₦airaland Forum

Another design that caught my eye, submitted by @InvertedHammer in https://www.nairaland.com/972231/cost-conditions-building-these-types/5#31217012
Hard to believe this would work for an industrial building, but there's no reason company buildings can't have a more pleasing aesthetic.

No worries babe. Life is too short to be unhappy. If bleaching makes you happy, cool. The other 900 million of us will be just fine.

Nice and straight columns... I hope more builders will follow your lead, and this leads to less waste.
How easy is it to clean the forms after the job is done or do you line them with any kind of material before use?

Just going by who I would approach, Ini just looks better in that dress... and Lupita needs a few more pounds on her

Sometimes we get jealous of people because of their successes, not knowing what else they must be going through in their personal lives... Live on Davido, and RIP to your mom.

Enough talk: get in, get him, get out.

The nature of politics...

There is more that needs to be done, no doubt, but given all the challenges, any fair person would say the man has tried:

He's not high handed or brutish, he seeks consensus, appears to genuinely have the nation's interest at heart, is fair and balanced to all sections of Nigeria, has more women in powerful positions than any other country claiming to be "gender friendly", seeks long term solutions instead of jumping to conclusions, realizes there's more to boko haram than a ragtag bunch of rebels, has performed better than most predecessors, nurtures our democracy, and has brought credibility and honour to the post of Nigeria's presidency in the eyes of the world.... I could go on.

Nobody is perfect, but to give the man failing mark because he didn't perform 100% is simply not fair. Nigeria is better today than it was 20 years, or 10 years ago... In spite of the challenges, who can honestly see what's happening on the ground and give the man failing marks?

For someone as smart, talented and broad thinking as she is, I would have expected a more balanced (if positive) assessment of the situation. I must also say I'm disappointed in Seun Kuti. I'm not his father's son, yet I disagree with them both that Baba would be disappointed. Fela was fair and balanced and would criticize what was wrong, at the same time acknowledge what was right.

Allow me to rant a little: Nigeria isn't the best country yet, but it is undeniably moving in the right direction. Instead of always condemning what we don't have, we should also praise what we have. We complain about illiteracy, but we have more educated Nigerians than there are British people. We complain about education, yet there are more primary school children than there are Greek people. We complain about the negative impact of oil on our economy, forgetting that the money spent on pure water alone can cover half the government budget. We complain about bad roads, but what about all the good ones? We complain that we're still importing food, what about all the food we don't import? We complain about the negative aspects of nollywood, what about the fact that nollywood is widening the minds of people around the world, exposing them to our wonderfully crazy culture, our big hearts, our mansions, our beautiful girls, and our expensive lifestyles.

It's so easy to sit comfortably and criticize the actions of our leadership and all the hardworking Nigerians who, behind the scenes, ensure that you can:

be educated well enough at home to enter universities abroad
in fact, you are among the highest educated and best qualified immigrants to the US
have enough diplomatic clout to travel to pretty much any country with and without visa
you can buy and sell, and be free to do any business, anywhere in the world
you are well fed so you have enough energy to criticize
you have way more legitimate black billionaires than the US
You have a much more humane and happy life than most other countries, in spite of material lack.

We need to stop looking to our old colonial masters for answers and direction, and realize that we too have come of age. This generation of Nigerians are not the same as 50 years ago. We're proud, independent, unrepentant, and will prove to the world that since they don't have two heads, we too will achieve what they have.

Stop being an apologist, trying to please others. Stop being unfaithful to Nigeria. Stop doubting Nigeria. Stop amplifying problems. Dig in and help Nigeria grow!

You can either continue telling us we can't get there, or you can help us get there.

Genny na. I mean, they're both fine, but Genny's is the face that I'd love to wake up to every day.

Hello, Ihebrooke. I'm really enjoying your designs, and wonder if you would consider turning your design into three-storey light-industrial building, as mentioned here: https://www.nairaland.com/2175507/building-two-storey-light-industrial-building-electronics. We're thinking of a 14m by 14m square footprint...

Would be nice to turn the third floor into a large dedicated conference room with doors on either side opening to a patio. One side would have AC and water tank, the other side would be an outside events location. Solar cells on the roof.

