Cashboy

Ceilings:

 

Downstairs I would not put plaster board (gypsum) on the ceilings, but I would have the ceilings and beams skimmed.

This would give me higher ceilings (3.4 metre instead of 3 metre) that would be better for keeping the rooms cool.  It would also prevent animals and bugs living between the roof and plaster board.

 

Upstairs I would put plaster board (gypsum 9mm) on the ceilings in the bedroom and landing and cement board on the balconies and bathrooms.

However, instead of supporting these on those aluminium strips suspended by steel wire, I would put 10cm x 5 cm, 1.5mm steel in a 60cm centres to support this.

This would be stronger and enable me to be able to access the inside of the roof and use it for storage.

I therefore got back my welder man and helped him put more steels in the roof while the plasterers continued to plaster downstairs.

 

The welder man, myself and the Thai "secretary" put the plaster board and cement board up ourselves (54 sheets of 240 x 120 plaster baord and 14 sheets of 240 x 120 cement board).  The plasterers sanded and skimmed the boards, ready for painting.

 

 

I purchased 12 cement boards (240cm x 120cm x 16mm ) and put in the loft of the building for storing things (gives 34 M2 floor storage) and access for maintenance.

Each of those boards weighs 68 kgs.

I shall insulate the roof with 15cm insulation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was back to the UK for 4 months.

On my return to Thailand I was relieved to hear that my manager had left the village to go back to Bangkok to work.

The bricklayer that had worked in Isreal was working on the construction of a massive new sugar cane factory down the road (1 km away).

 

I decided to ask my worker from last time that I found most competent to now manager the works and he introduced someone that he works with.

We would endeavour to plaster the building

Two of them would bring their wives to labour ( carry the buckets of plaster and clean out the plaster machine and tidy up)

The team would comprise at peak times:

3 plastering at 500 bt each

1 man labourer at 450 bt each

2 women labourers at 350 bt each.

 

I purchased another 10 galvanised towers, some extra cross bars and horizontals and 12 horizontal platforms for the towers.

 

Plastering began:

 

I chased out all the sockets for electric, internet and TV;  110 sockets in all and generally did labouring, especially carrying the buckets of plaster up the towers and up the stairs.

 

 

What was quite amusing was that the Technician from buiding the structure had to come back to finish the front porch roof during this.

You can see that he was surprised at the quality of the work and the team I had put together.

He was a good guy but where he went wrong with me is that he did not listen to concerns and would just grin.

I would recommend him for the skeleton but he screwed up on the stairs and the roof ridges that I had told him were a concern to me.

I can tell you that these builders can never get the roofs, stairs and sewage right.

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to put the sofits in under the roof before the walls were finished on the second floor.

I thought I would experiment by using concrete wood  strips 25cm wide x 3 metres long.

It looks nice in my opinion but too labour intense.

The welder had to add more steel to support the strips.  He made a few errors in the positioning of those steel supports meaning many more cuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still have to cover all the screws up.

I am hoping that air passes between the strips to help vent the roof but that animals do not get in.

 

 

 

While the bricklaying was going on, I decided that the steel roof structure could possibly do with some more welding so bought a 250 Amp arc welder, mask, welding rods and found someone in the village to go over the whole roof adding welds and repaint all the steel with rust protection again.

That took 7 days at 450 bt per day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued:

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously the contractor wanted to do the labour of the next stage; the walls and plastering etc.

 

I told him that I would be using 15cm wide Q blocks  (thermalites to us).

He wondered what I was talking about and had never heard of these blocks.

I found that quite worrying.

I took him with the "secretary" to SCG builders merchants to show him them and that they even do 20cm wide Q Blocks.

 

I asked the "secretary" to ask him for a quote.

He said 285,000 bt for block work, small bricks in 3 bathrooms and plastering walls inside and out.

I thought this was a bit coincidental that the building was 285 M2.

I went to look at the walls of his previous job about 2 kms away and the plastering wasn't that great.

 

I went around the neighbouring villages to look for bricklayers and plasters on a job.

I came accross a couple (husband and wife) that were brick laying.  There work was very neat work.  There family bricklayed and plastered so no shortage of a team.

I asked them for prices of laying and plastering the small clay bricks and price for laying and plastering the Q blocks that they were familiar with.

They gave me prices per metre square and worked out that 285,000 bt was high.

 

I therefore asked the contractor that had quoted 285,00 bt for a break down of the figure.

It was obvious that he assumed I was going to give him the work then.

He then gave me a list of what he was going to do with breakdown of prices.

This time it came to 228,000 bt so I was already making a saving of 57,000 bt just by asking for this.

 

I decided to go for the couple so went back to see them with the Thai "secretary".

They were willing to do the work but did not know when they could start because they were working for a contractor.

