Building a Home in Davao

[jimeve]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

But all doors and windows should have some sort of awning, according to what my supervisor tells me...

I have a balcony on the second floor that gives my downstairs windows some shade from the sun. 2.5 meters span.

The windows on the side of the house have a canopy 1 meter span. same as the rear door 1 meter span.

The reason I was asking about your canopy's they look good, mine are made of concrete and not so good looking. when I meant wide, I was meaning the span! and might have a large awning or canopy extended on the front balcony. It's East facing and in the morning it is a sun trap. 

[Jollygoodfellow]

On 6/4/2020 at 4:29 PM, Tommy T. said:

Outlets and switches in the kitchen... I am curious - does anyone on the forum suggest whether the grounded outlet should have the third (round, ground pin) to the right or to the left in an outlet? The electrician, so far, has installed them both ways, and I want to have them all installed with the same configuration... So when I am drunk on Tanduay I can plug something in easily???

Personally i would have then vertical like the on/off switches. In Aus our 3 pin outlets are ground pin to the bottom so I guess thats what I am used to.

[Mike J]

5 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Personally i would have then vertical like the on/off switches. In Aus our 3 pin outlets are ground pin to the bottom so I guess thats what I am used to.

Same in the USA, the outlets and switches here still have an odd look to me. 

[Tommy T.]

10 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Personally i would have then vertical like the on/off switches. In Aus our 3 pin outlets are ground pin to the bottom so I guess thats what I am used to.

 

5 hours ago, Mike J said:

Same in the USA, the outlets and switches here still have an odd look to me. 

Yeah... I agree with both of you. I am accustomed to the vertical configuration for the outlets. The ground was always facing down with the two flat pins up. However, all I have seen since being here for over four years now are horizontal. When I last met the electrician, I explained to him that I wanted them to all face the same way. Last time I told him, he did not understand - I guess I was not making myself clear. This time, somehow, he understood. I would hate to have outlets facing both directions.

Well, I can live with that. Same thing with the light switches - I grew up with the old vertical toggle switches. They are easy to tell if set on or off, especially during a power outage when you might want to turn them all off? But, again, I am getting used to the flat switches and now understand that push to the right is always on and to the left is off... Even I can deal with that!

I guess I am a bit anally retentive? Onboard the yacht, every Philips screw head had to align vertically, every slotted screw head had to also be vertical. I learned that was custom in boats, so I followed the custom always. Now I still do that... To me it shows that care has been taken to make things just right. (Yes... perhaps it really is an indication of an overactive mind or a control freak?...maybe...)

Ivan, the Sparky, is doing a great job with the electrics. His work is neat and that tells me he is a qualified journeyman at his craft.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Tommy T.

[Tommy T.]

12 hours ago, jimeve said:

The reason I was asking about your canopy's they look good, mine are made of concrete and not so good looking. when I meant wide, I was meaning the span! and might have a large awning or canopy extended on the front balcony. It's East facing and in the morning it is a sun trap. 

I hear you, Jim... The apartment, here, has cement awnings and I really hate their appearance - chunky, clunky and they aren't truly square or straight. They look, to me, as if a kid slapped them together. I prefer a lighter, airier appearance and, fortunately, L agrees with that.

We will not really know until we live there but, between the big mango trees to the east and west and the awnings we will have, most of the windows should be shaded for a big part of the day. I am really hoping to not have to run the air/con very much. The altitude of the location helps too - 1k meters above sea level - so we have a slightly lower than ambient temperature compared to the sweltering city and we seem to catch breezes fairly easily. Plus, the surrounding fruit trees also cool the area and have that nice, relaxing green colour too.

So we are trying to plan for all contingencies - sun, heat, rain, wind... plague???? Only time and experience will tell if we did a good job or made some mistakes along the way... I am sure we did, but just am not sure what they are yet...

[hk blues]

Coming along nicely, Tom.

Sockets - yep, like you I'd like them to be uniform.  Ours were all Ok as far as I can recall but we did have a couple that were a little squint.  It annoyed me so we got them fixed.

Regarding the insulation - it looks like it's covered on one side only.  If so, has the contractor decided to install face up or face down?  I ask because there seemed to be a difference of opinion on this on another forum I used to use.  One school of thought was face up to reflect the sun back up but another was face down to reflect the cool air back down into the room.  I see both points but would have thought face up makes more sense.  

[Tommy T.]

5 minutes ago, hk blues said:

Coming along nicely, Tom.

Sockets - yep, like you I'd like them to be uniform.  Ours were all Ok as far as I can recall but we did have a couple that were a little squint.  It annoyed me so we got them fixed.

Regarding the insulation - it looks like it's covered on one side only.  If so, has the contractor decided to install face up or face down?  I ask because there seemed to be a difference of opinion on this on another forum I used to use.  One school of thought was face up to reflect the sun back up but another was face down to reflect the cool air back down into the room.  I see both points but would have thought face up makes more sense.  

Well HK... I don't have an answer... I remember that back in USA a long time ago, the insulation would have the reflective side facing in... I never asked so never knew the reasoning...

When I hung out at the marina on Samal Island, I noticed that the insulation on the overhead roof at the marina office and social area, also had the foil on the inside. Again... I didn't know, didn't ask. But that seems standard here.

So, for what it's worth, I guess I will just go along with how they do things... Often I learn that the local custom works fine and for a reason... but, for now, I don't know what that is. We will meet with the contractors in a few days... so I will make it a point to ask them about this, just because, like you, I am curious...

Edited June 14, 2020 by Tommy T.

[hk blues]

25 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Well HK... I don't have an answer... I remember that back in USA a long time ago, the insulation would have the reflective side facing in... I never asked so never knew the reasoning...

When I hung out at the marina on Samal Island, I noticed that the insulation on the overhead roof at the marina office and social area, also had the foil on the inside. Again... I didn't know, didn't ask. But that seems standard here.

So, for what it's worth, I guess I will just go along with how they do things... Often I learn that the local custom works fine and for a reason... but, for now, I don't know what that is. We will meet with the contractors in a few days... so I will make it a point to ask them about this, just because, like you, I am curious...

A quick google wasn't of much help as all I could find was related to paper-backed fibre-type insulation - the guidance for that was face down to provide a vapour barrier to stop the moisture ruining the insulation.  I don't know if the same applies to the foam/foil type used here.

[GeoffH]

I read somewhere that foil based insulation installed in wall cavities (and the foil backed insulation batts) should have the shiny side to the inside to reflect the infrared back into the house.

NB this was in a colder location than the Philippines

Edited June 14, 2020 by GeoffH

[jimeve]

Well, my foil backed insulation is double walled ie foil backed on both sides.  It stops the heat from the sun penetrating through much better.

Worth paying a bit more.