Building a House in the Philippines

@PalawOne VERY NICE. I will be building a very simple, much smaller concrete block house for my GF in her Family Barrio Cluster. I am hoping to stay below 500,000 Pesos. No Lot Costs. No AC. Not an Investment for future resale - Just a place to stay.
-@talamban

From the original post, conservative build is about 22k per sq.m. if my math is correct. I am curious to see how it goes with 500,000 P.

I suppose it depends on what you want to build, throw around figures are 10 to 40K perM2, 10 being cheap and not rendered and an upper end high quality home.

Not done the figures properly but just the fence here, 2.4 to 3M high rendered both sides will probably be around 7 to 8K per lineal metre, Material is the biggest cost.

Just the roof material on the garage, some 70M2 will cost around 90K before labour to build trusses and install the roof and flashings. Guessing another 30/40K for labour.

All that aside? It's half the price if not a third of the cost building in the Philippines compared to Australia. Per m2 rate to build an average house is around AU 2,000 or PHP 77,000 per M2 (middle of the road house).

Conservative estimate for my simple double garage internal like 55M2, roof cover 70M2, concrete floor and rendered 6 inch blocks and 2 rollup doors, one remote will be in the order of 500K to 550K before electrical and no plumbing.

All that equates to a very small house when you take into account septic, water supply, electrical, municipal and Barangay fees and permits. Drafts person and engineer or architect, site development, lunch and morning/afternoon tea and housing for the workers.

Only my experience so far.

Cheers, Steve.

Hi,

I have build a few structures here so thought I might chime in.

Once you find a good, honest builder stay with them.

We have had the privilege of having great workers who ask to make sure this is what you want before proceeding, and we have had nightmare with "architect" that had no clue on how to build, manage or supervise but wanted to do all. We literally had a lead hand (architects workers) who had the locks on the doors backwards and refused to fix until he was told to by the architect (key on inside, latch on outside).

Our trusted workers were busy at the time we wanted to start building our retirement home so I foolishly went with an architect.

I ended up having to be at the site all day everyday (which was not the way I envisioned my retirement) to watch for all the mistakes happening.

We now have my trusted crew back fixing all the BS that was done by the architect. They are great friends now, and I will never let anyone build here for me other than them.

Be very careful of people that call themselves a title. I took 8 credits of Arch. drafting in highschool back in the early seventies as when young as that is what I wanted to do and I swear I know more from that than this "architect" knew! I was tempted to take him to court but have decided to just move on in life.

The house is still a work in progress, need to sell our ocean lot soon and finish this one, no ocean view but a beautiful view of the mountains, which I plan on climbing next spring.

So yes, lots of poor workmanship, lousy supervisors, incompetent lead hands, but there are also some very capable, honest and hard working people out there. You just have to find them.

Hi Robert, welcome to the forum.

Yep stay away from architects for project management, simply will cost heaps more, been there and nothing but frustration and more money.

I ended up employing the local municipal draftsman and engineer, their fees for plans and designs and sign offs were PHP  23K and municipal and Barangay fees were under 4K, lots of them.

I manage and slap the lead mason, his brother 2IC mason, the lead steel man, the 3IC mason every day, sometimes 3 times a day to get what I want,,,,,, funny the 5 labourers never. Ben and I manage stock control as these guys can't.

Boots on the ground and keeps me off the streets and the grey matter active. Good luck with your next project Robert.

Cheers, Steve.

I thought I read in the news about the Philippines importing cement and steel (rebar?) to control the prices. Last I checked, the prices of these commodities are twice to what it was. I thought importing these to control runaway prices is a good thing. I am beginning to think the local manufacturers will dissuade the government from importing, then by Q1 2023 they will post record earnings in 2022.

I find this topic very intersting as my Wife and I are in the beginning stages of submitting a Building Permit for  construction in Lagtang. Our design is for a two story with partial roof deck. I drew the elevations and floor plans using Visio and need to turn them into Engineer approved blue prints which are suitable for the city building department. Thanks Scott

Welcome to the forum Whid.

I'm boots on the ground every day here and a lot of construction experience, Think I mentioned in another post here that We simply asked the local municipal for a draftsman and they supplied their head man, engineers and cost me a quarter of the price or less than an architect. Talk to your local Municipal and see what they can help you with.

Good luck, cheers, Steve.

BP sensibly writes, "Talk to your local Municipal and see what they can help you with.

