Tools and items to keep handy when starting a foundation for a new building in Nigeria

Your toolkit should be:

1. Theodolite 

2. Try square 

3. Measuring tape

4. Hammer

5. Marker pens

Other items:

1. Bundles of wooden pegs

2. 2x3 profile wood

3. 3" nails

4. 2" nails 

5. Lines (rope) 

Plots of land for sale at Ugwuomu Nike, Enugu.

We are selling plots of lands at Ugwuomu Nike. N5.5 million naira for each plot of about 60 x 100 feet. Land comes with survey documents, deed of conveyance and is already registered at Land ministry, Enugu. 

The moment a helicopter was transported to Okpara square Enugu for Children's park

Enugu as a fun destination has been getting more and more fun toys for residents and tourists to visit and enjoy their outdoor activities. Take for instance the arrival of this helicopter, to be installed at a park at Okpara square, where children will visit and explore the insides this holiday season. Peter Mba is doing well. 

Plan your build and build your plan

If you have concluded plans on how to start your new house, congratulations! Building your new home is one of the most interesting achievements in life, but you must first plan it very well to avoid regrets. There are usually a lot of things you must consider before setting out to meet the professionals that will help you plan your new building. They include the following.

1. The intended use for the house

This is perhaps the most important consideration you will need to make, is this house going to be a holiday home, a continuous use house that you will live with your family, or a place you stay whenever you have business in the location. Do you plan to use some part of it as a commercial venture where you can collect rent by letting some rooms, or turning the front to a shop. These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself and have the answers before you go any further.

2. House type

There are many different types of buildings, the bungalow, duplex, twin duplex, duplex/flats, block of flats, shopping stores and soft contained apartments. You have to decide which will work well for your intended use. The neighborhood will play a role in what you choose, because there are different types of buildings that are suited for different neighborhoods. You have to consider the people that will stay in this building with you.

3. Contemporary or traditional building style

Of recent, Nigerian architectural designers has been favouring the contemporary building design over the hip roof, traditional building pattern that seemed to dominate the country's building scene in the 90s through the early 21st century. The new house owner has to sit down and study these two designs and make a choice on what he or she wants to build.

4. House features

The prospective house owner should first consider the features he needs in his building. Some love automated electrical fittings, solar powered designs, and some certain type of room arrangements to suit a particular need or needs. These features may also include central heating or air conditioning.

5. Family size and age

If you plan to live with your family, they should be well considered in every decision. Decisions like the number of rooms, layout of rooms and even the type of arrangement that will favour certain ages like the very young, and the very old should be put into consideration. People who plan to live with aged parents, inlaws or other relatives should plan their room layout with these in mind.

6. Family complexity

Let's face it, some men will have plans to marry two or more wives and live with them under one roof. The planning stage of their building is where they take care of the expected fallout of such family arrangement. Another aspect of it is for those who are planning to live with siblings, inlaws, friends and other visitors, either temporarily or permanently. The way they plan their building will differ from a man who only wants to marry one wife, and probably live with only his wife and children.

7. Land and weather conditions

In each location, there is this need to adhere to the land and weather conditions where you build, and make your plans accordingly. You must plan for the type of foundation you want to have, the expected weather conditions, is the place usually hot like Kano or cold like Jos? Is the place prone to flooding like Lagos or a dry, hard ground like Enugu? They all require different building approaches to ensure the weather doesn't become a problem in the future.

8. Plan your finances

Building a home is a huge financial task, for some people, their home is usually the biggest financial commitment they will ever make. It is better to plan the financial aspect of your building. This is because to start and be overwhelmed by the huge resources it will require will leave a sour taste in the mouth, for some people it will lead to the abandonment of the building due to lack of funds.
Whether you're planning on taking a loan, pulling money from savings, or planning to be taking out the funds through profits from an ongoing business(es), be sure to make good plans for each, to avoid surprises mid way into the building.

