Chalet Bungalows are a great way to build and have to be more cost effective and definitely more attractive than a traditional 2 storey house provided you go with light structural materials using steel studs and thin Hardieflex on these second floor rooms, assuming that the roof has been done with steel roof trusses you will have a strong structure to attach to. Buildings in the Philippines tend to be done with CHB, but to extend them up to a second floor is more expensive than building on just one level, when I first heard this I found it hard to believe but now fully understand why this is the case. A Chalet Bungalow in an alternative, with a gabled rood style you can gain 66% of the house footprint in floor space, but a lot less with a hipped roof at around 33% a little more can be had in both cases if the interior of the upstairs rooms have coombe (slanted) ceilings. Wondering why attics are never turned into living accommodation in PH? the obvious answer to this has to be the heat under these Hot Tin Roofs, but not a difficult problem to solve, Imac uPVC roofing a plastic material that likely cuts down heat transfer by around 80 to 90% I know this as that is the material I used when building my house there, with a bit of added insulation to the walls and ceilings upstairs, this will perform much better than say a 2 storey house in CHB with big expanses of the walls heating up when direct sunlight hits them, insulation in PH is not a common material and sometimes difficult to find and when available it is expensive, another problem easily solved, Rice Hulls is the near perfect insulation material and meets building standard codes in many first world countries and the cheapest form of insulation you can get, maybe not if you live at the North Pole? The house I built in Valencia has been done to support this idea of turning it into a Chalet style complete with a PC stair for access, the roof trusses were also done with this in mind, I will attach a Pic of this and also one of a typical CB when complete.
you're a mighty man, straight up and your posts are invaluable and I look forward to all your input because you speak from experience and from the pocket and not some copy and paste from others who post links with zero hands-on knowledge, from the Irish across the short sea to our Gaelic brothers.
Be careful Dave and only take your mask off for a wee dram View attachment upload_2022-7-30_8-36-55.jpeg
I mentioned before in another thread that I practised music for many years and the end result was; I attained perfect musical Pitch, I could chuck an Accordion into a skip(dumpster) and always managed to hit either a set of Bagpipes or a Banjo, the Scottish pipes are one terrible instrument to me, I dislike them intensely, unlike the Irish pipes they have a much sweeter tone. BTW this is not something you can say in a Scottish Pub, Ye wid be liable tae get yer heid kicked in if ye dae that. the Banjo another non musical instrument is next on my list followed by the Accordion, which of the three is just a tad better but you need its weight to demolish the others.
The other day I had an Ex-pat ask me, if there was a Builder I could recommend, in the DGTE area, to this I replied that I only know one and it turns out he is very busy at this time. This guy went on to say his Wife has a close relative who is a Mason sounds more like Massoon the way they say it, (this being a very loose term used in PH for a man that has stacked CHB's using mostly spent mortar to bind them together to thus form a wall) she goes on to say that he is very well good in building, and now he is now getting a little pressure applied from family members to start him as the relative is not working at this time. When I heard this I sussed that likely this man is not all that special or he would be in work? In my reply to this I told him it is fairly easy to find out just how good this man really is; all you need to do is ask a few questions pertaining to his trade. Having built a house there myself I soon found out these construction workers know so very little about their trade. The very first question would be is to ask what makes Cement go hard, I tried this out on many of them and in every case their answer was; It goes hard when the water dries out it, then you ask how long can you work with it after it has been mixed, they will then say you can keep working with it by just adding extra water to stop it drying out. The correct answer to the above is: the hardening of Cement is caused by a Chemical reaction once water has been introduced to it and the working time of it there in PH is around 15 to 25mins at best depending on the heat of the day? adding extra water does not stop or retard the process, In UK when it needs to be worked for longer such as in rendering, retarders can be added to extend the working life, these are just not available there in PH to my knowledge even when there is a definite need for them. With the all the above in mind, in my view the building of a CHB house is a complete failure from start to finish, perhaps more than 50% of the Mortars and Concrete used within them has set before it is placed. Further questions could be asked such as how do you find the perfect 90 degree angle using the 3,4,5, rule, or how to check if a square or rectangle is perfect by measuring from corner to corner, even the Glazing surveyor that was measuring up my house for the new windows did not know this, this sounds to dumb to be true but I assure you this actually happened.
