jaz:
I don't mean to derail a bit, but on the average what's the cost of building a 6 bedroom duplex ?

well its always better to get a drawing done first then you give it to a QS to quantify for you,by that way you get the exact cost that will finish the building cos of cost of materials etc well for a duplex I design and built at magodo 2012.downstairs it has a ,1 room bq attached ensuit,a guestroom ,waitingroom wit toilet,kitchen /store ,dining and living room/bar.upstairs we have masters bedroom with walkincloset ,toilet and bath,a room as office,a small box room,a gymn , family living room then 2 other rooms ,one for the boy and one for the girl and a swimming pool.

the cost of the building without the swimming pool cost like 35million while the swimming pole 10 by 5m cost 5m. I hope this info will help you out and if u need further info mation contact me on 08031332857.im an architect and building contractor my company is ARCHCRETE LIMITED

dgitrader:
When it comes to plumbing, especially when piping the entire structure, whether you are buying the items personally or not, the plumbers overquot the it excessively. If he goes to buy it, he will only bring the needed quantity, if you buy it, he will only use the needed quantity and the rest will disappear into his holdings. Imaging quoting 7 Venus Guage valves and only using 4. Each cost about 1k2.
Also, quoting kaka materials only to buy cheap pvc stuffs in place at half the price.
Recently my plumber quoted over 140 units various piping items, I brought in 91 and still had left overs after the job.
This is just one aspect of plumbing! Imagine.

even in woods purchase & quotation , such is done. imagine where d contractor gives u an estimate of 250pcs of 2x4, 500pcs of poline, 150pcsof 3x4, e.t.c. d funniest thing is that he will ask u 2 make ur own price survey after which he will tell that he has a supplier known 4 selling good woods. u may fall in2 ds thinking that u've known d prices. d supplier would invoice d estimated quantities but during d supply, they reduce d quantities, some wt 50, 150,20,30pcs frm each size knowing that u'll find it difficult counting them one by one. later d contractor goes back 2cllect d money worth d reduced qty. some cases he ends up pocketing as much as 200,000 to250,000.

Boo3nity:
Nice of you to educate us on these sharp building practices.
Say, how far can/will #1.2m go in a quest to erect a three bedroom bungalow?
P.S: Given the current building materials price list.

IF YOUR 1.2 MILLION IS WELL MANAGED IT SHOULD TAKE YOU TO THE GERMAN FLOOR STAGE(GROUND FLOR SLAB) OR ABIT MORE THAN THAT STAGE.IT DEPENDS ON YOUR METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION AND HOW BIG THE HOUSE IS.SOME PEOPLE HAVE 3 BEDROOM ON A FULL PLOT AND SUM HAVE IT ON HALF PLOT OF LAND DEPENDS ON THE DESIGN.LIKE FOR MY OWN HOUSE I HAVE A 4BEDROOM HOUSE ON HALF PLOT AND ALL ROOM ARE ENSUITE.

FOR MORE INFO CALL ME ON 08031332857. ARCHITECT/BUILDING CONTRACTOR

Jamesqu:
My brothers, there's very little one can do with respect to these cheats.

Imagine you have a 8 - 5 job, is it at the end of the day you will go to site inspite of all the traffic. Even when you get there it is already dark.

Even if you buy the materials yourself, they will tell you of shortages. Do you suspend the project for audit, which may not even reveal anything as you don't have the requiste skills to assess?

Don't even start with being in diaspora...

To an extent I monitored blocks, cement (can't do much about re-bag), electrician etc....but plumbing has been very difficult to monitor or challenge for me...may God save us!

Based on my personal experience, you can never avoid being cheated but let it not be too much or obvious cheating.Do independent market survey and crosscheck independently to reduce the cheating to barest minimum

Ill advice get a profesional builder an educated one to manage ur buildings all these things are normal things a building graduate should knw

This is a quality thread

since1914:
The biggest rip-off is that which building owners bring upon themselves by failing to hire the right people to manage their projects. In a supposed bid to save money, they end up hiring quacks, probably a moderately experienced Mason, whose nickname is 'Engineer'. These guys have no formal technical knowledge and worst of all, they have no conscience. Homeowners who hire the right professionals, hardly get cheated, because most experienced building professionals only work with subcontractors and suppliers whom they have known and worked with for quite a long while, hence most of the aforementioned issues rarely occur, because no one wants to jeopardise a long - standing beneficial relationship. The bottomline is, hire a building professional you trust and he will bring on board suppliers & subcontractors he trust.

