How to build a concrete block house in the Philippines – part 1
Here are the steps for building a modest block house in the mountains in the Philippines. I plan to follow the construction of this concrete block house from beginning to completion and will outline the basic process.
The first thing to line up is the land. This house is being built Filipino style so the laws and customs will be dramatically different for a foreigner planning to build a dream home in the Philippines.
The advice of the “dutchpickle” has always been for foreigners to not invest in land in the Philippines because they will never be the legal owner and all sorts of problems will arise.
This lot cost 4,000 pesos and is actually government land.
There was an existing outline of the old foundation of a house that was never completed, which we tore down.
I am not sure how it works but in this village people seem to have lots staked out that have been in their families for generations in some cases.
Apparently the “owner” can sell this land to others in the community in an agreement witnessed by the barangay captain. Obviously this is not the way to go if you plan to invest heavily in the project. The sale must be recorded with the Barangay office for tax declaration purposes. Basically what we have here is a “squatter” house – this is not a solid investment, but it works for the locals.
Buying land is always very tricky in the Philippines as there are often heirs and family disputes about who actually owns the land.
In the mountains they are a tight knit community and if they all agree that a certain family owns that land and all his relatives and friends are willing to back him up – that guy owns the land – end of story.
There was an abandoned project on this lot that had to be cleared and some nice banana trees that are “owned” by the neighbors were spared and are to be harvested by them when the bananas are ripe.
A thick stand of bamboo gives the place great shade and there is a constant breeze blowing in from the cane fields making this a surprisingly comfortable location.
I was helping push over some block when i noticed a scorpion scurrying by and decided that these guys had everything under control.
We had ordered 1000 4 inch concrete block and 500 had already been delivered.
The agreed upon price was 12 pesos each but after delivery they jacked the price up to 13 pesos.
I was helping these guys a little and was wondering if this was an additional “foreigner tax”. I am a realist however and realize that this building site is quite a ways off the paved road so a 1 peso delivery fee per block really was reasonable.
A truckload of “screen sand” for the concrete cost 5,500 pesos for a 5 cubic meter load.
I had lined up some steel reinforcing rod and brought 40 – 12mm (175 pesos ea), 20 – 10mm (125 pesos), and 20 9mm (95 pesos ea), 40 bags of Portland cement (210 pesos ea), 10 kilos of tie wire (65 pesos ang kilo) , and 4 sheets of 3/16 plywood (280 pesos) up to the site.
Nails 2”, 3″, and 4″ – 20 kilos in all 48 pesos ang kilo.
Steel shovels – 2 (300 pesos ea), trowels 45 – 55 pesos. hacksaw blades 3 @ 60 pesos and 1 @ 75 pesos.Misc tape measures, hammers and other stuff I had lying around were donated to the project.
40 – 2×2 coco lumber was delivered by the multicab. This location is 34 kilometers round trip from town so you kind of have to plan the deliveries.
The foundation for the footing was dug the first 2 days, the re-bar assemblies were done on day 3 and 4. Everything was ready to go on Monday. These guys are expected to work 6 days a week and take Sunday off.
This site is way out in the mountains and labor here is very cheap.The lead gets 200 pesos per day, the old man and the strong laborer 125 pesos, the 14 year old lad 50 pesos and some others volunteer their labor.
This is not my house but I am helping them out a little bit.
I donated a bag of rice at the start and have brought a bucket of fish and three chickens for lunch break.
A neighbor woman cooks the food. Bread and coffee are ready in the morning to get everyone going.
You must keep the morale up or things simply will not get done and I want them to get this house completed as quickly as possible. It’s not a big job if they can remain focused.
This almost has become an Amish barn raising style project. One of the neighbors is storing the Portland cement in his house to keep it dry.
The bending of the re-bar is done in the shade under the trees at the neighbor across the street and the coco lumber is stores in another yard.
They seem excited about the activity and it is cool to be a part of it.
There are 10 columns planned – 4 across the front, 4 across the back and one halfway down each side.
There is a small creek at the back of this small property so drainage is an issue to look int as well. They are planning on having 2 pigs back there – seems like a solid plan.
The foundations for the columns are the first step. The 12 mm with the 9 mm supports go up first.
Just the foundation is poured and then hollow block is laid between the columns.
When there are around 8 completed courses the support pilings are poured giving the walls considerable strength.
There is a planned tie beam to run around the perimeter of the block wall at the top to tie everything together resulting a very solid house.
The team sets the form for one of the concrete columns.
