Building a home in the Philippines 🇵🇭

hi guys I hope everyone is uh doing well today I think you can kind of pretty much see where I am going take a walk over to our neighbor's house uh we did an update last week I told you if there was any uh you know major things that happened that I would uh possibly do uh a weekly update and then more than likely get back to uh every other week but uh they made some really nice progress um over the last seven days with putting up the walls of the house it's really coming along nicely and uh that's what we're going to talk about [Music] today all right so before we get started with uh this week's update talk a little bit about the weather still very very hot see the laser beam up there uh we did get some rain much needed rain but very very little uh there was a tropical depression that came in from the East it turned by Samar went North it's now up by Manila area going up through Lon and then we'll turn and go out to sea we got very little rain we got about here up at our location during the day couple days ago we got about 30 minutes of a pretty heavy downpour about 30 minutes so not bad and then that evening we got probably another 30 minutes about 10:00 at night um but it wasn't a real hard downpour it was just a nice steady rain for about 30 minutes so we got about 1 hour of rain uh in this area I did here uh down in D which is that way you guys like my uh pointer use this uh piece of PVC for uh showing you guys some stuff today but that one is just down that way and uh friends down there said that they got that night that we got about 30 minutes of rain they got about an hour of a downpour so uh down closer to sea level uh got more rain than uh than we did and I guess it makes sense because the storm was coming from the East and East is that way so I didn't quite make it up uh the mountain but take a look is that a lot of progress in just a week lot going on here uh floor plan is starting to come together so I figured I'd bring this update to you guys just because now I know a couple updates ago I explained to you the floor plan uh but it's very difficult to do when uh the walls ain't up so this is obviously the front of the house um this area here is going to be the main living area and there is also going to be a wraparound uh porch in front of the uh facility here the building facility uh going back to my uh business days of uh building and operating distribution centers so that is the seller that we took a look at last uh update the walls are definitely going up wanted to show you guys uh especially new viewers we got a lot of new viewers last six or seven videos anywhere from 20 to like 35 new subscribers per video which is pretty surprising uh surprising to us so uh welcome to the channel so I'm going to take a few minutes and kind of explain a little bit about the uh columns that you're looking at as well as the hollow block walls we'll talk a little bit about uh Port versus AAC block uh versus a hollow block but let's just talk a little bit about the main structure the strength of the building which is the columns so the columns are all throughout the facility all throughout the house having nightmares about work and uh what they do is this is part of a column right here it's fresh por you can see it's uh still uh green concrete but this is 16 mm and these are called stirrups right here and this is 12mm and basically all they do is they bend them on site and all they do is just hold these four strands of rebar together because this is going to be buried in concrete and then to hold the stups in place they use these uh tie wires and they do a double strand and then they uh basically just wrap it around and twist it so it's tight holds it in place and this goes straight down and typically what a home is is 1 meter down in the Earth from grade so wherever grade is they dig down 1 meter or 39 in and then they do usually a meter by a meter footing and usually that kind pretty thick 6 8 in thick and it has rebar kind of like Tic Tac Toe they'll have several strands going this way and then several strands going this way um that'll be embedded in that in that 6 to 8 in of concrete that's a meter square and that's a real good base in a footing that's down into the Earth and that repeats wherever you see a column so there is a lot of foot footings in a house and then what they do with these columns is these columns here which this happens to be 16 mm um a lot of homes also use 12mm uh 16 usually is for two story um and 12mm is typically for a one-story home that's a code here or requirement um but they decided to upgrade to the 16mm uh even though this is a one-story house so that that's a good thing added cost but added strength so th this column goes down into that footing before they pour the concrete and this rebar all four strands is bent at a 90° and it goes down in and ties in to that Tic Tac Toe I just told you about and then they use this tie wire to tie it together then they pour the footing so what that does is tie this column that's your vertical strength to the footing so there's no movement and just again it repeats with every single column so you wonder why these concrete homes can withstand a large typhoon so here's an example of the 16 mm and you can see this is part of the column now they do do the columns in pieces which I always questioned because when you do a piece see how this is poured to this level then they stop then they allow this to dry and then they'll come back at a later date and form this up and pour the rest of it you would assume that would make a weak joint and I questioned that when I first moved here with a little bit of EXP expi that I have but all the engineers that I talk to see The Joint here you can see the joint is that it still is very strong so they do do the columns in pieces as they go up so columns with rebar going vertical stirups holding it all together with a tie wire and then eventually it'll be a concrete column that goes all the way up um to the top beam of the house which is where the roof will sit on so I will show you that as we uh as we go so this is the living room area and let's take a walk around and see the bedroom the master bedroom is behind this area so this is going to be the master bedroom right through here as I understand it and then guest room and looks like that's going to be a bathroom and then library and then another guest room on that side so this would be the master bedroom area that we're walking through now the center section in the back is the library how do you like my pointer this back area is going to be uh kitchen and dining room still need to fill in still need to fill in some dirt because they need to bring the floor up to grade to eventually pour the uh concrete now one thing I wanted to show you see if I can get a good example is there's lots of conversation about Hollow block or the new product that's out there is AAC or poured concrete lot of comments a lot of people say different things I'm not an expert never claim to be but what everyone needs to realize is this this is like a sheetrock wall within your house so this is quite strong now would a ped with rebar reinforced poured wall be stronger I think an engineer would say yes uh my Common Sense tells me yes uh AAC there's a new type of block it's a light block I think it has some kind of air or Styrofoam in it that makes it light easier to cut easy to stall saves time is that stronger than this don't know um that's a a question for an engineer it's a new product I guess you could say do you want to have your house have a new product that's uh not necessarily tested for 10 20 30 years this method