jayooh:


I doubt if timber trusses can be phased out, because of research works to continually reduce the cost of housing. Timbers are cheaper than steel for sure, but the kind of member employed depends,to a large extent, on the nature of load and forces the trusses is to withstand. Also the spans between dividing column members also instigate choice of roof truss material.

Hooe you're good

Using steel is still a welcome idea It probably will eliminate the issue of termites and warping of wood that we see from the types of wood that we use to support our roof. The cost will definitely be prohibitive, especially in our country that rely 100% on importation. But Oga Spyder and jayooh, i'm all for using roofing materials that'll be stronger and lead to a more stable structure.

skimanski:


Are these steel or Aluminum? And also where do they come from. Which company/Country makes them?

I will find out the make and country, I know the developers of the project. It seems to be steel.

We have recently acquired a six acre of land in Open Heaven Estate, Sango ota. The site is for egg and poultry meat production. We would request some Timber of wood for structure constructions. Kindly email a quote to liztraznig@yahoo.com or qstnig@gmail.com

URGENT PLS.
How much does it Cost per bag to mould blocks around Agbara area.

fash78:
Folks I need your help in getting current prices of the materials listed below. I want to make some furniture and I am paying the artisan Labour only which has been negotiated. He gave me the list of materials below with prices (mushin prices). Note that I am not on ground so I asked one of my friends to follow this artisan to market to price the materials.

Now this is me doing my due diligence by verifying the prices given to me before going ahead. I will appreciate your help folks. Another alternative is to wait till I am on ground which is in a couple of months and price these materials myself but then the work will be delayed.

1. Quarter plywood - N2700 per sheet
2. Tank nail - N1000 per bag
3. Stud - N200 per piece
4. Castor- N4000 per pack
5. Thick 2 inch taping (200 meter) - N20000
6. Evostic - N4000
7. 2 inch foam (25d) - N10500 per sheet
8. HDF - N12800 per board
9. 2 by 12 by 12 wood (mahogany)- N450 per piece
10. 1 by 12 by 12 wood (mahogany) - N2500
10. 1 by 12 by 12 wood (ogbus) - N1700 per piece
11. 4 inch foam (25d) - N21000 per sheet
12. 6 inch foam (36d) - N12300 per sheet
13. 2 inch fiber- N3000 per sheet
14. Leather - N1500 per yard
15. Half inch foam (22d) - N2200 per sheet
16. Polish - N6500 per gallon
17. Thinner - N3500 per gallon
18. Sanding siller - N4000 per gallon.
20. Teru N350 per yard.

Guys I still need your help as per my ask above.
Thanks

Excuzeme:


That is exactly what we are saying!
If there is a STANDARD RATE, that will serve as a basis for negotiation and both Client and COntractor can then engage in bargaining, putting into consideration, any peculiar nature of the job at hand.

But such difference, after negotiation, should not be too far from the standard rate.
Ofcourse, this would not allow the Contractor, who is more experienced, to cheat the Client, who is just a novice to such negotiation.

I dont see any Contractor, smiling at me right now!

They sure wont like you very much . But this discussion needs to be had and there is no shying from it. As I type, I have a quote of NGN 3.7m to plaster a 5 bedroom duplex (labour and material) staring at me! The built area of the land is only 126 sqm - scaffolding in this quote is 550k .

I definitely know what I am doing with this one but I think this idea of getting a 'big' project is being taken too far. No need to roll the dice on every one that invites you to quote - its not free money with a lot of us.

buffox:


They sure wont like you very much . But this discussion needs to be had and there is no shying from it. As I type, I have a quote of NGN 3.7m to plaster a 5 bedroom duplex (labour and material) staring at me! The built area of the land is only 126 sqm - scaffolding in this quote is 550k .

I definitely know what I am doing with this one but I think this idea of getting a 'big' project is being taken too far. No need to roll the dice on every one that invites you to quote - its not free money with a lot of us.

It's really shocking how widespread this "hammer" mentality is inherent in most contractors. Please note that is hammer mentality is just with contractors and not with the tradesmen. How? So for example your case of 3.7m to plaster a duplex; I will be very surprised if that quote is from a learned plasterman. What happens is that the middle man which is the contractor will hammer you, go source for tradesmen who will do the job for far less and pocket the huge different. Most times it doesn't pan out well because like the yorubas will say "the walls have ears" the real artisan will eventually know how much the job was contracted out for and compare how much he's being paid and paid lately at that, will be disgruntled and just down tools. Some of those squabble you hear on building site is as a result of this phenomenon.

