Continue reading]]> If you’re building a home in the Philippines—especially in the hotter areas of the country like Cebu, Iloilo, Bohol, and most southern areas of the country, comes with a major challenge: the heat. Most traditional concrete hollow-block homes turn into “ovens” during the afternoon, leading to high electricity bills from air conditioning.

Your home should be a sanctuary, not a sauna. This is why Insulated Concrete Forms (ICF) is trending today.

1. Natural Thermal Insulation

Traditional concrete walls made of hollow blocks (CHB) are poor insulators; they absorb the sun’s heat all day and release it into your rooms at night. ICF walls act like a giant cooler box for your house. The dual layers of EPS foam provide a thermal break that keeps the interior significantly cooler than the outside air.

2. Strength Against Typhoons

Living in the Philippines means being prepared for the typhoon seasons. ICF structures are poured as one continuous reinforced concrete wall. This makes them incredibly resistant to high winds and seismic activity compared to standard block laying.

3. Quiet Living in the City

Whether you’re building in the busy streets of Mandaue or near a main road in Cordova, ICF provides superior soundproofing. The foam layers absorb street noise, giving you a quiet, peaceful interior even in a noisy neighborhood.

4. Faster Builds, Better Finishes

Because the forms stay in place, you can achieve perfectly straight walls that allow for fine finishing. Please do reach out to us at our CONTACT PAGE if you need any assistance…

Continue reading]]> Right during pandemic all the way to the current wars happening in Ukraine and now Iran, moving ICF blocks from the US or Canada to the Philippines or Asia have become impossible due to the shipping costs and logistical hoops.

ICF builders tried to get ICF from China but the quality is not the best and shipping costs and logistics is still a nightmare.

So to build an ICF home, the only option left is to do it yourself. To ensure quality, you need to get samples first – make sure the thickness and density of the EPS conforms to the required minimums for ICF construction. If you need technical assistance, let us know – we’d be glad to assist you for a minimal technical fee. We have available rigid EPS for ICF construction use.

Your ICF form must allow for 5-6 inches of concrete core cavity, and the EPS must be 2 inches. To make it hold during concrete pour, you will need a lot of lumber to hold it. You should also already pre install the drywall surface on the ICF by using long screws that goes to the concrete core so that it holds on to the poured concrete giving your drywall surface that concrete hard support from the concrete core. If the area is for bathrooms – meaning you will have tiles on the walls, then be sure to stick the screw heads out – do not bury the heads all the way – this way, when the concrete core cures, the partially buried screw heads will become your tile adhesive anchors – so when you apply the tile adhesive – the partially buried screw heads will hold it tightly. Your long crews also need to be galvanized or stainless if at all possible, but no worries – rust cannot develop around it since the long screws will be totally buried in cement or tile adhesive in the bathrooms.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you need technical assistance. We’d be glad to help you nationwide… We can also supply you the EPS forms including the nationwide shipping…

Continue reading]]> This farm house have very spacious kitchen and living room. The bedrooms are bigger than most average homes in the country today.

The entire ground floor is an open type space designed for a backyard farming type of living as the lot is more than a thousand square meters nestled in the middle of a well irrigated forest type area where you can plant almost anything.

The walls are made of composite insulated wall of concrete and styrofoam mix (Expanded Polystyrene) sealed in smooth silica resulting in good heat insulation and faster finishing since it is already smooth. Insulated walls will greatly reduce aircon use resulting in lower electricity bill. Note that traditional non insulated concrete walls conducts heat well and will even retain heat from sun exposure up until night time. Most home builders are now slowly considering insulated walls due to its enormous energy efficiency benefits.

Most farming type of living will also involve raising animals like goats and chickens thus the side stairway is secured with metal railings and gates that prevent animals from climbing up the living room.

The windows are made especially large to make well ventilated living areas.

The ceilings are also made higher than standard for added ventilation. The high pitched A frame roofing design will allow for a larger breathing space above the ceiling which will make cooler ceilings.

The house gives an overall relaxed atmosphere as you are surrounded with thick vegetation and the sound of birds – it is a residential dwelling that is in itself also a rest house away from the bustling city…

Continue reading]]> ICFp or insulated composite concrete pre fab wall panels is your next great choice if the original ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) is currently beyond your budget range.

These insulated pre fab wall panels costs lower than ICF but is slightly faster to build but its major difference is that the factories are only in major cities in the Philippines – Cebu, Manila, and Tagbilaran Bohol. If your project site is not within those areas, you will incur additional shipping costs on these pre fab walls – nevertheless it still costs less than the original ICF.