These columns go from the foundation to the tie beam at the top of the wall and give the structure a lot of strength. This picture was taken about 2 weeks into the project.
A 5 cubic meter load of screen sand is set to arrive later in the morning and we still have about 15 bags of Portland cement stored in one of the neighbors houses.
The progress on this construction project will updated in Part 2 – Building a concrete house in the Philippines. It might be a few days before I get around to updating the site.
Building a house in the Philippines
Climbing Mount Apo
General Santos
Growing Orchids
Judy's Resto Bar
Logging with Motorcycles
Mount Mayon
Balabac Island
Biri Island
Calbiga Cave
Capul Island
Mangrove Swamp Palawan
Mikes's Resort
Wow dp,
going into the construction business now. looks great mate. it should be finished by the time i get home so i will have to come visit. great looking little place mate. BW Dave
Wow! Lots of detail! I’d like one of those. Ready to help with another one?
dp i should have had u over look the building of my last 2 places then maybe they would have been as i was expecting and not as the builder liked ahahah. great pics. by the way i have just ordered a new digital camera olympus e-420.. cracking bitta kit. keep up the great work. i will do the gecko tomorrow mate. and email back asap. all the very best mate. Dave
Quite a job DP and congratulations for your kindness. Not easy to build so far from the city, guess you must second guess what ever is needed.
maybe you can post the total square meter size, would be interesting to know completed price.
Hang in and you must also stay focused as the potential for future problems will be there.
Hi Dave,
It actually feels good to mix cement by hand up there in the fresh air of the mountains! Most of the crew took today (Sunday) off so I was the gopher – mixing cement and loading the block on the scaffolding for my two blocklayers
This week I plan to go up into the mountains and have some coconut trees cut down and made into rafters for the roof – am trying to keep costs down :) They tell me that I can buy a coconut tree for 500 pesos each and they will rip it down into 2x6s for another 500 pesos. I suppose that we will have to carry the lumber by hand to the site.
Wish you were here mate – you would enjoy the whole program. By the way I am bringing a bunch of stuff over to your house to store whilst I am of on Safari :) Hope you don’t mind? I bought one of those cabinets from the boys down the street and plan to load it up with my camping and dive gear and put it in your spare bedroom. Dropped it off at your place this morning – Melody is in Maasin so I left it on the balcony. Also measured that king sized bed made out of bamboo and will drop that off in a couple of days too.
We miss having you around!
take care
dp
Cheryl, you will have to come by for a visit and check it out :)
Hi Bruce,
I will try to have more detailed cost information in part 2 after we are further along. One wild card is if I can get a hold of some coconut trees and rip them down into 2x6s to use on the roof.
The corrugated tin roof is going to cost me 288 pesos per 8 foot length. This size works best for me but you can get it in 8, 10, and 12 foot sections. I went with the thicker .3 material.
…and I don’t plan to stick around for the future problems! :)
I am getting quite well known up there in the mountains which makes it kind of a fun experience. I probably rode that trail 600 times now (4 times a day sometimes 6)
I am eager to see those new bikes you and Lindsay are importing!
My old TMX has 63,000 k on it now and most of those are tough k’s :)
cheers mate – hope you make it out here some time in the next few weeks!
dp
Hi, Dp
I have read most of your article here and was i thinking of building a house in Coron Palawan next to Salvacion in the province there i have a limited budget to work on and how much would it cost lets say from start to finish maybe a three to five bedroom if that possible on a small budget i plan on building this in this mountainous area where i have visited with my wife we met in the philippines manila i was there a bout 4 years and want to try and build there was thinking of maybe either trying to buy a lot or see if i could find a inexpensive house and lot , but if i planned on building was thinking what would be a realistic price on a very tight budget is 3 to 5 thousand could it be done on such, and in the end could one ever build a inexpensive swimming pool also in a areas such as this, Frank
Hi Frank,
Coron is hot and dry with few trees. Its also off of major supply routes, therefore materials will be expensive. Your labor costs will be huge because you are not a part of this area and will likely be paying top dollar.
There is no way you will build a 3 bedroom house in Coron for 3 to 5 thousand (I am assuming dollars). An outsider trying to buy land is entering a mine field as well. Adding the swimming pool as well seems like you are not realistic in your expectations.
Do the math – figure the costs for the materials on paper. The labor costs will be double to triple the costs in this story. Where I built the labor is cheap and they are good craftsmen because of experience in working on the geo-thermal plants in the mountains near my place. Some were also a form of relative with an interest in protecting my investment.
