Step 6: Cover ze holes

Salam and g'day everyone...

Now, after the footing was completed, the holes are then covered by putting back the soil into it (pic below):

You can see that the stem / leg of the footing is up to the level of the soil. So, now we can already see the level of the house already.

By way of (Getting ready to go to KL) AAMMJ

Step 5: Footing leg / stem

Salam and G'day everyone..

What's next? let me post a pic or 2 for yer

Well, the above are what I meant by the footing leg / stem (dunno wat is the actual term in construction world...but since I'm a layman...i'll use wateva cross me mind really) . So, this structure is about 1' by 1' in size and sit atop of the foot(ing). It is strengthened by the Y12 steel that it encloses.

Now, does this remind you of something? This is sumtin that I just learned as well, doesn't this looks exactly like the house footing in rumah kampung (pic for yer - I took the pic from another site via google search)?

rightio....bye for now

By way of (posting in-between prepare bfast, eat bfast, prepare Ahmad's bath, washing some clothes...) AAMMJ

Step 4: House footing

Salam n G'day everyone,

Hi there again, if you've guessed that the holes are for the house footing then you're absolutely right!! Well, footing is one of the few types of foundation that is used in house construction... others are piling, use of concrete slab, or even a basement flooring as a construction (one of these days I might write about house foundations...i wish)

I remembered in my basic engineering lesson in school days, one of the method necessary to make a stable structure is to remove the land of equivalent mass to the structure (that's why is tall building, the holes are deeper i reckon)

Okay, enough of the nonsense, let's get to some pics

In the pic above, you can see that there are steel (a BS Y12 steel) use in this house construction. The steels are bunched in 6 as they're required to support the 2-storey house. Now on to the foot(ing) pic

The footing are made of concrete. you can still see the wood braces around the structure (they will soon remove it). The wood structure are there as to mold the concrete into its shape. The foot(ing) size is about 3' by 3' and the steels sit atop of the concrete and they're bound by it. (actually i think that this blog is moving pretty fast here...the construction itself only took one day and I'm at work :( during the process. I'm only taking pics b4 n after working hours unfortunately)

Laterz bro....

By way of (It's easier to just typed into the blog than using MS word, innit?) AAMMJ

Step 3: Digging holes on the ‘X’ Mark

Today it’ll be short and sweet. They’re digging holes on the red ‘X’ marks (pics)

So, what are holes for? Wait for my next installment my dear good readers

PS: Also, as you can see in the 2nd pic the sand and gravel for the concrete are ready, maybe some of you can guess what the holes are for then)

BTW, I 1st wrote this post in MS word, but then....I couldn't get the pics to be pasted in the blog. Is this not possible? what a shame...

By way of (oh my portable harddrive, where art thou?) AAMMJ

Step 2: Marking the house boudaries Pt. 2 and the Workers house

Salam and g'day everyone

Well, after 2 days waiting...it's still no progress on my house..(see pics below)

Oh yeah...b4 i forgot the house in the pic above (on the left of my land) is the house of my neighbor. Now back to the construction site there are some progress made... the workers house are now completed...

So there you go. as you can see, the house are made of plywood and some part of it is covered by zinc. The small building next to the house if the dunny for the workers (hehehe)

In relation to the my land, the worker's house in place on the right which at the moment is a vacant lot.

Oke-doke, till next time

By way of (less word more pics) AAMMJ

Step 1: Marking the House boundaries

Salam and g'day everyone.

Next, I'd like to share the progress of my house in a step by step guide.
The first step is really just marking the house boundaries as below:

You can see that the contractor uses boundaries from plywood (actually there are some bit of strings as well, but we can't see it here).
Here's another angle of the boundaries

On the picture above, you can see the red 'X' or '+' marking on the land. That's where the house pillar will be put.

That's all for now

By way of (hmmm...) AAMMJ

Buying a piece of land?

Salam n g'day everyone...

we'll let's get straight to the piece now shall we..
let's see; buying a piece of land...sound straightforward enough; but only before you consider the real purpose of doing this, what shall we do with our little investment...or divestment one might ponder..

as is central to the theme of the blog..hehe..we'll talk about buying a piece of land for the purpose of house construction. (at this stage I'm putting some sortof disclaimer here...this might only apply to buying a land in Selangor, Malaysia.. other places might be a bit different). Also please bare in mind that I'm not a subject matter aspect in either house construction or land property investment, I'm just here to share my experiences; so expect mistakes aplenty in my writings!!

There are a few important aspects that need careful evaluation before we buy a piece of vacant lot, here's some of them

• Land title - this is perhaps the most important aspect of consideration. land title in Malaysia can basically be categorized into industrial, agricultural and residential land titles. it's important if we're building a house that we're buying the one gazetted for residential building. Agricultural land are normally cheaper...but they have a catch. they normally need to be converted into residential land title and this may take a few years (and some money!!) to be converted
• Residential land title have different types as well - they can be listed as freehold or leasehold. As a general rule the better one to buy are freehold as for leasehold they're normally limited to 99 years
• Buying a land for construction also will of course follow the golden role in property investment...location, location, location
• This is somewhat related to location but also important is the land elevation and flatness.  This will impact the construction later on as the need to build retaining wall will definitely increase the construction pricing.
• Finally, infrastructure readiness. Are there access road? if they are, is it paved? what about water and electricity? also plumbing?

So there you go folks. There are many things to consider when buying the land.. which is why i feel that doing house construction is just like managing the projects at work..

On a final note, the above list are not meant to be exhaustive, rather just as a set of basic rules that i believe would be useful.

By way of (urgh, writing a blog is not easy) AAMMJ