# Clean fill, landscaping (be careful who you ask or hire for help)



## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

Try this one on for size. About 1 quarter of our lot floods on the road side/access, only twice in 4 years, a decent tsunami will take out the front and house. Some quick calculations revealed about 130 + cubic metres or depending wet/dry or in between say 1.3 tons per cubic metre, say 170 tons, probably 200 tons to bring us up to near road level....... maybe more allowing for settling.

To the better half, can you ask our local capitan where we can source clean fill and the cost, a week later. PHP 7,500 per 14 ton load or PHP 900 for a 4 ton load. (mountain soil and gravel). Ben said it's best to get the large truck, no Ben it's cheaper to get the small truck at PHP 225 per ton, the big truck will cost PHP 535 per ton........ why the difference? All in the capitans pocket? So 200 tons would cost us in a 4 ton truck PHP 45,000.
So we went to our local hardware where we buy stuff and chatted to the owner, yes sir come and look at our clean fill, It is garden soil and telling the owner we will need at least 40+ - 4 ton loads,,,,,, those are his 2 truck sizes, the price is PHP 500 per load and if you want it spread and levelled another 50 pesos every load, think I'll take up that offer but at 125 pesos per ton for 200 tons is only 25K and 2K if it's levelled.

After figures Ben said he is not asking our local capitan for anything ever again. He was annoyed. Still looking for an electrician and plumber,,,,,,, tradesmen. Nada.

Pays to ask around.

Cheers, Steve.


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## cvgtpc1 (Jul 28, 2012)

Home improvements are very exciting! Especially something like this that sounds like it will vastly increase the appearance and use of your lot.

We use referrals from relatives for tradesmen that have so far worked out and been reasonably priced.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

LOL, not sure about exciting but a job that needs to be done. We have had local trades here many times but we never invite them back, no tools (borrow mine), not really tradesmen in my opinion, handymen probably.
Eventually they will be found.

Cheers, Steve.


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## cvgtpc1 (Jul 28, 2012)

Yeah, ours are more like handymen but have been pretty competent to have back for more work. They do have their own tools though they look like WW2 relics.


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## Gary D (Oct 28, 2013)

When it comes to tradesmen in the Philippines the bar is pretty low. Asking someone who would not know quality workmanship if it bit them on the rear for a referral is no guarantee of getting a good job done, been there done that got the tee shirt. We had wells put down three times and ended up reusing an old one put down by the grandfather 50 years ago. When we built our recent house we used four different tilers non of who really knew what they were doing, lost count of plumbers, now do it myself. And electricians I wouldn't let them in the house.
We had to level our lot which the builder back filled with sand which he watered in, personally I'd have used hogging and a whacker plate. When ordering bulk materials we had the choice of dump truck or elf. They reckoned a dump truck was 25 ton and about 5k, an elf a couple of tons at about 1.5k, mind you it's all loaded by eye so they probably have no idea of real weight.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

I hear you Gary, good thing I'm now retired so no real hurry and will get there one day. A bogie drive tipper is 13 to 14 tons/9+ cubic metre. I want an electrician who is a thinker, new underground to replace old U/G line that is too small with all the extra A/Cs etc. Generator C/O switchboard and sub board in the pump/generator shed, Main sub board in the new garage, sub board in the studio, existing and connect to the house switchboard, existing. The last 2 electricians didn't know how to tackle it, I told both of them I can do the undergrounds/conduit and cable, what size should I install? Not sure sir.... I'm in the middle of sizing it myself, I asked the neighbour for his electrician,,,,, me sir (handyman son in-law of the German owner) I did all, the 2 houses and the new granny flat. Maybe we should talk to him further.

Frustrating as I'm sure your'e aware from the sounds of it with your home build.


Cheers, Steve.


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## Zep (Jun 8, 2017)

bigpearl said:


> I hear you Gary, good thing I'm now retired so no real hurry and will get there one day. A bogie drive tipper is 13 to 14 tons/9+ cubic metre. I want an electrician who is a thinker, new underground to replace old U/G line that is too small with all the extra A/Cs etc. Generator C/O switchboard and sub board in the pump/generator shed, Main sub board in the new garage, sub board in the studio, existing and connect to the house switchboard, existing. The last 2 electricians didn't know how to tackle it, I told both of them I can do the undergrounds/conduit and cable, what size should I install? Not sure sir.... I'm in the middle of sizing it myself, I asked the neighbour for his electrician,,,,, me sir (handyman son in-law of the German owner) I did all, the 2 houses and the new granny flat. Maybe we should talk to him further.
> 
> Frustrating as I'm sure your'e aware from the sounds of it with your home build.
> 
> ...


