CBU ASIA DESIGN BUILD CONSULTANTS CEBU – Construction Planning Designing Build Consultants Cebu

Insulated Concrete Forms ICF wall construction

By Admin in Featured

The footing in an ICF build is a continuous footing since the entire wall of an ICF build is a load bearing wall that needs to be continuously supported. For a 2-3 story ICF house with 6 inches thick cores, footing size is prescribed to be 30 by 60 cm footing with four pieces of number 4 (US and Canada) or 12mm (Philippines) rebar reinforcements with stirrups every 30cm. The footing is prescribed to be 1 to 1.5 meter below grade.

Though not commonly practiced in the Philippines, it is prescribed to place a plastic vapor or moisture membrane barrier around your footings and below grade walls to later prevent the capillary action of concrete sucking moisture from below and bringing it up to the walls and floors, and you will wonder later on where all that moisture, algae, and mold come from. We recommend you use ready-mixed concrete from a batching plant since they have concrete that is strictly up to standard and can even be pre mixed upon request with additional waterproofing additives.

Right after the pour when your footing concrete is no longer as liquid and has started to harden a little bit usually in 2 hours, you can start to “wet set” the bent dowels for your vertical wall rebars. See bent dowels on the next illustration. Your vertical rebar is prescribed to overlap your footing dowels at least 24cm.

For 2-3 story structures your vertical rebars is prescribed to be 12mm placed every 24 inches, and your horizontal rebar be twin 12mm rebars at every horizontal edge of your ICF forms if you’re your forms are 12 inches in height. Linter stirrups for 2-3 story ICF structure is prescribed to be rectangular made of 4 pieces of 12mm rebars prescribed at 30cm in length and width to fit within the 6 inches cavity with stirrups every 10cm.

When starting your stem wall – that wall below grade that connects your foundation footing to your above grade walls – we recommend you apply a foam water proofing membrane or solution on your stem wall up to a couple of inches of your above grade ICF walls.

When placing your ICF blocks, it is recommended to start on the corners because it is easier to cut and strap the regular blocks than the L shaped corner blocks.

The standing seam or stack joints will be connected by cutting the regular blocks and then strapping the connection with a plank as shown in the next pictures.

To prevent a blow-out when the liquid concrete blows out of your expanded polystyrene EPS forms due to excessive concrete pump pressure, it is ok to cut the pour on the stem wall up to the bottom of your windows, but the next pour schedule should not go beyond two hours for the remainder of the windows and the walls. The standard two-hour window is enough for the first batch to stiffen a bit to prevent a blow-out due to the added stacked weight of the next pour.

If at all possible, it is better to place your window or door right beside your standing seam to save time on making cut joint pieces if your standing seam is far from the window or door.
You may extend your stem wall all the way to the bottom part of your window so you can cut your pour schedules to prevent a blow-out, but the time between pours should not go beyond the standard two hours. So, your next pour schedule within the two-hour window, will be for all the way up to the top of your wall where you place your floor slab or roof supports.

When preparing your window bucks or window jambs, be sure to make an opening on the bottom of the window so you can insert the pencil concrete vibrator and so you can inspect the flow of the pour down that area. It is highly recommended you make a cross support of sticks to support your jambs on all four sides. You may use wood or foam for your window jambs and or door jambs.
Be sure to add external reinforcing planks on your jambs to hold your jambs in place as shown below.

Also, be sure to add twin rebars on all sides of your window jamb as shown below.

As you move up stacking your ICF forms, be sure to add appropriate adjustable bracings to prevent a concrete blow out. Make a multifunction adjustable bracing system that also acts as your scaffold for the guy with the concrete pump end hose who discharges the liquid concrete and for the guy with the concrete vibrator who follows the pour. Such an adjustable bracing scaffold system is shown below.

As shown above, the adjustable bracing scaffold must be able to adjust the walls before and after pour to make sure it stays plumbed to line, so your wall stays straight following your string line. So be sure to inspect your wall if it is still following your plumb lines right after the pour while the concrete is still liquid so you can still easily move it to line with your adjustable bracing scaffolds. If your stacked forms do not reach your required wall height, simply cut available ICF blocks to become height adjusters to make up for the missing height material.

Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) Foam insulated walls for cooler homes to keep the heat out in the Philippines

By Admin in Featured

Here now is the answer to make cooler homes.

Westerners mostly Canadians and Americans who like to have a vacation home or retirement home in the Philippines can now enjoy our tropical climate in their own insulated homes using insulated concrete forms on their walls.

