richardrb

Morning Boat Taxi, Krabi City, January 2016

Here are two that have a good reputation. I'm going to see if I can get them to come to our house to vaccinate/neuter/spay the 5 soi dogs we've adopted.

I saw some at both Homepro and Big C a few months ago. They are in the same mall on Hwy 11 going to the airport.

Search on Google for grundfos Thailand

This September I got hit with a 500 baht fine for a 1 day overstay. This was leaving Krabi. In fact, since I had a morning flight I was only about 8 hours over. To me the worst part is they stamped my passport with a 1 day overstay which will be there for a long time.

I just counted wrong when I made my flight, I didn't count the first day - a mistake on my part I won't repeat.

I think it just depends on the officer, how busy they are, and how lucky you are. I would recommend having the 500 baht on hand just in case.

What happens when families of Thai and non Thai try to enter national parks? Our son is 3 so no Thai ID. He looks foreign so what do they charge? How do they determine Thai and foreign?

Interesting question. Anyone ?

When I travel with my family, my grown son who was born in Thailand, speaks Thai and carries a Thai passport gets the local rate as does my Thai wife. It's only me and my grandchildren (born in the USA) that pay the tourist rate. Still seems OK to me, see my other post.

Personally I prefer to look at it as a discount for Thai people so they can afford to enjoy the parks and tourist attractions. In Hawaii locals always get a discount for the same reason, Hawaii (and Thailand) rely on profit from visitors but locals can't really afford the high rates charged for things like Parks, museums, golf, etc. . One big difference is that the local price isn't published or shown on signs, so tourists and visitors don't feel cheated.

Most foreigners in Thailand can afford the higher rates while a Thai family getting by on minimum wage would be pressed to take their whole family. What's minimum wage now, 200 baht a day?

I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I think it's fine.

Richard in Krabi (part time).

4 times tape is not enough! Should be at at least 15 times. Take care about winding direction!. 4 times will be leaking!

Not according to a Google search, but I guess it's whatever works.

Good luck!

My experience says it will not work. And experience you can not buy!

Arjen.

When you searched on Google, and it said 4 wraps, that was for the type of fittings (NPT) we have in the USA. They are tapered fittings and will seal with little or even no tape. But here in LOS the fittings are NOT tapered (BSPP type) and will leak without just the right amount of tape, normally 10-14 winds. Too little, you have a leak. Too much, and you crack the female PVC connector. I brought a bunch of 1" 3/4" and 1/2" NPT fittings with me for our new house in Krabi, I hate water leaks.

In the US I normally use a Teflon paste T4 that works really well, but here the fittings are too loose for that. 10-15 wraps and make your own taper, more tape on the far end (the correct direction so that when you tighten the fitting it won't be unwrapping your tape).

Types of fittings:

http://www.ralstoninst.com/news/story/the-difference-between-npt-bspp-and-bspt-seals/

Try searching for IMPACT WRENCH instead of driver. I found some air driven ones at Lazada and one battery powered one at HomePro - DIrecttoshop. I suspect there are more out there, I didn't try REAL hard since I don't need one right now.

I don't know why everyone thought you were looking for a hammer drill but they are very common here with all the concrete used in construction.

It seems you are looking for a 1/2 or 3/8 square drive high torque drive like used in Automotive and Motorcycle repair. Good luck.

http://www.directtoshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/en/directtoshop/cordless-impact-wrench-automac-amb18wr-p1019889

CORDLESS IMPACT WRENCH AUTOMAC AMB18WR _ DirectToShop.com by Homepro.html

One option that I want to check out is a BKK company that makes the cabinets out of cement board. They look like western modular kitchens but are not made of particle or chip board. To my western eye, I can't get used to the cabinets made out of cement block and these seem to have the look I want but should be more durable in a tropical climate.

I'm planning to take a look at them for my new house in Krabi. I must say that I've been very happy with my Ikea kitchen here in California and I'm leaning towards Ikea for Thailand as well. Note that Ikea is in the process of rolling out a new line of cabinets globally and I THINK they will be available in Thailand this summer. You can view this new line (Metod) at the GB or Egypt Ikea site (in English).

