A couple weeks ago I had the honor of speaking to a group of Merida residents about the most common maintenance issues I see in my experience remodeling homes in Merida’s Centro. This is something I´ve wanted to do for a long time.  Many thanks to my amazing team and clients for making this possible, and to the Merida English Library for the opportunity.

Skylights are a great solution for bringing light into the house, especially for homes in Centro where there are narrow lots that don´t allow for windows towards the neighbors.  However, with Merida´s sun, you also get a lot of unwanted heat that gets amplified with the glass.  There is a solution for this that is simple and economical: the malla sombra.  This product is normally used for greenhouses, which blocks the sun at different percentages (up to 95%). They come in different colors (white, beige, black, etc.) and can be easily installed.  There are several advantages to this product; one is that even though it blocks the sun, it lets the light pass through so you can take advantage of Merida´s sunny weather without the heat.  Also, it´s made to work in the exterior so it resists the sun and weather conditions.  Another benefit is, if you have an air conditioner in the same room as a skylight, it makes the room cooler which improves its efficiency, saving you some money.

Here is the abstract of a research project I conducted in 2011 while earning a Master of Construction Management at the School of Engineering of the Autonomous University of Yucatán.  I was interested in the concept of constructability (the integration of construction knowledge into the design and planning phases of a project to achieve the project objectives in the best possible time, accuracy, and price) and the extent that design and design-build firms in the city of Merida, Yucatan apply these principles in the design phase of building projects, and what factors promote or inhibit the implementation of these principles.  This is what I found...