Building Codes

[Party_Line]

Hi, I was just wondering what the building codes are in the DR? (If there are any). Thanks!

[Mirador]

A few years ago I rented a furnished apartment in a plush high-rise building with all the trimmings in Santo Domingo. One day a visiting friend brought to my notice some strange fissures on one of the horizontal structural beams above the living room. Since similar fissures were on both sides of the beams he suggested maybe there was a problem there. A few days later I visited the engineering department at Obras Públicas, the office which approves plans and blueprints for all construction, and was able to bring two inspectors to the building. They walked around the building and pointed out several serious problems and building code violations. They asked me to show them the way to the building's owner, who happens to live in the same building. Later I saw them walk away with big grins (and probably a few extra pesos in their pockets). Within a month I was living in a more structurally sound building, at least no visible cracks.


Mirador

[FireGuy]

Originally Posted by Mirador

Within a month I was living in a more structurally sound building, at least no visible cracks.

"Structurally sound" and "no visible cracks" are far from the same thing.

Ahhhh, spackle - the veil of structural integrity. (LOL)

Gregg

[Hillbilly]

But whether they are enforced or not is another matter.

Any building is supposed to go through a whole series of blueprint inspections and code reviews. However, the reviewers and engineers charged with the inspection process are usually so underpaid that certain "fees" might be able to speed up the process by months, therefore saving huge interest/financial costs for the investor.

Generally speaking, the owner should hire an outside, independant inspector to supervise the work in order that the constructor is also not the judge and jury.

A visit to the main office of the Ministry of Public Works (over behjind the baseball stadium, if memory serves, will get you a set of the building codes, which, BTW, are supposed to include anti-seismic resistance of 7.0 on the Richter Scale.

Does this help?

H

[MommC]

Just another incidense of how the corrupt Dominican system "works"!

[juancarlos]

What about those new apartment towers going up all over Santo Domingo and whose units are for sale? How can prospective owners make sure that the place they're buying is built according to the building codes?

Is Sto. Domingo considered an earthquake zone too?

[Mirador]

I heard many years ago that the ground under certain areas of Santo Domingo is hollow, with huge caverns close to the surface, and that's the reason the building code limited a maximum of four stories. There's a big unfinished white elephant about twenty stories high, on the corner of Avenidas Máximo Gomez and George Washington, that sits on a cavern so large that no amount of concrete has been able to fill up.

Mirador