March 16th, 2009 fmorgan
This morning we walked over to the office to discover that the town road crew had chopped off the end of the driveway, now about 18 inches above the level of the road.
Our backhoe operator said that we needed to put in concrete culverts. Now, the entrance is at the top of a hill, which is why when we made it, we didn’t put in culverts in the first place.
Why do we need culverts? Not so that water can pass under, but so that the town will not destroy the entrance again during any future road work–they will have to work around it like they did in front of our house, where there are much-needed culverts.
After we put in these “dry” culverts and covered them up, the road crew used their big grader and roller to smooth the entrance and pack it down. That was nice.
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March 16th, 2009 fmorgan
One of the many big surprises to me when we moved down to Costa Rica was how primitive the wood business was. Here you have a country with hardware stores, tools, etc. but if you want wood, you go to the sawmill and buy green! There are also depositos de madera, or lumberyards, but they usually sell green wood, too. Of course, you can’t install it green, so you have to dry it yourself.
Many people who are building their own home in Costa Rica are surprised to find that you can’t just go down to something like Home Depot and buy a 2×4; nope, you have to find it. Then, after you find it, make sure to get more than you need, because some of them are going to warp, especially if you don’t know how to dry it properly.
The Ticos are an interesting mix of planning and not planning. If they are building your home, it is hard to find someone who understands buying supplies ahead. I think I have finally figured out why. Most Ticos accumulate material and build in stages. Unlike we do in the USA, they don’t generally get a loan, but they store up money for labor and materials until they have enough to start. This means the wood they need for beams, etc. has probably been in the barn for a few years.
We, on the other hand, land here and want to build our home now, the sooner the better. Often the wood is not available except in a tree somewhere, which will require permits that take weeks to get. The wood will be rough cut, often by a chainsaw, then you will wait perhaps 3 months or more for it to dry (sort of). Since most construction people have nothing more than a power hand planer, the cost of planing and sanding can cost as much as the wood itself.
We paid our dues on this for sure. The first house we built was from trees to house using chainsaws with guides and a 15″ planer. It felt like the timeline for the construction was stretching out forever (we know those of you who live here can relate).
As we grew, so did our milling operation, and we got faster and faster — and more predictable. Now if we need a beam, it comes out of the factory dry, at the right dimensions, planed and sanded and ready to install. The cost of planing and sanding isn’t much when you have the equipment. It is a lot less than paying a construction person to do it by hand. In fact, the costs saved in having the wood ready almost pays for the wood itself when you deduct the labor cost of working with rough cut wood. And of course, the quality is better. We use specialty equipment that allows us to work with beautifully grained wood that would otherwise have a lot of tearouts. With our equipment, we are able to make gorgeous teak products that cost about the same as cedar.
Now we are in the process of educating the construction bosses from Guanacaste to the central valley that they can buy wood ready to install, which helps keep their clients happy. We not only sell the dimensional lumber, but also the tongue-end-groove wood for ceilings and walls (called tablilla here) and floors. In fact, just about anything that is wood in a house, from furniture to cabinets, to floors and doors, we make and sell. And that uses a lot of wood, which is good for our tree owners.
Posted in business in Costa Rica, cabinets, campo, construction, cultural adaptation, doors, drying wood, forestry, furniture, kiln, tablilla, teak, trees, wood | 1 Comment »
March 9th, 2009 fmorgan
There is much excitement in Cabanga and Guatuso recently over the road that runs from Guatuso to Arenal. This also means a lot to us since that road passes in front of our base of operations. What a difference four years makes! It is almost four years ago we bought the Monte Cristo property, and at the time there was a road, but the bridges were less than marginal. In fact, a little less than three years ago when we moved to Monte Cristo with our stuff, when the driver of the truck saw the bridge, he took off his seatbelt in case he had to jump. I was riding with him, and after I did a double-take, I took off my seatbelt, too!
Since that time, both bridges have been repaired thanks to the local businessmen augmenting the resources of the town, and the road has been graded various times. But now they are getting serious, and we are getting a luxury road — for Costa Rica.
There are various stages of roads here. Phase one is send a bulldozer that carves it out but leaves it dirt. This leaves a road that is servicable about 4 months out of the year for vehicles. The rest of the time, only tractors and horses will pass.
The next phase is to take rock and sand dredged out of the river and dump it on the road. This is called “lastre.” You won’t get stuck, but it is jarring, so you would almost prefer dirt. The rock runs from gravel to 6 inches in diameter and more. Kind of fun on a mountian bike, but I probably can’t think of anything that would do a better job destroying a vehicle’s suspension than a river rock road. A lot of people can’t afford repairs, so evry day we hear wham! wham! wham! as pickup trucks and cars go by with their chassis hitting bottom on every big rock. This has been the road in front of our operation these four years and one of the reasons we have a fulltime mechanic.
Now they are going to the next phase, an actual gravel road! Make the road uniform in width, fix all the drainage systems, and spread actual gravel. It is going to be wonderful.
To give you an idea why I sound so excited, our operation is only about 4 miles (6 kilometers) from Guatuso, but it can take 20 minutes to get there due to the road. We are 14 kilometers (10 miles) from Nuevo Arenal, but that is at least 45 minutes of driving on a much worse road. (Imagine driving over ski moguls.) With the new road, I can imagine being in Arenal in under 20 minutes! Not that there is anything to buy in Arenal, except at a very good German Bakery, but we do at times pass through Arenal heading for Liberia to get parts and construction supplies.
There is not only the increase in convenience to us and far fewer repairs to suspension — we seem to change the oil and the bushings on our car at the same time — but it will change the traffic flow of tourism to go right in front of our operation. This allows us to create a storefront for souvenirs and furniture. We are getting more and more walk-in traffic for our furniture business, and this could increase it considerably. Even people passing by this mixed-species plantation is a good thing, because it can raise awareness of what is being done to bring back more native trees to Costa Rica.
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