I do not know costs in Coron, but Palawan in general is not a cheap place to build. I strongly suggest renting – it will be less headaches.
…not trying o sound negative – its just that your plan seems to be under capitalized. You might be looking at costs up to 10x what you are thinking.
dp
Hi DP
I was wondering if you might have a guess at what it would cost to build a 3 bedroom block house in sindangan,this is where me and the wife are thinking of living when i retire from my job,we live in the good ole USA now,my wife is from cebu,but her parents live in zamboanga del norte i like sindangan and dipolog
Hi Scott,
The lot or land you buy will be a factor. It will also make a difference if you are the general contractor or if you will have some else run the job for you.
I am going to throw out a rough figure 20 to 50 thousand USD. There are just so many variables to even give you a reasonable estimate.
Building can be a joy but it can also be an aggravating experience. The place I put up in the mountains ran me less than 7500 USD but it is way up in the hills and has no re-sale value. It was simply a family gift. Now I have a place to stay if I feel like hanging out in the mountains for a while.
I would say that the area you are interested in is very beautiful – I could easily live there myself!
dp
iam a builder to trade timber kit house i build here in the uk do you think that style of build would work in the philippines with kit panels then a skin of hollow blocks built around the kit panel or is that just extra cost for no reason
Hello alan
I am not experienced with that type of construction so can not give a good answer.
Consider using something for the prevention of termites because they can be a problem in some areas.
dp
12 pesos per block?!?expensive… in tarlac it costs P3.50… 5 for high quality ones… given the river beds in southern tarlac is ready material for hollow blocks (lahar deposits) what mountains are you in? are you in an isolated island?
Hey DutPickl;
I love your site. My wife and I will be building a modest home a similar size to yours. I am on an extremely limited budget as you were. I am an Orthodox clergyman so the banks are not full of my money, if you catch my drift. We were curious about your design plans and if you still have them? We would like to llook them over and perhaps adopt some of your ideas. We are building in Mindanao near Pagadian in her families barangay there. Our budget is also about $5-7000 US dollars. We plan to build a bamboo church after our house.
Father Deacon Chris
I really like the Pagadian area but strongly suggest that you live there for a while to see if that is really where you want to build..
It is easy to go broke in the Philippines so really check things out before you take the plunge!
We did not use plans when we built this small place but some of my guys were pretty good with concrete and block.
I really enjoy traveling in Mindanao and have been through Pagadian many times but feel that you will want to investigate the entire situation in depth before starting on this project.
good luck
dp
Hi Dutch Pickle,
I really enjoyed reading this article and found it very useful as I am currently in the planning stages of building an eco-village in the Philippines. I am originally from the UK but I have dual-citizenship so able to own land in the Philippines. I can see that you have experience in construction and would very much like to request any help in terms of Filipino suppliers of concrete blocks, foundations and lumber. I would be very grateful for the help so please contact me when you have the time.
Where are you planning to build?
Check with the nearest building supply and hardware stores first, just to get an idea of how much things will cost.
dp
oh my…
it sure is costly to build a house… mr. dp, i would like to start a house of my own… good thing i ran into this blog of yours… i have a small lot within the city of cagayan de oro… about 80 sq m, not too much for i live alone and im just 25yo… i intend to build only a 40 sq m floor area for the house with 2 bedrooms, and a little bitsy for the dining room, living room, toilet, etc. how much do you think will it cost me? i really really really want a house, im tired of renting… thanks…
Hello Nina,
It depends on what materials you will be using. Ask some of the local contractors just to get an idea of how much they would charge too.
Actually draw out a plan and then you will have to estimate how many materials you will need. The labor will be a big factor too – make sure that you get a guy that knows what he is doing and can work quickly or there will be too many cost overruns.
Try not to rush into the project – plan ahead so you will have enough money to complete the job!
good luck
dp
Do you have an email address. I’d like to ask you something privately. Thank you
Hi corey
you can use dutchpickle at gmail is you like
cheers
dp
Are you sure about the price of the lot? 4,000 pesos? how cheap.. eheh may natira pba ganyan ka mura dyan sa inyo?
Just want you to know that I think your story on building the concrete block house is excellent and very informative. Fantastic pictures and it really lets you see how this kind of thing is done in the Philippines. I work fifo in Australia doing 2 weeks on and have 1 week off which I manage to spend 4.5 days in Butuan. This story interests me as I am contemplating building something like this on a few hectares with a plan of being almost self sufficient.
Thanks for the great story.
Cheers and beers
Richard
ask ko lang po magkano magastos sa concrete house sa 100 square meters..