Architect/Home Builder

But you prove it is not essential.

 

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?

 

I will attach a Link to a Video of a recently constructed house this being a Pillar and Beam structure infilled with CHB, the owner and builder of this property are both in this video (I know them both) with the builder giving an example of the pricing to build this. It has been said that this is done in a Western Style, what I think they mean is; Texan style, which is the centre of the universe for some? the likes of this house would be a find in Scotland which I consider to be the Bulls Eye of the universe? This house is not very far from Oor Wee Hoose there in Valencia Negros and I was able to view this in its early stages of construction.
I'm hoping to hear from others that may have an opinion on this particular property no matter if they are positive or negative, this house is not all that attractive to me, however I cannot say it is unattractive, just that it would not suit me, but may be highly desirable to some?

Can You Have a Western-style Home in the Philippines? - Tour of Home! - Bing video

 

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?

 

It really takes only two fingers if buying or building here ... the ones you cross in hope.

 

I must admit I had a problem with this word refer and its meaning, I then realised this would be a Shipping Container, you really should consider us normal people from the English speaking world that read from the Oxford Dictionary any Reefer-ences to the Jester Dictionary of US should be avoided if possible?

Joking aside I am interested in the concept of converting these containers into homes? only this morning I had been looking at a Video done by a Pinoy where he offers some pro's and con's to the above method and a little on pricing, this did spark an interest for me, he says a 40 footer costs around P145K he then goes on to suggest these units are super hot inside and require insulation using the urethane foam method to be done on both sides and this costs a further P100K, (I would think doing them on the inside would be sufficient?) anyway overall he had a very negative opinion of the concept.

IMHO I see the method to be not all that viable, with the only big advantage being; they are very strong and resistant to Quakes and if they are well anchored down highly resistant to Typhoons, however the cost to purchase? and being a long rectangular box and very narrow in the width and at best giving only 30M2 of floor space, there will be a limitation to the interior design if keeping it to the original sizing, I see them to be not all that great? I would guess much work has to be done, getting it rust free to then paint it, cutting out doors and windows and additional holes for various services.

However getting one free of charge or next to nothing? to convert to a small studio apartment may be a different Kettle of very different Fish and this has some appeal to me.

Keeping to the size of 30M2, for the same money P145K I could build a 6x5mtr studio of 30M2 with no limitation to interior design, it can be reduced to fit a space or added to if required, starting off on a Monolithic Slab which performs well in Quakes, then the slab to be build on with steel studs clad with HardieFlex all the openings for the windows doors and services are done during the build at no extra cost, at this same time the walls and ceilings can be insulated using cheap rice hulls, if there is a downside to this, that would be; to have the the roof over the intended structure installed and sheeted on temporary supports, to then go on and install the house walls under the shelter of the roof.