9. Plan with professionals

At this point, an architect, a structural engineer, a builder, among other building professionals should be on your call list. You should talk to as many as possible to find out what they know, or how experienced they are to take on your building. Do they have your time, can they give you good attention, do they show an understanding of the needs you have, can they act fast, do they have attitude problems? Are they honest people with a track record of integrity?

Choose your professionals with the care you will take to pick a surgeon. Mistakes could be very costly, and permanent.

10. Stick to your plans no matter the temptation

Finally, stick to your plan when you have chosen one. I have seen people who deviated from their building plans just because a friend or relative came around and told them that this type of building is no longer in vogue. People who get talked out of their intended building plans without good reasons may get confused and miss their intended targets. Don't get me wrong, taking a good advice, mostly from a knowledgeable professional and changing your mind is good, what we advice against is being tossed about by every random wind of suggestion, and thereby going off plan to please friends or relatives, not yourself.

Contact us for more building advice, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking on the subscribe button below.

(08033350750)

Lead causes of building project abandonment

What are the lead causes of building project delays or abandonment?

They are everywhere in every city, wherever you look you will see uncompleted houses, or housing projects that had stayed under construction for a long period of time, usually the site will be inactive or totally abandoned. In some extreme cases, the delayed or abandoned houses will be prone to pilfering, or outright stealing of building materials and other valuable items in the compound. So what are the causes of these types of unfortunate situations? I will outline a few of the main reasons below.

1. Failure to plan with professionals.

Some people still do not understand that those trained in relevant fields of construction are well placed to understand a lot of things that needs to be done before a building is started. Some will think its costly to hire professionals, and they will attempt to do some of the works themselves. Failure to involve professional advice even before a building is started can lead to avoidable mistakes like to adherence to necessary set backs required for the building in the compound it will be. Another mistake it might lead to is not planning the layout of the rooms, or not providing the building with enough headroom to make the building functional. In cases like this, the owner of the building may spend more money correcting the errors, and might get frustrated over the difficulty in making the corrections, then abandon the project.

2. Check government regulations

Another leading cause of building delays or abandonment is lack of adherence to government building regulations. There are recommended set backs for the front of buildings, the sides, and to the fence and to other buildings. There are also specified building heights, some areas could also be zoned to be low or high density areas. The building owner/investor should find out these government regulations and ensure he adheres to them. Failure to follow government regulations can lead to work stoppages, building enforcement or outright building demolitions. To avoid surprises which could lead to projects abandonment, always check the government approval authorities for their regulations.

3. Lack of financial planning

Your building is usually a major financial item. A lot of resources are going to be deployed to make it successful. In fact, a lot of money will be spent building your house. It is important to plan well for these huge financial commitments, are you going to take out loans to build this house, do you have savings that can complete this house, or do you plan to spend from salaries as they come, or from profits and other passive income to fund this building? These are some of the most important things you have to consider to avoid situations where the building will need money to be spent and you dont have the money to continue spending, resulting in project delays or abandonment.

4. Soured relationships

There could be situation where the professional handling your building project behaves in a way that could be termed as unprofessional, and this has led to misunderstandings, quarrels and fights which can delay, or force a stop to an ongoing building project.
There could also be a situation where the building professional, is fighting for control of the site with the relatives of the owner/investor, or even the paid staff of the the owners or investors due to some unplanned events that may occur in the life of the building project. These two mentioned scenarios, when not properly managed can lead to serious problems that can lead to project delays, and possible abandonment as each side tries to assert their authority over the project. When two elephants fight, the grass suffers, the grass in this case is the house building project.

5. Sickness/Demise of the building owner/key investor

Of course when the person who is most involved in the release of funds for the continuation of a building project suddenly falls sick passes on without an agreed plan of succession, the project will be forced to stop. This is why people should make their plans to ensure the continuation of their projects and programs even when they are indisposed. These plans could come in the form of a planned funding process fixed with the bank or other escrow services, or prepare their wills and place instructions with their financial planners or managers to continue a project whether they are there or not.

