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We are in the process of buying a lot in San Ramon. Has there been any discussion on this forum of pre-fab construction. we plan on building a small Cabina first, then a house when we move for good. Probably only the cabina would be pre-fab. Any info would be appreciated. thanks
On this site we previously discussed a similar subject about Manufactured Homes in Costa Rica. https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/forum/openthread.cfm?forum=1&ThreadID=1598
Over the years I have been hired by several foreigners to inspect the construction of pre-fab home systems because the purchasers were not satisfied with the finishing of the walls. The initial cost and time to assemble the packages is attractive. Unless you’ve worked with a lot of concrete finish construction you could not anticipate the challenges to finish the plastering of the interior and exterior walls. Unfortunately, for the owners, the costs to finish these thin wall panel, pre-fab designs has always been more costly and time consuming than they anticipated because the purchaser was envisioning smooth finished walls like they have been accustomed to living in for most of their lives.
Additionally, the electrical conduits are pre-installed in the columns so the location of your electric plugs is limited by where you position the columns. The finished panels and posts have a difference of 1″ to 2″ that needs to be compensated for with plaster in the rooms that you would like to be smooth finished. Perhaps in your garage it would not be important to have normal looking smooth plastered walls but most folks want to live in finished rooms.
Take a look at the photos at; http://www.escosacr.com/galeria-vivienda-e.htm. If you can envision yourself being comfortable in a home like this then go for it. Just like with anything else anywhere you go, you get what you pay for.That is the challenging part for the concrete plastering phase. If you have a home interior design with a lot of decorative interior columns and have been able to incorporate the pre-fab system into the supporting columns for the ceiling and roof structure then the pre-fab system could work well for you. Don’t forget the pre-cast wall panels are only 4″ thick versus block wall of at least 8″ thickness.
PS: When you type in “pre fab construction” into the WLCR search window the following results appear.
https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/905.cfm
I think this company has a pretty good product as far as the pre fab goes. Of course one would prefer ground up custom built, but I think this can be a good option if money is an issue. Looks as though this would be at least 40% less than a “built” home.
Another company that I see advertising a lot is Facoli, their site is at [ http://www.facoli.com/ ]
They even have a seven minute video on You Tube which you can see at [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LeKQsKbOKQ ]
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comAfter many years in the residential house building business in Canada, I can tell you that the money savings claimed by many pre-fab systems is just not true. When all is said and done, in the end, if you use the right building processes and techniques, you will always save money using the conventional methods. For example, I built my cabina in Playa Grande with cement block, which is cheap in Costa Rica.
The process I used was unlike the CR building process, so I saved a lot of money, ended up with a better product and added maximum value to my property. crbuilder advised us of the extra work required for the pre-fab in CR. That extra work takes time and money.
Stick with the conventional cement block type construction. In the end you’ll be glad you did. If you need further explanation I’d be glad to help.
Hola vbcruiser
thanks for your input. I am curious about your process that was unlike the CR building process. Can you please elaborate on that? thanks.Have you seen or heard of Toma Homes? At one point they had a sales office in SJO, but I haven’t been able to reach anyone. Website: http://www.tomatech.net/TomaTech.asp
Would appreciate your take.Cheers
First, I love San Ramon, great choice to purchase your lot. I will skip the architect, permits and all those pre-construction topics for now. You can easily save a lot of money before you start construction. The CFIA process in CR is somewhat of an expensive, needless process, which by my tone you can tell I am not a fan of. There are many issues that you may want to explore before deciding on the pre-fab system. First you need to do one of two things, be in San Ramon during the construction and take of your investment OR hire someone like the crhomebuilder who can ensure your project moves along in YOUR best interest. In all of CR and in San Ramon, you want to reduce the amount of moisture in your Cabina and in your house. If you build the CR way, they dig trenches, install rebar, then pour cement into the trenches. The problem is they do this on the original soil. That’s a no-no. If you’re close by a project when they are doing this you can smell the virgin soil, it smells sour. You want to excavate all the virgin soil from the area that your building will be built on. For your cabina this will involve about 2 hours of backhoe work. Keep that soil, you’ll need it later. Form the footings and install the rebar, have the first X number of rows of blocks laid. You want to ensure that you’re finished grade is at least one foot, ABOVE the road. Drainage is important in CR. Make sure there is room to allow the rain water to flow away from your building. Now haul in “lestray” they call it here, it’s rock and clean dirt, not to much dirt. You don’t want any soil with silt in it. You place that lestray inside your foundation, compact it as it is spread evenly inside your foundation. Finish the repello on the exterior of your foundation and then backfill against the exterior of the building with lestray. By doing this you have just eliminated 90% of the moisture problems associated with building in CR. I know this part cost more than the CR building process, but you will save later on. When we talk pre-fab versus conventional building all we are really talking about is the shell of the building. Just so you know, in addition to being a house builder in Canada, I was a municipal building inspector, so I have seen the ins and outs in the construction business. In Costa Rica you need someone like crhomebuilder to help you onsite. I suspect he knows whats going on in the building game here and I am sure an hour or two inspecting your project at critical stages won’t cost you much. In the end someone like him will save you money. I’ll continue later with more info, if they don’t ban me from here because of too much writing.
