First off, what the heck is a viga? Second question is why would I care about them? Viga is a Spanish word that means beam. I didn’t know this and spent a half hour googling random phrases till I found the name.
The brown protrusions on the wall in the image above are each a viga. My understanding of a viga is that the walls are built on an adobe style house, then the viga is put up there spanning the whole wall and sticking out a bit more. Then they use the beams to put the roof on. So while the viga on the outside feels stylish and decorative, it is also functional.
Now you might be wondering the second question, why does Hogan care so much about a viga? Danelle and I have been working on a house design for over 2 years and we found one that we like. The design included a viga or two. I found a company that makes fiberglass replicas that can be screwed into the facade to get the look we wanted. I went ahead and ordered a single viga to see what it would look like.
Additionally, I got the idea to put a light in the viga to illuminate the house. This test viga had a hole put in and a light attached. We liked it enough that we’ll do this a few more times and hope it turns out well when the house is complete!
Here is the viga after opening the box.
And after we put a hole in it and inserted a light, it will look like
Now we just have to wait several months for construction to start so we can see if this was a good idea!
Hogan Haake