Container Home Builds in DR...

[MoJoInDR]

I've been a supporter of the tiny home trend in the US for some twenty years (long before it became a trend). I just saw the reasonableness of tiny home living and realized that the economic changes would push some people in its direction. And when I came across the container home development in New Zealand a few years later I immediately saw this becoming something that would find interest from buyers also.

What has happened in the DR regarding these two forms of small home building?

I recently came across a young American woman who had a tiny home shipped from the US to the DR and uses it for AB&B. I can't find the video at the moment, but below is a video that the manufacturer made of it before being shipped.

Also a video of a pretty nice container home.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

haha, the ladrones will cart you away in the middle of the night, your house with you in it

 

[MoJoInDR]

haha, the ladrones will cart you away in the middle of the night, your house with you in it

An Apple Airtag will solve that problem.

 

[playacaribe2]

haha, the ladrones will cart you away in the middle of the night, your house with you in it

Is that before or after the termites do their thing?

Someone should have explained to the woman one of the main reasons, indeed the the main reason concrete block homes are built and preferred in the DR.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

Someone should have explained to the woman one of the main the main reasons concrete block homes are built in the DR.

I thought it was because the Haitians don't know how to do wood framing

 

[JD Jones]

I made a training center/office out of a 52' container many years ago. Nothing special, but it worked pretty well.

The only thing I didn't do was apply insulation to the roof and it was too hot to touch. I had the top sealed with aluminum foil-backed tar paper sealer put on it, and it was still hot to the touch, but that did help.

I had tossed the idea of a trailer-based home for a few years before that, but it convinced me I didn't want to make a house out of 3-4 of them.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

I made a training center/office out of a 52' container many years ago. Nothing special, but it worked pretty well.

The only thing I didn't do was apply insulation to the roof and it was too hot to touch. I had the top sealed with aluminum foil-backed tar paper sealer put on it, and it was still hot to the touch, but that did help.

I had tossed the idea of a trailer-based home for a few years before that, but it convinced me I didn't want to make a house out of 3-4 of them.

Funny, I can picture you in a trailer home

 

[MoJoInDR]

I thought it was because the Haitians don't know how to do wood framing

I see we have a troll here.

 

[MoJoInDR]

I made a training center/office out of a 52' container many years ago. Nothing special, but it worked pretty well.

The only thing I didn't do was apply insulation to the roof and it was too hot to touch. I had the top sealed with aluminum foil-backed tar paper sealer put on it, and it was still hot to the touch, but that did help.

I had tossed the idea of a trailer-based home for a few years before that, but it convinced me I didn't want to make a house out of 3-4 of them.

Do you know if building laws for homes in the DR would allow it?

 

[cavok]

The shipping container house was nice, but $450K? And is that Pounds? Yikes!

 

[MoJoInDR]

Is that before or after the termites do their thing?

Someone should have explained to the woman one of the main reasons, indeed the the main reason concrete block homes are built and preferred in the DR.


Respectfully,
Playacaribe2

Having been born and raised in the Caribbean, I know that the main reason for the change to concrete block homes was related to hurricane threats and socioeconomic development (the new, at the time, concrete block building trend).

For some fourteen years, my family actually lived in a wood plank, shingle roof ranch-style home of maybe 5,000 sq. feet that was on four acres of mountaintop land. It was built in the early '50s by a multi-millionaire, and the stables for his fourteen polo ponies, and a multi-level apartment for the stablehand were also of the same build.

In 1992 Jamaica was hit by Hurricane Gilbert, the second strongest hurricane in recorded history for the Atlantic basin. Many concrete block homes were destroyed by wind gusts that exceeded 185mph... But Rock Pen, the name of our home, only lost some shingles off the roof.

Now don't get me wrong... My uncle, who chose to remain at Rock Pen during the hurricane, said that he was shitting bricks as he watched the whole house lean as the winds hit it... But it didn't break. And there was an insurance report regarding it.

Wooded homes are not as flimsy as many people may think. And there are many, many 200-year-old plantation homes that were built out of wood that termites couldn't destroy.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

I see we have a troll here.

 

[MoJoInDR]

The shipping container house was nice, but $450K? And is that Pounds? Yikes!

