 Welcome to episode 2 of the Private Property web series brought to you by PPC. Of course, if you have missed episode 1 of our web series, do go back to what you certainly do not want to miss some of the great content that we are bringing you this evening. And this evening, something that we're going to be exploring that I know a lot of us probably think about and certainly want to know more about is we're looking at how to save time with home renovations or home developments. So if you ever want to do a home renovation, whether it's extending that extra room or perhaps putting in a bathroom or whatever home renovation project that you have in store, this is the episode for you. We're going to be understanding how do you go about saving time, how do you save money, what the importance of using the right material when you're doing your home renovations are and you certainly want to get those tips and tricks for your home renovation project. Well, it's better to help us understand all these things and to make sure that we don't make some mistakes that are going to cost us not only time but also money. I'm joined this evening by Rohan Heynes, who is a technical representative at PPC. Good evening, Rohan. Thank you so much for joining us. Hi, good evening, Zama. Nice to be here. I mean, Rohan, when I think about different home renovations, I'm sure people at home have different kinds of home renovations that they're probably thinking of. Something as small as maybe just doing a small bathroom or perhaps even adding an extra room or two rooms if you've got the yard space. Perhaps take us through the different types of home projects that you would have and what you should be thinking of even before you start your home renovation project. Zama, what I've seen a lot of people when trying to add value to their properties, they want to add space. So the number one thing that I do see is they either add rooms or they start adding or they extend their kitchen or they even build a garage space. Those are the best things that I've seen that people do or renovations that they do and they come up with and that I also see the most happening from that perspective. So with regards to going about those projects, if we have a look and we see what materials they are using and how they go about their choices, I mean, sometimes it becomes quite a headache and I don't think things like this should be a headache. There's actually quite an easy way to go about things like this and I think following some guidelines and following some tips, it should be actually quite easy to do this renovations. And what I've seen over the last couple of years while working for PPCS is I don't get called out to come and look or expect something that's good. I get called out to come and expect something that went wrong and that's sad. It's sad to see people phoning me saying, everyone come and have a look what went wrong here and by the time I get there, the finishes has been put in. Everything has been put in and now they see these problems and it becomes quite expensive. And Ruan, I actually wanted to talk about some of those things that go wrong because as you can imagine, if you're doing this for the first time, you probably sometimes may not know what are some of the mistakes you should even be avoiding from the get go. Perhaps take us through some of the mistakes that you've seen, people making that ends up costing them time and money because of course we want to share with viewers at home the different ways that they can save time and money by using the right kinds of products, good quality products. And sometimes you tend to find that people make those mistakes and of course it does end up having maybe adding more time on the project or even costing them more money. Well Zama, having said that, normally when you start renovating everyone starts thinking that you know what all my costs is going to be in the actual building of this structure that I'm going to put up. When I'm going to renovate, I'm going to put up, let's say I'm going to add a new kitchen, so everyone thinks and they say, I'm going to have this huge expenses with regards to the actual building of this extension onto my house. And you know what's interesting, when you start looking at extending your kitchen for instance, you will start by you'll choose your new cupboard, your tiles, you'll choose your finish towards the wall, your vertical finishes, and after that you would see that actually 80% of your budget has been spent. The actual building, the actual backbone of that building is only 20%. But what I do see is that people rather tend to try and save on the backbone of the building. They try and save on the actual structure and not on the finishes. And as I always say to the guys, it doesn't help you have, you can have the best finishes. It will not help you putting those finishes into a structure that is not structurally sound. Because if that structure gives, you will have all this money spent into that structure and you will redo that whole part or extension of your building. So as I always say, rather if you're going to go and you want to try and save time or money, you'd rather go and see if you're going to save your money on the finishes side and rather not on the structural side. And taking an example and what I've seen, that went wrong. Some guys, they went and they bought sand, building sand and plaster sand from a backyard guy and I'm saying this lightfully. And that sand actually came out of the back of his yard but the people that bought it never knew it. So he didn't get rid of all the twigs and the seeds and everything within that sand. And it was full of clay material that's prone for shrinking and that will cause a lot of cracks in your plaster works. But that was not what happened. I was called in and they said to me, what's happening to this wall? We're seeing pop-outs. It's like little small holes and we're seeing these things pop out. And after close inspection, it was actually seeds. It was seeds within those sand that was germinating. So after, and this is the first time I've seen it, but it was the actual seed germinating, expanding and spoiling the plaster. I mean, if you think about a plaster, it's only a 16-mil thick sand and cement mixture. And really it cost them three or four times the amount of money to fix that. That was the one thing that I saw. It would have cost