Best Posts in Thread: Architect/Home Builder

My experience, beware of Sub standard materials.......Filipino will save on almost anything.....Termites do exist and eat wood, so minimise wood! Hollow blocks usually made of dust, drop one on your foot at home and you'll be in hospital, not so in Philippines, your foot will be unscathed! Filipino like putting electricals under the concrete.....impossible to fix if problem. Water pipes use green welded plastic never blue PVC. Have all electrical points with earth........Most water fittings in Philippines made from monkey metal, look good but last about 2 years. Have definite HOLD points on all major steps......foundations etc etc............Good Luck, you will need it!

 

Well Sir, I'm sure that you will be correct you usually are in your writings here (Fecking Smart Alex) it is highly likely they will touch on all the subjects you mention on an Architects Course there in PH as in the rest of the world and likely as you say it may well be in their final exams where the system falls short, I'm sure if they do well in the exam section where it concerns their Singing, Dancing and Clapping of hand skills, this is all that is required to Pass? An Architect is not a fully-fledged Engineer and the reason why their drawing have to be signed off by an engineer in order to gain planning permission, my own experience with both of these professionals did not go all that well. My house is completely bespoke to that of the standard CHB house there, our Architect was a relative of my partner as soon as he received my basic plan, he phoned me up to ask me, what is a Monolithic Slab? (This is a raft slab sometimes known as a floating slab without any foundation and well suited to building in PH with the risk of Quakes) he said he had never heard of this before, a quick search on Google was all he needed to find this out, however he drew up the plans and included foundations to parts of it and defeated the objective of this type of slab, there was a few other things that he had wrong and I had to have my plans amended with the original engineer involved, when I approached him to have this done I had to meet him in the car Park of Robinsons Mall? I had made a model of my intended house build, as soon as he looked at it, he started to shake his head telling me he knows nothing about structures of this nature, but he would do it provided I paid him a large sum of money, eventually I had my amended plans back now signed off by another Engineer? they only made one small change to the original plans this was an easy fix for them, they just doubled up the dimensions of the steel from the sizes on the original plan, it had now become uneconomical to build this using their idea, also the suggested sizes were not readily available there and this would have to be a special order, so I just went ahead and did it My Way, Feck them and the Horse they rode in on. It would appear to be a well-known fact that once any house building plans are passed there, you can go on with the build and do whatever you want as long as the house ends up close to the original dimensions.

 

I have just been writing in reply to another member who had sent me a PM, this is a subject I have touched on here many times here on DI, I will post here what I said to him.

For sure there is one thing to be wary of when building there, buying from the local hardware stores comes at a very high cost added to that you have to visit three of them to get everything you need, one day I did this spending most of the day going around the stores only to come back empty handed, I'll give an example just how much can be saved buying on-line, our Kitchen sink to buy this locally including the Tap would have been P13,200, I bought the same on-line for P3,200 including shipping, knowing what I know now after building a House there, with a bit of forward planning I should have bought all I could on-line and likely saved myself well over P100K, two Brand names I would recommend are Lotus they make tools as well as Kitchen hardware and the other is Tolsen Tools, shipping stuff from home in a Balikbayan Box is worthwhile, I did do this with some of the obvious things and my Son in UK sent these on to me, you cannot buy a decent paintbrush there in PH on-line or otherwise, what you do get there are just too thin and they do not pick up much paint, here in UK I can get them 100% better for around the same price, On Shoppee there is a store called Go2Hardware, heavy gauge SS Door hinges from them are P125 to get the same in DGTE will be P4-500 the ones from Go2 are just the same quality.

 

There's several aspects in this, one of which is the notorious thriftiness (I'm being polite here, some might say stinginess) of the Scots (only surpassed by the Dutch).
To illustrate, everybody knows copper wire was invented in 1798 during a fight between a Scot and a Dutchman over the possession of a twopence coin.
Moreover, the multitude of expressions in the English language that reference the Dutch is ample proof I would think, Dutch treat anyone?

Jokes aside though, yes there's many Pinoy who struggle to live by anything else than a crab mentality (if I can't succeed, neither can you, where the group will pull down anyone more successful than them), and yes, if the in-laws have a mentality like that then good luck with them looking after your house/business.
However, it's many, but definitely not all. There are plenty good people here also, who will try their best to make things a success. But since not many here have a good education and/or business acumen, such attempts at success might still fail.

So the bottom line must be to be very careful with entrusting your house/business to the care of someone else, just like you would in your country of origin. After all "al te goed is buurmans gek" (the dutch equivalent of AYFH), or as the French would say "Qui se fait mouton, le loup le mange".
Maybe the wisdom in these matters is “Make sure you understand the difference between being kind and being taken advantage of.”

 

He's a Big talker from Hawaii. I also have a friend that used him and it went like most projects, over budget, longer than expected, didn't meet sales pitch promises.
Side note, me being American + from the south = being a story teller
---- yet even I commented that this guy talks alot and has nothing to say.
Heed the warning my friends- we can't all be wrong can we?