 

The house we built at our estate at Akpuoga Nike, Enugu.

These are the latest pictures from the building we erected at our estate at Akpuoga Nike. We are currently waiting for.more of our investors who bought lands here to start doing their fence and other buildings here. 

ESWAMA Enugu reverses self, insists on the observation of November clean up exercise.

Find the state government letter which reversed the first letter attached. With an apology. 

ESWAMA Enugu cancels the November monthly sanitation exercise.

Find attached the cancellation letter

The technology of manually molded blocks for building projects

Some call it blocks while others call it 'sandcrete', this is an important building material which we get by mixing powdered cement, sharp sand and water in a ratio made to suit the job it was produced for. You might wonder why I used the phrase 'in a ratio made to suit the job it was produced for'? Okay,  there are many uses for blocks apart from using it to raise the walls in homes and fences. Blocks could be used for a variety of works, including

1. Walling of a house
2. Making a fence wall
3. Building a generator house or any other structure that will have vibrating equipment inside
4. Effluent waste pits or soak away tanks.

Because of the various uses for blocks, the mixing ratio cannot be the same, we tend to reduce the ratio of sand to a bag of cement if we want a more solid mix or a block product which can do more than covering the walls of a house. I will like to mention here that most houses, especially those built with reinforced concrete columns and metal rods, blocks don't bear much loads, this is why you see houses built without blocks at first, the builder will first raise the columns and deck the first floor, then continue with another set of columns which will bear the next floor, and up and up we go.

There are many different types of blocks in modern building, these include;

1. 9" hollow blocks
2. 6" hollow blocks
3. 6" solid blocks
4. 5" solid blocks
5. The fancy blocks for decorative use

These blocks could be used according to the specifications of the building plan you are using. Most houses with more than one floors uses the 9" blocks on the ground floor and maybe the next few floors, but as a house rises in height, it is recommended that the weight of the blocks on the top floors be reduced, ie. If you use 9" blocks to do a ground floor and the next few floor, use 6" to do the topmost floor to ease the weight on the columns, beams and foundation.

There are two major ways of producing blocks, the first is the older method of using manual labour. Skilled block makers using a metal contraption called a mold, they use this mold to compress mixed cement/sand/water to form blocks and leave them on the ground to set.
The second method was a product of industialization and the need for increased output to meet builders demand. A machine was invented to help compress mixed sand and produce blocks. This is the type we call the machine made blocks. This machine uses vibration method to compess blocks as against the manual method. So we will call this second method the vibrated blocks method.

Which one is stronger? Well, it still depends on the mixing ratio, because it is what you mix that the machine will vibrate. I have seen many breakages among machine vibrated blocks as well with hand made blocks. (I will treat this in a new topic)

Apart from bad mixing ratios, which happens when some block makers add too much sand to the mix ratio to get more yield of blocks, some other things can cause blocks to come out in a bad condition which can affect the quality of the project. These other conditions include;

1. Using bad/expired cement

Due to the prevailing economic conditions, some block makers tend to go for very cheap cement which may not have the required quality to hold a solid block. These blocks break soon after they are made. Some cement sellers who hoard cement keep the cement for so long that the quality of the cement is compromised, by this I mean that the cement will lack some of the quality needed to make blocks as the binding agent present in cement may have become weaker. Another thing to note with cement is that some cement sellers rebag cement, removing and reducing the original quantity of cement from the factory. As a consequence the ratio you thought you are using to produce a given quantity is no longer complete, making for a low quality block that can easily break before it is used for the project.

2. Quality of the sand

Some sands are coarse while some are soft. The sharp sand (coarse) is recommended for block making but it should not be too sharp, or it will not be very good for the quality of block. Some people pack dirty sand from the roadside, gutters and ponds. We recommend sharp sands packed from flowing water, or better still the beach. Care should be taken so the bigger pebbles and stones that mix with the sand are filtered out.

