Episode Summary
In this episode of The Expat Files, Johnny Mueller dives into the world of expat life in Latin America, focusing on the challenges and nuances of building a home in the region. He begins by introducing the podcast and its focus on the experience of living, working, playing, and retiring in Latin America. Johnny highlights the trend of expats and expat wannabes moving south of the border, emphasizing the importance of careful planning when making such a move. He also addresses technical issues with the email system and provides a new email address for listeners: theexpatfiles@gmail.com.
The segment then transitions into a discussion about building a house in Latin America, emphasizing the importance of hiring an architect who speaks English. Johnny explains that while an architect can help select a general contractor, it is important to be cautious about the quality of the contractor, as their appearance or language skills do not necessarily reflect their work quality. He highlights the challenges of working with local builders, including the lack of modern tools and the low income of many workers, which affects the quality and availability of tools.
Johnny also discusses the resourcefulness and craftsmanship of Latin American workers, emphasizing that their ability to create high-quality work with minimal tools is a testament to their skill. He contrasts this with the first world, where modern materials like drywall have replaced traditional methods like plastering, which he views as a less durable and more expensive option, especially in the humid climate of Latin America. He warns against the use of drywall in the region due to its susceptibility to moisture and humidity, which can cause damage. The segment also touches on the importance of verifying references when hiring a general contractor in Latin America, as written references are often unreliable.
In another segment, Johnny recounts his experiences with construction in Latin America, emphasizing the importance of inspecting work quality before final payment. He describes a situation where he encountered a former water thief working as a bank guard, highlighting the lack of oversight and the prevalence of subpar craftsmanship. Johnny outlines specific inspection techniques, such as checking tile work, door hinges, and paint quality, to identify skilled contractors. He also warns against the risks of paying the final payment too early and the tendency of many contractors to offer guarantees that are not honored. The segment concludes with a note that while some contractors do provide quality work, expats must be vigilant and involved in the process.
Johnny then describes a unique situation where an expat, unable to work on his construction job, takes a camera to document the workers. He tells the general foreman he's compiling a portfolio for other expats who may later build their own houses. This approach motivates the workers, leading to a faster completion and a high-quality house. Johnny also discusses the typical process of starting a construction project in Latin America, highlighting the initial phase where the general contractor brings in materials and sets up a small, makeshift structure called a bodega. This bodega serves as storage for materials, a guard's residence, and often becomes a home for the guard's family. Johnny reflects on the precarious living conditions of expats in the third world, comparing it to living in a metal storage unit in the first world.
Finally, Johnny discusses the perspective of expats living in Latin America, highlighting the contrast between the happiness and resilience of local workers despite their modest living conditions. He notes that these workers often have a better attitude about life than many in the first world, even though they earn very little. Johnny also touches on the irony that while these workers are happy and hardworking, they are also prone to stealing, which is a challenge for construction projects. He explains that some architects have implemented policies to deter theft by ensuring workers live far from the construction sites, making it difficult for them to steal and transport materials. Johnny shares a personal anecdote about finding a hidden stash of stolen materials on a construction site in Costa Rica, illustrating the reality of theft in the region.
Topics
Introduction to the podcast and its focus on expat life in Latin America, The trend of expats moving to Latin America, Technical issues with the email system and a new email address, Building a house in Latin America, The importance of hiring an architect who speaks English, Challenges of working with local builders and contractors, Craftsmanship in Latin America, Comparison of traditional and modern building methods, Use of drywall in Latin America, Reliability of references in Latin America, Construction in Latin America, Contractor inspection and quality control in construction projects
Chapters
00:00:00 Opening 00:01:22 Building Your Own House in Latin America 00:02:13 Selecting a Plan and the Importance of a Good Builder 00:06:09 The Resourcefulness of Latin American Workers 00:06:37 The Skill of Latin American Craftsmen 00:09:49 The Risks of Drywall in Latin America 00:12:15 Encounter with a Former Thief in a Bank Guard Uniform 00:12:56 Selecting a General Contractor: The Importance of Inspection 00:17:33 The Expat's Motivation Strategy 00:18:24 The Construction Process Begins 00:23:34 The Happy Workers of Latin America 00:24:53 The Irony of Happy Workers Who Steal 00:27:30 The Reality of Theft in Construction Projects
Transcript
Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.
