The Framing Structure

One of the most important decisions that you’ll make when building a home is the material that you use for it’s structure. You have 3 basic choices here.

Wood – Wood is the lowest cost method, but its very difficult to maintain in the tropics.  Termites and mold are a never-ending battle in a wood framed structure in the tropics.

Concrete Block – Block is the still most widely used system in Central America, but that’s changing fast because the cost of block has risen exponentially over the last 15 years.

Though block lasts a very long time, it’s horribly inefficient.  Construction times are 300% longer with block.

Steel – This is the obvious choice for the Central America.  We chose light steel because it far exceeded our parameters in several ways.

Low Maintenance & Long Life

The typical maintenance problems with homes in the tropics have to do with bugs,  mold, and rust.  Bugs don’t eat steel and it doesn’t mold.  Because light steel is galvanized, its corrosion factor is greatly reduced.

We have seen homes that were famed in light steel sit unattended in the jungle for decades and still look as good as they day they were built.

It’s Environmentally Friendly

We love efficiency.  With light steel, all of the materials are laser cut off-site before they are loaded into the container.  All of the holes are pre-drilled as the steel runs through the forming machine.

This means that when you get it to the site, it’s ready to be bolted together like lego.  Reduced waste and faster construction times are better for the environment.

There is no site waste and it has a high strength to weight ratio.  Fewer deliveries mean less emissions.

With steel, there are no trees to cut or large concrete plants to draw from the local rivers, and 80% of the steel is fabricated from recycled materials.

It’s Cost Effective

Light steel is more expensive than wood for framing and less expensive than concrete block.  However, that’s the end of where wood ends the cost question. Wood building requires skilled carpenters that barely exists in Central America. This results in unexpectedly high construction costs.

Our 3 bedroom model costs less virtually every part of the Coastal US. That’s before we consider the fact that your Jungle Loft home comes loaded with 11′+ tall custom sliding walls, a high end kitchen, and….it’s being built in the tropics.

The Roofing System

The Jungle Loft roofing system is a critical component for several reasons.

It’s the Best Place for Solar Panels

The farther away your solar panels are, the less efficient they become.  Cabling to a farther away location also gets expensive.  Putting the panels on your roof just makes sense.

Great Insulation

The roofing system comes with an 4 inch thick piece of insulation sandwiched in between the panels.  This goes a long way for preventing heat being passed inside your house.

Its Angle is the Best Passive Cooling Design

Don’t go to sleep on this one.  Otherwise your home is going to be so dang hot at night, you won’t be able to sleep!  The shape of the roof is intentionally designed to force the warm air out of the home.

And of course we love the tropical roof-lines with optional teak ceilings underneath!

More on That Passive Cooling Design

Over the years we’ve personally experienced how important this is in the tropics. Kilowatts are expensive in Nosara! And air conditioners are pigs when it comes to electrical consumption.  So you want a design that reduces the amount of A/C that you need.

That’s why we hired a passive cooling expert specifically to aid in the design of the Jungle Lofts

Its roof line and operable upper windows are only a few of the design decisions that were made to keep cool air moving in and hot air moving out of your home.