Good luck, cheers, Steve. -@bigpearl

`

Great building advice, as usual BP

The local Municipal are making our 500 metre gravel driveway now.

For free. With the gravel, diesel and our nice worker-meals included.

`

@PalawOne Very nice design. I looked up the dimensions online and it turns out our lot is too small for this house. I have been kicking the design around for a while with Visio and have come up with this basic layout. Proposed design should fit in a 17M x 12 Meter lot and allow the setbacks that are required. I am not done making changes and have no idea if this will be the final design that gets turned into an approved building permit.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k3GYMV … b7wbLD8ndz64M8/view?usp=share_link

Has anybody in the forum used "LITEBLOCK" for building a house ?

I have built a few with what we call Bessar Blocks how ever Bisayas have the curse of Typhoons so my next project is more focused on "Typhoon Proof" housing.

Most possibly know them as "TILT PANELS" or "PRE CAST PANELS".

LITEBLOCK is in Manila and im about to looking for somebody in the Davao region.

Would be interested if anybody knows anybody else of such a building concept.

Thanks.

Hi White Asian, "Liteblock" sounds and looks like plain old and little more than the simple CHB available any where manufactured locally and for me I specified extra cement to make them stronger.  Tilt and precast  panels? Good luck there, maybe Manila.

If you are building typhoon proof then the local guys know very well the regs and how to do it. The product you mentioned can I ask how much per 6 inch block? and what are the advantages if any?

Cheers, Steve.

Concrete blocks are often made of 1:3:6 concrete with a maximum size aggregate of 10mm or a cement-sand mixture with a ratio of 1:7, 1:8 or 1:9. These mixtures, if properly cured, give concrete blocks a compression strength well above what is required in a one-storey building, so a double storey with the short-span composite beam and a composite slab with a metal decking is the best way to suspend the separation & stainless steel due to the rust im guessing.

These blocks are arguably 6 times the strength of the standard Pinas blocks and triple in size.

I core fill them with sodium bentonite for water proofing & i use Y16 in each block in a 1 metre strip of the wall. Im always semi beach front as i surf, so no second guess where home is hehehe....

More than 90% of the island got wiped and it was due to the fact that the Phillipines building codes simply dont exsist and if they did most of the island would be in tact.

Having said all this im going to be building a small surf resort with stand alone cottages, how ever cost efficiency is important here.

I think im going to have to plan carefully here due to logistics and lack of building knowledge as another Odette will surely come our way again...i have a window of opportunity in the dry season so its a speed & efficiency process along with Typhoon proofing all structures...

Im not a builder, very much a novice but i have a go to see what woks and what does not.

Im always open to ideas but man power & know how is non existent as i have found apart from manila and they want the earth when i say "location Mindanao"...

Its sounds more extravagant than it really is, its all quite simple but i am not a builder and with the previous builds its been the local way which is not very good.

There is an American expat who is a very good builder, but he refuses to venture out from Cebu and knows nobody else that knows what i want to do....

Im just putting it out there in the vain hope somebody may know somebody or has known somebody in their travels...

@coach53 Most of the labor was supplied by relatives.

Welcome to the forum NN/3M, was that a question or statement?

Most of the workers here are the better half's relatives and we pay them very well.

Nothing is free.

Cheers, Steve.

@coach53 Most of the labor was supplied by relatives.
-@NN3M/DU3

NN3M/DU3 (hope I got the right number of N's & 3's.) Sadly Coach53 is not a participant on this forum anymore. As we understand it he was admitted to a clinic in Stockholm for (and I quote) 'critical incident debriefing therapy.' Apparently this was triggered by a number of comments attributable to this forum.

@coach53 Most of the labor was supplied by relatives.
-@NN3M/DU3
NN3M/DU3 (hope I got the right number of N's & 3's.) Sadly Coach53 is not a participant on this forum anymore. As we understand it he was admitted to a clinic in Stockholm for (and I quote) 'critical incident debriefing therapy.' Apparently this was triggered by a number of comments attributable to this forum.
-@Lotus Eater

I heard that Leeds United are currently looking for him and are ready to offer him a contract with unlimited meatballs and a house near Ikea

@coach53 Most of the labor was supplied by relatives.
-@NN3M/DU3
NN3M/DU3 (hope I got the right number of N's & 3's.) Sadly Coach53 is not a participant on this forum anymore. As we understand it he was admitted to a clinic in Stockholm for (and I quote) 'critical incident debriefing therapy.' Apparently this was triggered by a number of comments attributable to this forum.
-@Lotus Eater
I heard that Leeds United are currently looking for him and are ready to offer him a contract with unlimited meatballs and a house near Ikea
-@Cherryann01

Funny you guys but also sad as our B/S man may be ill/ailing and I wish him well and hope he can contribute the left field thoughts in the coming times.

