in the middle of the spraying process. This was critical since it meant the hose gun and the pipes delivering the waterproofing compound had to be immediately stripped down and cleaned as the mixture is very quick setting and would have clogged up the jets and tubing.
The reason for the hiccup in the generator supply was, as far as I could gather from observation, that insufficient fuel had been put into the tank in the interests of economy!! Well a good hour later the system was up and running again and the spraying finished.
All in all a most unsatisfactory job.
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| The roofing team start to dig out the earth from the sections of the roof above the latest leaks. |
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| First section exposed back to the concrete. |
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| The new machine to mix the chemicals to make the waterproofing compound to spray on the roof. |
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| Action shot!! |
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| Section finished and left to cure. NB. Insulation to be used later. |