them 600 grand more. I think at the end of the day it cost them about 15,000 grand more. So really saving, being penny-wise, pound-fully saving 600 grand cost them at the end of the day 15,000 grand extra. And again, when it comes to your structure, do not take shortcuts. There's no shortcut that you can take around your structure even if it comes to curing times. And one of the major things when you think about building, we think about bricks and blocks and sand, and then you think about what's going to keep everything together. And then we see from our side of you, I mean with cement producers, but at the end of the day that's the most important thing that you're going to add to your building. And then we see it glue everything together. And doing a simple calculation also the other day for a customer where they actually had failures and bonding failures between their blocks, they bought a very low quality cement. I think the difference between the price was, I'm going to say 30 grand per bag, and I'm exaggerating now. 30 grand a bag, I mean for instance on 50 bags that they actually needed for the renovation, the difference in cost was only 1,500 grand. But at the end of the day, after two months, the structural integrity of that building was going and it was not holding up. I went in and I had a look and it was actually a cement failure taking place. And with regards to that whole project, I think at the end of the day they didn't go any further. That renovation came to a halt, the money was gone. And the poor people that was buying and was actually trying to renovate saved up for quite a long time to do this renovation. And by just buying a weak bag of cement and just something as simple as that, trying to cut a corner with the backbone, the structure caused them quite a lot of money and time. And it actually came to a standstill. One other thing that I saw that was also very interesting was I got to a guy where the wall started wobbling and I'm trying to... That's literally almost moving. Yes, it's like, you know, it actually started curving. And the first thing they said to me, but they think that there's something wrong with the foundation and after close inspection I asked him to take off the plaster work. I just wanted to see what's happening underneath the plaster. Remember, plaster work covers up everything quite nicely, as you know. And it looks beautiful. You don't know what was happening behind that plaster. Exactly, and you don't know what's happening on the inside. So this guy, and after close inspection I was seeing it was the actual blocks that was failing. So I asked the question, and just from my side, I asked him, but listen, can I take off one of these blocks or do you still have some of the blocks on site? And I took it to the lab and I tested it and it didn't make the bare minimum that was specified by the SANS-1215 specification that a brick and block manufacturer should conform to. It didn't even conform to the bare minimum standard. And actually the blocks that they bought was never tested. And I said to them, listen, this is your backbone. You cannot go and cut corners around this. And you know what, that building was painted already. The tiles was on. It was quite dramatic. Again, coming back to saying it is your backbone, it's your structure. When choosing bricks and blocks, and I can give you some tips. And let's say we do start with the bricks and blocks, because that's your volume that you're going to put into the wall. That's at the end of the day that's going to be standing there for hundreds of years. And we expect it to stand there for hundreds of years. And what I always say is before you buy the block, ask your supplier, was these blocks tested? The manufacturer where you buy from, do they test their blocks? Do they have a test certificate for you? And it just gives you that peace of mind, looking at a test certificate, seeing that it's actually passed a B minimum standard for you to actually start building with that block. A lot of times, and I know this is something a lot of us that renovate don't know. We rather focus on the finishes. And we spend quite a lot of money on those finishes. Not realizing that if we don't get the foundation work, and not just the physical foundation obviously of the house, the bricks and mortar ride that whatever we put on top is actually going to cost us so much more. So you almost want to get the basics right and get them right early on. Make sure that you use quality products before you then put on that very expensive, you know, the expensive tiles or the expensive cardboard or whatever it is that you're going to be using for those finishes. You know, Ron, I want us to take a quick break. And when we come back from this break, I actually want us to look at, look into the really great picture around, you know, cutting corners versus trying to save. Because I know viewers at home are thinking it's COVID. We've been affected in different ways. You want to save as much as possible. But understanding where exactly should we be saving? Because I think a lot of us think maybe if you just buy, you know, that bag of cement for 10 rand or 20 rands less, you're going to save money. But like you said in the example that more often than not, you're probably going to find you maybe saving 1,005. Whereas where you really should be concentrated on saving is probably on those finishes that are 80% of the cost. So prioritizing where you're saving in your home renovations is so important. So understanding, you know, those difference between cutting corners and being cost effective is something that's very important. And after this break, Ron, you know, I want us to look at perhaps even some tips that you'd like to share. I mean, we've already started sharing them with us. So the importance of working with people who test their bricks and even using the right kind of cement and making sure that we don't make those mistakes of, you know, buying products from guys who are just selling from the back of their houses because it does compromise the structural integrity of, you know, the whatever it is that you are building. So we're going to go for a quick break. And to viewers at home, I mean, I know a lot of us have seen these kinds of projects where they start building and sometimes a couple of months later, whether they are cracks on the wall or, you know, a structure falls, I've