Best Posts in Thread: Architect/Home Builder

Something I posted on another Ex-Par site that would have some relevance to this Topic, this was in reply to someone on the site who had posted a Video showing a group of Pinoy builders erecting a structure in CHB, with him extolling the virtues of the said Pinoy builders, this I have copied and will post here.

Forums such as this are great places to go for information on most things, just about everything a Foreigner needs to know regarding Living in the Philippines can be had from this, but when it comes to BUILDING they generally fail miserably, perhaps the reason why 99% of Foreigners live in not fit for purpose CHB structures, they follow like sheep and do what everyone else does, they in turn go on Forums giving advice on this Sheep method of building there in PH.

The attached Video is only good to serve as a BAD example of how to build in PH, these builders are just a bunch of Cupid Stunts, any Foreigner who thinks otherwise is seriously misinformed, from this Video I could see they have little of any understanding on the properties of cementitious materials and much the same can be said of the aforementioned Foreigners that go on to Ex-Pat sites and impart their knowledge of this commonly used method. Now a far better method would be to build with CIP (caste in place) concrete this must be the strongest of all structures, the time taken from mixing to getting it into its final position is likely to be less than 10mins the useful POT LIFE of wet cement especially in a tropical country is not much more than 20mins around this time it starts to really heat up, (due to the Chemical reaction taking place between the water and the Cement) after this time the initial curing is accelerated and not long after that it is rendered useless, now your Dumb Fecking Pinoy Builder has no understanding of this, much the same can be said of Foreigners giving advice on the CHB method, to them they think when a Mortar dries out and the water evaporates it then goes hard, so they have the easy fix to just add more water when it starts to firm up, but by this time it is past its sell by date and no longer fit for purpose, I do understand this was not evident on the Video, but they made so many other blunders in this that I have good reason (from the host of other problems I did observe) for thinking they do not know what they are doing, if you care to look at this again observe the Lintel on the completed window aperture, this was towards the end of the Video, it appeared to me that this was only a bit of Coco Wood, often they take this away once the wall is cured to leave at best a length or rebar to bridge the gap, that was just one of many faults I picked up on.

With the knowledge I have gained through the many hours of research I have done on house building, plus a lot of hands on experience, Likely I have the equivalent of a PHD in Philippine House construction??? but I Do Not have the knowledge that is required to build in a 1st world country with one exception maybe in US as they were the Dumb Feckers that brought the idea of a CHB house over to PH.

IMHO, it is just not possible to build a sound structure using CHB in a tropical country where cement retarders seem not to be available, the only retards that are readily available would be the Pinoy Construction worker, put these two together and you end up with structure with many failings. Believe it or not? 20grms of household sugar added per 40kg bag of cement does retard the curing time of cement.

Btw, my lightweight Hardiflex box as you have described it is a little more than that, it is a Pillar and Beam structure formed in welded together heavy gauge Steel angle bar, with a uPVC roof installed and all built on the top of a Monolithic (raft slab) this floats above grade, to this we then added the steel studs and Hardiflex which has the attributes of an engineered box beam making the whole structure very strong, rice hulls were then added in the wall cavity adding insulation, in the event of a serious Quake this should fare well, but I must admit my rather over sized roof at and angle of 45 degrees just may give a problem in a serious Typhoon, I guess I could get 20knots out of this in a good following wind and I'm now thinking a tiller should be added to it?

I was never a high achiever at School which I left at aged 15yrs with no qualifications, I was the disruptive idiot in class that would do anything for a dare, but one lesson I did learn from a very good teacher was when she chastised me in class, mostly she was polite spoken but when giving a telling off she would revert to the Scottish vernacular, then she would say; David, if ye wur tae keep yer mooth shut naebidy wid ken yer Stupid.

 

John I have met your lovely Wife you have surprised me when you say she is only 3 yrs younger than you, there was me thinking she is 30yrs your junior she certainly looks it.

For the life of me I cannot understand what you are trying to say here this has no relevance to the price of cheese? it all sounds quite Irish to me?

Not at any time in this thread did anyone suggest that you cannot enjoy a good retirement there in the Philippines, no one seemed to be moaning or urinating on the said country, all that was suggested to our Mr Pedro was; not to look at the Philippines or is people through Rose Tinted Glasses and that he should think twice before starting any business venture that may be left in the care of Filipinos, we are all just trying to help and point him in the right direction and thus enable him to be better informed.

 

My In-laws are very good people twice I have loaned them money and both times they paid me back, most Foreigners are amazed when I tell them this, but like most of the population of the Philippines they suffer from arrested development, I'm pretty dam sure they my In-laws, could not run a P!ss up in a brewery, if your own In-laws were in any way successful it is unlikely they would be able to assist in a B&B? Filipinos are great a patting themselves on the back and they will tell you they are good at this that and the next, mostly they are just stupid and too stupid to know they are stupid, this is all down to the poor education system that prevails over there, I'm quite sure most of them were Not born that way, the curriculum for education there centres around Singing, Dancing and Clapping of hands, their measure of achievement would be a place in the dance team at the Sinolog Festival, this is now being superseded by the number of likes they get of their FB page.

Perhaps you are correct about my attitude? it is true I can be very blunt and direct often telling people Not what they want to hear I must admit it is not the first time I have been called up about this, but having lived in PH for much more than 10% of my 70 living years, gaining a wealth of knowledge from other Foreigners that have been there for a longer duration than myself, also building a house there fast tracks you into the weird and wonderful ways of the Filipino mind??? all of this has gone into the melting pot and from this I would suggest I can give a well informed Honest opinion about the reality of life in the Philippines for a Foreigner, added to that I have known quite a few Foreigners that have been burnt there in business, sometimes through the ignorance of their well intentioned family members.

