Whew…who know there was so much to know about bricks? Today we conclude this Seven-part series by taking about the all important roof.

Once all the bricks have been laid in the bóvedas, the masons begin layering the upper surface, to form the top of the roof. This system has been developed over the years to create a waterproof, strong rooftop that can double as a mirador (view terrace) or the floor of the second story.

First is Lechada

The first sealer coating is a very runny mixture called lechada. The workers mix grey cement, sealer and water, and then mop it onto the top of the bóveda. The lechada (milky-looking) liquid runs into all the cracks and crevices to seal the top side of the brick and grout.

Building up the sides; Filling in the spaces

Workers make a small retaining wall two or three bricks high, all around the roof edges, and then fill in the areas between the beams with jal (pea gravel) until the roof surface is flat, and level with the tops of the arches. Next a very wet, loose mixture of jal, yellow sand, cal (powdered lime) and cement is poured over the roof until the retaining wall is full. Small channels are included in the finish work on this layer, to direct the flow of rainwater into downspouts or off the roof onto the garden and away from windows and doors.

Workers carry buckets of the jal mixture up to the roof until a layer 6-8" deep has been poured over the entire roof.

While some of you still North of the border are imagining a ready-mix truck pumping the mixture onto the roof, that's not the way it happens here. Two men on the ground continually stir the concrete mixture and fill five-gallon buckets for the other workers. Those workers carry the heavy buckets up ladders to continually pour the roof. Occasionally pulleys can be utilized to reduce the labor required for the job, and still get enough buckets of the mixture to the roof, quickly enough.

More Lechada and then the tile

Once dry, the jal layer is sealed with another mopping of lechada. Then when the lechada is dry, the masons cover the roof with 8" square flat clay tiles (ladrillo de azotea), laid on a base of concrete.

Sealing and Waterproofing the Surface

Next come two coatings of grey cement mixed with sealer and water, followed by a finish sealer. This could be a commercial product called Fester, terra cotta or white sealer—and because of the difference it makes in the way the roof repels water, you should know the difference between the types of sealers and know which your contractor is using. .

When this sealing process is done well, the job can be guaranteed for five or six years. If it is done very well, with top quality materials and best sealers, the roof should be waterproof for about  10 years, maybe longer, although due to the effects of the sun and heavy rains, a simple additional sealer coat should be applied after four or five years.

Special thanks go to General Contractor Juan Gilberto Higuera and the maestros of The Little Company in Ajijic who explained procedures to me, answered questions and provided technical information for this article.

Bóveda Brick Designs
Masons at Lake Chapala use six designs when laying ceiling bóveda. Recently a crew of masons arranged bricks into these designs to give you a clearer view of the patterns and a way to learn the names of the patterns.

 

  Catalana                                           Cuña

The Original designs

Catalana and Cuña were the only bóveda designs used in central Mexico until about 40 years ago. Catalana is named for the people in a region of Spain and Cuña is the name of the wedges driven in between the bricks to fill the spaces.

  Petatillo Esquinada                              Petatillo Escuadro

The Petatillos

The two petatillos reflect the herringbone designs on the opposite sides of petate, (woven rush mat). You've seen petate in the ceiling structure of other homes, and for sale along the highway here at Lakeside. It serves poor Mexicans in every phase of daily life—from covering dirt floors to being the surface on which babies are born and often the wrapping for bodies before burial. Petatillo Esquinada is based on diagonal corners while Petatillo Escuadro is more squared off.

 Tesón                                                    Tesón y Catalana

 The Tough Designs

Tesón translates as tenacity, firmness or inflexibility in English—and those are good descriptions for a ceiling or roof. The remaining design combines the lengthwise rows of Catalan and crosswise flat bricks of Tesón.

Thanks to the maestros of Ajijic’s The Little Company and Contractor Juan Gilberto Higuera Rivera for their help with this series of articles. They taught me the names of these designs so I can share the information with the readers.

