Trades & Labor Master Builder (Qualified)

Long shot, as I'm sure most of you will tell me, but I'm looking for a Master Builder (with appropriate experience and qualifications) to conduct a quality / safety survey on an existing residential building.

Any sensible suggestions appreciated.

 

It might be helpful if you'd supply the approximate location and your prefered time frame.
I might be able to recommend someone but I'm not sure how far outside Dumaguete he'd be willing to travel (assuming he has time)

 

I don't know if it is possible to even get an indication if a house has been well built here, everything here is mostly rendered and all the mistakes/faults are hidden, is the foundation even at the correct depth to support the structure? many are not, if it is a Pillar and Beam structure which most are and has no visible Pillars, the seller will likely tell you it has Cosmetic pillars that are hidden, this is rubbish a proper build in the Philippines has to be earthquake proof and these skinny pillars just do not make the cut. If there is no visible Pillars walk away from it.

 

Thanks. My place is in Dauin.

 

Thanks. We already know a lot of the faults but need an independent report from a recognised professional to substantiate a claim.

 

Recently I had the chance to take a picture of a Skinny Pillar after the wall it supported fell over, what you will see in the picture is segregation of the Concrete where the Sand and Cement in the mix migrates to the bottom of the form, good concrete when broken should look something like a broken bar of Chocolate with no voids whatsoever. The reason for this is quite simple and likely it will be the same for all small dimension Pillars? it is nearly impossible to get a properly batched mix (low water content) into the forms and down through the steel cage within, there is just not enough room to do that and to overcome that problem the mix is given extra water and made into a slurry (watery soup) eventually the watery sand/cement mix falls down through the aggregates to the bottom of the form then the excess water runs out taking the cement with it, every house here built with these Skinny Cosmetic Pillars has this problem I am in no doubt about that.

 

I forgot to add a Picture of this wall I had taken some months ago, I predicted then it would not last, the wall is 4.2mtrs high and the bottom 1.9mtrs on the other side is retaining soil which became waterlogged during the recent rainstorms.

 

We caught the guys who were supposed to be mixing our concrete adding GARDEN SOIL to the mix. It had been excavated from our own plot.

"WTF are you doing? You can't put garden soil in concrete!"

"Oh no, sir. It isn't soil. It's MOUNTAIN SAND."

Just one of about a million horror stories I could tell you.

 

This seems to be standard procedure here for the filler blocks and other non structural features. (One can argue that the wall filler blocks serve a structural purpose for shear in support of two + story buildings.)
I believe (hope) the locals use proper sand in the structural posts and beams.

 

I suppose it was originally!

And, yes, we will all add another million horrors to your list.