₦airaland Forum

Kobojunkie:
Interesting! So the woman is not culpable, it is the man that is, and this in all that happened?

Not just a man - a pastor abi na sheperd

I’m currently working on something similar to this - a floating shelf

Getting the right materials is a serious issue.

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Urgent Request!!!

I urgently need 3pcs of 95mm x 450mm x 3mm Tempered Glass

Colour: Piano Black

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Pic 2 - Glass sample.

EgunMogaji2:
I don’t think it’ll happen.

Gypsum Board is the norm in the USA.

I specifically chose POP because even homes costing tens of millions of dollars use Gypsum Board.

Issit plain or beautifully designed? Cos most homes with hefty price tags do simple designs.

sonnie10:
Is this box beam prefab or in situ? What materials are used?
Spyder880 had some exposed beams on his recent project but those were mainly for structural integrity

The box beam is a decorative beam solely for aesthetics. It comes in variety of styles (wood, fibreglass, wpc, steel etc).

It’s best used in spaces where the design won’t compromise headroom. So a very high headroom is required.

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Pic - Here’s something classic, cheap and simple (exposed beam) BUT it’s not an easy install cos you’d do most work during roof framing.

rotecch77:
The is not an alternative to pop when it comes to cost saving.
What you posted there will cost you multiple cost.

He get how dem dey do am Wey price go dey cheap.

But that one in particular that he posted won’t come cheap. I can see it has boxed beam too.

Born2conquer:
See this finishing, this is an alternative to POP

Exposed beam ceiling.

Cheap and classic way to finish a ceiling.

sonnie10:
My opinion.. some avoidable assumptions were made by both parties during this project and it has unintended consequences, financially,
Intentions are difficult to prove, so let’s not dwell on it.

Lessons derived ; always send extensive pictures of sample work
Personally inspected all work before finishing
Avoid using stock pictures for sample where possible
Don’t make any assumptions when communicating
Don’t take more work than you can handle as your trade has to do with details.

On a side note. I had wanted you to visit my country home mason for all the metal work soon but these development shouldn’t be a yardstick for your performance.

You are free to disregard these unsolicited suggestions.

I think this is purely communication issue.

Like someone shared earlier on this thread, most of these doors and gates always have design on one side, the other side is always plain or maybe that’s what me as a person would like.

I have one in my kitchen and it was plain and simple.

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Pics - When someone asked me how much a similar door cost and I gave him price. He was like how much is blah, blah... so I decided to show him the construction pics and the quality of keys used on the door. It’s a local door with 4 locking mechanism.

That’s being explicit.


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As for the finishing, I can’t really say much from a distance.

somehow:
....

Oga, I’ve asked you to air your concerns on here. What could be wrong that you felt can’t be addressed offline but people needs to know?

Kindly share and stop making a fuss out of nothing sir.

Is it like someone collect money from you and ran away?

shedy03:
Installer is experienced, but I must warn him to be careful
Thanks.

Good. Wishing you all the best on your project.

shedy03:
1800

I hope your installer comes highly recommended.

If not, ensure they’re extremely careful handling the material especially when they’re climbing the roof.

For those who don’t know, there’s something called windows and doors schedule.

Oyinbo man will not work in assumption. They’ll ask you for your technical design and when you don’t have one, they’ll ask for the as-built drawing of your project.

I once shared that my fabricator will ask for technical drawings for any steel work we are doing.

Here’s a door schedule sent to Home Depot on behalf of a client. They didn’t just ask him “Wetin you wan buy?” “Shey na doubke door or single?”

They asked for specifications.

Tbh, we can avoid a lot of all these unnecessary issues. They’re just too Nigerian.

EgunMogaji2:
I do this sporadically but will make it a “Standard Operating Procedure“ aka SOP from now on.

Baba, you’d save yourself a lot of stress going this route.

It was only yesterday we were talking about a contractor using MDF instead of HDF. These aren’t technical issues.

I even pay my artisans more to work on my site. This small issue is going to seriously set either of the parties involved back financially.

It can be avoided if we put right systems in place.

This is one reason i build my sturvs on site. It has nothing to do with trust but just to be sure we are on same page.

Well that’s me anyway.

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What’s The Way Forward

shedy03:
I acquired the 0.45mm. thanks for your advice.

