Building a house in the province

As most will know we have just started to build a house in the province and I promised to post some stuff as we went along. The wifes barrio is pretty cut off so there is no road in and things are transported by banka boat to the village and then sack by sack to our property. This has increased cost considerably, a lot more than I thought to be honest but its a learning curve (an expensive one!!). I've attached a pdf of the spread sheet so far, its nothing fancy but hopefully its fairly straight forward. The first section can probably be ignored by most as its us buying boats, caribou etc to help in moving the materials.

This is is going to be the view from the terrace. The green wooden house in the bottom of the picture is our present house. this will get broken up and what can be reused will be done so by the wife's brother (house bottom left) and her sister, who's house is out of shot in the trees bottom right
This taken from what will be the front left of the house, some hollow blocks have already been laid by me in rough position making out rooms. This means the back of the house will be looking inland

This is from the front left and will be the main entrance to the house. The ground falls away from front to back by about 1.5m, this will be made up by earth dug for the foundations etc

1886 hollow blocks costing 3php / each to make not counting the sand & cement obviously!! standing in the main entrance in what will be a patio type area and enclosed terrace. Sea view to my right

The day we left (Friday). Ground has been marked and measured out, holes and some footing dug. Re-bars made up for the main support columns. Everything is getting made on site so far

Hole dug about 1.5m deep and re-bar grid laid in the bottom. towers then fitted to the grid and cemented in place.

This is standing at the corner of the rice farm looking at the hill we're building on. The coast and village is at my back. From left to right, the sisters house, ours, brothers. Our new house goes directly above our present one on top of the hill in the gap in the trees. Once completed our house will be broken up and they will use what they can while we get extra hollow block made for them.

And because I like it a nice sunset from the front of our current wood house

The terrace area will be totally covered by moz netting so we can sit out. The windows (thin line boxes) will hopefully be brown glass sliding type. There will be a concrete patio area in front of the terrace area. Brown areas are counters. The drity kitchen will be the same as the terrace with no windows but a wall to waist height and covered by moz netting.

Great venture, Stu.

Interesting Stu, it will be interesting to see how you progress as the house takes shape, will be a good forerunner for anyone else planning to do the same thing.

Didn't see an SM supermarket in the background or anything

Good luck with the venture, I'm 100% certain you will have very interesting builder stories to tell us here in the near future.

Interesting. Would be good if you could keep us posted on the highs and lows of the project and plent of pictures too

Thanks folks. Nothing above 2 storeys for as far as the eye can see Timmers!!

I went for a bungalow type house because I simply don't trust them to make a strong enough 2nd floor. Have to bear in mind its on top of a (not very) tall hill but only about 40 miles north of where Yolonda went through.

The interesting bits are going to be the plumbing and electrics, electrics especially!! I originally wanted metal for the trusses for the roof but after seeing the roofs in Tacloban I've been persuaded to go with Yara (not sure of the spelling) wood. Apparently its very hard and lasts years and is stronerg than the angle iron they use. Needless to say it ain't cheap and I'm looking at 60000php for my roof plus what the actual roofing will cost.

The plan is to get it atleast weathertight before we leave in march next year. It all depends on costs of course but I think we maybe close to actual completion by then.

We'll be going back again next leave so I'll be able to update further.

I forgot to say. I designed the house to keep it as simple as possible with best use of space but also to try to maximise airflow through it as well. The roof space will be vented and I'll get silver backed insulation fitted to the under side of the roof trusses. I was thinking about getting sacks of coconut shells (copra) laid in the roof as well because they apparently aid insulation but I'm not sure about this yet as it may invite too many beasties to make home!!

Fantastic view, You have done the correct thing building a single story house. I was very naive when I started building mine. Wife planned it, I just went along with the plan. Now, after ten years we are nearing completion. Because of cost and built the house too big.

Good luck with the house build.

Watched this on YT



I'm guessing because he's a yank that he's familiar with a wooden structure. Are there any advantages to building with wood/bamboo over brick? Is wood more resilient to a quake given that it can "flex"?

That's one huge Firetrap.

Yep candles and wooden houses don't mix

Well we originally had a full bamboo house made in the province about 10yrs ago and that rotted pretty quickly. The one we're in at present is essentially in its third version. Starting off with bamboo flooring. The big problem with any wood structure out here apart from the obvious fire hazard is due to the insects and humidity the wood gets eaten or just starts to rot. Unless you use a hard wood or expensive treated wood which will eventually start to rot anyway. Our house bounces when I walk through it.

After the typhoon went through the only damage to our present house was to a screen door. I think that because of all the gaps in the house its basically a sieve so the wind just blows through and there is no pressure differential between inside and outside which I think weakens a structure and is a bit of concern with a concrete built one that will have proper windows etc. Basically very little in the way of letting wind through it when its closed up, creates a larger windage / sail area. I'm hoping the orientation of the house will help minimise this and the roof space will be vented at each end to allow air flow so hopefully it'll reduce the risk of the roof peeling off.

Looking at the video it looks to me that he's used coco lumber for roof support. We have that also and for the floor support, if young wood is used its more likely to be eaten by termites which is what happened to us and then you need to replace the trusses. I not overly concerned about an earthquake where we are its typhoons that top my list, hence building only 1 storey and getting the blocks made on site rather than spend 15-20php each for something that crumbles when you look at it. Also getting reinforced column's put in every 2.5m or so, this should help with overall strength.

In all of the wood houses we've had out here so far I always got nervous during the (frequent) brownouts. Out would come the glass bottles filled with liquid paraffin and the wick in the top. Basically a petrol bomb in a wobbly , highly flammable wood house!!

Jesus that's a long time Jim. I was fairly conscious of this and have to keep reminding the wife about it. This is ONLY GOING TO BE A HOLIDAY HOME and doesn't need to be fancy. Basic and functionally because at the moment we'll only spend 3 weeks or so a year in it. But it is amazing how cost spiral ever upwards, especially with the exchange rate fluctuations.

Copra is a reasonable insulant but can be costly. An even better insulant -- dried rice hulls which you can get from your nearest rice miller. Have him fill and stitch sacks, you want each sack to be roughly four inches thick - you'll pay for the sacks but the hulls should be free, or almost so. Place 2 layers of the sacks in your attic space above your ceiling - there's very little weight.

Great advice Mark I'll look into that. Question for you, what have you used for your ceilings?

Our build is on hold but the ceilings would be plasterboard ("drywall") with a skim of plaster ("drywall mud"), same as UK.