₦airaland Forum

^^^Thanks bro!

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Hopefully next weekend barring all hiccups and busy schedule, we are going to install the gate!

Curing the concrete the next day. We now have a rock solid base that's safe to drive on.

Installing the roller track and checking the levels with my iphone app.

Mixing and Pouring the Concrete

Pic 1: My baby brother handling the hose

Meanwhile, the iron bender is preparing the pillar base, ground beam and the columns using various sizes of rods. We used 10mm iron rods for the 1ft x 1ft rings, 12mm iron rods for the ground beam and 16mm for the columns.

The 2nd picture is showing the man excavating the column base at 1.5m depth.

We started excavating early in the morning and we went as deep as 1.5m for the pillar base.

The gate track, roller and stop end.

The Gate

Dimension: 8 x 15ft

Weekend 1: Automatic Motorised Gate

These DIY Motorised gate installation is our first DIY project on this thread. My family and I, the house help and 2 masons joined us in the last weekend to install the gate frames and pillars.

We intend to build a gate pillar similar to the one in the picture below.

Budget: N70,000 (excluding the motor and the gear equipment)
Duration: 3 weekends

Material list

3 lengths of 16mm iron rod @ N2,300 - N6,900
2 lengths of 12mm iron rod @ N1,300 - N2,600
Binding wire (NA, we have one full roll in the store)
Cement - 20 bags - N32,000 (We want a very solid column. We do not want to spend money repairing the column because our gate is very heavy)
Stone - (We decide to use grave mixed with stone dust in order to lower cost)
Sharp sand - (NA, we have one full load of sand)
10 pcs of 1 x 12 Planks @ N900 - N9,000
4 pcs of 2 x 3 wood @ N300 - N1,200


Tools

90 litres Concrete Mixer (I've been using this mixer for my DIY projects (interlocking stones, walkway etc) for a while now)
2 shovel
2 buckets
Spirit Level version 3.6.3 (an iphone app for checking level)
Garden hose

This house was designed taking design cues from finished houses in the website listed above, with a custom floor plan specific to my family requirements.

We want the major rooms on the ground floor while the upper floor becomes the entertainers' paradise. The house has 225 sq.m of internal area and features three large bedroom ensuites on the ground floor, plus a studio on the upper floor. There is also a completely detached guest accommodation (24 sqm) with bedroom, bathroom and a terrace.

You can't build your dream house without secretly stalking the fabulous ideas of other great houses, right? I get my inspiration from modern house design websites. Check them out below. These website offers breathtaking design inspiration!

Houzz (houzzdotcom)
Dwell (dwelldotcom)
Freshome (freshomedotcom)

and so many more. I'll update the list as we progress.

A budget house. No loans. It's do-it-yourself home building.

Welcome to my new thread! I'm not a billionaire but I love good things. I'm starting this thread to keep my friends and followers up to date as I finish my house project. I do a lot of DIY projects in this house. Some of our DIY projects are complex (involve my construction workers) and others I do on my own with my family. I will be posting a bunch of our DIY projects that can be done in a weekend and more importantly, I'll be sharing the cost!

Hope this thread will inspire you to DIY.

Sorry for the lack of updates in the past two days, we are still sand filling The Chateau. The sand from the septic tank wont complete the work so we have started excavating the swimming pool to get more sand.
In the meantime, surface treatment and compacting of the sand filled portion is ongoing while we prepare for the concrete pour on Tuesday.

Good speed bro

I didn't just fashy the project. The project has been completed and we intend to start another one within the area soonest. Discussion in progress. I should visit the site next week. I promise to bring pictures along with my next update.

Sand Filling Continues...

The areas between the foundation walls were been filled with earth and then we'll fill with a layer of sand when we are ready to pour the concrete floor. Meanwhile, the steel re-enforcing structure that is to be embedded within the DPC is been prepared by the iron bender.

While we sand fill the foundation, the initial plumbing for the kitchen and bathroom is the next thing to worry about.

Preventing crack and settlement problems in a building begins with the recognition that the soil a foundation rests on is part of the foundation system. Your filling sand is also a building material and each type of soil respond to building loads differently.

Choose wisely.

Filling The Void

The Chateau is slowly growing in size. We have now completed the footprint of the main structure, and started sand filling with sand. Our foundation is filled with good load bearing soil that will not fail in the presence of ground or surface water.

