I DIDNT EXPECT THIS…. Building a house in the Philippines 🇵🇭

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:01]All right, so when I first started this build, I thought I I knew what I was getting myself into.

[00:00:09]Sort of a simpler process, easier build.

[00:00:15]Just a different way of building something, you know, but I kind of thought I had an idea of uh of what I was getting myself into, but very shortly after we started, I kind of realizing it's definitely a completely different process than it is in Canada.

[00:00:31]Uh some things are, you know, smooth and some things are not.

[00:00:37]Um everything from the day-to-day work to timelines, um the quality of work, the quantity of work that gets done in a day, um and so on. So, in this video, I'll be sharing my experience so far.

[00:00:55]Um what the real pros were, what the the real cons are, um and if you are somebody that's thinking about building over here, this might be a this may be a a video for you.

[00:01:10]Uh if you're thinking about building, if you are building, or you know, you're uh just interested of like how things get how the process is done over here.

[00:01:20]One of the biggest things that I noticed is how much you have to be involved. You know, when back in Canada where I was a contractor, you really don't get involved with a project, you know? But over here, you are involved on a daily basis and you know, there's two different ways of building. You can do a daily rate for the guys, or you can do a full contract.

[00:01:45]And you know, you hire a contractor, you go get your quote, and you don't really worry about anything else, right? You know exactly what you're going to be getting.

[00:01:56]And then, you're not going to be looking for supplies on a daily basis and things like that. When you go on a daily rate with the guys, you're sort of in charge of basically everything.

[00:02:11]Uh not only you have to be at the site looking at everybody, making sure they're working, making sure things are getting done every single day.

[00:02:19]Uh on top of that, you're picking up supplies, okay? Constantly on a daily basis, you know, guys are missing a few screws or something like that.

[00:02:29]Uh you're the one who's going to get those and work gets paused because those things are not there. And if you would do a contract with somebody, you would um you wouldn't be worrying about any of those things. And I find that to be extremely frustrating and demanding with your time.

[00:02:49]Um so yeah, the biggest thing is the biggest thing that I was frustrated with is consistency on a day-to-day basis.

[00:02:57]Uh there's very little of it. Some days, you know, quite a bit gets done and another day very, very little gets done.

[00:03:03]And I like I said, that the the big thing of you being it so involved on a on a daily rate that's that we chose to do is um it gets very frustrating because you like I said, the consistency is just not there.

[00:03:21]Uh what you're explaining to the guys is not exactly that what you're going to get. Sometimes you have to explain three, four, five times and it still gets done differently just because of how they do things over here. So, it's definitely something to take into consideration on which process you're going to be uh you're going to be doing. If you're going to be hiring just a contractor to do absolutely everything, you're not worrying about anything else, you're just going to come on a check and check on the house time to time.

[00:03:52]But if you're doing what we did and you're involved in every single process, like I said, the consistency is just it's it's not there and it's very, very frustrating. You like I said, it's not no one's fault. This is how things get done over here. So, you have to adjust to that and you have to kind of realize that's what you're getting yourself into. You know, if I had to pick one thing that I would do different is um I wouldn't if I would have done it the same way as I did right now when I did the daily rate with people, I would make sure that I would do that maybe in the beginning.

[00:04:33]I would do that for the um initially when I tore some walls down, we put a new foundation, we raised the floors, we um you know, like labor work, you know, but as funny as far as like a finishing trades, I would hire those out as contracts, you know?

[00:04:58]Uh one of the biggest things that frustrated me, I guess, is the lack of tools. You know, guys don't have a lot of tools here. Tools are very, very expensive, you guys. Um much more expensive than back at home in the West.

[00:05:11]You know, so um you know, saws and undercut saws, nobody uses undercut saw here. They don't have a clue what an undercut saw is, you know? And me being a trade myself for 30 years, you know, tools is kind of like the most important thing. You would never have a tradesperson go into your house and you know, be like, "Wow, I don't have a saw or I don't have this," right? So, um even the getting the tiles done, well, the tile setter over here, he doesn't have a tile cutter.

[00:05:39]You know, they do everything with a grinder. I mean, that grinder we bought like a big, big, big box of of blades and they all got used up already, you know? Because that's that you know, cutting rebar, they do that with a grinder, right? Um so, again, if I was to do something different, I would definitely contract somebody out to do the tile.

[00:06:04]Uh we did contract somebody to do the roofing and to do the electrical, which again is something that I would strongly recommend you guys is make sure you include that in your quote. When somebody's coming out to be like, "Okay, this is what you're going to charge me for this part." Just say electrical, right? And you bought all the lights, you bought everything, and then he says, "Okay, I'm going to charge you 6,000 pesos to do the whole job."