Cheers, Steve.

@Filamretire the security in subdivision is VERY

variable. Usually the expensive subs are more safe . In the new subs there is a lot of construction workers entering every day     and they spot the schedule of the residents....to enter

in their house . In the old subs there is many vacant or abandon houses so it is like to have no neigbours...not very safe. If you visit a sub with stray dogs and chickens (prohibited) go away...they will not control the noise, the smoke, etc. I lived in many subs in Davao and I never meet one security guard able to evaluate what is a normal noise ....when you complaint about noise they will pass in front of your house with their motorcycle running! Most security guard have VERY LOW education. I lived in squater area (wife family) and I don't see a big difference with some subs: chickens, roasters, karaoke, garbage . ..

@Filamretire the security in subdivision is VERY
variable. Usually the expensive subs are more safe . In the new subs there is a lot of construction workers entering every day   and they spot the schedule of the residents....to enter
in their house . In the old subs there is many vacant or abandon houses so it is like to have no neigbours...not very safe. If you visit a sub with stray dogs and chickens (prohibited) go away...they will not control the noise, the smoke, etc. I lived in many subs in Davao and I never meet one security guard able to evaluate what is a normal noise ....when you complaint about noise they will pass in front of your house with their motorcycle running! Most security guard have VERY LOW education. I lived in squater area (wife family) and I don't see a big difference with some subs: chickens, roasters, karaoke, garbage . ..
-@mikelaf

Sounds like you didn't do your research very well?

Cheers, Steve.

There is about 15 subs in Davao and only 3 are well managed....the rest....better to avoid. I lived in Davao since 32 years.... Davao is still a bukid place!

@bigpearl oh I think he did his research quite well. I don't know where you're living, if it'sa squatter area or not, but the lower end subdivisions are not really advisable. Better off in a decent upper end subdivision where the guards are strict and the area is patrolled every now and then. Where the guards will call your home to let you know that someone is there to see you and you have to give permission to let them enter.

My bad, I re read. Yes I know all about guards from my condo days, they would call us and then escort the visitor to our door on the 7th floor, with their pistols on their hips,,,,,, it was ok but a little like a detention centre.

Here we live on titled land not a subdivision, 2 to 4,000M2 lots on the beach, no guards or gates, no one bothers any one here and no roosters or barking dogs, only goats now and again but stopped since we put up the fence and gates.

We searched for 4 years before finding this area and the looking paid off.

Cheers, Steve.

I suppose it depends on what you want to build, throw around figures are 10 to 40K perM2, 10 being cheap and not rendered and an upper end high quality home.
Not done the figures properly but just the fence here, 2.4 to 3M high rendered both sides will probably be around 7 to 8K per lineal metre, Material is the biggest cost.
Just the roof material on the garage, some 70M2 will cost around 90K before labour to build trusses and install the roof and flashings. Guessing another 30/40K for labour.
All that aside? It's half the price if not a third of the cost building in the Philippines compared to Australia. Per m2 rate to build an average house is around AU 2,000 or PHP 77,000 per M2 (middle of the road house).

Conservative estimate for my simple double garage internal like 55M2, roof cover 70M2, concrete floor and rendered 6 inch blocks and 2 rollup doors, one remote will be in the order of 500K to 550K before electrical and no plumbing.

All that equates to a very small house when you take into account septic, water supply, electrical, municipal and Barangay fees and permits. Drafts person and engineer or architect, site development, lunch and morning/afternoon tea and housing for the workers.

Only my experience so far.

Cheers, Steve.
-@bigpearl

I am getting dinged 45k per sqm on a 5 story building in the heart of Manila university belt. For student housing studios. The contractor will be using sheet pile since the soil in Manila is silt and unstable. My blood pressure is raging.

No Jackson, you are in Manila and costs are much higher especially a 5 story building on unstable ground.

A lot of pesos will go into foundations but not knowing how many beds and baths it's hard to tell but 45K Per meter 2 sounds fine.

It is cheaper to build in the province but you need to hold their hand all the time.