seen walls falling after a few months of being built or the rainy season starts and then a wall starts falling. Have you had any experience of something like that happening? Maybe it happened to you where you thought I'm going to cut a few corners. I want to save time and save money. These guys are promising me that I'm going to save 20% if I buy products from them. Was there something like that that happened to you? And what were some of the consequences? Because I think as Ron is painting to us that sometimes trying to cut those corners and save an extra thousand or two actually costs you more money in the long run. So do you share your stories with us? We definitely want to hear from you. We're going to be back just after this. Welcome back to episode two of the Private Property web series brought to you by PPC. Well, this evening on our web series, we are looking at how to save time with your home renovation projects. Of course, I am this evening joined by Ron Haynes, who is the technical representative at PPC. Before the break, we're looking at some of the differences between cutting corners and saving money. And really some of the mistakes you do not want to make when you are, you know, doing your home renovation. And it could be as small as perhaps adding, you know, revamping your kitchen or perhaps your bathroom or as big as adding additional rooms in your yard. You always want to make sure that you're using quality products that have been tested. I think one of the big things that I've learned is if you're building something, make sure that those bricks have also been tested. So you almost want to ask your contractor, you know, are you using the right bricks? Have they been tested? Or is it just something that was bought from somebody's backyard? And I know that these are questions that some of us don't usually think to even ask because we simply don't know what we don't know. And that's exactly why we are here to help you to navigate your home renovations and making sure that you end up having a home that isn't going to have cracks on the wall or any issues further down the line. Now, you know, one of the things that I want us then to look at is perhaps when you are now building and regardless of how big or small the project is, what kind of checklist should we have in place? Because we obviously want to make sure that the project runs smoothly and we don't have any hiccups along the way. So to viewers at home, what kind of checklist should we be mindful of as we navigate our project? Yeah, Zoma. So the checklist that I would, and the hints and tips that I would want to give you tonight with regards to the actual materials that you're going to use in your structure, it would be the following. I mean, if I was going to renovate, I would make sure that I use a reputable supplier. So wherever I'm going to buy my material from, I should know that I am able to go back to that supplier and confront him if something goes wrong. I think that's the most valuable point that you can, or the most valuable thing that you can do when renovating. Make sure that it is a reputable supplier. Then secondly, with the materials that you are buying, when you renovate, not all of us are concrete specialists and not all of us go through all the tests that we go for grading analysis, relative densities, all of that when we have a look at materials. And rightfully so, I don't expect the viewers to do that. But ask that supplier to give you a track record. Ask him that this material that I am buying, where was it used? Give me a track record and go and have a look. See if it's structurally sound. It gives you a good idea of what the materials are that you are buying, especially if you don't know what's taking place. Then secondly, or thirdly, is asking to give you a technical data sheet of that specific material that tells you exactly what that materials are, because that's what you're going to buy. And most probably you're going to buy it once or twice or three times. You're going to buy the same material, but you want that material that you buy to be constant. You want to make sure that what you are buying is what you are getting. And you can always refer back to the technical data sheet, and even when you get your materials, take photos of it. Those are things that we can use afterwards to go and have a look and see what is it that you received and what went wrong. And then another thing is visually, everyone has that feeling inside you. When you look at something, make sure if you have a bad feeling about it, normally it's bad. There's something wrong. So when you have a look at the material that you are buying and looking at the aggregate site for instance, make sure it's free from tweaks. Make sure there's no seeds visually that you can see in there. Make sure that you don't see leaves in there. And then another thing, look at the color of the material that you are buying. Make sure that the color is uniform. If you see that there's huge color differences in the material that you're using, you know there's a difference in it. And another thing that, for instance looking at your sand, if you see lumps in your building sand and there's big lumps, it tells us it has a PI. That material is binding. It has quite a high clay content in it. And I don't want to get into too technical sign of it, but that clay is going to shrink and cause problems all over your plot to work at building wall. And that's the question, where was it used? Is it fine? And where does this lump come from? Another thing that we can have a look at this visually is contamination of that product. So and on your checklist, make sure that it's not contaminated. The bins where the materials are in that you're buying from, when you have your sand, your stone, your crust of sand and whatever it is at the end of the day, they shouldn't be contaminated with sand. I mean later on when you're going to use the PPC calculator, it's going to tell you you must use so much stone, you must use so much sand, but if it's contaminated material, the proportions that you're trying to mix is not going to be right, because you have contaminated material before you've even started. That's the one thing. Then another thing that's vitally important is when you buy your bricks and your blocks, make sure that those bricks and blocks are vital. That's the backbone of your structure. Make sure that