₦airaland Forum

GloriousGbola:
Google tender processing fee for starters.

Some govt organisations charge you to submit tender bids.

My old place was formerly a govt organisation, which may have been why every tender bid came with a non refundable fee of 100k. They eventually stopped this, but you get the idea.

More importantly being invited to tender for a project requires you expend energy and time in conducting review of the documents provided, getting rates for items, calculating your profit margins. You may have to print and bind documents. And send them by dispatch to the client. This is also a cost. And you may not win the bid. So if you receive an invitation to tender for a project will you ask the client to pay you for filling the boq or preparing the estimate?

It is an inevitable cost of doing business.

One time I called an electrician to come to our site. The guy was referred to me. He immediately told me he would need 5k for transport to the site . I thanked him, hung up and never bothered calling him back. That demand was (for me) a sign of a difficult contractor. A nickel and dimer. The person who referred the guy to me was also suprised at the demands.

lilkech:
It has nothing to do with the brake fluid. Your brake discs were simply overheating.

Race cars come standard with properly ventilated brake discs for this exact reason.

erico2k2:
I think he is right however the 9ja mentality always come into play for fear of losing a Job and going home empty. Even FG of Nigeria only pay mobilisation once contract has been awarded. There are times where clients has paid Transport and workman went AWOLSo the question is, what's best practice?

sonnie10:
Somebody else came from Warri at no cost and got the job. That was almost #8M. Another sent someone from Nnewi and said he gave the person #5k for transportation, but he did not get the job because he didn’t have Tilcor which was my choice as compared to other roofing sheets.
It is the cost of doing business.

However my issue with this particular member here was the arrogance from demanding this transportation fee payment up front like it was an entitlement.

sonnie10:
One here told my people that they should pay him #25k to come down to East to measure my roof before he can give quotations. I Kuku respected myself and told them to look for people that are around.

sonnie10:
She is talking about a wall. If the wall was layered on the floor it would be L x B . But wall area always erect
So it’s natural for it to be L X H in square meter

redgem:
Please I want to start making budget for screeding... Initially didn't want to screed the exterior walls but changed my mind (for more painting options)..

Exterior walls 39ft by 49ft long (there's balcony at the front and back of the building).
Parlour = 42sqm (didn't subtract the doors and windows, same with the rooms)
Room 1= 15sqm
Room 2= 12.26sqm
Room 3= 13.27sqm
Lobby 1= 3.93sqm
Lobby 2= 2.92sqm

I plan on buying materials myself cos it's hard to find a trustworthy artisan here who won't want to rip one off...

I want to use black cement screeding just like one bolu1986 did (don't know if he can please assist me with the mix ratio), without him saying he used black cement, you won't know it was actually Portland cement he used...

The guy that did my pop said black cement screeding isn't good for interior cos it causes heat...please how true is this? So many confusion with black cement and normal cement screeding 🤧🤧🤧

Please skimmer guys here can you assist me with the list and amount of materials I should buy that would be enough to screed the entire build 🙏🙏🙏

Quote from my pop guy
25 buckets of Screeding paint
2 20kg top bond
15 water seal
3 bags of black cement

redgem:
I was arguing with the pop guy cos of the measurements he gave me.... I told him why is it more than the total sqm of the building and he said cos they multiply the total sqm of the building with the height of the building... Please how true is this?

redgem:
Exactly....any defect they point it to cheap services...which is wrong. Someone I know spent millions on roofing but guess what? The roof collapsed, millions spent all gone... Who is to be blamed?

isangjohnson:
Bros, thanks once again. We're just considering different options in this project as we've already determined to deliver quality job by installing products that will deliver the needed result while also lasting longer.

KolaShangOne:
Thank you.

About no 5., I saw an idea on Pinterest and I'm itching to try it out.

isangjohnson:
We will think about this.
Thanks Boss

isangjohnson:
Thank you all for your advice. I really appreciate.

Namzy:
I'm even skeptical it can handle 60 amps looks like 6mm2 wires

GloriousGbola:
erm

you have contrasting colors of lights here

warm white and cool white

it should ideally be warm white in your bedroom as cool white or daylight can interfere with your ability to fall asleep

unless the ceiling light is one of those smart lights where the color can change -

but ideally, you only want lights with cool white or daylight color temperature in work type areas in the house - your study, your kitchen, maybe your laundry.

though i understand we really dont look at colour temperature in nigeria - for years we simply installed cold white flourescent tubes in our homes

the discerning client takes things like this into consideration.