Senor vbcruiser. That is a very good explanation of how to install a solid foundation for the construction of a new home in CR.
There are many building sites in CR where the owners desire to maintain the existing views rather than excavate down to the solid ground. You can construct what is referred to as a “floating slab,” in order to provide a solid foundation and slab to build your homes structure upon. If I were building a home in an area of questionable terrain, I would justify the additional expense to construct a suitable foundation as inexpensive insurance.
In 1984, I built several homes for a developer on riverfront lots in Ohio that had been filled with various types of terrain. I consulted with an experienced engineer, who instructed me how to install floating slabs on top of the filled lots.
In 1993, I poured floating slabs on sandy beach lots in Guanacaste where we compacted one meter of clean fill dirt and poured floating slabs for two story buildings and since then there have been no problems.
Review the following construction guidelines and try to understand how the “floating slab” system provides the stability that is needed in a seismic area like Costa Rica.
GUIDELINES
Excavate 4′ deep trenches where footers are indicated on blueprints.
Provide 2″ x 6″‘s for forms per print.
Set forms for 8″ high and 20″ wide on top of excavated trenches.
Run 2 x #4 steel rods horizontally, equidistant, side by side 4″ from bottom of trench while pouring concrete footers.
Run stickers, using #4 steel rods every 4′ projecting 6″ vertically from top of footer.
Set 48″ poured wall frames block on top of concrete footers with vertical stickers inside of all blocks.
Attach 6′ long #4 steel rods to stickers projecting from wall every 4′, leaving 2′ protruding from top of wall to bend into poured slab.
Pour concrete in all forms or inside all blocks.
Fill inside of walls with fine sand and compress in layers to achieve a solid base and backfill around exterior of footer walls with same or clean topsoil
Compress sand inside of walls several times adding more sand as it is compressed, until top layer of sand is smooth and firm, 4″ from top of walls to accept 4″ of #57 stone following rough-in of plumbing, electric and HVAC tubing.
Dig all column pads and interior footers per blueprint and set forms as above
Run sanitary and water lines 15″ below floor, avoiding pads and interior footers.
Run water line from the tap into the area of the dwelling where the shut off valve will be installed, avoiding driveways and walkways.
Run metal conduit for floor plugs or HVAC pipes per plan.
Set forms around perimeter of footers and foundation walls and then spread #57 stone evenly where slab is to be poured.
Cover stone with minimum 6 mil polyethylene vapor barrier.
Bend #4 steel rods protruding from the top of the footer walls into the floor and connect the steel rod grid system made by attaching additional steel rods to the existing protruding from the footer walls.
Order 3000psi concrete and pump or pour a 4″ solid monolithic slab.We have now poured concrete into and over a steel grid system that connects the perimeter footings through the foundation walls and into the slab. This floating slab is structurally sound from corner to corner and will not fail from seismic activity or settling.
NOTE: In order to complete a good 3000 PSI monolithic pour, you will need to be able to get cement trucks to the building site so the concrete can be poured or pumped into your foundation. There are many building sites where large cement trucks may not be able to access. If access is a problem then you’ll need to have an engineer design a steel piling and metal structure for your home.CRhomebuilder: We build the exact slab in Canada also. In areas where there is extreme frost and perma frost the method you describe is superior to any other type of foundation. Regardless of what type of foundation is being built, my point is to remove the original soil, building codes and common sense guide us in this most crucial stage of construction. This thread started as pre-fab construction. What I want to convey to others is that the types of pre-fab I know of in CR are, just the shell of the building. This shell, however built is not the exspensive part of building. Doing it right, in my opinion using proven conventional methods, is less expensive in the end.
