Are you looking at this product for your new build on the Island Newfie?
Have you looked into costs and transport compared to conventional island building methods?
I had a look at their site and seems like a good product but you need to consider cost/availability and shipping as well as the local contractors ability to build with these products.

Good luck.

Cheers, Steve.

 

Newfie,
Before building anything here it's best to review the best recommended practices considering the natural disaster risk.
Local builders may or may not adhere to the best practices but in my experience most do not even though it cost very little more money to do so. Footings not deep enough, poor knowledge of proper concrete reinforcement steel [rebar] and improper mixing of concrete. I found the builders adaptable once they understood the standards but you have to be there to supervise. There's a small little book that points out a few recommended practices for building here that can get you started at

https://www.unisdr.org/files/10329_GoodBuildingHandbookPhilippines.pdf

 

Newfie,
Before building anything here it's best to review the best recommended practices considering the natural disaster risk.
Local builders may or may not adhere to the best practices but in my experience most do not even though it cost very little more money to do so. Footings not deep enough, poor knowledge of proper concrete reinforcement steel [rebar] and improper mixing of concrete. I found the builders adaptable once they understood the standards but you have to be there to supervise. There's a small little book that points out a few recommended practices for building here that can get you started at

https://www.unisdr.org/files/10329_GoodBuildingHandbookPhilippines.pdf

Excellent booklet. Really useful with great simple pics and explanations.

Thanks for the link.

 

thanks for the info, yes nice deep foundations and the blocks are all local, hardly any distance for materials to be delivered.

At the moment we are sorting the wall out and getting prices for that. We are buying all the materials ourselves so we know what we get which seems the best way.

 

Go for it Newfie but I wonder the availability and costs of the product you first mentioned for walls etc.
Here we talked to the local manufactures of blocks and asked for a price using an extra bag of cement to make stronger blocks, about an extra 3 pesos per block and for 5.500 blocks was another P16K but a superior product and of all the dozens of loads delivered our masons only rejected 2 in early days as inferior with an apology from our brick company and simply blamed their guys for loading the wrong blocks, never happened again, all those blocks were 6 inch but we did use about 500 @ 4 inch for a few internal walls. we also included 9mm rebar every second course instead of every third and the one bag mixer that produced hundreds upon hundreds of cubic metres of concrete was always an extra square mouth shovel of cement in the mix, the labourers probably hated me but hey I was paying their wages every week but the talk that came back from Ben (the better half) I was simply wasting money as it made their job harder,,,,,,,, Told Ben to offer them a teaspoon of cement and harden the F up.

Thing is Newfie I was on the ground every day as we were living here and 20 odd years in construction I ed onto the workers here,,,,, the main one was "don't cut corners". "measure twice and cut once". etc.
Twas an interesting 18 months but we knocked out a heck of a lot of quality work and the guys were proud of what they created in the end. We are now enjoying.

Good luck.

Cheers, Steve.

 

the jackbilt blocks are 35 peso from one supplier but will hunt around. That’s from a construction company. Other half is getting prices but we have the list of material needed so far for the wall, not including the gates or steel railings. She wants some extra barbed wire too to add to walls.

not going to rush with the main house, plenty of time to sort out. Simple 3 bed, 1 on suite CR and common CR. Open plan area. Roughly inside area 90 SQM so not huge as they go. The build may not go ahead till next year as we have a place locally sorted.

 

Barbed wire? Are you living in Tondo? Bolt cutters or quality side cutters make quick work of that. From memory our 6 inch blocks were 32 pesos each with extra cement delivered to site and a different supplier for our cement and rebar, a different supplier for fine sand (rendering) and another for aggregate and sand for concrete. Yes the costs add up if you don't watch and shop around. Ben did the shopping around and saved money.
Construction material can be a killer, wages not so much but the winner is always to be on the ground day one. But OMO and I'm sure there are good construction companies around the don't cut corners or try to fleece you.

Good luck and.

Cheers, Steve.

 

Other half wants it, that’s fine by me. I’ll add cameras anyway so not a concern to be honest.

that’s just what I was told they make high commission and cut corners so that was enough for me.

 

Newfie we have 8 Swann cameras here, 7 outside and one inside for 18months and guess what? We never look at them and while probably a waste of money kept the better half happy perhaps no different to your barbed wire?

