Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

For fair pricing although not necessarily cheap, you can source your materials at any home depot stores which I'm sure is available near your location like wilcon builders.

Btw welcome to our friendly and highly educative community 🙂
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Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

I assume then that you contracted out the labor and not the materials?

Sorry, not much help on the wall/hardiflex questions.

What I can suggest, though is you can scour the Chinatown area for your finishing materails (lamps, kitchen fixtures, electricals, other accents...).

When I built our home today, I had a contractor who did all the roughings and the deal was he will install whatever I buy for the finishings. I was in Binondo every weekend because I found that Binondo fixtures are cheaper by as much as 35%!

Try also, to pay attention to the electricals by anticipating the wattage (power) of your appliances in each room. Taht way, you can size your wires (thickness) and circuit breakers properly.

I suggest that, at the earliest possible time, prepare a worksheet of expenses (labor and materials) on a per-room basis. Then add a contingency factor (mine was 20%) for items you may wish to splurge a bit on.

We were very meticulous on our planning for our home but, in the end, we came in on schedule and on budget. That's something unusual in the local house construction industry.

Plan, plan, plan. Then, when you're done, revisit your plan.

You must be very excited . Good luck!

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

Thanks sirs ricky and balarila for the great inputs. :thanks:

@sir ricky, I'll be scouting the area this weekend to check for materials, hopefully there are cheaper sources.;)

@sir balarila, points well taken esp. for the tips regarding Binondo (re: fixtures); this will surely help me save a lot. Yes, I only contracted the labor; I'll be supplying the materials so I can control the cost. I am currently in the process of creating the BOM / plans and I agree with you 101% regarding careful planning. Unfortunately, in my previous experience, I have been always over-budget, well hopefully I could do better this time.:rolleyes:

BTW, I was able to get a price estimate from a Jardine Davies distributor here in region IV-A yesterday, the 3.5mm Hardilite costs P350 and the 6mm Hardiflex costs P595. Will also be on the lookout for other cheaper non-asbestos brands if there are any.

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

i can feel the excitement sir. hehe. I Also had endless meticolous nights, gazing at MS Excel, Autocad, etc to get things right and within budget. Pics naman when its all done, more power!

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

i can feel the excitement sir. hehe. I Also had endless meticolous nights, gazing at MS Excel, Autocad, etc to get things right and within budget. Pics naman when its all done, more power!

Thanks sir! I'm excited about the outcome but not too excited on the cost.:D Sure I'll post pics as soon as construction starts this February.;)

BTW, I am planning to use use gypsum board instead of Hardiflex for the interior walls due to cost considerations. A 12mm gypsum board (Gyproc) is half the price of a 6mm Hardiflex. Am I making the right decision?

I've read in the "Dry Walling" thread that a gypsum board is comparable, if not better than Hardiflex in terms of ease of installation, cost, reliability and performance. I could use the savings to purchase other materials.:rolleyes:

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

Hi again and good morning masters! I've decided to use Boral gypsum boards instead of Hardiflex (thanks to the thread about dry walling). I'm all set to purchase the materials from Wilcon tomorrow but I would like to confirm from you guys regarding the ceiling. This will be my first time to use suspension ceiling (Jea-Maxx) and I'm not sure if I have the correct estimate of materials based from the design (below and as referenced from the Jea-Maxx website).

Questions:
1. Have I placed the suspension rods correctly?
2. Do I still need to put double furrings horizontally (same direction as the C channels) or would the recommended layout suffice? I'll be using 3.5mm Hardiflex as ceiling material.

Also, would a 5mm double sided aluminum insulation be needed if I'll be using a 3.5mm Hardiflex board for the ceiling? Clearance between the roof and ceiling would probably just be around 8-10 inches. Thanks in advance!

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

I purchased all the materials from Wilcon Builders Depot (Calamba). Price difference between Wilcon and from the suking hardware is not that significant as far as construction materials are concerned. Hats off to Wilcon for the great service.

So I ended up buying Jea-maxx suspension ceiling system + Hardiflex (Lite), Jea-maxx metal furring system + Boral gypsum boards for the dry wall partitions, 40cmx40cm ceramic tiles for the 1st floor, vinyl tiles for the 2nd floor and the 5mm double sided aluminum insulation for the ceiling (do it right the first time).

As a bonus, I chanced upon "class B" HDF moulded doors from a tile center by the roadside. Got two 70cm HDF moulded doors, priced P900 (slight discoloration) and P600 (w/small dent), both are easily repairable with a bit of putty and a new coat of paint. Purchased two mahogany door jambs as well priced at P1000/set. My original plan was to use PVC doors due to cost considerations. Good thing my wife convinced me to take a look at the "sale" doors. Females do really have a good sense for "bargains".:D

Construction starts tomorrow and I'll be at the site to "supervise" and learn from the process. Hopefully, I could DIY soon like how you guys do it. PHM has truly been a great resource of information and inspiration.:thanks:

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

Hi there lite751,

Some tough job ahead bro, good luck on your project and enjoy DIYing !!!!

