bouchardcraftwork wrote:Apart from the albeit major language issues are there significant hoops on the govt level? For instance: required engineer stamps, architectural review, etc. Basically is there an unavoidable process to permitting, etc which exposes a gringo to collusion between professionals, trades, suppliers, and govt., or is it avoidable under certain circumstances such as 'off the grid' or outside jurisdiction?
My plan is to come down sometime next year to research for at least a month. When does the building season start in the south?
On another note, Px mentioned the drinking culture which I experienced on the Ecuadorian coast last year. It appeared to be requisite for good relations within the male community, any thoughts? I don't mind having a beer or two, but everyday after lunch until whenever isn't my idea of fun.
bouchardcraftwork wrote:When does the building season start in the south?
Which south? Everybody from Rancagua to Cabo de Hornos thinks they are "south."
And some people in Puerto Varas and Valdivia think they are in "Patagonia" based on some ancient notions of where the frontiers were long ago.
If you mean Magallanes/XIIa Región as South then it typically gets active from about October on and slows down in April or May, but there is some degree of building almost all year along the coast.
You don't need to drink with the (subordinate) workers and I would advise against it. You will never be one of them and you should not try. With the engineers, yes. There are other opinions in this regard, but you have mine. Attempts at being buddies with workers may be viewed as a sign of weakness and ineptness. I do not
tutear with my workers and they know I expect the same from them. In my years here and uncountable mistakes I have made one exception, and that is my tile and cement guy, who seems to have been affected by the work he has done for the local parish churches and parochial school, and for the former governor of the province, who was once a priest.
For permits things tend to be more relaxed here (Way South) than in the Evil Empire. If you are inside a municipality sphere of control then typically many projects require permits and approvals. "Require" may be interpreted as what the law requires but not necessarily what will bring the local SWAT team as happens in California if you just think about using the wrong paint. Example: when I had to subdivide a rural property I dumped the job on my "dibujante" (draftsman) and he drew it up and ran it around, argued the case before the authorities, and got the issue approved for a very reasonable fee. My current rural house (about 2000 sq ft) was done with no government approval, though in theory a plan and approvals were required. As far as the tax authorities are concerned, neither my present house nor the current one exist.
Well, they exist but are not taxed. Zero property tax for the original and the subdivided properties, both with houses. Try that in the Evil Empire.
Where you can run into Approval Hell is with utilities, even in rural areas. Gas and electrical utilities are normed by an agency called SEC.
Superintendencia de Electricidad y Combustibles. This is one aspect of building that can be more demanding than even California. The utilities require plans approved by engineers (or what passes for engineers here -- known as "
personas autorizadas" by the utilities). Sometimes the
personas autorizadas do not only the plans and approvals with the utilities, but the hands-on dirt work as well. My electrical guy did a fair job but one of his workers was an incorrigible donkey. When they "finished" and left, 4 of 7 circuits were non-operational. I had to take apart the tablero (power panel) and troubleshoot. The problem was based on the dumb-shit design of standard residential power panels here, which do not use a bus but instead a serial feed from breaker one to breaker N. If the connection from breaker one to breaker two is faulty, then all downstream circuits fail. This will be on the final: there is no word in Chile for "reliability engineering."
Off the grid? If you are doing PV in the countryside, probably not, if you are not grid connected. You might still want bottled gas for cooking or backup. You could, maybe, run into the need for utility-required plans and approvals for service by bottled gas if you are getting new service. And here comes another story: a gringo was building out in the wopwops and one of the chileans offered to supply him periodically with bottles of gas, he would pick up in town at the Lipigas supplier,take the old bottles back, just charged him for the gas and the transport. Cool, huh? Until Mr Gringo discovered that the bottles of gas weren't lasting very long. It turned out that Mr Friendly Helpful Chilean was using the bottles of gas himself until they were about 3/4 exhausted, then delivering them to the gringo's site.
Because Chileans are like that.
In another thread we talked about installing satellite antenna/kits for remote site internet access. That is an area with insufficient local skill, very high local costs for incompetent installations and abysmal bandwidth, and something of an opportunity for perhaps a sideline for someone already working other building aspects.
/ px
In Puerto Aysén today
I guess the gringo never knew how heavy a full bottle was. He probably got the 45-liter bottles.
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