Building in Ecuador

The Hormi2panels are essentially SCIP, SIP, or ICF aren't they?
Structural concrete insulated panels.
Structural insulated panels.
Insulating concrete forms.

Assume it would be 1 of the 3? Here's a forum that has a fair amount of information on building with them.
The threads are under the green building technologies.
http://www.greenbuildingtalk.com/Forums.aspx

A lot kind of depends on where in Ecuador you are building, and how available the product is. Also if you go with Hormel are there contractors in your area that have experience using them? Imagine concrete block, and rebar is probably what most contractors/builders in Ecuador have experience with.

gastonito wrote:

I am planning to build a house on the coast of Ecuador this coming winter.

Gastonito,

Your plans seem extremely ambitious given that you will be in Ecuador for three months according to your profile.

Are you expecting to search for property...buy a property...close on the property...find a builder...deal with the local bureaucracy...and start-to-finish build a house in a new country, all in 90 days...

Some of these things take longer in EC than in North America.  I know this from my personal experience having bought homes in both places.

From your post and your profile, we have no idea how much time you may have spent living on the Ecuadorian coast. 

We don't know if you would qualify for an Ecuadorian residency visa. 

Wouldn't you want to make sure you had your residency visa before you invested in land and built a house....

cccmedia in Quito

j600rr wrote:

The Hormi2panels are essentially SCIP, SIP, or ICF aren't they?
Structural concrete insulated panels.
Structural insulated panels.
Insulating concrete forms.

Assume it would be 1 of the 3? Here's a forum that has a fair amount of information on building with them.
The threads are under the green building technologies.
http://www.greenbuildingtalk.com/Forums.aspx

A lot kind of depends on where in Ecuador you are building, and how available the product is. Also if you go with Hormel are there contractors in your area that have experience using them? Imagine concrete block, and rebar is probably what most contractors/builders in Ecuador have experience with.

Thank you for the link.
I plan on building on the coast  near Montanita. There is a Hormi2 contractor in Manta...far...but a possible distance to work with..
My choice of construction method is not definite. I am still collecting information.
One of the advantages of building with panels seems to be that it's a relatively quick method of building compared to concrete blocks.  Building with concrete blocks appears to also be more expensive. Would anyone have an idea of the cost  per square foot  (or meter) of building with blocks? How much for labour and material?

Thanks again

Your plans seem extremely ambitious given that you will be in Ecuador for three months according to your profile.

cccmedia
My plans are ambitious indeed maybe even a bit foolish.

I spent 3 months last winter exploring the coast. At the end of my stay I bought a 1000 square meter building lot. There is water close by as well as electricity.

I know that things take time in Ecuador. Opening a bank account took me 3 days :-). Closing on the deal...way longer. That is why I would like info regarding panel building as it is supposed to be a faster way of putting up a structure.

As for the Ecuadorian residency visa, it also takes time to obtain. Plus, once you have it, you can't be out of the country for too long every year. I still have things to wrap up in Canada before moving to Ecuador and this can take more than a year. The real estate investment that I am making hopefully will help me obtain the residency visa.
My plan is to build. If the interior is not finished...close it up and come back  to it later. If it's finished, rent it.

I am in my early 60s. So, time is also a factor.
I have also lived in different countries.... and  the coast of Ecuador feels right.

Thank you for your contribution and very good questions.

For simplicity sake, I will just use SCIP when referring to panel type construction.

SCIP construction is nothing new, and has actually been around for a good while. There is a legitimate track record with SCIP style homes, and buildings. If it's far superior to something like concrete block is debatable. Really depends on what the cost is, and if there is an experienced builder who has a good track record constructing SCIP style homes. Though the same could be said for having an experienced builder with block as well. Have seen a lot of builders screw that up also.

Personally would choose SCIP if the price was around the same, or even a bit more than block construction, because the time frame is so much quicker. Don't know what the price cost would be where your going to build. Guess you'll have to try and find that out.

Know that there was a woman on this forum who had wanted to build SCIP in Puerto Lopez I think it was, and couldn't really find any qualified builders in the area. Pretty sure she just went with block construction.

gastonito wrote:

I know that things take time in Ecuador. Opening a bank account took me 3 days :-)

Good job clearing up how you're handling so many matters, Gastonito.

Readers of this Expat.com would be interested to know how and where you opened an EC bank account without having a cedula...the national ID....

cccmedia in Quito

Thank you.
That's very useful.

Readers of this Expat.com would be interested to know how and where you opened an EC bank account without having a cedula...the national ID....

cccmedia in Quito
cccmedia
It seems to pay sometimes to be a little naive...I did not know the ''need''of a cedula to open an EC bank account.

Friends of mine had just opened  an account with the help of the owner of the land that they wanted to buy and build on. When I inquired how they did that, they gave me a small piece of paper that the bank had given to them. On the business card size  paper were listed the requirements: 2 color photocopies of my passport, 1 professional letter of recommandation, 1 personal letter of recommandation, 1 utility bill (I think that is all, but may forget something). All those papers had to be notorized. There was also the mention of a minimum deposit to be made (something like $20).

I have Ecuadorian friends who helped me.  One gave me a professional letter from his business (on letterhead). Another, a personal one. They gave me a copy of the electricity bill from a rental that they own. With this I went to the notary public and then to the bank.

The clerk looked at my papers and was unsatisfied with what I had presented to her. I showed her  the paper with the list that came from her bank and argued that I had everything listed. After some discussion she agreed  to send my request to Guayaquil for approval. Which she did.

I came back a week later and my request had been approved. But....I did not have a bank card yet. I had to apply for that too and come back the following week to pick it up. The card worked well for withdrall in Ecuador but is useless in Canada. From here I can check my balance online but cannot do any transaction. For this I would need an ID code that nobody told me to get....so...I`ll have to visit the bank again when I get back to obtain that code....tempus perdidi!

This code is fairly important because you want to be able to make a transaction once in a while, otherwise your account can get frozen (I just don't want to imagine the procedure to re-open it:-( My account does not seem frozen because they deposit interest in it every month.
I keep my fingers crossed.

With no help or no ''sufficient'' knowledge of the language (and a smile) I don't think that it would have been possible.
Not easy but possible.

Thanks for explaining the "how" in such detail, Gastonito.

Still curious as to which bank it was that allowed you to open an account without the cedula.

cccmedia in Quito

cccmedia wrote:

Thanks for explaining the "how" in such detail, Gastonito.

Still curious as to which bank it was that allowed you to open an account without the cedula.

cccmedia in Quito

Yes, I'm sitting here on needles and pins, eating a potatoe, waiting for the answer.  One wonders if said bank will be on the USA compliant list

we opened a bank account without cedula just with t3 stamp in banco nacional de fomento and banco bolivariano.