Your Experience With Plett or Linda Vista Home Builders

hi  what little  i know  about  wood   (this has been learned from having  a wood burning stove)
is.....green lumber is loaded with moisture so  it  is  heavy.......lumber that has been left to dry before use  is lighter in  weight   (ie)    same would be for  wood  used     in  building  dry lumber will be  lighter  wet wood /lumber  will be  heaver     hope this helps  ........ hopefully   some one else  will know more about building lumber   as far  as the home builders  have not heard  anything about them  ask  questions  like  how long have they been building  will they give  references from  clients they have built for........if the answer to either question   is no  ....then  RUN  and look for  a good  builder

If you haven't already, also check out Premier Homes Construction and R.G. Builders in Spanish Lookout.
Our first home was Plett. To be fair, it was over 20 years ago. Much better resources and lots of competition these days.
Good luck!

jchrisc wrote:

Hello expats,
    My wife tells me that we'll be buying a 20x40 Mennonite home so I've been doing a lot of research and narrowed it down to these two builders.
I would appreciate anyone's input from having dealt with either of these companies.
There's some good info on old threads here that's lead me to my biggest fear. Over the years there's a history of people who have found that green lumber was used in building their homes. The results of the wood twisting and warping turned their dream homes into nightmares. And since none of the builders offer warranties there was no recourse. The (very expensive) problems were theirs to deal with.
You can't tell by looking whether or not lumber is green, so what can you do?
I'd really appreciate hearing about the different experiences anyone has had in dealing with either of these companies and any advise on problems I should watch for.
I am crippled and this makes inspections impossible for me.
This job is going to fall into the lap of an 18 year old son. (Yikes!)
But even if I could be on site during the building process I'm not sure what I'd be looking for.
Thanks so much  for any advise.

I have no experience with those builders. I do have decades of experience building with wood.
You can buy a lumber moisture meter for well under $50 US. The better ones are combination "pin" and "pinless"types. Moisture levels will vary with humidity after the wood has been air or kiln dried but will always be lower than when "green". Check and see what the moisture levels are in the wood in a finished, unwarped, dry building. That should be roughly the level in the lumber they use to build yours. Your teen age son should have no issues using this tech.

I have seen Mennonite homes that were well built and some not so much. The more on site inspections the better. There are less surprises in the end.

Best of luck, I hope you love your new home.

I don't take it for granted when people take time out of their lives to help someone they've never met.
Thank you all very much for your thoughts and input.

Thank you for that important piece of information regarding the moisture meter. I will be coming to Belize from the UK in the next couple of weeks, and I managed to get one and will bring it with me. It looks like it will be an important piece of kit in our new home. Thanks again.

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We've already started building but I wanted to thank you for taking the time to contact us. It sounds like a great deal, best of luck to you.