Finally the guys, 10 of them got the drift on load sharing and splitting smoko and lunch when pouring concrete,,,, keep the concrete moving or it will crack. Only took 10 months and 6 or 700M2 of concrete pours and some 50 concrete posts, foundations and tie beams. Posts are mostly 300 x 250 and 4 metres high from the foundations,,,,,, concrete and steel are ball breakers, labour is cheap, perhaps one third the cost of materials, Australia used to be around 50/50.

Stick with your project Jackson, you will be on a winner in Manila and my hat off to you for such an undertaking.

Good luck.

Cheers. Steve.

Thanks Steve. I am just learning how deep corruption runs in government. Without going to details, they even express freely the SOP payments to get your building permit. Not a secret. I thought Duterte cleaned up some of this, maybe he did but it is ingrained in the people in government. I have a year until this structure is completed by the contractor. We still have a small positive ROI which included yearly misc fees (wink wink) along with legitimate costs: building maintenance, utils, etc. 😁 Anyhow, so long as we will have positive ROI (Return On Investment), we will have money to buy food in retirement. I am counting years less than the fingers on one hand.

Jackson corruption only works if you pay. We waited 3 or 4 months for building and fence permits but was suggested to expediate give a brown paper bag. Simply said we will go through the system and wait,,, we rang them every week just to piss them off.

I have been knocking around here for a long time and see the fixers and probably unlicensed notaries taking cash, in Australia its free with a justice of the peace, attorney etc.

I've mentioned this before that Ben got his drivers license here 12 years ago by slipping 500 pesos to the agent at LTO. Had a motor bike license but never drove a car in his life. There you go sir, done.

I have never paid bribes or gratuities, maybe I lie? 2 months ago we had our power company come here to upgrade our power supply from 75 amps to 125 amps and move the meter from the mayors house to our house. So replace the 100 amp meter with a 200 amp meter, we supplied the 30mm2 cable to upgraded the house supply as well as the feed to a new distribution board with the same, 12,000 pesos sir, no problem from us to the engineer, we will sign the paperwork and pay you,,, no sir, no paperwork as it's off the books. Diddled or a bargain? We as apparently are 2 other customers of our electrician still waiting for the new 200 amp meters and the simple change over as they did the infrastructure a month ago, it will happen but in the mean time I have power in the house but not the garage and extensions, main board and 2 sub boards.

We have been building here for 10 months and never had a building nor sewage inspection even though we paid for 2 scheduled site visits. (municipal)

Any way we play the game, no hurry here.

Cheers, Steve.

@PalawOne If you will have a septic tank keep an eye on the plumbing. If you have a floor drain in the bathrooms, which is typical in Phils, the plumbers are used to connecting the floor drain pipe into the main toilet drain pipe going to the septic tank. The problem is that the floor drain pipe usually does not have a P-trap and since the floor drain pipe is connected to the main drain pipe below the toilet's P-trap, the sewage smell can come up through the floor drain. Ask them to put a P-trap in the floor drain or else use a seperate pipe for the floor drain that is not connected to the septic tank.

@PalawOne If you will have a septic tank keep an eye on the plumbing. If you have a floor drain in the bathrooms, which is typical in Phils, the plumbers are used to connecting the floor drain pipe into the main toilet drain pipe going to the septic tank. The problem is that the floor drain pipe usually does not have a P-trap and since the floor drain pipe is connected to the main drain pipe below the toilet's P-trap, the sewage smell can come up through the floor drain. Ask them to put a P-trap in the floor drain or else use a seperate pipe for the floor drain that is not connected to the septic tank.
-@jwschmidt

Very good advice. All my floor drains have P-traps. The "black water" piping from the 3 toilets go directly to the septic tank. The roof gutters go to the underground rain tank and all the sinks and floor drains bypass the septic tank but join the outlet of the septic tank about 10 meters downstream of the tank so there is only one 6" pipe going to drainage. Although my floor drains do not connect directly to the septic tank it is possible for fumes from the outlet of the septic tank's 2nd leaching well to enter the house through the floor drain piping if there were no P-traps in the floor drains. Drawing of my septic tank below with P-trap detail.