Long before most visitors to central Mexico know the name or the benefits of the area's familiar brick roof systems, they fall instantly, firmly in love with bóveda, the beautiful arched natural brick ceilings of the system. The first question from newcomers is always the same, "How do they do that?"

Bóveda is the Spanish word for an arch. It is also the word in Mexican and ancient Spanish architecture and construction, for a long, narrow section of arched brickwork. Sometimes the Spanish language seems amazingly limited in vocabulary. The dome of the heavens is called a bóveda—it's like the inside of a bowl. The arched ceiling cupped over the altar in old churches, the vault that is built to enclose a casket at the cemetery, and even the barrel-shaped ceiling over a hallway are also all called bóveda.

Bóveda is also the correct term for the 36" rows of brick arches that form the ceilings of many area homes. Each of these styles serves a unique purpose and is constructed a bit differently, but all are based on the ancient theory of the arch. The Romans proved the strength of arches to the rest of the world when they built the aqueducts. Once an arch is put under pressure or is bearing weight, it becomes even stronger. The success of bóveda depends on this same basic rule of physics.

Lakeside Bóveda History
Long before our Mexican neighbors began building Lakeside homes with low-arch bóveda ceilings, local masons were very familiar with the art. They used the technique for most burials at the local cemetery. Many families could only afford to buy a few lots in the cemetery. Knowing they would have many family members needing a final resting place, they had the plots dug extremely deep—deep enough to hold three or four or five bodies, stacked one on top of the other. Before the first family member died, the walls of the family plot were lined with brick. When it was time to bury the first body, the casket was lowered to the bottom of the hole and then the masons climbed down into the shaft and built a low-arch brick bóveda top over the casket, forming a crypt. When the casket was enclosed, the masons climbed out of the hole, and covered the hole with a removable slab of concrete.

Do you suppose this very real work is why we talk of seeking closure after the death of a loved one?

How do they do that? First, sufficient support
The starting point of every bóveda project is to ensure that the building's support structure is sturdy enough to bear the weight of all those extra bricks and the concrete layer that goes on top of the bricks to form a waterproof roof system. (See Brick: Lakeside’s Cornerstone, Part 7 The Roof )

Castillos are vertical open cages of reinforced steel that extend from deep in the footings up through the foundations and then to the intended roof line of the house. Interlocking the castillos at the top of the foundation is a dala (platform), which is a larger horizontal castillo. The dala is filled with concrete and gravel, and becomes a steel reinforced concrete platform on which to begin laying the brick walls.

As the workmen build the walls, they extend the bricks slightly into the vertical castillos at the corners of each room and about every four to six feet in between. This way the walls are locked into the castillos, which are then filled with concrete and rock to become vertical support pillars to support the roof.

At the top of the walls is another horizontal castillo, this one is a dala. It also is called the corona (crown). The building’s crown ties the entire structure firmly together when the steel-reinforced concrete vertical castillos are welded to the corona.

Bóveda—The ceiling of low arches
The ceiling-roof structure used almost exclusively in new Lakeside construction is the series of low-arch bóveda. Parallel brick arches form the ceilings of the rooms and are the base for a super strong roof that insulates the house from both the sun's heat and winter's chilly nights.

If the underground and wall support has been well planned, and if the castillos, dalas, and coronas are sufficiently large, this type of construction can easily support a second story.

On top of the corona 5" steel I-beams are welded into place and span the house at one-meter intervals. Then it is time for the abañiles, (brick masons) to start laying arches of bricks from one I-beam to the next.

Masons use a sercha as their guide (you can see the sercha in the photo above) when laying the bricks in each row of the bóvedas. The tool is less than the width of a single brick and fits into the ledges of the two I-beams. When the sercha is leveled and screwed tightly into place, the mason piles concrete onto the end and edge of each brick and places each on top of the curved guide until the new row of bricks reaches across the space from one I-bean to the other.