Another design I really like, from https://www.nairaland.com/266315/architectural-designs-nairalanders-want-build/41#30554583
Would be nice to turn the third floor into a large dedicated conference room with doors on either side opening to a patio. One side would have AC and water tank, the other side would be an outside events location. Solar cells on the roof.

The brick buildings give an general idea of the style and window span:

Examples of ground floor layout. Notice the open layout, the high ceilings, and the need for ventilation and pressurized air. Ideally, we'll have HVAC at the top with vents dropping down. Electrical wires and pressurized air (copper pipes) should be routed down the steel columns

Excellent work to all the designers, builders, architects, contractors, and many others on Nairaland. I salute you, and thank you for this opportunity.

Straight to the point, I'm planning to build a two-storey light-industrial building, and am looking for help on all fronts. I have been looking for similar posts on from start to finish on a business structure, but have not found anything quite like this. I hope at the end this topic will be as well as inspirational, motivational, educational, and networkingal :-) as the topics by folks like fippycbk, ihebrooke, spyder880, brabus, any many other luminaries, especially for those building modern industrial/startup spaces.

About the site: the land is relatively flat and dry (water table is really deep), and should be able to accomodate 14x14 meter building with parking lots.
I'm hoping to landscape with greens and add a lake/pond which will double as our water source. We're going all solar as well. It's someplace outside Asaba.

So to begin, we're still in the planning phases, so at first, I would like all potential architects like BLH or MTS to see if they're interested in submitting ideas/proposals for this plan. Although I seem to have a solid idea of what I want, I'm very open to suggestions and encourage all sorts of input. I'll also showcase ideas and designs from other Nairalanders, so this would be kind of a scrapbook of sorts.


The ground floor is an open-plan/no interior walls with sections for electronics equipment (pcb making, soldering stations), 2 showers and
toilets, warehouse, and shipping, etc. On the top floor are offices and one conference room around the perimeter (4-6 offices per side, with the conference room taking up the space of 3 offices). The middle of the top floor will have two small meeting rooms, electronics lab room, two toilets, kitchen/rest space. If possible, we might also have an office or two that function as bedrooms for those times we're working non-stop on a project.

At the outset, we're looking at a 16m by 20m, ground floor 4m high to the ceiling, and top floor 3m high. Flat roof that will house water tanks, HVAC, solar cells and a possible patio for seating/misc.

We need one entrance on the front/right corner of the building, and another at the back, next to a larger garage door/loading dock.

Almost no windows at ground level, but wrap-around glass on the second level.

Would it be possible to get first run/drawings, along the style of these:

Please feel free to PM me or reply to this post (preferable) with your thoughts and estimates for a job like this so we can all learn and grow.

bushdoc9919:
Nigeria earns most of its revenue from oil. And our GDP is still low...especially when you calculate the percapita GDP!

Taxes? That most Nigerians do not pay?

We are still heavily importing food. And we still import 40% of our refined petroleum...BECAUSE....our refineries are NOT producing at full capacity.
Plus....guess where we get the machines needed to manufacture cement...and other products in this country. That's right...from abroad

we are not the agric power we once were. In 1970....we were a global leader in cotton, groundnut, palm oil and cocoa export.

What exports? Oil is still 80% of our exports...and now it is no longer profitable.


How does that help those at home? And when we are producing 3500mw of electricity(9000 less than what we need)..

Nigeria needs to get off oil . That is the solution...

All valid points. However there are many signs to remain optimistic:

- oil is a small part of the overall economy
- machinery will get more expensive, but the returns on investment is so much higher
- private refineries are coming onstream over the next 2-3 years
- at least one major company - psc solar uk - is building a huge plant in ikeja - it has now become cheaper for them to build,and this is true for many others. There are tons of solar distributors springing up
- transport cost will rise slower than inflation
- food productivity is rising - from improved fertilizer distribution to year round farming in the north, to massive investments in rice and cassava production, to tomato canning, to increased silo storage capacities nationwide, there is a lot momentum in agriculture
- private power generation and distribution is coming onstream
- govt agencies are getting better at fee and tax collection, especially at the corporate level
- foreign backed nigerian startups will be able to hire more people with the fall in naira
- local content law will encourage those with resources abroad to invest more
- Nigerian stocks are really good buys for Nigerians abroad with long term thinking
- Nigerians abroad can buy cement and blocks cheaper if they move quickly - how won't this help the contractors and laborers they hire? How won't this spur the economy?

