Do not Build in Ghana unless you damp proof your Foundation 🚫🚩 

Beautiful home bro! Keep pushing! Your ancestors prayed that one day, someone from their bloodline would make it back home!✊🏿🇬🇭

Here in Cameroon, many people use the black tar on the outside walls to prevent water from entering the walls and it's very efficient. Very valuable information.Thanks for sharing.

I noticed this problem in Nigeria too. Ty for highlighting this problem.

I appreciate your transparency and praying for you. I'm also furious, absolutely furious about the quality of the work you paid your hard earned money for. You need french drains in the yard, water barrier on the oitside and inside walls, downspouts for the gutters and a dehumidifier unit to pull the moisture out of the house. ❤

Hi Brother and blessings, hopefully allis well. Id just likto share some information with you as we are dealing with the same issue with the older building we are extending extending. In short its a two part issues rain water and ground water. Fixing down pipes and making sure you get the water as far as possible away from the house will hake a huge difference. Then it wbe time to deal with the water in the ground, you will need to dig down to level with your footings around your house clean the walls then apply a waterproof black paint,,next comes the most important part you should create a French drain that sends the ground water away from your foundation's all the time. Love your channel keep up the great work, maybe one day we could make some content together. 👍🏿

BRUH, you are spreading some wisdom! A lot of vloggers would never be transparent enough to say "my bad." We had to build a partial fence to prevent a popular Asebu contractor from encroaching FURTHER onto our property (hastily built 40% of his UK client's house on our land-another story). Fence delayed by rain, we returned to the u.s. & had a tough time getting workers to waterproof the fence foundation bc they hadn't done it before. Even then, the videos showed they did a half-ass job. We won't spend another dime on the fence or ANY construction until we're full-time to ensure it's done to our specs. EQUALLY, IMPORTANT, you touched on the need for gutters & ample roof overhang. Bottom line: concrete is 12-18% porous at best & should be treated as such. You saved someone a lot of money & heartache my Texas brother!

Great information brother!! Thank you for sharing. So much to learn about building in other climates.

Thanks for letting us know about this hope you get it handled soon.

Bro I would build a house on a higher foundation because of rainy season…plus damp proof. They have this same issue in the Gambia 🇬🇲

Great video,very detailed and well explained 👍🏽

Very informative. Thank you.

Awww sorry for that big bro, Thank you for sharing

Thanks for sharing!

Great information!🙏🏾

Great information 👍🏽👍🏽

Yes thx for the tips

Great using ur property to educate and encourage..Jah guide and give u peace in the home! yes folks have to be careful building and not checking on things. Most builders will not go this extra mile

Hi King you are learning as you go.

Thank you this has been very helpful. You have a beautiful house.

You hv done very well

Thanks bro

Great job done, very educative❤

Thank you for the info. I will be sure to have my builder use a waterproofed crawl space as my foundation. Looks like you get enough rain to probably build on piers. Either way probably should keep your actual building off ground. I've also seen waterproof coatings sprayed on concrete block up to 4ft above grade level. It might not be too late for you to try that.

Make sure when they put the mortar over the brick outside they temper the mortar. I have noticed that I have not observed it being used. Your exterior will be able to withstand all elements

You have a nice crib, I can’t wait to build my spot

All of these issues could be avoided and fixed.

bless you

In Nigeria we use outside tiles to protect and and seal it. Try it. You will not have that problem again.

Some Ghanaians don't understand that water only redirects. Trees are just as important as development. As global warming becomes a thing, the rainy season will become longer. Protect your homes.

Looks like changing your land drainage slope would greatly reduce the issue. French drains running outside your compound walls would appear to be an option.

Damn... sad to hear this bro ☀️☀️

In Uganda we use clay bricks for foundation then rocks and sand are poured on, then a dump proof membrane and damp proof cement are poured on….. most houses in Uganda do not have this problem as these rules are strict!!!

Pretty bad that for something that’s an easy fix when done at the foundation level most builders will not tell you and you will spend the rest of your life fixing it and will cost you a lot

A bro, love the content. As always making me motivated to go to home. Hey have you considered adding more shrubbery as a natural barrier for the water around your home? You could use tomato plants, herbs, cactus and rose bushes to help soak up that moisture and keep it away from the home

Thank you very much. I’m having my house done

Yes. You have to tile the sides of the building not witj the smooth ones but the ruff surface ones. Also , use Acasia powder and soak it in a bucket of water and sprink it all over the fungi surface and use a broom to smear the solution into the fungi surface area.The fungi will die but after a year you would have to repeat the process

In america they use pine straws, are little small Peeples of rocks so rain wont saturated the sides of redidents home its vety popular in Atlanta.

Thank you really helpful. Sorry you had to go through this so we could learn from things wasn't included in your construction. Hope you get things sorted and not too expensive. Very informative ❤

You can treat the wall by injected the walls.etc ' I would advise to put in rain gutters as well. But I can see you are dealing with the issues.