 

Stefan, again I wish to say I do not want to single you out or go head to head with you on this topic and as you have said it is your preference to live in a large spacious House, this being the way You Want to live, however there are others on DI that may want to consider my views on the subject, perhaps even a few Newbies considering to buy or build in PH.
Having lived in a number of rentals with my SO we started out in a small Studio apartment of around 25M2, we enjoyed our time in this, but not with the area we were living in, so we did decided to move to a better location in a high end Sub-division, we rented a small 2 Bed 44M2 detached Bungalow this was just perfect for our needs, we were happy there, that was until WE become pregnant, (this is the new modern parlance for this situation) at this time we were living in Mactan Cebu, this has a major problem with high traffic congestion and the air being heavily polluted, standing water would be there for days after it rained and Dengue was quite prevalent there, so a decision was made to move somewhere and to raise our child where the air was much cleaner this being the main reason we chose Valencia, we managed to rent a very attractive 3 bed 80M2 detached house, but all three of these CHB houses had one major problem for me, they were all too hot inside and had AC units that were working overtime for much of the day and all through the night, with this last one in Valencia being the very worst for this, this had the roof space with no ventilation and I can only guess there was no insulation either as the upstairs was hotter than hell. During much of this time in was a consideration to buy land and to build our own house, I was spending hundreds of hours on the internet in my research either looking at existing properties to buy or to build from scratch, actually the penny dropped and ended up a no brainer for me, (to build a house and no matter where it is situated in the world insulation must be of prime consideration) so I had not other option but to build my own house, I will admit to being confused for a time and thinking to go down the CHB road, after all everyone else builds this way?????? However being Scottish has given me an added advantage over most others (many great inventions and discoveries come from the Scots) we are blessed with clear thinking heads stubborn Feckers with our feet firmly planted on the ground and not heavily influenced by others, added to that we are the least prejudiced nation in the world having a dislike for everyone, in fact we do not care for other Scotsmen all that much.

Another consideration of mine was to build a house for my SO and Child that would be easily managed and affordable for them to live in after I am gone, being insulated and not needing AC is a large contributory factor to this, I'm sure a situation can arise where the Pinay Widow of a Foreigner cannot afford to maintain and live in these larger houses often having to sell in desperation at well under market value, I have noticed there in PH large houses of P7M plus are on the market for a very long time, with ones at half that price selling more readily. For myself I see many disadvantages to having a large house of 200M2 or above, perhaps even in cost to build initially per M2, a large house with extended roof trusses covering long spans between the load bearing walls, assuming a large house will have large rooms, this requires heavy gauge steel, the same goes for the pillars and beams, even then I expect them not to do all that well in a serious Quake, then there is the tiling to the floors another expensive commodity, to keep a house of this size in a clean and orderly fashion often requires the help of a maid, another added expense, I just do not get this need to have a large house, is there any practical advantage that I am missing, please enlighten me if that may be the case?

One other thing about these large palatial homes in PH, many if not most will have a large gas Guzzling car in the drive, another useless added expense that gives no improvement to quality of life there as I see it?

 

Perhaps your question should be rephrased, what you should be asking is, who is the best of the worst Architects and Builders in DGTE, as they are all quite useless in my experience, I did build my own house there, not that I did this all alone I did have a couple of workers and an experienced German Carpenter helping me for a time, but for the most part all the decision making was done by myself.
Architects in PH have little or no training in construction engineering, and construction engineers may have a paper to say they are one, but many fall short of this in my opinion, just as do many other professionals there.

As for house design most of what I have seen there is not what I would have? many of which would not meet building protocols in my home country of UK, also CHB houses are unlikely to meet the Building Codes there? Pinoy construction workers must be about as bad as they get, OK they do work for low wages, but you need 8 men there to do the equivalent of only 2 from a first world country, if you have little or no practical experience on house building and think you can rely on Architects and Builder in PH to enable a good build, think again? what you are more likely to get is something that looks attractive once it is all rendered, but underneath the icing will be a multitude of faults.

A Danish friend of mine had an Architect recommended to him and he in turn recommended a builder, this was started in 2019 with the builder quoting P320 for the labour for an 85M2 house of 1.5 storey, half- way through this job the 320 was all used up, this house which is right next door to mine is a very bad design with much sub-standard work in evidence, there was a retaining wall on one side of the property, this collapsed around 2 weeks after the owner moved in and cost P580K to repair, I tried to tell my friend this wall was not fit for purpose but he would not listen to me, now the owner has split from his wife and this house lies empty, I believe the major contributary factor behind this was all the stress caused through building there, the man was just a hairs breadth away from having a nervous breakdown?

If you need any more information on this subject? I can recommend a good builder to you I'm not prepared to shout his name out here, so you can PM me for this info, I can also give advice on alternatives to a CHB build.

