As you may not know, homes in Cayman (and in most of the Caribbean) are contructed much differently than in Canada and the USA.\u00a0 In Canada, homes are mostly constructed in wood.\u00a0 Here, a wooden home is virtually impossible to insure because of hurricanes.\u00a0 Most of the wooden homes were destroyed during hurricane Ivan in 2005.\u00a0 So here in Cayman, the homes are made out of concrete blocks which are filled with concrete and metal bars to reinforce the whole structure.\u00a0 There is no insulation put, although concrete does a pretty good job.\u00a0 On some homes,\u00a0to enhance insulation from the heat, \u00a0they put a 1 inch think styrofoam layer over the concrete on the outside of the house.\u00a0 It is then painted and looks quite good.<\/p>\n
Here is a house the is being built on a street very close to where we live.\u00a0 You can clearly see the concrete blocks.\u00a0 Of course there is no basement.\u00a0 I would say that 90% of homes here are all on the ground level with no 2nd floor. A house like this, in a nice area like ours, with single garage & 3 bedrooms will be on sale for somewhere around 500,000 – 650,000$US + 6% duty at purchase time.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here is another place being built a bit further away from our place.\u00a0 They are building in a flood zone (remember those pictures I posted after hurricane Dean?) so the foundation is very high. This guy is protecting himself against 3 or so feet of flood water.<\/p>\n This is another house where the have covered up the concrete with a sort of “thick concrete paint” so that the individual blocks cant be seen.\u00a0 Next step they will paint the house.<\/p>\n![\"img_4451.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/micho.org\/cayblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/img_4451.jpg\")
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