Sometimes usually during summer the heat is just unbearable and you just want to stay cozy and cool in your homes without having to over work your air conditioner. A home with well insulated walls and ceilings is just what you need. A well insulated home will not overwork your aircon since the heat from outside is locked out, and the cold air created by the aircon stays longer inside. Imagine living in an ice bucket foam home.

How you build an ICF home is to use insulated concrete forms or ICF. These are blocks made of EPS (expanded polystyrene) foam. Inside the block is a hollow core with connectors called “webs” that allow you to tie your rebars inside the core before you pour the concrete. So after you pour the concrete – you will have a solid concrete wall that is insulated on both sides with the foam – which keeps the heat outside and locks the cold air created by your air con inside your home. This is how you keep your home cool and at the same time lower your aircon bills.

An ICF home costs more to build since your walls are solid concrete not hollow blocks. And the minimal 2 inches of EPS foam on both sides of your wall is also an added cost. A cost comparison between traditional hollow blocks home and an ICF home makes the ICF home 40-45 percent higher in cost, but in the long run you will actually get that investment back through your lowered air con electric bills since your air con will not overwork to keep cooling your rooms such as in a traditional home.

An ICF home is also a very sturdy home since the minimum solid concrete thickness of ICF walls is 6 inches – imagine 6 inches of poured solid concrete home makes a bullet proof home and a hurricane proof home.

How you insulate your roof is to do the same as your walls, thus you can have a solid concrete roof which we also call a roof deck here in the Philippines. If you want to lower your build cost by opting for a traditional metal roof, then you can just double insulate your roof by adding two layers of 2 inch EPS foam in your ceiling, one layer right under the metal roof and another layer right above your fiber cement or gypsum ceiling.

If you cannot ship the branded ICF blocks from the U.S. or Canada, we now have our own local manufacturer supplier – simply contact us, and do please note that the structural design and construction methodology of the ICF home is very different so feel free to consult with us as we have trained workers and supervisors, and the technical references to structurally design your ICF home.

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Submeters for your apartment

By Admin in Featured

If you have not originally planned to turn your residence into an apartment – rental rooms, then you have not also designed your electrical connections to have a submeter to read the electrical consumption of each room/unit.

You will have to do some electrical modifications to your current circuit. To connect a sub meter, you will have to find the power junction source of each room which is usually in the lighting or power outlet junction. For this apartment in the picture, the power source is in the light junction, thus we needed to connect the submeter from the light junction and then the meter load terminal will have to go back in the same junction to connect to the power outlet connection to have it isolated into a separate metered unit, and your lights will also have to now get power from your submeter load terminal.

It is a bit difficult to do the re wirings if the source power is in the light junction, and is easier if it is in the power source junction since you don’t have to be working on a ladder.

Also, please note if the power company finds out – they will usually upgrade your electrical rates to the commercial rate which is a bit higher than the residential rate.

If you need to install submeters to your apartments, if you have not done so yet, the labor cost ranges from php2-3k each unit depending on the level of difficulty- and this labor cost excludes the cost of the materials – meter, breaker, wires, electrical tapes, moldings or PVC hose – which could also total up to php3k each set.

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Wide tiles always bend over time

By Admin in Featured, Fine Furnishings

You have noticed here in the Philippines if you use wide tiles – they always bend over time – and when they bend – they detach from the floor causing accidents and other problems.

Wide tiles like the 60cm tiles easily bend over time because it’s wider surface area means there are more chances of the steps landing on the center of the wide tile, and over time this causes the wide tile to hollow down on the center especially when most contractors usually use a masonry type of cement and / or the common tile adhesive to stick the tile to the floor.

We suggest you just avoid the wide tile and instead use smaller tiles like the 40cm or the 30cm, and always use the Portland cement to stick the tiles since Portland cement is for structural tough purposes. We have noticed even the standard tile adhesive is weaker than Portland cement.

The smaller tiles always allow the steps to land not just on one tile’s center, but there are more chances of the steps landing on two tiles which means the weight is usually always carried by not just one tile.

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Black and brown contrasts for very elegant modern exteriors

By Admin in Featured

Black and brown are great contrasts to achieve a very elegant modern exterior.

Using wood panels for the brown contrast gives it a very rustic effect, while a plain brown or light brown contrast matched with led strip lights can give it a very futuristic look especially if you make the black contrast glossy using aluminum or PVC claddings or even granite.

