beveled

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! one of my new year's resolution is to refrain from criticizing experts in a field where i never even went to school for. but a conflicting new year's resolution is to help other people. and if you are planning to renovate or build a house or rental property and you care about the economic security of your kids and grandkids, you need to read this rant.

12 years ago when i started renovating and flipping fixer uppers in vegas to take advantage of the dirt cheap prices caused by the housing crash, i was so confused why no architect or engineer ever realized it's a STUPID idea to bury the plumbing (water/gas pipes, drains) and electrical conduits inside the walls and under the floors. if they just run it outside the walls and above the floors, the plumbing and electrical system would be SO EASY AND CHEAP to fix, replace, or even reconfigure. heck a 10 foot pvc pipe 2" in diameter cost only P150 ($3) and very easy to cut and configure. it's just like playing with legos. 

what if for some strange reason you care about your family's safety and you want to add or upgrade the grounding system of your house to take advantage of the latest technology such as GFCI? if electrical conduits are located outside the walls, floors and ceilings, you can complete the project quickly at a very low cost instead of having to dip in your nest egg or your kid's college fund. 

what if you live in an earthquake prone area and you want to replace your lead gas pipes with flexible CSST gas pipes that the japanese recently invented and is now being used in their buildings and houses? they cost just $150 per 25 foot in home depot and if the gas pipes are located outside the walls, it would be very easy and cheap to replace your lead gas pipes with flexible CSST pipes to prevent your house from exploding during an earthquake. 

i can't think of any reason why the pipes need to be buried and hidden. the reason can't be aesthetics because you can run the pipes outside the walls and just cover it with beautiful looking mouldings. it would even be an opportunity for the architect or interior designer to get creative with various BEVEL styles for the mouldings. 

it's about time human beings stop acting like mindless robots blindly following the orthodoxy. it causes us to ignore concrete and real improvements to our way of life and economic security. you might think this rant is annoying but i'm sure it would be more annoying to you when you cannot afford your kid's tuition fee because you need to spend P300k to replace the plumbing of your house or the rental property that your family is depending on for basic needs even if it's suppose to cost less than P5k if only the pipes were not buried inside the cement walls and floors.

right now you might be economically well off but what if 30 years from now your kid inherits your house and is running into tough financial difficulties and the plumbing needs a very expensive repair but only because the walls or floor tiles need to be torn apart just to gain access to the pipes?

if you are planning to build or renovate your house and you care about the economic well being of your love ones, you should demand and insist to your architect and engineer that all plumbing and electrical systems should be located outside the walls, floors, and even ceilings so they are easy to fix, replace or reconfigure. all shower floors and toilet bowls should be elevated around half a foot above the bathroom floor so the drain pipes don't need to be buried under the floor. the architect will probably react as if you are an alien from outer space. you need to have the balls to stand your ground and even walk out the door if the architect does not budge. listen to frank sinatra's "MY WAY" to give you strength and inspiration on your way to the meeting. don't be a sucker for social status and charisma especially when the economic well being of your future heirs is on the line.

the tenant of my parent's condo in pasig offered to buy the condo but at P1 million below the market price only because the plumbing is already very old and needs to be replaced (the tenant is tagalog but coincidentally an fb friend of my friend in cebu who is an ugarte).

2 years ago, my tenant in vegas messaged me there is a leak in the gas pipe under the kitchen floor and the contractor estimated the cost of repair to be a whopping $10k. i fixed it myself in half a day and it only cost me $150 by simply condemning the gas pipe under the kitchen floor and running a new one through the ceiling using the newer, safer, cheaper and more durable CSST flex pipe. the city inspector was even impressed and it passed with flying colors so he issued the authorization for the gas company to reactivate my gas line (if you want to learn and get tips on this type of project, search "ian's knowledge bombs" on the web and click "saved-10k-on-undergound-gas-leak-repair").

a real estate developer named munoz built a 50 unit bedspacing complex inside our family compound (don't get me wrong. my family is not part of a timothy mcveigh or religious cult. family compounds in the philippines are common even among the middle class). a bedspacing unit is just a tiny room that fits 2 people and a tiny private bathroom but no kitchen. 

munoz thought it was a good idea to share a drain for the toilet and shower to save on cost assuming bedspacers have low standards. but the smell is too unbearable even for a habal habal or taxi driver tenant taking a shower while a nearby unit uses the toilet. it's suppose to be easy and cheap to run a new and separate drain line for the shower but the drain pipes are buried under concrete floor (or ceiling from the perspective of the unit below).

munoz will need to spend millions to tear down the floors to add the new drain line. so now he is selling it for P20 million. the price seems like a rip off considering the drain issue. but if you read my rant, the 50 unit bedspacing building of munoz magically transforms into the best investment opportunity of the century. you simply need to spend P50k to run new shower drain lines over the ceiling of the units below. you don't even need to beautify it with moulding because the call center agent tenants don't mind these things. 

there is an overwhelming demand and not enough supply for bed spacing units because rent is only P6k a month (P3k/person) and each unit has a private bathroom. the tenant can even install a small aircon where the additional electricty cost will only be around a P1k/month. kitchens are not important because for working folks, karinderias are more economical and convenient. so for this 50 unit building, the cash flow would easily be (P6k X 50 X 12 month = P3.6m/year) - (P600k overhead and admin cost) = P3m/year. that's a PE ration of only P20m/P3m = 6.6%. considering the PE ration of the S&P 500 is currently 39, you have to be an idiot if you have the money and pass on this investment opportunity.

i think the reason why there are not enough bedspacing units even if demand overhwelmes the supply is that the affluent community in cebu is a close knit society and their investment decisions are influence more by bragging rights, legacies, and illusions of grandeur instead of investment performance. luxury condominiums continue to prop up all over cebu like weed even if corabes towers condiminum near my house only has around 4 units occupied and my uncle who owns 5 units in avida towers told me he can't get any renters even before the pandemic started. ego is very destructive to the health of your investment portfolio.

the great thing about a bedspacing design is that it's actually flexible. as more filipinos move up the economic ladder, maybe demand for bedspacing units would decrease and demand for studio units would increase. your 50 year old children can adjust to these market forces by simply breaking down a wall to combine 2 bedspacing units into a studio unit where the other unit becomes the kitchen. then as the philippines transform into a 2nd world nation and 1 bedroom units become more in demand, your 50 year old grand children can combine 2 studios into a 1 bedroom unit.

if you wish to live long enough to see your grand children turn 50, search "ian's knowledge bombs on the web and click "make-filipinos-healthy-again" in the table of contents.

(for more of my knowledge bombs, click the "ian's knowledge bombs" banner at the top of this article and choose any article in the table of contents that piques your interest)