Monthly Archives: December 2014

Time For A New Roof Coating for the Villa

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29 December 2014

I haven’t posted since early December when I reported on the first phase of replacing all of the 20+ step lights around the villa. I’m still woking on that one but not too many left to replace.

The owners came for a visit from early December unitl the 22nd so while they were here they found a few more small items they wanted added to the project list. Some of these we tackled while they were here, all the while still replacing step lights on the east patio.

Several projects were BIG ones that had been on the back burner for some time. The biggest project was resurfacing the entire villa roof with a Vulkem® Roof Terrace/Deck Coating System. This has to be done by someone who is certified in the application process as well as it has to be inspected during the process by the Vulkem coating supplier so the warranty is valid. The villa roof was in dire need of resurfacing.

This was a learning experience for us. Although I did not have a hand in the application process, I did have to find certified installers and get quotes for the owners to interview and hire once they arrived in early December.

PW-006First, the entire roof surface had to be pressure washed and cleaned. This means sealing off the gutter drains to the cisterns to keep “crap & debris” from entering the drinking water supply. The pressure washing created quite a mess – on the yard, driveway, and patios and decks. But that’s just part of the process. There is not escaping the mess. So we helped with the cleanup process before the coating phases began.

During the whole Vulkem coating process, I took photos (see Gallery below) of the different steps involved; for several reasons. One, just to document the project; and two, to build a photo book for the local installer, Edward Esprit, so he can hopefully get more similar work once folks can see photos of this job. He is a great guy and had some great helpers with him. They were under a very tight timeline due to guests arriving and throw on top of that, we lost two full days to rain – rare in December.

But it got completed the same day guests arrived and it looks awesome. The installer even came back after the guests departed and did some touchup paint work on some trim around the villa.

I was very pleased with the outcome and I learned a lot about the Vulkem® Roof Terrace/Deck Coating System. And a big shout out to the Paint Depot professionals in STT for supplying the materials and providing the expertise, advice, and inspections to cover the warranty.

The TLC Never Stops

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02 December 2014

I think everyone has had a dream at some point in their life of owning a house on the beach or ocean. I know I have … many times. Wake up to the sound of waves crashing on the shore or like this villa, look out over the ocean and watch the changing hues throughout the day and seasons. A place to go to escape the hustle and bustle of our everyday lives.

The harsh realities of ocean-side or ocean environment property ownership can turn your dream home into a full-time job. And I knew this before taking this position at Silk Cotton Villa . Bottom line is the ocean environment is rough on a building and its guts, no matter how it is built or with what materials. It just needs a lot of TLC.

This villa has a lot of decks and patios with steps going down to the lower yard in the back. When it was rebuilt over 20 years ago, the design included step lights built into the walls to light the steps and patios for safety and ambiance. These step light inner boxes are made of metal. And as we all know, metal rusts. And here, in this environment, it rusts to the point it disintegrates to just metal flakes and pieces (see photos below).

This project subject: Replace about 20 step light inner boxes.

This might sound easy, but it isn’t. First, since the walls these lights are embedded into are made of concrete and plaster, the replacement boxes needed to be at least close to the same size as the originals. Just finding that box and getting 20 delivered here was a project in and of itself. But we finally did get the boxes we needed, although just slightly larger in width.

Because the width of the new box is about 1/2″ wider, replacing meant chiseling out the opening so the new box would fit. Then there is the case of the new box conduit knockouts not matching up perfectly with where the wires are inside the opening so there is plenty of “MacGyvering” to make each box fit in the opening and be wired safely.

There are 8 of said step lights on the lower pool patio lighting steps down to the yard. Replacing all of these was last week’s main project. The photos below show some of the before and after work.

Now it’s on to the east patio located off the owner’s apartment where there are about 12 more of these step lights to replace. You just take your time and try to do it right. I’ll make an update post when this whole project is completed.