[00:06:35]Make sure you're what you guys should really add on. This is a key, I think, is, "Okay, but if any you need Look at what you have here. If you need something, I will go get it now and I'm going to do that one time, okay? Because what's going to happen is that every single day, every half a day or every few hours, you're going to get them to come in and be like, 'Hey, I'm missing seven screws for this. I'm missing covers for that. I'm missing the these kind of light switches.' So, and then guess what? You're the one who's going to get that, you know? So, sometimes we're leaving two times in a day to go, you know, 5, 6, 7 km to go to the nearest uh little store so we can buy whatever supplies they need, right? I would make sure that, "Hey, look at what the materials there are here and if you need something, you're going to have to to go get that. You can go back and forth because, you know, they would think about that. They would make sure all the they have everything and wouldn't just rely on you. And because it's really easy just to be like, 'Hey, come back to you,' you know, every single day, 'Hey, I need this for me to continue to do my job.' Well, why didn't you look at that already earlier? I showed you all the everything that's here.

[00:07:52]So, if you see that everything is here and you're going to need more supplies, you have to go get them. You can even be, "I'll pay for them," but you have to go get them, all right? Because if they go get them, you're paying for their fuel, you're paying for their time, you know, they're going to be gone for whatever amount of hours, you know, to go get something. So, it's a it's a that's something that I would, you know, pinpoint out if you are thinking about building here. Making making sure that uh the guys know what they're doing. They have the proper tools, you know, if you're contracting people out.

[00:08:29]Over here, even with the with the tile guys, we had to let a couple guys go because um I mean, they started grouting.

[00:08:36]They didn't even you know, there's no spreaders, there's no anything, you know?

[00:08:41]Um there's no putty knives, man. They were using like old piece of rubber from a shoe or something like that, you know, to fill it in and really had no idea what they were doing, you know? So, it was just, you know, the guy's son or something like that and you know, this is finished work over here. The wood now we're getting to the point. So, it's really frustrating when the guys don't even have the right tools, you know? Yeah, so if you know, if I had one advice, you know, my my advice would be be involved whether it's you getting a contract rate or you're getting um a daily rate, be very involved. Um you know, have a bigger buffer for that time. We were told 7 weeks, we're week 14. So, you know, luckily we're staying at, you know, my wife's um uh house. Uh my wife's sister's house.

[00:09:36]She's in Malaysia right now, so we're able to stay still on the compound right across and check everything now, but we that's 14 weeks, you know? So, if you have to rent a place out for 3, 4 months, you know, and it's two or three months longer than, you know, than initially thought, that's going to cost you quite a bit of money. You know, have a bigger buffer for timeline, for budget, you know, I realize that it is going to cost you more than than you're thinking. You know, a lot of things you know, gets changed throughout the actual process of it. You know, how high the walls are going to be and you know, what kind of roof you're going to be using and what kind of siding and you know, >> [cough] >> absolutely everything, you know, so it it is a bit of a frustrating process, but I definitely say be involved early in a progress of what it's going to be, what the house is going to look like.

[00:10:33]Take pictures, show pictures, make sure that you know, you are going to be very specific of you know, how the house should look like at the end.

[00:10:44]No, at the end of the day, it's like um it's totally worth it to build here, you know, we're very happy that we're building here.

[00:10:53]Um and then you know, it's not better or worse than where I built in Canada, but it's very different. It's something it's a system you have to get used to, adjust to it, know that you're you're going to be involved in a lot, you know.

[00:11:09]But yeah, at the end of the day you guys, you know, this is our first build over here, very possibly our last, right? But if you are building, you know, this is just some advice that would give to you guys. Um Make sure you're involved. Make sure you know how much material you need and if you know, somebody else needs to go get it, then you have somebody that's going to go get that. The guys that are, you know, doing plumbing or doing electrical, you know, that you know, going to you know, go get screws every single day or covers for, you know, anything. Like it's that does get frustrating and it's really time consuming. And another thing that I will add is, you know, when you're doing on a when you're doing this kind of contract and you're going on a daily rate, you're also supplying food.

[00:11:59]Um which is very, very frustrating.

[00:12:02]Um it's not bad the first day or second day or third day, but when it's going for this many months, it gets gets pretty pricey you guys. You know, we're well over 100 days now and each day it's you know, 400 to 450 something 500 pesos for food. Um you know, over 100 day days, you're over looking at over 5,000 pesos just for food. That doesn't include [snorts] the time that you're spending, you know, going to get it. That Yeah, that doesn't include the time that you're going to get everything and the time you're you know, we we couldn't have gone for trips, we couldn't have gone on a daily, you know, if we went away for the day, we had to make sure somebody else was here that's going to be able to um uh to provide the food, provide the drinks, to provide everything. If you're doing like a contract, you're getting a contract, you don't have to do that, you know, the the day everybody worries about their own stuff over here at that point. So, you're not worrying about snacks and drinks and juices and you know, pasta and all that stuff, man, because I said it it's not bad when you have to do it for a week or you know, you have some guys that are coming just for a little bit, but doing this many days you guys and providing all the meals, it gets very expensive and on top of that very time consuming because it takes so much away from your time that you can be going other places, traveling, going for trips or something like that. You really can't do that, you know.

[00:13:29]So yeah, at the end of the day, totally worth it to build here. We're very, very happy that we're building here, but if if you are considering building, then I would definitely take some of this advice and you know, think about it when you guys are, you know, starting your project. All right, but that's it for now. We're uh you know, week 14. Hopefully, you know, another 2 weeks or something like that and we can be in the house, man, because it's time to get in here. All right, peace out you guys.