The rest of our lights have been shipped in - our LED recessed lights were fairly light weight so shipping didn't hurt too much, but we didn't feel confident in the quality of what we were finding locally. Rainshower shower heads have been touted as "luxury" for so long, I don't think the industry wants to admit that they are impractical and no one really likes them for showering! The guy at Marmotech looked at me like I had three heads when I asked if they had any showers that were not rainshower! We also brought in the four pendant lights for our kitchen, carefully packed in my carry-on suitcase. We also could not find decent quality shower heads that weren't rainshower. We wanted good quality, stainless steel faucets and we could not find them here. We pretty much maxed those out each time with items we ordered and had shipped to the friends/family we were staying with. We each had one trip back to the US in 2021 and we booked business class on American to get two free checked bags up to 70 pounds. We brought all 95% of our plumbing fixtures with us from the US in suitcases. Unfortunately the biggest cost increases have shown up in electrical wire and components.ĭoes it make sense to ship in fittings/finished for electrical and plumbing? High oil costs are probably in play here so the prices may stick. Ditto gravel and sand production and delivery and blocks coming both. Cement manufacture is high energy derived and the raw materials extracted using heavy fuel driven plant. Labour costs will be on the rise too with the formalizing of Haitian labour and the agreed national wage hikes. Contractors and developers will want to pass on their extra costs or stall projects as was stated as happening in the article I read today in relation to high material costs. That will destroy anybody's cost planning. 25% uplift in total cost or more potentially. Well the 30usd per sf I spent is more likely 40 usd per sf now. I read today a bag of cement was costing 450 pesos in Santiago. More than I had factored into my thinking. 41%, 36% and 35% price increase respectively over 3 years. In November, for a small extension work, a 6 inch non Khoury block cost 38 pesos, a bag of cement 395 pesos and a wagon of gravel 27,000 pesos. A wagon 20 cyd of gravel cost 20,000 pesos. I bought 6 inch block at that time for some internal walls at 27 pesos per unit. Most of my house was built with 8 inch Khoury blocks for which I paid 38 pesos per unit. Cement, block and aggregates are made/sourced in DR. I decided to look back at material prices I paid back in 2019/2020 and compare with block and cement I ordered in November. You might be able to get a good estimate per square meter for the gray work (concrete), but once you start talking finishes, there is so much variation! Just a few things Windows - will you have just openings, iron bars, wooden jalousies, glass (standard, hurricane, double pane, UV), mosquito screens? Finishes - will the floor be concrete, ceramic tile, coralina, marble, travertine? Will countertops be wooden, ceramic tile, quartz, granite, concrete? Will your plumbing fixtures be the less expensive and often replaced chrome that is readily available here, or will do you want stainless steel with brass workings? Kitchen - typical small Dominican kitchen without an oven, exhaust system, and microwave? Or a more American kitchen with upper cabinets, exhaust fans, ovens? Appliances - will you have US-style appliances, European, or smaller Dominican style? Even with the basics, like the foundation, there are considerable differences in how you build near the beach versus farther inland or up in the hills.īig uplift so not good.
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