Gnexplore:

Any good gentle man / lady?

Can you help me with need infor below

In building, From  LINTEL TO DECKING is usually two coaches of block, what is the estimated number of block for a three bedroom flat, for this two coaches(levels)?

See attached ( in yellow), it will help to understand what I mean.

9ijaMan:

Your question is well understood. However you did not provide the dimension of the house. You may use the simple analysis below to get a good estimate. For a good deck work, you'll need two coaches on the perimeter (external) walls of the building and three coaches of blocks on all the internal walls. The third coach for the external walls will be a 9" beam which will run through the entire perimeter of your structure. This will assist in carrying the deck load as well as provide a good support for the walls.

To answer your question: a single block is 18 inches (1.5 ft) long, at least this is referring to the most regular block type/shape in 9ja. Add up the length of all your external walls, multiply this figure by 2 (two coaches) and then divide the final result by 1.5. This is assuming all your lengths have been converted to the the imperial system (feet).

Do the same for the internal walls, however you will need to multiply the total lengths of all internal walls by 3 (remember it's now 3 coaches for internal walls). Divide your answer by 1.5. Adding the total number of blocks for internal and external walls will give you a good estimate and near accurate figure for your block requirements.

Example:
Perimeter of all external walls = 180 ft.
Total blocks needed for the two coaches = (180*2)/1.5 = 240 blocks.

Length of all internal walls = 450 ft
Total Blocks needed for internal walls = (450*3)/1.5 = 900 blocks

Total number of block needed above lintel = 240 + 900 = 1,140 blocks.

Note that I have not added any excess, this is so 'cos when the blocks are being set, they'll have at least 1" gaps for cement/sand mixture. This should take care of the excess. However if you care to, you may round up the final figure above to 1,200 (60 extra block) to take care of watages.

I hope this would help.

Gnexplore:

Thank you 9ijaMan for your invaluable and detail reply!
Am very grateful!
Please I still need you advice on the this quotation for two flats (one is two bed room and three bed room).
The building is at Lintel level without the pillars (still at foundation level). So the next stage is fix the pillars, lintel and lay blocks till decking level. What do you think about this quotation?

               [b]ESTIMATE FOR LINTELS AND 32 PLIIARS
38 length of 5/8 RODS 16MM
25 LENGTH OF 1/2 INCH ROD
25 LENGTH OF 8MM ROD
2 BONDLE OF BINDING WIRE
WORKMANSHIP N40,000

          TOTAL EXPENSE TO  FINISH THE WORK UPTO DECKING MATERIAL FOR LINTEL
38+1=39 lenghth of 5/8 rod 16mm @2500          97,500
25 length of 1/2 inch rod 12mm@1350               33,750
25 length of 8mm rod @850                              21,250
2 bondle of binding wire@2500                             5000
labour                                                             40,000
carpenter/plank                                                 30,000
cement35bags@2300                                          80,500
gravel                                                               39,000
sand                                         ;                         26,000
water                                                                 6,000
TOTAL                                                           378,500   &a mp;a mp;n bsp;   

AFTER LINTEL TO SET BLOCKS TO DECKING.
BLOCKS=1500@I35                                       205,000
CEMENTS30BAGS@2300                                   76,000
LABOUR BAL                                                 57,000
     TOTAL                                                   338,000      [/b]

tonjon:

@9ijaman do you have an idea of the cost for a 4 bedroom twin duplex in ajah(dry land) from foundation to finishing.I will await your urgent reply

Also anybody here can also help out or giv quotations

Dikyson:

@9iJaMan. Reference to post 282. I am planing to build a 20ft x50ft story building. what is the quantity of cement, sand and granite required to deck a 20ft x 50ft

Omnisean:

Can somebody please give me an overall estimate for fencing two standard plots including a gate (at least 9 coaches of block)?

9ijaMan:

Example:
Perimeter of all external walls = 180 ft.
Total blocks needed for the two coaches = (180*2)/1.5 = 240 blocks.

Omnisean:

9ijaMan, please did you mean 240 blocks will do for two coaches, so for 9 coaches will be 1080 blocks?

9ijaMan:

Sincerely speaking I think the guy who gave you the estimate in terms of quantity is doing a good job. His figures are ok as long as he's not going to do a substandard job. Let me try my rickety brain to go through your figures one at a time:
The qty for 16mm rods are ok. I estimated about 43 pieces and he's asking you for 39 pieces (this is ok 'cos I added a bit of excess).

I guess the 12mm rods will be meant for the lintel concrete work, I do not know the number of windows (and the different sizes of the windows) your house will have hence I do not know how to make an estimate here.

The 8mm rods will be used for rings round the 16 mm rods (at defined intervals) in forming the cuboid shapes for the pillars and rings for the 12mm to form the cuboids for the lintel work. 25 pieces of 8mm rods is also reasonable considering the quantity of the 16mm and 12 mm rods. 2 bundles of binding wire is ok as well.