In my example I got to the stage of preparing for the slab. Most builders in Guanacaste pour the slab after the block is laid. Why, I don’t know? I like things done right the first time, so there is no going back. I guarantee anyone that if you cut corners in building, at some later stage you will be going back to visit that cut corner. That means more time, more money and more aggravation.
I place the electrical, plumbing and other features at this stage, cap the plumbing and test it. Builders can avoid problems by testing the potable and drainage systems at this stage. I have a lot of tips at this stage, if anyone wants to hear about them. I use three men at this stage and for the cabina we are talking about building, it will take them about 2 hours to make the installations, including providing for venting of the plumbing system, cap every thing off and test the system. The rebar is installed by the end of the day, ready for the pour the next morning, weather permitting.
I’ll assume no ready mix is available and cement will be made by mixer. The floor pour should go fast so a dozen men will be amble, along with two mixers. Don’t let them push the wheel barrows over your plumbing and electrical. Have planks on site so they can wheel on the planks. A rough finish is best and the floor is ready to accept the tile further down the road.
What just happen during this stage as compared to the way it’s usually done. Your plumbing and electrical that will be under the slab, which you can never get to easily if there are problems, has been installed and tested. Your floor is exactly level. You have a perfect work place to start your block work, which goes fast, if the construction is done in the proper order, straight, level and plumb. During this stage you will have saved money.
If you use a pre-fab, the process should be similar. The idea is to cover all your bases, install everything properly, do it fast and minimize labour costs. This may be a little over wheming for the average property onwer, but if you remember my first bit of advice, I advised you to hire someone such as crhomebuilder, to either oversee or inspect this type of work. Next time I’ll talk about how you can save a lot of money laying the block, as compared to the way we see it done in Guanacaste.
One other thing I’d like to mention is that, those dozen men I hire for the slab pour, nine of them go home after the pour. It doesn’t take eight, ten or twelve men to build a cabina. Labour in Costa Rica can be very expensive, when a dozen men work on your project for a year. More on that topic later.
Edited on May 21, 2008 17:30
Something to consider: Snakes, scorpions and skunks come to mind when I see a house built on stilts. I don’t want anything living under my house that bites, smells or stings. My free advice, stay away from pre-fabs, if limited funds are available. The pre-fabs that I have built, always cost more in the end and they never turn out as advertised. Just so you know, I’ve never purchased a pre-fab package, I’ve only built them for others.
Speedo5:
This is where you will start to save money. Before I get into laying the block though, I want you to know that if you shop for all the materials you are going to use in your construction, you will save far more money than if you just order a pre-fab. Pre-fabs still require all the items that are going to make up the price of your home or cabina. Shopping for and getting the best price for such items as wood, ceramic, fixtures, toilets, sinks and other items, can save you a bundle.
On with laying the block. From the construction I see in Guanacaste, the block is laid very rough in comparison to the way we lay block in Canada. You need to have the block layers, lay the block with your electrician and person doing the plumbing on site, as the block is laid. As each row goes up, they need to determine where the electrical and plumbing rough-in goes and they need to install the rough-in pieces, as the block wall is raised. Normally in Guanacaste, they install the rough-in both electrical and plumbing, after the block is laid. I won’t dare get into the problems this causes, but I can tell you it’s expensive and in Canada, would not meet the building code requirements.
The advantages of doing it the way I just explained are, you save time and the job is neat. Best of all, it’s done. No going back. The block needs to be laid level and plumb. The mortar at the joints need to be what I call finished. The block layer takes a hand broom and as he lays the block he knocks of the excessive mortar. This leaves both the interior wall side and exterior wall side smooth, the mortar isn’t sticking out.
You want to do this because you will save lots of material and time when finishing the walls. There are other tips at this stage that can save you money.
At this point, it is my guess that you will have saved enough money, to be at the stage where the money you would save on a pre-fab, makes building the way I have described, equal.
I’ll leave this thread alone now, but one thing my building in Costa Rica experience has taught me – Hire the right people… even if it costs a little more!
Hope this helped.
Hola vbcruiser and others
Thank you very much for your input and insight. You have confirmed what i suspected in the beginning. Other than speed, pre-fab construction would not be the desirable method for my purposes. I’m not in that big of a hurry, so i don’t think i’ll go that route. Gracious Amigos.
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