A year of house maintenance on this coast

A house on the Costa Ballena lives through two very different halves of the year. From about May to November it rains on most days, usually in the afternoon, and September and October are historically the wettest months. The dry season is short: Costa Rica's national weather institute, the IMN, counts two to three dry months for this part of the country.

The same institute puts average annual rainfall at about 3,900 millimetres for the coast from Dominical to Punta Uvita, and about 3,700 for the Diquís valley just to the south, falling on roughly 150 to 175 days of the year. That is close to four metres of water landing on every roof, pool and hillside, and it is the reason maintenance here follows the calendar and not the owner's convenience.

Before the rains: March and April

This is when the expensive problems of October are prevented. The roof is walked while it is dry and safe: failed screws and washers replaced, flashings resealed, rust treated. Gutters, downpipes, channels and culverts are cleared, and each downpipe is checked to see where its water actually ends up.

Trees get looked at now too. Dead limbs and branches hanging over the roof come down while crews can work on dry ground, and any cutting that needs a permit is applied for in time. If the septic tank is due for pumping it is done in the dry months, because a tank should not be pumped while the ground around it is saturated.

The electrical side is checked before the storms arrive: surge protection at the main panel, the grounding, and the small protectors on the air conditioners and the fridge.

During the rains: May to November

The work changes from fixing to watching. Humidity inside a closed house is controlled every week, not when someone notices a smell. The pool is tested after every heavy rain, because rain dilutes its chemistry and washes in what algae feeds on. Gutters are cleared again and again, since the leaves do not stop falling.

Ceilings are checked for new stains, slopes and retaining walls for movement, and wood for the brown tunnels and winged swarms that show termites are active. Anything that gets wet indoors is dried within a day or two, which is the window the United States Environmental Protection Agency gives before mold is likely to start.

When the rain stops: December to April

Dry season is when salt does its damage, because there is no rain to rinse it off. Metal, glass and the outdoor units of the air conditioners are washed down with fresh water. Wood and metal are repainted and resealed while surfaces are dry enough to hold a coating.

The pool now loses water to evaporation and no longer gains it from rain, and strong sun uses up chlorine faster. These are also the months when most guests arrive, so anything noisy or disruptive is planned for before the season or after it.

Every week, all year

None of this replaces the weekly walk through the house. The calendar decides which jobs are scheduled; the weekly check is what catches the leak, the tripped breaker or the drifting pool before it becomes a repair. On this coast almost every expensive repair was a cheap one a few weeks earlier.

This is a general calendar for houses between Dominical and Ojochal. A house on the beach, one on a steep hillside and one under tall forest each need their own version of it.