3. Rain

Make sure the weather is clear before you start making your blocks, this is because a freshly made block is softer than eggs, and when it rains, the whole blocks can melt and become formless. We have a way to protect the effects of rain if we must make blocks in the rainy season. We buy nylon sheets and use them to cover the freshly made blocks. Also ensure that there are no small erosion tracks passing from under the freshly made blocks.

4. Other domestic animals

Now, keep those your fowls, dogs and goats indoors while making blocks. A running fowl can break more that 10 blocks if it climbs on frshly made blocks, how much more the heavier mammals like goats, sheep, dogs and even cattle. I have seen freshly made blocks trampled upon by animals, and it leads to loss of time and resources.

Follow us for more information about blocks and other building materials and techniques. Subscribe to our newsletter by clicking the button below. 

Ask me questions on this topic 08033350750. 

The look of our 9 flats building project at Onitsha, the story so far.

Building houses is an enjoyable profession, especially when you stand back and look at the product of your everyday struggles to ensure a well built structure. 

The daily toil, the movement from place to place, the arrangement of workers and materials, they all start to make sense when you see the result of your efforts grow and grow in stature. We are happy to have come this far, we are looking forward to completing this project as soon as possible. 

Pictures from the completed portions of our decking cast at Onitsha, Anambra state.

We are now done with this decking cast on the 27th of November 2024. We are set to start the next stage of the building which is the next block walls for the next floor. 

More pictures as we continue the decking slab concrete cast.

More pictures 

Our decking concrete cast at Onitsha yesterday

We completed this our ongoing decking concrete cast yesterday at Onitsha, Anambra state. Pictures as work was still going on..........

Peter Obi words on the marble

Nothing to add

Repair works done on GRA roads in Enugu by Gov. Peter Mba

The works are steadily taking shape, all urban roads worked on will  e showcased here......

List of materials and workmanship for the construction of a double flat of 3 bedrooms on a 4 storey building in Onitsha.

Stage 10, Top floor block walls

1. 9" blocks (2000) 550 N1,100,000
2. 6" blocks (1500) 550 N825,000
3. Sharp sand (6) 65,000 N390,000
4. Chippings (1) N950,000
5. Cement (140) 9100 N1,319,500
6. 12mm rods (50) 9,000 N450,000
7. 12mm rods (85) 9,000 N765,000
8. 8mm rods (50) 5,100 N255,000
9. Binding wire (1) N40,000
10. 1x12x12 wood (100) 3,000 N300,000
11. 1x9x12 wood (25) 3,000 N75,000
12. 1x6x12 wood (15) 1,500 N22,500
13. 3" nails (1) N37,000
14. 2" nails (1) N38,000
15. Transportation of materials N90,000
16. Pumping of water N20,000
17. Workmanship N2,030,000

Total N8,707,000

How we built the 9 flats of 3 bedroom flats in Onitsha

We have been working on this new building project at Onitsha. The records of the day to day activities on the building site ate all contained in this thread. Follow the link to see some of our works. https://www.nairaland.com/7982512/building-construction-8-flats-3

Land for sale in Enugu

1 plot of land at Alulu Nike 

Size: 580 square metres 

Fenced with gate

In a very good location 

5,000 square metres of land for sale at Independence layout Enugu

At a whopping cost of N750 million naira, there is a 5,000 square metres, about 10 plots of land for sale at the centre of Enugu city. Contact 08033350750 for inspection and possible purchase. 

Low priced block of flats for sale in Enugu

Located in Amechi Idodo street Achara layout Enugu, this double block of flats is for sale by the owner. He is asking for N130 million naira for both of the buildings. Buy and rent, with minor maintenance works. 

