Building a Home in Davao

[Gary D]

Re cement mixers, I was going to purchase one but the builder said that if he had a cement mixer he would have a worker standing idol most of the time. He obviously isn't aware of how hard work it is constanly loading a cement mixer.

[Tommy T.]

2 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Can you describe in more detail how your "external" pipes will be?  Not embedded in the walls at all?

The plan is to have the ground floor water lines set in the ground surrounding that floor rather than being embedded in the slab. they will then feed in from outside. Of course, there will be lines in the walls for the various sinks, CRs and showers - especially upstairs. But the idea is to keep all these to a minimum. Also, the ones that will go upstairs or in any floors will be marked and possibly encased in cement in ways that can be accessed easier than just having to pound through solid cement. Actually, L is the one who knows more about this as she has had this done before in a home she had built...

[JDDavao II]

2 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I love these new PEX systems they are installing in the U.S.

The contractors used a little bit of that in our condo refurb before we sold it. Cool stuff!

[hk blues]

54 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

The plan is to have the ground floor water lines set in the ground surrounding that floor rather than being embedded in the slab. they will then feed in from outside. Of course, there will be lines in the walls for the various sinks, CRs and showers - especially upstairs. But the idea is to keep all these to a minimum. Also, the ones that will go upstairs or in any floors will be marked and possibly encased in cement in ways that can be accessed easier than just having to pound through solid cement. Actually, L is the one who knows more about this as she has had this done before in a home she had built...

Yep, that's the way our downstairs plumbing is managed - all the way around the house and then through the walls as required - only waste plumbing is under the slab in our case.  For upstairs, we only have 1 CR there and the plumbing is in the cavity between the ceiling and upstairs slab and just pops through the slab to feed the 3 things there - quite efficient.  

[OnMyWay]

3 hours ago, hk blues said:

the plumbing is in the cavity between the ceiling and upstairs slab

What kind of ceiling do you have that has a cavity above it?

[intrepid]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

What kind of ceiling do you have that has a cavity above it?

After the second floor slab is poured the first floor ceiling is quite rough.  So most builders use what we would call a suspended ceiling of about 10"-14".  A similar grid work of light duty GI that would resemble those drop ceilings with replaceable tiles.  But in the case here the ceiling boards which may be fiber cement, plywood, or drywall is screwed or riveted to the suspended grid.  That grid is tied to the pieces of rebar that was left exposed when the slab was poured or concrete nails using wire.

[hk blues]

On 10/6/2019 at 5:26 PM, OnMyWay said:

What kind of ceiling do you have that has a cavity above it?

Intrepid has pretty much nailed it - pun intended.  Our ceiling is Hardiflex fixed to the light metal frame and we have several hatches to allow for inspection/repair of the cabling and plumbing in the cavity.

I'd recommend it even thought we lose 12-16" of height in the rooms - reduces a little the need to run cabling  and plumbing through walls.   

 

[stevewool]

I hope you don’t mind me adding a few pictures of the house build in Marikina , the first  picture is down stairs which is completed and painted now the last two pictures are upstairs that is the next project to try to finish , the wall upstairs has been plastered and painted now.

 

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, hk blues said:

I'd recommend it even thought we lose 12-16" of height in the rooms - reduces a little the need to run cabling  and plumbing through walls.   

Is it not common to adjust the ceiling / wall height so that you still have the desired final ceiling height?

The guy across the street built full on drop ceiling like you would have in an office building.  2-3 feet of cavity, and the ceiling is the aluminum frames with acoustical tiles.  I know another guy who did the same but I think his cavity is only about 18 inches but the house is 4 stories including the roof deck.

[hk blues]

23 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

Is it not common to adjust the ceiling / wall height so that you still have the desired final ceiling height?

The guy across the street built full on drop ceiling like you would have in an office building.  2-3 feet of cavity, and the ceiling is the aluminum frames with acoustical tiles.  I know another guy who did the same but I think his cavity is only about 18 inches but the house is 4 stories including the roof deck.

Yes, it would be normal to adjust to give you the required height and the builder did this but the open plan living/dining/kitchen area has a metal ceiling flush to the slab above - this results in 2 different ceiling heights obviously and the higher ceiling is better.  Our cavity is about 12-16" i'd say - not really enough to call a crawl space but enough to run pipes etc