In short, these are the best times to invest in Nigeria.

All these will directly impact nigerians at home. Like any large system, adjustments don't produce results right away, but its undeniable that the dials are being set in the correct ways... just wait and see 3-5 years from now. The sleeping giant of Africa is finally waking up

989900:
Seriously?!

Copying what I wrote on the wiki: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nigeria back in 2012

Although much has been made of its status as a major exporter of oil, Nigeria produces only about 2.7% of the world's supply (Saudi Arabia: 12.9%, Russia: 12.7%, USA:8.6%).[9] To put oil revenues in perspective: at an estimated export rate of 1.9 Mbbl/d (300,000 m3/d), with a projected sales price of $65 per barrel in 2011, Nigeria's anticipated revenue from petroleum is about $52.2 billion (2012 GDP: $451 billion). This accounts about 11% of official GDP figures (and drops to 8% when the informal economy is included in these calculations). Therefore, though the petroleum sector is important, it remains in fact a small part of the country's overall vibrant and diversified economy.

I would go further to say that there is another $100-200 billion that is not being accounted for due to inadequate data capture (though I have faith in our Statistician-general to keep refining their accuracy over time)

Now take this example where Nafdac states that pure water alone accounts for #7billion per day http://www.punchng.com/health/pure-water-business-generates-n7bn-daily-nafdac/

Na coins? This is from 2012, I bet it's closer to #12billion today. At #180 to $1, we get $67million per day! Which is about $24 billion annually. Just pure water alone. The same pure water our elites like to ridicule. This is in the ballpark of the official budget from oil. Granted these numbers are my estimates, but do your own calculation, and you'll see they give an idea of the scale of the Nigerian economy. Add boli and poff poff and you've just funded the government budget.

bushdoc9919:
No we won't. Especially with the era of oil prices being above $100 at an end.

Mr SAP is back again....and he is here for a very looooong stay.

Oil is less than 10% of the national gdp. Even if it goes away entirely, we'd still be an economy worth $470billion. Here's my encouraging understanding of the situation:

It's true Govt earns most of its budget from oil, but they have been looking for other revenue sources like taxes, so lower oil price will hurt in the short term but will spur more diversification efforts.

Importers will be affected, but overall we're becoming less import dependent on food, cement, and refined petroleum so we will be able to carry on

Exporters will benefit, as their products are now cheaper abroad

PMS prices at the pump - which affects the cost of business, transport, and food - should remain steady and probably fall.

Nigerians abroad will find it easier to start a business, build or buy property.

I personally think this is a great time to buy bank stocks, especially if you have dollars or pounds. In foreign exchange terms all these banks are half the price they were a year ago. I dont know if we've hit bottom, but its highly unlikely these banking stocks will stay depressed over the next 8 quarters, so you might as well pick some up while they are on sale.

No need to panic.

Smart move:
1. Lower salaries this year
2. Get voted back in since people are easily swayed
3. Double salaries for next 4 years in new congress.
4. Profit.

Wish we could all legislate our salaries like that
We do thank them for the effort though...

mmsen:
If your circumstances change then your mentality must also change. That would mean not spending weeks away from your children if you do not have someone else to care for them

I don't mean to pick on Nigerians for the record, every week there is a tale (usually in the Daily Mail) of a mother leaving her children at home for weeks (or months) so that they can go on holiday.

Agreed. Though on the other hand, we hear of oyinbo women who kill their kids. Instead of letting them release steam and stress, UK and US society keeps them to the grindstone till they burst. But I understand where you're coming from though...

mmsen:
Aren't you Nigerians always going on about how you love your families, have close links with your families, especially compared to the oyinbos? Why if you have such a close knight unit, can you not find a family member to take care of your children for a few weeks?

