Building in Ghana | The Costly Consequences of Unsupervised Work

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Күн бұрын

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@TheTruthBehindThis 3 ай бұрын

Thank u for sharing this it will save alot off people. I wish you all the support. I hate that Ghanians have to let each other down and just throw money of their "brothers" away..

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

I appreciate the comment. That is really the mission; my mistake shouldn’t be my brother’s…

@ekowasamoah5898 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing this experience, I had to screed twice on my project as the first pass didn't properly bury the electrical pipes so they popped up when it dried. Your advice is on point, as much as possible, be involved. Check everything you are told. Double check the prices and quantities on the market. They should walk you through what they are doing and the next steps. Don't be afraid to get into the technical details, you will learn the easy way or the hard way when something goes wrong. All the best in completing your lovely home sir👍🏾

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Thank you, Ekow for watching and commenting. I appreciate you sharing your experience as well. If you are still building, all the best to you as well!

@akofi1 3 ай бұрын

@ 1:20 could I please ask where you purchased these doors from? Thanks.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for watching and commenting. I had them custom made in China and we can help you do same.

@heritagereststopatwinneba7601 3 ай бұрын

I feel your pain. Had similar issue when I got home last May. My floor for the hotel am building had the same issue. Had to spend more on pop to fix it. Like u said u need a good contractor.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

It is really an issue. Hopefully your issue got resolved properly.

@nanayaw9754 3 ай бұрын

Whatever the case may be it’s a delight to see work progressing brother 👏🏾👏🏾🙏🏾

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Absolutely, bro! Good to see you forging along too!

@kojoblk 3 ай бұрын

I can't stress enough the importance of being present. Frankly it's hard for me to do work in absentia

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

I totally agree. That is the way forward for anything major going forward and even when I cannot be there, I have eyes on the ground and I can pass instructions through.

@niibiquaye 3 ай бұрын

I get it but even if you are present, you cannot be an expert in every thing. The key is having a compete contractor who will seek the best interest of the project.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

I agree; win-win is a homeowner meshing with professional/professionals who get big picture of the project

@kojoblk 3 ай бұрын

@niibiquaye you would be surprised what your common sense will tell you that your most experienced contractor will overlook. There is a major project going on close to my house. The gentleman is using DeSimone... same firm building national cathedral Ghana. But he is always present on site

@kwesiarmah 3 ай бұрын

Onsite supervision is always good if the Forman has the knowledge and vision. One piece of advice I have is to wait until you are doing tiling to screed your floors.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Absolutely! I was thinking about waiting for times to screed but that will delay my door measurements so I will go the screed first route. The person who will lay the tiles was around and was aware of the level issues on the ground now

@bernardanderson-bf8qt 3 ай бұрын

Eric I'm not surprised at these foundation problems. It appears that when pouring the concrete floor that there aren't marks or points that they are trying to meet. A laser level is essential for trying to pour such a large area. If the ground floor is level the screed amount should be the same. Perhaps a surveyor could be hired for the day to shoot the grade. There are other ways but this is what I have done in the past with success. All the BEST!

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Definitely worth having a surveyor ensure levels are accurate. When we were working on the foundation, there was “Lockdown” so the contractor got away with stuff. Hindsight 20/20 but I can’t quit. All issues will end up being corrected properly as we encounter them.

@kingshomes8546 3 ай бұрын

🚨I did my scree absent - key is hire the right people for every phase, masons should never screed . Get a tiler with a level machine to pick levels and screed

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for the tip. The problem is not the screed; it is from the foundation not being properly leveled.

@alexnsiah4069 3 ай бұрын

Hi Brother, this building appears to be on a sloping hill side, so any slight leveling offsets at the ground floor stage, which can be tricky to catch, usually ends up in the situation like you are in. May not be entirely the wrong doing of the by day workers. Luckily it took a few additional bags of cement to fix it so let’s call it a win!

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Definitely something we expected because of the landscape but not this magnitude. I also call this a win because I was present and saw every single “speck” of cement go into the screed plus the room height didn’t get overly compromised. I don’t blame the day worker for this either, lack of supervision is to blame.

@MissNadine-23 3 ай бұрын

Eric, this was painful to watch how thick that concrete was. I am a woman and I have build as a single woman 22 years ago and I could tell you, I don't play with my work. I had a contractor, but on the first floor when I first started building, I got all sort of 6 for 9s. On the second floor 5 years later. I didn't play with nobody. I as a skinny girl, I had to be on my lioness game face with men. Everytime I turned my back to go town to pick up supplies, they did foolishness. I had to close my shop and go sit on my job site and do my own project managing. Now all that concrete throws everything off. It throws off how high your cabinet will be, the plugs, the P.O.P etc the fans or AC. I pray it is only the kitchen. Hights adjustment of things will be ok hopefully.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Global problem with apathetic artisans and “professionals”

@nanaagyemang8189 3 ай бұрын

I had the same problem with my first floor. The height of my first floor is short and it’s like the top floor is sitting on the first floor. I hate it but there’s nothing I could really do about it. I have to make sure we don’t do screeding on the first floor we will just lay tiles with the screeding at the same time.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Sorry to hear that.

