We Need Assistance in Building a 
Home For a Christian Family in Mezcala 

Senor Joel, and his son, Raul, measuring for placement of the last I-beam over the kitchen. Here in Mexico, steel I-Beams are called Vigas. A Viga is six inches of hardened steel designed to support the extreme weight of the brick and cement Bovida ceiling and roof.

Above is Senor Joel completing the roofline concrete support in order to add another Viga. 

For stability under the outward thrust of the bovida ceiling, I hired Senor Renaldo, (shown above) a welder, to interconnect the Vigas with lengths of steel rebar. Renaldo owns a steel fabrication shop two doors down from Luis' house. 
He charged me 300 pesos ($22.00 U.S.) for two hours of very professional welding work. The price included his labor and the welding rods, less than half what it would cost in the U.S.

Senor Raul mixes the white cement that will be used to 
build the Bovida style brick ceiling over the kitchen.

The photo above shows the first of the Bovida ceiling being put in place. Senor Joel works from the top laying in the bricks in a cantilevered fashion, and securing them with cement. His son Raul works from below removing the excess cement between the bricks and smoothing and straightening the lines. This Bovida architectural style work is hundreds of years old, and when placing the bricks on their face, is known in Europe as a Catalan Vault ceiling.

The secret to Bovida ceilings... the handmade Bovida tool. Supporting the edge of the bricks being installed you can see a metal curved band that is used to build the arched Bovida ceilings. The tool is adjustable in length to allow a good fit between the Vigas. Senor Joel can run a row of the cemented bricks between the Vigas in nine minutes and the cement will set well enough to remove the tool during that time. 

Senor Raul removing the excess cement from the underside of the Bovida ceiling.  He'll go over every cement line with a tool... patching, leveling and filling in with more cement as needed. He'll then brush down the bricks and cement, first with a wire brush, and then a boars bristle brush. Then we'll add a coat of varnish to seal the bricks and to bring out their texture and natural beauty. 

Labor intensive? Yes, but Luis and his family will have a strong, waterproof ceiling and roof that will last for centuries. Many of the original Bovida brick ceilings in the city of Guadalajara are still in use after more than 400 years.