What kind of love is that? To leave children home alone for weeks.

In Nigeria, it's no problem at all to find a family member to take care of our children. Abroad, it's an entirely different kettle of fish:
1. your family may not be in the same city or country
2. if they were in the same town, they've all got to get to work innit? Still nobody home to take care of kids
3. everyone is over-stretched and over-worked. It's not easy starting from the bottom as an immigrant

We love our kids and have close family ties, that is undeniable, but na condition bend crayfish. Again, I'm not excusing poor judgement, but I still think if UK trained kids to be mature enough at 13 as many other countries do (e.g. south-east Asia, latin America, most of Africa), there would not be this hysteria about a teenager and a 10 year old being left home alone for 3 weeks.

Seriously? So 10 and 13 year old are underaged? My only blame is that she should have trained them better and left food in the house. We're you not able to keep house at 13?

I'm not condoning what she did, but I think there's too much overreaction. 10 and 13 year olds in naija can cook, turn on heat, wash plate, go to school and back home. They can be in charge of buka and they can keep correct change while dashing in between traffic selling abalumo. Again, those are not necessarily good situations, but I fear we're raising a bunch of wusses abroad, and the UK government is only too happy to capture the kids at any slight misdeed. No wonder, after all this coddling, the average uk teen has nothing better to do than vandalize and take drugs. Who dash naija kids?

Is the UK that dangerous that 10 and 13 year olds cannot be safe at home for 3 weeks?

I wish they'd just let her off with a warning instead of doing further damage by dragging off the kids and further punishing her. It's so easy for us to sit and judge others without actually being in her shoes.

Anyway, let me get off this soap box...

braids mo bettah

Defcon1:
America has one of the best economies,if not the best
Yet many Americans are homeless,and many are surviving on benefits
Did l mention the massive unemployment

So true! I'm really amazed at how such a rich country can still have so many poor and destitute people. Even the middle-class is one month away from bankruptcy.

netmillionaires:
Some people will even come to say that Per Capital Income/ Income per head is a better measure of wealth. It makes me laugh. Imagine in an economy where there are 100 citizens and only Mr Dangote earns #5b while all the other 99 people av no job and no income then Per Capital Income will be #5b/100 = #50m. Do we now say that each citizen is making #50m? Govt economist ll come to gv a wonderful statistic and make it sound as if each nigerian is making #50m per year. Statistics my foot.

I understand your point, but those with the billions still have to hire drivers, guards, house helps and mechanics. They still need to buy food and drink juice. They also need to sell their products to somebody which is what made them billionaires. Those billions come from Nigerians.

sexyse027:
first do we ask ourselves how much is 1$ now or even 1 british ponds compare to 20 years ago please ask any of your relatives or friend that is outside nigeria how is our currency compare to Ghana currency

Exchange rate is one thing, economic growth is another. Are you saying the common man was better off 20 years ago than now because the currency was stronger?

Error. That chart was from 2012. In case nobody heard, officially (according to our own official numbers, which I respect, as well as world bank and IMF accounts) Nigeria ranks 23rd as of 2014, is likely 21st as of 2015, and and is definitely going to rank in the top 20 before 2020. If you really take all the productivity actually on the ground in Nigeria not accounted for in the so called informal sector like pure water and aba made, you will conclude - as I have - that it already is a top-20 economy. Please note that only 8-12% of that is from oil. The other 90% is from Nigerians' hard work:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Nigeria (disclaimer, I've been an editor of this page for almost 10 years)

The informal sector can be quite large in developing economies, as much as 60% of government estimates due to inadequate sampling. In other words, instead of $522billion in 2013, it might actually be closer to $835billion. See here for more info
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informal_sector

Take this example where Nafdac states that pure water alone accounts for #7billion per day http://www.punchng.com/health/pure-water-business-generates-n7bn-daily-nafdac/

Na coins? This is from 2012, I bet it's closer to #12billion today. At #180 to $1, we get $67million per day! Which is about $24 billion annually. Just pure water alone. The same pure water our elites like to ridicule. This is in the ballpark of the official budget from oil. Granted these numbers are my estimates, but do your own calculation, and you'll see they give an idea of the scale of the Nigerian economy.

