₦airaland Forum

Gbawe:
It was after the election that it became crystal clear to me that Nigerians (whether Hausa, Igbo , Yoruba, Ijaw ) were sentimental and extremely bigoted (religious and ethnic) to the point of rejecting logic and commonsense. Like or hate Buhari and Ribadu, there is no doubt that their record showed they delivered and that both were brave, austere men who can be resolute in pursuit of a target.

GEJ , on the other hand, possesses a highly mediocre CV as a public servant. Here was a man who stood for nothing, never particularly passionate about anything and was indeed accused by Oronto Douglas (courtesy of wikileaks) as part of the culture of corruption in the ND for decades !!!! Yet Nigerians still went ahead to vote for him. We will now collectively have to rue the folly of our sentimentalism and bigotry.

I tend to agree with you my brother. We need to start looking for viable alternatives for 2015 right away, if 9ja survives to that date. GMB may not want to contest again, besides age is not on his side any longer, while Tinubu has successfully shot Ribadu into political oblivion. We urgently need to start routing for an alternative to these men. One with an equally steely resolve to battle corruption to a standstill.

We need to co-opt SLS into CPC now now o! He's about the only other person who's principles are as incorruptible as Buhari's. Unfortunately we have to wait until he finishes his stewardship at the CBN.

SLS backed by an equally principled politician (i know we've dearth of such) will be the right way to go. Nigeria needs someone with a steel resolve to make things work.

I dey laugh o!

I hope those who voted this fisherman now know the burden they have placed on all Nigerians. We've barely spent more than 6 months of their illegal victory and everyone is now screaming. This is just a tip of the iceberg, Nigerians will keep seeing more of the GEJ in the next 3.5 years. Unfortunately most would still not learn their lessons.

By the way where is the Reuben Abati of NL a.k.a. BEAF, this is the third page and I'm yet to read from him!

hollars:
living in a mud house is not a proof that he is not corrupt like others, don't get me wrong. im not saying he is corrupt. im only saying, he chose a mud house out of interest and cultural background, does that mean if Oyinlola builds a mud house today, he's humble and not corrupt.
don't be surprised if the man owns a rolls royce. wat about that? he might crave luxurious cars and live in a mud house

Why not try to read and re-read the article before making a contribution. It'll do you a lot of good to comprehend a topic first and then make a sound response intead of shooting from the hip.

Hmmm, I really tire for Nigerian youths o!

kings112:
but i guez u were among those dat voted him .Why now whyning?
And if i may ask if he resign who would tek over?

I will understand your reasoning only if you are actually new to NL. In anycase, I was a complete supporter of GMB in the last and all previous elections in which he contested. I've known GEJ long enough never to entrust him with an LG chairmanship position let alone Nigerian President. It seems in your thoughts no one else is better to rule 9ja except GEJ. Well una deserve wetin una get o!

passionate88:
There's no mistake somewhere, The Governor of Katsina is a P.D.P member and so is the house of assembly members.

I didn't know Buhari contested for the post of Governorship of Katsina o! Abeg shed more light.

kings112:
You mean a very rich man livin in an old model house is a sign of humility.
Then i hope he doznt hav a car-he should be travlin on horse or camel that is his culture.
Yes i agree with you, but the man is trying his best.
And i think we should alow him 2 do his work.Is not easy 4 a cool,lienent man like Gej 2 rule a country like nigeria.
If today u ar gvin the prezdent of this contri ,do tink u can do beta than him?

In response to the bold, the answer is a [size=20pt]BIG[/size] [size=15pt]YES[/size]!

In terms of trying his best, in a real world people like GEJ will never smell the corridors of power let alone becoming the president of a nation. Check out news about Italy and Greece recently, the prime ministers were forced out of government for far lesser problems which they are facing in those countries when compared to our nation. Yet all you and your likes can allude to is: "He's trying his best". My brother if GEJ's best is not enough to moven Nigeria an inch forward, he should honorably leave and let those who'll make the nation work step in.

[quote author=~Bluetooth link=topic=802911.msg9554329#msg9554329 date=1321277384]Why waste your vote on a terrorist who is not better than our shayo president ?[/quote]Your signature line paints you as someone who's got better grey matter than your post above. Abeg direct us to evidences showing GMB to be a terrorists.
Please re-read your signature line again before you respond o!

