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

Sir I would like you to consider this; A CIP concrete wall will have much more weight in it that a CHB one does, they are full of air pockets and the blocks are lighter than concrete, in UK the rule of thumb is; the footing should be 6'' either side of the wall minimum depending on soil conditions? If it were me I would put in a 24''wide for a 6'' Wall, 20'' for a 4'' and have it 8''to10'' deep with lots of steel in it, It would help me sleep better? The best advice for this is likely to be from Shawn, Ozzyguy is also pretty good on construction advice.

 

There will be columns along the wall but a poured wall firmly attached to the footing should be stable enough... the footing will be twice the width of the wall, I will also turn the wall at both ends for 1 meter before transition to smaller fencing...

 

A 20m long wall is a long span without any corners in it, may fall over if the footings are small.

May want to add a few corners, notch is back 500mm for a few meters then back in line again. Add a planter in the recessed section. Not sure if that made sense.

 

This Link tells you that you should not bond new concrete to old using PVA adhesives, I read this before but wanted to confirm it before saying anything, for years I am been using PVA for this purpose but now I know better. unfortunately this info is mainly concerned with Tiling but much the same rules apply as most tile adhesives are cement based.
Can I Use PVA to Prime A Surface Before Tiling? - Walls and Floors

 

3/4 Marine Ply there is plenty of that about but don't expect to be the real deal (it will fall to pieces in no time) unless you buy Santa Clara, close to P3K a sheet, go ahead and use the Phenolic Boards at P1K,
I'm guessing you are probably an old fart like myself, don't worry too much about your health now at this late stage, if you plan it right you may not have to do much cutting anyway for example, say you want a 6ft high wall and 2ft of this will be under grade, use the boards on their sides and pour the overall 8ft needed in two 4ft sections if you leave a key to join onto all the better, 6 uncut 8x4 boards will give you 24ft of wall for the first half section, to be used again for the top half, but drilling is a must, anyway it is likely you will be using Filipino workers and they are immune to all things that are bad for us p*ssy Cat Westerners, my neighbours burn their plastic on refuse collection day and we get a free uplift here, every morning they Rev their Bikes and they are right next to their Bamboo houses where their children are sleeping, through the years I have cut Asbestos, MDF and other kinds of compressed boards that had warnings on them, with No PPE, not saying this is clever but the term PPE had not been invented then? but I am still here at 68yrs.

Many substances of this nature can be really hazardous to your health, but usually only after a very long period of constant usage, here is a good tip when cutting boards have an Electric Fan blowing on the saw cut that takes most of the dust away, even better if you blow it over to your neighbours and that even saves you sweeping up.

 

A word of caution here I think: Phenolic resin, which binds the fibres in the board together, is HIGHLY TOXIC. See below:

Amino and phenolic resins contain formaldehyde, which is highly toxic by inhalation, highly toxic by eye contact and ingestion, and moderately toxic by skin contact. ... Phenol in phenol-formaldehyde resin is highly toxic by skin absorption and inhalation, and can severely burn skin.

Therefore the boards should only be cut/sawn using full body and face PPE with forced air breathing and avoiding the airborne particles.

 

Mark Higgins owner of the Octagon Bar, Bacong, Plus another Man named Len (a good Scotsman) provide these type of prefab houses, in fact the steel structure of the Octagon bar has been done in this way, They gave me a price for the steel structure in my house which I thought at the time to be too expensive, I now know they were not too far off the mark and it would have been far less problematic for me to have gone down that road.

 

Can you share with us your tricks to buying materials from China. How do you find companies to buy from? How do you manage the import/export bureaucracy?

 

Thanks for posting Dave1952

I have always been amazed how they build houses in most parts of Asia, not just Philippines. Always take a bit of interest in reading threads like this and looking at partly built houses when in town and shake my head with disbelief.

I have built a fair few houses in my country, I'm not a professional but have a bit of a clue.

When the time comes to build in Pi I'm pretty sure I will build steel frame and possibly even import one from China and assemble it. I been to China plenty of times buying building products. Would end up doing the supervision and a fair bit of the work.

 

I do agree with what you say, but even a house with stout Pillars and Beams, only vaguely suggests some thought went into the Build quality? I have yet to see any Pillar done here in the correct way? All Pillars and Beams should be done in one continuous pour, now that is difficult as concrete should not be dropped from a distance any more than 5ft=1.5mtrs a distance greater than this causes segregation of the Aggregates from the Sand/Cement, so windows have to be cut into the form work at intervals of 5ft or less, you will never ever see this here, stirrups to the Rebar cage should be sett closer at the top and bottom of the Pillars, the ends bent to 135 degrees and wrapped around the steel uprights, the Rebar cage should not touch the formwork at any point, the Concrete should be of a good consistent mix and not contain too much water and then a form vibrator should be used to consolidate it, banging forms with a hammer is useless for this, it is highly unlikely that all these steps have been taken to provide good strong Pillars and Beams, even though they may look good?