they are tested and that they conform to the minimum standard of the sands one, two, one, five. You know, Ruan, one of the things that you mentioned is that PPC calculator. Perhaps tell us a little bit about how you would use that as a tool when you're doing your home renovation project. It's actually quite a nice tool that we've come up with. When you're going to estimate with regards to doing a new renovation, you can actually just download it on your phone. You download the PPC Builders app and you can put in all your measurements in there. If you decide you're going to have a five by six meter floor or new renovation, you can put it in there. It will tell you exactly how much concrete you need. You can put it in how much bricks you need, how much plaster you're going to need and that's going to tell you the amount of sand, the amount of cement, the short space of time. You can actually see that the whole cost structure, you can actually see that 20% that I was talking about. You can quickly see what it comes to. You can quickly make your calculations and sums and see this is what it is. Again, when going to buy your material, now you know you're not going to overspend on material. These are the B minimum materials. Just one thing that I need to mention is we do not take much into account and for a reason. We want you to know this is what you actually should have used. Those calculations are based on averages with all the materials that we have available in South Africa and we've based it on averages and it would be very, very accurate actually when you start working with that and you will see that this is what you want to buy, this is the amount you want to buy over quite a lot and the PPC calculator tells you that you can ask the question and again, that can help you actually project manage your own home renovation. You can watch what's being used, what you've bought that you're not overspending, that the builder is not using too much, that the builder is not wasting too much material. I think that's vitally important for you to do. And I think one of the things, as you're even explaining it, it's essentially your own quantity severe in your hand because I think a lot of us when you're doing a home renovation project, you sometimes don't know what you need and some builders who probably want to put a fast one on you because they know they can see you don't know what you're talking about will say you need X bags of cement, let's say they'll say you need 80, when in effect you probably might need 50 and even if you were to put in wastage maybe it would end up being like a 55 to 60, but oftentimes they do try to put in the fast one and I'm sure a lot of us have certainly had that experience with contractors who want to buy more stock than what is needed so that they can pocket that additional stock. So that's certainly a great tool that you can use at home to get a better sense even before you do your home renovation project because then you're able to say okay so this is how much I'm going to probably either save for if you've already saved for it, this is how much you should be allocating for your home renovation and you'll be able to better check your project as you move along. Now, Ron, before I let you go, I think one of the really big things and I've already mentioned them, I mean one of the things that you're doing in a home renovation project is you're obviously using different materials, sometimes you could even be using different cement even in one project. Perhaps see because through the importance of using the right kind of material and the right kind of cement for the right type of project and in the right areas because some people might maybe want to buy only one type of cement and you need to find that that's not necessarily the only one you should be using if let's say you're adding additional rooms there is a combination of different ones you should be using. Perhaps take us through why it's so important for us to be able to understand the right product mixture even as we do our home renovation projects. As the leader in the cement industry in South Africa, BBC pride ourselves on quality and we do a lot of testing and we've come up with a sure range where there's a range of cement and cement products that you can use and it's actually project specific, it's actually specific for a certain job and when you have a look at our website it gives you a lot of information with regards to what cement and even on the app that I just mentioned when you're going to build a wall it will tell you that you should use, when you're doing your mortar you should use our sure cement which is one in our range and again all that information I think the easiest way for you now is to go and have a look, it's on the PPC app, download the app, make sure that when you put in your calculation it will tell you exactly what cement you should use some of the other cement that we've engineered and just for interest sake was our sure cost and it's a real winner in the industry it's for the starting market and especially for the brick and block guys which has a quick turnaround time it has a that sure cost product actually sets very quickly and it gives a premium product to our pre-cost manufacturers and from our side again when selecting a cement it's not worth it, the price in the cement and the amount of cement that you're going to use is not to use a quality product I mean we do internal lab concrete testing we do cement testing and on a daily basis on samples, random samples, samples from customers and to make sure that everything goes right and from a cement manufacturing point of view we know what can go wrong so why use something that's not tested it's vitally important that we should not go that route you're going to burn your fingers Ruan actually like one of the things that you've just mentioned you spoke about the PPC calculator and how it could help you even choose the right materials as you're doing your home renovation project tell us a little bit about what the calculator does and how we can use and how viewers at home can use it as a tool and that they are home renovations Inezama this calculator was designed for people that do not know the insides and outsides about technical stuff and it's quite simple for you to use and I have seen in the past when people need to start buying and they need to start quantifying what they need