₦airaland Forum

DECOtech:
Good morning people of Nairaland. I feel honoured being invited to contribute to this very thread by a Worthy Engineer, Derealgeesam. God bless you sir. More power to your elbow.
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Drilling a water-borehole these days have in a certain way become the reigning thing as the government-run water agencies are no longer working in most areas and are very unreliable in few ares where they still exist. Looking around, one would notice that it is almost impossible to find a modern building that does not have a water-borehole in its premises, owing to the fact that the need for potble water in our daily activities cannot be over emphasised.
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Early in the history of borehole drilling in Nigeria, it was a project for the government or the rich families in our various societies and that was because the technology used for the job was a cumbersome and very expensive one involving a motorised drill rig. But today, with gratitude to ingenuity we are able to penetrate reasonable depths to reach quality water yielding aquifers under the Earth's crust with the use of manual drilling thereby making borehole drilling in a whole a much cheaper and viable venture.
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There are two types of manual drills:
1. Tripod drill
2. Seismic drill
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TRIPOD DRILL
This equipment involves heavy steel drill stems suspended from a tripod stand of about 60ft high with the help of a "winch" to support the weight of the drill stems and require a lot of space to set up. The amount of setup space required makes it difficult to put a water-borehole at a small corner in tightly spaced premises where proper space management is needed. The tripod drill can "almost" rival the motorised rig in terms of depth but not in soil structures with hard and difficult formations of which I personally term "extreme formations". However, with a tripod drill depths of 200meters (600 feet) can be achieved in 4 to 5 days, bearing in mind that the easier the formation of the soil structure, the faster the job goes.
Note that tripod drilling can be three times cheaper than a motorised rig drilling.
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SEISMIC DRILL
This equipment is my favourite. Because it is very convenient for both the engineer and the client. It is very easy to transport and is very favourable to a space manager as it can allow drillers put a Borehole within a space of a square meter although a work/setup space of up to 8 square meters would be needed initially. However, the seismic drill has its limitations in terms of depth and should not be used except in areas with "easy" soil formations as it is very difficult to drill through a rock in the path of a seismic drill.
Safely a maximum depth of about 90meters (270 feet) can be achieved with a seismic drill and jobs can be completed within 24hrs.
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In summary, manual drilling has made potable water solutions more viable and withing reach to the average citizen. Let's all help make our environment more comfortable for ourselves.
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In Fela's voice "water, e no get enemy"

Thanks for this wonderful insights and more thanks to @DRealGeesam for the invitation.

A question for you and DRealGeesam.

Looking at the country, we have various formations like rain forest in the south, savanna in the middle belt and desert in the north. What type would you recommend for each of these areas and why.

mufutau55:
Never heard of "Sliding casement" windows... There is Casement Windows and Sliding Windows.
See the samples of some other window designs below.

Hajji M.

@Hajji and @Emmadejust. That was also my thinking when a friend told me. He said that aluminum guy that told him said that in 'sliding casement' each of the glasses for each part of the window covering is divided into two while in the 'sliding window', the glass is not divided into two but just one plain glass.

@emmadejust. Is there a difference between 'sliding casement' and 'sliding window'?.

DRealGeesam:
Oh!
Lol
Ok

If the building is not a storey building, then an 18 foot 4inch diameter pole can be cut into 2. Each pole costs about N11,000. Meaning you just need 2 of such poles for your 4 legs.

You will need 2"X2" 4mm thick angle bars for the main bracing. 4 will do.
Costs about 1,900 each

*4 U channels costs 6,500 each

*1.5" angle bar for the side ladder and upper railing (guide). 6 will do. Costs 1200 each

*2mm sheets. 2 will do. Costs 8,000 each

*flat bar
16 ground bolts and 4plates for base. (Premade) costs about N2,000 each (for the size that is ok for home use)

You will need to cast the ground bolts in concrete ( the size depends on some factors)
About N120,000 should do for the stanchion

For a 3bed room flat 2X 2000 liter tanks are ok
Costs: 44,000

For the drilling just budget 400,000-750,000 (for motorized, RECOMMENDED)
OR 150,000 to 250,000 for hand drilling (Risky in most situations)

your choice of pump or if u want to use solar power is left to you.


So average would be around N760,000 (not solar powered)

Just play around the figure and options.

Thank you sir

Good one.

@LebanonCedars2, what is your best price for these shown below and what combination do they come in by which i mean is it 1 3-sitter, 1 2-sitter and 2 1-sitter making a total of 7-sitter.