The workmanship of 40k is also reasonable, based on my experience, however you can still try to beat the figure down a bit. 30k will be a good starting point and then you can settle for 35k after a bit of bargaining.

Generally the quantity of almost every other material is reasonable and the labour charges are equally reasonable.

I however have a big concern with your choice (or your mason's choice) of using gravel for pillars. My brother I beg you to please avoid doing that. If you have to delay your project to addd more money to purchase granite, please do so. You can use gravel for lintel work (if you choose to conserve money), but never for pillar or deck work. Granite is about twice or at most 3 times the cost of gravel. USE GRANITE for all your pillars beams and deck work. Spending an extra 100k on granite is nothing compared to the total cost of the project which (by my little) estimate will be more than 10 million Naira. What is worth doing is worth doing well.

On the post lintel block work: I do not know the size of  your house nor the dimensions. Hence I cannot tell if the quantity of materials are ok or not. However going by the initial quantities, I'll assume the estimates here should be ok too.

Lastly, you'll notice I have not said anything about the price of materials (I only made comments on labour costs), this is because I've no clue what the costs of building materials are lately. I'm living abroad and was only home last November when prices were still reasonable. So forgive me for not being able to give an opinion on the prices. You can verify the figures by getting the price of each material from some other sources independent of the guy who gave you the above estimates. Check at least 2 other independent sources for the price of the materials, and proceed to make purchases based on the most reasonable figures (not necessarily the cheapest figures o)!

Ciao!

bebe2:

hi guys,
i really want your opinion on this.
i want to start building my house in benin city, its a 5 bedroom bungalow. i am seriously thinking of making it a dormer bungalow so the kids can use it as their living room or games room. this is very common in the uk and america butno one innigeria seem to agree with the idea becos the decking is going to be made of wood. do you have any idea of this in nigeria? its getting very fustrating to get my point across to my architect and others. its there a negative or positive to this idea? pls help.

bebe2:

thanks bro,
i heard dis is mostly done in yoruba lands. but still abit sceptical.
i just want it to be a game room, something to get my boys excited wen we talk about nigeria.
i cant afford a concrete decking and it wont fit in with a bungalow.

9ijaMan:

Sincerely speaking I think the guy who gave you the estimate in terms of quantity is doing a good job. His figures are ok as long as he's not going to do a substandard job. Let me try my rickety brain to go through your figures one at a time:
The qty for 16mm rods are ok. I estimated about 43 pieces and he's asking you for 39 pieces (this is ok 'cos I added a bit of excess).

I guess the 12mm rods will be meant for the lintel concrete work, I do not know the number of windows (and the different sizes of the windows) your house will have hence I do not know how to make an estimate here.

The 8mm rods will be used for rings round the 16 mm rods (at defined intervals) in forming the cuboid shapes for the pillars and rings for the 12mm to form the cuboids for the lintel work. 25 pieces of 8mm rods is also reasonable considering the quantity of the 16mm and 12 mm rods. 2 bundles of binding wire is ok as well.

The workmanship of 40k is also reasonable, based on my experience, however you can still try to beat the figure down a bit. 30k will be a good starting point and then you can settle for 35k after a bit of bargaining.

Generally the quantity of almost every other material is reasonable and the labour charges are equally reasonable.

I however have a big concern with your choice (or your mason's choice) of using gravel for pillars. My brother I beg you to please avoid doing that. If you have to delay your project to addd more money to purchase granite, please do so. You can use gravel for lintel work (if you choose to conserve money), but never for pillar or deck work. Granite is about twice or at most 3 times the cost of gravel. USE GRANITE for all your pillars beams and deck work. Spending an extra 100k on granite is nothing compared to the total cost of the project which (by my little) estimate will be more than 10 million Naira. What is worth doing is worth doing well.

On the post lintel block work: I do not know the size of  your house nor the dimensions. Hence I cannot tell if the quantity of materials are ok or not. However going by the initial quantities, I'll assume the estimates here should be ok too.

Lastly, you'll notice I have not said anything about the price of materials (I only made comments on labour costs), this is because I've no clue what the costs of building materials are lately. I'm living abroad and was only home last November when prices were still reasonable. So forgive me for not being able to give an opinion on the prices. You can verify the figures by getting the price of each material from some other sources independent of the guy who gave you the above estimates. Check at least 2 other independent sources for the price of the materials, and proceed to make purchases based on the most reasonable figures (not necessarily the cheapest figures o)!

Ciao!

The thread is educative, thanks for the good work done

This issue of Granite vs gravel was argued somewhere in another thread.

I am not a builder but I will appreciate if you can quickly enlighten me on this.

SuyaEater:

i rather buy a house than build it