Best Posts in Thread: HOUSE BUILDING

Regarding sand for cement, isn’t there also an issue that river sand must be used? I know that in Siquijor, if you’re not careful they will use sea sand and save a pile of pesos. The cheaper sea sand contains calcium chloride which, when mixed with water, turns into hydrochloric acid and rather quickly dissolves the steel rebar. River sand is more chemically neutral... voice of experience here (I had to tear down some of the construction and get it fixed).


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The owner needs to be on site every day the work is being carried out, they will cut corners especially with the mixing of cement normally this is a classic mix 1,2,3.
some cowboys will mix too much sand and you will pay the price.

 

I think for anyone who decides to build a house here in the Philippines (whether it be self built/supervised or to be done with a recognised builder?) it is essential for them to study building techniques and practises here in this country.
There is one man I know has done this here on Panay Island, Google; My Philippine Life, read this mans story about his house build I'm sure he had little or no experience of building here, (Bob is his name from US I think) In his Blog he takes you through the whole process of building a house here, from getting Permits to build, right through to his finished house, everything is there in great detail, the mistakes that have been made are all in there, one big problem he had was getting a good construction team I think he had to put two teams off the job before he settled on a team he could trust? even then he had to give instructions to this particular team on how things should be done.
If you go down the road of getting a house built here by a builder on price per square metre, be very wary as every corner that is cut in the build means more money in his pocket, if he is the type of person that will do this, he knows that as long as he gives a good finish/render to the build what is hidden underneath this finish does not matter to him, also in fairness to them most if not all of them have never been formally trained in construction trades.
Only recently I viewed a post somewhere, may even have been here on DI? where a western man had a swimming pool constructed at his newly built house, it was constructed using hollow block, this is crazy nuts to me, just a disaster waiting to happen, it should have been done in at least double if not triple reinforced concrete (2 to 3 layers of steel rebar) at some time in the future this house will go up for sale and it will be stated that it is constructed by a western man to western standards and designs when in fact it has been done very substandard.
Talking of house design, in my opinion many houses here are just not fit for purpose, this idea of having a large living, dining and kitchen area maybe even having a staircase within it and to use a 3hp AC to cool the area down is just so wasteful, bearing in mind some of the native people here cannot afford to eat rice 3 times a day. I am not against the use of AC but it seems to me that if the Dining and Living areas of a house are separate perhaps no more than 10sqm in size per room each area will only require a 1/2 HP AC unit.

Sorry if I offend anyone here but I have been awake half the night with my young child and felt the need to rant about something.

 

As to materials supply, methinks it may be good to do some looking around first and private price canvassing even before agreeing to the architect's design, proposed ₱-cost estimate, and contract terms because, unlike the old days when the architect or foreman actually count the number of nails required, nowadays it is an AutoCad software that determines material quantity. Also, some materials can be out of stock and need to be ordered with new prices. Most construction material stores in Dumaguete have business email addresses and, from experience, these reply promptly as long as one's inquiry is specific as to size, make, color, etc.

As to supervision, I am advised it is truly best to "supervise" by being around at the project site, daily
if possible, to monitor and control work for the preferred quality and to check out work progress against a mutually agreed timetable, in addition to the architect's technical or the foreman's skilled supervision.

 

I don't require air-con, my house 150 SQM x 3 Story. Loung/dining room/ kitchen and stairway open plan...Double entry with sliding grills in front of the house with mossie screen and stairway up to top floor, makes a natural cooling system for the whole house. My master bedroom which I think is too big, 75 sqm. this has a double entry with sliding grills to the balcony, same as the other front bedroom. Not one air-con in the house.

 

I went shopping for air-conditioners. All the salespeople asked was "how big is your room" (25m^2). They all recommended 2 Hp which is a lot.
HVAC is not my thing but it seemed to me they should have asked; how big are the window?, how tall are the ceiling?, how many walls have direct exposure to the sun? and how many degrees would I like the room temperature below ambient?.
To make a long story short. I went to a couple of friends homes to see what they were using and how well their system worked. I ended up with a 1 Hp inverter split type air-conditioner and it is more than adequate.

 

Yes I have an OPINION (notice shouting font).
Phil South built the "Royal Palm" subdivision. My friend rented there for a year. Several homes were uninhabited as the tile roofs leaked badly. In my friends place all the wooden molding were bug infested and falling apart as Coco lumber had been used.
Under a ground floor window there was a crack right though the wall and a part of the window sill had dropped about 1/2 inch. There is almost no weight on the window sill, only the window itself.
So how could that happen? Well several things have to be wrong with the construction. A) the ground under the footing was not compacted and B) there was no footing or C) there was no rebar in the footing. D) they forgot to put rebar on every third layer of hollow block.
On a side not the Phil South labourers on the current highway construction job make Peso 120 per day. So every 20 foot length of 10 mm rebar will pay the wages of an employee for about 1.5 days.

A neighbor used a company Called "PhilCondev". The name sounds like the company is "one of the big boys" in construction on the island. It is run by a lone "architect" whose engineering skills are lacking. They designed a drainage ditch cover using 2 inch thick concrete reinforced with 10 mm rebar every 2 feet. I would not drive my motorcycle over those covers let alone a car. The roof gutters rotted out after 3 years because they had no slope and were made from substandard materials. The company did walk away from the job when they were requested to fix the leaky sheet metal roof and a list of minor problems.

I'm not going to get involved with these problems because I've learned; No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

My wife and I supervised the build of our house. The job went well but mostly due to our foreman. He knew his trade and could explain everything that was done. I learned a lot about footings, concrete, rebar etc..

 

Actually your calculations are a bit off, 1 sqm -10.76 sqft so call it 10.1 to be easy and 68sqm = nearer to 740sqft.
Wow! if I had the money to afford a property of near to 200sqm I would build 3 houses on the larger lot required and rent two of them out a good income for my Asawa when I am gone, unfortunately I'm just a poor Scotsman and nobody cares Ha-ha, it will be 68sqm for me

 

Maybe I did not explain myself too well? the point I was trying to make was, why do so many western people here require such large roomed houses, 50sqm living space 25sqm master bedroom another two bedrooms of perhaps 20sqm if all are AC'd it would amount 1x2hp 1x1hp and 2x 1/2hp units=4hp in total, OK that is a wide guess?
What I was trying to suggest was a much smaller house with the same amount of rooms and all rooms to be no more than 10sqm some others less, you still have 4 AC units but only 1/2HP each=2HP
A house of 68sqm would cover this and still have 2 CR's, a walk in cupboard and would be more than adequate for most of us, who needs a large TV lounge area? an enclosed Kitchen keeps the Grease and the Cooking Smell in one place, if we have a larger group of friends and family a covered area outside is all we need for that odd occasion I would say?
One huge benefit of the smaller house it is likely to be within a Filipino budget to purchase and is likely to sell before the larger more pricey house does, when we all fall of the spar the small house will be a blessing to our surviving Asawa I would guess that applies to most of us?

Mostly I see 20 to 25k per sqm build,to get it at 19k may suggest cheaper fittings and even more corners cut than the 20k ones Ha-ha? I would never ever build here unless I could give daily supervision over the team.