While we sandfill, there are lot of jobs that can be done in parallel by other team members, so ultimately our schedule should not be adversely affected.

Pouring the Columns and Filling the Hollow Blocks

Septic Tank

Pictures from the Chateau

Walls Up, Filling Started

We have now completed all of the first stage ground works and are up to ground level.  Tomorrow, we will be backfilling all of the foundation walls and also pour the starter columns, so moving forward with the project, the rain should be less of an issue.

Picture Update

New blocks delivered and excavation of the septic tank ongoing

esoorita: Brabus, I'm enjoying your projected solutions to the impending problems of sand-filling the foundation without having to
buy sand at least for now. Well done! It demonstrates your ability to keep building cost down as much as you can.

Thanks for your time on this thread. My intention wasn't to cut down cost or avoid buying filling sand but there's a major challenge to be addressed and that's accessibility. The driveway is not fit for use now and there's nothing we can do about it as mother nature is doing her thing. As a result, I'd already anticipated time loss and progress to appear slow over the next few days if we do not make early plans for the filling sand (which is the next thing in the project schedule). Hence, the reason I choose to dig the septic tank, soak away and the fence. Hopefully that option should put the project on track without any time delay.

^^^Sure, you are right, I may not get as much filling sand as what will be gotten from the septic tank but I can get what will be enough to complete the foundation work without having to go through rigorous task of getting trucks uphill thus setting the project back. I can always start the fence construction during the August break when the driveway will be fit for use and buy sand to back fill the fence or use the topsoil which we planned to remove when we are ready to do the landscaping to backfill the fence.

Just my thought! We need to fix immediate challenge.

Thank you for your observation and comments. I do appreciate them always.

Edit: I only need to backfill the fence when the block work has started and not before the block work. So, I can choose to hold the fence work until dry season. Beside, there are so many other source to get sand to backfill the fence. I can use the sand dug out from the perimeter drainage/gutter to backfill the fence.

Construction Update

The iron bending crew are busy preparing the column and beam reinforcement structures. The carpenter is warming up to commence boarding of the starter columns. The excavation team handling the septic tank/soakaway have gone about 3ft deep and loads of fine graded sand (good compacting soil) have been dug out. Our foundation wall is now 75% complete as at close of work today. And total number of 3100 blocks have been supplied for the foundation and the ground floor block work, we are still expecting more.

Challenges and Work Around

1. Sharp sand: The type of sand supplied to us has not been the fine graded type of sand that we are used to and we really don't like the texture, colour and quality. In this regards, we have ordered 20 tons of stone dust to mix with the sand supplied for the casting of the columns and the DPC. Hopefully, our guys at Stoneworks (supplier of the granites) will deliver as promised early tomorrow morning.

2. Filling Sand: In the afternoon, I mentioned that we are digging the septic tank to get some sand to fill the foundation and I understood so well that the sand won't be adequate to sand fill the foundation and we are also going to have some issues moving sand uphill the driveway. Seems, we are bricked!
Unfortunately not, we need to find a workaround and one of the suggested solution is to dig the foundation for the fence. Of course, the sand dug out of the 1 acre of land will be more than enough to sand fill the building foundation and thereby putting paid to our growing concerns (how to get filling sand to the site). I'm yet to discuss this with my client though but I know its the best and cheapest alternative we have now. We get to save cost, time and also achieve more for less.

Pic Update

Pic Updates

Construction Update

It's a brighter sunny day today. Our block supplier has been able to deliver 1000 blocks to the site today as we have the weather to our advantage. The iron bender is busy preparing the 42 column extensions. The bricklayers have completed all of the starter columns and are block walls are been rounded off. Without any further delay, we have commenced backfilling of the footing holes in areas where the walls have been completed, so moving forward with the project, the rain should be less of an issue. Accessibility has been a major concern in this project and whats more worrisome is how we intend to fill the foundation. As a workaround, we have commenced digging of the septic tank and soakaway. We are hopeful that we should get some sand to fill the foundation. However, there's a caveat to this approach in case you're following this thread religiously and planned to employ the same method in your project. We will commence the block setting of the septic tank immediately to prevent collapse.

Caught in the Wood

What I look for in the woods apart from livelihood is going on expenditions. I hate caged-up animals that don't reflect the true habitat of the animals because I love hunting. A hunter's trap caught this animal live.


More update later this evening.