Classifieds & Yellowpages

hey matty, atlantic city boy here! i saw your post and thought you may or may not realize the roofing and siding businesss in the virgins is very different fro our garden state. fisrt there is virtually no siding there. most stucture are mason of some sort and dont have siding due to hurricane winds... the same is true of roofing for the same reason, very few structures have shingled roofs. most roofs are metal of some type or heavy tile. i hope this helps. best of luck

Matty

you can get our phonebook online....

www.viphonebook.com

Thanks for the info, i deff figured that they have all spanish tile roofing systems, but im sure they still do flat systems?? anyways iam a general contractor so I could deversify if i had to doing windows and general renovations, can you help with advise for these type of trades? are there alot of contractors / tradesmen there? maybe ill just provide an all around handyman service who knows, i would be bringing all my equipment (which is alot of tools for every trade there is!

Are you living in the USVIs now? good to hear from a neighbor, i was just at the AC boat show back in Feb. and stayed at Resorts for the weekend.

The link provided for some reason dosent work..

Matty,

The phone book link works fine for me, just cut and paste it. Most roofs here are not "spanish tile roofing systems" but metal or coated plywood. Roof tiles and siding become lethal flying objects in heavy winds. Before you bring all of your equipment down "for every trade" you should consider spending a couple of weeks on a pre-move visit. Bringing the equipment will be very expensive as everything ships by the pound and you need to see what you'd be getting yourself into before you make the investment.

Im aware of the effects of roofing & siding in high winds. Maybe since you replied to the post you could answer my question directly about "what trades WOULD be of service to the Island"?? do you presently live there?

I didnt ask about the cost of moving MY belongings there, as i am well aware of that...and the yellow page link still dosent work for me just to inform the person who put it there...

Tourch down, EDPM, & of course Hot Tar roofing systems are sure to also be there for hotels and other commercial "flat" applications, As are "standing seam", (metal roofs), but Never heard of "coated plywood", maybe in the geto sections??

And im sure you must be mistaken, there has got to be plenty of spanish tile/tericatta roof systems on the Island as there is in all Tropical parts of the world...

http://www.tileroofsoftexas.com/

http://www.jimcar.com/rooftile.htm

Boy, sometimes I wonder how the regulars on this board patiently deal with all the new folks who know how it is without knowing----
Standing seam roofs yes, but the rest? Hot tar roofs on STX?? Flat commercial roofs on hotels? I think not. Mistaken about tile roofs? I could probably tell you where most of the ones on STX are, and they won't number more than 20 or so. The best though is the coated plywood "in ghettos"...take a drive out east and look at all the million dollar houses with plywood coated roofs...I would bet that after galvanized, this might be the second most prevalent roofing system on the island.

Thank you, xtm.

Matty, as you noted, I must be mistaken. I live in an island ghetto called Peterborg and my neighbors and I all suffer with membrane coated plywood roofs. Perhaps once you've set-up your tile and hot tar roofing business on island you'll let me know so that my neighbors and I may benefit from your vast knowledge about ideal Caribbean roofing systems.

Matty - one of the major uses for a roof in the islands is to collect rain water for our cisterns. This makes any kind of Tar roofing system a rather bad choice. Would you want tar residue in the water flowing from YOUR taps?

There are four primary roofing systems used on STX. The two most common are galvanized roofing and plywood painted with an elastomeric coating. This is the method referred to in real estate listings that say "fluid applied" for the type of roof. The third most common roofing choice is a poured concrete roof. These are desirable for a number of reasons, but expensive and much less common than the first two choices. Tile roofs are a far distant fourth. I don't believe I've seen any other basic types of roofing on the island.

There are a few "flat" roofs to be found, but most island roofs have a substantial degree of slope. Most of the flat roofs I have seen are poured concrete roofs with built in rain swales that lead to the cistern down pipes. Island style homes are most often built with high, vaulted ceilings and a "hipped" style of roof structure.

People are always needing roof repairs, as in any location. Most of the locals will do their own home repairs and/or have a friend help them. They probably also built their own house without hiring a general contractor to do it for them. Even so, there is a lot of work available in the islands for people in all sorts of construction trades. The main problem new arrivals have when hoping to work in this industry is to get past the learning curve of how construction methods here are different than they are used to on the mainland.

Homes are masonry or poured concrete, not stick-built framing with siding exteriors and sheetrock interiors. Roofs are not asphalt or wood shingle. Outdoor living space is as important as indoor living space. The higher salt content in the air here rusts all metal components much quicker than occurs even in a coastline community on the mainland. This means that window frames should be vinyl or maybe aluminum, but never steel. Insect damage also makes wood frames inadvisable. Flooring is mostly tile, not carpeting. Paint should include strong mold-inhibiting additives... and it's not a bad idea to paint the interior with exterior-quality paint also, since most homes are open to the breeze much of the time. Marine paint is another good option for outdoor areas. It's expensive, but it lasts MUCH longer than latex.

The point of all of this is that whatever you know about construction is going to have to undergo some revision when you get to the island. If you can adapt, you should be able to do fine.

Thankyou Alexandra, that post was very informative.

dntw8up, seems to me all you had to do is DIRECTY answer my original question, about "what trade services the Island needs" rather than lecture thats all, but you seem like you have an axe to grind, and come across as condesending???? which is the only reason i made the getto comment.

I have been travleing the Carribean since a small child, and HAVE been to the USVI's several times....

Forgive me for stepping in here Matty but, I read Dntw8up's original post as simply trying to give you some helpful information. I fail to see any "axe grinding" in it at all.

You on the other hand, come across as rather brusque and demanding in your posts, even though I am sure this isn't your intention.

BTW, do you have access to a spell-checker?

Thank you, mell.