HOUSE BUILDING

I think for anyone who decides to build a house here in the Philippines (whether it be self built/supervised or to be done with a recognised builder?) it is essential for them to study building techniques and practises here in this country.
There is one man I know has done this here on Panay Island, Google; My Philippine Life, read this mans story about his house build I'm sure he had little or no experience of building here, (Bob is his name from US I think) In his Blog he takes you through the whole process of building a house here, from getting Permits to build, right through to his finished house, everything is there in great detail, the mistakes that have been made are all in there, one big problem he had was getting a good construction team I think he had to put two teams off the job before he settled on a team he could trust? even then he had to give instructions to this particular team on how things should be done.
If you go down the road of getting a house built here by a builder on price per square metre, be very wary as every corner that is cut in the build means more money in his pocket, if he is the type of person that will do this, he knows that as long as he gives a good finish/render to the build what is hidden underneath this finish does not matter to him, also in fairness to them most if not all of them have never been formally trained in construction trades.
Only recently I viewed a post somewhere, may even have been here on DI? where a western man had a swimming pool constructed at his newly built house, it was constructed using hollow block, this is crazy nuts to me, just a disaster waiting to happen, it should have been done in at least double if not triple reinforced concrete (2 to 3 layers of steel rebar) at some time in the future this house will go up for sale and it will be stated that it is constructed by a western man to western standards and designs when in fact it has been done very substandard.
Talking of house design, in my opinion many houses here are just not fit for purpose, this idea of having a large living, dining and kitchen area maybe even having a staircase within it and to use a 3hp AC to cool the area down is just so wasteful, bearing in mind some of the native people here cannot afford to eat rice 3 times a day. I am not against the use of AC but it seems to me that if the Dining and Living areas of a house are separate perhaps no more than 10sqm in size per room each area will only require a 1/2 HP AC unit.

Sorry if I offend anyone here but I have been awake half the night with my young child and felt the need to rant about something.

 

Further to my earlier post I would say insulation should be a key factor when considering any house build.
Many years ago when Gypsies or to be PC travelling people were camped up for the night they used to heat large stones by the campfire which they then covered in rags to provide heating in their beds.
Here in the Philippines the Concrete HB housing structures tend to heat up during the day and give of this heat all during the night, now if this could be prevented by using some form of insulation and give up the idea of using nice coloured red roofs in favour of the lighter colours to reflect the heat of the sun, (this also applies to cars they should be white or silver definitely not Black) once the house has been given a blast with the AC in the evening in theory it could be turned off for most of the night?
This is where EVG Panels come into their own perhaps they can cut AC usage by around half?
It appears they are easy to install using much less unskilled labour and on a one floor construction do not require pillars and beams for added strength as long as they are tied at the top to good strong metal roof trusses and the bottoms of them to a good foundation plus when they are tied to the interior walls this should give a good honeycomb construction.
HB construction should be a thing of the past in favour of the above method. The only downside of them I see is the rendering of them by hand? it should really be done by a Shotcrete Machine.

Dave

 

Does anybody have an opinion about PhilSouth builders? I think they quote about P19k/m**2? Regarding air-con, in my experience you can get a local estimate of cooling requirements from “HVAC” people here and we were recommended 2.5hp to cool the first floor of an existing house. Multiple units of 1/2hp seems to be inefficient, don’t you think? Regarding local poverty (3 3X rice per day), whatever foreign money is spent here raises the local economy and is good for the people. Every peso we spend uplifts some people so that they can pursue opportunities to earn more.


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I agree wholeheartedly. Whether self-built, foreman-supervised or contractor-built, any construction requires a Building Permit. So a first step in such technical study could be a look into three relevant publications:
1.) The 2005 Revised Edition of the Implementing Rules & Regulations of PD 1096 (“National Building Code of the Philippines of 1977”) at http://www.dpwh.gov.ph/dpwh/references/laws_codes_orders/PD1096
2.) The 2015 PD 1096 Referral Green Building Code at Philippine Green Building Code | Department of Public Works and Highways
3.) The 2016 New Schedule of Fees and Other Charges of the revised IRR of the National Building Code of the Philippines (PD 1096) at New Schedule of Fees and Other Charges of the revised IRR of the National Building Code of the Philippines (PD 1096) | Department of Public Works and Highways

To decide whether to engage an architect or a civil engineer, it may also help to consider that Philippine law has made architecture and civil engineering distinct from each other as professions, as one can learn from PRC publications http://www.prc.gov.ph/uploaded/documents/CIVIL ENGINEERING LAW.PDF and at http://www.prc.gov.ph/uploaded/documents/ARCHITECTURE LAW.PDF In Negros Oriental or Dumaguete City, masons and carpenters build away regardless of such distinction.