[00:00] South of the border Down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came out to play Hi everybody I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files Living in Latin America the one-of-a-kind show that tells you what it's like to live work play and or retire in Latin America It's a fact that millions of Europeans and North Americans have already made that big move south of the border You might know someone who already has maybe it's your dream to do it someday Well, it's a big move and it's not to be taken lightly and that's just what this show is all about. Let's get started Cause it was
[00:45] Fiesta I have to point out now that we've been having a lot of trouble with our email system a lot of your emails have Not been getting through to me. So here's my new email and it's guaranteed to work the expat files at gmail.com once more the expat files at gmail.com Okay, are you expats and expat wannabes out there in this show? I'm continuing on with the theme of building your own house in Latin America. And this is part four Now in the last show we talked about hiring your architect
[01:33] If you have an architect he'll show up on your job every day and make sure everything is to spec But of course, he won't build your house. He has to hire a general contractor Or you'll have to hire a general contractor to do the actual work Now it is a good idea to let your architect select a general contractor from people he's worked with before Or from contractors he knows by reputation Because he'll know who's honest and who's good on details and who's good managing people But if you're one of those guys that bought into an existing colony That has a lot of similar looking houses already built and you've decided to select One of the existing plans that the developer already has in his files Well, that's okay, too And in that case you won't really need an architect, but you will need a good builder
[02:19] And if your language skills aren't that good, you might even need one that speaks English because if he doesn't You're in big trouble if things aren't going the way you planned or you want to make any changes on the spot And that's why it's always good to have your own personal architect because throughout latin america Architects speak english as do most other young professionals and i'm saying young here Because young people who recently went to college for whatever career. They know how important english is Especially since the advent of the internet and the fact that most all good software programs come out first in english And that includes of course computer-aided design programs that all architects now use But i'm just talking about an architect speaking english here I'm not talking about the general contractor if he speaks english, that's something completely different and this might sound strange
[03:10] But here at the expat files, although we do recommend an architect who speaks english We don't recommend a building contractor who does And let me tell you if your general contractor speaks english or he has a nice van or a nice pickup truck I mean as opposed to what trucks and vans usually look like in latin america Especially when they belong to the working class in other words 95% of all the trucks and vans in latin america that are owned by the working class are pretty much total wrecks And by that I mean they're in such bad condition that they'd never be road worthy in the first world But in the third world, they're just the norm. So let me warn you if you happen to get a general contractor That's driving a nice van dresses sharp and clean and speaks a bit of english
[03:56] You're probably going to pay double for the privilege of his services Because a guy like that's got a higher lifestyle to maintain And another thing in the construction business You cannot tell a guy's quality of work by what he looks like Not in latin america. You can't and furthermore, you can't tell a guy's level of expertise by the tools he carries You know what i'm talking about if you have any kind of contracting work done in the first world 95% of the time your contractor is going to arrive with a serviceable car pickup or van And inside that vehicle he's likely to have every possible tool He needs to complete the job he's contracted for So if you're used to that in latin america, you're going to have a big surprise
[04:44] Because the first time an electrician a plumber or handyman shows up at your door Looking kind of ragtag scruffy and tattered around the edges Well 95 at a time He won't show up with a car or a van or a motorcycle or any moving vehicle at all Most likely he'll have come by bus And like any good worker he'll be carrying his tool kit But unlike any good worker from the first world his tool kit will be so spares You'll think that he's a throwback in time and he just walked out of the horse and buggy days And that'll be true for almost every worker that you have on the job As a matter of fact, not only will most guys not have a single power tool in their kit except for the odd 999 cheap power drill more like a toy than a real drill
