Post date: Aug 8, 2015 2:00:42 AM
Quiet day. I sprayed the stucco walls with water three times today, climbing on the roof to get the mechanical room and the inside of the parapets. By the time I go around the house twice, once from the ground and once from the roof, it takes nearly an hour. The plasterers flooded the walls from the roof — a practice I don’t like for several reasons:
All the cement needs is moisture — not a flood. I spray the walls until they look wet and I can see a little runoff. The biggest need is on the side facing the sun, because the sun evaporates the water quickly. But all sides dry out in a few hours in this arid climate.
I got more lighting supplies today. The waterproof LED strip arrived for the shower niche (which is why it must be waterproof). I asked the electrician if he preferred a plug-in or hardwired power supply, and ordered four of the hard-wired ones from China. This evening I cut the strip into the length pieces I need (niche plus two bookcases) and prepared them for wiring.
I also received the two relays that I ordered to convert the range hood switch so it will turn up the exhaust speed of the ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilator).
Then I spent some time cleaning up after the plasterers. They left little blobs of cement plaster everywhere, and washed off their tools — leaving cementitious blobs everywhere. Especially hard is the the plaster that fell off the walls — often adhered to the wall itself and often four inches thick.
So I went at this all with hoe, pick, shovel, bucket, and wheelbarrow. I only got the front of the house done, and much of that was protected with plastic. The back will be more extensive. Even so it took me two bouts of effort with rest in between.
The garage door lady came by to inspect the site. We will have to chisel or grind out about a four-inch square one inch deep on each side of the opening in order for the door not to have a big gap under the middle. Ugh. Wish we knew that when we poured the concrete floor! We had carefully sloped the floor toward the opening so the snow melt would drain, but that left a little curb.