I noticed you ride a Royal Enfield, what can you share about the NY-SPORT 200?

Shalom brother, you doing great work but I suggest instead of using ceramic tiles better use stone tiles which is what most use to solve such problems

Concrete the yard about 18" wide at least, all around with a slope to keep water running away from the house.

I live in a damp area and my property walls have holes about 3” diameter spaced all down the wall to let out excess rain. That might help drain the water when you have big rains that pool, also grading the land som to drain away from thehouse

Rising dampness is a huge huge problem in Ghana so many people are finding out.

Nice home

Peace and Blissfulness, I have a question for you, does rising dampness create mold/ mildew and algae? and is that what we’re seeing? So that’s what you were telling us the other day when you visited with the Artist and him pointing out the need to waterproof your home with that special mixture, thank you for the heads up, my home will be ready In Abokobi 🇬🇭this March 2024, I need to know what kind of paint is going up as I’m still here in NYC

Yeah, i have this problem at my home in Buea Cameroon, everytime i renovate, we have to strip the bottom plaster and replaster before re'painting. I'm already sick of it. I have rain gutters but still suffer this and its expensive to keep up with these works. No, if you know how someone can water proof their foundation easily in Africa, do a video on that so i can usr it for my future projects and safe myself this headache. Sometimes the cracks are caused by the walls setting, a builder use some really long nails horizontally inside the cracked space before replastering and it has held strong for about 8 years now.

Thank you so much for sharing! It's so scary trusting in the home building process in Africa.

Lovely property. I'm a structual water/damp proof specialist and Unfortunately this isn't water/ damp proofing. Your property has just been rendered with one thick coat. This is a big issue in africa. Hopefully it has been sorted now. Would love to see an update if u need any advice if you are still having water issues give me a shout

If u get the Black Coral Damp proof and paint the bottom it protects the house walls.

Peace up b. Dampness is a bummer. Why no gutters tho... There's also the option of putting cladding around the bottom part of the wall. Looks better than tiling... Good luck...

I know different video but what happened with your skits with them fine ladies. Definitely not even close to hollywood standard but that's what made me like them. Your skits were silly, funny and definitely entertaining, we need more soon.

Did they lay down plastic to damp proof the floor before they poured cement flooring?

My advice is to prime and paint the exterior semi-gloss paint. Apply two coats of the exterior paint on the exterior paint. Additionally, grade around your house for positive drainage. Your problems are compounded because of the use of inferior materials. In you are better of demolishing the house ND rebuild properly from the ground up with good supervision instead of wasting money to fix mistakes.

Did they put plastic sheeting between the dirt and the wire mesh before pouring the concrete.

Hello bro @ WeBelongInAfrica when you order from Amazon are you having them ship to you directly? If so I have shipper in US that I have and any place I order items from are delivered to shipper, then it's shipped to my door here in Ghana

Land/soil prone to WATER LOG must have a RAFT FOUNDATION with 16mm IRON ROD + granite (not gravel) without which walls will be soaked with water and cracks will develop showing an error in the foundation!!!!

You're Going To Have To Dig A Trench About 21/2 Foot Deep 3 Foot Wide, All Around The Perimeter Of Your Home.. Then Fill The Trench With Gravel.. The Perimeter Trench Should Have Some Sort Of Drainage Pipe That Leads To The Street, Or A Drainage Pond On The Low Side Of Your Property.. So That Water Drains From Your Home? It Has Somewhere To Go... The Size Of The Drainage Pond Depends On How Much Rain You Get During The Rainy Season... Because As Of Right Now.. It Seems Your House Is Basically Sitting In Mud When It Rains... It's An Easy Fix Though.. If You Follow My Instructions... 😎😎😎

Please what if you have build already without damp proof ..what can you do ? I'm facing such a challenge

You need to seal it not water proof. The seal will keep water out of the blocks. Water proof just makes water run off the blocks. But is does not keep water from soaking into the block or foundation.

Tiling the walls doesn’t mitigate rising dampness. It only hide it for a while but eventually the tiles on the walls will fall off when the blocks get soaked and because the tiles doesn’t allow for evaporation. You mentioned people tile up to the ceiling. The reason they do that is, after tiling to sill height(window level), the rising dampness, because the water is looking for a place to evaporate, it continues to rise to the ceiling. So people tile to the ceiling to hide it

This is happening to my mom’s house. What can be done to curb this problem. Please advise

But there ìs no drainage for the water to escape so its dippong into the building and the land is moving as drying the rainy water is a ptonlem. Put some holes in the fence so the water can escape

Not The Right Paint And Not Enough CEMENT. Waterproof Cement. Tiling Will Help. Concrete The Outside Flooring And Slope Away From The Building

Appears there is drainage problem, the foundation should have been elevated, and rain gutters would help also

Tiles at the bottom isn't going to help, its going to make it worst cus the wall won't now release the moisture due to the tile cover. Lot's of people making same mistake based on wrong information

Is this a new house?