When you contact a contractor for a job, the contractor has already made up his mind how much he will make in the project come rain or shine. Mind you, he doesn't know as yet your budget o! So if your budget is say 2m and the contractor is targeting 2m, sorry....your project won't get off the ground because the contractor as bent as hell in making 2m from the project will aggrandize the funds for themselves. It is that bad. There are good contractors out there who would get the job done, even here on Nairaland, don't get me wrong but it's a battle of wits.

If you are having problems sourcing dedicated builder in your area with verifiable work similar to yours, go direct labour, get quotes from plastermen directly. You will be shocked at the price difference and for most times with good supervision they will do the job.

And then with scaffold. With plaster job, you don't have to do all round scaffolding because not all the face of the build will be plastered at the same time. It's good advice to do build and transfer. What this means is that arranging with the carpenter, the carpenter will only set up the scaffold for the section the plaster will start from and after completion, will transfer the scaffold to the next section so you should not spend more than 60k for scaffolding planks including carpentry workmanship. But these hammer mentality contractors will quote and give you figures for all round scaffolding only to go ahead to implement build and transfer. With build and transfer, you buy far less planks but your carpenter labour charge may be more may be a couple of thousands.

It's a real battle of wits. Do have your wits about you.

buffox:


They sure wont like you very much . But this discussion needs to be had and there is no shying from it. As I type, I have a quote of NGN 3.7m to plaster a 5 bedroom duplex (labour and material) staring at me! The built area of the land is only 126 sqm - scaffolding in this quote is 550k .

I definitely know what I am doing with this one but I think this idea of getting a 'big' project is being taken too far. No need to roll the dice on every one that invites you to quote - its not free money with a lot of us.

. Where is your location and site situated. I could give you a good mason to handle your plastering job at a fair and reasonable amount. Quote me if you're interested on the offer.

diordaves:


It's really shocking how widespread this "hammer" mentality is inherent in most contractors. Please note that is hammer mentality is just with contractors and not with the tradesmen. How? So for example your case of 3.7m to plaster a duplex; I will be very surprised if that quote is from a learned plasterman. What happens is that the middle man which is the contractor will hammer you, go source for tradesmen who will do the job for far less and pocket the huge different. Most times it doesn't pan out well because like the yorubas will say "the walls have ears" the real artisan will eventually know how much the job was contracted out for and compare how much he's being paid and paid lately at that, will be disgruntled and just down tools. Some of those squabble you hear on building site is as a result of this phenomenon.

When you contact a contractor for a job, the contractor has already made up his mind how much he will make in the project come rain or shine. Mind you, he doesn't know as yet your budget o! So if your budget is say 2m and the contractor is targeting 2m, sorry....your project won't get off the ground because the contractor as bent as hell in making 2m from the project will aggrandize the funds for themselves. It is that bad. There are good contractors out there who would get the job done, even here on Nairaland, don't get me wrong but it's a battle of wits.

If you are having problems sourcing dedicated builder in your area with verifiable work similar to yours, go direct labour, get quotes from plastermen directly. You will be shocked at the price difference and for most times with good supervision they will do the job.

And then with scaffold. With plaster job, you don't have to do all round scaffolding because not all the face of the build will be plastered at the same time. It's good advice to do build and transfer. What this means is that arranging with the carpenter, the carpenter will only set up the scaffold for the section the plaster will start from and after completion, will transfer the scaffold to the next section so you should not spend more than 60k for scaffolding planks including carpentry workmanship. But these hammer mentality contractors will quote and give you figures for all round scaffolding only to go ahead to implement build and transfer. With build and transfer, you buy far less planks but your carpenter labour charge may be more may be a couple of thousands.

It's a real battle of wits. Do have your wits about you.

I think, with this your advance level of building construction you don't need the service of the engineer, architect or trade men to your work.

"Harmer mentality" I'm just hearing this for the first time, No builder here on nairaland will have a preconceived notion of getting a prfit margin of 100%. when you want to plaster a house, the area of the wall is calculated and a thickness of plastering is assumed after careful consideration of wall straightness, roughness of surface and wall alignment, from these two the volume of plaster required for the job is calculated and a mix ratio is arrived at considering the environmental condition and the type of plaster sand, this volume is employed to calculate the quantity of cement and other constituent aggregates (plaster sand, sharp sand or stone dust).