My small 75M2 house with large Kitchen, cost me around P3M to build, knowing what I do now I could do this for around half that price.

 

Yes you are correct, that elevated tank is just a blot on the landscape, they are just fecking ugly in my opinion, even if the tank water is just used for the brushing of teeth I think it is not good to have water in a plastic tank being exposed to sun all day? my storage tank is hidden at the back of the car porch at ground level with a pressure system, Valencia where I live and also where that house is, is a very low crime area and I also have never even thought to have security grills on the doors and windows they are just another ugly feature in my opinion, I do feel very secure there. however a discreet but not completely hidden CCTV may have its place there.

The front of that house faces west and the afternoon sun will be beating in that Car Porch, I would have given that a bit more thought.

What is under the surface will always be that $100 question, I do agree that the house looks good and most people would like this, in fact I would say it is very presentable and many people would be comfortable in buying this property, it stands to reason that anything that looks as good as this must be well built.

At todays prices I myself could build a CHB house to the correct Philippine standard this would also be aligned with international standards for around P20K per M2, this would be for the shell of the house only and not include the fixtures and fittings so a 100M2 house nicely rendered but shell only would be P2M, with reasonable to good Fixtures and Fittings plus tiling would be another P800K, so there you have it a 2 bed 2 bath house all rooms having reasonable dimensions for P2.8M, but this is at cost, this would take me 9 months to build and to do this as a small time builder I would need to make P1M out of it, Final cost to the customer P3.8.

Now chucking the handbook of good building practises out of the window, this exact same house built to the same plan, shell only but still nicely rendered can be done for P10K per M2 and have 3 months of the build time shaved off it, to be done in 6months, now including the same fixtures and fittings as the first example, cost price would be P1.8M, price to the customer; P3.8M, building to this low standard requires only a very loose reign supervision and can be project managed from the Bar.

Which house do you buy as they both look the same??? You would buy the one that I built as I would have a portfolio of pictures in chronological order showing the build from start to finish, this to be expected from anyone that takes pride in their work and builds to a high standard, however to build to this high standard is purely fictional, Pinoy construction workers are the worst tool on the job, getting them to work to a high standard requires 100% supervision even then this is difficult to achieve?

 

Attached is a reply to a message from an Ex-pat that is considering to build here in PH and may have some relevance to this thread,

Buying land in PH is likely to be a good move for you and eventually a great benefit for your family there, we ended up with a Lot of 600M2 at a cost of P1800 per M2 spending just over a million Pesos, I had thoughts to adding a couple of Studio apartments on this where we could do B&B to give a small income stream with some degree of flexibility in this, not having demands imposed as a business where you have to be there 24/7, for myself I would not build a house there on anything much less than 400M2. My overall cost to build must have been close to 3.5M, having the experience of this build, I would suggest I could now do this for around a little over 2m and add another 32m2 living space within that price, likely if this was put on the market as it stands we would only get 3.5 to 4m max for it, being a little quirky and not standard CHB it may be a hard sell, having said that a house not requiring AC must appeal to many. If I was to build a second house it would be much improved and have a lot less mistakes, but I think I would have to build three houses to have the last one about right?

To buy a ready built house or to build your own would be a difficult question for me to answer, assuming both would be done in CHB, the problem with an existing property is you will never know how well it was done, even the slightest earth tremor would have me pissing my pants if I was inside this, then we have the more common Typhoons how strong will the roof be, however some of the older properties that do exist built more than 10yrs ago have been done to a high standard having proper stout Pillars and Beams and perhaps been through a Quake and a few serious Typhoons, the steel sheets to the roof may have suffered bit over this time, but as long as the render is still sound this would suggest a strong build. Now there is a trend to build using very slim P&B's and these are not fit for purpose, having very poor structural integrity. In all CHB properties I would suggest they have one major problem, this being the steel contained inside the CHB is not well protected between the foundation and to just below grade where no render will be present, Septic tanks done in CHB have little more than a 20yr lifespan, often much less due to the attitude of the Pinoy builders, this will all be hidden and no one can see the faults.

Tip; seal the manhole covers of the septic with tile grout to stop the ingress of rainwater, added to that the top of the tank should have a good run to make sure it sheds the water and not puddle on the top, never mix the Grey and Black water in the same digestive tank and perhaps when they do come together this would only be in the final leaching tank, in my case I kept the two completely separate with the Grey going into a leaching tank of its own some distance away from the sewage. The construction of a septic should only be done in Concrete Never in CHB using a Pozzolan Cement and Never the pure Portland.

I would suggest to you, that waiting until you retire would be the time to build your own house in PH where you would be able to give 100% supervision to the build, however I do understand that waiting until this time may not be a good option for you with Family influences putting pressure on you to do something about it now, in my view this is a slippery slope that may be difficult to climb out of?