bbradsby

On 2/20/2025 at 3:30 AM, Mark1066 said:

I had to Google that. Thank goodness I'm not from a country that hunts its citizens worldwide to tax them.

only the poor ones. the rich ones don't pay any taxes.

These threads get side-tracked so fast its amazing, though I'm sure people are well-meaning. To the original poster, your aims are 100% doable.. just need to know the right people.

23 hours ago, notrub said:

All the soil around here is sand and I have never heard of a bedrock that exists at any depth at all.  Wells are drilled here down to 40 meters and there has never been a mention of a rocky band of any kind.

 

What I am getting at is the theory of a floating slab and how it must be made to 'float' on a sandy base?  If the slab is thick enough it should be able to settle evenly without breaking.   

 

Thanks rdg. for your comment.  I don't understand how a pile going straight down on to sand without a base footing of some kind can be an improvement on a thicker slab onto, say, 120x120 pads with a 40cm grade beam running between on the surface.

 

In other countries, where I have worked, core samples are taken to determine the depth of stable ground but nobody around here does that (that I have heard of). If there was a band of rock it would be common knowledge from all the well drilling locally here in Ban Mai Chaiyaphot, Isaan area.  I think the sand goes on to a great depth.  

 

I think the local contractors do what the other guy did without giving it much thought.  I see that these column piles are used a lot and they do drop a weight down to pack the base but still don't understand why that is better 3 or 4 meters down as opposed to a very thick monolithic slab on the surface.  I am going try to track down an engineer but don't know where I will find one yet.

 

There is a lot of wriggle room for other options when the quote for piles is 500,000

 

I found a supplier of 'super blocks' btw in Korat that are standard size but 14 cm deep and of very good quality too.  They are 10 THB each and delivered in quantities 1152 pieces.  

 

Thanks for your comment Cooked.  That is what I have in mind.  A 20 cm slab with 16mm rebar onto a grade beam on to pads is going to resist a lot of uneven settling.  I have built in Canada and France but there has always been some bedrock not too far from the surface.  Except in Calgary, Alta and the piles we used there were huge, maybe 1 or 2 meters in diameter.  I saw in Hong Kong a building site for a high rise and they were putting in piles dug by hand by a husband and wife team, 1 pile per team, but don't know what they were doing at the bottom or what soil conditions were down there.  They were deep, very deep.

ah ok, here's the useful info, if anecdotal. YOu're in sand.. not the typical condition for Thai houses - or in other countries. piles are useful if end-bearing on firm strata - or surface-bearing if driven into clay mud where firm stratum is too deep. Think "drinking straw in a thick chocolate shake." The straw stands by itself by surface friction. YO can build a house on that. This clay mud condition is the norm in LoS except for beach and hillside sites. Now, deep sand! Sand is great bearing for a raft slab. But its also about the reinforcement and grade beam design for the loads. not just concrete thickness. Concrete without proper reinforcement is very brittle. It has little flexural strength. Get it engineered, but as long as you're not in earthquake country, and youre not, deep sand is a great building platform. Just don't use it to mix your concrete! A small amount of sodium in the mix will destroy its longevity.

On 4/3/2018 at 6:48 PM, r136dg said:

100 piles 5 meters deep sounds commercial to me.

I wouldn't be afraid to build a modest home here on a floating monolithic slab (thick on the perimeter & wherever there's load bearing walls). But that would only be on stable virgin soil, not on a meter of fill in a rice field. 

Also only if using light weight roofing materials & building with 8" block that can be core filled.

But if subbing work out to locals you'd be best off sticking to what they know, no doubt! 

For perspective, its not even a big [expat] house that requires around 100 driven piles. your 'commercial' is another man's 'modest' second home.

Do not take this stuff lightly. wifey's a nurse and dormicum could have been it, or similar. very small dose required, puts you DOWN in 20 minutes full stop. then you wake up refreshed. no hangover. That's if you didnt combine it with other sedatives like drinks.. dangerous territory, so dont leave your drink alone, watch it being made, or especially in an unknown venue just have beer from a bottle you watch get opened.

theres no one answer. every site is different. In the absence of a geotech engineer - and no typical owner-built Thai house project has one - you must trust the building designer and/or the local experienced contractor for what is done locally based on local conditions and the house geometry and weight. Chao Phraya bay mud, coastal alluvium, foothill alluvium mixed with rock at varying depths, solid rock hillside... all require difernt solutions. "Over 100 piles... over 500,000 THB" is useless info. How many piles.. and How many Baht, and exactly what location? Get real to get real answers.