The rate of plastering can either be set per wall area (square meters) or per partitions (7horizontal walls by 3m height) and each of the partitions is billed in accordance with the level of attention, remoteness of the site, the volume of works etc, external walls attract a higher rate. In most cases, a mason is expected to do two partitions per day @ the rate of 2k per partitions or more, you will be expected to provide labor and other logistics.
I personal estimates all this and charge for supervision fee for every job I handled.

Talking about scaffolding, scaffolding constructed for plastering can also be used for window installation, window dressing, external rendering work ( window hoods, wall belt etc), screeding and external wall painting. Building the scaffolding at once is the most prudent thing to do, considering that the tradesmen that will use the scaffolding also have family and their safety should be more important than some little extra money that can be saved, in fact, scaffolding should always come with a net to prevent an accident at workplace.
Another major advantage associated with building your parapet at once is it gives the masons and other tradesmen freedom to move around freely which makes it easier to do a better job and nailing and loosen bamboo, wood or other scaffolding components other than iron stud weakened their strength and rendered them unsafe for use.

fash78:

Guys I still need your help as per my ask above.
Thanks

Those rate quoted above are okay.

spyder880:
Just wondering aloud, will there be a time, when metal roofing will replace wooden roofing in most of our residential buildings?

I think it will be more beneficial to the environment if metal truss is used more but that also present huge environmental challenges to the area where these metal are mined.

Cost is another bottleneck, even in developed countries cost of steel roofing truss is more expensive than that of timber truss

The flexibility of the materials, timber truss is more flexible to use with our present method of construction, it requires less fabrication time, less scaffolding and manpower.

Ulu45:
my people....If u get a Geotech investigation report stating that d soil bearing capacity of d soil is very low (up to a depth of 10m), wat would u use for founding ur structure? Any and every contribution is welcomed.

I will have to ask, what is the value of the bearing capacity, what type of building do you want to build on the site, what are other properties of the soil like the soil classification, water level etc.

It will make better sense to state or post the conclusion of the soil Geotech report and also tell us the type of building you are planning to build for better understanding of your site conditions

Excuzeme:


10M is about 33ft.

Do a Pile Foundation. That is your best choice and it will give you rest of mind.

30ft is a bit deep (in terms of cost), to excavate otherwise, removing the weak top soils and replacing them with a good, well compressed soil would have done the trick

On the other hand, a Spread Foundation (if you can spread it enough, use strong enough Concrete and if the weight of building wont be too much, can also be used. The idea is to spread the weight of the building, over a large-enough surface, so as to distribute the downward-acting force on the weak soil. Pressure = Force (Weight)/ Unit Area

But mind who you give the Pilling to, there are loads of "amateurs" claiming to be doing Piles, here on Nairaland.
What we see them do is so funny but because it is "inside the ground", the owner does not have means of checking the integrity of such Piles.
What they do is usually non-uniform and not contiguous such that there are cracks/breaks along the Pile lines.
Piles are supposed to be continuous, solid Columns (like a steel Pole) stuck into the ground, on which the building sits.

There are lots of failed Piles leading to bending and cracked buildings all over the place.
By the time owner realizes what is wrong, its usually afew years down the line and too late.

Our Building Contractors here dont have "Builders Insurance" and you cant easily seek redress against them o!

without knowing the soil bearing capacity he is talking about ( because too low is subjective) and the complexity of the structure or building he is trying to build on the land, building a pile will not be the best solution.

diordaves:


And then with scaffold. With plaster job, you don't have to do all round scaffolding because not all the face of the build will be plastered at the same time. It's good advice to do build and transfer. What this means is that arranging with the carpenter, the carpenter will only set up the scaffold for the section the plaster will start from and after completion, will transfer the scaffold to the next section so you should not spend more than 60k for scaffolding planks including carpentry workmanship. But these hammer mentality contractors will quote and give you figures for all round scaffolding only to go ahead to implement build and transfer. With build and transfer, you buy far less planks but your carpenter labour charge may be more may be a couple of thousands.

It's a real battle of wits. Do have your wits about you.

Scaffold is not formwork for lintels u move from one point to another....lets becareful...the lives of those artisans to use the scaffold is worth more than the few amount we are trying to save.

