₦airaland Forum

Progress is when half of the building is at lintel stage and the carpenter is warming up for a take-over tomorrow. To ensure we don't have problems with the blocks, we decided to reduce the mix ratio to 1 bag of cement to 8 headpans of sand using Dangote cement.

Extra 5 bags of cement won't make us cry!

esoorita: It's gone supersonic like Concorde! Brabus, I'll be surprised if the delivery time of this project is not beaten going at this rate. The owner of the project better start shopping for furnitures ASAP

I think it's better to 'under-promise' and 'over-deliver' than to 'over-promise' and then 'under-deliver'.

segcy.moor:
..dis speed past jet o o o...

Don't be surprised my bro! I'm miles ahead in my preparations. My worries at the moment is the first floor slab. All the reinforcement for this structure to first floor slab have been prepared. In fact, I'm already working on where to buy my roofs, whether Benin or Lagos.

That's how I work. I can time travel. I can go to the past to learn few things and also jet into the future to effect the present time.

The Chateau

sheade: Awesome work Brabus, despite the hassle with the driveway the work progress is quite impressive.
As for the 3 gates pictures you posted, I think they are quite too simple for house of this magnitude. Post more gate pics

Oh! The fence. I knew it myself. Even my client was silent on this. So, I believe the fences didn't wow him. My client likes WOW things. I better find a nice one before he asks me.

MastersTouch, I need beautiful fence designs for this edifice.

You don make me fall in love.. I like the stained concrete floor

mufutau55: The mansion is coming up nicely. Keep doing the good work and never the project to anyone to oversee for you.

Hajji Mufutau

Hajji, I'm a quick learner o. I've learnt some good lessons.

Lesson learned: Bad things are always going to happen in life. People will hurt you, don’t use that as an excuse to fail or to hurt someone back. You’ll only end up hurting yourself. After all, what matters is not the first, but the last chapter of our life which shows how well we ran the race.

Marpol: @brabus, is it compulsory to do the german floor first before the block work or can one build then do the german flooring later?

what are the merits and demerits

Since each building have its particular features, followers/readers must not interpret information contained on this thread as a professional opinion on his or her own case. Please note that, even though the answers I'm giving here may correspond to today’s most frequently used construction techniques, your house may need to be built quite differently.

Slab or German floor is not 100% compulsory in building. WHY? The foundations of a house rests on the footing. The walls of the foundation rest on the footing. The slab forms the floor of the house basement and it rests on the backfill and the interior ledge of the footing and remains independent from both footings and foundation walls. So, the slab or german floor does not serve as a structural support to either a column or a load-bearing wall.

If you can get your backfill and infill materials right, you can get away with pouring your slab after block works but if you'll still do it anyway, why not do it at once before the block work and take your mind off it at once.

I'll share the merits and demerits later on this thread. Of course, I do pour all my slabs before block works.

End of the day pictures

Blockworks: End of Day 1

We made some good progress today despite the start and stop conditions due to rain - we managed to make a start on the internal and external walls for the Chateau and got a fair bit of the walls done. We are still doing well so no need to rush. I'm praying for a fair weather tomorrow. All things been equal, we should be working on the first floor slab by next Wednesday.

Driveway update: Trucks were using my driveway now and material delivery seems not be a major challenge again.

It's drizzling all day.

Picture updates from The Chateau

First block laid. Walls going up. Picture updates later in the evening.

esoorita: Well done Brabus, I'm amazed that in the 21st century,a swimming pool is being dug manually. With the advent of mechanical digger I would have thought there's no need for energy sapping and back breaking manual digging. I think it's cheaper and quicker to use mechanical digger or what do you think?

You're very right bro. However, digging of the swimming at this stage was an after-thought while trying to work around accessibility issue.

Tomorrow, we'll begin to lay the blocks for the Chateau and I don't think it will take very long at all to raise all the walls - in fact, if I I should go by my projection I'm quite confident it would be done in less than a week. Stay tuned for more updates!

^^^ @jam04, it's not easy mixing concrete some 3 plots (360ft) away from the main building area o. You can imagine what I mean when I said that the first trip of sand made it to the building site today. All materials used for the groundworks were dropped about 100m to almost 1km away from the main site. It's no joke at all!

jam04: I beg to ask for what you mean by this? Do you buy any chance know the owner of this house?

You're interpreting Hajji wrongly. I guess he's referring to the rough road we have to pass before making it BIG in life. Especially the stormy water we have to swim in this project before getting to the finish line. Isale Oro l'egbin indeed. Nobody saw me when we are keeping vigil in the thick wood to ensure that the DPC was completed.

Do you get it now?

And then there's goodnews...

