Best Posts in Thread: Kitchens and Termites

Here is a few pics of that Kitchen now finished, the overall cost was P25K and that included the sink. I forgot to mention I am short of 3 of the ceramic handles, they will be fitted later

 

Here is a few more Pics of the developing Kitchen, I did not go with the false ready made marble tops mostly because I do not like the flecked pattern so I went with a Tile on top of a sheet of 12mm Hardiflex, for edging I used Tugas wood may also be called Molave? it is a hard wood in a light colour, there is also a pic of the ladder again, with one of my workers, everything in the Pics is Scottish made. That includes the Boy

 

There is a method in which to build Kitchen Cabinets and have them as near to Termite Proof as it gets, the carcasses are made with steel studs and then a 4.5mm Hardiflex is screwed on to that both sides, the only wood involved is inside the steel at the front to enable me to screws the hinges on and to have a second crack at it if the first screws fail, you can rely on the metal by itself to fix the hinges on to but in event of a failure it means you have to reposition the hinge on the door and carcass.
There is 8 units in total 3x 1000mm units, 2 x 500mm units, 2 times 300mm and one full drawer unit, 2x600mm spaces for a free standing Cooker and Fridge. the wood that was added was soaked in Solignum and the cavity in the partitions had some Borax and Boric acid added to them to give assisted protection to the wood inside, I will attach a few pics of this to give some idea how it looks half way through the job, total cost up till now is P15K I expect another 5to7K will see the job done? Also there will be one of a simple ladder 11ft high which cost P2250 to make myself, this is as strong as you can buy here with closer than normal treads ong as anything you can buy here with closer than normal treads.

 

I ended up closing the whole lot in with windows and a Patio sliding door, I was really dumb to think this would work as I had created a wind tunnel, two parallel walls open at each end how dumb is that? leaves, insects, and butterflies were all blowing in and the Gas cooker would also blow out, it was as obvious as night follows day that this would happen but I did not think on it, perhaps I would have managed with with 3 enclosed walls and one open end? but decided to make it safe and secure and no more dumb guesswork.

 

Something that I forgot to mention is; I have lived in around 4/5 houses here and all Kitchen Cabinets stink, the wood goes mouldy and that what mostly creates the smell, my Cabinets will all have a vent to the backs kind of like a letterbox through the wall they are attached to and some Mosquito mesh fitted in to a small frame around these on both sides, I have a pic of a piece on MDF board that has been on my site for 6 weeks and remained dry all this time but just look at the affect the damp air has had on that, green mould.

 

I painted a new cabinet with poly, also the front door with remainder. Termites elsewhere, but not there.

 

Seems this process would work on a larger scale too. Basicly making studs for walls. I am guessing if the steel purlings would be bolted to the foundation it would act similar to the base wood frames usd in the states.
From there, deending on the building size and usage, the exterior could be 12mm hardiflex, the good painted rooffing metal, or, for the daredevils, plywood.

I am still thinking of the large garage/ basketball court. This could allow it to be covered, private, and have elctrical outlets, with the option of adding in the future as needed.
Now it upgrades from just a garage with paint on the floor to workshop and mancave. Further, by putting a hole in the wall at the proper hight to give the grass some special water, there would be little reason to leave.

 

I started to tile all the main floors of the house a couple of days ago, every room has the same tile apart from the two bathrooms and the floors and walls are done in these. There is one problem when casting a large Monolithic slab all done in one complete pour and that is getting it straight and level, well as it happens mine could have been better, but it is what it is and I just have to correct the flaws when having the tiles laid, in some places there is 2cm difference from the base level, so I am going through Tile Adhesive at a fast rate. However I have found a product that you mix with ordinary Portland cement, it is called Tile Grip and cost P250 per sachet, mix this in with one complete 40kg bag of cement and then three of sand this is an everyday 3 to 1 mix, But Pinoys measure the sand in old cement bags generally with the tops ripped off and often frayed and you tend to only get 66% of the volume of the cement in this way, one bag of cements fills a 4ltr Davies paint tin 9 times and a Pinoy bag of sand fills it 6 times, so there you will have a 2 to 1 mix, every site I have been on and this includes my own this has been the way they measure their sand, I now realise this is Stupid and they are using 33% less sand than they should and 33% more cement this may not be accurate but close I would think?
Anyway this tile admix gives you the eqivelent of 5.2 bags of tile adhesive and the cost is just under P500 which includes the cost of the sand and cement, 5.2 bags of standard ABC Tile Adhesive costs P1300, so using this method it is less than half price.

 

I looked at many diagrams in picture form from the internet all the information you need is there, likely you can build on it with blocks? but I would not. this is suited to a much lighter stud framed structure, and for here in the Philippines steel studs are likely to be there for a longer term than wood (also very likely to be there for a longer term than your CHB house if that is what it is?) You must look on the internet to fully understand the design it is very simple really but better to have a look anyway.

My slab is just under 150M2 and 6inch thick but it has a 14inch beam all around the perimeter and a beam down the centre, these beams have a 7 inch 12mm rebar cage within them and 10mm bar at 12inch centres both ways for the slab tied into the beams, the gravel was 5inch thick under the slab and just an inch or two below the beams. the beams and the slab are all poured at the same time, in fact the concrete for this 150mtr slab was down and flattened in 1.5hrs.
For a standard 20ft by 10 garage a 4inch slab without beams is adequate with a light framed structure on top, just to be sure you can have 4000psi concrete provided but 3000 is normally enough for a slab, threaded anchor bolts are readily available here, better to install these before the casting of the slab. Look at this link;
monolithic slab foundation - Bing images