I'm going to say and this is a guess 99% of concrete homes in the Philippines big percentage right 99% Hollow block so the way they do it is they do the walls the hollow block walls before the columns you would think it's the other way at least I did when I first moved to the Philippines but let me tell you why they don't do that this is going to be a good illustration so this wall has concrete vertically which is depicted here see the 12mm and it's usually about every couple feet that goes all the way from the tie beam from column to column the hollow blocks sit on that tie beam which is very similar to the roof beam and they start building the wall up but embedded inside the hollow block is they fill the voids which is very different from United States they fill the voids with concrete adds weight and adds strength and then at the same time there's rebar that go from the bottom all the way up that meets the top beam and then if they have to extend like here they just add another piece and then they tie it together with the same type of uh tie straps tie wire so there's a vertical rebar element to all the hollow block walls a lot of people comment saying this hollow block strong enough is there any rebar inside these hollow blocks the the answer is yes every wall has the vertical now on top of that every three courses so here's the ti beam this is the concrete embedded in the column so this is part of the column that goes down one meter that meets the footing every three courses so one course two three there's a horizontal 12mm that goes horizontally on the wall so so it'll be one here then one two three see another one right there so this wall is like Tic taac toe vertical rebar horizontal rebar and all tied together to strengthen this wall and at the same time every three courses so you can see it here you can see it here it'll be tied with the same tie straps tie wire to the column which will keep this wall from moving left to right so not only does it has the vertical it has the horizontal it's tied to the column very very important here's another example so that's three more courses so it comes out and then you have your 12 12 mm to tie into the column so that's why and this is how I was told and trained that they do the wall hok wall first because they want to make sure that they tie all these walls to the columns and there is a lot of columns I think we have 25 in our house probably 50 in this house so it all ties together for strength so I just wanted to take a few minutes and explain that I'm sure a lot of you guys uh already know that uh but there's a lot of new viewers asking questions about homes uh getting a lot of requests for subscriber visits uh subscriber lunches and coffees and like I said we're getting at least 15 to 20 new subscribers per video the last six or seven videos very surprised and wanted to take a few minutes uh to explain that so is hollow block walls sturdy um my answer is yes you hear a lot of comments that these walls are not secure um and that Port is better AAC is better um all that may be true but again if 99% of the homes in the Philippines are built this way um obviously they're doing something right because they withstand uh typhoons Wilma's house in laty was built this way and when highend came in I think they called it yulanda internationally um I think it was 200 km per hour winds Category 5 basically went right over Wilma's house no damage so again you know is poured stronger probably AAC I don't know enough about it to make a educated guests um but this is Sheetrock guys this is not structural what's structural is the footing the column the tie beam that's at the bottom that goes column to column which is basically just a column horizontal is a beam and then this will extend up and then there'll be another roof beam so basically like a rectangle and then another rectangle over here that's the strength of the house and then the roof sits on top of the beam so really this wall here does nothing it's just a wall it's not structural so I just want to make sure that I uh point that out so what progress guys I mean it's I wanted to do a video you know when I watch these guys rock and roll this week I'm like wow they're really uh they're really moving along getting a lot a lot of work done I figured I'd give you guys uh a weekly update this time instead of every other week that's some concrete so they must be anticipating rainy weather they got to tarp over to concrete very smart so a lot of guys working here I'm going to I'm going to guess and I don't know exactly but I'm going to guess and say 18 and that's just a guess and I think we started our home with 18 and then it slowly went down I think we ended like 10 at the end so uh definitely got a lot of guys uh here that's why the walls are going up uh so quickly I would assume they be working on this the walls this week got all the fill in here we're still uh praying for rain I mentioned last update that we're at of water last last Sunday for 17 hours we were finally came back after 17 hours um this week we've been good I did go buy another tank I bought another 1500 liter tank so uh R and I are going to do uh a house update because we do have uh quite a bit of news um we have a contractor coming on site I think Thursday of this week or Friday of this week to do some work um we had a few bid kids and obviously looking for the best price I found a young contractor um that we're going to be doing a video with as well um who uh is going to do some inside work for us so that's coming up and uh I did talk to our solar guy he's uh very camera shy but he said that he will cuz uh we're ready for our six Monon uh every 6 months they come and clean the panel and they uh take apart I guess the inverter and blow it out and clean it just a maintenance every 6 months uh so he's going to come up and do that and then he also does uh air con cleaning both inside and out uh the unit inside as well as the compressor outside so we're going to get our airons clean while he's here and then uh we're also going to do a uh video I'm going to interview him because uh I'm very very pleased with his work and actually we're up to six solar builds from our channel so thank you guys you trusted uh uh Alpha solar to uh install your your solar for your house and uh he's got six bills so very proud of him for that so hopefully um we'll do a good interview uh together and he'll get some more business and and I Tred to talk this uh young uh contractor that's going to be up here uh I think at the end of the week Thursday or Friday and I told him that uh after the work is done because I have to see the work I'm not going to recommend him without seeing his work but once uh the work is done um then I'll have him on the channel and he said that he would he also said that he'd be nervous about uh being interviewed but we'll uh we'll make it happen and it'll be another uh another choice for people to uh use and hopefully we all can learn something of course myself included about uh all these young guys starting businesses both are in their 20s um trying to learn the trade trying to get out there get their name known and just trying to help Market them a little bit so there you go guys update for this week a little bit of conversation about uh the walls and how they're built and how they uh withstand the typhoons here in the the Philippines and I we'll talk to you later

Channel: Building the Philippines with Wilma & Greg

Views: 6,201

Keywords: dauin, dumaguete, filipina, expat, foreigner, construction, tiny home, steel, rebar, concrete, cement

Id: q5bdI8Bixn8

Length: 22min 12sec (1332 seconds)

Published: Mon May 27 2024