Building a Home in Davao

[hk blues]

20 hours ago, Viking said:

 

What kind of store is this? I never heared of it before. Do they have stores all over Philippines? Sounds like a good thing to buy from someone who also takes care of installation and maintenance.

From what I can see, they look like an old-style company here - they sell a kinda random selection of items, and not a huge range of each product type but this is probably how they can keep prices competitive.  The products are genuine and brand new and their after-sales is good.  The stores don't have bells and whistles (at least the 2 in Iloilo don't) but if you look beyond that it's worth taking a look. 

[Tommy T.]

On 2/5/2020 at 1:28 PM, hk blues said:

I used EMCOR pretty much for the reasons you stated,Tom.  All in price (none of this cheap unit price and high installation fee and by the way you must use our installers or warranty is void) and the fact they themselves do the servicing and maintenance, no sub-contracting out.  We've had ours cleaned/serviced for a few cycles now and all is well. 

I took your recommendation about EMCOR to heart when shopping. I am very pleased to hear that you are happy with their service there. I will let you know in the future if they are as good here, but I have a gut feeling that they will live up to expectations.

Fortunately, their prices were the best for what we were seeking. The installers, when checking the locations and connections, were very professional - unlike what I usually see here.

The only thing they lack is communications skills... L writes that off to the fact that they are not accustomed to dealing with picky foreigners - like me. The sales area and service area are completely separate serfdoms, but they do talk to each other somewhat. I had a call yesterday from a sales guy telling me that they would soon arrange someone to visit the site to "survey." I informed him that it actually happened last Saturday... He sounded a bit embarrassed, thanked me and apologized for any bother (to which I replied - no problem, thank you for following up) and was gone.

Having said all that, I am convinced they are the best way to go. Tomorrow I will visit the store and pay the balance due for the units and then we will see how it goes.

[hk blues]

36 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

I took your recommendation about EMCOR to heart when shopping. I am very pleased to hear that you are happy with their service there. I will let you know in the future if they are as good here, but I have a gut feeling that they will live up to expectations.

Fortunately, their prices were the best for what we were seeking. The installers, when checking the locations and connections, were very professional - unlike what I usually see here.

The only thing they lack is communications skills... L writes that off to the fact that they are not accustomed to dealing with picky foreigners - like me. The sales area and service area are completely separate serfdoms, but they do talk to each other somewhat. I had a call yesterday from a sales guy telling me that they would soon arrange someone to visit the site to "survey." I informed him that it actually happened last Saturday... He sounded a bit embarrassed, thanked me and apologized for any bother (to which I replied - no problem, thank you for following up) and was gone.

Having said all that, I am convinced they are the best way to go. Tomorrow I will visit the store and pay the balance due for the units and then we will see how it goes.

I'm sure they won't disappoint Tom.  I would agree that perhaps the internal communication could be better - we popped in a couple of days ago to organise our annual clean and the sales staff gave us the number of the service centre rather than arrange it themselves.  Not a big deal but...

[gerrysanders]

On 9/27/2019 at 12:23 PM, RBM said:

Absolutely best advice so far. Currently experiencing serious leakage which so far they are unable to locate and appears we must re do whole house. This was done with the blue pvc and glue.

Recently our water pressure increased due to a new well complementing the original one. This is now a problem for many of us, the house was a quality build with crappy pipes so consider Tom the latters advice.

The Blue PVC can handle the pressure. The problem is the joints are not glued properly. Like anything else, there is the right way to glue the joints and then there is "their" way. They always do it "their" way.

[Gary D]

9 hours ago, gerrysanders said:

The Blue PVC can handle the pressure. The problem is the joints are not glued properly. Like anything else, there is the right way to glue the joints and then there is "their" way. They always do it "their" way.

I bought a fusion tool and have done the whole place in tbe white ppr pipe and fittings. No leaks so far, I'll report back when we turn the water on. 