They said that we would have to ask their contractor (95% of the work they did was for a contractor) before they could work for us.

The Thai secretary telephone this contractor and discovered that it was one of the contractors that had quoted 1,600,000 bt to put the skeleton and roof up.

He wanted to quote for the brick and plastering job but the "secretary" told him that they said they would directly work for us.  He said OK.

However when she went back to the bricklayer couple, they told us they could not do the work because their boss contractor told her they were not allowed.

He was obvioulsy <deleted> off that we hadn't used him.

 

In the mean time I bought 1,600 blocks (15cm x 20cm x 60cm) and some bags of cement glue to build the external walls.

 

The Technician telephoned and asked if he should start laying the blocks tomorrow.

The Thai secretary told him that I would be laying the blocks myself.

 

I had decided to put my own labour team together (from the village) to do this stage myself.

I wanted to give work to people in teh village and had this idea that maybe I should start my own small construction company.

This is a risky matter because you can <deleted> off your local village people if you have to reject them because their work is poor.

 

I started laying the blocks myself in the mean time as I was going back to the UK in a week and decided that the only way to do the job with my own village team would be to be on the job with them.

 

 

 

 

 

The Thai "secretary" had taken a lot of photos all the time on her Smart Phone and despit me telling her to down load them didn't and the inevitable happened, she dropped it, smashed the screen and was unable to extract the pictures.

The pictures I have are only the ones I took on my camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 5/28/2019 at 5:52 AM, Tagged said:

We are far beyond that borehole thing at the moment!

 

Pond and watertanks now. 

 

Budget is no problem

 

 

 

Bungalow and Toolhouse 160 000,—

 

Digging pond 8000,-

Looking forward to see the bungalow and toolhouse for 160,000 bt that has already gone up x 4 from the 40,000 bt

On 5/1/2019 at 10:08 AM, IsaanAussie said:

That is getting to be one hell of a hole! Have you had any seepage of water into it, or sign of a spring? I am a bit surprised that there is no water in it with the water table you said was at 4 metres. 

Another question is do you intend to have fish in the lake? 10 metres is deep for most local fish. 

I was thinking exactly the same.

You said the water table was at 4 meters and you are stating you are at 10 meters.  That would with my simple mathematics think you would have 6 meters of water in there.......................LOL

Just read all the posts about helmets.

I have been riding a Honda Wave 125cc in Bangkok City for 4 years but now moved to Udonthani where my secretary has a Honda Scoopy.

I have been using these helmets that are 450bt each and they appear to have the TIS on them.

To be honest, I never looked at the safety aspect, I just thought they looked quite cool at the time.

 

I have recently bought a Honda Rebel 500 and like an open helmet.

Are these helmets safe to use?

 

I know this is an old topic but found it useful and shall tell you what I think having just bought a welder.

 

I bought an Arc (Stick) welder after watching ChuckE2009 as recommended by "Impulse" on this thread and seeing that most Thais only use Arc (Stick)

 

I then looked at all the welders available in Global House, Thai Wassadu, DoHome, HomePro and the thai girl asked the assistants in the shops what they thought were the best.

Thai Wassadu appears to have the most knowledgeable and helpful staff.

 

Most Thais just buy cheap-cheap and pay about 5,000 bt for a 160 Amp Arc Welder that will probably do most jobs.

 

I came to the conclusion that the best quality welders are Wel Pro and Rowel.

I ended up buying a Rowel 250S on the basis that the case is physically large and made of steel and comes with a 3 year warranty.

I understand that the 250S over the 250 means that you can run it better on a generator that I may well need to do in the future.

http://www.rowelthailand.com/v2/product-detail.php?model=เครื่องเชื่อม โรเวล ARC250S&amp;id=77

I got a good deal getting a welding mask (Rowel RW-ADF300S) and Hyundai HD-150S grinder and vouchers for future purchases for 17,992 bt.

 

I hope this information helps other farang that had no idea like myself.

Insert other media

 

 

 

 

On 6/2/2016 at 10:40 AM, soalbundy said:

Well done, i would be interested in who you sell your produce to. That about salted water was interesting, we live in Isaan and use water from a deep well (28 meters) for showering and for the washing machine,it's not the least bit salty.

 

I am on a farm in Kumpawapi - Udonthani.

I am concerned after reading in several places (e.g.  Khon Kaen) that the water is salty.  I am told that many people in the village had bore holes dug to 20 metres and got water but plants would not grow when watered with it.

I am at the moment considering purchasing a water bore machine from the USA  http://hydra-jett.com/1573687.html to fit on the PTO of a tractor to dig 100 metres deep hoping i can strike clean pure water.

 

A Thai girl is studying a university degree in Tourism at Strathclyde University.

One of her assignments was to make a questionnaire and get it completed by as many farang as possible that have been to Thailand.