When the mason reaches the end of the row, he drives in a small rectangular piece of flint stone called a rajuela. This small spacer is the key to the success of this craft. Once the spacer is hammered into place between the last brick and the I-beam, it puts pressure on the arch and removes the danger of the arch falling. Once the arch is secure, the sercha can be moved forward along the I-beam to guide the next row into place.

After every three or four rows, the abañile and his helper smooth and shape the cement between the last few rows of bricks. The preferred tool for this job is a table knife. The men curl the tip, leaving a smooth surface the width of the cement grout.

The local masons prefer to lay no more than half meter to one meter (19-40") of bricks into arches, from I-beam to I-beam across the end of the building each day. Amazingly the newly laid rows of bricks are strong enough for the men to walk across in less than an hour, even when the rest of the ceiling has not been finished—and it's all due to the strength added by the pressure of that little rajuela.

Special thanks go to General Contractor Juan Gilberto Higuera and the maestros of The Little Company in Ajijic who explained procedures to me, answered questions and provided technical information for this article.

Bóveda Cañón (Barrel Vault)
To build dramatic high and long barrel vaults, the masons first weld a framework of longer, stronger I-beams onto the corona to act as the side rails of the completed vault. Next, they construct the semi-circular end pieces of the cannon-shaped vault, leaving circular openings for the skylights, which will be added later.

Using the vault's end sections as a pattern, the abañiles design and supervise the building of an iron form just one brick wide. The simple form is designed to slide in the tracks of the I-beams, allowing the workers to lay bricks next to the form in order to accurately gauge the size and curve of the arch.

As the bricks are covered in concrete and put into position, the workers drive small triangular pieces of brick called cuñas into the mortar between the upper edges of the bricks, to put pressure on the arch and add stability to the form.

Barrel vaults are called cañon (cannon) vaults are commonly designed with the bricks set on edge in the cuña design; however, the herringbone designs are a very attractive alternative. Moldings are often added to the sides of the vault to hide lighting fixtures that illuminate the bóveda. When all of the bricks are in place in the vault, the upper surface is finished in the same sequence of layers as described in the low-arch bóveda section.

San Juan Capistrano
The simple church at the Mission of San Juan Capistrano, California, is famed for the swallows that return each March, and we find it interesting because of the way the bóveda de cañón ceiling was built. After the walls were completed, the central area of the early California mission church was filled from floor to ceiling with packed earth. The Franciscans carved the shape of the bóveda in the top of the dirt, and laid their adobe mix and blocks over the arched shape. Once the roof was complete and dry, the dirt was carried back out of the church, leaving the soaring barrel vault.

13th Century blueprint
Even earlier recorded examples of the long vaulted style of bóveda are found on the Balearic Islands just off the coast of Spain. The oldest island church, a tiny rectangle topped with bóveda de cañón, was built in the 13th century, and is a remaining clue to the history of this form of construction. The islands were occupied by the Moors from the 9th century until 1235 when the Catalans from mainland Spain took possession of the islands of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The mix of these two cultures is believed to have inspired bóveda construction.

Cupulas (Domes)
Brick domes accent many of Lakeside's dramatic rooflines. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, entrepreneur Jaime Hernandez built some of the area's earliest housing developments. Jaime added a brick cupola over the living room or entry of each of his condos and homes, adding interest and light to his home designs and popularizing the architectural detail at Lake Chapala.

You'll see a wide variety of dome designs in Lake Chapala homes.

The domes, which are built "free-hand," without any kind of guide or form, begin with large steel beams welded into a ring that sits on top of the corona. Most cupolas are finished with complex concrete moldings at the lower edge, disguising the indirect lighting that illuminates the dramatic domed interior.

Locally there is a wonderful variety of sizes and heights of domes which feature many of the same brick patterns illustrated above. Domes built with the diminishing circle patterns of the Catalana or cuña, are built by laying the bricks around and around in circles. When the design calls for one of the herringbone patterns, the masons divide the circle into quarters, sixths or eights, and begin building at these points, extending the designs up and together at the top.