[Mike J]

9 hours ago, gerrysanders said:

The Blue PVC can handle the pressure. The problem is the joints are not glued properly. Like anything else, there is the right way to glue the joints and then there is "their" way. They always do it "their" way.

Agree.  I follow the directions and have never had a problem.  Apply cement, insert, twist fitting or pipe 90 degrees, hold for 30 seconds for cement to set, wait minimum of 30 minutes to apply water pressure.  When I did irrigation lines using schedule 80 white pipe I used the purple primer prior to the cement.  Again never any issues.

[Gary D]

Here you seem to get a free leak with every fitting. They just put some glue on push it together and turn the water on, then out comes the epoxy to try and stop the leak. And if that doesn't work well just let it leak. It's the same with all this teflon (PTFE tape), just rap on layers and layers and hope it doesn't leak. In the UK I used a paste, can't think of it's name with a couple of turn of tape then leave it a bit before turning the water on. Here I use a smear of silicon sealant with the tape. A smear around the thread, a few turns of tape and another smear of sealant.

[Tommy T.]

Yesterday we paid another visit to the home site.

There are a number of small glitches that crop up from time to time that we address with the foreman with every visit. This time we were concerned about several and solved them all after lengthy discussions (you all know how that goes here!)...

The first was the downstairs CR. The toilet must be located fairly close to the shower due to limited space. I did not like the idea of a shower glass barrier located right next to the toilet - I mean right next - only a couple of inches away. So we batted around a few ideas and finally my brilliant partner, L, said, "Why have a barrier at all? Leave it open at first and we can always add a shower curtain in the future." I love this girl. It is essentially a guest CR but convenient for us to use as needed, but not for showering. Our master bedroom CR is quite large and that's where we will shower.

Then we argued about (note here...not quarreled, argued - bit of difference) the stair riser height. A few days ago I measured the risers in this apartment building - four measurements, four different heights...wtf? The lowest was 6 inches, the highest was 9 1/4" with the others somewhere between. I asked the foreman what was "standard" here and he stated 22 cm which is just shy of 9 inches. I told him two things: one, that I would prefer a bit lower than that - maybe 20 cm - close to 8 inches? Secondly, I said that, whatever they will be, they must be all the same throughout the home, inside and outside. I want uniformity for steps. He agreed that was not an issue.

In order to keep the step risers lower, however, he would need to shorten the length of the stair treads slightly or else the stairs would intrude too much into the living spaces. We agreed that was a good solution and one cm or so per step reduction in length would not be a problem. This guy is smart and helpful.

The shower mixers are a bit of an issue, which we resolved. We want embedded plumbing for showers that will supply hot and cold water for rain shower, hand shower and faucet. There was only one that we could find after searching several suppliers. It involves a valve set and several inlets and outlets into a box. The foreman wanted us to buy that box so he could plumb then tile it all in place soon. Well, the box is only sold as part of a complete set that includes all the parts - not as a stand alone unit. He had trouble understanding my explanation, so my dear L educated him (she's a teacher, remember?). Then he was saying, okay, buy the package so we can install... Not so fast... It turns out that this system carries only a 30 day warranty.... Another wtf moment... If we buy this today and it is only warranteed for 30 days, the warranty will run out before we even use it once? So we all agreed to another solution - we put off the installation and tiling of the shower until the last possible moment before home construction is completed. Simple!

We talked about the aircon. I went to EMCOR on Friday to pay up the balance on the units and, all of a sudden, installation fees???...Another wtf moment. The service desk woman presented me with two quotes for installation - two options. I did not recall any options being offered before and she could not describe to me what these were about. I told her that she should talk to my partner, L, in their language to figure it out, but she was busy in meetings all day. But, before that, she had left me cooling my heels sitting at her desk while she went on and on for about 30 minutes talking to another woman - presumably about some product - without even acknowledging my presence. I sat there doing a slow burn... When she finally deigned to recognize me to discuss our installation, I was already irritated... I decided to just pay the higher amount on the spot to finish the talk talk talk and escape. I asked L to call her after she was done with her all-day meetings... She did that and essentially yelled at the service woman for disrespecting me - not as a foreigner, but as a customer paying a lot of money for products. According to L, the woman was very quiet during all of that. The woman did tell me that, if we choose the cheaper option (which was the only one we both had in mind) I could just present my receipt and get a refund... we'll see, but I think she is honest.