 

Maybe I did not explain myself too well? the point I was trying to make was, why do so many western people here require such large roomed houses, 50sqm living space 25sqm master bedroom another two bedrooms of perhaps 20sqm if all are AC'd it would amount 1x2hp 1x1hp and 2x 1/2hp units=4hp in total, OK that is a wide guess?
What I was trying to suggest was a much smaller house with the same amount of rooms and all rooms to be no more than 10sqm some others less, you still have 4 AC units but only 1/2HP each=2HP
A house of 68sqm would cover this and still have 2 CR's, a walk in cupboard and would be more than adequate for most of us, who needs a large TV lounge area? an enclosed Kitchen keeps the Grease and the Cooking Smell in one place, if we have a larger group of friends and family a covered area outside is all we need for that odd occasion I would say?
One huge benefit of the smaller house it is likely to be within a Filipino budget to purchase and is likely to sell before the larger more pricey house does, when we all fall of the spar the small house will be a blessing to our surviving Asawa I would guess that applies to most of us?

Mostly I see 20 to 25k per sqm build,to get it at 19k may suggest cheaper fittings and even more corners cut than the 20k ones Ha-ha? I would never ever build here unless I could give daily supervision over the team.

 

68m**2 translates to me (as an American who thinks in square feet) as a house, if square, <25 feet long each side or 610sq ft. approx.. Hmm, that is really small. Retired people in florida might live in 1200 sg ft small houses or a square of 35 feet on each side. That would be about 133 sq meters. Not 100% accurate since a approximate one 3 feet = 1 meter. Personally I could live with the small 68m**2. But my wife wants at least 200m**2 and she is a filipina! That is too big for me so this Western guy will continue discussing with my oriental asawa


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Actually your calculations are a bit off, 1 sqm -10.76 sqft so call it 10.1 to be easy and 68sqm = nearer to 740sqft.
Wow! if I had the money to afford a property of near to 200sqm I would build 3 houses on the larger lot required and rent two of them out a good income for my Asawa when I am gone, unfortunately I'm just a poor Scotsman and nobody cares Ha-ha, it will be 68sqm for me

 

Yes I have an OPINION (notice shouting font).
Phil South built the "Royal Palm" subdivision. My friend rented there for a year. Several homes were uninhabited as the tile roofs leaked badly. In my friends place all the wooden molding were bug infested and falling apart as Coco lumber had been used.
Under a ground floor window there was a crack right though the wall and a part of the window sill had dropped about 1/2 inch. There is almost no weight on the window sill, only the window itself.
So how could that happen? Well several things have to be wrong with the construction. A) the ground under the footing was not compacted and B) there was no footing or C) there was no rebar in the footing. D) they forgot to put rebar on every third layer of hollow block.
On a side not the Phil South labourers on the current highway construction job make Peso 120 per day. So every 20 foot length of 10 mm rebar will pay the wages of an employee for about 1.5 days.

A neighbor used a company Called "PhilCondev". The name sounds like the company is "one of the big boys" in construction on the island. It is run by a lone "architect" whose engineering skills are lacking. They designed a drainage ditch cover using 2 inch thick concrete reinforced with 10 mm rebar every 2 feet. I would not drive my motorcycle over those covers let alone a car. The roof gutters rotted out after 3 years because they had no slope and were made from substandard materials. The company did walk away from the job when they were requested to fix the leaky sheet metal roof and a list of minor problems.

I'm not going to get involved with these problems because I've learned; No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

My wife and I supervised the build of our house. The job went well but mostly due to our foreman. He knew his trade and could explain everything that was done. I learned a lot about footings, concrete, rebar etc..

 

I went shopping for air-conditioners. All the salespeople asked was "how big is your room" (25m^2). They all recommended 2 Hp which is a lot.
HVAC is not my thing but it seemed to me they should have asked; how big are the window?, how tall are the ceiling?, how many walls have direct exposure to the sun? and how many degrees would I like the room temperature below ambient?.
To make a long story short. I went to a couple of friends homes to see what they were using and how well their system worked. I ended up with a 1 Hp inverter split type air-conditioner and it is more than adequate.