Pictures of piling work for a self-made private house
August 16th, 2007We are currently taking on one of the biggest projects an average individual could take in their lifetime: building one’s own house from scratch, as opposed to the more common path of purchasing a readymade house.
The project started almost 10 years ago with soil top-up due to the area being flood-prone. This alone has cost us about RM15,000. I expect the piling work itself to cost in the region of RM10,000. I think once the piling work is done we would’ve put in more than RM32,000 into the project, so far…
This is the view of the gate leading to the house area. The gate is mostly up (cost about RM6,000 all in)- you can see a dog in the gate post.
A view of the general area where the house is to be built.
Three piling logs (kayu bakau) are shown below. Each is more than 10 feet long and *very* heavy. They cost RM23 to 25 each.
Before piling is done, the surveyor marks the places where the piling logs will be hammered in. The piling plan was done by an architect friend. The translation of the piling plans to marking the ground with little red wooden planks cost us about RM1,000.
After piling is done it would look like this:
Basically the logs are hammered in on top of each other. Upon testing, there we found that 6 logs could fit in (that would mean the logs have gone about 90 feet into the ground), but we decided that 4 would be enough. After a log has fully gone in, a piece of metal is put in as a connector to the next log:
The piling machine looks like this. It is about 30 feet tall.
The piling weight / “hammer” looks like this. It’s solid iron and probably weighs 500 kg (half a tonne). Note the comparison with the little guy, who’s a little more than 3 feet tall.
The hammer is pulled up above a log with metal ropes wrapped around this pulley which is powered by a diesel engine. The lever on the left is used to manually release the weight, thereby “hammering” the logs into the ground:
Another view of the piling machine. You can see part of the “hammer tower” and diesel engine. At the bottom, you can see the rollers which is in place to ease moving the machine around.
There are 56 piling points, and each point needs at most 4 logs. Each metal connector costs in the region of RM15 and the machine costs RM600 to rent. Then the labour charge for the workers. I expected the noise accompanied by shaking of the ground unbearable, but fortunately, for the most part, it has been OK so far.
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Hi Ben,
It’s good to share your chronicle on building a house from scratch. Where is the place? Penampang? I have this dream too to build my own house, the price of a ready made house nowadays is just ridiculously too expensive. (more expensive than KL generally). I heard it’s difficult to get a bank loan for self build house, are you getting a loan for this? If not you must be cash rich.
Yes the place is in Penampang. Unfortunately I’m not *that* cash rich yet – I will be getting a loan to build the house proper. I’ve taken 2 small loans so far to finance the project up to the stage it is now.
I have not come any independent, publicly available resource on the procedures/tips n tricks/recommendations in order to make your own house in Malaysia, specifically Sabah. And I’ve had my fair share of uncertainties and frustrations with the authorities. Since most people will only do one house in their lifetime, most information gleaned from others who’ve had similar experience are a mix and mash, some incomplete, some unclear. Hence the motivation to do the post and in the long term, a guideline on what to do from beginning to end of the proceses involved.
This is very interesting. I hope I can do the same one day in one of our place in Penampang too. Once all compiled, make an e-book? HE he he
1st picture… there is a dog inside the gate column… was it design that way? guard house or dog house? lol
Dude… tats a contruction site… kids not allowed… slipper is a no no… wear boots… and helmet… :P
Yalor, construction site should be treated as such, even though it’s a small scale! The kids never stop going there in the afternoons anyway after work has stopped for the day.
we can’t really stop kids doing wat they likes… if we keep stopping them, they will learn nothing… just be careful lo…
like during late 70s-80s, when the Dngongon newtowship and the Penampang stadium were consructed, we were around the constructions site most of the time as if we are the workers there… we are only like 10 – 12 years old tat time I think… and i did learn about constructions, how the machine works, the bulldozer… etc. from there… and riding on it… parents got a hard time controlling us… mansau saja… when we gets home, a couple of the cane stroke will land on our legs… but the next day, mansau again… LOL
hahah… i remember when the road to Kiulu were straightened, widened and asphalt put in the 70s we even were ON the Caterpillars while the workers were doing their work, and even DROVE the Caterpillars for a while! I dont that will ever happen nowadays.
life is so wonderful… memories… imagine if we have digicam during that time…
Wahhhh syoknya!
I wanna have my own house too.. someday. :)
By the way, I love the first picture. There’s a dog in it!!!! :D Cutelah, is that yours?
i hv no idea whose dog is dat…
Dog is OK. But beware of Oscar the cat. Ekeke
hye.first time visited your site. A far away guy from cyberjaya..nice meeting u.
I nver thought that we can rent the piling machine.. pretty low cost too.. thanks.. you hv a nice blog..
I read in the newspaper recently someting like kayu bakau is no longer allowed to be used for piling
The news came up after I finished doing the piling. I can’t remember the exact text, but it seems that the move is not endorsed by the relevant authorities yet. We also checked out quotations for concrete and metal pilings, but the cost is horrendously high, about 10 times more costly. I think there will be a lot of noise if the use of mangrove is outlawed. Besides, I think they could’ve applied the sustainable model to mangrove forests, just like timber.
Look like a 2-foot rise in your construction site!
So the soil top-up ah…how many tons of earth (or how many lorry-trips were made) were required?
You mentioned 15K cost so roughly 150 trips (150 tons) assuming rm150 per ton?
Is the fee based on the lorry-trip’s distance too?
Thanks.
NB: Wanna get mine topped too before the cost skyrockets (used to be RM60 per ton).
The last one soil top up was several years ago (topping up was done twice, several years apart) – I can’t remember the exact number. but it was definitely more than 100 lorry trips. Yes, the fee is based on the lorry trip’s distance too.