The first trip of sharp sand made it uphill to the building site using our driveway. What this means to us is that the driveway is now safe for use. At least, we can move all materials for the first floor slab uphill before heavy rain comes again. I decided to check the weather forecast to make plans for the rest of the week. Hopefully, the project should wear a new look by this time next week.

Stay tuned.

Pre-works Prior to Blockworks - Pictures only

1. Block Delivery
2. Cement already delivered
3. Sand delivered

nagodeallah: Brabus, what's the dimension of this mansion?. It's looks so huge!.

The footprint of the Chateau stands at 21 x 15.7m

The Chateau: The Project Schedule

1. Preliminary Works (Site Clearing/Preparation) Wed. 26 - Sun 30 Ju

- Site Clearing
- Site Store Construction
- Marking Out/Staking out building area
- Water connection
- Delivery of materials for the substructure works (planks, iron rods, sand, granite, blocks, cement etc)
- Setting out/Profiling
- Excavation/Blinding

2. Ground Breaking/Formwork/Reinforcement Mon. 8 - Thurs. 11 Jul.

- Starter columns and column base
- Block Setting (Foundation Wall)
- Boarding of the Starter Columns
- Casting of the Starter Columns

3. Sand Filling/Surface Treatment Fri. 12 - Thurs. 18 Jul.

- Sand Filling
- Wetting/Ramming/Compacting
- Damproofing
- First fix mechanical works
- Carpentry works (Boarding of the vertical sides of the DPC)

4. Casting of the slab/german floor Fri. 19 July

5. [color=#000000]Block Setting/Casting of Beams, Columns and Lintels[/color] Sat 20 - Wed 31 Jul.

- Materials arrangement and delivery
- Block Setting
- Columns, beams and lintels formwork
- Reinforcement works
- Casting of beams, columns and lintels
- Mechanical/Electrical rough-in works

6. [color=#000000]First Floor Slab Formwork/Reinforcement/casting[/color] Sat 3 - Sat 17 Aug.

- Carpentry formwork (beams, slab, staircase etc)
- Reinforcement works
- Electrical and Mechanical rough-in works
- Casting of the slab

7. [color=#000000]Block Setting/Casting of Beams, Columns, Lintels and Tank Slab[/color] Mon 19 - Wed 28 Aug.
- Block work
- Columns, beams and lintels formwork
- Reinforcement works
- Casting of beams, columns and lintels
- Reinforcement/Carpentry works for the Tank Slab
- Casting of the Tank Slab
- Mechanical/Electrical rough-in works

8. [color=#000000]Roofing woodwork/aluminum installation[/color] Wed 28 - Fri 20 Sept.



NOTE:

The items in red on the schedule are the 'milestones achieved' while the items in black are work yet to be done. Even in the face of excusable delays (harsh weather condition, accessibility issue, distance of the materials to the building site) we were still able to deliver the first stage within schedule.

Today is 'Workers Day' and my workers are on break for the day. Work resumes tomorrow. Meanwhile, we are tidying up arrangements for the Block Setting (Ground Floor)

Best always,

NextHome Builders

and this

Degis: A quick one Brabus, why did you not use Damp proof to prevent capillarity?. Thanks for answering the question in advance

We didnt use Damp Proof Membrane because we aren't in a location with high water table. Where high water tables create contact with the slab, it is necessary to waterproof the slab to resist hydrostatic pressures. Luckily for us, even at 7.2m depth we couldn't find any traces of ground water or high water table in our project. However, we've taken into consideration the problem we may encounter due to surface water, run-off from the slope and have put some measure in place to deal with it.

What we've done and what we intend to do

1. Minimize soil moisture around the foundation by using gutters and downspouts to remove roof water, and by installing a drainage system around the foundation. (TO BE DONE)
2. Remove all roots, stumps, and scrap wood from the site before, during, and after construction, including formwork from the foundation. (DONE)
3. Treat soil with herbicide and pesticide. (DONE)
4. Place a solid cap blocks on top of the foundation walls to ensure that no open cores are left exposed. We also fill all blocks at the boundary on the top course with mortar. (DONE)
5. Construct splash apron around the house to allow water to drain away from the house. Our major concern is surface water being a sloping site.
6. Backfill with highly permeable soil. (ONGOING)
7. Your suggestion (TO BE CONSIDERED)

We thank God for successful completion of the first stage of the project. Final pictures of the slab later in the morning.

AND

MORE PICS

POURING THE SLAB

GROUND FLOOR SLAB POURED - PICTURE UPDATES ONLY

Neat casting up there! Good carpentry work

Pic updates shortly

Casting in progress. 70% loading...

This stadium (oh sorry, house) is so BIG!!!