it becomes quite a dramatic experience and this is something that the calculator takes away you can use our calculator and you can actually go and put in your dimensions and it will tell you exactly what you need and also within that calculator it also talks towards our sure range our specifically designed products for different applications and within that calculator it actually tells you let's say you're going to go and you build a wall you put in the wall height, the wall length it actually tells you and you can put in external plaster or internal plaster it will give you exactly the amount of sand you need exactly the amount of cement you need the bricks or blocks you need and that's vitally important for you to know when you go and buy these materials because what I've seen is that when people do go and buy they just buy and they end up having quite a lot of material left or the builder is wasting their money and they don't know what is right or what is wrong this app will allow the calculator will allow you to actually project manage your own project so within that space you'll be able to project manage and see what is allowed, what is not allowed and what the quantities are within that space and again we want to know what we are spending our money on and this is something that will help you and it's a great tool when it comes to estimating I actually really like the functionality that this tool provides because if anything it's almost like having a quantity surveyor in your hand because you're able to get a better sense of what is needed, the quantity that's needed I know I've also had this experience where you have a particular home renovation project or even building your house and a contractor will say it's amount whether it's of cement or sand the quantities that are needed I think maybe they are saying I need more than what's actually needed and of course we know that there have been contractors who end up taking some of your stock that they've made you buy so it definitely is a very useful tool to viewers at home to be able to use when they want to get a better sense of the amount of material that they're going to need and I think also even if you haven't started saving up for it to get a really good sense of this is the kind of project this is the kind of money you probably need to put aside and really make sure that you are saving effectively in order to do your home renovation project now Rohan before I let you go any final tips you'd like to share with our viewers at home I know a lot of them are looking forward to upgrading their homes a little bit we're spending quite a lot of time in our homes because of Covid more of us are going to probably still be staying and working from home so any final tips I know you've shared quite a lot especially guys who are going to be building making sure that we choose the right quality products so what are the any final tips that you want us to always bear in mind when we do our home renovation project regardless of the size of that project well Zama what I can tell you is planning is key so make sure you plan this project don't just go and go ahead and do and jump into it it becomes a headache I mean you don't want your new renovation to be a headache you want it to be something nice it should be a nice experience plan your project properly plan for some delays to take place and make sure that you have enough space for your materials to be there and another thing is use reputable builders use a reputable contractor it's going to save you a lot of headaches and time and even on the DIY side and one final tip that I want to give something that a lot of people don't really realize is everyone believes that when you're working with a cementitious product that the cementitious products should dry out it should never dry out that cementitious product is a hydration process that takes place and that process needs moisture for that process to actually take place and fully hydrate for your product to actually build up strength so please people when you're building, when you're using our product make sure that you look after it in that especially that first seven days keep it moist keep it wet and you will have a durable functioning project for years to come. Ruan we are going to leave it there thank you so much for sharing those very useful tips for our viewers at home. Thanks Zama. Ruan is a PPC technical representative and we're looking at those tips and tricks for you to be using at home when you want to save time on your home renovation a very big thing and we always emphasize it is to plan effectively you want to make sure that you understand what is needed and of course you can even use the PPC calculator to get a better sense of some of the material that you're going to use make sure you use a reputable contractor and ask them the questions I mean taking us through some of the things that you want to look out for has given us a really good breakdown of the checklist that you want to have in place as you're talking to your contractor but also understanding that using quality products is so important you've spoken about some of the PPC products that are really effective in making sure that your home renovation needs are met so do make sure that you choose the right products for your home renovations and it's such an important thing and I think when it comes to saving time but also saving money one of the things that PPC have is of course the share reward program and this is something that's going to save you money for every bag of cement that you buy and if you want to find out how you can do that then do click on the link below we have shared those details you certainly want to make sure that you save money the right way as well as saying that you don't want to cut corners that are obviously going to probably have you costing or either spending more money at the end of your project so make sure that you sign up for the show rewards program and save money the right way instead of cutting corners that are going to cost you more rents in the long run that's a wrap for me, we're going to be bringing you more episodes on this web series I'm sure you're going to be you're looking forward to more of them do share your stories of your own home renovation project we want to hear from you and of course we'll be back again with the third episode of our web series in partnership with PPC