The Canadian builder of this house had a Septic tank built that is 5.3 x 2.7 x 2.8 deep, we know this because we had a couple of the guys uncover it looking for the manholes,,,,, nada, no access to any of the chambers except two 4 inch screwed caps at each end and a straight concrete lid. It's a big tank, taking off block thicknesses and inlet depths it would hold about 25 K litres, 3 times the size in Australia, interesting thing is he put the digester tank in the middle and the 2 leaching tanks on either side, toilets go into the digester, the showers go one leeching chamber and the Laundry and basins into the other, no Idea the thinking there but we are lucky to see an inch of water in either of the leeching tanks the many times I've dipped them.

The kitchen sink had it's own concrete tank which was blocked up when we took over, grease and oils the problem, fixed that with a grease trap but have now run that to the main digester chamber as well as the 2 new bathrooms and powder room.

The plumber we had here put in 3 floor waste gullies with traps but the one in the powder room doesn't have the basin connected so we will block that when we tile or else every week or two half a litre of water to keep the water seal in the trap,,,, his bad and I don't care it'll work.

Cheers, Steve.

It is a good idea to pour water in any floor drain that isn't used, thanks for that Steve. Our showers are recessed so the main floor stays dry but there is a floor drain in the raised floor also. I haven't been adding water to them and haven't noticed any odors. The powder room should be OK, my wife scrubs it down each time it is used by visitors. I'll try to remember to add water to the other drains once in a while.

I saw a sketch in the original plans that had the septic tank under the garage floor. That is probably necessary if the building lot is small. I made sure it was outside the garage because we tiled the garage floor. It was built by the plans above with 3 lids and 3 clean outs. You can see the 3 lids in the photo. It is about time for pressure washing.

That looks pretty standard Moon Dog and I'm sure done properly. As said we have no access to the chambers so if and when the digester tank is full of sludge and a growing crust on the top we will wave to get a manhole cut in for pump out and clean.

I doubt anyone here cares once you have your building permits, fees paid we were told 2 inspections and not seen any one in the 11 months since we started the project. A few of the locals asked Ben why we have 2 building permit numbers hanging on the fence, Ben was told no on here bothers with building permits which is very interesting as they are all very big house.

As for your floor waste gullies simply run a shower or basin and if connected you will see/hear the water entering, if so don't bother with topping them up. In our Laundry we have a floor waste and 4 years ago put a small piece of rubber and a mat over the top, never a smell,,,,, turns out the basins from 2 other bathrooms run into it and I never knew until we cut the pipe a couple of months ago, strangest design I have ever seen as one basin is 3 meters away and the other 7 to 8 meters.

Any way it works.

Cheers, Steve.

I poured water in the floor drain of each upstairs CR. The guest CR drain has a flapper that must be stuck because the water did not go drown the drain. I may pop the cover off the drain and check it out.

Talking about covering the manholes in the septic tank, we have a similar situation behind the in laws' bungalow. You can see in the photo it is concrete wall to fence. Originally there was a 1 meter wide sidewalk adjacent to the house and the top of the new septic tank was 10 cm below the sidewalk. When we decided to continue the concrete to the fence we just covered the top of the septic tanks and the two manholes. The old septic tank for the original shack we demolished is under the slab also.  We did stick a sleeve in the pour for the cleanout hole and that has a thin concrete patch over it but can be easily chipped away if needed.

Talking about dressing for the weather in the Philippines. When I took the photo my niece and a few of her classmates were using tatay's dirty kitchen to cook food for a school project. A couple of the girls are wearing long sleeve sweatshirts and the temperature is 88 F.

@PalawOne

Do you have a floor  plan for this house.

***

@PalawOneHi, great post and something I am thinking about.Unfortunately I know nothing about construction (or DIY tbf) so keen to understand a good builder/developer that can do this for you.Who were the developers for your house or is this pinoyeplans.com ?Best regardsMiles

Be warned. There are plenty of cowboy builders around. Also unless you are lucky the rule of thumb with most builders is you buy the materials that they need and they then add 50% on to the bill for their labour costs. Very rarely, in my experience anyway, do you get a builder to give you a proper quote. If you do find one almost certaintly a reputable one.

Good advice - thanks

I think going with someone likely: [link moderated] is probably the safest route for me!!

Thanks again - much appreciated

Tpgawn gave a good advice, in my experience. Another is progress payments.  Don't give outright 50% of labour or you can't find your workers the next day.

In Boracay we have a place which is called the newcoast village. You buy the lot and they will make you a  building to your specification. The quality is another issue.

When you find a building company you should pay with performance bonds. The bank holds the money and depending on progress the bank pays.

Consider to buy a condo. This is much less stressfull and it is yours.