Contractors & builders are many & they will not all come up with same quote, if u get a high quote, contact another builder...It seems it is only on NL people get estimate from one contractor. In the real world people get estimate from many contractors as possible & compare...

buffox:


They sure wont like you very much . But this discussion needs to be had and there is no shying from it. As I type, I have a quote of NGN 3.7m to plaster a 5 bedroom duplex (labour and material) staring at me! The built area of the land is only 126 sqm - scaffolding in this quote is 550k .

I definitely know what I am doing with this one but I think this idea of getting a 'big' project is being taken too far. No need to roll the dice on every one that invites you to quote - its not free money with a lot of us.

As my friend abdulwastecx said above, its not every job we should give to contractors. There are many jobs we can individually monitor as house owners and pay the artisans ourselves to reduce cost. I think only big jobs which require technical and intricate details should be given out to contractors who should bear the responsibility for the correct implementation of the building plan.

Having said this, let me restate my position on this topic from the first day we mentioned it last week, all jobs can never be the same. A lot of things come into costing in building of a house. Two sites that are nearby cannot even share same cost, ditto for two similar building designs in different areas. We cannot therefore fairly estimate for a plaster job and compare same price with another plaster job in another area.

I did the plastering of a 3 story building of 8 flats, inside and outside, workmanship and materials with supervision for N3.5m last year ending. But I am sure there are some small duplex which N4m cannot plaster, owing to a lot of factors which should be considered on their own individual basis.

I have worked in an estate where my men are not allowed to sleep inside the site, by estate security. You cannot work apart from 8am till 5pm, Monday till Friday. You cannot bring in materials except searched and monitored, and at day times only. Please expect me to factor the delays into the costing.

I have also worked in areas where my workers are facing daily security threats, and of course, the charge should also reflect this. Do you know there are sites you have to swim across a small river to get to? And you don't want me to include the cost of life jackets for me and my team

Talking scaffolding, I think, this is not a joking matter. Please ensure you provide all workers with up to date protection from falls and other dangers. We cannot afford to save cost on scaffolding at the expense of workers safety.

spyder880:


As my friend abdulwastecx said above, its not every job we should give to contractors. There are many jobs we can individually monitor as house owners and pay the artisans ourselves to reduce cost. I think only big jobs which require technical and intricate details should be given out to contractors who should bear the responsibility for the correct implementation of the building plan.

Having said this, let me restate my position on this topic from the first day we mentioned it last week, all jobs can never be the same. A lot of things come into costing in building of a house. Two sites that are nearby cannot even share same cost, ditto for two similar building designs in different areas. We cannot therefore fairly estimate for a plaster job and compare same price with another plaster job in another area.

I did the plastering of a 3 story building of 8 flats, inside and outside, workmanship and materials with supervision for N3.5m last year ending. But I am sure there are some small duplex which N4m cannot plaster, owing to a lot of factors which should be considered on their own individual basis.

I have worked in an estate where my men are not allowed to sleep inside the site, by estate security. You cannot work apart from 8am till 5pm, Monday till Friday. You cannot bring in materials except searched and monitored, and at day times only. Please expect me to factor the delays into the costing.

I have also worked in areas where my workers are facing daily security threats, and of course, the charge should also reflect this. Do you know there are sites you have to swim across a small river to get to? And you don't want me to include the cost of life jackets for me and my team

Talking scaffolding, I think, this is not a joking matter. Please ensure you provide all workers with up to date protection from falls and other dangers. We cannot afford to save cost on scaffolding at the expense of workers safety.

Well said sir, on another note, I love that concrete fascia in the above picture.

Hello House, please I need suggestions of reputable project engineers/managers on here with verifiable evidence of previous work done. Preferably, based in Lagos. Thanks ahead.

abdulwastecx:


I think, with this your advance level of building construction you don't need the service of the engineer, architect or trade men to your work.

"Harmer mentality" I'm just hearing this for the first time, [b]No builder here on nairaland will have a preconceived notion of getting a prfit margin of 100%. [/b]when you want to plaster a house, the area of the wall is calculated and a thickness of plastering is assumed after careful consideration of wall straightness, roughness of surface and wall alignment, from these two the volume of plaster required for the job is calculated and a mix ratio is arrived at considering the environmental condition and the type of plaster sand, this volume is employed to calculate the quantity of cement and other constituent aggregates (plaster sand, sharp sand or stone dust).