Black and brown contrasts are one of the best design combinations because the human eyes respond well to brown because it references wood which suggests nature, and black compliments brown or wood very well because black suggests burnt wood which further suggests cooking or roasting or getting ready to eat or feast.

The wood panels in the above design should be PVC panels otherwise real wood will deteriorate really fast. The black elements can be metal cladding or concrete. The warm white LED strip lights give this design a very futuristic effect. The glass walls and wide fixed windows can be tinted with light brown, otherwise use warm white lights in the interior to compliment the brown elements.

The light brown wood panels on the above design can be PVC wood panels or ceramic tiles. The light brown wood panels are great against the black contrast giving it a very elegant natural look. The warm white lights compliment this design combination. The glass walls are not tinted but the warm white lights give the needed consistency in the design. The black glass frames are a must to keep up with the design theme.

The wide black granite panels on the above design gives the house an expensive look. The warm white LED lights and strip lights gives it a very futuristic look. The glass are not tinted but the warm white interior lights keep up with the design theme. The thin vertical accent panels and the eaves ceiling can be PVC with alternating grey, black, and light brown wood colors, though you can make it a consistent light or dark brown wood – same goes with the main door.

The light brown and dark brown wood vertical panels on the above design should be PVC otherwise real wood can degrade really fast against the sun. If you cannot source a PVC with wood design, alternately you can use ceramic tiles with wood design instead. The glass walls can be tinted light black or light brown and the aluminum crisscrossing glass frames can be black or dark grey. The lights should be warm white, not pure white, to keep up with the design theme.

The contrasting dark grey columns and gutters on the above design can be plain concrete or aluminum cladding. The wood wall panels are PVC panels. The dark grey contrasts can also be made matte black which will still be a great contrast against the wood panels. The glass frames can be matte black or dark grey. The glass can be tinted with light brown or light gold, otherwise always use warm white (yellowish) lights to be consistent with the design theme.

In the above design the use of dark grey contrasts against the wood panels and door are great transitions towards the white rock wall panels. The glass can be tinted light gold or light brown, and the matte black frames are great transitions towards the dark grey walls. The lights should be warm white to keep up with the design theme.

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Industrial scale reverse osmosis water treatment for your house

By Admin in Featured, Fine Furnishings

How about having your own water treatment right at your roof top so you don’t need to buy outside and you can assure your water is the cleanest since you directly maintain your water purification.

All tap water supply systems anywhere in our country are now just used for bathing and washing the cars. Unlike in other countries where they still drink from from their tap water supply, we Filipinos no longer drink from the tap. Nobody can trust the tap water systems because of the corrupt culture even in the private water supply system where old unreplaced pipes laid down near sewers can leak sewer into the pipes – this is why nobody trusts the tap water in our country anymore – and thus the small water filtration systems can be found in almost every corner supplying valuable drinking water for everyone…

There are places in the country where tap water is especially untrustworthy such as the major cities like NCR (National Capital Region), Cebu City, Iloilo City, Cagayan de Oro City. These places have very high population concentration thus you can always be certain that there will be water pipes found near the canals and sewers, thus there are a lot of water filtration systems in these areas.

Here’s a water filtration system in Balabag, Pavia, Iloilo City. The owners of this house has specifically required a water filtration system because the water from the tap has high levels of impurities since the city is mostly swamp lands and homes have to be back filled at least a meter high to raise the house high enough to reach the level of the roads since all roads are also back filled to be able to rise above the swamp land level. Since the city is mostly swampy, most of its water supply lines from the tap water supply companies always have to pass thru swampy areas and thus all residents around the city also do not drink from the tap water system.

This setup is an industrial capacity water filtration system designed not just for this house but for the other three houses that will soon along side the first one.

The water purification system consists of softener and reverse osmosis system stationed on top of the house has multi filter membranes starting with sand filter for the removal of suspended solid, particles, rust, sand, soil, sediments, silt, and molds, etc. Next is the carbon Filter for the removal of chlorine, foul taste, odors, colors, and other contaminants in the water. It improves taste and refreshes water while retaining minerals which are essential to our body needs. The final softening filter is the resin filter with cation resin beads to attract excess calcium and magnesium which causes hardness in the water. It converts hard water into soft water which will make it ideal for preventing scaling in household appliances such as water heaters, sinks, and pipelines which reduces the electrical consumption of shower heaters, kettles and coffee makers, etc. It also Softens clothes and fabrics – making it Ideal for bathing since it softens skin and hair.

