Not another building project

[hk blues]

22 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Yeah, HK you are right. I should have phrased that comment this way: perhaps the future of quality and consistent construction here for discerning and financially viable clients in Davao City and some other locations may be possible?

Of course, most people here can only afford and will willingly accept the current and common building construction.

Both L and I agree that it would be great to see improvements in construction practices - many of which would not cost more, but would involve better workmanship and attention to detail. Believe me, she is even more attuned to the construction quality here than me. When she had her home built, she had the contractors tear down some of their work and re-do it because it was not well constructed. I am so pleased and lucky to have her as a partner and construction adviser...

It's not just down to the affordability though, Tom, it's as much down to the mentality.  I see people here all around me who have relatively expensive (5M+) homes but pretty quickly turn them into tips.  They simply do not see their homes in the way we might thus don't care so much about the finer details of the build quality.  Example - I'm having a few projects done at the moment - I check in with the contractor a couple of times a day.  My neighbour opposite is having the same work done (copycats!!!) by the same contractor - I do my lessons in the room overlooking their house so I see all - after 5 days they have not yet spoken with the contractor and only once inspected the work done to date - and that was only the most cursory of looks.  They simply don't care about the detail.  They are not alone in that here - i'd suggest they are in the majority.  

I'm no missionary and couldn't care less about changing their thinking - I want my work done to my liking and that's all I care about.  

[Tommy T.]

8 minutes ago, hk blues said:

I'm no missionary and couldn't care less about changing their thinking - I want my work done to my liking and that's all I care about.  

I guess that is about how I feel, mainly, and L, too. She points out shoddy construction to me whenever we are driving about - it is rampant here. We both just would like to see better attention to detail and quality than the slap together we see so often. Meanwhile, we pay fairly close attention to our own build and it seems to be paying off. The contractors are not charging extra, yet we are getting better quality than I think they planned for - extra and better mixes of cement, higher quality products, better quality hollow blocks, more steel reinforcements... We are certain the foreman is doing some extra for us without informing the contractors every time. We will be sure to give him some more gifts in the future.

There is also the promise of future projects for the contractor from us...

[stevewool]

24 minutes ago, hk blues said:

It's not just down to the affordability though, Tom, it's as much down to the mentality.  I see people here all around me who have relatively expensive (5M+) homes but pretty quickly turn them into tips.  They simply do not see their homes in the way we might thus don't care so much about the finer details of the build quality.  Example - I'm having a few projects done at the moment - I check in with the contractor a couple of times a day.  My neighbour opposite is having the same work done (copycats!!!) by the same contractor - I do my lessons in the room overlooking their house so I see all - after 5 days they have not yet spoken with the contractor and only once inspected the work done to date - and that was only the most cursory of looks.  They simply don't care about the detail.  They are not alone in that here - i'd suggest they are in the majority.  

I'm no missionary and couldn't care less about changing their thinking - I want my work done to my liking and that's all I care about.  

Just remember cars are more important then property here by the majority.

[Tommy T.]

13 minutes ago, stevewool said:

Just remember cars are more important then property here by the majority.

Sorry that I pirated your topic, Steve... You know how we all wander...

[stevewool]

Well today is half a day for the workers , we are waiting for some blocks ,rebar, wood and other bits and it’s not arrived , phoned the shop and they are waiting for the lorry to come back and to reload, they cannot give us a time so the workers asked if the can go home , I don’t have a problem with that and they will get the days pay too.

Now it’s down to me and Ems to get 70 blocks 15 lengths of wood and 10 lengths of rebar onto the roof with the pulley ,now that’s going to be fun .

[hk blues]

1 hour ago, stevewool said:

Just remember cars are more important then property here by the majority.

To be fair, their cars often cost more than their houses! 

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

I guess that is about how I feel, mainly, and L, too. She points out shoddy construction to me whenever we are driving about - it is rampant here. We both just would like to see better attention to detail and quality than the slap together we see so often. Meanwhile, we pay fairly close attention to our own build and it seems to be paying off. The contractors are not charging extra, yet we are getting better quality than I think they planned for - extra and better mixes of cement, higher quality products, better quality hollow blocks, more steel reinforcements... We are certain the foreman is doing some extra for us without informing the contractors every time. We will be sure to give him some more gifts in the future.

There is also the promise of future projects for the contractor from us...

Same philosophy as me, more or less.  I don't necessarily go for the best of everything material-wise, but at least the average or norm for the job.  I am more of a believer that the worker himself makes the main difference.  I have been lucky in that the guy we have is a gem - an unpolished one mind you - He does have the occasional lapses and gives me W.T.F. moments but not so often now!  I don't in any way try to tell him his job, but I do encourage him to consider the final look of the job.   

[stevewool]

Well the material that we ordered yesterday came just before 4 pm and the builders where long gone , so today they made a good start on the roof deck , Ems wanted some sort of room that when you came up the stairs from the balcony to the roof deck that would be a shelter and stop the rain just going through the gap and making a mess, I was just going to throw a piece of corrugated tin over the hole , but I must admit she was right , just one more layer of blocks to go on and then the long span tin , but it will be short span as it’s just over 2 meter square .

 

[hk blues]

45 minutes ago, stevewool said:

Well the material that we ordered yesterday came just before 4 pm and the builders where long gone , so today they made a good start on the roof deck , Ems wanted some sort of room that when you came up the stairs from the balcony to the roof deck that would be a shelter and stop the rain just going through the gap and making a mess, I was just going to throw a piece of corrugated tin over the hole , but I must admit she was right , just one more layer of blocks to go on and then the long span tin , but it will be short span as it’s just over 2 meter square .

 

That's the room to house the lift/elevator machinery Steve, mark my words!  

[jimeve]

That's a good idea Steve, going to do that with mine just to keep the noise down. Instead of hollow block going to use metal studs and hardiflex.