New Home Construction in the Virgin Islands

The anser is yes. You can be owner contarctor on your own home. You will be inspected periodically to make sure all is well.

RL

The costs are high. There are contractors that will charge a fee based on gallons for your cistern. I would not play with the cistern.

So far I have built four structures as a DIY person. Two residential for myself and the others comercial. The labor here is not that unreasonable. The more time you spend here the more "guys" that can do certain jobs. Some will buthcer your house with bad plaster etc and you will learn trial by hack job. This is DIY buildings pit fall.

When you do find a guy who will do piece work T&M 'time and materials' that can do good work he will be about $20 hour. Helpers are about $10-14 hour. There are cheaper guys out there but it will be hard to find them as a noob.

Just keep close eye on them and be prepared to mix mud as the grunt. THat is what I did and thankfully it has paid off. Not without some imperfect work in my search for the "good guys" though.

Good Luck and ask about the area you are loking to buy into. They may have covenants and not let you build "piece piece" or at your pace over a few years.

Ditto "All Islands". We're DIY a floor covering project @ our existing home planned for October timeframe. As with all remodeling jobs unfortunately, its not just rip up the old and put in the new. We've made some "discoveries" and the project has grown into much more than floor covering. So, we're going to need to supplement our sweat with local labor. Based on my inquiries, local labor rates range from $10/$12 (very unskilled), $15 (somewhat skilled), $25 (skilled carpentry). Then of course there's the availability and reliability element that may do little to help you maintain your sanity in a construction project.

Thank you for all of your replies to this post. In the coming months I am going to do as much investigating as possible from here at home. In a month or two I am going to treat myself to a fact finding mission down in the VI, along with scoping out some potential real estate. Thanks again to all who replied to my "newbie" question.

Good luck on your project FL.

I would like to say that the increase in construction has brought more options for things like flooring and fixtures to the VI.

I like Gallows Bay appliance for the upper end stuff they have.

Also Patalidas (sp), brass key for furniture. Interiors in STT has nice stuff, sometimes for decent prices.

Tropical shipping and Crowley are good for shipping LCL form Florida if you are so inclined.

Tropical 340 776-8767 for detials

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the local lumber yard in STT and STX both had very competitive prices on lumber after you take shipping, time, and selection into account. Not to mention risk of getting damaged stuff.

Concrete is about $100 per yard in STX last I poured. Steel is around 1k per ton/bundle.

Yes the cheaper labor will require more babysitting. FL barrier is on the money there too.

All Islands, I'm interested in your comment about local lumber yard in STT having competitive pricing. Is that the lumber yard in Subbase? Just to the east side of Crown Bay Marina? Wondering because we'll need some PT...pressure treat...and its a bit of a "trip" to the Home Depot (our home on Water Island, no car on STT so we take taxi or rent a car if we're doing a whole day of STT stuff). For comparison, just wondering about the price of say......2x4 PT @ Lumber yard versus @ Home Depot. I know HD delivers but if the price is right, I don't need to go to the Country.

Yes FL MSI lumber quoted me a very decent price on island. I would only "save" 5% BEFORE shipping from PR. I priced this a few months ago and shipping has gone CRAZY!!!! so keep that in mind.

Also I am talking roof timbers. 2x4 pt??? that is usually a loss leader for HD at 8'. I think for 2x4 pt check it out.

Last I looked PT was MORE than untreated.

Check out Granite and Marble by Food Center (east end), that guy has great on Iland pricing for nice stone. Nevermind the sticker price.... 🙂

He has a "fire sale" on some black slate that is just beatiful. Not sure what you are doing just throwing some good inside stuff your way.

I have a line of some cheap/fast granite installers that actually do half way decent work too. Potheads but for the price you can't beat them. For the perfect granite work have VI granite look at the job.