This architectural detail is very appropriate here in Mexico where many customs, traditions and designs have been borrowed from the Spanish who were so influenced by 700 years of Moorish domination and influence. Some of the world's oldest grand domes are scattered across Spain, including the Great Mosque of Cordoba, which was started in 784 AD and is topped with a grand ribbed cupola.

Occasionally, the outside surfaces of local domes are decorated with similar ribs and ceramic tile covers the dome. While the tile adds a colorful accent to the architectural design of the house, it does not contribute to the structural value. Other popular cupola design accents include spires, top structures, windows that open for ventilation or skylights that brighten interior spaces.

One of North America's first cupolas was built between 1687 and 1720 near Tucson, Arizona. The center of the grand cupola in the church of the Mission of San Xavier Del Bac rises 55 feet above the floor. This architectural style, which some called Moorish and others classed as Byzantine, is now being termed Spanish Renaissance or Spanish Mission style.

Special thanks go to General Contractor Juan Gilberto Higuera and the maestros of The Little Company in Ajijic who explained procedures to me, answered questions and provided technical information for this article.

In Part 2 of this series of articles about Lakeside’s handmade bricks, we looked at the process of brickmaking -- preparing the clay, forming the bricks, drying and then firing the bricks in a wood-fired stack kiln that burns the bricks for at least a week. 

Once the bricks in the stack kiln have completely cooled, the workers dismantle the created in place kiln, sorting the bricks into various grades.

• The hardest bricks go into one pile to be used in weight-bearing outside walls.
• The softest bricks are reserved for their insulating qualities.
• Burned black bricks and those that are broken or warped are set aside to use to construct the next stack kiln.

Here at Lakeside, there are two more categories or sizes of brick often used while building area homes.

• The weight-bearing outside walls are frequently built with a larger, heavier brick -- the medio adobón. They are half the size of an old square brick made from mud adobe.
• The smaller bricks used here at Lake Chapala are close to the standard size brick used in North of the Border construction. Those bricks commonly weigh one pound and are 2.25" x 3.75" x 8" long. These smaller bricks are used at Lakeside in building boveda (arched) brick ceilings (See part 5, Boveda ceilings).
• If you stop to look at the bricks in the truckloads near the Ajijic Cemetery, you’ll discover that even among the bricks of this “standard” size there are differences in the bricks’ finish. You’ll find bricks with finished ends, some with finished narrow sides and others with a finished flat face. You’ll discover why when you learn the six different designs used to create boveda. (See part 6, Boveda designs.)
• A third common brick in Mexico is the same smaller size, but is fired differently, to make it more porous and lighter for the building of large ceiling domes (See Part 4, Domes and Vaults).

Building arched windows and doors

Many foreigners come to Mexico looking for a pseudo-hacienda-styled dream home lined and filled with arched portales, (arched covered sidewalks or terraces), doorways, windows, niches and other architectural details.

Learning how those arches made is part of exploring Mexican culture where the simple execution of complex shapes and concepts is a wondrous thing to behold.

  

Once the workers have created a framework of castillos (upright made-in-place steel-reinforced concrete beams, in the doorway at left above, they insert a horizontal support at the bottom edge of the arch curve, and then build up bricks in a temporary form the shape of the arch they wish to build. Next they fill in the spaces on top of the arch of bricks, and then insert a dala (poured-in-place horizontal beam). This entry arched door also features a mission-style arch on top. Notice that this doorway needs a great deal more concrete support than the simple arched doorway at right which was also created in the same way.

This is one of those techniques that made me say Eureka! Why didn’t I think of that! Meanwhile arches have been made in this fashion for hundreds of years here in Mexico and even earlier in Spain.

Next: Be sure to come back to read the next part in our series: Brick: Lakeside’s Cornerstone, Part 4 Domes and Vaults.