Cheers, Steve.

 

as her other property was broken in to it will keep peace of mind and family and friends have suggested a little bit of extra care needed. It will be empty for periods as we will be living on island and spending time away So I’ll add smart lights, Philips hue I have already, and some external lights. Just gives that little extra deterrent. I’m looking to see if I can run my Unifi gear over there.

 

Barbed wire in paradise?

I recall a song with these words ?

 

Is this the barbwire in paradise ?

 

That's 2 mins 44 secs, I'll never get back...

 

Only an observation Newfie but if you need barbed or razor wire on the fences it must be a good neighbourhood. Bars on the windows as well? Sounds like paradise.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

 

Like having high walls or cameras. You know the score steve here, do you mix with the locals?

 

I only pay 9 pesos per hollow block in my neck of the woods.

 

LOL Newfie, the high walls here are for privacy from the rubber neck tourists that come here for the beach and surf but have a penchant for looking at all the mansions. As said the cameras we don't look at and I'm sure cheap dummy cameras would do the same job, a deterrent. High fences is why God made ladders and barbed wire is why he made bolt cutters. Our view is to the ocean and has a see through fence with glass pool gate to the ocean, the fence is to keep the 2 Labradors in and a whole 4 ft high and very accessible from the beach.
Here there is no barbed wire or bars on windows, a relatively safe area.
That's just us here.

Cheers, Steve.

 

We live in a subdivision and it's about 65% no bars on the windows and 35% bars on the windows. A few have cameras but some are dummies. Only one has barbed wire and would you believe it was the one of the very, very few that has been burgled! The police suggested the barbed wire was of little deterrent and in fact a clue that there may be something worth stealing.

 

Said it before, pick well where you would like to live, boots on the ground and simply observing the environment when it comes to noise/pollution/bars on windows, location to services and shopping etc. Does take time but as we have found well worth the time invested.
Talk to the locals and the neighbours,,,,,, It's funny I mentioned to the Barangay Capitan many years ago that this was a good and safe area,,,,, his response was simple, a wealthy area with mostly foreigners, the locals know that most own guns and pick easier targets.

@ HK Blues.

Here I would say bars on windows is 10% and those homes were built over 20 years ago, not a sub division but 20 odd years ago very few homes being built and most had the bars on the windows mentality back then.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

 

Agree with you re. the bars on the windows - our part of the sub-division is about 15 years old and I'd estimate 90% of the 35% I mentioned were amongst the first in.
Do most foreigners in your area own guns?

 

No Idea HK for guns but the notion appears to be there for the would be crooks and leave us alone they do it seems so far. Lock your doors at night, a couple of loud dogs roaming around are also a good deterrent, they hear everything.
We do have bars on the windows to the pump house that is also storage for garden tools like brush cutters and spare pumps/fittings etc. but that is 30 metres from the house so we would never hear any lurkers, mind you we do have plenty of outside lighting all night around the house and in the dark areas motion detectors activating lights.

Not nor ever will say we are safe here and the same can be said for all countries but I/we chose not to live in a prison for a perceived peace of mind,,,, bit like a placebo, imagined and not real but as said chose wisely where you want to live, guns or no.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

 

so far just 8k needed on blocks, might go higher on height as it’s cheap as peanuts material wise. Going to get the gate sorted so it’s all ready to go up at the same time, good stainless steel 316l is what I’m after for that and a side gate.
Will add some solar lights with motion ability and make sure they are smart lights, if not wired hue lights will be fine.
We got a good architect who’s designed some of the other expats properties and they are happy so that’s sorted and he’s our relatives neighbour.
im in too minds to have a roller gate or simple swing type.

I will grab a sample amount of the jackbilt ones so we can look at them for the property and compare.

other things I need to look at is a nice modern aluminium front door and double glazed windows, sliding types. I know the kitchen ware and bathroom wares needed. They will have to be shipped in.

first job wall though which with some luck will be on its way soon.

 

Handy to have a recommended architect from other expats, plus your relatives have him close as a neighbour... about as good as it gets for making sure you have the right guy...

 

so handy, I looked last time I was there and there were some very nice properties he designed, one had a very nice wall, looked perfect.