Why you should cast your steps with concrete before the decking slab

Basically, because it makes for more savings and adds to the ease of doing things on site. You remember that many people mount an extra set of stairs made of wood and use it temporarily to climb up to the decking to cast the slab with concrete. 

But we advise that where possible, builders should plan to build their steps and have it well reinforced, then use good concrete to cast this steps

and then wait for a few days for the decking to cure, you can now proceed to cast your decking slab, using the steps you had already cast as an access point to climb up. Attached is a project where we had to cast the steps with concrete, even while still completing the decking wood framing. 08033350750. 

A lifestyle of outdoor sporting activities in Enugu

They are having a jamboree here, every other day, residents gather to exercise themselves and generally gave fun. They have a lot of organised groups, like clubs and associations where members can register and belong. They also hold meetings on how to make their physical exercises more helpful to the needs of the member. 

Item 7 is also on the agenda each meeting, lol. 

Roxettes Surge X on display in Enugu

This car is for sale, you can contact the company marketing it for more information about the specifications and pricing. 

Picture of Abakaliki road Enugu

A very busy road, this road connects from the middle of the city at Old park and leads all the way to Abakaliki Ebonyi state. This pictured junction is a road that leads into Old GRA Enugu. 

The rising number of new shopping plazas in Enugu city.

The city of Enugu has been witnessing this rise in commercial property buildings. A drive through every major road or inner street road will reveal the increasing number of these buildings. There are new ongoing buildings, and many completed ones. They come in the form of shopping plazas, block of lock up shops, big supermarkets and even fuel service stations.

This could be attributed to the rising awareness of the investors of the increasing purchasing power of the residents. Demand pulls supply, and as more people demand to rent these business premises, there will be more investment in these types of buildings.

As people on the ground who understand which areas of Enugu city that is experiencing growth or more population, we can help new investors to secure good land deals, and even construct new buildings that will end up as busy business plazas and offices. Contact us today on 08033350750, call or WhatsApp message.

 

Abacha delicacy from AdaEzeagu

Simply delicious, mouth watering and appetizing. I enjoyed a plate of abacha here and concluded that it's worth a second, third and forth visit. Call her number if you need home service, catering services and event services. 

All you need to know about the concrete decking slab

In home building construction, people get confused with different technical terminologies being used by industry professionals to describe different types of the work. Since its not everyone that underwent training in construction engineering, a need therefore arises to explain some of the technical terms we might meet in home construction. This is why we are going to look at the term “decking”, and explain what it's all about.

A decking, which could be described by insiders in the building industry as the suspended slab, is a platform built to hang on top of a building ground floor unit, and therefore forms the floor for the upper unit of a building. Usually, steps are created so that occupants of this upper unit can climb up to a decking, and so enter a higher floor of the same building.

There are many materials that could be used to create a decking platform. Engineers have used metal sheets, aluminum, hard wood, concrete, synthetic fibres and thick plywood boards to create different shapes and sizes of decking for use in different types of buildings.
For the sake of this write up, we are going to be focusing our attention on the concrete decking slab.

The concrete decking slab is made when the objective of the deck is durability and safety. Among other types of decking materials, the concrete is among the most reliable, it could last for very long, even up to hundreds of years. In buildings where fire could be a risk, the concrete deck could be relied upon as compared to wood or plywood. The concrete deck also fits well on buildings especially those started with concrete columns and beams.

The concrete beam is always reinforced with good quality metal bars (iron rods). The specifications of the rods that should work in any decking slab should be detailed by a qualified building professional, specified in the building plans and approved by the state or local authorities to ensure compliance to existing building codes. There are so many types of iron bars for different decking slabs, there is the 25mm, 20mm, 16mm, 12mm, 10mm, 8mm etc. These iron rods are used in the planned combination suited for the project, as stated in the building plans.

