Our visit to the Asseradero

We designed a Pergola for the garden; 4 cement columns, cement platform base 9x9 feet, with wooden beams for a roof to allow dappled sun, and from which to hang windchimes and support flowering vines.

We contracted with an albanil (mason), Manuel. The platform and columns are done and look pretty good. In fact we are all currently enjoying our morning time out in the ‘unfinished’ Pergola.

The ‘unfinished’ part is the wood for the open roof; we want a hardwood, puc te is the most common hardwood for exterior use. We need 2 main beams, and 20 small cross members. But we need them all to be 3.5meters long, and that is not so easy to find.

We’ve been to 4 madereria’s (wood stores) so far. The second one was able to supply the two main beams we needed for 418 pesos each, and the cross beams at 148pesos each. That’s about 360 bucks. We thought it seemed high so continued to look.

We finally heard about a sawmill (asseradero) down in the far south part of Merida. Off we went….Well we found the sawmill with no real problems and it’s a really cool place; huge felled puc te trees lying around, wood bits n pieces, furniture being built, broken furniture, huge machinery, both running and not, dogs and cats.
After being greeted by a worker the owner who came out with a huge smiling face saying loudly, mandeme (talk to me). He invited us to sit, which we did, and after a bit of a chat about what we wanted he quoted us a price of 800pesos each for the 2 larger beams. When I expressed a bit of shock over the price, he exclaims it’s barato while stroking his elbow (this stroking of the elbow indicates something or someone is cheap), less than we’d spend for dinner. I don’t know where this guy eats but we rarely spend 160 dollars on dinner.

Our Pergola remains unfinished, we continue to enjoy it, and we ponder our options for the needed/desired roof.

Click here to see the rest of our pictures at Asseradero Alvarado