Welldone sir,remember me oh and am based in south south,Nigeria

Mehn.. I think people building In Oyo, Osun, Ibadan, Ogun and Ondo state are very lucky. We can cut that list your Engineer gave you by at least 30-40%.

Blocks- 140
Granite 30t - 85,000
Sand 20t- 26,000
16mm - 2050
12mm - 1200
10mm - 950

Formwork planks
1 x 12 plank - 700
1x9 plank - 600
2 x 2 - 200
Nail-5000
Bamboo- 200.

@Londoncool

I know the East do not have sharpsand and rocks (just clay soil) maybe thats why blocks and granite are expensive there. The rainforest there too doesn't produce the kind of wood for roofing too.. Its a pity

erico2k2:

I'm now wondering why we are being quoted 2 40k for 30 tones

I have just been advised that in practice they normally load 25 tonnes (and not the full 30 tonnes)in order to maintain the truck.

Dieumerci:

If you mould 32 blocks per bag, you'll need about 165 bags of cement and about 100 tonnes of sharp sand.

Talking from experience.

Would you really get 32 blocks (9 inches) from one bag of cement? I thought the rule of thumb was around 22-24 blocks for 9 inches?

KolaShangOne:
Mehn.. I think people building In Oyo, Osun, Ibadan, Ogun and Ondo state are very lucky. We can cut that list your Engineer gave you by at least 30-40%.

Blocks- 140
Granite 30t - 85,000
Sand 20t- 26,000
16mm - 2050
12mm - 1200
10mm - 950

Formwork planks
1 x 12 plank - 700
1x9 plank - 600
2 x 2 - 200
Nail-5000
Bamboo- 200.

@Londoncool

I know the East do not have sharpsand and rocks (just clay soil) maybe thats why blocks and granite are expensive there. The rainforest there too doesn't produce the kind of wood for roofing too.. Its a pity

@KolaShangOne

The price difference in building materials between East and West is very high.

LondonCool:
This was the original 3D version done for me by Vicmoor.

Beautiful house!!!

Just an observation: why roof the bungalow when you can deck and use that space as balcony for your pent-house

Actually, this can be an advantage.

You just invert your house!
Meaning, you excavate a bit more to fit in your "pent-house", put a retaining wall and deck.

Violà, you now build the bungalow!!

When you look at your house from one side, it's a one storey building and from another side it's just a bungalow.

LondonCool:
And the beat goes on. During my 3 week stay in Calabar, I decided to up the ante and tackle the challenging sloppy terrain. The foundation input was enough to build a flat.

Lesson learnt: If you do not have loads of money, dont buy a plot of land that is slopping at a steep gradient. It takes double the amount of money to level the foundation.

Check out the 8-9 coaches of block work for the foundation

LondonCool:


Would you really get 32 blocks (9 inches) from one bag of cement? I thought the rule of thumb was around 22-24 blocks for 9 inches?

Sir, with 42.5 grade cement and a good quality sharp sand, you'll get very solid 32 blocks from one bag of cement.
Trust me.

Happy to see the building carcass on-going... Happy u finally decide to include the pent house as advised.....

I discovered you didn't use DPM in your foundation. Let me know your reason...

Thanks...

Engr. A.L Onakomaya....

micgray100:
Happy to see the building carcass on-going... Happy u finally decide to include the pent house as advised.....

I discovered you didn't use DPM in your foundation. Let me know your reason...

Thanks...

Engr. A.L Onakomaya....

Greetings! DPM was applied to the DPC while preparing the German flooring. We used polyethylene sheets and laid them across before concrete was applied.

gtrust:


Beautiful house!!!

Just an observation: why roof the bungalow when you can deck and use that space as balcony for your pent-house

Thanks for your observation. One of the rooms upstairs already has a balcony. Another balcony can be created and extended for the second room without necessarily decking more foot space.

I get your practical solution. The columns and pillars around the foundation were designed to carry the load of a storey building ( if necessary). The issue for me is that if I keep on shifting the conceptual goalpost by extending the decking I might as well
deck the whole roof and convert it to a Duplex. However, I'll have a word with the Structural Engineer about the feasibility of extending the decking to accommodate a large balcony.

I was even toying with the idea of having a another floor on top of the penthouse for a proper 'penthouse'. The Engineer approved it but my wife kicked against it as we are getting older (i.e. reality of climbing staircases at an advanced age).

Dieumerci:

Sir, with 42.5 grade cement and a good quality sharp sand, you'll get very solid 32 blocks from one bag of cement.
Trust me.

That's very interesting Dieumerci. I'll speak to my brother in charge of the masons about it.

LondonCool:


Thanks for your observation. One of the rooms upstairs already has a balcony. Another balcony can be created and extended for the second room without necessarily decking more foot space.