If the government was serious, they should start making pure water, poff poff, and boli. They'd make more money than they're making from oil. I'm telling you.

Nobody - certainly not some "economist" in New York or London, or even the "hungry masses on the streets of Lagos" - really understands the scale and diversity of the Nigerian economy. We need to stop the self-abuse, stop taking oyinbo opinions as facts, and be more objective about Nigeria.

I commend our statistician-general and his staff on their work so far, and I await more revisions as promised.

Bobby4090:
... And so the provincial outsider suddenly thrust onto the throne, blinking in the chaotic glare of competing interests, surrounded by a small band of sycophants, startled by the hostility of his traducers, became paranoid.

Chai... she didn't cut oga Jona no slack. We don't often see eye to eye - and I disagree with her prognosis - but great writing style

Bobby4090:
I remember the Buhari years as a blur of bleakness. I remember my mother bringing home sad rations of tinned milk, otherwise known as “essential commodities”—the consequences of Buhari’s economic policy. I remember air thick with fear, civil servants made to do frog jumps for being late to work, journalists imprisoned, Nigerians flogged for not standing in line, a political vision that cast citizens as recalcitrant beasts to be whipped into shape.

I remember this all too well. It's going to be a tight race, just wish we could all balance Jonathan's achievements with his inactions.

CityNG:
Just a quick picture to show how the wasted roof structure can be turned into usable space in a modern house build.

Pic 2 shows the type and size of most of the windows that will present itself to the outside world.

I really like that too. The house is really open on the inside, even though its semi closed off to the outside. I guess you'd need high railings on the roofs to prevent climbers/ladders from getting into the courtyard

One thing I wonder is if it's possible to "grow the house" By that I mean, first build a 2 bedroom building. Then a year or two later, pour new foundation for another 2 bedroom building, and then two more buildings at a different time. Finally, in about 4 years, one could connect the four buildings using this courtyard idea you have.
How will this affect the structure as the different foundations rest/settle at different times.

mufutau55:
@Nextstep
You are another "CityNG" in the making... that is why he is falling off chair and getting up quickly before falling second time... Paramedics ready.

A question, on the first photo, is that an underground Car park?

I love all the concepts... and look at the test on those Hammerglass... that is what we need in Nigeria.. no more iron burglary proofs.
That glass will be expensive as hell but it will be worth it..

Hajji M.

As far as I can tell, the land on that first pic is already on a slope, so I'd imagine the garage is at ground level, or just 3 feet under. The back of the house might have an open patio and would also be at ground level, though technically it would be a basement as seen from the front.
This hammerglass really looks promising, and would change the look of windows in the country.

CityNG:
Not necessary, I am sitting at my desk at work in a hospital as I type

On a serious note though, it seems that the only level of defense is the glass due to the structure wall serving as the perimeter wall. I wouldn't do that just yet in Nigeria. I want the bad guys to know that by the time they have touched my windows that they are in imminent danger already and asking God for his mercies.

If the wall for the building is reinforced on the ground floor (e.g. 2 blocks thick instead of 1 with a layer of cement between), would it still be breached?

spyder880:
I am always looking to take up more challenging tasks, especially if I can take it in my stride, what is the location of your project Sir?

Wonderful. The site is on the Asaba-Ogwashi-Uku Road, Delta State, about 10 miles from Asaba

Oga spyder,

Wonderful work! I've been following your projects for a while, and it would be an honor to have your company build for me.

I've been thinking for a long time now of building a minimalist style house. Ideally, the house would enclose most of the land, without the usual high fence. As a result, instead of regular burglary proof, I'm considering using hammerglass for the windows and doors (it's apparently unbreakable) http://www.hammerglass.com/download/

This would be a great project for you and I to work on together, if it is possible. I don't know how popular they are yet, but they at least have appeared at tradeshows in Lagos http://www.buildmacexnigeriafair.com/pictures/

Would you be interested?

Sample home pictures from https://www.google.com/search?q=minimalist+house&source=lnms&tbm=isch