Dear Anselmo: I have an old adobe home, over a hundred years old. What would you recommend as the first steps in restoration?
Restoration is one form of renovation, and it’s different from remodeling or modernization. Restoration is bringing back the historic integrity of the structure and it means rebuilding with the same materials and sometimes using the same techniques as the original builders. But the beginning process is the same for any changes you might make. The first step is a general inspection to reveal the building’s strengths and weaknesses. Often this practical first step is ignored — the obvious damage is simply repaired, often with inappropriate materials. Unfortunately, the cause of the damage then remains and future problems are guaranteed.
From this error springs the myth that earthen construction is more delicate and less reliable than modern construction. Through inappropriate work, many a fine antique adobe construction has been weakened and rendered in need of endless, costly and avoidable repairs. Too often these homes are simply destroyed and replaced.
So the initial inspection to define strengths and weaknesses usually has to deal with that element that is both friend and foe to the earthen structure — water. A famous Native American saying tells us the same fire that warms you can also burn your hand. There could be a similar saying about the water that makes an adobe brick strong in the sun — it can also bring the house back to earth.
So whatever the form of the old earthen structure, whether jacal, hogan or adobe ranch home, the strengths and weaknesses will almost always, directly or indirectly, reveal its history with water. And this life-giving water comes in many forms: underground moisture, vapor in the air, raindrops, ice, snow, rivulets, streams, puddles or lakes.
Awareness of the relationship of your earthen home to this cherished element will awaken a vision of what earthen architecture is about. And it will teach you how the vernacular traditional, through generations, has struck a magical yet supremely practical balance with the elements — one that can literally be maintained for thousands of years.
The next step is to stop the cause of whatever deterioration has taken place. In the case of outside drainage, the solution is usually simple. Structural damage is sometimes not so easy to analyze, but the goal is to stop the progress of damage. And from these first steps you will continue the fascinating journey into bringing back to life a precious example of New Mexico folk architecture.
Anselmo Jaramillo teaches traditional adobe construction at Northern New Mexico College, and for the last 40 years has been involved in restoration and new construction of earthen buildings, both in the United States and Mexico. Send questions to rataoro@hotmail.com or call 351-9924.