I get your practical solution. The columns and pillars around the foundation were designed to carry the load of a storey building ( if necessary). The issue for me is that if I keep on shifting the conceptual goalpost by extending the decking I might as well
deck the whole roof and convert it to a Duplex. However, I'll have a word with the Structural Engineer about the feasibility of extending the decking to accommodate a large balcony.

I was even toying with the idea of having a another floor on top of the penthouse for a proper 'penthouse'. The Engineer approved it but my wife kicked against it as we are getting older (i.e. reality of climbing staircases at an advanced age).

If you already have the foundation for it (columns & pillars etc) then maybe an extended balcony would be cool!!
Just imagine setting a nice canopy up there

Anyway, financially: no need for all the woodwork for roofing and no roof. You "transfer" that budget to pay for the decking.

Again, I'm just a dreamer and you're the owner (not forgetting your wife oh)

Our capabilities include:
• Window Finishing(Curtains and Window Blinds)
• Beddings(Duvet, Bed Covering, Pillow Casses, Beds etc)
• Wall Finishing ( Wall Paper Decoration, Wall Painting, 3d panel installation)
• Lightening
• Building and space Remodelling
• Kitchen Cabinets
• Shelfs
• Reception Remodelling
• Office space remodelling
• Banking space remodelling
• Eatery remodelling
• Bathroom and Toilet remodelling
• School Decoration and remodelling


Call 08060595019 for more information

clementcro:
Our capabilities include:
• Window Finishing(Curtains and Window Blinds)
• Beddings(Duvet, Bed Covering, Pillow Casses, Beds etc)
• Wall Finishing ( Wall Paper Decoration, Wall Painting, 3d panel installation)
• Lightening
• Building and space Remodelling
• Kitchen Cabinets
• Shelfs
• Reception Remodelling
• Office space remodelling
• Banking space remodelling
• Eatery remodelling
• Bathroom and Toilet remodelling
• School Decoration and remodelling


Call 08060595019 for more information

Where's your website? Seeing is believing.

Post and advertise your available properties for sale,for lease or rent for FREE now on www.liveinanestate.com. register and start uploading.

Finalising work on the German flooring

More pictures

LondonCool:

Greetings! DPM was applied to the DPC while preparing the German flooring. We used polyethylene sheets and laid them across before concrete was applied.

LondonCool, guess I dint see the DPM clearly in the pics you uploaded earlier... Now seeing clearly in your new pics.. Guess it becos of it's black colour. We used to the blue colour DPM here in the north..

Good to see the work is on-going as planned.. May God give more strength to achive completion

Concluded work on the German flooring today.

More pictures

As the rainy season starts to depart I'll start stacking up blocks (5,300) for the next stage (lintel/decking).

By next month I should be able to save money and place orders for the building materials, as I'm building from my salary (no bank loan yet).

LondonCool:
Lessons learned so far (for those building from abroad)

1) Make sure you are there physically to supervise each stage of your building project (even if it takes you 4 years)- this is to prevent what happended in 1993 from happening to you.

2) Always engage professionals for your project. Ask them questions. Challenge every assumption. (the Architects on Nairaland were a good sounding board for actualising my building designs). Vicmoor sold me the idea of having a penthouse in my bungalow. Segzy14 always checked up on the progress of the building project and provided some sound advice.

3) Have at least one reliable home person on ground. I used my younger brother and my Architect friend, though they used to checkmate each other, I was getting spot-on updates on the work progress corroborated by 2 sources.

4) I bought a camera and SD card for my brother with the caveat that he had to give me weekly pictures about the work progress via Whatsapp (with his face in picture, lol). Look for a way to get visual updates about your project.

5) Get ready for other anciliary costs after purchasing your land. I paid lots of money for Land registration , Town Planning approval, Site Analysis/Charting, etc.

What happened in 1993?

LondonCool:
And the beat goes on. During my 3 week stay in Calabar, I decided to up the ante and tackle the challenging sloppy terrain. The foundation input was enough to build a flat.

Lesson learnt: If you do not have loads of money, dont buy a plot of land that is slopping at a steep gradient. It takes double the amount of money to level the foundation.

Check out the 8-9 coaches of block work for the foundation

I remembered this your "lesson learnt" two weeks ago in Ibadan on my site. Even though it's only 6 courses here it will consume about 100 to 150 tons (depends on who is giving the estimate) in laterite.

But it's only money and we can't take it with us.

KolaShangOne:
Mehn.. I think people building In Oyo, Osun, Ibadan, Ogun and Ondo state are very lucky. We can cut that list your Engineer gave you by at least 30-40%.

Blocks- 140
Granite 30t - 85,000
Sand 20t- 26,000
16mm - 2050
12mm - 1200
10mm - 950

Formwork planks
1 x 12 plank - 700
1x9 plank - 600
2 x 2 - 200
Nail-5000
Bamboo- 200.