Yeh, my thoughts too. I think it has to do with where the home is located... Kind of way out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it costs a lot to move the necessary building materials to the location. Not sure if that includes the land cost as well.

If it's New Zealand dollars, the rate is around .60c US to the NZ dollar... So you're looking at a cost of maybe $270,000 US.

Also, there are many examples of far less expensive, but quite nice container homes on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=container+tiny+house

 

[MoJoInDR]

Nice comeback.

Respect.

 

[johne]

Do you know if building laws for homes in the DR would allow it?

Without me sounding like a wise guy, troll or trouble maker let me answer your question with a few questions of my own:1. Have you ever seen any signs of zoning restrictions i,e residential mixed with commercial? Mixed by zone or mixed within the confines of one building.2. Have you ever seen a notice of a stop work order in the DR? 3. Have you ever seen a white sedan that drives around slowing in the neighborhoods with the words "CODE ENFORCEMENT" stecilled on the car door? 4. Have you seen hundreds of partially built homes or house (or chicken coops) that have been standing in the face of the elements for years on end and wonder can their fountaintions be sound? 5. Have you heard about the thousands of cases of deed or property line dispute? 6. Have you heard the story about he 3 little pigs that could't blow the house down until he blew the four sheets of rusted corrugated tin that were nailed down with four half inch nails? 6. Or, on a tragic note, more than 30 people killed in an explosion in a factory building that was a ticking time bomb?
I'll leave your question on that note. My answer is not snide in any way it just requires you to look a little harder as to what the facts are here in the DR.

 

[MoJoInDR]

Quick correction... Hurricane Gilbert was in 1988... It was Hurricane Andrew, another devasting storm that was in 1992. My wife was actually living in South Miami at the time... I confused the two. Forgive the error on my part.

 

[MoJoInDR]

Without me sounding like a wise guy, troll or trouble maker let me answer your question with a few questions of my own:1. Have you ever seen any signs of zoning restrictions i,e residential mixed with commercial? Mixed by zone or mixed within the confines of one building.2. Have you ever seen a notice of a stop work order in the DR? 3. Have you ever seen a white sedan that drives around slowing in the neighborhoods with the words "CODE ENFORCEMENT" stecilled on the car door? 4. Have you seen hundreds of partially built homes or house (or chicken coops) that have been standing in the face of the elements for years on end and wonder can their fountaintions be sound? 5. Have you heard about the thousands of cases of deed or property line dispute? 6. Have you heard the story about he 3 little pigs that could't blow the house down until he blew the four sheets of rusted corrugated tin that were nailed down with four half inch nails? 6. Or, on a tragic note, more than 30 people killed in an explosion in a factory building that was a ticking time bomb?
I'll leave your question on that note. My answer is not snide in any way it just requires you to look a little harder as to what the facts are here in the DR.

And?

 

[MoJoInDR]

Good folk, I'm just asking a very simple question... "What has happened in the DR regarding these two forms of small home building?"

Anyone who has lived in a formerly Third World, now called developing, country, as I have, should be aware of the related issues that are inherent within the said society... But those are secondary to my question of whether there has been any consideration of these types of homes being built in the DR.

I don't currently live in the DR, nor have I lived in the DR... But I was born and raised in other Caribbean countries, during very violent and difficult times... So I have some awareness of what hardships can be experienced in similar environments.

This is why I am simply asking a question that needs to be asked at the beginning of a "...look a little harder..." research effort on matters related to living in the DR.

 

[cavok]

Yeh, my thoughts too. I think it has to do with where the home is located... Kind of way out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it costs a lot to move the necessary building materials to the location. Not sure if that includes the land cost as well.

If it's New Zealand dollars, the rate is around .60c US to the NZ dollar... So you're looking at a cost of maybe $270,000 US.

Also, there are many examples of far less expensive, but quite nice container homes on YouTube...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=container+tiny+house

I've heard of people using containers as houses here and I've definitely seen a few used as different kinds of work shops. It doesn't seem like it would be hard or expensive to put some kind of insulation or thermoboard on the outside covered with, say, corrugated aluminum to solve the heat problem. Would look nicer, too.

 

[cavok]

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