3rd floor house addition

We have a well that pumps up to a storage tank, pressure tank after that. In the afternoon you can have a decently warm shower, morning and evening it is a bit chilly. I have an electric flash heater for the 2 showers on the 1st floor, did not have the chance to install when I was home. I'll install next trip home as the wife is a bit unsure of having someone do the work if I'm not there.

We'll put an enclosure around the storage tank and pressure tank so it is not quite the eyesore.

Shawn

 

Thanks...we thought the view from the second floor was nice, but the 3rd floor is better.

Shawn

 

Really nice I see you have smoothed over your concrete. My wife really wants something similar to your build, 3 stories with a top deck, to make use of a limited yard and build over a one story existing house. Her brothers have some building experience but I know zero about construction.

 

Pedro if you think you can just add on and build another two story's over an existing house you are sadly mistaken, however if by building over you are meaning a completely separate structure over an existing house for that to be knocked down at a later date that is possible, although I am quite sure the Brothers would tell you this can be done in the first example? if there is one thing you should understand about Pinoy Construction workers that is; they know little more than how to stack Hollow Blocks one on top of another, likely a translation of the words Structural Integrity do not exist in their native language as far as they are concerned? if you were to take 20 of these workers perhaps only one would have half an idea of what it takes to build a sound structure, but the half he does not know could Feck the whole thing up.

The words 'strong foundation' are a building term but often used out of that context in the western world, in PH that rarely applies even to construction there, often I have viewed houses being constructed having a very shallow foundation trench barely of 12inch below grade. what I have to say next will come as a complete surprise to you, the higher you build to more expensive it becomes per metre of build, this may not seem logical to you but it is a fact and even more so in a country prone to quakes, I will give some examples of how thus can be, 1) the higher the build the more you raise the centre of gravity. 2) a foundation log for a single story should be 600mm below grade to add a second story it should be 900mm for a third this should be 1.2mtrs, 3) in a Pillar and Beam plus CHB structure (Personally I have a low opinion of CHB's) your Pillars should have a section size of no less than 25cm and contain 120kg of steel perM3 of concrete, for a single story, a second floor would need an upgrade to a 33cms section and would need to contain 130kg of steel per M3 of concrete, for a third you would want to over engineer and have pillars with a 45cm section and to contain 145kg of steel per M3 of concrete, a concrete mix of 4500PSI should be used in this application this would be a mix of 1 part cement 2 sand and 3 of gravel, watery concrete poured into forms and not vibrated could well have only half the above PSI and this is what you are likely to get from the Pinoy.

A floor slab for a single story on grade (compacted gravel) can be done with a concrete grade of 2500PSI at 10cm thick with 70kg of steel per M3, however one to be suspended for the second floor would be 4500PSI containing 120kg of steel perM3 and 15cm thickness, this could be as much as 4/5 times the expense of the previous example and requires to be double reinforced with 2 layers of steel. Your Wife's Brothers are unlikely to know any of what I have mentioned here but may pretend that they do?

Having viewed a few pics of Shawn's build I have a lot of respect for him, I would say this is a man that knows what he is doing, his knowledge is beyond that of any Pinoy, no expense was spared for him to get what he wanted, he is fortunate that he is young, very rich and still earning pots of money.

Generally I would give a warning to anyone preparing to build a house there in PH to not spend any more the he could afford to lose, it is only a year since my neighbour was kicked out of the house he built, after spending all his money and getting a loan to finish this off, he did bring this upon himself as he was caught with another woman.

 

Dave, yes we are prepared to knockdown the current structure and rebuild completely to take advantage of land my wife already has title and paid right-of-way to. I would welcome assistance with building from the brothers who are decent welders and form builders but we would certainly want a trained engineer to advise and supervise any planned project.

 

A little off topic ...but probably important to anyone buying land that comes with a right of way.

When a right of way is granted/bought is there any notation on the back of the title? It the right of way between only your wife and the property owner or is the right of way guaranteed to a subsequent owner if your wife sells the property?

 

According to wifey it is now attached to the property and was drawn up by a lawyer with signature of the concerned parties just like a piece of land. But it is also my understanding a right of way can also be owned like a separate piece of property but I got that from another westerner. When I meet him again (or a local lawyer) I will try to get confirmation on that distinction.

 

I went into great detail and perhaps gave you more information than you needed to hear, but I was trying to impress on you that a tall house with 3 floors can be a very dangerous project in the wrong hands, through experience I have a dim view of even professionals there in PH, many of the so called Engineers would just not cut it in the western world.

From what you are now saying I get the impression, you are knocking down a house that may have some value as it stands or perhaps it is so bad it needs demolished anyway? it is my opinion that many houses there are so much larger than required for a decent standard of living, the house I built has only around 75M2 of usable living space and it is a two Bed two Bath house, perhaps your ideas are somewhat coloured by what everyone else does there? you can visit the House I built and there you will see something a whole lot different to what most others would consider, I'm not trying to say mine is better than all the rest, more a case on myself wanting to leave my family with something affordable to keep on after I am gone.

I do wonder about the Brothers and if this is your opinion of them being decent at their jobs or their Sisters, you say you know little about construction, would you even know what a good weld is likely to be? the building of formwork is hardly what I would call and achievement? for sure they are going to tell you they are the best at their jobs in all of the lands, likely they will be telling you the truth and that is how they perceive themselves, if there is one thing they do best? that is to pat themselves on the back, they have to be good at something as mostly they are useless at everything else and that includes their jobs, I'm sure this description fits 99% of all construction workers there in the Philippines.

 

The is 25 years old built by the brothers with some helpers and using materials that were not available in Dumaguete at the time. Now there are all kinds of hardware and construction supply stores. We can rebuild installing more plumbing and wiring than it presently has. My wife built it with her money so she can do what she wants with it and she recognizes it has served its purpose. We want more rooms in the same square footage lot and by going upward we can achieve that but we can do better this time around.

 

This trip is all about catching up and exploring our options. So yes I would like to check your house out and several others to help me see what can be done and figure out what is most reliable and practical.