@Londoncool

I know the East do not have sharpsand and rocks (just clay soil) maybe thats why blocks and granite are expensive there. The rainforest there too doesn't produce the kind of wood for roofing too.. Its a pity

We are truly blessed and I even beat these your prices handily. Maybe prices shifted between when you posted and the time I purchased because as an award winning conglomerate you should be getting retail pricing.

EgunMogaji:


We are truly blessed and I even beat these your prices handily. Maybe prices shifted between when you posted and the time I purchased because as an award winning conglomerate you should be getting retail pricing.

Conglomerate for where?
Those prices are worst case scenarios.. The pricing was just to underline the huge gap between here and there..

@Op,

Good structure you are putting up there, please can you throw more light on the expenses from excavation of foundation to DPC, including labour?

Thanks sir.

EgunMogaji:


What happened in 1993?

@EgunMogaji,

Good question. I was deliberately waiting for someone to ask me this.

Well, once upon a time in 1993 Ete Bassey who had spent 30 years in the UK decided that it was time for him to retire back in Nigeria. Before relocating he in his infinite wisdom decided to build a retirement home for himself in Calabar.

Ete Bassey took his life savings and pension and sent it to relatives to help him to build his house. This remittance of funds was over a 2 year period. In between that time Ete Bassey had been receiving glowing updates about the progress of his building and was even sent pictures by post ( this was before the advent of the Internet). This trend of receiving updates continued until Ete Bassey had to travel home to Calabar at short notice to attend a funeral.

Ete Bassey landed at Calabar Airport in the evening and asked the cab driver to take him straight to his 'partially completed' residence at the Parliamentary Village axis (this was before the advent of mobile phone, so he didn't have the chance to phone his homies in advance of visiting). To God be the glory, when Ete Bassey arrived at his destination at night time he could only see a gated fence, and a partial view of stacked blocks ( he must have thought they were left overs). Ete Bassey rattled the gate and asked for someone to come around to open it. No dice. Ete Bassey rattled the gate again. Silence. Silence pressurised the transmission of good breeding.

The curious case of the impatient cab driver. The cabby was suddenly getting impatient and wanted to drop Ete Bassey's luggage and put his headlights on full beam in front of the gate. He then asked Ete Ba if he was sure of the address to which Ete Ba responded in the affirmative (after taking some steps back to check the neighbouring/adjourning properties for confirmation of the family land). In the full glare of the cabby's fully beamed headlights both Ete Ba and the cab driver observed and gradually realised that there wasn't any real structure standing inside the gated plot.

Ete Ba who was already on blood pressure medication had a mild faint and asked to be taken to his main family house where the funeral preparations were taken place that night. Everyone was surprised to see Ete Ba ( as they weren't sure he would be travelling for the funeral ). Ete Ba demanded to see his younger brother and cousins who were handling his building project for a confirmation of the location of the property ( they never realised that Ete Ba had been there already). They told Ete Ba that there were some logistic issues they faced ( basically they misappropriated the funds) and that the house would be ready by the following year when he stated he would be finally relocating.

Ete Ba chuckled to himself and said 'so what happened in 1976 is now happening to me now'.

Something mysterious happened. Ete Ba slumped in Calabar and woke up in London ( according to the storyline that was passed on to me) after 3 days of unconsciousness. Thank God for private health care insurance. Ete Ba's British kids arranged for him to be flown back to UK under special medical arrangements.

I heard this story in 2000 as part of my induction when I relocated to the UK. Ete Ba spent the rest of his days in the UK a miserable man. He had to transfer from his private apartment to the Old Peoples Residential home due to his mental state. Ete Ba died a sad man. He never fulfilled his dream of building and living in his own property in Nigeria. I'm not sure if his grown up kids have taken possession of the building or even travelled to Nigeria. Well from the 1993 experience, we all learnt that whenever we are building from abroad we need to physically visit the place and build in stages every time we visit, even if it takes us 10 years to complete.

I expect someone to ask me what happened in 1976.

EgunMogaji:


I remembered this your "lesson learnt" two weeks ago in Ibadan on my site. Even though it's only 6 courses here it will consume about 100 to 150 tons (depends on who is giving the estimate) in laterite.

But it's only money and we can't take it with us.

Wow, that's a lot of laterite to fill up. Do you have a local laterite pit around your vicinity for cheap supplies?

LondonCool:


@EgunMogaji,

Good question. I was deliberately waiting for someone to ask me this.

Well, once upon a time in 1993 Ete Bassey who had spent 30 years in the UK decided that it was time for him to retire back in Nigeria. Before relocating he in his infinite wisdom decided to build a retirement home for himself in Calabar.