I used to think Abati had more brains than he's displayed with the dumb rebuttal, but now I know better.

kings112:
Why can't you people live Gej alone.
Small thing, Gej, ah ah

Sorry pal! If GEJ wants to be left alone, then he has no business in Aso Rock. I'll bet you that Nigerians will easily forget him if he vacates Aso Rock immediately and moves back to his fishing business in the creeks of the ND.

BiafranFirstSon:
Why are you coming out again? You said if u fail in 2011,it is all over with u and politicts. If u can't keep your promise,then u can't be a good leader. Nigeria needs a man of inergrity. Or are u the only hope for the Boko Haram to make Nigeria an islamic entity?

Comprehension may be a problem for most Nigerian youths and one can easily understand why, 'cos the PDP led government has systematically destroyed the fabric of education in the country. Kindly point out in the entire ariticle where Buhari said he'll contest again?
If not keeping promises is a requisite to being agood leader, I suppose GEJ has no business in Aso Rock then!

[quote author=Ileke-IdI link=topic=802174.msg9552365#msg9552365 date=1321262887]Why should anyone learn from this man?
How has living in a mud house helped his state?
We're trying to advance, not move back to the mud ages.
There are better ways to show ppl that you're humble.
Let him live in a decent house, so that his ppl can too acquire the necessity to achieve such goal.[/quote]

nagoma:
@Ileke -Idi
I dont think Justice Nasir is asking everybody to live in a mud house. What i understand is a lesson in humility and service. If you are this humble you may not need to steal billions of Naira of peoples money because you will not even know what to do with it. These are the kind of people who serve with all their might and with the knowledge of the temporariness of life. You will remember that Nasir was also a minister (the young Minister of Justice) in the Sardauna's Northern government .
This is definitely a humble man but you may please tell us some of the better ways you are talking about. Humility cannot be based on one action. Please educate us.

Thanks nagoma for coming to my defence.
@Ileke-Idi,
I wasn't referring to lessons about living in mud houses, but lessons in humility and contentment rather than stealing and making empty barreled promises. Please read nagoma's response again as he's said it all.

[quote author=aloy@emeka link=topic=802174.msg9553330#msg9553330 date=1321270312]In other words, it's not about humility rather, its about interest. They are more interested in flashy cars than building nice houses.Just like oyibos invest a huge sum of their savings on wrist watches, vintage cars, paintings, motorcycles, etc, but majority of the black people will rather die than invest huge amount of money in vintage cars or art work.[/quote]It'a all about humility and nothing else. Buhari is not known to own a filling (gas) station let alone an oil block despite his years in government. These are people who are simply humble and happy with the little they have. The reverse is the case with those who are currently pillaging our common wealth in the disguise of ruling us.

I'd rather keep voting a Buhari who may keep losing elections than ever vote a GEJ who will keep looting the common wealth of the Nigerian people. I'd always vote the right candidate even if he'll lose than ever vote a known criminal even if all the odds favour the criminal to win.

I suppose GEJ can learn from this this man!

18 days, 10 hours and 7 minutes

The money went into the elections na, ! How can you people be expecting any waste bins in the first place.

POTUT:
If I were president, I would at least make a strong worded speech and visit the area. I see no such spine in GEJ. Its almost like Plateau is not in Nigeria.

Spot on!. The clueless, spineless GEJ will certainly have some dumb words to say about these incidents, e.g. "Such incidences are normal as it's obtained elsewhere in the world, !"

[quote author=ekt_bear link=topic=756708.msg9120873#msg9120873 date=1315684203]Why yuan rather than euro?[/quote]Because the Euro zone is also in deep financial crises, !

BALLER ON:
Well the first issue i can see here is the effect of the Government subsidy on the economy of these countries where petrol is cheap,

I agree with you. I live in the Middle-East and the fuel subsidy is not affecting their economies adversely. They have generally been able to provide essential amenities to their citizens, even though corruption is not entirely eliminated. The countries too have residents who live below the poverty line, but they have been able to successfully provide the much needed infrastructures, despite the subsidy.

You forgot to list the current sitting president and his wife, !

If such a law is promulgated and strictly enforced, the thieving will reduce drastically

nateevs:
Is the author suggesting that the people are poor because of the low cost of petrol?
How about in a converse debate, the effect of increase in the cost of goods and services should petrol cost way more than that?

Spot on!