Atouba:
Dude, Iam not just saying this to castigate anyone. I dont need to. Besides, this is not coming from my pocket and if the owner can afford to, why not? I just had to chip that in,after a few experience by friends and some colleagues who preder to do a bandwagon effect rather than use their simple sense. Have you noticed the rate of abandoned projects around the lekki-ajah axis. Most of this is due to people who just want to build in Lekki/Ajah zone all in the bid to follow the crowd but understimated the cost of putting up good structures there. I had a friend who got a plot of land in some part of Lekki (not too far from the 3rd/4th round about) who underetsimated how much it required to build in there. By the time he spent almost 10 million with little or nada to show at the site, nobody told him before he put it up for sale and I helped him get a place in my estate where he used the proceeds to buy a good duplex at Shonibare estate in Maryland, Ikeja. He just acquired a new building around Ilupeju from his savings, something I doubt he would have been able to do if he continued the Lekkin project. Anytime we get to discuss this issue, he usually laughs at his stupidity of rushing with all others to the sinking ground called Lekki just to feel among then. Some would spend years trying to build a duplex with monry that could buy an entire estate in Ikeja. The same house start giving issues a few years after packing in. Note that many of the same structure that people spend billions to erect on a sinking ground usually start depreciating/degrading just a few months into the years with no one willing to buy them when they are put up for sale. Check many of the houses at osborne foreshore estate already tilting to one side due to poor construction. That is money sinking!

Gbam. Nothing more add. I always laugh when i see people rushing to Lekki to build and i normally ask them if they can really afford to build in a waterlogged area. I have always have this belief that it is Estate developers and super rich people that should be building in such water logged. Just imagine using 25m just for foundation alone when that can build you a duplex in a cool estate.

mufutau55:
You will not regret it... As per Spyder's advise I used the same 1inch pipe for my burglary and it was excellent.
See sample below... The last picture is with the net installed.

Hajji M.

This is fine. What is the size of this and how much did you pay for it.

kopell:
Good looking finish building. Nice combination colors of paint too, Welldone.

Colour combination were suggested by Gbadexy which i agreed with. For the exterior, i told him i wanted grey because i saw it on somebody's building and i liked it and so he came up with the dove grey.

bugmenot:


@NL1960

Lovely house, the painting brings out the beauty. Welldone bro.

The scaffold looks solid. How tall is it and how many feet are under the ground?

It is 19ft. The welder initially said 4ft will be under the ground but it seems the builder increased it. Will get across to him to find out.

Okpuzu01:
I learnt dat In some African countries, they do pay one month rent when they are renting a new apartment. If an apartment is 10k per month, you pay 10k and deposit 10k wich is 20k. When you are parking, Landlord will balance your 10k deposit. Why can't this work in Nigeria? Ppl will have work and suffer to be able to raise one or two years rent.

Most Nigerians especially those in Lagos are dubious minded. It is in Lagos that you see somebody driving a big car that consumes about 10k fuel daily and he/she will tell a Landlord at the end of the month that times are hard and that he/she does not have money to pay 20k rent. That is why the Landlords collects the rent upfront for a year.

bugmenot:


I did something similar - I don't quite recall if it's 1/2 or 3/4 inch pipes we used. I regret it - I can tear down the burglary proof with my bare hands in little time if I'm determined. It will have to be redone in due course. In fact thieves have already taken advantage of the weakness of the pipes - they broke in and made away with cables that had already been placed in the conduit pipes, I'd recommend something more solid.

Thanks. It is 1'' pipes then that we will use.

@Hajji, these are for you. You know the reason now.

more

@gbadexy. As promised, here are some pics of painting done using the paints you supplied to me. The painter attested to the high quality of the paints. My camera did not even do enough justice to the beauty of the paints.

Pic 1 and pic - sitting room and dinning with peach colour

Pic 3 - Master bedroom with sky blue and pink

pic 4 - window hood with off white and walls with Dove Grey.

spyder880:
The 6ftx5ft window burglary proof was built and supplied for N9000 each, 1" square pipes confirmed.

Thanks. What is your take on using half(1/2) inch square pipe for burglary?. I and a couple of friends are doing a library for our community and we are thinking of using half inch instead of one inch square pipes in order to reduce cost and have funds for other aspects of the library.

In addition, what do you think is the best price range for a 4ft*4ft burglary using 1" square pipes.

spyder880:
Almost done. ...

@spyder880, what is the size of this bulgary and the cost?. In addition, was it done with one inch pipe or half inch pipe.

mufutau55: I will appreciate it if you can post some samples pictures of those furnitures mentioned above and give the price range for them, it does not have to be actual cost because I know that may vary, but at least a general price range....

Hajji M.

Supported. Furnishing is my next stage and iam still considering whether to buy here and transport home.

LebanonCedars2: Oga mi, forgeeti; you are a bigger boy! Yes we do. We produce both fabric and leather sofas and our prices range start from N120,000.00 depending on the materials, size and design of the sofa.

