Home Construction – Panama Style

After 15 days, the house is topped off with a zinc roof

As a FL Building Contractor for many years, I’m always looking at construction styles wherever I go. The neighbors down the street are building a new little house for one of the brothers. He just got married and this will give him and the new bride some privacy. The brothers and father run a garage and

The ridge vent will allow heat from the metal roof to escape

body shop beside their house. This would never be allowed in the US, but perfectly natural here. But, I digress.

Construction started on Feb 4^th.  Just when I arrived at the cottage, they were leveling the ground (by hand). No fancy surveying tools, just a long clear plastic tube filled with water for a level. Hand dug footings quickly were filled with block walls and a zinc roof, which was finished on 19 Feb – a mere 2 weeks of building. The roof is actually zinc-plated steel, but everyone here calls it zinc.

The bathroom is a little too narrow for me.
But, a flush toilet and indoor shower are great

The house is small – about 800 sq ft, but certainly enough space for the couple and even a possible new arrival. Total cost will be about $5000, plus $6000 for the lot. No mortgage. Unless you are wealthy, loans are hard to get and interest runs about 15%.

They are doing a lot of very smart things. First is a ridge vent on the uninsulated zinc roof, which will vent out some of the heat. They will plant trees all around for future shade. Next, they are doing good wiring in conduits, instead of the usual bare wires strung across the ceiling and joins with masking tape. Very safe.

Lastly, they will have standard indoor plumbing – flush toilet with septic tank. Better yet, they are separating the “black” toilet water into the septic tank and sending “grey” water from the

A small plastic septic tank will do the job

sinks and shower to a holding tank that can be used for watering the plants and washing cars. Because of this, they can use a rather small septic tank. This is how septic tanks started, but somewhere along the way, folks decided to run ALL the household water into the tank, causing problems and pump-outs.

                                  Another construction

Floors will be hand mixed and poured after other construction is done

oddity is that instead of pouring a slab, the floors will be poured (mixed and poured by hand) after everything else is completed. The builders expect they will be done and the couple can move in in about 2 more weeks.

30 days and $11,000 – you got yourself a house here in rural Panama !!