The rate of plastering can either be set per wall area (square meters) or per partitions (7horizontal walls by 3m height) and each of the partitions is billed in accordance with the level of attention, remoteness of the site, the volume of works etc, external walls attract a higher rate. In most cases, a mason is expected to do two partitions per day @ the rate of 2k per partitions or more, you will be expected to provide labor and other logistics.
I personal estimates all this and charge for supervision fee for every job I handled.

Talking about scaffolding, scaffolding constructed for plastering can also be used for window installation, window dressing, external rendering work ( window hoods, wall belt etc), screeding and external wall painting. Building the scaffolding at once is the most prudent thing to do, considering that the tradesmen that will use the scaffolding also have family and their safety should be more important than some little extra money that can be saved, in fact, scaffolding should always come with a net to prevent an accident at workplace.
Another major advantage associated with building your parapet at once is it gives the masons and other tradesmen freedom to move around freely which makes it easier to do a better job and nailing and loosen bamboo, wood or other scaffolding components other than iron stud weakened their strength and rendered them unsafe for use.

No builder on Nairaland will do what?..........I think you should speak for yourself. Assuming collective responsibility on occasion like this could be dangerous to your business. Too many builders here on Nairaland have left sour taste in the mouth of their clients. The recriminations are everywhere to see. I like your technical take on rendering. Always a pleasure to read this aspect of you. But that is not the issue. The issue is labour price transparency. It is the subterfuge, the kurukere of padding and milking the job for all it's worth. What we are saying is why will Mr A render (plaster) a building for N5 and MR B in a different location but similar building plaster for N100? Or even in same location? Why the astronomical price differentia? The paying clients are saying they want a "standard" charge so they can plan and budget appropriately. Are Nigerian contractors helping clients to save money by implementing cost saving measures on site and pass some if not all the saving to clients? The answer is a resounding NO! In fact on the contrary, most contractors are implementing measures to steal from the clients. This is the issue at stake. Now mind you, cost saving is not same as cutting corners. And this brings us to scaffolding.

The fact that you do partial scaffolding for just a particular section doesn't mean the scaffolding is not safe. Scaffolding has a lot to do with the dead and live load that will bear on it. So if you have a situation where 30 to 40 workers at every point in time will be using it with additional materials, then of course you may need a N550K amount of wood, plank or bamboo. This is because of the workload. But if you are plastering a four flat with just an average of 3 workers using the scaffold at each point in time; in the name of all that is good, what do you need a N550K outlay of wood, plank and bamboo for? So the contractor will use your safety argument approach to "put fear" in the mind of the novice clients and quote for a heavy duty scaffold of N550K only to then go ahead and use his superior knowledge and implement the appropriate level of scaffolding and pocket the difference. This is stealing.

Contractors pass some savings to your fee paying clients. They need it like the dessert need the rain. Stop using fear campaign to steal from clients.

snakebeat:

Scaffold is not formwork for for lintels u move from one point to another....lets becareful...the lives of those artisans to use the scaffold is worth more than the few amount we are trying to save.

Contractors & builders are many & they will not all come up with same quote, if u get a high quote, contact another builder...It seems it is only on NL people get estimate from one contractor. In the real world people get estimate from many contractors as possible & compare...

It is called scaffold because they are moveable. In fact that is the primary purpose of scaffold: up root and move when done. A safe scaffold is a safe scaffold. It has NOTHING to do with if you move it. In fact again, a scaffold you cannot move may not be save. The fact that you can transfer a scaffold to any section of the build doesn't mean it's not safe. A scaffold is safe and it is safe if properly done irrespective. It is good advice to know the appropriate level of scaffold needed for a particular job and invoice the clients accordingly. It is stealing to invoice the client for a heavy duty scaffold for a lightweight job. So if you as a contractor invoice a client for a heavy duty scaffold and truly use it for a lightweight job; it's still the same thing: you don't know what you are doing. You are not value for money.

diordaves:


It is called scaffold because they are moveable. In fact that is the primary purpose of scaffold: up root and move when done. A safe scaffold is a safe scaffold. It has NOTHING to do with if you move it. In fact again, a scaffold you cannot move may not be save. The fact that you can transfer a scaffold to any section of the build doesn't mean it's not safe. A scaffold is safe and it is safe if properly done irrespective. It is good advice to know the appropriate level of scaffold needed for a particular job and invoice the clients accordingly. It is stealing to invoice the client for a heavy duty scaffold for a lightweight job. So if you as a contractor invoice a client for a heavy duty scaffold and truly use it for a lightweight job; it's still the same thing: you don't know what you are doing. You are not value for money.