Has anyone checked out this firm or know anything about their product? See attachment for construction method.

http://www.ayara1656.com/index.php?lang=en

http://www.ayara1656.com/product-th-967243-5083017-%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%B9%E0%B9%89%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%8B%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%95%E0%B9%8C%E0%B8%9A%E0%B8%AD%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C%E0%B8%94+%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B7%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%8A%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%81+3+%E0%B9%81%E0%B8%96%E0%B8%A7+%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%87meta+box+%E0%B8%82%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%94+%E0%B8%81*%E0%B8%A5*%E0%B8%AA+30*55*73+%E0%B8%8B%E0%B8%A1..html#

There are a few on AirBnB.com that might work for you. My wife (of 30 years) is building us a vacation/retirement home that we may rent out part time, but I'm not sure if it will be done by December. We were told it would be finished by last month but you know how that goes with contractors around the world.  GPS coordinates 8.108580, 98.906224 on Google maps - it's about 1/2 way between the Krabi airport and Krabi town proper on the Krabi Yai river. 3 bedroom, 3 bath with an extra sleeping sofa downstairs. I hope to go over this fall to finish up the furnishings etc. and get it ready, fingers crossed.

Best of luck, have a great trip.

Richard

A pressure tank which stores the water under pressure inside a membrane IS a viable option. While large pressure tanks are expensive, you would not need any power to get good pressure, up to 50 PSI depending on the pressure switch you install. They are available in many sizes, you need one larger than the amount of water you might need during an outage. If you power stays off for days, the cost of a large enough pressure tank may be too high. This is the typical design for well users in the US and Europe but is rarely done in Thailand. When sizing a pressure tank, it is important to know what the draw down is, that is the amount of water that is available before the pump needs to come back on to refill the tank. You want the pump to run at least one minute so you need to also know the output of your pump. There are many sizing charts online for pressure tanks, but most presume a steady supply of water. In your case, the larger the better.

Pressure Tanks are sold in Thailand sized from 8 litre t0 5000 litre (and larger if you have the baht), one web site that shows several brands is http://www.power.wrc.bz. I've attached a drawing of how this is typically installed in rural USA. Note, the diagram does not show any filtration but it can be easily added either before or after the tank. I would guess you would want something in the 300-1000 range, costing between 15,000 baht and 75,000 baht.

Richard

Thanks to both of you, I do like hearing the pros and cons and also other readers personal experience.

There us some info on the US government EPA website which showed how to size a well pump. Since my Franklin deep well pump should put out 8 GPM, it would be enough for the use of our house when it is JUST my wife and myself, but maybe not enough when we have house guests. So most likely I will go ahead and get a smallish auxillary storage tank and an automatic pump (Hitachi or Mitsubishi) for the house. Our house is right on a klong so I don't expect our well to go dry during the dry season, so we won't need the 5000l tank one person recommended. My brother in law lives next door and never runs out of water with his shallow well.

Our house is two stories with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and a laundry room. I am going to plan for about 15 GPM (55 LPM). That would be two people taking a shower, the washer running and someone using the Kitchen sink.

http://www.watersystemscouncil.org/VAiWebDocs/WSCDocs/2567958WSC_INST_20.pdf

We are building a new home in Krabi and have a deep well drilled with a Franklin 1 HP pump. I'm surprised by the number of different designs I've gotten for connecting this well to our house. Most involve a large (2000l to 5000l) storage tanks and additional pumps like a Hitachi, Mitsubishi or Grundfos.

Normally in rural areas of the USA, people with a deep well just plumb their well pump into a small pressure tank with bladder and run their house from that. The well in Krabi ran all during the dry season and provided the water for our construction, I can't really see the need for a large storage tank. Or am I missing something?

Yes, I understand that if you are connected to unreliable public water it makes sense to store you own water in a tank. But in my case do I need a storage tank and an additional pump to my submerged pump?

I've attached a drawing of two typical installs here. I will have a whole house filter and an additional filter for drinking water, but the basic connection should be similar to these.

Unfortunately I am here in the USA right now, so I can't go around and talk to different water specialists or even see the details of the well that is in place. It's frustrating.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Richard

Thanks Ray. I'll track down that shop when we get back into town and reconsider our plans for the tank. Your idea of a primary filter is a very good one. Our place is on the other side of town on the way to Home Pro or the airport on a small soi fronting Krabi Yai klong. The builder says it will be finished this summer so we'll be coming over soon. During the rainy season.

Richard

Hi,

My wife and I are in the process of building a house in Krabi and I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good shop to install a water tank, pressure tank and pump? We have a deep well dug and a pump from it but our builder has not been very helpful in supplying us with a vendor.

What I believe we want is a 2000l tank, a whole house filter to take out the particulate matter and pump with pressure tank to supply steady water pressure to our two story home. I know that Grundfos, Hitachi and others have what I need and I guess I could purchase it myself from homepro and install it, but was hoping to have it done by a local company. I will also install a separate filter system in the kitchen for drinking and cooking water, but I can handle that part as part of the kitchen install.

Thanks in advance,

Richard

Soon to be splitting my time between Los Angeles and Krabi.