Chile Forum

Thanks Gloria. I got your email, and sent you a response.
I apologize for the inconvenience and for posting this here but I would like to mention that your response didn't arrived and I was wondering if it went to spam which it gets deleted often.Could you please send it again? Thanks

A "maestro" is just someone who owns a hammer in Chile

That's a classic!
It sums up the whole Chile experience for me...

You made my day with that one...

Charles, glad you had such a stellar crew, our Mexicans are OK so long as I stay on top of them (sound familiar?). The trick I have learned in terms of dealing with the drunkenness (that is a BIG problem with them) is to pay the problem kids on Monday instead of Friday like the rest. Alternatively, use Mexican subcontractors, they know how to handle their own.

Actually Gloria, you bring up another problem with them. On a residential construction project, it's important to keep the place sanitary or rats are sure to join the crew, followed by cockroaches.
Mexican const workers tend to want fresh, hot meat tacos mid am or so, so they actually "camp out" with a hotplate and all the trimmings. When they are done, there's almost always a grease puddle on the garage (if you are lucky) floor and scraps of discarded food around the place. I had to set traps recently to remedy the pest problem.
I have had to enlist the help of a more "enlightened" (seasoned in the US) Mexican to shame them into cleaning up their act.
Of course YMMV

jgb78uk wrote:

A "maestro" is just someone who owns a hammer in Chile

That's a classic!
It sums up the whole Chile experience for me...

You made my day with that one...

I own two hammers. Does that make me a super "maestro"?

The problem with training workers of any sort is if they have never seen good work, how can you expect them to know the difference.

It goes beyond the construction workers to managers, architects, and so on.

When was the last time you walked in to a building in Chile, and your jaw just dropped on the floor and you could not get it out of your mind it was so beautiful and so well built?

I mean in a Sistine chapel / Frank Lloyd Wright sense of beautiful. I mean real world class architecture. It just does not exist in Chile. There might be one or two houses or buildings around, but it just does not exist on a wide scale. I am certain Chilean architects do not live in houses, from the impractical way they design.

I get a kick out of the architecture insert on Saturday in the Mercurio. On one page they will have a full spread of houses and buildings designed in Europe or the States, and in the corner will be an advertising for a concrete box apartment in Santiago or some attempt at a house that will last 5 years and will start disintegrating. When you add up the cost of fixing errors in construction and life of the structure, they almost cost as much or more than the custom home on the Mediterranean or in Germany they are featuring that will last 50 to 100 years or more.

As I said, this is a good thread. I have been (until this weekend) intending to start my 75% remodel after the 18th holiday, using a local maestro. Now I'm seriously considering letting it sit a year until I can rent a local house and supervise it myself!!

these may be silly questions...but they seem relevant. are there building codes in chile? is there any kind of enforcement mechanism for said (hypothetical) codes? are the "maestros" licensed in any way? are the available materials sub-par?

my father and my brother were both carpenters, and i spent a lot of summers framing houses in high school and college. i've remodeled three homes in LA. the mexican workers are genrally very hard workers and skillful, and if you treat them right, you'll get a lot of good work out of them. but it's true that they don't generally have the cleanest habits. based on what i'm reading here in this thread, i guess i'll plan on bringing my tools with me....

Not silly questions... but bring your tools from what I have seen and heard. For example, when we found an appartment to rent in Santiago we had a gas-fitter that was a friend of my wife’s family come install our cook top. Nice guy but when he didn’t have the right pieces to finish the job he just rigged something up (2 copper fittings that where about 1/32 apart in size and a lot of extra solder) that worked for the time that we were there. So if you want things done right or to a better standard you will have to pretty much lead the workers and show them exactly what you want done.

As for building codes my wife tells me they exist and there is a 200 luka code book somewhere. But I don’t think they are enforced that much. From what I know as long as you have an engineer’s stamp on new construction they will let you build it. If you are doing a renovation or small addition you just draw something up and have the town hall take a look at them and they will probably pass it. And I think the gas and electrical inspectors are licensed but like it was said before the “maestros” are anyone with a hammer.

I have also found a lot of materials I am used to here in Canada not available in Chile, and the ones that are still aren’t the same. Most of the time they are of lesser quality then what i would expect here, for instance I have found it is hard to find good dry dimensional wood for framing. Last spring I was at a builders trade show in Santiago and I talked to a guy that was promoting his brand of lumber. He had mentioned that there are only 2 places in Chile that test the moisture of lumber and didn’t say anything about testing for strength.

I am starting to realize it is going to be very difficult to get the quality of construction I want for our house.

All these experiences are the main reason why I am so hesitant to build here.. I am as useless as tits on a bull when it comes to building and construction.. so would not know how to guide a crew into building e a good quality structure.. all I know is that they dont know either... and I would never trust anyone with any amount of money to build me a house here.. I have yet to be in a house where the doors are hung properly and actually shut..or dont leave a gap wide enough to fit your fingers thru!!.. and dont get me started on insulation or thermal windows.. or guttering... whats up with basic roof plumbing?.. as for Charles comments about architects in Chile... 100% agree.. I cant imagine they have ever lived in a house they have designed.. otherwise they would've corrected their many design faults.. and lack of imagination...