You wrote uproot and move the scaffold, do you mean to tear down and rebuild at a different location? Because if you put the safety of your workers forward, you can't just move scaffold without re inspecting it. Move over you will save move money by erecting scaffolding required for your job instead moving all the time. Depending on the height of scaffold you can't really move all scaffolds

spyder880:


As my friend abdulwastecx said above, its not every job we should give to contractors. There are many jobs we can individually monitor as house owners and pay the artisans ourselves to reduce cost. I think only big jobs which require technical and intricate details should be given out to contractors who should bear the responsibility for the correct implementation of the building plan.

Having said this, let me restate my position on this topic from the first day we mentioned it last week, all jobs can never be the same. A lot of things come into costing in building of a house. Two sites that are nearby cannot even share same cost, ditto for two similar building designs in different areas. We cannot therefore fairly estimate for a plaster job and compare same price with another plaster job in another area.

I did the plastering of a 3 story building of 8 flats, inside and outside, workmanship and materials with supervision for N3.5m last year ending. But I am sure there are some small duplex which N4m cannot plaster, owing to a lot of factors which should be considered on their own individual basis.

I have worked in an estate where my men are not allowed to sleep inside the site, by estate security. You cannot work apart from 8am till 5pm, Monday till Friday. You cannot bring in materials except searched and monitored, and at day times only. Please expect me to factor the delays into the costing.

I have also worked in areas where my workers are facing daily security threats, and of course, the charge should also reflect this. Do you know there are sites you have to swim across a small river to get to? And you don't want me to include the cost of life jackets for me and my team

Talking scaffolding, I think, this is not a joking matter. Please ensure you provide all workers with up to date protection from falls and other dangers. We cannot afford to save cost on scaffolding at the expense of workers safety.

What the client is saying is all things being equal; can they please get a fair deal ALWAYS from contractors? We know of extraordinary circumstances that may arise as all site situation may not be same. The building trade in Nigeria has a very bad reputation both home and abroad. I did a small market research survey not too long ago on the best professionals in Nigeria. I'm not happy to let you know that Nigerian building contractors were rated worst than the Nigerian police. I was really disappointed with my findings. Why? Because I'm a trained logistics expert, so for all intent and purposes, broadly defined I'm included. This is a classic case of a few good men. Nigerian building contractors should sit up, roll up their sucks and deliver and above all they should stop steal from clients.

diordaves:


No builder on Nairaland will do what?..........I think you should speak for yourself. Assuming collective responsibility on occasion like this could be dangerous to your business. Too many builders here on Nairaland have left sour taste in the mouth of their clients. The recriminations are everywhere to see. I like your technical take on rendering. Always a pleasure to read this aspect of you. But that is not the issue. The issue is labour price transparency. It is the subterfuge, the kurukere of padding and milking the job for all it's worth. What we are saying is why will Mr A render (plaster) a building for N5 and MR B in a different location but similar building plaster for N100? Or even in same location? Why the astronomical price differentia? The paying clients are saying they want a "standard" charge so they can plan and budget appropriately. Are Nigerian contractors helping clients to save money by implementing cost saving measures on site and pass some if not all the saving to clients? The answer is a resounding NO! In fact on the contrary, most contractors are implementing measures to steal from the clients. This is the issue at stake. Now mind you, cost saving is not same as cutting corners. And this brings us to scaffolding.

The fact that you do partial scaffolding for just a particular section doesn't mean the scaffolding is not safe. Scaffolding has a lot to do with the dead and live load that will bear on it. So if you have a situation where 30 to 40 workers at every point in time will be using it with additional materials, then of course you may need a N550K amount of wood, plank or bamboo. This is because of the workload. But if you are plastering a four flat with just an average of 3 workers using the scaffold at each point in time; in the name of all that is good, what do you need a N550K outlay of wood, plank and bamboo for? So the contractor will use your safety argument approach to "put fear" in the mind of the novice clients and quote for a heavy duty scaffold of N550K only to then go ahead and use his superior knowledge and implement the appropriate level of scaffolding and pocket the difference. This is stealing.

Contractors pass some savings to your fee paying clients. They need it like the dessert need the rain. Stop using fear campaign to steal from clients.

