What the rainy season does to an empty home at Lake Chapala

June: the first storms find the weak spots

The first heavy rain of the year is a test. Drains that filled with jacaranda leaves in April back up; a crack in the roof coating that was harmless in the dry season lets water through; a window seal that shrank in the heat lets a line of water down the wall. None of it is visible from the street. All of it is visible from inside, on the first visit after the storm.

• Walk the roof after the first two storms and look for standing water.
• Check ceilings, especially corners and around light fixtures, for fresh stains.
• Check window sills and the wall below them.

July and August: humidity settles in

With the house shut and the air at eighty percent humidity, closed rooms stop drying out. Mold shows up first in the places nobody looks: the back of closets, behind headboards, under sinks, inside the washing machine. Leather, books and mattresses go first.

• Open the house on every visit, front to back, for at least half an hour.
• Run a dehumidifier or leave moisture absorbers in closets and bathrooms, and replace them monthly.
• Check inside closets, behind furniture and under sinks, not just the middle of the room.

The garden explodes, the drains clog

Everything grows a hand a week. Climbers reach the roof, weeds cover the patio, leaves fill drains that were clear in June. A gardener who comes every two weeks is enough in the dry season and not enough now.

• Move gardening to weekly through the rains.
• Clear patio and roof drains on every visit, not just at the start of the season.
• Cut anything touching the walls or roof; it is a bridge for water and for ants.

Power: lightning, outages and the fridge

Storms trip breakers and CFE outages of a few hours are normal. A house nobody visits can sit with the power off for weeks: the fridge spoils, the pump stops, the alarm battery dies, the automatic lights stop.

• Check the panel on every visit and reset anything that tripped.
• Leave the fridge empty, or make sure someone will check it within days of an outage.
• Confirm the CFE bill is paid; a cut looks the same as an outage from outside.

Pools

Rain dilutes the chlorine and fills the pool above the skimmer line; a week without service and the water turns green. With the pump on a timer and a service every week the pool survives the season; without both it is a swamp by September.

What a weekly visit should check, in order

• Roof: standing water, drains, the coating around vents and edges.
• Ceilings and walls: fresh stains, bubbling paint.
• Closets, under sinks, behind furniture: mold, damp, insects.
• Electrical panel, fridge, pump, alarm.
• Patio drains and garden.
• Pool water level and colour.
• Windows, doors, gate.
• Open the house, run the taps, flush the toilets, close up.
• Photos of everything, to the owner, the same day.