You need to do it yourself, at least the engineering part. I doubt you could find a real electrician if you looked for months. These guys can do the grunt work but planning/engineering is beyond their skill level.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

I know we are drifting off topic (dirt and costs) but hey, perhaps we change the topic title? All good, Zep it does appear that you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear but I wonder how our local malls were built, latest one is Robinsons and plenty of other projects happening that required not only engineering expertise but good tradesmen.......... Well on reflection I was never out of work and made good money as a plumber then as a logistics manager and now retired find it frustrating here. One electrician we tried wanted 1K per day, no tools, haggled and paid him 600 pesos a day and he won't be back.

How about this one, we got a price from a company in Manila for powder coated, insulated, aluminium remote control window and door roller shutters, (not like a garage roller door) yes lots of windows and doors, the price? 1.9M (they had to install them for the 5 year warranty, the cost for the installers accomodation, labour and travel,,,,,, wait for it, PHP 15K only). So AU 53K all up. Told them I can build a house for that cost, yes sir. I approached the Aussie company that supply to the above company here in PH. with my sizes and requirements. 24 volt drive motors so frequency doesn't matter, same voltage, like a TV. Their price was nigh on AU 19K and a little under 5K for shipping to our door so under half price. 
I whinged about this before, colourbond roof iron, white, green, red whatever. No sir we don't sell the coloured screws, you have to paint them by hand, what 4 plus thousand of them? Yes sir! I am shipping them.

So like our dirt prices one has to shop, slowly slowly we are achieving very little.
I will add that the installers of the last 2 split A/C units were very professional, knew what they were doing and yes had all their own tools and equipment and yes they will be welcome back, one company out of 10 so that's a start.

Cheers, Steve.


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## cvgtpc1 (Jul 28, 2012)

Being in a hurry will lead to much frustration!

Must be a thing, our AC installers were the same.


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## expatuk2016 (Mar 20, 2016)

As the saying goes " its more fun in the Philippines !" Builders,Handymen,and Electricians .
Builders, mmmm when we had our home built the family new of a good local builder and yes he was good, although he was not happy as the little woman insisted that we ordered and paid for all the building materials needed ! And i insisted on all electrical wiring to UK standards !
Inc every outlet having UK outlets with earth outlet which seemed to puzzle the Electrician.
The Philippines Electrical system ! In the UK did all the home electrics and even rewired my brothers home top to bottom.
One day here however i decided to add another light in the carport, turned off the supply at the main breaker board which supplied the carport tested for current and it was still live !
Everything else in the home was dead ! Got Meralco to check the wiring and they found that the carport wiring had no breaker ! It turned out it was connected to the sisters home at the back of the family compound ! The Electrician we use now is the Electrician at the local college where the sister teaches .
Handymen, a sore point for me, we use a guy from the local college who i call the 6 inch nail guy ! As if he puts a unit on a wall its held there by 6 inch nails ! Rarely have i seen him use a drill !
Landfill, where we live on the edge of laguna De Bay if we need earth we wait untill the water level drops and we employ men to dig up the soil sift it and put it into sacks which we store at the back of the garden untill needed.
Aircon, we got a Mitsubishi split unit via SM which was supplied and fitted by a company from Calamba who also maintain it there service is very good.
As for the Barangay Kapitan mmm not happy with him at all.
Despite the above im happy here got a loving wife, life is slow and easy.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

expatuk2016 said:


> One day here however i decided to add another light in the carport, turned off the supply at the main breaker board which supplied the carport tested for current and it was still live !
> Everything else in the home was dead ! Got Meralco to check the wiring and they found that the carport wiring had no breaker ! It turned out it was connected to the sisters home at the back of the family compound ! The Electrician we use now is the Electrician at the local college where the sister teaches .
> Handymen, a sore point for me, we use a guy from the local college who i call the 6 inch nail guy ! As if he puts a unit on a wall its held there by 6 inch nails ! Rarely have i seen him use a drill !


Sign you are going to have problems with any housing job is that the worker doesn't have the tools for the job "been there done that". 

I don't mess too much with electricity but when it comes to hanging anything on the walls I now do it myself with the proper wall mounting and hardware.


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