The 4 stags reverse osmosis system starts with the second carbon filter in the overall system which prevents odors, absorbs chemicals such as chlorine and other contaminants – it mainly acts as a protection for the other 3 stages of the reverse osmosis system. The other stages are 2 stages of 1 micron filter and another pre filter of 5 micron. The revers osmosis filters has microscopic pores that only allows water molecules making your water super clean.

The final stage in the whole water purification system is the industrial size ultraviolet filter cylinder. It instantly kills bacteria and other germs that have passed thru all the filters. Some germs are just too small even for the reverse osmosis thus this final stage which kills everything in an instant using the power of ultraviolet light – the same light coming from the sun that purifies the surfaces of the earth.

If you want to have this kind of system in your house or compound – do let us know…

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Base cost commercial structure in Medellin Cebu

By Admin in Featured, Fine Furnishings

This 3 level commercial structure owned by the kindest couple in the Medellin area is designed to give budding businesses in this northern part of Cebu a good start on their business.

The location is very strategic – slightly out of the busy part of town and halfway towards the subdivision areas. Great for those looking to shop on the incoming tenant shops without having to get stuck in the town traffic yet not so far from the residential areas.

The parking space is huge – almost twice the entire building footprint – so customers can easily come and go and stay a little bit more if they need more time – especially for those renting the villa type rooms in the third floor, or the tenants looking to park their service vehicles or trucks.

Each rentable unit space in the ground floor is aptly sized at 24.5 square meter each – generally more than enough to accommodate storage space and customer reception and display for a small to medium sized business in this fine town of Medellin.

The rear area of the building was originally planned to be a service area for tenants needing a back space or back garage such as a motorcycle dealer or a small sized restaurant. Each side by side units are also designed to be easily mergeable as 1 big unit since the partitions or the dividing wall separating each unit is made of dry wall. For tenants needing an even larger space, all four units in the ground floor can be easily merged into one big unit – usual big tenants are fast food restaurants, motorcycle or car dealers, and banks.

The second level or second floor have five rentable unit spaces – still with a common conveniently located common bathroom just like the ground floor. The units can also be easily merged by disassembling the wall partition separating each unit. The second floor area has an aptly spaced balcony for people to stroll as they head to their destination tenant for the day.

The third floor is originally planned and designed to be the owners floor, but is also designed to be a dormitory type floor for the nearby Cebu Normal University. Each room can be a lady’s pad or a bachelor’s pad with access to two common bathrooms, common living room, common dining room, and a common kitchen, except for the master sized room which has its own bathroom.

The roof deck is currently just a big space designed to be an open function area where special occasions such as birthdays, and weddings can be held. The roof deck is a huge space which can accommodate a fairly large crowd. The view from the roof deck is great – over looking the beautiful and open spaces of beautiful Medellin…

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Quick and fast pre cast 2x8ft panels for your walls

By Admin in Featured, Fine Furnishings

In the traditional way of constructing homes and buildings, people have relied in the hollow blocks for decades now until something new came along – the pre cast walls.

The main advantage of pre cast walls is the rate of speed at which it can be piled and installed to make walls or partitions for your homes or office buildings.

The materials inside the panel are also quiet extra ordinary – it is a mixture of cement and styro foam (polysterene) – styro has been known ever since to be very good in thermal insulation that is why your ice bucket is made of styro.

For most commercial buildings, builders used to build hollow walls and then fill it with flowing hot liquid styro foam which hardens quickly upon contact with air – to give it good thermal insulation – but a hollow wall filled with styro is a weak wall. Our new quick and fast pre cast walls are very strong since it is a mixture of styro and cement which when built – striking it with a sledge hammer can’t even break it. Then the cement and styro mix is neatly sealed on both sides with a durable sheet of fiber cement giving it a very smooth surface which means saving precious labor cost on smoothening walls – its just ready to be painted.

The pre cast / pre fabricated walls come in 2×8 feet cuts and 75, 90, 100, 120, and 150mm thick panels – making it easy to carry by two workers, and with it being as wide as half a ply wood cut, it means you can build your walls at least 25 times faster than piling hollow blocks since a 2 x 8 feet cut takes about 25 hollow blocks to cover, now you need to carry and pile it all at once.

Nowadays, with the continued increases in the price of labor – the labor cost for most construction projects cover about fifty five percent of the total construction cost. The labor cost have gone record highs since the recent fuel price increases triggered by recent wars and conflicts. Fuel costs causes increase in goods and commodities and thus the record high increase in labor costs.

