ONE LINE, TWO CONSTRUCTION WORLDS

Marco Jacobo Galvez is a Mexican Architect, I had the opportunity of being involved with projects in Mexico (Mexico City) and US (Hawai’i, California, Arizona, Colorado) and I can tell construction is not the same around the world.

Construction techniques and practices diversify and are not only related with the installers themselves, but it also has to do with the country’s technology and development, it is impressive how just crossing over the border is a colossal change. Take Calexico, California and Mexicali, Mexico as an example, same weather conditions, same topography, and geography and even the same manpower.

Hispanic installers have the greatest number among the South US drywall industry, most used to live in Mexico, a few ones also might have a bachelor’s degree as engineers, accountants, etc., from their country and they have learned the drywall techniques by practicing trial and error, or also a family member has taught them the trade. It is usual to find more than one family working on the same site job.

In Mexicali, a one-story house is built the following way. Concrete, blocks, and steel bars for structure, is the most known construction system or traditional method, contractors buy the materials (drywall sheets / mud boxes) as they use it on the same day.

They install the light structural metal studs and tracks onto concrete walls and ceilings and hang out the drywall. Metal framing is the most known framing type in Mexico, proceed with the tapping process and with a mud pan and a putty knife apply the first and second coat with no machine tools, apply some primer and finally paint, (no insulation needed most of the times) and surprisingly the same person does all these stages.

While in Calexico or San Diego just miles away, construction is another world, it all begins with the construction supply store, they deliver every single product to the jobsite, stock before starting a project. Lumber is the most known structural method on the US. plumber pipes and electrical wiring are already installed on pre-assembled wall frames, most of the time builders and contractors know already the exact number of drywall sheets per square footage (supply stores make a previous visit in order to know where the materials are going to be stocked, trying not to affect the load of the buildings and the workflow zone), they also know the number of mud boxes depending on the number of drywall sheets. Tapers machine tools in the US would be a dream for a taper in Mexico, mud pumps, bazookas, boxes, angle heads, sanding machines.

Finishings are also related on this huge contrast and makes more sense if we analyze it. Southwest US as an example, the three more common finishes are paint over Level 5, Skip Trowel Texture, and high control texture on interiors, while in Mexico goes from paint on walls which is the most common interior finish to stone and ceramic tiles.

What all of this is telling us, even society somehow is involved on this; manpower or installers and tapers, spend more time on the construction sites than with their families. As an architect seeing this contrast on the jobsites let us know that one thing is clear, they do need products which make their working day easier. Tools easy to operate, construction industry and factories must keep innovating and improving systems, tools, and products.

A jobsite working day is harder and more physical than other jobs, construction industries and factories must keep innovative processes, also this can be reflected on money, is not the same having a crew of 10 people working 8 hours a day to finish a project than the same crew of 10 working per 6 hours and less days to finish the same project on the payroll.

How a minor change, like machinery tools at the other side of the border can have such a significant impact for workers doing the same job. Or how a small improvement on a tool or product can positively affect the workday making it easier to work with. Not all the architects, owners, or even supervisors know what is being done on the jobsite under 116°F for 8 or 10 hours, is it worth it?

They are the only ones who have the answer, but what we can do is try to facilitate the process, trying not to think how to earn more money in our pockets when we can give them the proper tools and quality materials not thinking on how much money we will save, instead think about your own workers. Keep asking for the latest innovations on the industry, keep doing weekly team meetings from the supervisor to the tapper, and most important, it does not matter what country we are building,  if we all treat each other as equals.