These insulated pre fab walls are your next best thing to the original ICF. This wall panel is a pre manufactured concrete wall mixed with EPS (Expanded polystyrene) – the same material used in ICF insulation – but the way it is added is that the EPS granules are mixed into the concrete which is sealed, and then sealed on both sides by drywall at the factory – the same drywall used in the original ICF construction.

Based on its composition you can already conclude that this is not a load bearing type of wall unlike the original ICF, so you will need to have columns and beams in your house design. Once your columns and beams are built, then you will add these insulated pre fab walls, and since it is already smooth due to its dry wall surface, then the finishing and patching during painting will be faster.

As far as insulation characteristics, based on our own tests, there is little difference between the original ICF construction and the pre fab composite walls – meaning both achieves almost the same insulation capabilities, but another difference is that these walls are only 5-6 inches thick, unlike the original ICF where the total thickness is 10.5 to 11 inches total due to its minimum 5 inches solid concrete core composition, then you add 2 inches of EPS layer on both sides then top it up with the .25 inch thick dry wall on both sides of the wall for the original ICF construction.

The major difference between the original ICF and the the insulated composite pre fab wall panels (ICFp) is that in the original ICF – concrete is poured unto the forms on site, while the ICFp – concrete is mixed with EPS at the factory.

See this latest finished house in Talisay City Cebu using the insulated composite pre fab wall panels.

Continue reading]]> Here in the Philippines there are major stumbling blocks when trying to build an ICF Insulated Concrete Forms home.

The stumbling blocks are: 1. Local building code requires columns and beams; 2. Its very hard to find a concrete conveyor. Ready mix concrete companies here usually only have high pressure pumpcrete; 3. Workers need in depth training in ICF style construciton.

Americans and Canadians and other home owners coming from cold countries do require insulated homes when they decide to settle in the Philippines to be able to save on air con electricity bills. Their homes need to be insulated from the outside heat so as not to overwork their air conditioning systems.

The Philippine building code require columns and beams in contrast to the original American and Canadian ICF construction style that don’t require columns and beams since the walls are solid concrete making them excellent load bearing walls. So the easiest way around this is just to build the columns and beams but insulate them like you would an ICF wall – EPS on both sides of the solid pour topped with drywall. Make sure though that you don’t build the beams of the second floor slab ahead – you have to wait for the ground floor walls to be finished so you can just build your second floor slab beams on top of your cured ground floor insulated walls.

Another stumbling block is the unavailability of a concrete conveyor – a concrete conveyor is one that delivers liquid concrete from the truck without the pressure from pumpcrete / concrete pump. It is important that liquid concrete be delivered without the high pressure so as not to destroy the ICF concrete forms since it is made of light ICF. The solution for this if you cannot find a concrete conveyor is to just use wide ICF forms and hold it together with tie rods – a piece of metal that holds the two insulation forms and tie it outside on the plywood form surface. This will require that your drywall top needs to be pre installed and to secure your drywall – simply use long screws that await in the concrete core area so that it holds when the concrete cures. After curing, simply cut the tie rods below drywall surface level and cover it with spray EPS.

The final stumbling block is the scarcity of workers with ICF training. This is where your training ability will shine. You have to design your training in such a way that the workers will see the benefits and the rationale of an ICF or insulated home, so that they will have the ICF mindset as they slowly build the house. It is also advised that your skilled workers be of the younger age bracket as younger people are usually adept to change compared to their older counterparts.

If you are planning to build an ICF or insulated home here in the Philippines, simply email us your rough house layout and a photo scan of your lot sketch plan and a google snapshot of your lot location to finefinishcebu@gmail.com or to topcebucontractors1@gmail.com

Pleased to update to potential interested parties the recent update on this house in Valencia Negros Philippines. The second floor walls are now done. In the attached pictures below you will see how the structure now looks, just lacking the roofing and wall finishing. You can see the 2 inch EPS insulation on both sides of the beams and walls in the pictures showing the freshly poured walls and beams. A video of the actual pour will also be added later on. Enjoy the pics and the video and do let us know if you are interested in building an ICF house in the Philippines.

See the video of the pour here:

Continue reading]]> 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. [See image gallery at finefinish.cbu.asia]

Continue reading]]> 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… [See image gallery at finefinish.cbu.asia]

Continue reading]]> 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… [See image gallery at finefinish.cbu.asia]

Continue reading]]> 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… [See image gallery at finefinish.cbu.asia]

Continue reading]]> 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…