June 6th, 2008
Step 1 of the construction process in Costa Rica really is that you have determined the cost of building what you want and you have determined that you’ve got the funds necessary to achieve your objective.
But that is not what this article is about. This one is about a meeting that I had yesterday with a client of mine that I’ll call Gabe for the sake of this article, (and due to the fact that that’s his name) and an engineer. Gabe is going to start building at the start of the next dry season. I think though that I’d like to go ahead and talk a minute about budgeting.
Right now when you ask the question “how much does it cost to build in Costa Rica?” you’re going to hear some diverse responses. What we are talking about here in Costa Rica’s southern zone: Dominical, Uvita, Ojochal, San Buenas and beyond, you’ll likely hear anything from $70.00 to $125 per sq. foot. I’ve heard these numbers and have wondered a bit at the broad range. $70.00 a square foot is probably not a good number to use in calculating the cost of building here. I know that you can build for that. I know of some that are building now for less than that. But for the purposes that we are here considering, we don’t want to use low figures.
Conventional wisdom would dictate that we calculate high to make sure that you don’t run out of money. Costs of materials and labor are rising. Materials are going up due to the global demand for cement and steel, presumably caused by whatever is going on in China. And also for labor costs here. The demand on construction services is high caused here by a construction boom that is logically following in the wake of our land boom that is now some 4 or 5 years old.
So my recommendation is, even if you don’t intend to build a palace with granite counter tops, that you calculate the cost at around $80 – $85 per foot, at this writing. From that point you can gauge the affect of your own preferences and add to that square foot price accordingly. $125 per foot is going to be luxurious.
Gabe and I met with a couple of engineers right here in Uvita by the names of Hugo and Juan Carlos. Their company is called “Ingeniera Satelital” Juan Carlos is the main engineer of the San Buenas golf course and the talk there about his services is good, so I felt comfortable setting up the appointment with my client Gabe.
We sat with these two gentlemen in their Uvita office and got right into a rollicking conversation about what a guy ought to do with his land to prepare it for building. I think that the information we uncovered there will be of interest to many readers of this blog.
I am inserting this contact information based on interest that this article has generated in the services offered by Ingeniera Satelital. Here is their contact info:
Juan Carlos
Ingenieria Satelital
011-506-2-743-8384
ingsatelital@gmail.com
The first question, of course is, “what are you going to do with your land”?
Answer – “A single family residence on an ocean view, mountain lot in Uvita”.
Ok then, first step, get the perimeter of the land defined. This is called “replantear”. Sounds a little like “replant” and in a way, that’s what it is. The perimeter of the land is going to be cleared and the survey points are going to have new re bar stakes “planted” in their places. This sounds easy, right?
In the case of most of the lots around our zone, some time has likely passed from when the lot was purchased, and the construction process is to begin. What that means here is that the perimeter is likely overgrown. Overgrown Costa Rica style is serious business. So we need to provide the engineers with a survey of the lot, and establish at least one known principal survey point there physically with them. From this they will be able to pin point the rest of the “vertices” or survey points. This requires a full day and a couple of machete wielding “peones”. By the way, this term is not demeaning here in Costa Rica. These valiant laborers that handle their razor sharp machetes so skillfully are called peones (pay-ohn-ehs) here. The North American, demeaning sense to the word is not present at all. It’s funny how long it takes for us Gringos here to accept that and actually refer to people by that term.
The perimeter is cleared and the survey points are established with #4 re bar posts that are painted red on top. So now there is a “caril” or pathway all around the lot with these stakes, clearly defining the property. The cost of this service is, as of this writing: $300 for a one hectare property. A hectare is 10,000 sq. meters and equals 2.47 acres of land.
Next, the engineers suggest a topographical map with contour lines be made of the property. This is called “curvas de nivel” (koor-bahs day nee-vehl) or “level curve lines” in Spanish.
Gabe, very thoughtfully purchased a piece of land that is just over one hectare. Gabe’s property is actually 12,000 + meters of land, but they gave us prices based on it being 1 hectare. To do the whole thing in a contour lined map would run $900. This is rarely necessary since you just need this information for the portion of the property that you’re going to build on. So you can reduce the price from there.
The engineers also suggest that a soil analysis be done for soil stability and percolation testing. Soil tests are done by a different company, but I have been involved in a few of them and so am able to provide the numbers from those experiences.
For a single family building site, there are normally 3 perforations done on the building site in the various load bearing areas of the lot. These take into consideration the location of the pool, the edge of the lot, which frequently, in our zone, drops down right away. The holes are roughly 18 feet deep and consider the strata that they find there as well as the molecular makeup of the soil. From this information the engineers are equipped with: what the soil will support weight wise, how it’ll handle rain run off, seismic activity, and percolation for septic. The cost of this type of test has been pretty consistent at around $1,300. The reports have all come back in Spanish and have been cumbersome to understand at best, even for native Spanish speakers.
I have never heard of a property failing a soil analysis. The test results simply tell you what is required in order to build what you want there.
So, aside from making sure that your budget is right, the first step of building a home in Costa Rica is to get all this basic data about your property. With the recent explosive growth in the Uvita area, capable service providers are conveniently on hand to help with the process.
There are some other benefits to starting with the engineers. They generally have an architectural firm that they work with, who in turn will likely have a construction outfit that they use. So the engineer can be a one stop shop for those looking to build a house in Costa Rica.