This how was poorly built should have been elevated 4 feet above the ground. You're in a low land area. Sadly this how foundation will not last long.

I’m in oyibi area

Why can't you cover the hole and get rain gutters

This happens because of poor construction. They don't know how to build in Ghana,

It's not damp is the problem. It's poor concrete mix. Concrete should be solid when dry and repel water, not porous when dry absorbing water.

Nothing to do with rising damp. Just need a good drainage system, that’s all. No treatment will solve your problems unless you deal with the actual problem

l like your blinds. Can l get the contact

It rains a lot in Ghana I wonder most of ya don't invest in farming, pretty good investment

Did I see a rat run across the foor😂😂

Bro if it's cracking it will continue. Put it up for sale and start over where there is more trees and rocks..it's. A loss. You gonna keep pouring money into it..

Bro. It's your own fault. The land you bought has salt deposits and water there. I for one knows signs and signals to look out for, you should have done due diligence before purchasing the land. A lot of people purchase land in Accra where everywhere is choked and left with lands water or salt deposits . No estate developer will buy lands like that. Check the nature of the soil before you buy a piece of land especially in the coastal areas.

Please get an architect for professional help!!

Your headline is misleading. You don't know why you are having this problem. The issue is you built on a wet Land, just observed all the buildings around your house , they all have the same problem. In future when you get such a Land get an expert from hydro department for an advice. I don't think you have building permit for the house.

Bro, you must be involved in some freaky stuff 😂. First you have a a almost naked girl covered with towel videoing you and then you have hand cuffs handing on your wardrobe door..I need to come.check what goes on in that house

Aee! are you a ex- policeman ?

Blame yourself. You chose to employ cheap labourers to get a cheap work instead spending money to get the services of certified professional work force.

Thanks for your response and I would like to hear your mechanic's opinion if at all possible. As for your foundation water problem, it is my belief that with some sweat equity and determination the issue could be abated. I would like to add to @commonman80 suggestion with a little more detail. TAKE NOTE, THIS IS A DRY SEASON PROJECT, NOT A RAINY SEASON PROJECT. : ¾"Ø to 1"Ø gravel/stone, filter fabric (Geotextile Fabric), perforated drain pipe, damp-proof material : Pickaxe, shovel, wire brush, wheel borrow 1. Manually excavate around the structure and expose the foundation wall down to the bottom of the footing. At least, do it in four phases for safety, i.e. one side of the building per phase. You can turn the excavation say three feet around the corner. (Pickaxes and shovels will be necessary). Plan for one or two days per phase, say four weekends. 2. Clean the foundation wall and let it dry out. 3. Apply foundation damp-proofing material to foundation wall down to bottom of the footing and at least 6" above ground level. For the dampproof material you will have to do some research to ascertain what is available locally. I hear RUST-LEUM is popular in Africa but you must verify material performance yourself. (ru-vid.comZlxslzNYgIU) 4. Place a 6" deep layer/bed of gravel at the bottom of the excavated trench. If budget allows, rap the entire gravel backfill with filter fabric also; (www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/how-to-install-a-foundation-drain) In this case, the filter fabric has to go in first, be wide enough and be placed before the gravel/stone. 5. Install 6" diameter perforated perimeter drain pipe and rap it in filter fabric material (again ascertain local availability). Take note, discharge of the drain pipe must be pre-planned. Ideally the drainage discharge should be into the public sewer system but we already know that maybe unlikely. Therefore the nearest natural gully, but under no condition directed to the neighbor's property. The drain pipe must slope towards the direction of discharge, ideally ¼" per foot. (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hojUw17cRfU.html&ab_channel=MilwaukeeMetropolitanSewerageDistrict-MMSD). Take note, drain pipe must be installed with the perforations on the top side. 6. Cover the drain pipe with say two feet of gravel (not sure how deep your foundation footing is) 7. Backfill with excavated soil on top of gravel. Make plans for leftover excavated soil. The above steps are the easy part, now, wow for the fun part: 1. Get a ram goat or a few authentic live Ghana chickens/fouls (no Chinese chicken) from a farm in the neighborhood. 2. A case/box or two of the preferred local beer from the local super-mart. 3. Make arrangements with two a dem Ghanaian ladies to do some finger licking cooking (Fufu is a must). 4. Call on some friends, say half dozen at least. At least, two that can wield the pickaxe, two that can handle the shovel and two that can tell stale jokes. Not to worry about the stale jokes, the beer will take care a dat. 5. Music optional. If you can't find any friends, then the project won't be no fun😆🤣! As you have come to realize, foundation damp-proofing is a necessary substructure detail. No short cuts, anything less is a band-aid. On a positive note, you could turn this whole project into a RU-vid video content teaching exercise for your subscribers. I am very much interested in the local material research aspect, i.e. who, what and where.