Indoor Plumbing Dereliction

When human beings decided to bring the force of water indoors, they may have underestimated it’s character to be insistent and unwieldy, not to mention the greatest force of destruction on the planet! (Well, except for delusional megalomaniacs who are given reign over the world’s greatest superpowers.)

As we continue on with the renovations of this old house, it really makes me appreciate the simple systems of our offgrid yurt life. (Did I ever tell you how much I love my waterless toilet?!) For all the perceptions of how ‘modern’ and ‘civilized’ life is using municipal services, I am seeing again how the slightest bit of neglect can cause an inordinate amount of damage to a house built on rock.

In May 2025, after working our way around to renovate the rest of the house, it was finally time to tear out the kitchen – we saved the best (or worst) for last! We had already dealt with water damage in every other room – the bathroom, garage, and both bedrooms – so it was no surprise that we found a rotting, crumbling mess in the kitchen. Read on to see more pictures!

*Let’s play another installment of “What lies beneath?” Layer upon layer of patching material where the hot water tank used to live.*

*This is where our good old friend “Slow Leak” settled right in for decades with no one paying any mind.*

This time, though, we discovered the most significant amount of damage to the stone foundation in the southwest corner…

*We’re still peeling back the layers here, haven’t even seen the full picture!*

*This cement-based skirting just above the cutaway floorboards is not original and is just one of water’s henchmen contributing to the cycle of decay.*

*Seeping water is merciless and spares nothing in its path… Seeing how rotten this floor joist is, it’s no wonder this corner of the floor had a skee ball slope to it!*

*Aha! The prize inside! This is what we found after knocking off the cement-based patching material and removing the unsecured stones.*.. Daylight peeking in!

In order to move ahead in repairing the adobe, however, it’s important to know why – how the walls were originally constructed and how they were supposed to be in the first place. This book, Adobe Conservation: A Preservation Handbook, has been an invaluable reference in moving these projects at Casablanca forward. It explains how natural building materials like adobe bricks need to breathe, and how if mud walls are taken care of properly they can last for eons. Modern cement-based materials like stucco keep moisture trapped in the walls and end up causing big problems with cracks and failing finishes.

*Pretty basic construction with all natural materials here*.

You can see in the drawing above that there is no wooden sill plate between the stone foundation and the adobe bricks in traditional building. In this house, the builders chose to add this feature as an attachment point to secure the wire mesh that would support the modern cement-based stucco (on the exterior in this case). This sill plate runs over the entire footprint of the house and we found it to be rotting in most places as we tore out the rest of the interior.

*All the fixin’s for my first attempt at a basic lime mortar to repair this water-damaged old stone foundation. Notice the wooden sill plate between the stone foundation and adobe bricks.*

*I count seven on this list of causes for the damage we are seeing here!*

*Here is the view of the southwest kitchen corner from the exterior showing a significant entry point of water intrusion that we will need to address pronto!*

*This block is a concrete “contra parede” – an attempted exterior repair of a failing adobe wall that is encased in cement-based stucco – which actually magnifies the problem over time.*

Before moving ahead with repairing the corner of the failing foundation and fixing the floor, we needed to dig out the backyard to upgrade the water supply main and the sink drain!

*Started by hand to ID the water line at the house and fence line…*

*A nice surprise to find PVC instead of who knows what from 1945! At this point, the penny dropped that hand-digging was not possible to finish this job before winter rolled in.*

*We were so grateful to find this private rental at a very fair price to support our local* gente instead of the big box… They even delivered!

*Even Mark got in on the action with a bribe of Mexican Coca Cola and a Chaco handheld!*

*Our shiny new 3/4″ line now in service to help tame the wild beast! Stay tuned for more plumbing upgrades…*

*Um, I guess I should mention that Ben pushed all the machine-excavated dirt in by hand!*

Back to the masonry operation made possible by YouTube. Seriously, I am so incredibly grateful to all the video creators/instructors out there who are sharing their work and expertise. I have never, ever done any sort of work like this before Casablanca. Watching MI-tinker was the confidence boost I needed! It was so cool to learn more about traditional building techniques and then take the leap of faith to try it myself.

I used a recipe of 4:1 sand to Type S Lime and made a fairly dry mix to pack around the new stones. I cut out the rotting sill plate and packed in the voids with stones and mortar. I just used my hands to get in the tight and awkward crevices, no trowels. It was really fun to go out rock hunting to bring in a selection of stones in different sizes, shapes and textures. I had to go 6 rounds with at least a week of drying in between to fill in all the damaged area.

*I left the sill plate in for the first few layers to keep everything above relatively stabilized while I built out from the bottom.*

*I needed more room to work in fitting the stones so Ben cut the pine planks back to the joist. See how they made another concrete* contra parede block on the inside of the wall under the new PVC drain pipe.

*The color change says it’s time for Round 5!*

*I decided to cut away more sill plate and work it a little farther.*

I still have a bit of anxiety wondering if my mixing and packing were consistent enough to make the foundation last over time. (We will still need to address the cracks on the outside in a major exterior overhaul, removing a 3-foot skirt of concrete and stucco all around and replacing with a lime-based earthen plaster.) I’m considering this repair another arts and crafts project at this point because I found it to be more carefree fun than a confidently solid construction job.

With the water line and rocks out of the way, we can FINALLY replace the joist and lay the OSB subfloor. (A new beetlekill pine tongue & groove plank floor from Old Wood will be installed by Dustin on top through the whole house after we finish the adobe work). The joist is a 4×4 roughcut beam from the local Walatowa sawmill that we stained with an exterior acrylic. It’s probably overkill, but we’re taking no chances!

*Feels great to have the pit covered up after all this time!*

*We have a little story about this to share if anyone cares to ask!*

And, so, as a reward to all our faithful readers who have made it this far, I’m sharing a selection of images that not only detail the process of removing layer after layer of vintage linoleum, but also delight with the designs of flooring through the decades.

PS- Is anyone else missing seeing the littlest inspector in these shots? It’s definitely not the same work zone without Sahalee’s Supervisor… We’re conducting interviews. 😉

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