Other important uses of the decking is that the electrical or mechanical piping works on a floor can be passed inside the decking. Electrical pipes of between 20mm to 25mm are usually run within the decking slab, providing electrical wiring provisions where wires and cables could be passed from room to room in a building project. Same applied to the water pipes, or even waste pipes.

There are also specifications on the thickness of the slab. The thickness planned for a decking slab has a lot to do with the intended use of the decking slab. There are slabs for residential buildings and there are slabs for commercial buildings like shops and plazas. Since shops and plazas may contain live loads like heave goods and equipment stacked on the floors, its important to plan for theis extra weight, especially during the planning of the building. In concrete decking slabs, the thickness can range from 125mm to even 300mm thick, depending on what it was planned for.

The mixing ratio for the materials that will be used to cast a concrete decking should also be well planned and specified in the building plan documents. Clear specifications should be stated for the mixing ratio of sand and aggregates like granite, gravel and for cement. Care should be taken to ensure a superb mix for the decking slab concrete, a good concrete mixing machine is advised where it is available. A concrete tool which shakes the concrete (poker) is also a very useful tool to ensure the efficiency of the decking process.

The above shown picture is a decking we have completed in the past, we have started and completed more than 130 different decking slabs in different locations, for more questions and inquiry, call Kenn on 08033350750.

How to break down your building construction to stages

They must have given you this bulk sum amount of money on what it will take in total to build the house you plan to build, and it's overwhelming to say the least. Where do you even start from? Relax, drink a glass of cold water and then do these;

What I will advice you to do, as an experienced building professional, is to put a call to your builder, contractor or a quantity surveyor to have a good look at you building plan, then consider where your building will be located and then give you a quotation. Ask them to break the quotation down to smaller, manageable milestones. The location consideration is very important because costs rise or fall in some locations because of different conditions prevalent in the location.

These milestones could be few, for a typical bungalow, ask for 3 stages, for a duplex, ask for 5 stages, and so on. These are just for the construction of the skeleton of the building only. For example we can divide a duplex thus;

1. Foundation and DPC stage
2. Ground floor block wall stage
3. Decking stage
4. First floor block wall stage
5. Parapet and roofing stage

Out of the bulk sum earlier given, let the costs be broken down and allocated to each of the stages, dont forget to add timelines for completion. This will make the work measurable, and thus easier to monitor.

New pictures of International conference centre Enugu.

This work is still not completed, but already looking good. This huge edifice couldn't be completed by 3 past governors in more than 20 years, its almost completed now in the Administration of Peter Mba.

Onitsha high rise residential buildings, redefining property development in Nigeria.

Onitsha is a commercial city in the Eastern part of Nigeria, located beside the River Niger, its a city in Anambra state. Onitsha right from the late 19th century till today has always been a business and commercial powerhouse. Goods and services are traded in high net worth deals per second.

Out of the whole merchandise arriving Nigeria, nearly 70% of them usually head to Onitsha for onward distribution to many other cities and countries surrounding Nigeria. This has created a city where the population can only grow and grow. Onitsha commercial activities has spread into all the neighbouring towns and villages surrounding the city. Towns like Oba, Nkwelle Ezunaka, Obosi, Nkpor, Ogbunike, Ogidi, Ogbaru and even Asaba in Delta state has all become part of the greater Onitsha city.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Onitsha development is the settlement pattern of the people, which is characterized by the type of houses they build for mass habitation. Due to the small nature of the landmass of Onitsha, property investors chose to start building medium high rise structures that can accommodate as many families as possible, while retaining a sense of comfort, privacy and decency.

This gave rise to the multiplicity of 4,5 and even 6 story buildings scattered in and around Onitsha city. These building are usually constructed by single individuals who just wants to stake their money in real estate holdings. It has been a profitable business for decades, and more people are still looking for spaces to build these types of homes.

On our own, we have built many of these structures in Onitsha, contact us if you need home building services in any part of Nigeria for a quotation and possible building contract. 08033350750.

Picture credit: Anambra1stson TV.