Construction in Mexico - step by step

As we near completion we have found out a few things.

1st is things progress much faster when we are there. So much so my wife is now there until we can be finished with the Architect and Contractor.

2nd, don't agree to finishing until the rough construction is completed, followed by water and Electrical, and possibly Air Conditioning lines. Sounds simple but as the building is being built by an Architect with us in Canada it seemed reasonable to go with the Architects suggestion to begin laying tiles on bottom floor while top floor was being built - its not. By getting the rough construction entirely done any budget overruns will at least mean you have a building. Its also cheaper to correct electrical or plumbing issues without ripping out finishing. We've found the best procedure seems to be to start at the top and work down during the finishing stages.

3rd - check out machinery vs manual labour. We found they want to do everything including mixing concrete for plastering by hand. We shipped a small electric mixer from the U.S. and its much more efficient. Also buying a Skill saw greatly sped form preparation. We decided to bury a complete www.infiltratorsystems.com sewer system as backup to our Biolytix.com type system that will be doing drip underground irrigation. By hand this would have taken a month or more. We found a backhoe with expert operator was only $35.00 hr. turning the job into a few days and that included removing 10 trucks of concrete waste from a old pool deck. Fortunately this was able to be used on beach road right of ways nearby to keep people from being stuck in sand.
I would also suggest Redi-mix concrete where available, they can add an additive to make the concrete more waterproof.

Our pressure balance taps appear to work in Mexico using a gravity water system but there is one Caveat - you need water on both cold and hot lines. If only one line is operational then the taps or showers don't work. We are using separate roof mounted tanks for solar hot, and cold water, generally they should both always be working but on startup they were not as we filled the cold tank first. Also we figured to plumb into the Hot Water tank 24" higher, with this configuration once the water level falls below the hot water mark all balanced taps will shut off. This could be beneficial in a water shortage situation leaving some water for emergency use via regular taps but the main thing is to know whats happening.

I did not lay plastic piping in the concrete for solar hot water, I was too concerned the different expansion might cause cracking of the concrete roof. Instead I ordered 2x10foot Pool solar hot water heaters. Enough for 16x10 feet which are to be on angle below the hot water tank. These were about 600.00 total and I intend to install a little at a time not wanting to get the hot water tank over 140 degrees Farenheit. Unfortunately this item was back ordered so I wasn't able to get them installed at Christmas.