[05:31] No, sir What most of these guys will have in their kit Is one of those old wooden hand crank drills your grandpa had the kind you might see hanging up in a barn In an antique roadshow program, you know what I mean And of course, they'll have screwdrivers and hammers and files and hand saws But what you can't fail to notice is that most of their tools look as old as the hills And have been repaired and patched so many times. You wonder why they just don't go out and buy some new stuff What with the dirt cheap price of those chinese imports But what you have to remember is that you're dealing with guys that make two or three hundred dollars a month on average And they've all got families and children and wives to go home to and support So naturally if something important breaks in their tool kit They'll go to heroic lengths to make it work again
[06:19] And that's why so many motorcycles and cars and trucks are in such horrible shape in latin america People go to heroic lengths to keep those rust bucket wrecks running too So the bottom line is if you have a bunch of workers show up on the first day of your job Don't judge them by the tools they carry Remember the mayans built vast cities and pyramids without anyone in their society ever inventing the wheel Never mind that they built gigantic stone buildings and cities without a single electric drill or saw In fact down here in latin america, you'll find some of the finest craftsmen you've ever seen They can work stone wood marble and tile like no one you've ever seen up in the first world And with a tiny little tool kit You know you first worlders up there with all your houses built with drywall
[07:06] Remember the good old days when everything was plastered? I'm sure you probably don't but that was the style of building for the last 500 years. That is until drywall came along I mean doing a hundred percent authentic plaster work Now that was a real job and it takes an extraordinary amount of skill to get it, right? There was a time not so long ago in the first world where in every single house and building structure A carpenter would come in and lay down little wooden slats in every square inch of a house's walls And that was the base preparation before the plaster went on and then the plasterers would come in and lay down three or four coats Of heavy plaster which took a lot of time to dry and cure between coats And when those real plaster walls dry you can bump into them and get hurt
[07:53] Not like today's walls you bump into them and you punch a hole through the drywall And if you don't believe me, you might want to ask your grandpa about plaster walls Well back in the 60s in the first world when drywall first came in it was a great substitute for plastering Because plastering was a skilled trade and those guys got a lot of money Plus it took a long time for the plaster to dry between coats Which tended to slow down all the other workers on the job But when drywall came in anybody could get his buddies together Buy a couple of cases of beer and you could do it yourself You know this old house style with bob villa Well, the art of plastering is virtually dead up in the first world That is unless maybe you want to build a church or a museum
[08:39] But i'll tell you right now the middle class in the first world could never afford a plasterer's fees I'm sure up in the first world a journeyman plaster gets at least 50 an hour, but down in latin america Everyone seems to be able to plaster In fact, it's so common in latin america that nearly every guy on a construction job Can plaster like nobody's business and it's actually a sight to see how they slap it on so fast in uniform with almost no spillage And for that a guy gets about 300 dollars a month And the reason why plastering is so big in latin america And why nearly every home has a plaster finish Is because nearly every home is made out of cement block and that's because cement block structures have steel rebar in them
[09:24] Which is much more resistant to earthquake than any of the old wooden structures ever were And you got really two choices when you have cement block You either just paint it then it looks like the inside of a basketball court Or you plaster it and it looks fine. Indeed even elegant because these latin plasters are so good that they can give you 10 or maybe even 20 different styles of finish From dead smooth to rough and coarse mission style and while i'm at it just one word of warning about drywall Guess what drywall is starting to come into latin america Especially now since us franchises have arrived and the latin's have more choice now in places like home depot Well, i'm warning you don't use it and don't let anybody ever talk you into it because in latin america
[10:13] They have such moisture and humidity problems that it's a disaster You know what happens with drywall as soon as you get it wet It bloats up and disintegrates and down here in latin america people are just starting to realize it Though many people think because they use it up in the first world all the time. It must be a great building material, right? Not to mention drywall installing seems to be a career path for so many hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens That have made it up to the united states The irony is it's just a bad choice for latin america. So the expat file's tip for the day drywall forget about it Okay, enough said about that Let's talk a little bit more about our general contractor As usual if you're going to select a general contractor and he's responsible for your whole job
