House Construction 101

How do you start?

1. You have, or own a lot/land with proper documents to prove that you are the owner and no underlying issues about the lot/land prior to construction.

2. Consulted professionals for the design and planning stage from Architectural, Structural, Sanitary, Electrical to Mechanical if required in your project, to provide you with needed working drawings, specifications and estimates for building permit application.

3. Secured the necessary permits such as building permit, fencing permit, demolition permit whichever applies, and other requirement that may be asked from your LGU where you are situated.

4. Awarded to a contractor to start building your dream house.

In general here's a short checklist of construction flow on site, some may not be applicable to all depending on the complexity of the structure and budget.

CONSTRUCTION

1. Site clearing

• removal of unnecessary objects, man made features or by nature, that may be a cause of obstruction or delay during construction.
• in short for a more efficient and workable space you will be cleaning up the whole area so you may have storage space for your construction materials, for mixing concrete, space for newly delivered aggregates and temporary facilities if the project requires.
• a clean site will more or less help the flow of construction to be more organized and for easier inventory.

2. Temporary Facilities

• this may be optional for small scale projects but would be helpful for bigger projects where this may act as an office for project supervisors in charge and other personnel.
• some documents and shop drawings can be done here for either newly added scope of works or job orders or simply an as-built  in comparison to the original working drawings.
• tempfacil not only limited to office use but tempfacil can also be of "warehouse" for your materials and equipment, or quarters for workers that are too far from their homes and can stay during weekdays.

3. Batter Boards

• placement of stakes (wooden) or alternative and wood planks/boards 
• this is where your guide to layout your structural elements such as foundations
• this will help to get the proper alignment of posts or columns and proper distances as per plan

batter board placement

4. Excavation

• comes next once you have marked the location of your foundations and start the digging process either by hand or machinery.
• excavation of your septic tank can be done alongside with the excavation of your column footings and wall footings.

5. Steel fabrication

• while excavation is on process, steel fabrication for your structural reinforcements should be simultaneously done.
• "cutting" and "bending" of steel according to specifications and drawings as per plan including ties and stirrups plus G.I. wire must be prepared accordingly.
• one steel manufacturer in the country can provide you the needed cut sizes and bends according to plan and specification which would save you space and time compared to on site fabrication.

6. Formworks

• others should also start with the cutting of sizes of needed formwork for your columns, tie beams, or plinth (grade) beams.
• either of plywood (ordinary or marine) painted with "used oil" or to use phenolic boards whichever is available or alternative.
• partnered with 2" x 3" and 2" x 4" rough lumber as bracing and frames for your forrmwork placement.

7. Soil compaction

• once excavation is done, excavated soil must be compacted first and a gravel bed (G-1) of 4" thick should be poured prior to placement of footing steel bars and column steel reinforcements with concrete spacer blocks or alternative spacers like steel.
• spacers helps to align your steel bars and to have uniform concrete cover to all sides to avoid further exposure to soil and moist once concreted.

gravel bed

8. Pouring of Concrete on Footings

• make sure to follow mixing ratio of cement with aggregates and proper water cement ratio before pouring concrete to designated footings.
• get ready with tamping rods to compact your concrete to remove voids to help concrete be evenly distributed as it settles down.
• vibration method is more recommended if available (mechanical vibrators)

A short video why you need to compact your fresh poured concrete.

credits to YT by Ultra Tech Cement

footing

9. Concrete Column Casting (if no tie beam above footing)

• after pouring your footings, be ready to place the column formwork the following day if no weather disturbance occurred that may delay the hardening of newly poured concrete.
• some may wait at least 2-3 days to pour concrete for columns depending on the current weather condition or
• as per advised by your Structural Engineer in charge.
• make sure to provide 10mm diameter dowels within your columns for connections to your perimeter walls depending on the design as per plan.
• if tie beam above your footing is "required" due to columns more than 4-5 meters in height, then you need to insert reinforcement and cast your tie beam first before casting your columns.

footing tie beam first

10. Tie Beam Rebars + Formworks + gravel bed + Pouring of concrete (if required)

• as mentioned in #9 if footing tie beam (beam above footing) is being required as per design then you need to provide necessary reinforcement bars and formwork including gravel bed before you pour concrete.
• if no tie beam required but plinth beam(grade beam) instead then you may prepare column formwork including concrete spacers and dowels and cast your columns up to the level of plinth beam(grade beam).

11. Wall footing

• check again if wall footing is required as per plan or not,
• if after a tie beam comes a "plinth beam" above your grade level such as ground floor elevated 2'-3' above grade level to counter "flood" issues, then wall footing is required to fill the gap underneath,
• or may opt to leave the space below from grade level and  use as storage to lessen additional costs of constructing wall footing and CHB wall will be your own discretion.
• if your plinth beam is just above your grade level and not elevated from the ground then wall footing may no longer be required as your plinth beam is where your CHB walls will rest.

elevated ground floor level

12. Plinth Beam

• in case of elevated ground floor slab (2'-3' high) then you are required to provide plinth beam to hold your perimeter wall as well as anchorage of your suspended slab above grade level.

13. Slab on Fill

• if you proceed with having a wall footing and CHB wall, then you need to fill the space between your grade level up to half of your plinth beam height with soil.
• this is in preparation for your slab reinforcements with concrete spacer and gravel bed.