Ete Bassey took his life savings and pension and sent it to relatives to help him to build his house. This remittance of funds was over a 2 year period. In between that time Ete Bassey had been receiving glowing updates about the progress of his building and was even sent pictures by post ( this was before the advent of the Internet). This trend of receiving updates continued until Ete Bassey had to travel home to Calabar at short notice to attend a funeral.

Ete Bassey landed at Calabar Airport in the evening and asked the cab driver to take him straight to his 'partially completed' residence at the Parliamentary Village axis (this was before the advent of mobile phone, so he didn't have the chance to phone his homies in advance of visiting). To God be the glory, when Ete Bassey arrived at his destination at night time he could only see a gated fence, and a partial view of stacked blocks ( he must have thought they were left overs). Ete Bassey rattled the gate and asked for someone to come around to open it. No dice. Ete Bassey rattled the gate again. Silence. Silence pressurised the transmission of good breeding.

The curious case of the impatient cab driver. The cabby was suddenly getting impatient and wanted to drop Ete Bassey's luggage and put his headlights on full beam in front of the gate. He then asked Ete Ba if he was sure of the address to which Ete Ba responded in the affirmative (after taking some steps back to check the neighbouring/adjourning properties for confirmation of the family land). In the full glare of the cabby's fully beamed headlights both Ete Ba and the cab driver observed and gradually realised that there wasn't any real structure standing inside the gated plot.

Ete Ba who was already on blood pressure medication had a mild faint and asked to be taken to his main family house where the funeral preparations were taken place that night. Everyone was surprised to see Ete Ba ( as they weren't sure he would be travelling for the funeral ). Ete Ba demanded to see his younger brother and cousins who were handling his building project for a confirmation of the location of the property ( they never realised that Ete Ba had been there already). They told Ete Ba that there were some logistic issues they faced ( basically they misappropriated the funds) and that the house would be ready by the following year when he stated he would finally relocating.

Ete Ba chuckled to himself and said 'so what happened in 1976 is now happening to me now'.

Something mysterious happened. Ete Ba slumped in Calabar and woke up in London ( according to the storyline that was passed on to me) after 3 days of unconsciousness. Thank God for private health care insurance. Ete Ba's British kids arranged for him to be flown back to UK under special medical arrangements.

I heard this story in 2000 as part of my induction when I relocated to the UK. Ete Ba spent the rest of his days in the UK a miserable man. He had to transfer from his private apartment to the Old Peoples Residential home due to his mental state. Ete Ba died a sad man. He never fulfilled his dream of building and living in his own property in Nigeria. I'm not sure if his grown up kids have taken possession of the building or even travelled to Nigeria. Well from the 1993 experience, we all learnt that whenever we are building from abroad we need to physically visit the place and build in stages every time we visit, even if it takes us 10 years to complete.

I expect someone to ask me what happened in 1976.

An interesting predicament that has occurred all over Nigeria.

While I have reserved myself to locking my gate when leaving but I have devices a plan to continue building in my absence. This plan is working well so far.

In fact I was surprised when I learnt that I had 4 bags of cement left over on a project that I had done in my absence. I think this only occurred due to the scheme that I have in place as the cement would have disappeared otherwise.

The advent on internet, cellphones, easier bank payments, EFCC, etc have slowed down fraudsters. IMHO.

LondonCool:


Wow, that's a lot of laterite to fill up. Do you have a local laterite pit around your vicinity for cheap supplies?

I am working on that angle.

So far I have found laterite at N700 per tonne delivered.

Over here it would be free and even delivered for free in most cases

LondonCool:

@EgunMogaji,

Good question. I was deliberately waiting for someone to ask me this.

Well, once upon a time in 1993 Ete Bassey who had spent 30 years in the UK decided that it was time for him to retire back in Nigeria. Before relocating he in his infinite wisdom decided to build a retirement home for himself in Calabar.

I expect someone to ask me what happened in 1976.

On my side... there is no need for the 1976 story... because I was 80% "Ete Bassey"... except I was not sick or dead; this was long time ago.
I had no opportunity to come home and monitor my project because I was on a student visa, and once you leave, you are not coming back.
So my family are the next option... we are talking about mid 70s, there was no communication except letter (postal) delivery was still good.
Sending money then you have to send it thru people or those coming to USA for trading.. that was during the time called "Arrangee", if you are caught with more than "Basic Travel Allowance", you will end up in Bar Beach for firing-squad. Many old-timers will remember this time.
Long story short all photos of housing project sent to me was fake.. no house no hard earned money. I even thought of importing gun to Naija then concealed in an auto tyres so I can come and shoot those who duped, but I later changed my mind... but I surely learnt my lesson in a big way.

Your family are your worst enemy sometimes when it comes to finances or building projects, especially if you are overseas...

Hajji M.