We’re building our house in the Philippines.  We build a carport (garage) as part of our Philippine house building project.

A carport was a part of our original plans and permits, but we only decided to really commit to building it when our small crew started to run out of work while waiting for the house roof to be finished.  After the house roof is done, then there’s the floor to pour and finishing of the interior and exterior walls. In the meantime we could use our crew to build the carport.  Also we had over- ordered 16mm rebar so we had 16 extra bars to use up — perfect for the carport concrete beams — four 16mm bars per 5.65m beam So we decided to so ahead with construction.

The carport will be 5.65 meters by 5.65 meters (18.5′ by 18.5 feet) plus a one meter roof overhang.  Originally the carport design was to be 6m x 6m but by reducing the carport size and beam size to 5.65m we could use our 6m long rebar without splicing, so it’s stronger and cheaper.

We figure the initial materials as; the (16) 16mm rebar (4 per beam) P290 each , (16) 12mm rebar (P165 each) for the 25cm square concrete columns, and (5) 10mm rebar (P114 each) for the stirrups.  We used up scrap rebar for the footers.  We expect to use about 25 bags of cement at P212 per bag. The rebar prices are from our large purchases in February.  All steel product prices are going up sharply.  We just bought 2x3x1.2mm roof purlins for P400 each.  The next day they were over P500 each.

We calculate the cost to get the concrete frame up to be $500 to $600 including materials and labor, not including the blunders shown below.  The roof will probably be another $750, so the overall cost is pretty inexpensive.  The floor (tiled?) will be additional expense.  Still, the overall cost is modest, perhaps P4,000 per square meter, because we have our our crew, own equipment and buy our own materials.

Getting started, batter boards and site cleanup 3-22-10

12mm rebar and stirrups for carport columns. Not centered on footer.

The footer is 1.2 meters deep, 1 meter square and 25cm (10″)  thick.  The footer rebar grid is one meter square built of leftover pieces of rebar, some welded together.  I was not supervising closely enough and the crew put the rebar cage right at the edge of the footer.  They did this because the footer excavation was not exactly in the right location.  Rather than enlarging the excavation so that the column could be in the middle of the footer as it should be, they moved the rebar cage to the edge of the footer. This is about as stable as sitting on the edge of a chair!  This kind of thing is inexplicable and frustrating to me.  The workers know I want quality work but the habit of “good enough” is so ingrained. Three workers spent more than two days breaking up the concrete so the the footer could be repoured.  We were using our strong 1-2-3 concrete mix.  The concrete was pretty tough to break up.  The crew and I were in a state of depression until the footer was repoured.  Once that was done, spirits were raised when we could concentrate on building rather than demolishing.

Carport columns going up. Some splashes of color from our earlier plantings. 3-31-10

Column forms are leftover from house. Note electrical conduit cast into columns.

4-5-10 after Easter vacation, forms off columns and rebar cages for beams added

Detail of beam rebar cage for carport. 16mm rebar, 10mm stirrups. The curved house wall shows some spherical aberration in my Sony lens!

Forms for slightly arched beams 4-7-10

4-10-10 the carport beams were poured.  The beams which, once the forms and temporary supports are removed, will be completely unsupported.  So, the forms and bamboo supports have to stay on for thirty days, until the concrete has reached full strength.  After that, the forms can come down.  I have my fingers crossed as to the formwork.  I told my foreman I wanted perfection, not speed.  He looked at me as though this was the most incomprehensible thing he had ever heard!

The carport forms come off showing yet more poor work

Carport frame ready for roof 4-19-2010

Carport Center Girt

Welding up the carport center girt.  This is essentially the “ridge board”.  It’s ridiculously overbuilt because we are using material left over from the house roof trusses.  The welding workshop shown is in what will become the kitchen of the house.

Carport center girt and rafters going up

The rafters are surplus from the house project and are really oversized for this small carport.  The roof pitch is steep because we want to put our water tank high in the garage roof rather than having a separate water tower.

500 liter stainless steel water tank to go under carport roof. Cost about P9,500.

Stainless steel water tank in car port.

The roofers are coming to do the garage roof. We decided to put up two masts for antennas on the garage roof and to do it before the roofer arrived so that they could roof around the masts rather than us having to seal around masts we installed later. Also, the roof will be quite steep so it’s easier to get up there now.

Carport almost done 7-12-10

Car port from road 7-12-10

Getting ready to pour garage floor

Garage floor

Garage floor

The garage will be a multi purpose building.  Of course it will house the family car but as you can see in this photo there will be a tiled laundry area (far left) and a secure room (far right) to hold the water pump, generator and tools.

This view shows the area with the orange pipes which will be the laundry and beyond the area in which the water pump and generator will be housed. Electrical lines for the generator, water pump, washing machine and lights are all underground and lead to the electrical panel box in the house.  The line to the generator is 5.5mm (AWG 10) which will handle any generator we’ll need or can afford to buy and run.

Tiled garage floor

Related posts:

1. Our Philippine house project: layout, footers and columns
2. Ideas for our new Philippine house