Best Posts in Thread: BUILD YOUR OWN HOME OR BUY READY BUILT

Not everyone builds incorrectly...

 

Been to Guangzhou maybe 10 - 12 times buying building martials.

First time was about 15 years ago I employed this agent called Amy, like a PA on the ground.
Amy would meet me every day at my hotel and take me to the factory's. She would arrange pricing, deposits, lunch, transport etc. Amy would arrange shipping and all the products to go to the container when ready.

I was Amy's 2nd ever customer when she first started out, she now has clients all over the world.

Over the years Amy and myself have found some great factory's and a few not so good. She now has a good network of reliable suppliers and she is very trustworthy.

Finding good suppliers in China is hard work, takes years.

PM me if you want her details

 

This type of construction, and single level. Buy the walls as pre fab, little cutting and no painting needed. All galvanized.

 

Well Sir I am not really an expert, I think that term can only be used with someone who has had formal training, in the Building Trade? what I have done is research via the internet which is available to most if they care to take the time to do this. but even with this knowledge I now have, I could not tell if a house is well built or not apart from a very few obvious things? and here is an example, is the Grey water from the house discharged into a separate tank from the Black water in the digestive Septic Tank System, the reason for this is; Grey water destroys the Digestive system in a septic tank, if the house has two toilets have them both flushed at the same time, do they both flush in one clean motion if not there may be a problem with the venting system?
You are looking to buy a house in areas close to the sea, in these locations it is better that the steel inside the Columns and Beams has 6cm of cover to be safe from the sea air, this you will never know?

 

I would say Shawn is the better man to ask this question from he has real experience in using concrete. I kind of guessed you would see the sense in using the P boards, just remember to coat with floor wax and they will come off clean

If I was to do what you are doing I would not put a beam mid section, understand this method is almost one big beam in itself and you are just putting one beam on top of another, you really gave your own answer to the question, suggesting the Rebar from foundation level goes all the way to the top, what can also be done is; you can inset a piece of 2'' square Coco lumber at the top of the first pour, any scrap wood will do, drill big holes to take the rebar, remove before the concrete has set and you will have provided a key for the next pour, the Tex/Phil guy does not vibrate his forms only hits them with a rubber hammer that is only good on the outside, better to use a form vibrator and that really consolidates it, I used a small Jack hammer electric drill and this worked well, a better job will always be done using a mixer and not by hand mix, use the cheaper Pozzolan cement and you will get less thermal cracking, anyone that says to use the Premium Portland, need to do some research on this, a couple of others things to note, the bottom of the forms tend to swell outwards with the weight of the concrete make sure it is well braced, use slightly less chips in the first 12 inches of pour as some to migrate to the bottom especially if it is vibrated, be careful of the water content as a very rough guide, when the mixer is tipped to empty the batch should rise to meet the mouth of the mixer and the top of this needs to be knocked off to get the rest out.

I guess Shawn in the only one to advise you on the cold joint and what material if any is available for this, it must be wetted for sure maybe with some cement in the water? Hope this helps

 

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.

 

Next to impossible I would say. Once the walls/pillars have been covered over with plaster it's anyone's guess what's underneath. Only aspects that can still be found is stuff like undersized pillars (if they should be thicker than a wall but aren't), and maybe some defects with the roof trusses (if there's access to the attic).
We got lucky with our house, bought it from a knowledgeable German guy whom I know was at the building site each and every day when the house was first built, keeping an eye on the builders and having them fix /redo mistakes. (thank you Günther).

 

The last picture is of a window opening which spans 1.6mtr there is no caste Lintel in this, they jam a piece of wood in the opening at the top, they lay a piece of Rebar on this and build on it as normal, this is bad practise all to save money. This house is sure to have problems even in a moderate Earthquake.

 

The next Picture is of a house Built by a Foreigner for a Foreigner, it would appear this house is above 150M2 perhaps as much as 200 and yet they are using only 4inch CHB? these walls will have to support big span roof trusses over large rooms, of course there should be Pillars and Beams well there is after a fashion but they are hidden in the walls 4x8inch pillars worse than useless. also you can see they have been done in parts and have cold joints, obviously there are poured in parts as the wall is built a big failing, hard to see but in this same picture the roof steel is a combination of 2inch for the main truss and 1inch for the bracing, they should be the same larger size throughout, but the one inch bracing is half the price.

 

This is a picture of a pillar in a wall section that collapsed in December of last year it shows segregation of the concrete, there is no sand or cement holding the Aggregate together, this is because, it is a skinny pillar with little room for the concrete to get all around the steel, to combat this they make the concrete runny like soup and this gives the steel good coverage the Pinoys say, the sand and cement have run down to the bottom of the Pillar.