I run a Design & Build Consultancy in Abuja, and one of the things I often notice is that most clients don't do any preliminary work on their own before rushing to the site, they are in a haste to start buying blocks and cement, even before they have taken out time to fully understand the requirements of their project. That is why, before I commence any project, I ensure that a proper Bill of Quantity is prepared. This way, the owner can view item by item how much he will be spending on materials and labour. He can even decide to take the bill to several other professionals for vetting to be sure the quotes are correct. Finally, there should always be a building contract or some sort of agreement signed by the homeowner and his building contractor. This way everyone is clear on what their obligations are. Hiring professionals might look expensive initially, but it will always be cheaper in the long run, considering the damage quacks could do to your building project.

What you have outlined is exactly the terrible error of judgment most home owners have made and are still making. But again, the technical aspect of the labor market in Nigeria should be regulated and enforced by law. That's my major worry. It'll help reduce the number of quacks in the building industry.

Training and/or retraining should be mandatory. If you were trained as a Business Manager and now want to switch to building houses, cool. But, you must be retrained in that respect and receive the requisite certification(s). If you want to register a building construction company, there should be at least one signatory with a verifiable qualification in the trade. Building categories must clearly be stated in the registration. This method has worked so well in the West and has helped to curtail incidences of cowboy-builders and contractors with no formal training.
Thank you so much. I endorse your opinion.

thanks for this thread i must say really educative...............i am facing same problem.....i bought 4plots of Land at mararaba Abuja and it seems the seller is trying to play a fast one.i intend building a small school in the future or a 5bedroom flat with enuf space for other 2bedroom and 3bedroom i can place on rentage wen am older.for now am a civil servant earning about 100k montly........pls is it advicesable i start the building now? pls very useful advice is needed with sincerity not 419ers reach me on 08086066206

spyder880:
http://amazingviewpoints..com/

Op, I must appreciate u for this ur educative thread.

I have something to learn from u snce am managing 5bedromm flat duplex.
I jst finshed the german floor which I insisted they use 10 head pan of sand n 12 ground net for one bag, but the workers insist it was to much, which they claim might lead to poor work done. My question is, how many head pan of of sand n ground net do i need to use for one bag of cement for all concrete work?
once again thank u

Just to add some...

1. Electricity:
A roll of cable for wiring supposed to be 100m but they cut out about 20m and repackage it to look like a full roll (very difficult to detect if you don't know about wires). Instead of 10 rolls, you end up using 13 rolls. And don't forget the few yards usually stolen by site electricians when the owner is not watching.


2. Workers:
Stealing! Stealing!! Stealing!!! From electricians to plumbers. They steal materials. And in some case, with the collusion of suppliers, they "overquote" the materials and round trip the extra materials back to the supplier at highly discounted prices. Both supplier and the artisan gain at the expense of the owner. You may think your electrician/plumber is very reasonable with their charges, but they already know that they will make up the difference with the materials they will steal from the site.

3. SUPPLIES:
Trips of sand or stone would come in less than full load sometimes. Usually the lorry driver will hurriedly tip the sand/stone before it could be inspected.

4. CEMENT:
I don't know if it still exists, but the vendors by cement dust and bag it themselves. The bags will come in different weights. The common denominator is that none of the bags is anywhere close to 50kg. This is why delegating construction jobs supervision to a third party is a big gamble. The count may look right, but is the quantity right? I believe this is also partially responsible for the spate of collapsing buildings being witnessed in Nigeria in recent times.

Seriously following....
9c thread

spyder880:
SCAM 2

How sound are your cement bags, do you know a sound cement bag when you see one? I can spot a tampered bag a mile away, watch those cement sellers, they may be removing some quantities of cement from the factory measure and sell to you.

they normally open the cement bags neatly, use a deep rubber plate to scoop once or twice (depending on the size of the said plate) out from the bag of cement (that supposed to be 50 kg), seal the bag back with evostic and sell again for the price of new (ie N1,800) i can smell a re-bag from a mile off too. i work in the site bro

muskham:

Hi, I will like to do a property of my own as well in Ghana, I will like to you help me with these questions. I met a mason who gave me a workmanship of 5000ghs to lay blocks for a five bedroom to lintel level, do you think it is a ripped off? how much do they normally charge. thanks. the foundation is already done. the land is in amashiama in accra

Ashiaman in Accra. unfortunately i am no an expert in these things so i wouldn't be able to tell. i'm building mine at a very slow pace and did not contract anyone. i pay 70GHC (1mason, 1Labourer) for laying 70-80 blocks with 2 bags of cement. my site is also in Accra.

