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Saving the
Burnt Adobe Personally I like the look of burnt adobe homes and feel they're fitting of the southwest region. What I don't like is that the walls of my house are crumbling. When I see the red brick deteriorating, I think of my youth when I visited some of the old mining towns in southern Arizona to find nothing but jeep trails and little stumps of former mud adobe walls that once helped make the town's buildings. Wind, rain and vandals, too, had destroyed the walls. Every time it rains or the wind blows I think of my house weathering away to nothing although the bricks are eight inches thick and most of the bricks have lost only the thin, hard outer surface. I'm sure I'll turn to dust long before my house does. Once, and only once, I made the mistake of letting the hose run next to the house and the stream of water struck the burnt adobe. When I checked on the watering later, the damage to the bricks had already occurred the surface layers of three bricks washed away from the force of the water. The red clay burnt adobe looks hard and durable and you'd like to think it's maintenance free. Unfortunately, it's not. Although the bricks are fired to give them a baked surface, the bricks are porous and if water gets in, the mud bricks can begin to soften and crumble. It doesn't happen over night but it does happen. Some sort of sealer is needed and many of us think of water sealers made by Thompson or Behr. I know I sprayed numerous gallons on my own home to no avail. I don't believe the original homeowner made an effort to preserve the adobe bricks so many of my bricks had already begun to deteriorate by the time I moved in. Especially around the chimney. There aren't a whole lot of options when it comes to adobe. The first is to take care of your adobe from the beginning and keep the proper sealer on it to keep out the moisture. Another option is to let your adobe bricks slowly erode and use the term rustic when ever you describe your home. Finally you can search out and pay for professional help. You'll find an Adobe Doctor, Adobe Specialists, Adobe Masters and other adobe oriented professionals listed in the yellow pages of your phone book under Adobe Materials & Contractors. Like a McDonald's Big Mac's secret sauce, each of the adobe fixers have their own formulas for repairing adobe and apply different protective sealers. I received an estimate from the Doctor and Specialists and wondered if I would have been better off living in a house made of stucco. Repair and waterproofing doesn't come cheap. I also learned my Sasabe adobe was formed and stacked and then surrounded by firewood and baked. Truly a waste of trees since there are other methods to fire a kiln but then Mexico and its people don't have the prosperity and resources of the States. I finally decided on the Adobe Specialists, Inc. to fix my home because the owner Rudy Martinez made sense when he came out to look over the problem areas, told me what needed to be done and then gave me a written estimate describing the work to be done. Where my adobe was most susceptible to the elements the adobe was replaced with a similar in appearance concrete bricks. Where I had no protective brick cap I would get one. Damaged bricks that had lost their hard outer protective layer would get a new one. And finally all the adobe would be coated with an acrylic water base sealer that would repel moisture for a couple of years. Every couple of years the sealer would need to be reapplied to keep damaging moisture out of the adobe bricks. So much for a low maintenance "brick" house.
By the time the project was completed, my house looked better. I actually like the new protective, overhanging cap on the chimney, entrance way and carport parapet. The repaired (resurfaced) adobe looked different from the original, now weathered, adobe on my house but I could live with the new hard surface protecting the bricks. (If your adobe house has a white wash, then you'd never notice the repaired bricks.) The protective sealer gave a semi gloss look to the bricks and provided a protective shield to keep moisture out. Now when it rains I won't have to see adobe remnants washing down the walls. My house problems started long before I let the water from an errant hose damage three adobe bricks. The power of moisture is amazing when you've got it in abundance. It can not only make plants grow, attract termites and wash cars away down our usually dry river beds but it can also nibble away at our homes. (1999) Editor's Note: All is not well in my world of burnt adobe. Signs of weathering are back - individual brick surfaces have once again begun to raise and peel. Some of the repairs made with new adobe brick have started to crumble and all the brick could use another coat of sealer to repel moisture. But then the house trim could use a fresh coat of paint and it won't be long before I need a new roof. Oh the joys of home ownership. |
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