Its always good that folks are here to help others. However, in this case, we're talking about poured in place concrete. It's building science, not opinion, that creates proper, safe concrete structures. If you're uneducated and/or inexperienced in the subject matter, posting guesses, theories and suppositions only serves to muddy the waters for those poor souls seeking help here, and potentially puts lives in danger. Please refrain. 

The facts: reinforcing steel must be free of foreign coatings which would reduce bond to concrete - oil would qualify, by the way. Excerpted from a set of professional specs:

PART 3 - EXECUTION

3.01     PLACEMENT

            A.         Place reinforcing supported and secured against displacement.  Do not deviate from true alignment.

            B.         Before placing concrete, ensure reinforcing is clean, free of loose scale, dirt, or other foreign coatings, which would reduce bond to concrete.

1 minute ago, zzidenn said:

i dont think its just that simple. buddha belongs to nobody. did buddha set these rules? and wait a minute, was he even thai? 

it IS that simple. Their country - their culture. All belief systems are subjective and relative. Mexico's version of Christianity is different than the US' except right along the border, where its exactly the same culture since the US confiscated that region from Mexico as a result of a war. The people didn't move. Culture overlays religion, and vice-versa, in each place. 

Simple rule, really: be respectful of your host while you're a guest in their house.

1 minute ago, chrissables said:

What about his dense wife, if you want to look at it that way? I have seen many shops selling statues of Buddhas head.

 

I have small Buddha statues in my house, if a Thai person see's them they like them.

Dont assume that because she is Thai, that his wife is Buddhist. That displays a bit of ignorance of Thailand. She may be muslim, from the south. And some small number of Thai are christian... 

Re your personal collection, don't presume to read others minds. Thai are non confrontational to a fault in polite society. They usually give more slack to farangs, knowing our ignorance of their customs.

2 minutes ago, ogb said:

Meanwhile, genocide is happening in Burma/Myanmar

Well true, but beside the point of this thread. Besides, no one does genocide better than the Western, Christian countries in recent history..

12 hours ago, 4MyEgo said:

Their country, their Buddha, you would expect Thai's to respect your country, your religion, your ways if they were in your country.

 

Sure, I have a view on this, but pointless really, their country, their Buddha, simple really.

Exactly right - for the dense westerner who can't put himself for a second in another culture's shoes, imagine me hanging bleeding Jeezus decapitated heads all along my property line in a 100% fundamentalist christian small town in the US or UK. I imagine there'd be quite the uproar. Could be fun, actually..

define terracotta - floor tiles, wall tiles, roof tiles, baked pasta? wait, that's panacotta? ya, run to Global House with your [metric] tape measure.

No way to generalize about whether you can cut into a condo building floor [at any level] or ceiling elements visible to you as a consumer. You need a knowledgeable professional to review and advise. The slabs in high rises are often post-tensioned concrete. and if you cut into one of the steel tendons, it could maim or kill you, and would compromise the strength of the floor area of the cut. Assuming you didn't get an ambulance ride, you'd still be in serious legal and financial trouble.

The walls are less critical for a small cut-out, but wouldn't you be embarrassed to see daylight into your neighbor's condo while hammer-drilling into the wall for your "safe."

..from my constructed wetland consultant - swamp engineer - it's the microbes that attach to the roots of the water plants in the wetlands that do the work. So it may not matter which plants you use, as long as they are suited to being wet full-time, and love your relevant temp range and shading or lack thereof that they'll endure. And make sure you don't kill them with chemicals from soaps in your greywater. 

He said one needs to grow the constructed wetland's plants and microbes as the house construction occurs in parallel. That way, by the time the house is done, and you're dumping nutrient-rich water into it, the microbe community is in full bloom already. He does this by digging out the 'wetlands' area at time of site foundation excavation, then lines and fills it with local water, local wetlands mud and local water plants. 

Question - what's the design guide you're working with for your system?

Love the question. Use the local biome's handiwork, i'd think. its only millions of years older than the Amazon, so it's has had time to sort things out. Wait.. where are you located?

