Building A House... First Estimate Missing Plumbing And Electrical?

[Tukaram (Tim)]

Ok.  I have decided to put a small house on my wife's uncles land. I will not own anything but she will have a place to live when I die.  And since it is small it is supposed to be pretty cheap.

 

The house is going to small (and I mean small!) 30 sqm.   For us Yanks that would be 15 feet x 21 feet.  One room, like a studio apartment.  One corner will have the kitchen cabinets, another corner will be walled off for a cr.  The kitchen area and cr each are 7x6, leaving the main room of 15x15 feet.

 

It started off being just a room added on to uncle's house but he said it would be best if free standing - so we added the kitchen & cr.

 

Anyway... I just got the estimate for materials.  Not only was it more than I expected, it was quite incomplete.  No floor tile. No electrical wiring, breaker box, light fixtures etc.  No windows or doors.  No toilet, sinks, or piping.   You know... just a few thing missing.  All of these things have been discussed as part of the house.

 

I have never built a house out of hollow block, so I have no idea how many it will take.  The estimate has 1,000 blocks.  Using marine plywood just for the ceiling - he has 25 sheets listed?  I think we are building 2 houses?  The total for what is listed is p127,242.  Seems high to me for basically one room.  Not listed is also the delivery fee - estimated to be at 40% of the material cost.  Delivery will suck as we are 200 meters across the rice field from the road.  So I am afraid that might be right ha ha

 

So, here is the estimate... I realize different prices for different regions... but does anyone know if these numbers are close to right?   (I am in Iloilo, Western Visayas)This is "supposed" to be actual cost, not markup.  I think I will go around tomorrow and ask some prices...  

 

But I do appreciate he put "good lumber" as opposed to cheap ass lumber  :tiphat:

 

[expatuk2014]

Best thing to do friend is ALWAYS buy the materials yourself!!

we currently pay 210 for a bag of cement but if you are buying  100 bags you should be able to negogiate !!

otherwise the prices given are about right ! 

we had our home rebuilt ( wifes idea ) and so far we have spent 1.2 million pesos ! :1 (103):

plus we have also built a large bayo Kubo half traditional half concrete ( again wifes idea )

lessons learned always buy the tools if your builder says he needs this and that !! espec power tools make sure you account for them every day!

one thing I learned was if the builder buys the materials they always buy more than is needed !

and they never clean paint brushes or rollers ! they just buy new ones !!

we were told that one of our builders was selling some of our electrical cable and nails !! 

so be careful !! hollow blocks are ok if they are used with rebars and built to standard.

[SubicSteve]

"Ok.  I have decided to put a small house on my wife's uncles land. I will not own anything but she will have a place to live when I die."

 

 

STOP RIGHT THERE.

 

REPEAT...STOP RIGHT THERE

 

Wifes uncles land

 

Wifes uncles land

 

Wifes uncles land

 

I would almost bet that after you are gone (RIP by the way, sorry to hear of your passing) there will be fighting amongst the family over that house and your wife will end up out on the street.  NEVER build on land you don't own in this country.  For sure there will be aunts uncles sisters brothers nieces and nephews coming out of the jungle to claim what is "theirs"

[Dave Hounddriver]

I will not own anything but she will have a place to live when I die.

 

As soon as it is built, 'uncle' will come to your wife and tell her how much she has to give him for the price of the land.  That is because once you have built it he will have her over the barrel as the house is already built.  As to the cost of materials.  Its a good start.  The rest of the material will cost that much again and they will 'figure out' what they need as they go along and as your money holds out.  Labor will be about 40% of the cost of that material.

 

Best of luck.  Hope it doesn't break the bank.  Of course you could do it cheaper if you let them build a plywood and bamboo shanty, with no plumbing or electric, on a small concrete block foundation, but they know you are not going to be happy with that and that's why you will pay more.

[Gratefuled]

You are getting some good advice and I agree with them. For all good intent and purposes, it would be better if your wife had the title to the land. 

You may be able to negotiate with him for a price. 

Good Luck and MABUHAY

[Thomas]

The material to the new house of my perhaps future parents in law did cost close to 100 000p for a bit biger house than yours,

BUT they are builders, so I suppouse they know where they get best deals.  (At Cebu island.)

 

(It's as a 2 rooms common Filipino house for the rather poor.  =Not issolated metal roof. Not plastered or painted OUTSIDE. No cealings.

But they have rather nice tiled floors and nice plastered and painted walls INSIDE.)

Edited May 18, 2015 by Thomas

[intrepid]

Your house is going to be 15 x 21 and if you have a 1' overhang around then the roof would be 17 x 23 = 391 sq ft.

Plywood is 4 x 8 =32 sq ft.  So, 391 / 32 = 12.22 sheets plywood needed for the roof.  Where else will the plywood be used?

[expatuk2014]

aah yes land ownership! I totally agree with the above comments, land ownership is a big thing here and often splits familys !!

luckily my wife already owned her home, before we demolished it and rebuilt it ! ( with building permit which cost us a few thousand !! )

we were told by a civic centre rep that as we were rebuilding on the same land we would not need a building permit ! )

But then we had a visit from the building inspector !!  :th_unfair: who told us that we did need a building permit !!

my wife told him we were informed we did not need a building permit but as is the norm here it would cost so and so !

it turned out that he wanted 20.000 pesos so of the wife goes to the civic centre ( she knows the Mayor and a few others there )  and we paid only 11.200 peos !!

on his departure we noted he went to the neighbour ( a cousin who we dont talk to ) and then he drove off on his motorcycle !!

funny I thought !! :angry:  we were told by a friend that they got some pesos from somewhere soon after !!

so beware check things even before you buy materials !!

[Ynot]

I hate to say this because I am usually a positive person looking at glass which is half full, but in your case I would suggest its unwise to build on your wifes uncle's land. If it was her dad's land or mum's land or even her own land, I would not have an issue with it, after all you are building something for your wife for when you are gone and you can rest easy that she has somewhere to live. But Uncle's land is a bit far removed, Mum or Dad or her no problem provided the mum and dad are her biological parents.  No brothers or sisters incase of infighting, mum, dad or wife not a problem.  And yes you will not be the owner of the land but its not a large sum of money and the intention is right.  Also note intrepid's calculation, you need to confirm the size of your marine ply and maybe run past the other dimensions past Intrepid too, you can work out how many hollow blocks you need if you give hime the dimensions of the house including to plate height.   Maybe you should get more quotes too after you have sorted out whose land you will be building on.

[Tukaram (Tim)]

The uncle is the good side of the family (so far ha ha).  Dad left years ago, mom is dead.  The other kids built on moms land (still in dead grandads name of course) and dad has been trying to take it from them...  nice dad, huh?   That mess I want nothing to do with.  I don't even go to the province to visit that mess of a family.

 

I know the risks since we do not own the land... but it is all I can do for now since I am not even retired.   I expect to have about $5,000 USD tied up in it, so if we have to walk away from it there is no real loss. 

 

After I retire (in 4 years) I want to move closer to a nice beach, buy land in her name and build something bigger... but that is years away... 

 

Intrepid - It is going to have a tin roof. So the plywood is for the ceiling only, I think.    So 25 sheets is way too freaking much.  I am certainly going to talk to him to see what he has in mind for all of that....