[11:00] Him and the architect if you have an architect Anyway, you're going to want to have some references But you can forget about written references In latin america written references don't mean much of anything In fact if a guy gets fired for stealing on a job in latin america No matter if he's been pilfering from a construction job Or hitting on the petty cash in a bank chances are a guy like that'll have a nice file full of great references In fact, I was once living in a colony in honduras and the guy that was in charge of the water supply for the whole colony Making sure the pressure was up and the reservoirs and cisterns were all filled Well one day a year after I moved in a new guy came knocking on the door and handed me my water bill And when I asked him what happened to the other guy
[11:46] He said that the developer had discovered that on weekends. He would hook up a big tube from the reservoir Run it to a neighboring farmer's place and sell it to the farmer for his cows and livestock And then I thought aha That's why monday mornings the pressure was always down Anyway about a month and a half later. I was in a big shopping mall about five miles away And I walked into a bank to change some dollars into the local currency And who did I see standing there with a gun and a uniform? Guarding all that money in the bank Well, it was that good old water guy The one that had been selling stolen water from my colony for the past who knows how many months or even years And working on a bank of all places and wearing a gun
[12:36] All I could think was man. He must have had good references And when he saw me, you know what he came right over gave me a big smile Shook my hand like we were long lost buddies like he'd never been a thief caught in the act Happy as can be proud of his gun and his new uniform without a bit of embarrassment And that my friends is latin america So back to our selection of the general contractor Well, the easiest and surest way to tell if he's going to do a good job Is to take a ride with him to see some of the construction projects that he'd worked on Specifically some of the construction jobs He was the foreman of and after you've made two or three stops with him You'll get a good idea of just what kind of skills he has And even if he's been working on tiny little six and seven hundred square foot matchbox style houses
[13:24] What's important is the details? Look in the corners see how the joints fit Look at the wooden trim and the doors see what the finishes look like Look for water damage check the roof and do check the ceramic tile Almost all houses in latin america have ceramic tiles or terracotta floors and one of the easiest ways To check the skills of your contractor is to look at how the tiles are laid down I'm talking about the way the grout is put in little details like the thickness of it Does it very much from tile to tile the dips and valleys that might be in it the consistency of the job itself? Are the lines absolutely straight and where they meet a door or a threshold? Is it a nice finish? Do the doors close nicely?
[14:11] Are they warped and be sure to look on the hinges on the cabinets and the doors now? That's when you can really tell if a guy's into detail Because like I said before guys have a very minimal toolkit and almost no power tools So to put the hinges in a door They have to chip out the wood first with hand chisels and scoring tools And doing a nice job takes some time and some patience And if the wood is frayed or cracked or splitting around the hinges You know the guy was not into details and that if he'd let that kind of work go on the finished product Even in a tiny 800 square foot house Well, that just means whatever he did under the plaster work the stuff that's actually buried in the walls Well, you can be pretty sure that whatever work was done below the surface is pretty sloppy
[15:03] And another thing be sure to check places that are varnished and the general condition of the paint job Because latin painters are notorious for getting paint everywhere And there's almost no such thing as preparing the surface beforehand The fact is i've never seen a single one use a drop cloth or a masking tape Come on. No one's that good Sometimes it makes me think that even the owners of these new houses have no idea how to do a final inspection of their own house And they're just as clueless about details as the construction crew was Because when you walk through a house and you see drops of paint on screens window panes window sills doors floors toilets and sinks and bathtubs It's surely the fault of a sloppy general contractor who really doesn't much care about the finished project
[15:52] A guy like that's not interested in doing a good job He's just interested in getting paid so he can get the hell out of there, but i'll tell you right now They're not all like that, but a lot of them are And that's why it's such a good idea Never to pay the final payment until you've got a complete final inspection In other words don't pay anyone their final 10 or 20 percent whether it's the plumber or the electrician or the window guy And even your own architect because if there's one thing sure in latin american construction If there is a problem or a defect that you happen to find out later after you moved into your house You'll never get that guy to come back and do anything for free Even though these days it seems to be a new marketing ploy For certain contractors to offer some kind of guarantee on their work