 

In-laws to run them, Yer Aff Yer Fecking Heid, very few Filipinos could run anything, not even a p*ss Up in a Brewery, I can see you have lots to learn about the Philippines?

 

Our 1st house was 44 sqm and was great. Close the door to the bedroom to keep the heat from cooking out and the bedroom stayed cool even without aircon (most of the time). If we did turn on the window unit it was for 1 or 2 hours and the bedroom stayed cool for a good amount of time. It did help that we had a canopy from a few Acacia trees, and we kept them pruned to avoid being crushed by the possible branches.

Then we built the Texas size house because - well- we had our standard of living, wanted something that resembled what we had, even central hot/cold water lines. Tnis was to spend days watching sunsets over the ocean, enjoy the cool ocean breeze, and drinking coconut water.

Real life- the house was hot, the ocean breeze stops at 5pm (if it ever came), and I was constantly seeing flaws in the work. I did drink lots of coconut water to avoid dehydration.
Also after this was built, I found myself still spending most of the days outside in the shade to avoid daytime use of the aircon or simply stay around the smaller house. It stayed cooler, quieter, and darker for naps. In the smaller house I rarely used the aircon even on the warm days.

Looking back the large house was a dream expecting friends and family to come regularly, and then came Covid, time kept going, and all the extra room turned into upkeep.
If I were to travel back in time I would probably build 2 more houses at 45sq meter and connect them with a large covered walkway. Guest would have privacy, building time would have been cut in half, cost would have been a fraction (maybe 80% to 85% less).

Now, on house 3, converting a 40ft refer van. So far we've only added a 2nd roof with the typical 4 inch gap and slanted for water to run off. Airflow all around and keeps the heat off the living area. Next week- God willing- flooring.

Regarding everybody should live according to his preferences.....
100% agree, but sometimes my preferences are not the same as the wife's hahaha.

 

Haven't seen it stated directly, just indirectly and maybe i missed it, but for good ventilation. especially in a chb structure, you need to ensure that CROSS-ventilation is provided for, hopefully in two directions, at least in one.

 

In a Bahay Kubo from what I have seen, they all have one thing in common and that is a raised slatted Bamboo floor, more than anything this is the reason along with their insulated grass roof that keeps them fairly cool or at least no hotter than the ambient temperature when in the shade, however although this is great for a small Garden Kubo I'm not so sure this type of floor works all that well in a larger structure, I guess it may not support moveable furnishings all that well with most of this having to be built into the structure, I believe the locals just sleep on the floor with some sort of bedroll? going completely native then this will never be a problem, however I do believe most Foreigners would not adapt to this all that well, most if not all of us need some of the trappings of our former western lifestyle.

This got me thinking of a way to resolve this issue, considering in these present times the huge increases in the price of building materials, to build a CHB house must be somewhere in the region of P25K per M2 or more? where a Kubo is more likely to be closer to P5K per M2, spend that little extra and produce a floor fit for purpose and have it Termite proof at the same time, build the raised platform using a welded steel frame add GI roof purling's for floor supports and to then lay plastic decking over this to form the finished floor leaving a small gap in these to maintain the airflow. perhaps this method is not ideal on a large structure of 100M2 and above, this would require much heavier grade steel and perhaps become much less cost effective? If you were to ask most Foreigners where they spend most of their days at home many will say they are outside and that includes times when they are eating likely in the small garden Kubo and yet it is common for many to have houses of 200M2 plus? In my Opinion for a Glamping style of living something around the size of 45M2 is more than adequate. Bamboo and Steel have the ability to flex and pair well together, this has them both highly resistant to damage during a Quake.

 

With what I have to say here Sir and I do not mean to single you out, but when I read posts like yours I cannot help but chuckle to myself, it may sound a bit smug of me? but Why build a house in PH that requires the high usage to electric to cool it down? the problem as I see it is Sheep Mentality, follow what the rest of the Sheep are doing and build a large CHB house, using Tin sheeting for the roof in nice dark colours and what you have is a storage heater to absorb the heat of the sun during the day to release it during the dark hours, Sheep have more sense at least they wear their insulated wool coat. added to this CHB houses have a high potential to become death traps in a serious Earthquake, most people killed during such an event are from falling masonry, it has now become the trend to build these fine palatial structures using cosmetic Pillars and Beams, this leaves them under engineered with a much higher potential to fail in a Quake. To build a sound well constructed house in CHB with a high resistance to Quakes, requires a deep concrete stem wall at least 2ft=60cm below grade to extend around 8inch=20cm above grade and the Pillars and Beams to be constructed before any CHB is laid, unfortunately none seem to be done in this way?

So the answer to this is build a house that can be fully insulated which does not require the use of AC and high usage of electric and added to this, they the AC units, also require quite a bit of maintenance to keep them running efficiently, for an insulated house a consideration may be given to have a small 1 panel stand alone Solar system with a Batt back up which only requires the ability to run a couple of fans and the fridge, it may even be possible to get a ROI from this but this is off no consequence considering the saving to be had by not having AC.

The small (75M2) fully insulated house I built there has a monthly electric bill of no more than P2K a month, even if it had been double this size it is unlikely for the Bill to increase all that much considering a big portion of this Bill is taken up by standing charges.

 

I am waiting for Batteries to drop in price as an "off grid" system is the only way for me to justify spending on Solar... we have brownouts on a regular basis and I would only use the grid to augment the panels for charging batteries..

 

No clue on the best answer to the above but my one suggestion for a successful build is to pay for the materials yourself, even if you let the contractor spec them. I have yet to meet a Dumaguete metro builder who is a good builder and a good cash flow manager.