How to build a house in Costa Rica Stage 3

How to Build a house in Costa Rica

Stage 3

We now have all the columnas in place and have placed rebar ( baria) for every other block leaving space for the windows and doors. Now it is time to pour more concrete, we will pour all in one day if possible so that it covers the placas completely. The concrete should be poured 5 inches ( 12.5 centimeters) over the top of the placas and leveled off. The concrete needs to be level but not perfect because now we are going to start laying block. The first thing we are going to do is run a line from one end to the other on each canal. The lines will ensure that all the blocks in that row are straight and at the same level. Once we have the first row of block complete we will go back and fill all the holes and areas between the blocks with concrete. Now we are going to lay #2 rebar across the block and tie in into the columns. We will now more our strings up to where the second row of block will be level. The #2 rebar we put down only needs to be done every other row of block so the next two rows should go pretty fast. In fact the Costa Ricans are really fast at laying block and you will be surprised how fast our wall go up, in this case a week and a half. This process will continue until we reach the top of where the windows and doors will be. We will now put wood forms around all of our columns and fill them with concrete. Depending on the size of the house this may be done a few at a time or all in one day. Now in is time to put on the crown beam, which are made just like the placas only slightly smaller. We will lay this around the entire top of the walls and tie them all together. After they are tied together it is time to place wood forms around all of the crowns. We will do this in sections per day because it would take a lot of wood to do this all at once. After we have formed and poured all the crown beam we will remove all the wood and continue laying block until the desired height of the wall. Our house will go to 12 feet ( little less then 4 mts.) Also, some choices have to be made here. I like to lay the block for the interior walls all the way up to the roof line but some people prefer to make all the walls interior and exterior the same and put steel beams make up the difference and cover them with drywall. I believe my way is better and stronger ( plus it avoids roof noises in the wind) but it does cost more. We will continue this house soon. Please visit www.BellaVistaCostaRica.com for more information and if you would like to see more pictures of our house being build please visit www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=211132&id=296070320848

Thank you.