[16:40] Maybe six months or a year or even five years, but forget about it. It's just all talk You might be able to get him to fix it But it's going to cost you and most expats. I know have fallen into that trap including me The fact is I know a lot of expats who've paid twice for the same work Once when it was in the original contract and then sometime later when it needed to be fixed It's because of the fact that so many times first world expats are so trusting and never really bothered Giving their place a good looking over before they moved in And I should know because it happened to me But let me just say there's an awful lot of building contractors out there in latin america Who are very proud of their work and they do a great job But you as the owner have to show up on that job almost every day
[17:28] If you really want to get first world quality work and one expat friend of mine had a great idea, too He couldn't make it out to his construction job, but once or twice a week So what he did was simple every time he came out to the job He took out a camera and started taking pictures of all the workers as they were working on his job And he told the general foreman that he was putting together a portfolio To show to other first world expats in this case gringos who at some time in the future Were going to come down and build their own houses Now you just wouldn't believe how that motivated the workers to do a good job Well, not only did they finish two months ahead of schedule But it's one of the most nicely detailed houses I ever saw in latin america And even though the expat did tell a bit of a white lie
[18:15] Some of what he said actually came true because the general contractor did get some more expat work out of it Just like the owner let on Okay, let's move on So now you got your plans your permits your architect and your general contractor. What happens next? Well, the next thing that happens is something that you'll never see happen in the first world At least i've never seen it on the first day. The general contractor will bring in his people Maybe a dozen or so and that same day there will usually be a big drop of construction materials on the site I'm talking about sacks of cement rebar cement blocks loads of sand and gravel and a couple of dozen four by eight sheets Of tin roofing. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Did he just say laminated tin sheets?
[19:02] You may be an expat in the third world, but your house is not going to have tin roofing now, is it? I mean no first world style house or even a first world wannabe clone would ever have a tin roof That's third world all the way now, isn't it? Well, actually that tin roofing will not be for your house at all The fact is on that very first day those construction workers will get together and build a small rickety structure That looks something like a one-car garage made with staked wooden posts and completely covered with laminated tin sheets And in the end, it'll have a nice pitched laminated roof and a nicely hinged laminated tin door and it'll look like it belongs right in the middle of a refugee camp
[19:49] And this structure as it turns out serves a couple of different purposes It's a storage hut of all the valuable materials that might get wet like cement bags And as a storehouse for valuable things that just might get stolen like shovels and wheel barrels and crowbars extension cords and lanterns and if there's a power tool or two Which might only be a beat up electric drill and a dull bladed circular saw But even junk like that is a temptation for a guy making 300 bucks a month Anyway, whatever might walk off the job is stored in this little shed called a bodega Now there's another valuable reason why this bodega exists. It exists to house a man 24 hours a day
[20:35] Because you see every construction job in latin america Has at least one guard 24 hours a day and that little bodega is his house And he lives sleeps and eats in that little bodega for the whole length of the job Which like I mentioned before for a pretty good sized single family home two or three thousand square foot Well a job like that usually takes about a year So on the very first day of your construction project This guy your guard sets up shop in that little bodega and he's part of your general contractor's crew And in most cases He's just a nice old honorable guy A guy who's got a lot of seniority on a lot of construction jobs and everybody knows he's trustworthy And he too gets your basic worker's wage, which is usually about two to three hundred dollars a month
[21:25] But he's got to be there 24 hours a day seven days a week Now to you and me that might seem like hardship duty But these guys got it down and after a few days it actually starts looking like home sweet home. That is third world style of course They cook their food camping style with any wood or scraps that can scrounge up on the lot They wash their clothes in an old-fashioned wash basin and hang their clothes up all over the place And the really amazing part is often their family will move in with them I mean the wife and kids and maybe even a dog It's like every 10 year old boy's dream You know a sleep out with your buddies In a makeshift fort in your backyard or in a tree house roughing it boy scout style