Wishing you all the best.

yungmin:
Thanks bro...I'm based in Abuja. Could you mention the title and author of the book? Lemme check for free e-copy lol.

Thanks

Oh... that’s not impossible.

It is Zurich Insurance Solid Foundation | Building Guarantees Technical Manual

Adaorababy:
It's not ordinary.

It is dick-tionary

yungmin:
Your attachment looked like a quality management plan or construction methodology. Do you mind sharing with me please? Thanks

It’s a whole book used by licensed building inspectors in Europe bro.
I’m currently looking at digitizing most of great resource but too many things competing for my attention.

One is somehow

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If you’re in Lagos I won’t mind sharing the book with you to photocopy though.

BrickDevo:
Greatest!!! Hoping i get to where you are even if half of it, till then let me gathering experience from professionals like you, i will like to visit your site and learn a thing or two,

Sure the site is open. I’m opening up NextHome’s Lagos office - The Incubator back very soon make rotecch77 no come dey use me do shakara

You can reach any height if you put your focus on what truly matters. For me, I compete from my area of strength - equipment, tools and resource management.

We don’t wait for things to break before we fix it and we are constantly evolving.

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Myself and one of my chairmo on this thread is currently working on something cool that’ll be coming up very soon in Lekki Scheme II.

More resources for the big bro. One of my great guy did the preliminaries on this new project site and it was great when I visited it last Saturday.

Oga I’m praying for you already o

BrickDevo:
You are wise and sleek, only someone with experience and wisdom can maneuver this route without loss.... Weldon

Experience has shaped us over the years.

To be honest, I so much enjoyed the whole thing because I’ve being trying to push my business to the extreme and that project presented me an opportunity.

My grouse is my Oga client didn’t know when to stop. He felt I’m stupid and needs to rub it on my face Or probably one of those small contractor who will run from the project when starved with funds.
On a daily basis I maintained an average of 20 - 40 people working on the project non-stop for 30 days and there was no cry of paucity of fund.

There’s no harm in saying “Hey Brabus, I need you to work with me on this project. There’s a lot of good sturvs in it for us both.”
I can decide to do it without any fuss.

The truth I’m building my business to a level where all you need to do is to prove you have all the resource to fund the project. With a solid agreement and legal backing, I’d take care of any project with my own fund.

When my client said “No Prelims” I smiled because I have everything you need to set up 2 sites at a go and those are the things you take care in prelims as far back as 2015.

And of course, a contractor who can deliver over 20 tons of reinforcement without a down payment wouldn’t struggle to build a common duplex na.

Just name the equipment, we have it!

Once I get my new dump truck, I think we are complete once again. Looking forward to a Chinese Truck in not-too-distant future.

Aforxzy:
I saw this staircase and I wonder how can someone construct this for human use.

Floating or suspended?

Person2person:
How will you know which board was used for your cabinet after installation?

Loose out one of the cabinet door hinges...chickena!


I no dey collect money for consultation...na question you ask, you no kill person....

Knowing is just one thing. Another thing is how would you handle such issue if you’re not owner of the project?

If you reject it, how will you explain it to your client? How much time will ask him/her to give you to tidy up the mess? Many questions begging for answers.

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A lot of Nigerians have a fundamental trust issue and I weep seriously for the future of this country.

I once commissioned an aluminum guy to do some windows for me and he requested for buds to be released to purchase materials.
When he got the materials, he called me to come and see the materials (we don’t have much smartphones back then) before he start fabrication.

I saw it and confirmed it was ok.

Unknowing to me, he has shown the same material to 4 more contractors like myself who wanted a similar aluminum profile. He was only playing on our intelligence.

When cutting the frames into sizes, he will send the same picture everyohebof us who engaged him to give us update.

After a period of wait, he just called me unexpectedly one day that he’s at my projects site to install the windows and I should talk to the person on site.

Remember there was no smartphone. I told the security it’s ok.

When I got to the site days later, we discovered he used a completely different materials for the windows and hurriedly installed before anyone could notice.

All efforts to reach him afterwards proved abortive.

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Aforxzy:
And this TRUST should be "TOTAL" The contractor should trust that the client will pay as agreed, the client should trust that the contractor will deliver in quantity and quality as agreed as well. The contractor should also trust that the sub-contractor or artisans will deliver as agreed also in quantity and quality. If this happens everyone is happy knowing fully well that what you paid for is what you will get.