All the best

We're installing new flooring on an existing wooden floor structure. We will need to reinforce the existing floor (from the underneath) before we put the floor tiling (not ceramic) down so the floor doesn't "bounce" in certain areas. We might also have to replace or lay another layer of plywood on the floor before installing the floor covering. All the wood must be pressure treat. We'll be coming down mid-October to do the project. Being on Water Island, there's more logistics to get materials over to the house. All material will need to be delivered to Krum Bay and we arrange for the barge to transport to WI.

So, bottom line, we'll need some amount of wood for underneath flooring and some amount of plywood for flooring. I might have gotten 2x4 size wrong. Maybe its a different size. My husband is in charge of the requirements. I'm the "designated" investigator of material source options. When this subject was raised, I thought might be an opportunity to get idea of $ of lumber on STT. Husband will do the shopping once we get there. Pricing for lumber material here in FL is going up up up and getting scarce due to the terribly sad disaster in LA, AL, MS. Crews from FL are loading / gearing up to be ready when FEMA gives the word.

We plan to get all our material for our project "on island" (STT).

MSI is East of the marina in Crown Bay. I am sure they will deliver to your dock. Consider using as underlayment, some cement board called Durock. It is made for what you want to do. It comes in 3 x 5 or 4 x 8 sheets. It will act pretty much as a concrete floor for your tiles, once you have sured up the bounce in your floor.

RL

Thanks Ronnie! I'll pass the Durock word along to the spousal unit. We would indeed prefer shopping at MSI as its within walking distance rather than an expensive taxi ride to shop at Home Depot. Seems I can always catch a Safari out to the country but trying to get a Safari coming back to Subbase is hit / miss. And, mostly miss. And, I've found there aren't always a lot of taxis sitting around the HD waiting for fare to take to Subbase. So.....Sea Chest gets a lot of our business. And now, MSI is targeted for frequent stop in October.

You see, as was explained before, Home Depot has loss leaders to get you into the store, other than that there prices are not that much better at all. They dohave some variety. Also be aware that they may sell the same product in a different size to make it look cheaper. Instead of a 5 gal joint compound can it may be 4 gals so the price would appear lower as you are only looking of the large size can and they look alike.

RL

Oh yeah, definitely lived through the mistaken "comparable" pricing for items that in the end were sized differently @ Home Depot. Buyer must be alert - warning isn't isolated to just HD of course. Also, with HD anyway, it took 6 weeks of torture to get all of the stuff (and we're talking 3 refrigerators, 6 toilets, 1 "bladder", .....lots and lots of other stuff) we ordered to be delivered to Krum Bay. And, after all the pain, some items still were not what we ordered/paid for (i.e., missing ice makers that supposedly came with the frig, mis-match toilet tank and bowl) Some things we lived with/gave up on and some things we finally resolved - I never knew that I had that much patience inside my soul. We finally adopted a sense of humor; it got to be an extremely funny ongoing saga - a story we could repeat at dinner parties that would have everyone laughing (and shaking their heads in acknowledgement of similar experiences in USVI). An enormous amount of patience and a readily available sense of humor are definitely requirements in any home remodeling or construction project. And another tip: Pick your battles. When faced with a choice (ice maker......toilets that work), quickly determine your priority and forget about the other stuff.

Too bad, in the beginning, you took the logical route of going to what you knew from back home. There are local vendors that may be a little pricy on the appliances, but you are at least dealing with someone who cares. I don't think that HD will ever understand the market here. They are so computerized that I am sure their inventory control program is always in need of rebooting!lol. They based this store's inventory on what they sell in their Puerto Rico stores. People here buy totally different that those in PR. I wish them luck to get their product mix right!

RL

Thought you guys might enjoy reading the blog at http://www.bongobongostjohn.com/blog/index.html. It tracks the building of a new home on St. John.

--Islander

Ronnie: I am looking for a fridge. Where do you recommend looking? Couldn't find anything at Home Depot or Western Auto.

I recommend Appliances Plus in St. John! They deliver to St. Thomas. Actually, thay are currently getting set to open a main store in St. Thomas as business is so good from people over here.

RL

Things that make you say, "Hmmm..."
Thanks!