Trades & Labor Update on building costs

A frequent theme here, but:

Anyone had quotes for any type of house building work recently?

I am looking for 4 to 5 competent (the word that unfortunately often makes people fall over with laughter) builders - I have two in mind so far.

Does anyone have any concrete (unintended pun!) evidence of the effect of the pandemic on house building costs in the Philippines (I read that worldwide material prices are in short supply and prices are escalating)? If people are not instigating new build then supply/demand should mean builders are willing to cut their margins - but if material prices are escalating then they may have no scope to do so.

So, is this a good time to build or a better time to buy used?

Anyone who has opinions but prefer to be discreet then I am happy to correspond by PM.

 

In my opinion there is Never a good time to buy a used house, underneath the render may be the shittiest build ever, this you can almost never tell when looked at unless there is obvious cracks appearing, one of the common faults I have seen here is; Lintels over doors, what is often done there is; they jam a bit Coconut wood up between the gap in the block work intended for the Door or Window, place one or two bits of rebar above the wood some Mortar and then build more blocks on top of that, this should either be a reinforced concrete precast beam or cast in place beam.

When you buy a finished house you will never know how the Lintels have been constructed, how deep the foundation is, the gauge of reinforcing steel when/if used. Just yesterday I heard about an unusual problem a Foreigner had in his not so old apartments, the Plumber he used does not trust the glued fitting on Plastic pipes so he decided in his wisdom to drill holes in the fitting and Pop Rivet these fittings as well as glue them, 2/3yrs on and these Rivets corroded out, now he has had to replace all these pipes attaching them to the outside walls, I have no sympathy for this man as he claimed he was a Plumber himself back in his home country of England, from your area Mr S, Haha.

These are just some of the problems with buying used, I have heard of more and some of these take years to show up?

 

I sent you a pm

 

I wouldn't disagree but it's just as they would in Scotland, England, USA or anywhere else you care to mention. IMO anyone would be foolish not to use a property surveyor before parting with their money.....you wouldn't do it in Scotland, England or anywhere and you wouldn't buy land without using a surveyor to check the boundaries etc. So why would you even contemplate buying a house "blind" just because you're here in the Philippines?

 

Well I have a problem with that? How can or is it even possible to survey a house here and tell if it has proper Lintels, how will the surveyor know if there is enough steel in the pillars and beams, how can he tell if the cement had just the right amount of water added during the construction process or that it was not like runny soup as they often tend to do here, what about the venting system for the Plumbing system will he be able to locate that, there is a tendency to hide all of that now. In my very humble opinion it will be very difficult to tell in most cases if it is a sh*t build or not everything is hidden/buried under the render, I don't pretend to be a builder and I know that you are, tell me if I am all wrong about this? maybe this can help me in the future, I am very suspicious of Architects, building Engineers and suchlike, I very much doubt if they will meet the standard required in my own country of Scotland.

 

Getting a recommended Builder may be the way to go But! what about the person the recommendation will come from does he really know what he is talking about?

I could not recommend any Builders here as I know very few, but the few I have met I would not let them build a Septic tank for me. I've done much research here on Building houses, most of which involved the standard CHB type. If you are really serious about going ahead with a New Build, PM me and I will create a list of SIMPLE questions that are quite relevant to Building Homes here in the Philippines, but I very much doubt if any would even come close to passing the test and that includes the Foreigner Builder.

 

I agree - anything used is an unknown underneath. That includes partners.

 

Unfortunately that is the case for everything: Can we trust a recommendation for a doctor or car mechanic? In the lack of anything you often have to have something, otherwise you have nothing (I think Confucius said that - or perhaps not).

I interrogated a builder here already and got many very good answers - but he lied.

 

There are cowboy builders everywhere, including Scotland, and there are surveyors here in the Philippines that are members of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) which, even though it's a ROYAL Institute, is recognised in your beloved Scotland. They have the equipment with which to conduct thorough structural surveys and you would trust them in Scotland so why not here?

https://www.ricsfirms.com/office/020137/Davis-Langdon-and-Seah-Philippines-Inc

"Firms that are Regulated by RICS commit to the highest professional and ethical standards. In the rare cases where disciplinary action has been taken against a firm, records are published online."

 

Maybe you should meet a few more builders here before you continue to crap all over people you don't know.

In the 12 years I've been here I didn't notice collapsed building all over the place. There were some pretty severely damaged buildings from a 6.9 earthquake which is understandable.
People here listen to you and come to believe a carpenter here can't even install a door lock set. When my carpenter was making some mortice and tenon joints for a door he fit the pieces together then took them apart and started to shave away bits of wood. I asked him why he was doing that, they fit perfect. His answer; "I need room for the glue". People here have skills. He cut the cornice molding over my cupboards with a handsaw. I couldn't make that cut with a $1500 compound angle miter saw.
If there are failures due to the crappy materials available here it not right to blame the failures on the builder.

Your Sir Dave need to get out and meet more people before you crap on everyone.