Viga Beams

Vigas are big round poles -- tree trunks actually -- that are used in adobe architecture in the southwest. They were traditionally the main cross supports holding up structures, but in today's buildings they are no longer structural. Vigas are ornamental and they are used all over Santa Fe to decorate homes in the "Pueblo revival" style.

It is usually the cut ends of beams that show on the outside, like ours on the parapet that covers our front portal. These don't support anything and don't even extend very far into the wall, they are truly just decorative.

We also have vigas covering our back patio, and those are completely exposed, just there for a sense of enclosure over the little squared space. 

A very old, grainy real estate photo from a listing before 2010 shows the beams on our patio, and I know from seeing this same home model in other parts of the neighborhood that five beams resting on a cross bar were part of the original design of this model.

But by the time the house was listed for sale when we first saw it in 2017, the vigas were gone and only the cross bar remained. It looked odd.

We never asked why the beams were removed. Once we moved in we had them re-installed, butted into holes drilled in the outside wall. They don't shade anything or support anything, but they look so much nicer restored to the original design.

But.

We have had a leak inside the house in that wall right over the middle viga ever since. A bad leak, although it was hard to tell since it rains so infrequently here. And it only leaks when the rain is hard driving from the west. It's not very often.

But when it does rain hard the water doesn't drip, it runs, right down the inside wall and over the door transom. We couldn't fix it no matter how much caulking or sealant we applied around the beams. When we had the house repainted last spring we had the painter install mesh and extra coats of paint and more sealant. Nothing helped.

Last summer was a monsoon season for the record books and the leak became much more than an annoyance. We wonder now whether leaky vigas had been the reason the sellers removed the original beams before we bought the house.

How to fix the problem? Take down the beams, re-patch the holes in the wall where they were butted in, and re-stucco, leaving the patio uncovered again? Ugh. No.

Finally this spring we had our handyman Tim come and we stood on the patio under the vigas and brainstormed ideas. 

Here's the final solution: a short built roof over the point where the vigas meet the wall, with attached metal flashing and a slight slope away from the wall.

You can't tell from this angle down below, but the horizontal structure tilts away from the house. From inside the house this roof isn't visible anywhere, and on the patio it's unseen as well unless you look up. 

The water will be directed away from the wall, and the sides were left open to drain away as well. The problem point where viga meets stucco is now insulated from rain.

In all the ongoing investigations into why it leaked where it did, we finally had to drill a hole in the inside wall about 12 feet up to see inside the wall. I ran the hose outside against the stucco and our handyman got up on a ladder and peered inside and saw where the water came in.

So now that has to be patched and repaired. And repainted.

Who would have thought rainwater in New Mexico would be such a problem? We get so little of it. But of course when we do, it never goes where it should. I hope our little roof covering over the vigas works.