The author evidently prefers Venezuelans to be living on credit. The average poor Venezuelan may be living on $2 per day, however, I believe he/she's better off than the average poor Briton who leaves on more than $20 per day which is 100% credit (gbese)!

Interestingly, this was the very same plan GMB spelt out in the presidential campaign which people failed to realize was the cheapest way to go. Unfortunately we have an ineffective President whose mantra is too much talk and no action. In other words, I'll treat news such as these as one of those loud mouthed noise coming from the GEJ camp.

If Abati could be so bold to list such jargon as achievements, I guess Pastor Bakare was right afterall for stating that Nigerians are Idiots. Indeed the average Nigerian is an idiot if such stupidity displayed by Abati can be considered as anything but pure garbage.

is well:
this is lie, jonathan was not ineffective.

Would you please provide us with evidence of how effective he was as a governor. Mind you I was in PH-Yenogoa axis during his tenure as dep. Gov and then Gov o, so be careful with the type of evidence wey you go produce.

woetooam4j:
Thank God I am now foreign based, Cotonou sweeet oooooooo.

I no fit laugh again o! Agree with you sha, Cotonuo sweet pass 9ja at the moment.

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

That's not what I meant. My figures were just simple examples. You need to have the total measurement of the perimeter of your land/plots. Once yo have the perimeter, then you can use my example as a guide. You will also need to add some excess of about 10% since it's a fence you are building and not a regular wall.

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

My little exercise below should help you with your estimates!

9ijaMan:
Example:
Perimeter of all external walls = 180 ft.
Total blocks needed for the two coaches = (180*2)/1.5 = 240 blocks.

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

Guys please call the person who's details is given below. He's a professional in that line and would be able to help you guys better than I can.

Munir is my friend and site Engineer who's on ground in 9ja and his number is +2348023454356. Give him a call and you can have him send you estimates and costs which you can compare with some other quotations too.

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]

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!

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.

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.

Omnisean:
Please, is it possible to build 12 units of 3 bedroom flats (ie 4 flats per floor of a 2 storey building) in two standard plots?

If you want to build houses with the UK standard room sizes then I'd say it's possible. It depends on the target market you are aiming at. Twelve flats on two plots to me sounds like a civilian barracks and surely may not yield premium rent rates, except in places where flats are shared by individuals whose main bases are out of town. I'd reduce the volume to 8 flats if I were you and charge almost twice the rates on each flat when compared to the civilian barracks of 12 flats.

One more thing, if you decide to go for 8 flats, make sure you separate the plots into two different lots with 4 flats on each plot. This will reduce the barracks effect and can attract better returns.

For those who plan to do deck work, you can do simple calculations as follow:

1 piece of rod (16mm, 12mm, 10mm, 8mm etc) is approximately 36 ft long. It should normally be 40 ft long but trust Nigerian traders, they'll always find a shortcut to profit.

Assuming a house with dimension of 20ft by 50ft.
Deck steel layout is often a square mesh with spacings of approximately 6 inches between two parallel rods (i.e. each square mesh is 38 sq.in in area). You can use smaller mesh sizes (ofcourse na more money to be spent), but never try to use bigger mesh size for residential buildings.
Also at the edeges, the rods are curved back inwards and should be approximately 4 to 6 feet.

Now down to the calculations:
Along the length (50ft) of the house you'll need at least 2 pieces of rod to cover the full length, since each rod is only 36ft long. The total length of 2 rods is now 72ft. A sample breakdown will be 50ft to cover the length, 7 ft return at each end ( 14 ft in total) and the remaining 8 ft for overlap between the two rods.
For a spacing of 6" (0.5 ft) along the length of the house, it means you'll need a total of 40 lengths lengths across the length of the house (20 ft divided by 0.5 ft). Since two pieces make one length, then your requirement will be 80 pieces of 12mm rods only.

For the 20 ft breadth of the house:
1 rod is enough for each length across the breath leaving you with 16 ft of rod to use for your return on either side. Again for the rods across the breath of the deck you'll need 100 lengths (i.e. 50 ft divided by 0.5 ft).

In total you'll need 180 pieces of 12mm for the mesh work. You may want to add 25% extra to take care of the stair work and internal beams (if an).

