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Wow- with the situation around town you would think I could find a handy man but NO- EVEN THOSE ADVERTISING IN OJIO! do not answer my calls.

I live in central Ajijic and had a bad leak. THAT is now repaired but mold is building up, areas have celetre (spell?) and things need to get fixed, treated and painted. If you see it and are a pro, fix it and I will pay!

Does anyone know of a GOOD RELIABLE HANDY MAN that can come in, assess the situation and do the work? I do not have a handy man!

Thanks!

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There are plenty of "pros" who claim they can solve your salitre problem, but I've never found one who actually did. I have had much better luck dealing with it myself. There's nothing difficult about it- what it requires is patience.

First, you have to ensure that there is no more source of moisture coming in anywhere..

If there is mold, as opposed to salitre, wash it down with a bleach solution.

Then you just have to let the area dry out well. Put a fan on it if necessary. Doing any treatment before it is thoroughly dry is pointless. Best to wait until dry season.

Scrape off any loose paint and plaster. Then paint the area with a 50% muriatic acid/water solution. Wait until you see more salitre emerging, which may take days or weeks, repeat the acid solution. Continue this until you see no more signs of salitre. This may take months.

 Then, if there is plaster that needs to be repaired, have that done.

Wait a month for the cement to cure. If it's a really shallow repair, you can lessen this time.

Now you can sponge off the area with water, and when dry apply a good quality Sin Salitre product. I've found the Sika brand, sold at Home Depot to be the best. Others were useless or left a high gloss finish.

When that is dry, (like leave it for a day), you can now repaint the area. 

If you are impatient, can't bear to have an ugly, unpainted wall for months and not wait for all these steps and time, the salitre will just keep coming back and you will have to keep dealing with it, endlessly.

Anytime I paid someone else to "fix" the salitre problem (and this has been the experience of friends, as well), they scraped the area down, replastered, painted on sin salitre and painted, all in the course of a couple of a days. That doesn't work. The salitre just comes back.

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An albañil has masonry skills and is basically any worker that builds houses. 

What you need is an experienced Pintor or painter. There are many ways to cure salitre (which is basically natural salts) leaching from cement or mortar because the sand used in Mexico is unwashed and has natural salts. 

Cemex has a new waterproof cement that can be used if someone removes the old cement down to the brick.

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On 8/12/2020 at 4:46 PM, Joyinmexico said:

Wow- with the situation around town you would think I could find a handy man but NO- EVEN THOSE ADVERTISING IN OJIO! do not answer my calls.

I live in central Ajijic and had a bad leak. THAT is now repaired but mold is building up, areas have celetre (spell?) and things need to get fixed, treated and painted. If you see it and are a pro, fix it and I will pay!

Does anyone know of a GOOD RELIABLE HANDY MAN that can come in, assess the situation and do the work? I do not have a handy man!

Thanks!

Call David -- 52 393 934 9284 - He is looking for work and is dependable, has numerous skills.  He has limited English, but he manages and with a little help sometimes from a translation app for those words that are uncertain.

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I have just the guy for you.  His name is Victor, he speaks very good English, and he is knowledgeable in all things construction and engineering.  I used him for many projects when I lived in Chapala, including, sealing my roof (because of leaks), removing mold (that turned out to ants), installing a drip system, painting the house, totally replacing the gas lines, etc.  Here is his contact info:

Victor Francisco Lopez Valencia
       phone (cell): +52 (333) 179-1210
       phone (home): +52 (387) 763-1023
               mail: victorvalencia1@live.com


Give him a try.  You'll be glad you did.

Best wishes

Henry Laxen

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15 hours ago, Joyinmexico said:

Mudgirl you are probably way younger or healthier (no ladders please!) I no longer do that stuff!

If you call 70 young 🙂  But I am healthy and agile and do go up on ladders. But I was assuming your salitre problem didn't require a ladder. Most of the salitre I see is closer to the bottom of a wall altho I have had some on ceilings if there was moisture coming in from the roof.

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