The problem is that she does not know many farang that have been to Thailand that is essential for her questionnaire.

It would be appreciated if you could spare the 5 minutes to tick a few boxes on the internet survey linked here:

https://strathbusiness.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3DbnAH9fQzcgqDr

"From what I can tell; the extension is a maximum of 30 days when you go to the Immigration for the extension (not 30 days from the expiration of the Tourist Visa)."

Is this correct?

I thought I had read else where that the 30 day extension is from the Admitted until Date on the TR stamp.

Mr Tee, I just extended my tourist visa and you are correct; the 30 day extension is the Admitted until Date on the TR stamp.

It has been the same TM7 form for many many years and has not been changed.

Thank you for that.

Shall try to extend tomorrow for another 30 days.

Is the form still the same as I put on when I started this post?

I just read this thread.

Thank you Packdee for the information.

A shame so many photos you posted in your explanations do not display.

The Thai girl wants to grow mushrooms and do it commercially.

Are these easier to grow than other mushrooms?

What kind of building do I need to construct for growing these (size and materials)?

The Thai girl is living in Bangkok at the moment so Chantaburi is not too far to come for lessons and to order some spawn.

I would say that for someone in their 50's retiring; Chaing Mai would make sense:

1) big enough to get most things

2) cooler than Bangkok

3) airport to get to main international airport

4) not sleezy like Pattaya

Regarding the price of land; bit off topic; I am looking in Kumpawapi and everyone in my area is asking 100,000 bt plus per rai around the Thai girl's farm which is 500 metres from the main road Bangkok to Udonthani.

Most of the land is used for Sugar Cane but

At 100,000 bt per rai, one would not get a return on investment.

I am holding out until someone gets desperate to sell which is normally:

1) financial debts

2) parents die and the kids are in Bangkok and don't want to come back to Issan.

Your Thai neighbour farmer doesn't see it the way farang see it..........................LOL

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=494766627300450

First you can hook a trailer to them and they become transportation, second, they will run a water pump, rice thrasher, generator, and I guess other things also. We have a Kubota, 11 years now, and only minor repairs.

I was thinking exactly this but now I am thinking maybe a Kubota B2420

Is it easier to drive water pumps, plough occassional rai of land to grow vegetables, use rice thrashers and maybe a generator using a Kubota Tiller or a small Kubota B2420 tractor?

The address and way to get to the Immigration Department in Bangkok is detailed here:

www.http://bangkok.immigration.go.th/en/location1.html

It is quite far out of Bangkok Central on the way to Don Muang airport.

You will need the following for sure:

Your Passport with your Thai Departure Card (form TM.6) which should have been stapled in your passport on arrival.

You will need to complete form TM.7 which is in the Immigration Department or you can download from the form I attached here.urself

You will need to get the passport photocopied (2 sheets); 1) the photo ID of yourself 2) copy of the visa stamp in the passport.

You can get these 2 sheets photocopied for you by a photocopy shop downstairs in the Immigration Building (signs to it are everywhere from Immigration Department). Cost 2 bt x 2 => 4 bt

You will require a passport photo of yourself (the form states wrongly 6 cm x 4 cm which immigration accept) but a Passport photo will suffice.

Again you can get this photograph taken downstairs in the Photocopy Shop in the Immigration Building for 100 bt.

You will need the correct address of where you are staying (Hotel; GFs condo etc).

You will need to give a telephone number also (most people get a Thai Sim Card so should not be a problem but know the number).

I would recommend you take the following also, though I was not asked for them:

1) Enough money to show you can afford to stay for the rest of the stay.

2) Hotel receipt or rental invoice of condo

3) E Ticket or ticket of flight out showing you will be leaving within the next 30 days.

From what I can tell; the extension is a maximum of 30 days when you go to the Immigration for the extension (not 30 days from the expiration of the Tourist Visa).

Give yourself at least 3 hours time at the Immigration Center; from the time you handover your paperwork to receiving your passport and visa extension.

I hope that helps.

Form_TM7.pdf

This Thai writer rambles on again wishing and hoping that the figments of his imagination were real. He and Thais long for a position of value in the world and to belong. Unfortunately, no one is interested in Thailand or especially what Thais think. The US is wasting US taxpayer dollars trying to salvage Thailand from its own self destruction.

USA is interested in Thailand:

1) Geographical location to China just like the USA used Thailand for Vietnam.

2) Food source and for USA to sell GM Crops

3) There is oil in the north of Thailand and USA was already involved in the extraction of this.

4) There is Gold (not sure how much and cost of extraction) in the north of Thailand.

The USA was well cheesed off with the Thai army take over because it would appear Thaksin family were selling off Thailand to the USA.

Ask yourself the real reasons that USA were interested in Afganistan.