Building a Home in Davao

[Jollygoodfellow]

On 9/4/2020 at 7:46 AM, Tommy T. said:

Question: Does anyone here have suggestions for where and what to buy for an electric motor for a sliding gate? All the gate closer machinery I see at the stores is for swing gates. I know these exist, but am not sure where to find these.

Google 

https://altech.ph/ 

[Tommy T.]

3 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Google 

 

Thanks, JGF.

That might just be the ticket.

Interesting comment they make on their website that says a lot:

>Automatic Gate Openers, Car Barriers, RFID Access Control systems and other Accessories are sourced from overseas manufactures, ensuring we don’t compromise on quality.<

Edited September 18, 2020 by Tommy T.

[RBM]

Tommy you have the patience of a saint.............

[intrepid]

6 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Thanks, JGF.

That might just be the ticket.

Interesting comment they make on their website that says a lot:

>Automatic Gate Openers, Car Barriers, RFID Access Control systems and other Accessories are sourced from overseas manufactures, ensuring we don’t compromise on quality.<

Tommy, Altech is the company I purchased my swing gate openers from.  They sell them through Lazada with a lower price.  Their service is top notch.  I installed my openers myself and had a few questions and either on the phone or email/chat were able to answer my questions clearly as though they were from the western world.  I cannot say enough good about this company.  One of the few here I could easily recommend.  You will be happy with their product and service.

[Tommy T.]

On 9/18/2020 at 11:34 PM, Jollygoodfellow said:

Google 

https://altech.ph/ 

 

On 9/19/2020 at 8:45 AM, intrepid said:

Tommy, Altech is the company I purchased my swing gate openers from.  They sell them through Lazada with a lower price.  Their service is top notch.  I installed my openers myself and had a few questions and either on the phone or email/chat were able to answer my questions clearly as though they were from the western world.  I cannot say enough good about this company.  One of the few here I could easily recommend.  You will be happy with their product and service.

Thanks for the recommendation guys. I see that they carry numerous sliding gate openers. No prices listed though. So I will look further later, when I have some more time.

Intrepid...did you buy yours through Lazada? I am a bit leery about buying something like this through Lazada. I worry about warranty issues. I guess I would need to contact Altech, too, to find out which one would be best for us.

Does yours have remote control for in the car and then another, fixed remote for inside the house? They do look like exactly what I was looking for. The sliding version also looks a bit complicated so I would probably pay someone to install - and, yes, I would be on guard regarding "cowboys."

[Tommy T.]

The home project continues...

About a week ago, we walked out onto the terrace deck (lanai?) off the master bedroom to check out the work on the rails and also the view. Orchards are fine to look at since we don't have mountains or beach. However, we both noticed that the deck floor itself made us uncomfortable. It felt like we were propelled toward the rail.

Well, turns out that they put a fairly pronounce slant to the deck so that it would drain??? It is about 2 cm lower on the outside vs. the wall. And this is over a distance or less than 2 meters. It may not sound like much, but we could definitely feel it and did not like it. Plus, what if we try to sit there or we drop a pen or pencil? Interestingly the roof deck has a very slight slant to it and we cannot feel it - it is fine.

So we mentioned this to the foreman and also to the contractors. We were very pleased to see on Saturday that the mason had already pulled up the tiles, breaking only one or two. Good thing there are extras. He was adding more masa/adhesive on the outside and fixing the slant. Now it only shows about 1/4 bubble lower using the level. He has nylon line tied to the wall and rail as a guide.

The mason explaining his fix to L, my boss...

The kitchen cabinet installation is now complete and we are very happy with the result. OTR has redeemed themselves a lot and checked back with us to see if we were satisfied. This photo does not show them after completion because they still needed to attach some facia panels to the bottom of the hanging cabinets. We have yet to inspect the finished installation - they needed to clean up tape and cello residue and generally just clean them totally.

The counter tops are beautiful and heat proof, scratch "resistant," as in, best not to try cutting into them with a sharp knife. Even so, I will stull use hot pads - why tempt fate and risk damage? They are also, I think, 3 or 4 cm higher than standard to accommodate my height so I won't get backaches from food prep at Filipino height work areas. They are 92.5 cm from the floor. I think "standard" here is more like 88? We will have the foreman also shim up the range unit somewhat, although the swing-up range top lid won't allow much room. I simply may remove that if it irritates me and gets in the way.