Okay

nd07:



even in woods purchase & quotation , such is done. imagine where d contractor gives u an estimate of 250pcs of 2x4, 500pcs of poline, 150pcsof 3x4, e.t.c. d funniest thing is that he will ask u 2 make ur own price survey after which he will tell that he has a supplier known 4 selling good woods. u may fall in2 ds thinking that u've known d prices. d supplier would invoice d estimated quantities but during d supply, they reduce d quantities, some wt 50, 150,20,30pcs frm each size knowing that u'll find it difficult counting them one by one. later d contractor goes back 2cllect d money worth d reduced qty. some cases he ends up pocketing as much as 200,000 to250,000.

like I said earlier,the best solution is for the client to get an independent quantity surveyor to give him a material schedule.this will let the client know the quantity of material to buy for each stage of work.its simple as that intsead of worrying ur head if the contractor will make money from the quantity of materials bought or noit

Nice thanks for the info

joshua112:


IF YOUR 1.2 MILLION IS WELL MANAGED IT SHOULD TAKE YOU TO THE GERMAN FLOOR STAGE(GROUND FLOR SLAB) OR ABIT MORE THAN THAT STAGE.IT DEPENDS ON YOUR METHOD OF CONSTRUCTION AND HOW BIG THE HOUSE IS.SOME PEOPLE HAVE 3 BEDROOM ON A FULL PLOT AND SUM HAVE IT ON HALF PLOT OF LAND DEPENDS ON THE DESIGN.LIKE FOR MY OWN HOUSE I HAVE A 4BEDROOM HOUSE ON HALF PLOT AND ALL ROOM ARE ENSUITE.

FOR MORE INFO CALL ME ON 08031332857. ARCHITECT/BUILDING CONTRACTOR

Pls Joshua112 can u post the design of ur house? Really curious to see ow the half plot was managed. Thanks

Is a pity I was here late, but my Oga(Spyder) have spoken well, the item I pity people most on is Granite, Iron rod, Cement and Sand THESE ITEMS are the most expensive in building. In a simple word ucan only be rip off if you are greedy, selfish and when you try to do what is called ITK.

Is difficult to get an honest supplier, but sometimes client tend to miss them up.

In my own case client pays for my honesty, transparency...

I bless God for the grace on Nairaland wish I received, I was d 1st to state prices of materials on the forum what I met was give me your email or I text you, sm Nairalander uses my prices to benchmark aswell, but one thing I know strongly it require a inner mind to state if you want to be rip off or not. Money, Engineer, Labour, Supplier and Owner can be the reason of rip off.

People that can understnd are Aventure, Segcymore, Pmil, Junapril, owner's I cant count

Take for example Aventure will always request for pulkit or Tiger Iron rod because is full and meet standard
Segcymore will go for nothing less than Ukraine Iron Rod which is the best, some will prefer local which is not full and not all met standard

Granite some times the buyer is the reason for rip off. take for example 30tons load to Lekki-Ajah is btw 140k-145k, but buyer will negotiate for 120k, is simple a ton of 3/4Down(5/ is N2200 direct from Quarry and cost of transport with Revenue tickets is 75k, If you remove 75k from 120k = 45k/2200=20.4tons. imagine that and you want 30tons you can not get it under the Sun

Lekki-Ajah supplier will charge 180k-200k for 30tons i don't blame them but still will deliver less, that is the reason most owner's/Engineer call for granite themselves.

Cement: No doubt those buying 1bag, 10Bags may be victim of the rebag, My delivery is minimum of 300bags, when cement is hot is direct from loading, some seller buy direct from people that do rebag because is cheap they make more profit. is simple just get your scale arround scale randomly

Sand: i call it Nite market, we have different type of loading
1. Ashawo bed, is load in a sag form
2, Tansho, hip only in the middle of the bucket
3, Bambam, front to back hip
4, Yo idi e, after loading driver will drop small somewhere else if you have more than 4loads all the drop out will be load back as one load
5, Offloading skill, they will deliver 2trips as 3rips
all these applicable to Granite. Some supplier will tell you the granite will arrive @ nite so you will not see what there are bringing. Why some do not compromise quantity.

