Plumbing Needs for Your House

We had an OMG moment when the engineer overseeing the construction near us told us that the owner who hired him to build the house didn't have plans for a septic tank. We eventually discovered that they didn't also connect their sewage properly. It affected us severely because their rainwater drainage and sewage was flowing back to us. (Read more about what happened and how it eventually got resolved here, here and I just realized I didn't write about the ending, will do soon).

Anyway, because of that very bad experience, we resolved that when we build our future home we will make sure to cover all areas of plumbing. Here's how we thought about it:

• What should the connection to Maynilad look like? 
• How can we check if there's water coming in or none?
• How do we want to store water? A tank? Cistern? Are you collecting rainwater?
• How do we reduce having the tank cleaned? (It costs at least 6k to 8k to get a tank cleaned!)
• How do we want our bathrooms set-up? Will we use a heater? Do we want a high-tech toilet (we chose the regular one)?
• For the kitchen, do we want to use a heater? Do we want to use a water filter? Do we want to have a faucet on top of the stove (nope)? What kind of sink are we using? Are we having just one big kitchen or a dry and wet kitchen? 
• How do we plan to do laundry? How many faucets do we need and how many washing machines are we going to use? Do we need an outdoor sink? What about drainage?
• We also thought about where we need to have water for watering the garden and cleaning.
• And most importantly, where will the septic tank be located? For this one, you need to ask your HOA or barangay where the connection for sewage is located. 

It's not the most exciting thing to think about, but it's very important to plan it ahead. It's easy to plan when you have a good understanding of your routines and needs. Think about the future too. We have been collecting rainwater for a few years now and that's what we use to water our plants. I think we saved a lot from collecting rainwater for our plants and cleaning outdoors.

A good plumbing system will save you a lot from having headaches. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Details that Need Input for Your House Construction

To be honest, we all got cross-eyed when we were presented with the planned details. They were made by our architect together with engineers. There were pages upon pages of drawings showing the structure, elevation, ceiling, electrical, windows, tile count etc. Printed on huge blue paper, they were overwhelming. 

We started a shared document with our architect to note down our requests. It started with comments on the layout and after that followed details on the following:

• 
  Electrical needs
• List of appliances per room 
• Where we wanted outlets
• Placement of airconditioners
• Additional lights
• Outdoor electrical needs
• Plumbing
• Installation of water heater for bathrooms (if any)
• Outdoor needs for plumbing
• Plan for water tank
• Plan for rainwater collection
• Internet/phone
• Point the location for your Telco wirings for internet and phone
• Extenders where needed
• CCTV
• Pinpoint where you intend to put CCTV since that requires wirings too
• Solar
• Get your solar provider to do an inspection for solar installation. There are requirements they need to follow from Meralco
• Pest control
• This is important especially if you're in an area where there are a lot of termites. Pest control companies can install pipes around your house to make it easier to do treatment.

Including details to the plan will help the construction team a lot. We were able to avoid doing corrections which can get expensive especially with plumbing and electrical requirements. 

Or I'm just probably a bit OCD, haha.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Summer Home Management To-Dos

In the past three years since we moved to our home, we've always had to do repairs and tweaks to our house. The first two years was focused on doing a lot of repairs, but this year was different. Our summer to-do list for our home were probably the regular stuff to do to keep your home ready for the rainy season.

Here's a list of what we have accomplished for our home:

Roof Restoration/Lowered the Heat

We've been searching for the most unobtrusive way to keep our home cool in the past few years. This year we got a roof expert to check our roof. It was good we had our roof restored this year since it started to rust already. They also added a wire mesh to keep debris out of the downspout. After the restoration, our roof got a fresh coating of insulation paint. Ahh, summer has become bearable (finally!) and we won't have to worry about leaks for the coming rainy season.

Aircon Cleaning

We've been consistent with having our Aircon units cleaned. The cleaners are an authorized center of the Aircon manufacturer. Their prices are the same as others, but it gives us peace of mind that experts are taking care of our Aircon units. This year though we had to have one of our units deep cleaned. The technician explained that deep cleaning is required every five years. Our unit probably got a beating from the two houses constructed beside us since we moved. Got it fixed and it's good to go again for five years. Hopefully, the others won't need deep cleaning yet. 

Pest Control

We changed service providers last year and this one doesn't require quarterly spraying. They pinged last week and I reported some bukbok on our garage door. They said they'll drop by to check since they have a guarantee. No termites anywhere in the house and the insect that was eating our door is a wood beetle. They explained it's hard to kill, but there's nothing to worry about because they work very slow compared to termites. For good measure, they sprayed the whole house and the perimeter at no extra cost. They even left some chemicals in case we needed it. 