So EMCOR was saying that there would be installation fees in order to chip out the hollow block and cement in order to install the tubing... There was no mention of this in the original price quotation. There were also some additional fees for tubing longer than 10 feet - which I understood and agreed with since that was part of the quotation. Lastly, the service woman said, okay, we will go out there on Wednesday for the installation. I told her, wait, you need to contact the foreman to arrange a time and not just tell me when you will go there... According to L, they had exactly the same conversation - it's as if this service woman was programmed and could not listen or understand - they would come to install when we were ready, not when EMCOR was ready... And all we need right now is for the tubing to be placed so the plastering can be completed. We don't want air/con units installed now with no windows or doors in the house.

Then... when paying the balance for the units, I was sitting at a desk with the sales lady. I gave her the cash - over P100,000. A guy came from the back area and proceeded to count it all out - so very slowly - twice. And he came up 10,000 short both times. Then the woman counted it all out - also so very slowly - but came up with the right amount both times. The guy just smiled and shrugged. So it was accepted and, "for awhile." It took another 10 minutes just to get my receipt. The woman took the money out back and I wager that maybe two more people counted it out twice each again...ugh....

Meanwhile, we are still pleased with the quality of the construction and the progress!

Looking through the doorway to the ground floor CR where the lavatory will be installed.

They are finally laying on the top row of hollow blocks on the front part of the fence.

The master bedroom doorway cemented in place.

Looking out the living room window area toward the small house and the back fence. Maybe you can see the roosters in a cage that the builders brought out with them (they also brought their dogs).

It's starting to look sort of like a house!

The problematic shower mixer.

The shower mixer and parts - L prefers the square version, I prefer the round. This time I got my way!

[jimeve]

31 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

So EMCOR was saying that there would be installation fees in order to chip out the hollow block and cement in order to install the tubing... There was no mention of this in the original price quotation. There were also some additional fees for tubing longer than 10 feet - which I understood and agreed with since that was part of the quotation. Lastly, the service woman said, okay, we will go out there on Wednesday for the installation. I told her, wait, you need to contact the foreman to arrange a time and not just tell me when you will go there... According to L, they had exactly the same conversation - it's as if this service woman was programmed and could not listen or understand - they would come to install when we were ready, not when EMCOR was ready... And all we need right now is for the tubing to be placed so the plastering can be completed. We don't want air/con units installed now with no windows or doors in the house.

Did they not come out and have an Inspection on site? Before they gave you a price. I'm not surprised you were angry.

When my guest house was built we had aircon installed and had a site inspection first, by the aircon installers. We got the price of installation and was happy with the service. 

[Tommy T.]

Just now, jimeve said:

Did they not come out and have an Inspection on site? Before they gave you a price. I'm not surprised you were angry.

When my guest house was built we had aircon installed and had a site inspection first, by the aircon installers. We got the price of installation and was happy with the service. 

Yeah, Jim... That's the issue... They came out a week ago Saturday to "survey" and then quote installation - which I thought at the time would just be regarding extra tubing beyond the 10 foot minimum. So both L and I are a bit upset that now they say there are additional fees for the hollow block chipping? We also understand that there will be extra fees for constructing and installing the steel support racks for the compressors - that is a given...

When the installers were surveying, there was no mention of "options". We looked at how to do things when they were there and made firm decisions at that time and told them so...

I am sure they will do a good job in the end, but am a bit frustrated - as is L - that they seem to be a bit confused sometimes...