Shape Sand at Sand field is 24k-27k within ajah and Bogeje for 10tons and 20tons is 34k-48k excluding transport
Filling sand 10tons is 8k and Bambam is 15k from field transport excluded no transport on filling is less than 20k
Transload filling is what you see at abraham adesanya Junction in Ajah.

an experience: an order was requested for a trailer load of Cement(900bags) the engineer now called me
Engineer: Oga na u dey bring Cement?
Me: Yes
Engineer: Bring 600bag i request for 900bag so u will deliver 300bags to a site at Ikotun for me.
Me: Tell Oga to give the direction.

Imagine that

Chekitaut:

an experience: an order was requested for a trailer load of Cement(900bags) the engineer now called me
Engineer: Oga na u dey bring Cement?
Me: Yes
Engineer: Bring 600bag i request for 900bag so u will deliver 300bags to a site at Ikotun for me.
Me: Tell Oga to give the direction.

Chekitaut:
I bless God for the grace on Nairaland wish I received, I was d 1st to state prices of materials on the forum what I met was give me your email or I text you, sm Nairalander uses my prices to benchmark aswell, but one thing I know strongly it require a inner mind to state if you want to be rip off or not. Money, Engineer, Labour, Supplier and Owner can be the reason of rip off.

People that can understnd are Aventure, Segcymore, Pmil, Junapril, owner's I cant count

Take for example Aventure will always request for pulkit or Tiger Iron rod because is full and meet standard
Segcymore will go for nothing less than Ukraine Iron Rod which is the best, some will prefer local which is not full and not all met standard

Granite some times the buyer is the reason for rip off. take for example 30tons load to Lekki-Ajah is btw 140k-145k, but buyer will negotiate for 120k, is simple a ton of 3/4Down(5/ is N2200 direct from Quarry and cost of transport with Revenue tickets is 75k, If you remove 75k from 120k = 45k/2200=20.4tons. imagine that and you want 30tons you can not get it under the Sun

Lekki-Ajah supplier will charge 180k-200k for 30tons i don't blame them but still will deliver less, that is the reason most owner's/Engineer call for granite themselves.

Cement: No doubt those buying 1bag, 10Bags may be victim of the rebag, My delivery is minimum of 300bags, when cement is hot is direct from loading, some seller buy direct from people that do rebag because is cheap they make more profit. is simple just get your scale arround scale randomly

Sand: i call it Nite market, we have different type of loading
1. Ashawo bed, is load in a sag form
2, Tansho, hip only in the middle of the bucket
3, Bambam, front to back hip
4, Yo idi e, after loading driver will drop small somewhere else if you have more than 4loads all the drop out will be load back as one load
5, Offloading skill, they will deliver 2trips as 3rips
all these applicable to Granite. Some supplier will tell you the granite will arrive @ nite so you will not see what there are bringing. Why some do not compromise quantity.

Shape Sand at Sand field is 24k-27k within ajah and Bogeje for 10tons and 20tons is 34k-48k excluding transport
Filling sand 10tons is 8k and Bambam is 15k from field transport excluded no transport on filling is less than 20k
Transload filling is what you see at abraham adesanya Junction in Ajah.

an experience: an order was requested for a trailer load of Cement(900bags) the engineer now called me
Engineer: Oga na u dey bring Cement?
Me: Yes
Engineer: Bring 600bag i request for 900bag so u will deliver 300bags to a site at Ikotun for me.
Me: Tell Oga to give the direction.

Imagine that

Experience!

Thanks, OP for this thread.

Graceovereffort:

Pls Joshua112 can u post the design of ur house? Really curious to see ow the half plot was managed. Thanks

@grace im sorry I wont be able to post the design on nairaland cos everyone wants his or her house design to be like personal and that's why we have architects who can think and bring out a design of your choice.all I can say for now is that its a fourbedroom house and I intend making it into 2 bedrooms each to be rented out when I leave the house to another place.i will advice you get an architect that can give you the design of your choice or you contact me for your design..

joshua112:


@grace im sorry I wont be able to post the design on nairaland cos everyone wants his or her house design to be like personal and that's why we have architects who can think and bring out a design of your choice.all I can say for now is that its a fourbedroom house and I intend making it into 2 bedrooms each to be rented out when I leave the house to another place.i will advice you get an architect that can give you the design of your choice or you contact me for your design..