The 16mm rods needed are usually meant for the perimeter of the deck work to act as beam to support the deck load. the perimeter of the sample deck given will be 2 x (20+50) = 140 ft. A beam will have 4 rods to form a cuboid (some people use triangular prisms), hence you'll need 140 ft of 16mm rods in 4 places to form a complete perimeter round the deck. Add 8 ft of overlap at each corner of the deck. This will result in a total of approximately 172 ft of rod for a complete perimeter including overlaps for each of the 4 corners of the cuboid. This is approximately 5 lengths of 16mm rods for each corner of the cuboid and 20 lengths in total. That's just the engineering calculation. The actual calculation is done like this:
4 lengths of 16mm rods on each side of the breadth of the deck (8 in total) and 8 pieces on each side of the length of the deck (16 pieces in total). This yields a total of 24 pieces of 16mm rods (4 pieces more than the engineering calculation). Add 6 more pieces for your stairs.

10mm rods required to form rings will be approximately 25 to 30 pieces at most.

Summary, for a 20 ft by 50 ft deck work (including stair case concrete) you'll need approximately:
225 pieces of 12mm steel rods
30 pieces of 16mm steel rods
30 pieces of 10 mm steel rods.

I'm not a professional, but I learnt all these from friends an practicals on my personal projects.

ganny1:
Pls guys help me out. I got a very scaring quotation from my welder. Actually am buildin 4 flat, which consist of 2 bedrooms each all ersuit. Am now on the decking, and this is the quotation i got.
16 mm ,,  1 AND HALF TON
12MM  ,,   3 TONS
10MM ,,   HALF TON
WORKMANSHIP,, 120,000
LOCATION AJAH

CARPENTER
SAMMY WOOD,, 350
2 BY 3 ,,       250
BAMBOO ,,    300
WORKMANNSHIP,, 85000

CONCRETE  LEVEL
40 TONS OF GRANIT
60 TONS TO SAND
150 BAGS OF CEMENT
LABOUR ,,  120000
Actually, from foundation to the lintel, have spent nothin less than 3,5m and am not livin in nigeria to supervise the project. Am i stil on a right way or they are dupin me, pls reply me

My brother to tell you the truth, the guy is most likely milking you dry! What on earth will he be using a ton and half of 16mm rods for in a small sized 2 x 2 BDF ensuite building deck work. I did some deck work last year and here's my breakdown:

Size of House is approx[b] 40 ft by 100 ft[/b] (compare the size of your house to mine). My house was a building of 4 flats (2 on the ground floor and 2 on the top floor) with 3 bedrooms each (all rooms ensuite)

12mm rods: 5 tons (assuming each ton comprises of 84 pieces). Some tonnes are however made up of 96 pieces of 12mm rods. Bottom line is that I paid per piece for the rods used. I used a total of 436 pieces. The 3 tons he quoted for you may just be fine. I'd rather he makes that 3.5 tons (again this depends on the size of your house).

16mm rods: I can almost tell that my house is bigger than yours, I used a total of 60 16mm rods. This is less than 1.5 tonnes o!

10mm: I used a total of 60 pieces. Barely half of a ton. I guess half a ton should be ok for you as well.

Th labour cost of Iron bender he's charging you is also high. The last job I did, which is most likely bigger than yours, I paid 70k for the iron bender job on the deck work.

The carpentry labour cost is ok for Lagos. I paid 70k for mine so 85k in Lagos is not too much. The materials for carpentry work are also reasonable.

On concrete work:
I'm completely confused with the figures he gave you. To the best of my knowledge, in a concrete mixture, the ratio of sand to granite is about 1:2 (for every head-pan of sand, there should be about 2 head-pans of granite). The figures you presented shows that your guys are asking you for more sand than granite. I hope they really know what they are doing. In my case, I paid for (and got the delivery of) 130 tons of Granite and 75 tons of sharp Sand. We had some left over though which should always be the case for a deck work. It's better to have excess than to have inadequate materials for a concrete deck work. Please verify and be sure that the guy knows about concrete deck work because those figures you gave for your concrete deck (granite and sand volumes) are to say the list ridiculous, except if the guys plan to do a terribly bad job for you!

The labor charge is reasonable although I paid for almost twice that amount (again this boils down to the size of the house).

Lastly, ask him to give you the break down of the steel rod materials in terms of peices and not in terms of tonnage! The definition of steel rods ton varies a lot and you almost certainly will not get it cheaper whether you buy in tonnage or in pieces. The total value of a ton is based on the price of every single piece. Using ton to quote is kind of deceptive. Ask him for pieces.

I hope I have been able to shed some light.