BUILD YOUR OWN HOME OR BUY READY BUILT

There are a couple of companies that I have found, First Walltech and Graditel (videos on youtube), that sell permanent concrete forms. The forms come in various widths, 3", 4", 5" and 6". I would describe them as two 4'x8' pieces of hardi panel with spacers sandwiched in between. Very little finishing required. The suppliers are on Luzon but will ship. Maybe you could get a store to special order or just deal direct if not.

 

A word of caution here I think: Phenolic resin, which binds the fibres in the board together, is HIGHLY TOXIC. See below:

Amino and phenolic resins contain formaldehyde, which is highly toxic by inhalation, highly toxic by eye contact and ingestion, and moderately toxic by skin contact. ... Phenol in phenol-formaldehyde resin is highly toxic by skin absorption and inhalation, and can severely burn skin.

Therefore the boards should only be cut/sawn using full body and face PPE with forced air breathing and avoiding the airborne particles.

 

Not everyone builds incorrectly...

 

Hi @ShawnM,
Thanks for the pics.
It looks like you used epoxy coated reinforcement steel in some places but not others. Can you educate us why you used epoxy coated in only specific places?

And where is the fish?

 

I think I will just use 3 /4 marine ply and coat the inside with oil to keep the cement from sticking... will report back on success

 

Now this is a 99% good job done on these cages, I do think you are a Professional at this and working with Concrete may be your every day Job? I can only see a 1% failure? the tail ends of the stirrups are supposed to be bent at 135 degrees and not 90, so they are hooked at the ends, most people do the 90 I am sure and I don't think it is a serious offence Haha.

 

There is

Sorry made an error here but forced to post?

 

3/4 Marine Ply there is plenty of that about but don't expect to be the real deal (it will fall to pieces in no time) unless you buy Santa Clara, close to P3K a sheet, go ahead and use the Phenolic Boards at P1K,
I'm guessing you are probably an old fart like myself, don't worry too much about your health now at this late stage, if you plan it right you may not have to do much cutting anyway for example, say you want a 6ft high wall and 2ft of this will be under grade, use the boards on their sides and pour the overall 8ft needed in two 4ft sections if you leave a key to join onto all the better, 6 uncut 8x4 boards will give you 24ft of wall for the first half section, to be used again for the top half, but drilling is a must, anyway it is likely you will be using Filipino workers and they are immune to all things that are bad for us p*ssy Cat Westerners, my neighbours burn their plastic on refuse collection day and we get a free uplift here, every morning they Rev their Bikes and they are right next to their Bamboo houses where their children are sleeping, through the years I have cut Asbestos, MDF and other kinds of compressed boards that had warnings on them, with No PPE, not saying this is clever but the term PPE had not been invented then? but I am still here at 68yrs.

Many substances of this nature can be really hazardous to your health, but usually only after a very long period of constant usage, here is a good tip when cutting boards have an Electric Fan blowing on the saw cut that takes most of the dust away, even better if you blow it over to your neighbours and that even saves you sweeping up.

 

Is it possible to build a good house from scratch here in the Philippines, Yes it is but only if you are prepared to either pay the the high end Foreign Builders (usually they have high overheads) a lot of money, or self supervise the job from start to finish again using a Foreign Builder with low overheads, what about the; me no understand very well English, Pinoy Builder, there lies the problem with them communication, I have found to my cost that when I give them instructions how to do something the way I want it done and perhaps the final thing I may say is to give them a description of the way I Do Not want it done, they will do exactly what I told them Not to do and then they will go on to argue they did what they were told.

Building here needs the strictest of supervision, but it is no good supervising the job yourself if you know nothing of the subject, so to self supervise you must either have experience of building, or start doing research pertaining to building houses and also how things are done here in the Philippines, building here using the standard Pillar and Beam system is fairly easy and there is plenty of information out there that shows you exactly how.
However you must understand that most construction workers here, have the education standard; of a 10yr old in the western world, this perhaps is one of the biggest problems here in the Philippine construction industry, added to that many of the materials are quite sub-standard also.

I have now heard quite quite few Foreigners say they would not build here again once was enough.