YucaLandia
Dec 15, 2010, 7:27 PM
Post #22 of 25
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Re: [johninajijic] Plumbing vent stacks?
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Unfortunately, plumbing drain vent stacks are not common in the Sureste. A quick look at rooftops in Merida shows that the only vent stacks on many many homes are 3/8" tubes at high points in the gravity-fed water supply systems. Wax gaskets on toilets are also not de rigeur. Wax gaskets and drain vent stacks are about as common as safety grounds on electrical outlets. *sigh* It doesn't mean it's correct. It just shows more signs of poor construction in Mexico and the buildr cheaping out on building costs as per usual here.
"That's the way we've always done it"
Aw heck, I've mis-described the point again: I was thinking about how many times I've heard ex-pat friends and acquaintances attribute "things being done incorrectly" , especially construction problems, here to either the workers cutting corners, or the contractor being cheap, or sometimes the people think they've been iintentionally cheated.
An alternate explanation to each of their construction problems were that the workers had poor training, or no training at all, and that many many workers here simply do by rote what they were shown or taught by their father, grandfather, uncle, or other mentor. It's a rare teacher that teaches their student how to think, or about how problems can be solved in different ways, and why things are done a certain way versus the teacher that simply passes along the same rote method that they learned by rote, and most times without the proper tools to "do the job right" . I've seen it with plumbing, electrical, and masonry work here, nothing malicious nor stupid - just guys making do with what they were taught and with limited tools and limited materials.
I mentioned the lack of drain vent stacks and lack of wax gaskets here in Merida to point to the principles that its just the way things are done here and the way they have been done for at least 4+ decades. (Our 50 year old home w/4 bathrooms has only 1 drain vent, and ironically, the only drains that have burping/slurping problems are the drains that have the vent.)
What are other construction people's experiences here?
How many problems have you seen that were definitely intentionally done wrong and how many times is it that they don't know any better, and their way works for a while, or is it just the old saw: "That's the way we've always done it" ?
There's also a principle here where if people do things exactly as they were told/taught, they don't get into trouble, but if they start taking liberties and doing independent actions, the entire system might come tumbling down... *grin*
steve
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Read-on MacDuff
E-visit at http://yucalandia.com
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