Building a Home in Davao

[Viking]

10 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Then this morning, L noticed a box with a lamp in it was wet on the bottom. I investigated and it was sitting in a small puddle of water. WTF??? Water was dripping slowly down the wall - just a bit. So the foreman investigated and measured and finally chipped about five feet of the cement wall behind our master's bedroom shower. He kept looking for the end of the wet pipe and found it right at a joint behind the mixer.

 

 

This is the main reason why it is not allowed in Sweden anymore, to have built in waterpipes. When constructing new buildings all pipes must be easily accessible. Asteticly it is not the best thing, but it is practical when leaks occur 

I must say that your house looks really great Tommy, and I wish our house was located in a place like yours! I am sure you and your lady will enjoy it very much!!

[RBM]

16 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

Well, the saga continues...

Our first night home was nice. L cooked some food and we also paid to have some delivered to the five remaining workers, along with rum and Cokes. They knocked off early...hahaha!

It's very dark at night here - as in few people run outside lights. It was also very quiet. We slept soundly.

Then this morning, L noticed a box with a lamp in it was wet on the bottom. I investigated and it was sitting in a small puddle of water. WTF??? Water was dripping slowly down the wall - just a bit. So the foreman investigated and measured and finally chipped about five feet of the cement wall behind our master's bedroom shower. He kept looking for the end of the wet pipe and found it right at a joint behind the mixer.

Apparently, when we both took nice, hot showers, the hot water in the joint caused it to fail. By the way, he did pressure test the system early on so was a bit surprised. He said he could fix it... But what a dirty job with cement chips and dust everywhere...and the house was just cleaned thoroughly the day before!

So he's off to get some repair parts... and they've already cleaned up the mess.

The red is the back of the mixer. He did not want to mess up the shower tiles so went in the back way. The culprit is one of the joints in the white PVC next to the mixer on the right. The green is the water pipe.

Tommy this is often referred to as teething problems, I disagree. Some years after our build on a continuing basis we had so called teething problems.....Its just how it is here.

[Tommy T.]

Well... things are looking up. The foreman seemed to have fixed the leaks (the ground floor cr water heater connection were also leaking), at least for now. But, wisely, he did not close up the gash in the wall yet so he we could use the system and see how it holds up. Just turning taps and showers on and off introduces pressure stresses. Plus, he told us that, in this area, water pressure is higher overnight.

He has plenty of other projects to complete and we would rather give it some time to make sure it is a sound repair. So we will shower upstairs and downstairs to test the systems more thoroughly.

We don't expect perfection or even near that, but we want to simply get the best we can get.

[Tommy T.]

On 10/2/2020 at 2:18 PM, Jake said:

On page 76, is when the "blessing" commences on Tommy's new wall.  Who's with me?  

We have been waiting for your arrival, Jake. My posts are long past page 76 now... We are now living in the new home even though work continues virtually around our ears.

You missed a great beer window... now there is a total alcohol ban again. (That isn't to say one cannot purchase beer, but it will then be more expensive and difficult to find). Now I think you may have to wait at least until the New Year?

Edited November 1, 2020 by Tommy T.

[Jake]

33 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

Now I think you may have to wait at least until the New Year?

We are currently on page 81 Tommy.  And I believe your new wall has already been touched.  You must understand that I only bless virgin walls.

But one of these days, we need to share a case or two of San Magoo and talk about our lost independent freedom  as we sailed the open seas a long time ago.  From all your tribulations of building a new home in PI, I would rather clean the bilges of a nasty Chinese junk boat....he, he.  

Anyway, congrats to both of you.  This is a major milestone!  Starting with a new "honey do list" as you eventually become the new "house boy".  Believe me, I know.....
 

[Tommy T.]

27 minutes ago, Jake said:

as you eventually become the new "house boy

Thanks!

Already there, Chief! Been there for a while. Just getting up to speed with my duties, job description and responsibilities... Oh s***!

[Yeochief]

On 10/29/2020 at 3:34 PM, Tommy T. said:

right at a joint

Had the same problem.  Back in the States, we put a glue on all water joints to keep them from separating when water pressure is applied.  Don't think that is done here in the PI.  I ended up running water though all pipes with full pressure to make sure no other leaks.  

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, Yeochief said:

Had the same problem.  Back in the States, we put a glue on all water joints to keep them from separating when water pressure is applied.  Don't think that is done here in the PI.  I ended up running water though all pipes with full pressure to make sure no other leaks.  

From my experience, they do glue joints here 99% of the time.  If they didn't, surely many more joints would leak?  We had one leak in our place prior to moving in which was in an upstairs bathroom so made a bot of a mess of the ceiling below.

Whilst plastic piping has its issues, it is very easy to work with and DIY repairs are possible.  

[Tommy T.]

5 hours ago, Yeochief said:

Had the same problem.  Back in the States, we put a glue on all water joints to keep them from separating when water pressure is applied.  Don't think that is done here in the PI.  I ended up running water though all pipes with full pressure to make sure no other leaks.  

 

2 hours ago, hk blues said:

From my experience, they do glue joints here 99% of the time.  If they didn't, surely many more joints would leak?  We had one leak in our place prior to moving in which was in an upstairs bathroom so made a bot of a mess of the ceiling below.

Whilst plastic piping has its issues, it is very easy to work with and DIY repairs are possible.  

I miss the white PVC the real plumbers and I used. When making a joint with the purple softener followed with the glue, they were virtually permanent unless not done correctly. The old USA house used all copper for the pressure lines with the sweated solder joints. I had to learn to do that too, when I stupidly did not disconnect the hose from the outside spigot in sub-freezing weather and the copper pipe burst (and I somehow made this mistake twice!)

Most of the work on this repair was chipping out a lot of the hollowblock/cement wall to access the pipe and locate the leak. It took the foreman most of one day to do that and part of another to perform the actual fix. We persuaded him to not patch up the hole for a few days so we could test the connection.

By the way, HK the Stiebel Eltron heaters are wonderful. So much better and reliable water temperature than the Voda model at the apartment. Thanks for the recommendation! I am loving having hot water at the kitchen tap for dishwashing and even hand washing - it just feels cleaner to me.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Tommy T.

[hk blues]

51 minutes ago, Tommy T. said:

 

I miss the white PVC the real plumbers and I used. When making a joint with the purple softener followed with the glue, they were virtually permanent unless not done correctly. The old USA house used all copper for the pressure lines with the sweated solder joints. I had to learn to do that too, when I stupidly did not disconnect the hose from the outside spigot in sub-freezing weather and the copper pipe burst (and I somehow made this mistake twice!)

Most of the work on this repair was chipping out a lot of the hollowblock/cement wall to access the pipe and locate the leak. It took the foreman most of one day to do that and part of another to perform the actual fix. We persuaded him to not patch up the hole for a few days so we could test the connection.

By the way, HK the Stiebel Eltron heaters are wonderful. So much better and reliable water temperature than the Voda model at the apartment. Thanks for the recommendation! I am loving having hot water at the kitchen tap for dishwashing and even hand washing - it just feels cleaner to me.

Yep...we're v happy with the shower heater.  Just a heads up about it - if you turn the heater up full then turn off it may not heat for a couple of minutes when you turn on again quickly - I assume it's some kind of safety cut-off to help reduce the chance of scalding.  

As for pipes in the UK we still use copper and solder joints - at least they were up until I left in 2004.  No good for the DIY guy but very reliable and will last forever done properly.