14. Soil Poisoning

• seldom do I see construction treating the excavated foundations with anti termite chemicals but only see soil poisoning on slabs resting on grade level.
• soil poisoning is done after compacting the gravel bed for slab on grade.
• then after soil treatment it will be covered with plastic sheets (polyethylene) before placing concrete spacer and slab reinforcement bars.

image from shopee

15. Polyethelene

• plastic sheets  placed after your gravel bed for slabs/floors that has direct contact with soil to act as moisture barrier preventing water absorption of slab concrete that may lead to tile or floor finish issues (see image above sample of polyethelene sheet).

16.  Slab Reinforcements

• depending on the design of your Structural Engineer will dictate size of rebars and spacing
• you may have seen commonly used for a one storey house or tiny houses is just 10mm diameter  deformed bars either 30cm x 30cm to 40cm to 40cm spacing (grid type layout of bars).
• if your slab is prone to heavy traffic and heavy equipment or appliances and furniture then spacing may be adjusted much closer to reinforced your concrete compressive strength and size of bars to be used as well.

17. Water Line and Electrical Line roughing in (floor)

• if you manage to complete the slab preparation from #13 to #16, then your Sanitary and Electrical will have to layout their necessary pipes for their respective supply for water and electricity before slab will be concreted.
• unless you as owner decides to have all water and electrical lines be exposed and just be seen mounted on floors and walls for easier access in terms of repairs.
• unlike if already concreted you will have a hard time tracing the locations if in case there was a faulty installation prior to concreting works.

Some may skip for the meantime slab on fill ( from #13 to #17) after the plinth beam and will resume to continue with the columns and roof beams then trusses or rafters for roofing if a one storey house.

Sample image structural elements for a simple one-storey house

• if columns less than 4-5 meters in height then no tie beam required, unless specified by your Structural Engineer.
• if elevated flooring and underneath will be used for storage then no wall footing required depending on the design as per plan.

one-storey-house

18. Column and Beam Casting (provide necessary dowels)

• if in case you continued with the slab (#13 to #17) then after concrete dries up you may cover slab with cloth or alternative and follow curing procedures as per instruction by your Engineer in charge.
• regardless if your house is a one-storey or two-storey house then you may complete first your main structural elements before enclosing it with walls and partitions

structural carcass

19. Roof + Trusses/Rafters + purlins

• you may opt to have your roof cover installed right after your beams and columns have cured together with the installation of trusses/rafters and purlins.
• installation of roofing cover for protection during construction from heat and rain if you started construction during the rainy season or summer.

20. Wall enclosures, Door and Window openings

• once you're done with the structural frames, you may now continue with placement of CHB walls, interior dry/wet wall partitions as per design or as per specified in drawings.
• be sure to leave openings for your door and windows as indicated in your floor plan.

21. Electrical, water, sanitary, HVAC, sprinklers, etc roughing in (walls)

• while walls being constructed make sure to simultaneously have your electrical, plumbing/ sanitary, mechanical roughing in placed within your walls or where they should be located as per plan.
• if not embedded directly on walls then check if pipes will be concealed or encased as per design.

22. FINISHING

More or less once you have completed your structural system from foundation (footing), columns, beams, slabs, roof framing to roof installation you are almost half done as you can now focus more on the finishing stages of the following:

• enclosing with walls using CHB or alternative, and installing interior partitions, 
• adding your door and window openings, 
• smoothen walls with plaster or Skimcoat before painting,
• tiling works for floors and walls
• placing your switches, outlets, light receptacles, panel boards etc
• installing water closets, shower heads, heaters, bath tubs, lavatory, kitchen sinks, floor drains etc
• installation of doors and windows
• installation of ceiling frames and ceiling boards
• placing roof vents underneath roof eaves
• soffit covering using spandrel, pvc panels, fiber cement boards, marine plywood etc
• kitchen cabinets both base and overhead
• wardrobe/closets for bedrooms with own toilet and bath or closets per bedrooms
• lighting fixtures for all areas/rooms
• sound systems for your entertainment room or living room
• stair case thread and handrails to balusters if  more than one storey, or if ground floor is elevated from the natural grade level.
• and others as per your requirement

In Summary:

• clear your site before starting your construction to have more space for storage for equipment/ materials, a space for fabrication of steel works and mixing of concrete etc.
• layout properly the locations of your building footprint starting from foundation, to serve as guide throughout the construction process.
• excavation for your foundations, cistern, septic tank, basement, swimming pools, drainage etc.
• either you complete the skeletal framework from footing, tie beam/plinth beam/, wall footing, columns to roof beam/second floor beams, roof framing (truss/rafter/purlin) with roof cover or
• after columns and tie/plinth/beams to wall footing followed by your ground floor slab either elevated 2'-3' or just above your grade level.
• roughing in for water, sanitary, electrical to mechanical as needed
• wall enclosures using CHB, precast, modular panels, dry walls for exterior or interior walls or as per specified by your Architect
• suspended slabs if you have more than one storey house or slab for roof decks.
• finishing: tile works, fixture installation, outlets, ceiling, wall cladding, stair finishing, door and windows, mill-works or cabinets for kitchen/bedrooms and toilets, lighting, painting works, perimeter fence, landscaping, and others as per your needs.

Overall this is for educational purposes only and may vary with the methodology of your chosen contractor who will build your dream house, but in general #1 to #12 is the most crucial part that should be constructed properly to carry out the loads above and be strong enough to counter forces of nature.