Thanks. Sorry for inquisitiveness as iam a layman. What is the difference between fabric and leather sofas and which one is cheaper assuming the same design.

thomsonare: call me sir

CALL US ON 09031290683

You have and did not answer Hajji's question. He asked you if you make them and you said that he should call you. Is it when he calls you that you will be able to answer whether you make them or not?.

My questions is 'are these prices you claimed to be promo prices, price for one piece or for a set of 7 comprising 1 3-sitter, 2 2-sitter and 2 1-sitter making a total of 7'. Do not tell me to call you as i do not have credit on my phone.

LebanonCedars2: Hello dear Nairalanders, quite some times. We have been very busy of late; we will soon post some interesting pictures for your perusal.

Till then, stay blessed!

We are waiting.

Meanwhile. those your imported furniture are only for the big boys. Do you locally produce furniture that is affordable for the small boys?.

vivalableue: mmm.. clears throat... Oga spyder... I've been following this thread from conception to date in the background; simply learning more about construction methods in your country. Hoping that someday very soon, I too will be as client...

I will be honest with you, with all of the naysayers that exist around me as I am based in Canada and am always told that Nigeria is the capital of fraudulent activities, I have a keen interest in developing land in Nigeria. (Mainly for family purposes.) However, watching you and others in this forum, and also with my own personal network in the country, I am beginning to develop a sense of trust and confidence that honest business people who are interested in making an honest living do exist.

As for the the detailing in questions, I find that the chevrons look rather like street signage, and thus make the house look a little less "pricey" as you want it to look. (I apologize for my lack of vocabulary as its quite late here...)

Viva

Quite agree with you on this. Iam not a fan of this design at all.

mufutau55: NGN 150,000 in Sango-Otta, Ogun State by the border with Lagos State. It was done sometimes last year (2013).
Same guy has done for many Nairalanders here thru me.

Hajji M.

@Hajji, is this water drinkable?. If so, let me know if this your guy has ever drilled in Edo North.

spyder880: Kkonsults is very good at his work. The plan is simple enough, not ridden with inconsistencies like some I have seen before. It's two bedroom flats.

Quite true. Very simple plan for building a rental apartment. I noticed from this pic of the back that there is only one balcony. Will the two flats be sharing this one balcony?.

spyder880: If I continue to ignore some comments made in this thread, they may start to look like the commenter knows anything about what he is saying.

So I have decided to spend a few minutes to explain how we built this house. I usually spend a whole lot of time planning a project, I am not the one to dive into a building project without considering a lot of variables about the environment, and trying to mitigate them. I usually ask questions, review processes and procedures and when in doubt, I will retreat to learn about the step or consult a superior in the field. At every point in time, I have at least a couple of trained professionals in my sites so we put heads together to execute projects.

I am so confident of my methods that I put up pictures of everything I do for public scrutiny, each step, each action is always captured on camera and placed in the public domain, for other competent eyes to look and make comments. I always love to remain transparent. You never know who is reading from any part of the world, so I am always careful to do the right things always. I am not the type to cut corners, I am not poor, never has been, so I am not desperate and looking for money.

It might interest us to know that I have personally built these types of multiple room houses, I own at least four of these houses in Enugu state in different locations now, over 100 rooms combined, all are still solid after so many years. The first one I built was in 1998. Nothing wrong with it in any way at all. I will go around and snap some of my houses which I started life with. It might also interest us to know that I have never used reinforcements in any of my previous multi rooms like this one before, no pillars, just short beams in door and window positions as lintels, no chaining, nothing else.

Many people stopped and questioned me over my decision to use reinforcements in this project in the center of the dry season, and I told them that I dont like the texture of the soil I found there, I was taking extra measures which people considered "wasting money" but I will rather waste materials and money than do a bad work.

SO, WHY DO WE BUILD THE WAY WE DO IN ENUGU?

Most of the lands in Enugu state are sitting on a rock crust which is more stony than sandy. This land is usually very hard to cut through, you cannot attempt to do a foundation excavation in Enugu without pick axe. We are confident about the soil bearing capacity of the land in most of Enugu metropolis. But I still build in Enugu like they do in Port Harcourt, no need to economize.

SO, WHAT REALLY WENT WRONG?

The seller of this land, who is also a neighbor, refused to explain to us the nature of this land, he was still feeling annoyed after I refused to give him the contract of supplying blocks, as a consequence, he hid the fact that he sold a river bed to us, not a land. I though there might be some swamp in the land after the first dig, but this is a full blown stream, flowing with some surprising speed, of course the foundation was not prepared for this, a full ground beam would have been more adequate, but has anyone else done a ground beam for a bungalow in Enugu? In fact, most upstairs in Enugu does not have ground beams, so I wonder who will blame me for not putting the type of foundation done in SOME Lagos buildings in a row of rooms, note that I said "SOME"

SOAKAWAY PITS

Since we dont have sandy soil in Enugu, its perfectly safe to site toilet pits close to the house, please look at pictures of all the houses we have built everywhere and measure the distance from the foundation walls, Port Harcourt, Owerri, even Lagos, Soak away tanks are built like houses, columns, beams, even a decking on top of it.