I agree with some of your points, the last phrase in your last sentence in my opinion is not appropriate. Never the less, some of these contractors in this forum are ridiculous. if you noticed lately many of them have stopped displaying jobs and cost analysis . It's very clear most clients especially the diasporas two to five years back have been ripped off big time. For example, when I want to do my fence pillars, window hood and some other little designs on my building wall. A contractor right here from Niaraland send me quotation for 13 pillars, 16 small windows, 18 big windows of 5x4 total cost of 1.2m two years ago. I end up spending the same amount to plaster internal, external including fence design, plastering all entire describe jobs inclusive for 1.3m. Imagine fencing and pillar design labor cost of 700k. As I write, I'm dealing with one of these contractors that was recommended to me for doing good job, also be displaying his job here. He gave me a blank quotation of material needed for the job, without specifying what type and cost of the materials. But he can quickly include his labor cost. That looks to me like you giving someone signed check without writing amount on it, that is how stupid some of them think we are. . I can go on and on to describe attitude of some of these so call contractors behind the screen of the computer. Some of them will even compare their charges with amount of dollars being paying people outside of Nigeria, but they forget that services render here are different compare to what many of them do with out ethic of professionalism.

Itstyme:
Hello House, please I need suggestions of reputable project engineers/managers on here with verifiable evidence of previous work done. Preferably, based in Lagos. Thanks ahead.

Your email address is not going thru. Leave your correct email here for contact.

Cc: Itstyme

Hajji M.

mufutau55:


Your email address is not going thru. Leave your correct email here for contact.

Cc: Itstyme

Hajji M.

That's the man that can give you details of almost every one of them, both on seen and behind the seen. You are in the right hand.

diordaves:


What the client is saying is all things being equal; can they please get a fair deal ALWAYS from contractors? We know of extraordinary circumstances that may arise as all site situation may not be same. The building trade in Nigeria has a very bad reputation both home and abroad. I did a small market research survey not too long ago on the best professionals in Nigeria. I'm not happy to let you know that Nigerian building contractors were rated worst than the Nigerian police. I was really disappointed with my findings. Why? Because I'm a trained logistics expert, so for all intent and purposes, broadly defined I'm included. This is a classic case of a few good men. Nigerian building contractors should sit up, roll up their sucks and deliver and above all they should stop steal from clients.

OK, let's talk fairness Sir

Let's start from our artisans we employ to do these works, we should all be fair to them. We cannot just send these men to the warfront and expect them to perform to their best abilities in sometimes impossible conditions, while expecting them to collect peanuts from us. These gentlemen have families like all the rest of us, and they buy their foodstuff from same market as us. Fair pricing stipulates we pay them in accordance to their skill, so they will not get frustrated and steal our materials while we use the police to chase them around.

Talking fairness, let us include the governments and their lack of care for us contractors, how they abandon us to our fate with bad, terrible roads, ( I lost a rear shock absorber on my car yesterday, so I know how it feels) lack of water, security and most especially, no power. Who bears the cost of generating power when the government fails to do so? The contractors.
How about the police stopping our loads of materials to the site and demanding a bribe before allowing you move on, is this fair? Where is the fairness?

The contractors are risk bearers who must be at the top of their game to perform. Top of their health and technical demands. Everything that will go wrong in a building site is in the head of the contractors, who has no insurance from anywhere should even the cement and other materials used correctly fail. Let me ask us this question, should the contractors include insurance costs in their pricing? Insurance against loss of money, against structural failure as a result of substandard materials, against weather conditions which might make them to loose money, against delays by omo onile wahala? So, where is the fairness?

Where's the fairness in arbitrary price increases? Where you can be given N1,500 for cement and end up buying same cement for N2,100 and the contractors keep quiet and endure. Where's the fairness in other inflationary actions where the contractors cannot afford to buy what they used to buy easily before. Where's the fairness in harsh transportation costs?

Please, understand me people, the only way of measuring fairness is in the demands of the job from any particular work site and this is what the contractors try to capture in their costing. No contractors will see a good cost and refuse the job, as nobody will refuse profit. Having said this, I have seen and know a lot of contractors languishing in poverty, despite their hard work. I think an honest man deserves to be well paid for his honest efforts, I think when people work hard, they deserve to be paid well.

The clients are trying, we understand their efforts and their good intentions, we also commend them for their patience, understanding and encouragement. We wish things will get better, we wish we can do these jobs cheaper, we wish for a better, well regulated country. We wish for peace and all round prosperity for workers, contractors and clients/house owners.

