Chile Forum

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...

I am following this thread with interest too; let's hope it continues. I will be looking to build within the next few months on a parcela on the coast (5th region) and am in the same boat as Tony

I am as useless as tits on a bull when it comes to building and construction

although I'd love to give it a try and would feel reasonably comfortable doing plumbing and electrics given my engineering background. It's just the time factor - I wouldn't have hardly any to dedicate to it!

Having already spoken to constructores civiles in that region & spoken to expats who've been here for years, and followed this thread, I'm not exactly filled with confidence at our chances of building something sturdy, safe and of good value for money... Not yet anyway.

What I'd like to know is people's opinions on these materials that we have been quoted for and told about so far....
Exterior walls: PVC siding, fibrecement, impregnated wood, and 'piedra pizarra' (slate?)
Interior walls: volcanita, wood, 'piedra pizarra'


Best case scenario, I'd like to build something solid with brick on all walls, but these constructor civiles on the coast tell me it'll be very hot in warm weather and very cold in winter. Don't know why but I get the impression that they are lying to me and they just want to knock up a quick PVC and cardboard job in 4 months and move on to the next schmuck...

Hope I'm wrong.

Hey jgb78UK,

In my opinion as someone that works in the construction industry I will swear by wood or steel stud frame construction. If done property it will give a house that will last decades. Other advantages would be that it is relatively easy to work with, later modifications can be done easily in most cases (like running new electrical or plumbing), it finishes way nicer/easier that brick (drywall is easily screwed or nailed to wood, not so easy for brick), and you can achieve superior energy efficiency. A solid brick structure with change with the weather, if it is cold for a week or so the brick gets cold and stays that way... any energy you put into heating the house is absorbed by the brick quickly and is radiated back to the out doors, same goes for when it is hot out side... but in reverse. Wood will also perform extremely well in Earthquakes if properly constructed.

The only problem with wood frame construction in Chile is that it isn’t common and the people that do build houses this way often do it incorrectly. So you would be correct to suspect something with the constructor civiles. Not to say that intentionally cut corners… it that they just don’t know how to do it correctly.

It’s really too bad you are building now and not in a few years. I have been talking with my in-laws and wife about starting a construction company to build higher end buildings at a lower cost. With the finishes and quality that you would expect in North America, we would also be making all our houses considerably greener that what is available in Chile and aim to make the interior climate as comfortable as owner would like. Have a bunch of cooling ideas that cost little to nothing to operate and with the Chilean climate the heating costs in a properly constructed house would be minimal (maybe 20.000 a month in the winter). The only hurdles we can think of right now is finding qualified trades people, and finding quality materials. Next time I am in Chile I have going to have to really start looking for some of these things to make sure they are available.

Anyways like I was saying, the construction theory of what you are being told is sound… it is just a matter of having it build properly.

Jason Roesler

jgb78uk wrote:. . . . Best case scenario, I'd like to build something solid with brick on all walls, but these constructor civiles on the coast tell me it'll be very hot in warm weather and very cold in winter. Don't know why but I get the impression that they are lying to me and they just want to knock up a quick PVC and cardboard job in 4 months and move on to the next schmuck... .

As Jason Roesler points out, JGB, plain brick (or stone, or concrete) will exchange heat between the interior and the out-of-doors until the two temperatures are equal. The fine old masonry houses of the northern hemisphere (and of Buenos Aires, etc.) obviated the drawback with interior panelling placed a bit off the interior surface of the stone or brick; nowadays, that gap, a well of air, often is filled with loosely packed batting. But this is expensive construction.