I'm a software engineer with a background in science and engineering I can learn, I'm also nearly 64 years old so learning is not as easy as it was in the past and my main constraints are time, if I could find Ana or my daughter a nice small bit of land I would be happy to invest to buy the land, it's where do you go from there that gets complicated. I will check out your recommendations, I would like to be able to install UK level electrics, I'd like a decent sized small lot maybe 100 to 150 sqm in a place with some shade to avoid the worst of the sun, I'm not a fool with cash I only get one go at this, for me the question is when do I buy the land for my kids and when can I start construction. I absolutely want to be there when construction is going on, but right now I am probably going to have to keep working for another four years to age 68 which I really didn't want to have to do but various things happened and I've not got a lot of choice. I would ask the question, if you have the plans, design spec drawings etc what are the normal timescales for the build, at least for the construction of the shell before any interior finishing work is completed?
When to buy Land? easy answer, Now, depending on the area prices of land are escalating at quite a high rate, but only buy if you are there in PH at the time of Purchase to see exactly what you are getting. Where you buy this land should be the question you are asking before all others in my opinion, I'm saying this with a consideration to your young Daughter, we were living in Mactan/Cebu when our son was born, for as much as I enjoyed living there I knew I had to move, Traffic and the pollution was extreme there, poor drainage and the place being barely above sea level, left a lot of standing water all over the place and there was a high incidence of Dengue Fever there. So we needed to get away from there and and raise our son in an area where there was clean air, we are 600ft above sea level and there is little chance to get flooded out there, plus it is that little cooler, it is 15mins drive to the city from there, CHB houses still require AC at that level, at 1200ft there is a marked difference, at that elevation AC is less important, but any concrete derived house will heat up in the sun at any elevation. Another prime consideration of yours should be, will the house you build be affordable to keep on after you have gone? how will Ana and the Daughter survive after this? are they getting left a CHB sweathouse when they cannot afford to use AC? an insulated house should be of prime consideration to reduce the running costs. House specifications, of course they will exist but no Filipino Builder would ever consider or even know about them, yes there will be specs in the housing plan, but once the Plans are passed and there is a permit to build you just go ahead and do whatever you want as long as you keep to the original size. Timescale and cost, this is a bit like the length of a piece of string, although I have worked out the answer to that, it is twice the distance from the middle to the end and much the same goes for any estimation from your builder, likely it will be twice the time of the estimate and much the same will apply to his price. At a very rough guess getting to the stage of a rendered shell in CHB with the roof on will be more than 6 months perhaps closer to 9 and another 4/5 months for the fit and finish, building the house shell in Steel channel and Hardiflex can be done in a couple to three months using less than half the men required by the CHB method. For the most part house design there in PH follows the designs of the US, the Big Texan Style, Kitchen, Dining and Living Room all in one, all the doors to other parts like beds and baths, are accessed through this, for my own house I used a UK design much like the house I have there, this has a Hall, separate Kitchen and separate Living room. the two extra internal walls add so much structural integrity to the build, added to that when anyone drops a real stinker in the bathroom at least their exit is into the Hall and not a main living area, cooking smells are also confined to the closed in Kitchen. Like you I used to think that shading to a house may help, now I know this is not all that effective, at the hottest part of the day the sun there is almost directly overhead beating on the hot tin roofs often these are in dark colours which enhances this solar heating system, to solve this problem my roof sheets are uPVC of a high grade, trade name; Imac roofing, this requires little if any insulation, later on in the day after 3pm the sun is much lower in the sky and it may help to have trees on the western side of the house, however this can be dangerous, December of 2021, we had a Typhoon and in the days previous to this storm we had heavy rain and the ground was saturated, when the storm did come it was ripping out many well established trees some of which had been there for 30 plus years, even Coconut trees and many houses were damaged at this time. Learning how to build a sound structure in PH it not as difficult as it may appear to you at this time? however to not use the standard CHB method will be a major headache, the arrested developed Pinoy construction workers know so little and are not adaptable to change. Here is a simple to remedy problem that most of us here will have come across in PH and that is; smelly sink drains, mostly this is caused by improper venting of the system, they have a tendency to fit a 1inch vent pipe (that can be buried in the wall) to a 4inch drain system, when the toilet is flushed there is not enough replacement air provided with the small pipe, so it will suck out the water from the sink trap and you are now exposed to the sewage contained in the septic, unfortunately most Pinoy builders do not understand this. For the most part your average Pinoy construction workers have so little knowledge of their trade, all they are capable of is stacking Lego Blocks (CHB) in the rough form of a wall, for it then to be iced over with render and this covers the 1inch vent pipe and a multitude of other sins.
This is probably one of the most entertaining message forums on the internet. Has me in stitches. Might have to have a break before it gives me a hernia.
IMHO some good advice from HD - Definitely knows a lot more about Building than Mating... Residential Design and Construction Guidelines - Philippines - Will give you enough knowledge to know why they do it the way they do here and whether they are doing it the "proper-pinoy-way" or cutting corners etc. As HD says most pinoys know nothing about how to use a p-trap or vent the waste pipes adequately - I now do our plumbing here - not hard to look on YouTube for guidance and advice nowadays. Like this woman here : I added foam insulation (sort of radiant barrier) to our GI Roof to take away the oven effect... I just laid mine over the ceiling joists - works great.
Well this thread has took a big turn from giving advise to Alan, then on to building houses, then onto taking the piss about an expat loosing his life. Sick.
Regards the house building conversation, I kept that one going it still has some relevance to Alan in that it shows some of the scope of things you need to consider when you get involved with a lassie in the Philippines. Regards the speculation I agree with you.
Whos taking the piss? Who says this Larry Elterman is dead? Hopefully Honest Dave is mistaken..and you seem to be confusing him with this chap Henderson. Did you know him personally ?
He (HD)should say what he means I guess to avoid confusion. He did state that Elterman author of the book he quotes had passed away not the Henderson guy.