Thank you all.

mufutau55:


Your email address is not going thru. Leave your correct email here for contact.

Cc: Itstyme

Hajji M.

I have sent you an email Sir. Please kindly check your email please.

spyder880:


OK, let's talk fairness Sir

Let's start from our artisans we employ to do these works, we should all be fair to them. We cannot just send these men to the warfront and expect them to perform to their best abilities in sometimes impossible conditions, while expecting them to collect peanuts from us. These gentlemen have families like all the rest of us, and they buy their foodstuff from same market as us. Fair pricing stipulates we pay them in accordance to their skill, so they will not get frustrated and steal our materials while we use the police to chase them around.

Talking fairness, let us include the governments and their lack of care for us contractors, how they abandon us to our fate with bad, terrible roads, ( I lost a rear shock absorber on my car yesterday, so I know how it feels) lack of water, security and most especially, no power. Who bears the cost of generating power when the government fails to do so? The contractors.
How about the police stopping our loads of materials to the site and demanding a bribe before allowing you move on, is this fair? Where is the fairness?

The contractors are risk bearers who must be at the top of their game to perform. Top of their health and technical demands. Everything that will go wrong in a building site is in the head of the contractors, who has no insurance from anywhere should even the cement and other materials used correctly fail. Let me ask us this question, should the contractors include insurance costs in their pricing? Insurance against loss of money, against structural failure as a result of substandard materials, against weather conditions which might make them to loose money, against delays by omo onile wahala? So, where is the fairness?

Where's the fairness in arbitrary price increases? Where you can be given N1,500 for cement and end up buying same cement for N2,100 and the contractors keep quiet and endure. Where's the fairness in other inflationary actions where the contractors cannot afford to buy what they used to buy easily before. Where's the fairness in harsh transportation costs?

Please, understand me people, the only way of measuring fairness is in the demands of the job from any particular work site and this is what the contractors try to capture in their costing. No contractors will see a good cost and refuse the job, as nobody will refuse profit. Having said this, I have seen and know a lot of contractors languishing in poverty, despite their hard work. I think an honest man deserves to be well paid for his honest efforts, I think when people work hard, they deserve to be paid well.

The clients are trying, we understand their efforts and their good intentions, we also commend them for their patience, understanding and encouragement. We wish things will get better, we wish we can do these jobs cheaper, we wish for a better, well regulated country. We wish for peace and all round prosperity for workers, contractors and clients/house owners.

Thank you all.

oga spyder, i respect you on this forum but this your posts really irk me alot, so because artisans are experiencing bad road, no water no light etc clients should be paying more like the client just drop from heaven and doesnt face same challenge you talking about? the funny part is many of the contractors will reap clients so much they end up spending the money on women and drinks, they dont take care of their families cos to them the money is awoof, and ofcourse you cant use awoof money for something tangible, God is against it. Nigeria building contractors are very very terrible..... and you guys are coming to defend one another here giving cheap excuses that no two site are the same.

Some of us work 2 jobs in harsh conditions to raise funds and one contractor will be quoting ridiculous price thinking that the client is so rich so he should let them swindle him like he got the money from the trees...God help you guys

Itstyme:

I have sent you an email Sir. Please kindly check your email please.

Already replied. Thanks.

Hajji M.

#3.7Million for plastering inclusive of materials and #500k+ for scaffolding and so may posts about everyone for or against it. As far as that duplex is concerned that amount is way far high. Scaffolding are either permanent (bamboo or wood) or collapsible or adjustable ( metal clamps). A good contractor or project manager will have to plan the operation to minimise the time spent at the site while doing a thorough job. We all know when mistakes occurs you'll spend twice or thrice the original amount to effect the correction. I do not think a client will scream wild fire if there's an issue with the logistics of the workers. Most times the client provides accommodation facilities to that effect. This idea of using oyibo to compare yourself while in Nigeria is highly uncalled for. If you're a professional and worth your salt you'll not be in "nairaland" forming an expatriate and seeking for jobs. This forum is actually to share ideas and not to prove you're better than others. We all have ways towards achieving our set goals. The most important thing is getting it right and making your client happy and not feeling he spent more than he should.

It is well

Hello house,
I am wondering what I should consider in the technicalities before delving into CCTV purchase.
what specifications should I think about? All I know now is I need between 8 to 12 channels. I would like to buy the unit myself, could you please guide on configurations or specifications of CCTV units that should guide my choice.