I concur.

However, there’s a place of trust but that doesn’t mean a General Control should play stupid with the clients money all in the name of extending trust to subtrades.

It almost 90% of time don’t go right.

I think everything in a construction project in Nigeria should follow a workflow, process, system and checklists and everyone on a project must be trained and retrained on how to do it right every time just like airport check-in service. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been flying.

rmx:
No wahala , told all the contractors at the beginning that the project will bring them quality work considering the location and visibility , that they should focus on executing well , that it will be a land mark . It’s already happening ,the architect , the glass installer etc have gotten jobs because of that project

It will be same for ring road and akala

Meanwhile started dpc at akala

More mortar and bricks to your project.

The design was not-so-Ibadan

rmx:
I must be that chairman

Now you dint explain all this before . The good thing is you have learnt and moved on

Yep!

This explains the reason I actually missed your call the Saturday you wanted to pop in sir
I was in the heat of the moment.

For me, once we’ve agreed. Kindly allow me to focus on my job!

Learning is what most adults will do for living in the 21st Century.


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Meanwhile I’m coming to collect owo omo-onile for the installation of that Glass Elevator.

Everything is piecing out nicely. Congrats!

rmx:
Am sure most of the suppliers that Supply us have zero apprehension . My own koko is getting the very best of prices , Part of the kpis of my concerned staffs is that no supplier must call me for money or outstandings. What we can’t afford , we don’t do . I sleep very well at night , I give glory to God alone

Glory be to God.

I know this!

That sleep part though. One of the thing that earn me so much credibility in the construction market is that I don’t owe people a penny.

They call me “engineer see-n-pay.”

Jeff68:
Brother, I come in peace, there are several people here who can testify they have worked or supplied materials to me, not everyone make noise, I read, I learn, I apply what I have learned. Even spyder880 has advised on my build. Funny thing is, as we speak I engaged someone (not on Nairaland) to do wardrobes and kitchen cabinets for me, I paid for HDF board, just to check I sent some, he used MDF board, he has since disappeared! I already paid #2M! Even the person that recommended him him is dumbfounded! Now, what do I do, I had to get a new person to change and salvage whatever I can.

Now, all this happened because I am not on ground! and I TRUSTED people to do certain things and have integrity!

I’ve had my hands burnt many times trusting people to do their job without dramas until I learnt how to build trusting teams.

A culture of trust doesn’t go on autopilot.
To build trust, all parties involved must focus all their energy and attention on the job at hand, establish procedures/processes and specify outcomes rather than being strategically political with one another.

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Before I started investing in tools, I shared here how I gave a subcontractor fund to produce some windows for me and he travelled to Mecca leaving me to deal with the problems.

I didn’t pick up fight with him. That’s the last thing you’d ever see me do.

I designed a new working model that makes it easier for all parties to focus on the work instead of dramas!


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Pic 1&2 - Window Production. Even if you’re the best aluminium fabricator in the world, you’d produce my windows on my site. The same applies to furnitures etc

Pic 3&4 - Production of 7 units of kitchen cabinets on site.

It’s easier to identify MDF board during production than after it has been covered. It even cost more to refix.

rotecch77:
Thanks chief.
We have an office there before at “pump and sale” bus stop.
But we are no more there now.

Yeah! Around Pump & Sell.

Well Done.

rotecch77:
—-
In other news
We are introducing ACCENT wall into our new branch office.

Last pics is sample.

Finishing still in progress

Nice one. Do you have a space on Addo Road? I think I saw something like Arbo on that road.

DUMBO 4 | Let My Will Be Done

A silent follower chatted me up after my last post and asked “Do you mean you still have another story to share despite the fact that you’ve seen the client is not trustworthy?”

I smiled.

When I’m on a project, I get busy with work. That’s why you’d hardly see a client talking about me asking for variation on any of my projects unless there’s economic sabotage or a change order request. I do all I can to stay within budget.

10 days into the project, I was already getting used to my clients approach and I decided to assume his position to understand why he’s doing what he’s doing.
Of course, this really worked because I’ve put all those Dumbos behind me and get myself busy UNTIL....