So if you are able to speed up your wall works labor 19 times faster with the pre cast walls then you are able to save 190 percent on your wall construction labor – which means even if the price of the pre cast walls is 7.5 times higher than the similar amount of hollow blocks needed to build such area – the ease at which you can cover walls and the smoothness that goes with each pre cast panel being sealed on both sides by a smooth fiber cement surface – over all – the 190 percent savings on the cost of labor to build your walls is very attractive – and in addition – you no longer need to smoothen the surfaces of the panel – only the part where each panel connects… Except for the joints, you can just straight away paint over the surfaces directly already…

Use of pre cast walls have increased since the cost of labor rose up. Developers and home builders have started thinking about ways to speed up construction. We’ve been getting inquiries from all over the country. If you’re not yet thinking of pre cast walls, you might just be left behind…

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Metal Doors advantages and disadvantages

By Admin in Featured, Fine Furnishings

Metal doors have been around a while yet most builders and home owners still prefer the traditional wooden doors despite it being more expensive compared to metal doors.

Here’s a few reasons why most builders prefer traditional wooden doors despite it being more expensive.

Wooden doors are more popular thus you can easily order it. When you visit your nearest hardware depot, you can basically choose your door and bring it home with you right away. In contrast, metal doors, because of it being less popular need to be ordered first and you have to wait at least 2 weeks before you can pick it up. So, if you decide to use metal doors, better to order them in bulk and in advance.

Wooden doors have so many designs for you to choose from. There are wooden door manufacturers where you can even have your picture or your favorite cartoon character sculpted unto your door face. In contrast, metal doors, usually have very simple designs such as straight lines across this is because it is machine made and since its not very popular, we don’t have complicated machines yet that can make intricate designs on doors.

Wooden doors look and feel more elegant, and we being humans – normally respond well to natural things such as a wooden doors. Wooden things like the wooden floor and wooden walls actually do have a therapeutic effect on us.

Now in contrast, here are a few advantages of metal doors;

Metal doors are cheaper. Take for example a usual 85 x 210 cm fully painted metal door that already comes with free door jambs costs only 8,500 pesos. That same amount for a solid wooden door is still unpainted and still does not include the door jambs. The door jamb is that wooden frame that supports the door. The standard price for a good wooden door jamb costs an additional 1,500 to 3,500 pesos. To get an unpainted solid wood door, you will need to add 2,000 to 2,500 pesos.

Metal doors lasts for generations. Since it is factory painted, metal doors do not corrode easily. Compared to wooden doors that absorb moisture, metal doors do not deform or increase in size over time.

Additionally, metal doors are also lighter compared to solid wood doors – this makes it very efficient for transportation and carrying, but then again, another drawback for metal doors is that it makes that annoying metallic sound when you slam it or when someone bangs on it, compared to wooden doors that make such elegant quiet wooden sound when you bang on it or slam it.

Metal doors do not get termites. This is very self explanatory.

On this specific visit to our favorite metal door supplier, we also did a quick visit to the roll up manufacturing section. Roll up doors are essential to keep your business safe since burglars hate it for the annoying metallic sound it makes when they try to break or pry it open. See in the video below…

Renovating a church

By Admin in Featured, Fine Furnishings

Renovating a church requires a lot of scaffolds since most big churches such as catholic churches have very high ceilings. You need to secure your workers when they work – thus you need a lot of scaffolds.

Some workers are comfortable with metal scaffolds while most workers especially those coming from the rural areas prefer bamboo.

In this example project we set in Cordova parish, you can observe the combination use of metal and bamboo scaffolds – this is not because of workers preference but a matter of choice since there is an abundance of stock bamboo from from the previous renovation lying around.

As you can read from our previous article regarding bamboo scaffolds, bamboo is relatively stronger than steel with the additional benefit of it being flexible, and the abaca string or even the nylon string used to secure the bamboo – normally don’t easily slide through, compared to metal fasteners – thus workers are generally more comfortable with the bamboo scaffolds. Metal scaffolds are only popular in city areas since bamboo is hard to find in the city.

When contracting church projects, one has to give the best pricing – very minimal profit – even sometimes, if you can, remove the profit, and give the church a purely service oriented contract since the church is the house of God thus you can consider a church project as your own giving back to God. Churches rely on donations from parishioners thus you can notice if there is ongoing project in the church – the priest has to sometimes even beg during mass for more donations to finish such project.

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