Chile Forum

My tribute to Chilean carpenters, basado en hechos reales:

cali_chile48 wrote:My tribute to Chilean carpenters, basado en hechos reales:

Sin lugar a dudas, un arte de verdad.

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Since we were discussing insulation.

There is a national standard and as admin had previously pointed out, requirements by region, for minimum insulation for homes.

The national standard (Norma Chilena, or NCh) for such insulation is NCh 2251. In Chile you now see insulation sold using that standard and the R100 value where R100 = thermal resistance in m2K/W x 100.

There is a layman's guide to the standard and some potentially useful intro "Manual de Aplicación de la Reglamentación Térmica"

http://www.sodal.cl/files/1_Manual%20A%20R%20T.pdf

If you're planning to have a lot of window surface to take in the views, the glazing standard may get in the way, but there are ways to achieve compliance, outlined in this manual. As a meaningful standard concerning windows, however, there is a lot to be desired here, in part because there is no thermal performance standard for windows. So the leakiest domestically constructed aluminum frame "abatible" doubleglazed window with absolutely poor performance will allow you to increase the glazed surface. Never forget where you are: Chile, a medias.

Another head scratcher. There's shoddy. And then there's stupid. Lucky me. I got both.

This is the hole that the other handyman (I have a variety of other names for him that I shant repeat here) cut through the rim joist when he installed the upstairs toilet. I suppose he did this for aesthetic reasons, so that the drain pipe wouldn't show inside the house. But then the work was poorly done on the outside and it looked awful, so in the end I'm not really sure why he did it this way. Why damage the integrity of the house so much?

cali_chile48 wrote: Why damage the integrity of the house so much?

Because there is no word for integrity in Chilean.

Another big step yesterday. I worked with an electrician to separate the electrical circuits on the property, so now each living unit has its own circuit. Finding a good electrician was an adventure unto itself. I started with a list of certified electricians from the electrical company. I crossed out the names of anyone who didn't have a cell phone (since good communication matters to me), then the people who weren't in the immediate area, then the people with RUTs higher than 10.000.000 (because I wanted someone with experience. That left me with about 8 phone calls to make.

It's amazing the people that answer the phone when you call an electrician's cell phone. 5 year olds. 80 years olds. People listening to very loud music. People who talk as if their mouth is full of oatmeal. Eventually, I found the right guy.

As we worked to install the new circuits, it was of course necessary at times to disconnect the old circuits. More than once I saw the electrician studying the work of the previous electrician and literally scratching his head trying to understand "why". I thought of Yoda....there is no "why", there is only "is".

The renovation on the second floor is going well. The new subfloor is in, and i'll finish framing the walls this weekend. The drains are 90% in, and I have the new breaker box installed. I also picked up a new window that I had ordered from Sodimac, PVC, double glass. I am going to take out one of the sliding glass doors and replace it with a window and a row of glass block. If that goes well, I may modify two other glass doors the same way, but not this year.

What's left? Plenty....hot and cold water lines, installing the electrical outlets and lights and switches, drywall, tile in the bathroom and kitchen, counters and sinks, flooring......the list goes on....but it's a small space and some of those steps will go quickly. I am still silly enough to think i can get it all done by mid-December.

One of my classes in Conce is finishing next week, so that will give me one more day per week here on the property.

This picture is the framework for the new subfloor, now covered with 15mm plywood. This section of the floor was about 10 cm lower than the other section, so this was the solution I came up with to have a level floor. This room will soon be a small kitchen and dining area.

A level floor?

That has got to violate some sort of chilean building code.

I'm sorry, your house will be condemned and scheduled for demolition.

cali_chile48 wrote:

This picture is the framework for the new subfloor, now covered with 15mm plywood. This section of the floor was about 10 cm lower than the other section, so this was the solution I came up with to have a level floor. This room will soon be a small kitchen and dining area.

squeak squeak squeak ?

Maybe some fieltro between the old floor and the 2x2 framework, to help reduce the squeaking and perhaps reduce the cold air infiltration from the space below the old floor? Then unless you are using liquid nails perhaps some fieltro between to top of those 2x2s and the new subfloor. Unless you have another strategy to deal with the squeaking.