My client came up again and asked series of questions that got me confused once again and I’m like “Am I working for a stark illiterate or A narcissist?”

Everyone who knew me as far back as a decade ago knew the first thing you’d get from me on any contract is the project schedule which details what happen, when and the deliverables.

So when my client asked me “What’s happening? Why are people not working on Sunday? Why did they close at 10pm? How many people will be working overnight? Why are we not working on multiple units at the same time?

I knew I was in for something far bigger than I can ever imagine. I decided to learn.

I responded and told the client “We are weeks ahead of schedule on this project. Is there anything we were supposed to be doing that hasn’t been done?” Also this is a construction project and not a jigsaw puzzle, we need to respect standards by allowing concrete to cure before imposing loads on it.

Is there anything you really have problem with sir? Or are there specific areas you want us to give priority and all thy will shall be done!

My client said “You're supposed to be casting a slab and not DPC of a new house?”

To cast a slab on another slab which was done in just 19 days

Who does that? For love or for trust? An over pleaser? Or just being a Dumbo?

n3xt:
DUMBO 3 | Economies of Scale
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In all of these, I didn’t bother to complain because I knew I can tidy thing up within 45 - 50 days and request we go back to the drawing board to make things right.

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If I can supply over 20 tons reinforcement, a trailer load of cement and ALL tools of trade (because I never had to borrow a single tool on any of my project) to a project without any commitment and the client is still having trust issues. I think he has a more fundamental problem!

Na ordinary N5k matter led us to this topic o.

That was well over N25m to N30m risk being borne by me and I do not worry about the client not been able to pay or abruptly terminate the contract on a flimsy excuse.

All the commitment I made was done within a week. We are not even talking about weeks, months or years.

Talking about using money to do projects for client is not the problem, it’s all about finding and working for men of integrity who honours every single gentleman agreement.

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DUMBO 4 >>>

n3xt:
Sure I will. I share my experience here for others to learn.

DUMBO 3 | Economies of Scale

Economies of scale are cost reduction that occur when production increase.
Please note I’m not a block or cement seller. I do what I do just for NextHome projects only.

Eg: Producing sandcrete blocks at N200 against N300 that it’s currently sold in the open market because of the quantity involved.

While my proposal was being considered, my client said “Haba na, aren’t you going to give discounts on this job considering the scale of the project and the number of units involved?”

The request seems genuine and plausible so I decided to give a considerable discount on the project. I think it was around a couple of millions of naira

So when the decision to buy materials while we tidy up preliminaries was reached, we discovered the cost of reinforcement has increased by almost N40k more than the budget.

Interestingly, my client said we have no choice than to buy at the current market price which I feel it’s the only option we have except we want to put the project on a temporary hold.
To my rudest shock, I discovered that every time my client want to pay me for my services and every other things I’m providing on the project, he will remember there’s need to apply discount but the discount does not apply to anything he’s directly paying for

Invariably, I was subsidizing the increase in cost of building materials. I won’t say I was being used

In all honesty, I just laugh it off and decided to play along as if I don’t know the game that was being played. I do not at any point have any issues with the sudden change and the mischievous acts.

So long I'm not paying the over 40 tradespeople working with me in the project every day with my own money even though I’m indirectly paying for the cost of all the tools used on the project because there was no special charge for it in my bill of quantity, I feel we (the team and I) can still manage to push this through without getting hurt.

This we achieve without a single compromise in a record time. I think we were even almost 2 weeks ahead of our schedule of work.

We decided to look past the issues and do what we got to do.

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In all of these, I didn’t bother to complain because I knew I can tidy thing up within 45 - 50 days and request we go back to the drawing board to make things right.

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If I can supply over 20 tons reinforcement, a trailer load of cement and ALL tools of trade (because I never had to borrow a single tool on any of my project) to a project without any commitment and the client is still having trust issues. I think he has a more fundamental problem!

Na ordinary N5k matter led us to this topic o.

That was well over N25m to N30m risk being borne by me and I do not worry about the client not been able to pay or abruptly terminate the contract on a flimsy excuse.

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Next DUMBO 4

EgunMogaji2:
Hajj created this thread so we can learn and share so I think you should share.

Also, you play with high dollar, me not so much.

Sure I will. I share my experience here for others to learn.