another thing I can do for u grace is to get ur email add and send u some internal and external pix of d house.i think that's the best I can do.thanks

joshua112:

another thing I can do for u grace is to get ur email add and send u some internal and external pix of d house.i think that's the best I can do.thanks

Alright, my email is on my profile. Thanks

dgitrader:
My people, learn measurements! Measurements! Measurements! Be it feels, meters, square meters, liters, even tones. It's the bases for cheating during construction and especially fittings. Everything can be learned easily with patience and occasionally spending quiet time alone in ur ongoing building. It's not rocket science. Most artisans capitalize on it to ripe off.
A tiller gave my total of 345 square meters only for us to arrive at 309 collectively. A neighbor of mine even bought over 19 cartoons of tiles because the sellers messed with his knowledge of metering. The cartoons were rain beaten and damage and the seller refused to refund. Same thing for POP jobs, wall screeding, interlocking pavements, etc
Many other more examples, learn measurements and avoid them.

tnx for pointing this out, my tiler gave me total quote of 330 square and he told me he i will have to pay 400naira per square last, do u think is a fair deal or any idea how much they charge per square for tiling. Also like how many carton of tiles do u think i will buy to cover this 330 square. Urgent response is appreciated.

I like this.

Thanks

sunnydayasaba:



tnx for pointing this out, my tiler gave me total quote of 330 square and he told me he i will have to pay 400naira per square last, do u think is a fair deal or any idea how much they charge per square for tiling. Also like how many carton of tiles do u think i will buy to cover this 330 square. Urgent response is appreciated.

based on present prices for workmanship on tiling job I think the 400 is ok cos tiling now is 500 for a job im doing but my tiler agreed to do it for 450 so if u get 400 I think its ok cos anything below that 400 might lead you into giving the work to a quack and trust me you don't want to knw or see how a bad tiling job looks like.for layoing of marble or granite tiles u can get it don't for 650 or 700.to know the number of tiles to cover the 330 sqmts u have to ask ur tiler for the size of tiles he wants to use and how many tiles are in one carton then I can help u calculate. We have tiles of 600x 600,450x450,400x400, 200x300 depends on what you need it for.you can call me on 08031332857 for further clarification

sunnydayasaba:



tnx for pointing this out, my tiler gave me total quote of 330 square and he told me he i will have to pay 400naira per square last, do u think is a fair deal or any idea how much they charge per square for tiling. Also like how many carton of tiles do u think i will buy to cover this 330 square. Urgent response is appreciated.

Most parts of Nigeria it's N300 per square meters least. U negotiate and pay less if u are doing the whole flat at a go. Get like 3 tilers to bargain with.
As per number of cartons, it depends of type and size of each tile. They vary.
Every tile can be priced in both Caton and square meters when u get to the market. Some cartons are are 1, 1.46 or 2.0 square meters.
If transportation isn't an huddle for you, do a room and bathroom first to get fully educated and also to test the true ability of ur tiller. Seeing is believing. This way I ended up using 3 different guys and the best of them allowed to do my parlor and dining\visitors sectors.

nd07:



even in woods purchase & quotation , such is done. imagine where d contractor gives u an estimate of 250pcs of 2x4, 500pcs of poline, 150pcsof 3x4, e.t.c. d funniest thing is that he will ask u 2 make ur own price survey after which he will tell that he has a supplier known 4 selling good woods. u may fall in2 ds thinking that u've known d prices. d supplier would invoice d estimated quantities but during d supply, they reduce d quantities, some wt 50, 150,20,30pcs frm each size knowing[b] that u'll find it difficult counting them one by one[/b]. later d contractor goes back 2cllect d money worth d reduced qty. some cases he ends up pocketing as much as 200,000 to250,000.

Anyone banking on this with me is in for a shock. For my last project I counted every bit of them.

Hello spyder... Thanks for educating us in the property sections, I have learnt a lot from you when I was building my first bungalow. Please am about to embark on another project, this time a 4flat(2up and 2down). I am having this project at Amagba, in Benin city. Please I want to know if it's advisable to use a 6inches block for such a project. Please kindly give me an update.

when it comes to electrical section, those dubious electricians would quote for excessive materials, when they go buy it with their client, they usually come back to the seller to sell off the excess quote , or they plan with the seller to hijack the price so that they can come back later to collect the difference in prices.