@isaacfiagbe3506 3 ай бұрын

I had similar problems, they used 120 bags on mine , the screed went as high as 7inches thick to the point that even upstairs was not leveled as well. It has really affected my ceiling height at the ground floor.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Hmmmm… building chronicles

@grimesmakaveli21 3 ай бұрын

Do people have a/c and refrigerators there ? mostly I heard the majority does not and must go to market everyday

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Yes; people do have air conditioning and refrigerators. You are right that some don’t, just like anywhere else in the world.

@kingb583 2 ай бұрын

Are you part of the 21st century or u are living in stone age? show us the statistics of homelessness in the west. No hard feelings.

@quophiayerebi 3 ай бұрын

Wow… this so unacceptable! This will affect plumbing/electrical heights and possibly other things. I feel ur pain bro

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Thank you for the commiseration. I don’t anticipate it will affect plumbing etc but my pocket is definitely crying🙆🏾‍♂️

@engchronicles7871 3 ай бұрын

hope you checked your internal door clearances and do not have to do the same thing on the first floor... you have added substantial additional loads to the oversite/foundation.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Yeah; I’m hopeful we won’t have issues with doorways. We will find out soon though - need to wait for some plumbing changes first then we can continue screeding.

@isaacfiagbe3506 3 ай бұрын

Bro you should have let them do dry screed instead of this muddy type. They are not able to properly level it when the mortar is too wet.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

They did a good job at taking levels at every juncture with this. Hopefully we nailed it effectively

@isaacfiagbe3506 3 ай бұрын

@@GhanabaKwaku good. Do you know my building is not squared. I gave the contract to a so called contractor who builds schools for the government. It was built one time from foundation to window level without stopping, hoping there will be coordination but there was none. The degree is so much such that even plaster could not correct that problem. I have learned my lesson. My next project would be a hospital building, I will make sure I would be in Ghana to monitor it. I have realized that I am highly technical than the so called Ghanaian artisans.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

That is not good. Hopefully the hospital experience (due to the mishaps before) will be much better. All the best! I can’t imagine what it would require to build a commercial property in Ghana.

@billcoveyjr.9376 3 ай бұрын

WOW, sorry about that Eric, an expensive lesson and not uncommon unfortunately. I have told my foreman I am bringing a bag of marbles to place in different areas after screeding and tiling and they better not roll lol.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Hahaha! The BCJ Marble Test

@Uncle-Basil 3 ай бұрын

This is the second video I've seen where a builder did not level the foundation...I can't imagine the cost to fix this issue.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

It is expensive but you can’t skimp on the foundation…

@Uncle-Basil 3 ай бұрын

@@GhanabaKwaku I know,...it is very difficult when you're not there on site. Even when they are sending you videos and pictures, some things can be missed and mistakes can be made.

@Aidy-i6j 3 ай бұрын

30 bags? For ONE room? At 120 Ghana per bag? It would have been cheaper to buy the mason a laser level. Holy shit.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

It was ridiculous. Imagine not being on the ground and getting what would seem like a bloated estimate from the foreman.

@amocoertez5485 3 ай бұрын

@@GhanabaKwakubuy it from outlet like k Ofori or k peprah is 105gh 120gh are sold by retailers

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

@@amocoertez5485; thank you!

@academiatoday 3 ай бұрын

Being there is great but that is not what you need. You need the professionals (engineers +architects) to supervise the works. You the client cannot supervise a builder if you do not yourself know what good quality work looks like. Trust this as coming from an experienced building professional with several years experience.

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

Good advice. I personally believe I know what I want because I do spend some time researching stages of the project. I don’t recommend being hands off regardless of the competence of the professionals doing the work. They can’t possibly know my tastes better than me. A win win is professionals working hand in hand with the homeowner.

@barryville 3 ай бұрын

This is goin to cost alot and reduce your ceiling hight. Those conduit pipes doesn't necessarily have to be on the floor but I guess Ghana is Ghana 😅

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

All true points, @barryville. Luckily for me, I started off with tall ceilings. I did earlier on move a lot of those wires off the floor but you are right, if I were doing this again, I would run all wires through the wall and save on screeding.

@everymanisyourteacher9951 3 ай бұрын

Apparently, it’s kinda trading off the screeding with buying more wires if you decide to run it from the wall instead. And trust me, they will always push you to go for what will make them more rich😂

@GhanabaKwaku 3 ай бұрын

@@everymanisyourteacher9951 “Aha yɛn yɛ nu sa”🙈

@everymanisyourteacher9951 3 ай бұрын

@@GhanabaKwaku hehehehe😁😁😁