I know we are bothering the contractors a bit - they have referred to us as being "picky." But they continue to work with us with only an occasional, quiet grumble. I am sure they are used to just doing things somewhat more "quick and dirty," without as much attention to detail as we point out some errors, than how they work with other clients. L is actually much more vocal and picky about the details of the build and does not hesitate to point out anything she is not happy about. 

We are still not sure about move-in date, but we are moving some things in and have half-filled the second guest bedroom with boxes and bins.

Maybe today or tomorrow, we will buy the 480 liter water tank for the roof deck, a step ladder, hot/cold water mixers for the CR vanities and a few other items. The list seems endless!

L has a former student whose family makes nice furniture, so she will inspect their work and likely order the custom king-sized bed frame from her.

Very interesting. I went shopping for bed frames and mattresses a few days ago just to see what's out there. Mandaue Foam had some nice frames and great mattresses with a good selection. SM Home was hopeless. They had only one king-sized frame available and their mattress selection was equally sparse. The SM frame did not look very high quality, yet the price was something like P35,000? And their two mattress choices were in the P40,000 range...ouch! Mandaue Foam had quality frames starting at P14,000 up to P30,000 for intricate ones (that were too fancy for us) and their nice mattresses ranged from P25,000 and up.

Edit: Additional info today...

We went shopping and bought water mixers for the two lower CR vanities and also a nice one for the kitchen sink. We are trying to buy a water tank for the roof but, suddenly, the 500 liter+/- horizontal stainless tanks are hard to find...

This happens so often that it is starting to piss me off a bit... I see something one day and then tell L about it and two days later my least favourite Filipino comment, "Sorry...out of stock!" Anyway, there were still some squat vertical tanks available (today) so we may settle for one of those, if necessary.

We bought a nice refrigerator to have delivered to the home tomorrow. We're getting there!

Then "Smart" data and voice service simply dropped out for most of the day... S**t! Really needed that.

It finally came back about an hour ago...

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by Tommy T.

[intrepid]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

Intrepid...did you buy yours through Lazada? I am a bit leery about buying something like this through Lazada. I worry about warranty issues. I guess I would need to contact Altech, too, to find out which one would be best for us.

Yes, I bought it through Lazada.  However, before I purchased I asked a few questions and without charge they sent a rep to my home to look over my gates and made a recommendation as to which was best for my application.  I may have been lucky on this because they store is located only about 10 km from me.  Maybe they have reps throughout the Philippines.   Also after reading the instructions I had a few questions regarding the the angles of the mounts and again with the programing after I completed the install.  I was just amazed how they were able to give concise instructions that made each step so simple for me to understand.  For sure they know and understand their products.  By the way on my gates there are no less than about 20 different parameters to program.  Of course not everyone will use them all.  Oh and a warranty certificate which is serialized was included and an on line link to the warranty.  This video was after the initial programing and prior to installing the electric lock.

Edit:  Yes, I have the remotes for vehicle and one mounted in our dirty kitchen.  Work great!

Edited September 21, 2020 by intrepid

[Jake]

Well Tommy, I am really proud of you!  Your better half should be commended as well.  I don't think I want to piss her off....he, he.  Your house, soon to be a home will be your future castle where you have limited areas to go walking around naked.  Unlike being on a super yacht where you can go 7/24 butt ass naked.

Have you met your neighbors yet?  Often times, your comfort zone will be only limited within your walls, right? 
 
And last but not least, thank you Danny for showing us your high tech double gate.  I have another gate to properly bless...he, he.  

 

[intrepid]

10 minutes ago, Jake said:

And last but not least, thank you Danny for showing us your high tech double gate.  I have another gate to properly bless...he, he. 

Jake, you are welcome to give it a try blessing.  May I recommend the wall nearby and not the steel gate.  I have it set with one of the parameters to act as a bowling alley lane sweeper.  When someone stands close to the gate and the area around it gets wet, it automatically sweeps the bystander away toward the street.

[Tommy T.]

7 hours ago, intrepid said:

However, before I purchased I asked a few questions and without charge they sent a rep to my home to look over my gates and made a recommendation as to which was best for my application.  I may have been lucky on this because they store is located only about 10 km from me.  Maybe they have reps throughout the Philippines.

Ah... so I now will find a chat with them or somehow contact them to see if they have any reps here in Davao. Like I said, I really have no interest to install anything with the gates, so I will try to find a truly qualified installer.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience - it will help us finalize our gate system.