Summer Painting

We've had our front gate painted almost every year. I think Mom used to do that too. This year though we'll DIY it. We'll use anti-rust paint and then spray it with auto paint. We already tried this with my Mom's wrought iron plant stands and they're good as new! 

Water Tank Cleaning/Plumbing

We didn't know that you need to empty your water tank once a quarter. Rod told us we just needed to clean/change the filter monthly. We had been a bit delinquent on that and the tank had a strange sound one night. Since we needed to have a few faucets repaired we had the tank cleaned too. They told us we can just empty it quarterly and use a high powered hose to clean the inside. We'll do that next time to save. We also had our drainage checked. Unfortunately, the newly constructed house blocked the underground sewage and this has caused floodwater to backflow to our garden. 

Other DIY Stuff

We learned a couple of things that we can DIY, like putting putty on a wall the cats have been scratching. We have also kept a few supplies like teflon in case of leaks, anti-rust paint, sealant in case it's needed. These things you accumulate as you live longer in your home. Now I understand why my Mom had a gazillion things in her house! 

Things I'd like to work on in the future include changing our front windows into awning windows. This will help cool down the house better. Have our screendoors fixed since the cats sometimes scratch it (it has holes now). I also want to have the kitchen floor deep cleaned and maybe repaint the outdoor walls next year. Being a homeowner is hardwork! I never really thought about it before since Mom was always there to help. We've been on our own in the past two years, so we had to learn a lot. 

#BeKind #StaySafe 

Home on Mondays: Tips from a Master Plumber

My nose is horridly sensitive and I could smell stuff not many people can detect. This meant I easily got a whiff of unpleasant smells in our house. Since we did an audit of our electrical system, we asked help from Architect Wansi to also have our plumbing system checked. We still had trauma from a waterfall situation in an apartment we rented in Singapore. Definitely didn't want that to happen again.

So architect sent Rod. He has a good reputation in BNI for his masterful plumbing projects. He inspected our house a couple of times and gave us several tips through his visits. Here's a few:

1. Drains should have proper p-traps. He discovered our drains did not have p-traps and it caused the bad smell in bathrooms and the kitchen. 

2. Check bathroom fixtures and pipes. Luckily, Rod said that they used proper pipes for our bathroom. We only had the sink and faucets replaced since the faucet didn't properly reach the basin. 

3. Proper drainage is key. Whenever it rained hard, our garden would flood. Rod and his team excavated our garden to check on the pipes. He found out the pipes were smaller and not properly laid out. This was why it would flood in our garden. He corrected the issue by re aligning the pipes, adding a pipe and adjusting the drain. 

4. Check outdoor faucets. One of the difficulties we had was having our washing machine installed. We had some of the outdoor faucets re-located because they were not in logically proper areas (who puts faucets far from drains?). Also had one installed near the gate so it would be easier for us to water the plants outside. 

5. Make sure the drain going out of your house is properly aligned with the street drain. We were surprised to discover a huge hole outside our gate. It was semi covered with grass. Sweetie stuck a bamboo in it and was surprised to find a very deep hole. Rod said it was the drain leading out and should have been fixed prior to turn over. 

6. Water tank installation. Our water tank eats up a lot of space in the laundry area. You can also trip from how the pipes were installed and they could easily break if you have the misfortune of tripping on it. It wasn't properly installed, so we're going to have it fixed. 

7. Water tank cleaning. You should have your water tank cleaned every six months. It is very expensive to have it cleaned since it's hard to find someone to do it. Rod advised to install a filter so we could just clean the filter every so often. The water that comes in the tank would already be rid of silt.

8. Downspouts. Downspouts are supposed to lead water away from your roof. Our backyard would flood because the water from the downspout wasn't going to the drain. We also noticed some spots on our roof where water would drip. 

9. Make it easy to collect rain water. There's a missing downspout in our garage. Rod said he'll add a downspout and a way for us to easily collect rainwater. Yay!

I really appreciate Rod for giving us a detailed explanation on his findings. He said he also had clients with big houses he serviced. He also has corporate clients. I'm happy we had an opportunity to have him work on our home. It rained hard for a few days last week and for the first time we were not worried about our backyard flooding. Water also did not come in for the first time in our family room. I guess they also added some sealant to the sliding door.  We'll probably be done with our outdoor work soon!

#BeKind #StaySafe