KolaShangOne:
How I use wall lights these days…

Jefferyzz:
It's still $9 with shipping n it takes 3weeks to get to Nigeria n u will need a dollar card . If u don't know how to order or av a dollar card. WhatsApp me with delivery details. I'll epp u order @725/$

Jefferyzz:
I got it from AliExpress. It's 9$

Jefferyzz:
Yh. D CC shows daily n and overall harvest on the small screen n d figures displayed are close to the actual tin. Though I av a watt meter in-between my CC n battery. The watt meter wattage reading is same as the figure in my BMS.

GuestJoe:
Please can I get his contact? Will he be able to do plaster work in Anambra?

GloriousGbola:
A partner wants to go all in on PV installations so I did some research.

1. Felicity solar are the only lower tier solar who have a proper website and proper documentation of all their products.

2.They also have very wide coverage. Across Africa.

Most of these solar products Google searches takes you to jumia and ends there. Or the company ends in Ikeja.

We also went to felicitys main office in okota.

3. They have a workshop filled to overflowing.

Whether that is a good sign or not depends on you.

GloriousGbola:
You know security guard is another hustle - as in you (oga in the company) give the contract for security to one of your friends who sets up a security company. The guards can literally be picked off the street. So the security vendor took the hit on the cost and the fallout.

Normally they will just cycle the guard to some other place, but the cost and fallout here na sack matter or worse. I learnt the hard way that 90% of security companies are just some very frustrated guys in uniforms

GloriousGbola:
But that is the problem in itself. An industrial stabiliser is SUPPOSED to have a high voltage cut off. Especially one sold in this environment

And the person selling is supposed to give professional advice. The customer is unlikely to be an engineer or techie

GloriousGbola:
The ups cost like 250k to fix if I recall, and the enterprise oracle server went down. Because one poorly trained security guard saw power in an isolated server room.

In hindsight, who knows all the stunts those guys had been pulling on the ups powered circuits.

When mtn came to Nigeria, they enacted a policy of changing all ups outlets to German schuko because office workers were connecting boiling rings to the UK flatpin ups outlets

Abuse of ups/inverter by end users is a real problem

GloriousGbola:
In my old place, one weekend a security guard connected an iron to the ups carrying the office oracle server.

mangolpupa:
I concur with all you've said oga mi.

E reach to warn am oo (@ bolded). My system is not up yet but I'm seriously considering adding a IV (W) regulator downstream the inverter. (ie. device won't allow you draw more than set KW at any one time). Do you think this works? (The only issue I see here is perhaps, surge power requirements being blocked)

Alternatively will be to wire an inverter exclusive socket round the house and I don't want that.

mangolpupa:
Baba before nko Why person no go pick race. Me sef run 🏃‍♀️ like say them dey pursue me.

Me think that the "secret" is we shouldn't go for the absolute lowest priced inverter as much as possible. However whatever you end up with, respect it and its design flaws.

Because that product that you swear didn't serve you has served another person for 2 or more years of no problem.

earthrealm:
hahahahhaha, i have been on both sides of the table at different times, so i have an unbiased perspective.

errrm, but lemme ask you....since we all know that these chinese products are substandard, why do we still buy them?...why not go for premium products that cost an arm an a leg like victron or morning star?. the morning star 60amps charge controller is 650 dollars...wch is about 500k plus, then seller factors in profit..its heading towards 600k for a bloody charge controller -- but it comes with a robust 5yr few questions asked waranty, they sent out a replacement unit, sharp. but we all prefer the elcheapo 100k charge controller and still expect a world class performance. .

for these chinese products, most sellers are middle men and dont have the willpower & muscle to push for waranty from where ever they bought it from, only felicity, growatt , aedunamis to some extent, have i heard honor waranties. i would advice if you must buy these chinese products ..buy direct from the big distributor in nigeria, 2nd best option buy from the manufacturer/or big seller in china. they usually have a 1yr waranty, felicity i learnt does 2yrs waranty...Deye offers 5yrs waranty..but costs over 2x that of the average china inverter....so the avg nigerian runs from it. victron offers 5yr waranty, but costs about 4x the cost of avg china inverter .- na so people dey pick race, .....

durodee:
I recently had an inverter that stopped working less than 3 months of purchase. Next i was slammed with a bill of 120k for repairs.
Reason: the components inside failed, hence it's not covered .
This then begs the question of what exactly is covered?