This forum is a wealth of info, developed over many years by it denizens, er, Members.... The search function is your friend.  

yes, use an AAC block for exterior walls - the diff in heat transfer thru wall is amazing. protect your East & West facing walls from sun as much as possible and you'll feel the diff. so will your wallet if you use A/C. If you cant/won't shade these walls, coat them with radiant-reflective paint.

On 7/27/2017 at 11:50 PM, carlyai said:

Well it's been 5 days now and it hasn't cracked 555
 

don't worry, it will.. but, from your post, its clear you've got the right attitude. I can tell you're a LOS long-stander!

Can space concrete columns further apart if you use a cold-formed light-gauge steel roof & ceiling beam system versus concrete roof beams. Or use load bearing AAC blocks with light-gauge metal roof framing. Its your floor beam support posts that would need to be closely spaced.

Typical Concrete specs for building construction call for lightly wire-brushing off loose rust scale and flakes and its good to go. Surface rust spots aren't a problem. No need to use epoxy coated rebar unless you're pouring concrete that will receive chemical or salt water immersion, mist, spray or splash. Its expensive.

Same story, different appliance - its usually the water heater in the shower. The freezer section inside the fridge is metal, so maybe he was fried when he reached for ice, etc. Or he touched the metal back panel while bracing the flimsy, small fridge in order to open the door. Also, note that if yo have old fridge, it may have a metal case screwed to the chassis. Mind your grounds - this is Thailand...

BHT 12k is a good price, if its all-in. Plus, you get one guy to do the entire project and a single point of responsibility... versus trying to get two builders to cooperate on one house build, which would be a nightmare.

So, back to the original question - and leaving out the editorializing on whether it's a good idea or not, since we all have our own needs and motivations - it would be good for the Thaivisa group if everyone could share the contact info for a trustworthy shipper for bikes, parts or basically anything going back to US or EU.

Thanks in advance to all contributors.

OP, hopefully we just missed the part where you got written approval of your block wall floor plans from the HOA and the structural engineer of the building? Gypsum board on metal studs would have served your purposes easily, including wall-mounted equipment, and acoustically could have done as well with proper design & construction. If gyp/stud walls were what the original builders used, thats what the structure is designed for. Likely not anything more!

[edit] I see now that its done, seemingly without the above approvals? If so, youre banking your - and your downstairs neighbors - fate on the safety margin of the engineering design [unknown] and the quality of [Thai!] construction. No one should consider the OP's path as one to follow.

Danger. You risk losing it all in a swindle if youre not entrusting the land purchase to a Thai wife. Even then, your investment is only as secure as your marriage. Research the many threads on " Real Estate, housing, house and land ownership" - not the "DIY Housing Forum."

Simple answer: buy a condo.

Good comments above, but be aware that one cannot refer to Thailand's "tropical climate" as a singular beast. If you look into the Koppen climate zones, the Northern mountain climates are obviously not like the coastal Tropics, so high thermal mass may be made to work. Northeastern plains have a climate similar to the African Sahel, very dry but with heavy, seasonal monsoon rains when they do happen. Diurnal temperature ranges makes a high thermal mass building system workable - but only if high R-value ceiling insulation, great attic ventilation, and serious overhangs are designed specifically in response to sun angles, large windows oriented to utilize predominant breezes. Still, there will be nights where you'll want an A/C to take the edge off unless your fully acclimatized. These are just a primer, and good building performance requires a systems approach to design that begins at the property lines and moves in from there.

Warning about earth block or rammed earth systems - they are inherently dangerous in seismically active areas, and parts of the North and West do have some seismic activity. I've designed and constructed Pise' buildings in Seismic Zone 4 [ as seismically active as it gets] but thats steel reinforced soil-cement mix pneumatically placed. Not for beginners.

Then, wind is another lateral loading consideration. Monsoon winds in the Northeast plains can be extreme, so wall height and geometry are important considerations.

Then theres the soil selection and mix. Organic matter in the mix (dung...) weakens the mix and invites mold, mildew, bugs. And, lastly, sourcing proper non-expansive clay is critical to safety, much less success. Good luck running various, alternative soil samples to a lab in Thailand, and cost of soil import to your site if the stuff onsite isn't suitable, will be prohibitive. Has anybody found a soils map for Thailand? If so, please share a link to this Group.

After all the above considerations are solved, and you've actually verified that a simple CMU house isn't cheaper for the same thermal mass performance, a stabilized earth mix with 10% portland cement and sealer coat on the exterior should get it done. Let us know how you do, as it happens!

All the best,