Have we not seen those who covered their toilet soak away and built their house on top of it?

Have we not seen cars parked on top of toilet soak away pits?

Na me build all those ones?

Someone even mentioned in this property section that his septic tank is under his living room!

SOLUTION

I chose to bring this up and attach the pictures on the thread, nobody forced me, its part of my determination to remain honest and transparent, and that's how I will always be. Its also a way to educate the people who read my posts, if we have enjoyed some fantastic victories in the wonderful buildings we have built here in the past, lets know that life is not a straight walk, there must be ups and downs. But our ups must be much longer and better than our few downs.

Some actions are being taken, but I don't want to rush the corrections as the land is still flooded, this is not an overly big problem, we have seen worse attacks, we shall win at the end like we always do, coming out stronger with more experience, this is one thing I am very sure of.

I will not comment on these anymore.

Have a good day everyone, whatever you do, remain focused and give your best, always. IT SHALL BE WELL!

Words on marble. This is what i always tell my wife and that it is because of this that iam never discouraged but pushes on.

2sExy1: okay. I just sent one to the email on the far left. waiting for your reply.

Why far left?. You should have sent to the middle one so that it will be a little to the left and a little bit to the right.

vitodorado: I must confess that quite a lot of modifications and remodeling was made to the original floor plan. For instance i had to dismantle the window in between the dinning and kitchen lobby and just left it open for proper illumination and space. Also, the original plan for this house was a 5 bedroom and that was why the topic of this thread reads so but at a point i decided to collapse both oga and Madam rooms to one huge Masters and it paid off well.

Furthermore, the study still retained its position but only created space for glass blocks between the ante room and study for better illumination and made the window through the family lounge bigger.

Good one. Never really understood nor liked this Oga and Madam room separation thing. That was what i did with mine. I just created one large master's bedroom instead of two rooms. If in future, madam dey disturb me too much, i will just use curtain or aluminum to fence her off.

vitodorado: @ NL 1960. Interior Labour 60k which includes the POP painting and protector. Exterior Labour has been agreed for 20k. Let me know if you need the details about the painter.

@ GODAKPAN. Hope i m not going to scare you but my total cost so far is about 12.5M excluding the cost of Land and the initial preliminaries post purchase.

Thanks. This information is very helpful as my painter is trying to play smart. If he refuses to be shift, i will get across to you. Benin is not far from my place. My roofer and Aluminum guys all came from Benin.

Onuokwu: Why not just raise blocks of say up to 3 feet and then position round metal rods by the corner to hold the zinc roof. I dont think using firewood will work in a fully walled house no matter the ventilation you put there. Meanwhile be sure not to do german flooring o as firewood cooking must be on sand. If it is charcoal cooking, then its a different matter as you can use those things the women wey de cook moi-moi for my area dey use.

Thanks for this great idea. The only problem i see with this is that if it is raining and it is windy, the wind might blow the rain into the kitchen through the opened sides. Another idea is to fully the three sides and then make the front to have the raised blocks of about 3 feet. What do you think?.

vitodorado: Hi People! Good to be back on this thread after a long absence. However, let me spice your weekend with some of the things that have happened since the long absence though the stage now has gone pass this but will upload them when i visit the site again as the state of the road to my place during the rains has been a bit discouraging. But i take consolation in the fact that work will commence soon on it has the contract has been awarded.

Glad to have you back. I can see that the building is being painted. How much are you paying for labour to paint the entire building.

kkonsults: Dimension: 3.3 x 3.3m
320 blocks, 25 bags of cement.
K..

Thanks.

spyder880: Blaming myself for everything, and I have a supervisor go with them to the factory.

This is the second time this is happening. If it is the same supervisor that is responsible, you will have to be hard on the person by converting the cost to a loan for guy and deducted over a period of time. You were lucky that for the first one, the owner accepted it. I have come to discover that you should never be gentle or emotional with Nigerians. They are ready to pull you down. That is why you see the Indians and Lebanese handling Nigerians with iron hand.

kkonsults: the gate house, we are currently at lintel stage.

Oga kkonsults, iam thinking of building something like this to be used as kitchen by my mom before she starts thinking using firewood inside the kitchen i have in my project. Village people always prefer outside kitchen where they can use firewood to cook.

Please, is it possible to get an estimate of what it will take to complete especially the number of blocks and cement. Iam going to use zinc for the roofing.