Building In The Dr

Barnabe

Member
Dec 20, 2002
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Hello eveybody,

Question: Does anybody here have the experience of building a house with coral or limestone? I have a concrete home and want something else.

Anybody helps?
 

lhtown

Member
Jan 8, 2002
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Wouldn't a house of coral collect a ridiculous amount of mold in most areas? Maybe "river" rock drawn from legal sources would be a better option? I don't see limestone here.
 

Chris

Gold
Oct 21, 2002
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www.caribbetech.com
Please don't build with coral - it is not a good thing. Leave the coral in the ocean where it belongs. I've never seen a limestone house here - there may be some. It is a wonderful and cool building material - although very labor intensive and time consuming, like any stone house. Good stone masons are not easily found. I've seen limestone houses in the Turks & Caicos Islands but have not seen any limestone construction here. Maybe someone else knows.
 

Barnabe

Member
Dec 20, 2002
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Thanks for the answers.

Apparently some houses were built with limestone in the North (cabrera).

In San Cristobal you find affordable "piedra caliza" with seems to be suitable for building purposes. The main problem is the cutting, as often with stones, since blocks are something like 6ftX3X3.

some of the ciudad colonial building are made with piedra caliza. I have seen stone walls (not veneer) nearby Boca chica and in La Romana.

I spend my holidays in France in a 15th century stone house with walls almost 2ft thick. You never need airco there although in summer temperature is fairly high.

I am sure there is a life in RD out of bloques y cemento.
 

FL-Hillbilly

New member
Dec 27, 2002
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The secret is to build like in the old days, but with modern techniques.
If with blocks, make the ceiling at least 10 feet high, and if economically feasible, try and have either a cathedral or v shaped ceiling (no second floor.) Another trick is to have 11 foot ceilings witha one foot opening under the eaves of the second story. This relieves any heat buildup.

Trees: People forgot or forget, that most of the old manor houses were surrounded by trees. Even famous Luis "El B'ucaro" who lives in a campo, quite dry, has large mesquite trees all over his property. DD, a poster here, has a huge mesquite tree outside his office...it cools the place down.

Another choice of building materiel(?) is palm wood siding. At least half the wall could be palm wood. Very effective insulator.

There is a lot more... No coral please....

HB
 

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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There are very interesting building materials. If you do a search through google or yahoo or one of the search engines on alternative construction methods, you should get some interesting results. There is life beyond cement blocks. Our house is a river stone construction which they've plastered over with cement. Yuck!

I know what you mean when you talk about 2ft thick walls. I lived in a farm house in South Africa with thick walls and it is wonderful. This house was over 100 years old and constructed with old style batavian mud bricks.

Wood is an alternative, although an expensive one. It is a renewable resource. I do not know about termite problems however. I've not seen palm wood used in construction outside of Costa Rica and it is a beautiful alternative.
 

Pib

Goddess
Jan 1, 2002
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Chris, palm wood is very common in the campos here, and as HB (FL version 1.0) said it is very cool. Most people cover then the walls with mud to further insulate the house and prevent the bugs from coming in the house. The effect is even better if it has a palm leaves roof. These houses are very cool, cheap, quaint and easily gone with the first breeze of a hurricane.
 

Barnabe

Member
Dec 20, 2002
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Thanks again.

Hillbilly, I agree with you about the house being high and protected with trees. About not having upper level, it costs a lot given the prices of the lot (Santo domingo, not north coast).

About blocks, even with a high ceiling, you will in my opinion have a very humid atmosphere in the house.

About palm trees, I think Pib said it all..

Chris, I am convinced adobe buildings would be great here, but I do not intend to try beeing a pioneer, I want a home I can resell the day I get homesick.

Pib, although my suegra's house in palm trees withstood all hurricanes since David, I would not live all year round in it.

Please apologize for my mistakes, I am not from the US
 

jojocho

New member
Jul 10, 2002
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Coral

I think that what Barnabe is thinking about when he says coral is actually what is known locally as "piedra coralina". This is a very interesting stone as it does not heat up even when exposed directly to the sun for hours. Some new hotels are using it in their pool areas for this reason. However, the coralina slabs are VERY expensive, so geeting coralina blocks to build a house could be prohibitive (or something like that).
 

mobrouser

Bronze
Jan 1, 2002
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what about the interior finishes

what are the most commonly used materials for the interior finishes? is gypsum board used/manufactured in RD or is it imported?

and what about the use of alternatives--bagasse, for example, is it used and/or manufactured in large quantities?

mob :classic:

ps. to grahame (bushbaby) if you are reading this thread: i have been admiring the home in the background of your member photo in the media gallery. it looks spectacular, did you design it?
 

FL-Hillbilly

New member
Dec 27, 2002
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Re: building materiel
The idea of 10 foot ceilings is to get the air circulating, and thus avoid the humidity. Hopefully, your lot is located so that you can take advantage of the breeze. If you can build facing the predominant breezes, you avoid the classic error of stagnant air and therefore, humidity. If you do a 10 foot ceiling you can build a second floor and take advantage of the building site.
I invite you to see what we did in Santiago. Beer on me..

HB
 

sjh

aka - shadley
Jan 1, 2002
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you can solve the leak in your flat roof by putting a nice coat of dark black heat collecting tar on your roof. It has the added advantage of cutting down on winter heating bills...
 

FL-Hillbilly

New member
Dec 27, 2002
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What a maroon! (As Bugs once said) They sell excellent sealants for the roof, and Mr. CC Know-it-all, I expect the fellow will need two stories and on the second story he can have a two or four sided roof~! See? Mr. Fancypants, yea yea yea...

Oh, and by the way, I love that Mr. Mossber OO protection company!! Have a Happy New Year


HB
 

lhtown

Member
Jan 8, 2002
377
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Drywall is available from a few select suppliers(I know of one.) I wouldn't use it though except for a "temporary" office division or something like that since it dislikes water so strongly. It seems like there is always water getting in between the rain, humidity, plumbing and so forth. Also, good luck finding the tools to put it up and finish it with.
 

mobrouser

Bronze
Jan 1, 2002
2,339
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drywall and water

interesting, we have used wall board manufactured from bagasse (perhaps it goes by another name in RD?) quite successfully in high humidity conditions. am i correct in assuming from your reply that it is not commonly used? and who are the suppliers of drywall?

personally, i am not fond of stucco interior walls, perhaps because i've never been successful at patching one (and the surround sound for the tv would never work).

mob