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After reading the Forum on insurance in CR, I think that the option of bars should be considered for my house…unfortunately.
Was wondering if anyone could recommend a fabricator/installer near Jaco-Parrita that is reasonable and does good, timely work. Any recommendations about style options and what not to do would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.As a new CR home buyer, like yourself, unfortunately, I also have to consider bars for my windows and sliding doors. My home is in a gated community in Playa Hermosa. I visted the neighbors in my community and surrounding expat home owners who had bars on windows and doors, they provided me with valuable recommendations for fabricators/installers; I also got to see the quality and various designs of the bars. We decided on steel rollbar designs, in white, to match the earthtone exterior color of our home.
The first thing to do is to educate yourself about ironwork. There are basically three types (qualities).
1) Welded rebar and tubing, the typical stuff seen on Tico homes and businesses. Some of this is very plain and some quite artistic and creative. Some is heavier and some lighter. The heavier is often light tubing that is actually not as durable as solid bar. But it is all just cut, occasionally bent and arc welded bar or tubing. Hundreds of small shops produce this throughout Costa Rica.
2) Fabricated from components. There is a huge world market of components (pickets, scrolls, baskets) that fabricators can obtain and weld together. This requires little skill and results in an acceptable product. These parts are made in Mexico, Europe and India among other places. To most people this looks like hand made iron work. It is not “the real thing” and should be half the cost of similar work done by hand. You often see this type work on community gates and upper class homes in Costa Rica.
3) Hand forged and assembled ironwork. There are only a couple smiths in Costa Rica that do this work. This is the real thing. A lot of this work is attractive but not what would be considered first class work. It is often welded and lots of auto body putty used to cover the poor work. Good iron work has NO body putty. Welds and joints should be clean and well made and not covered. For one of the few that does this work see:
[url=http://www.johancubillos.com/]johancubillos.com[/url]
Also see this article I wrote a number of years ago on Costa Rica blacksmiths and Ironwork.
[url=http://www.anvilfire.com/news3/index37.htm]anvilfire News 37[/url]
Between the three grades above there various shades and quality of manufacture. The worst is roughly arc welded re-bar and the best as good as any made anywhere in the world. If you are interested in really high class ironwork we have reviews of a number of books on this type work on anvilfire.com.
Like many things having to do with home construction you can a little or a lot depending on your budget and requirements.
I, too, wrote an article for wlcr.com about two years ago about the Castro brothers of Alajuela who do wonderful decorative ironwork. Unlike any other I’ve seen, their work is hugely decorative. They’re artists first and fabricators second. They can do wildlife motive, trees and plants, or just about anything you wish.
You can see my write-up and pictures of the Castro brothers’ work at: https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/1846.cfm
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