Oh can you also post some pics of your progress if its not asking too much, thanx.

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

This is exciting. Reminds me of when we were building our home.

Some unsolicited advice before you start building your partitions.

Look into your data and voice communication needs. In my case, I anticipated where I would place telephones and desks so I was able to install well placed RJ11 and RJ45 (telephone and ethernet) sockets in all rooms. Then I ran some Cat5 cabling throughout. Learned how to crimp and did the terminations myself; a lot easier than you think! So my home now has one central router and some switches that fan out into data sockets in all rooms. Sure, there are WIFI's nowadays but I feel a lot more secure with reliable copper wires.

For the phone line, I got a small PABX so I can transfer calls into other rooms. Even for a small home, this set-up beats having to yell "Honey, phone call!" from the kitchen.

I also installed video sockets (coaxials). Still don't have cable but, when I do, I imagine I can split the signal into rooms that would have TVs.

Anticipating these wiring requirements would avoid you having to install unsightly "molduras" in the future.

One other advice is, if you haven't installed power sockets yet, you may want to consider grounding wires. Safer and provides some protection to your electronics. And get the largest circuit breaker panel you can afford. It's always convenient to be able to isolate power in your rooms. I got what I thought was a big one but now feel I should have gone for bigger.

While we're on power, you may also want to consider mapping out what kind of bulbs you would want in each room. For example, I wanted to be able to dim some rooms while others, I just want On/Off switches. Fluorescent lamps (at least during the time I built my house) cannot be dimmed but halogens can so I planned where fluorescent lamps would be and where halogens would be. They do have different sockets. Not sure about LEDs. Wish we had them years ago. I hear they're a lot more power-economical and sturdier.

Have you also thought about an alarm system?

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

@sir rosy, thanks! I'll post some photos soon. I'll be sub-contracting the labor to someone else but I plan to learn and do some DIY along as well. At least they can fix my work if ever I mess-up.:D I still have a lot to learn and this is probably a good start.

@sir balarila, thanks as always for your invaluable inputs. These almost slipped my mind, good thing I still have time to plan where to place the outlets and sockets in the partitions. Besides power, how do you run wires/cables from the outside (ex. cable TV, internet, phone)? Do you also provide some type of "service entrance" where the cables go in so you can lay them neatly beneath the ceiling down to the partitions going to the outlets/sockets?

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

I have a pole in front of my house where all the utilities come into. From there, the conduits are embedded into the concrete wall adjoining the pole then into the house.

One thing about comm lines (data and voice), do not make them share a conduit. The interference from power lines could mess up your comms. Despite all my planning, I missed out a phone extension socket on my side of the bed (didn't forget my wife's side, tho). I decided as a last resort to make it share the conduit to the power of my bedside lamp. That line ended up too noisy for use.

BTW, for alarm system, I went wireless. Priced about the same but you have the convenience of no wires and no power connections for the motion sensors. Just have to replace penlight batteries once a year.

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

I have a pole in front of my house where all the utilities come into. From there, the conduits are embedded into the concrete wall adjoining the pole then into the house.

One thing about comm lines (data and voice), do not make them share a conduit. The interference from power lines could mess up your comms. Despite all my planning, I missed out a phone extension socket on my side of the bed (didn't forget my wife's side, tho). I decided as a last resort to make it share the conduit to the power of my bedside lamp. That line ended up too noisy for use.

BTW, for alarm system, I went wireless. Priced about the same but you have the convenience of no wires and no power connections for the motion sensors. Just have to replace penlight batteries once a year.

Thanks for the useful tips sir! I'll make provisions for these utilities while we set up the partitions. With regard to the alarm, I might as well go wireless should I still have enough budget left. My wife has her own "wish-list". I'm thinking of having her banned from depot stores so I could finish my project within budget. 😉

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

One thing about comm lines (data and voice), do not make them share a conduit. The interference from power lines could mess up your comms.

Re-read my message and realized I was vague. What I meant to suggest above was that comm lines should not share a conduit with power lines. Data and voice lines sharing a conduit from my experience seem ok.

Re: Needs guidance: Home renovation

Re-read my message and realized I was vague. What I meant to suggest above was that comm lines should not share a conduit with power lines. Data and voice lines sharing a conduit from my experience seem ok.

Copy sir! Thanks again!;)