[22:13] Only this is for real and it's for a year dirt floor and all And it's so often the case that the entire family moves in that you gotta wonder if they actually have a permanent resident somewhere else And I know oftentimes the wife has a day job Maybe cleaning houses somewhere because you soon realize that she disappears early in the morning and comes back later around five or six o'clock But what it does for me and a lot of other expats is that it makes us realize just how precarious it is To live at the bottom end of society in the third world I mean when you really think about it It's as if you were back up in the first world and your life took a real bad financial turn And you decided that the only feasible alternative would be to rent one of those metal storage units that you see out by airports
[23:00] A one-car garage job, you know what i'm talking about But you know one of those used storage units would be infinitely better than one of these shacks on a construction site Why because a rented storage unit by the airport at least has a cement floor an electric outlet And at least it's completely dry. I mean talk about roughing it But that's my little expat file social commentary for the day But I guess after all us expats have a tilted perspective on things because soon enough you notice that on your construction job All those guys making two and three hundred dollars a month including the guy living in laminated tin shack Well as these guys are working They all seem to be having a pretty good time telling jokes and laughing
[23:46] Sometimes even whistling or singing a song playing little tricks on each other And every time they have a break someone drags out a ragged old soccer ball and the games begin And when it's raining or the weather's bad, they're all huddled into that little tin shack Joking and laughing or listening to the radio with the busted antenna Well, it seems to a lot of expats that these people who have almost nothing Well when all is said and done they seem to have a better attitude about life than most people we know up in the first world All I can say is go figure And you know one expat told me you could spend a day walking in any big city up in the first world Chicago, atlanta, miami new york, whatever and still not encounter anyone half as happy
[24:33] At least on the job as some of these latin guys making two and three hundred dollars a month Okay, enough said about that But there is a big irony here because one of the main reasons for that bodega Maybe the main reason is to house a guard to make sure nothing walks off your construction site So if you really break it down to basics It seems like what you have here is a very happy bunch of workers that if given half a chance will steal you blind At least from an expats viewpoint That's what it seems Because I know for a fact in the first world if you had to pay a guard 24 hours a day To watch every single family house that went up. Well, i'll tell you right now almost no one I know could afford it In fact a guard salary a 24-hour guard i'm talking about the first world now
[25:21] Anyway, that would add about fifty thousand dollars to the project probably a lot more and i'll tell you right now that just wouldn't fly But interestingly enough one architect did tell me a little secret He told me that some of the bigger projects throughout latin america Well the big boys anyway have a kind of unofficial hiring policy They won't contract any individual laborers that live within three or four miles Of any ongoing project and he said that's turned out to be the best deterrent to employee theft Of anything they've ever tried and why well, that's because every single laborer has to take the bus to work every day It's not feasible for a guy who lives that far away to walk And if he's gonna steal anything that means he'll have to carry it back with him on the bus all the way home
[26:13] Which could be as well. You can imagine quite a problem, especially if a guy's walking off with steel cement or concrete blocks So that is a good idea and more and more architects and builders are following that plan But you should know that any construction job that does last about a year and almost all of them do Well, there's gonna be some pilferage as a matter of fact one day I was walking through a dense field very near to maybe about a block away from a house. I was building in costa rica It was a single family house in a spread out area at least two or three blocks from any other construction Well that day I was walking around in a deep brush and I tripped and almost broke my ankle I tripped on a small piece of metal sticking out of the brush And it was attached to a dirty piece of plywood about three by three foot square
[27:02] And when I lifted up the piece of plywood underneath was a hole filled with a stash of construction materials including nails and screws and bolts and rolls of electrical wire light sockets and circuit breakers and switches All kinds of stuff and all from my building project And it was somebody's secret stash some worker no doubt and maybe his accomplice who knows But for sure whoever planned it was going to come back at a later date and pick it all up And that's just one of the things you have to look out for when you build a house in latin america You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america And don't forget you can email me about any question you have about latin america That's the expat files
[27:49] at gmail.com See you next time