HUMEDAD SUBIENDO

This post is dedicated to Christina, from whom I learned the term "rising damp."

Remember those little screened circles in the casita?  Their function was to alleviate the rising damp.  Whether they worked is questionable.  Another way to deal with the damp is to construct a ledge part way up the wall with a moisture barrier behind it.

All the houses we've seen in the city have the rising damp issue even though we live in a semi-desert.  Gloria, our next door neighbor, claims it's the drainage under the houses.  She may be right, but I don't think we're going to dig up all our floors to replace the drainage.

In our new house the bottom meter or so of all the walls was sponge painted different colors to hide or maybe imitate the rising damp.  Here's an example from the "closet" room:

One of the first things el sr J did after moving in was paint these colors white.  Before he painted he scraped and sanded the walls:

In most of the rooms this worked very well.  This is the "dining" room:

But in the front room, dark and dank as it is, the paint would start to peel just hours after he painted:

How discouraging.  Guess we'll have to put ledges with moisture barriers in this room.  A fan and some light would help too.

Update on CableCom:  We went to the office on Saturday and told them that if they couldn't send technical help to the house, we would have to cancel.  They said someone would be here between 11 and 1 today.  We stayed in the house all day but nobody showed up.  Hmmmm....  

To be continued.