Since last November, the Instituto Municipal de Cultura, Turismo y Arte de Mazatlán began a maintenance and rehabilitation program at Casa Haas, with the restoration reporting 50% progress.
After a long period without receiving rehabilitation and maintenance actions during the past administration, personnel assigned to Casa Haas began an intense restoration program whose results are visible.
Casa Haas works as a forum for the presentation of concerts, literary activities, painting and sculpture exhibitions, plays, among other expressions of art.
Raúl Rico González, General Director of the Instituto de Cultura de Mazatlán on which Casa Haas depends, pointed out that up to now these works have 50 percent progress, in electricity, maintenance and repair of walls, waterproofing and repair of the air-conditioning.
In the first stage, the Cultura staff focused on cleaning up the first floor, and the priority was to improve the electrical system by installing switches for individual control of lighting, since previously turning lights off and on was done through the center panels.
Each of the rooms on the first level was also repaired and painted and fumigated against termites to clean up and recover the beams, floors, windows on the first and second levels, and on the roof that due to the lack of maintenance in the past administration , presented a high level of deterioration.
Casa Haas has an air conditioning system based on chiller equipment, 10 and 8 tons, both received adequate maintenance and repair, and the ducts were cleaned to improve the cooling system.
Due to the lack of maintenance, the property suffered from infiltrations in the rainy season, which put the works on display at risk. For this reason, up to now, more than a thousand square meters have been waterproofed throughout the building, including the repair of rain gutters, work that will conclude in the next weeks.
Rigoberto del Valle, technical manager of Casa Haas added that the maintenance program includes cleaning of chairs and seats, and the installation of lower covers to the mobile equipment.
After suffering vandalism in the past months, 60 meters of cable was replaced for the operation of the elevator and air conditioners since the latter were burned.
To conclude this first stage of the rehabilitation and maintenance program, two routers were purchased to improve the internet service in the building and damaged toilets were repaired on both levels.
The second stage includes the introduction of new cabling on the second level, putting switches and making all the rooms independent, including load balancing so that the cabling system does not burn out.
Restoring the wooden surface of the second level remains yet to be done, which was found to be seriously damaged by the advancement of termites, but this work has to wait until the waterproofing of roofs, gutters, and air conditioning ducts where there is no infiltration of water is completed. It is estimated that the repairs will be completed in October.
