MikeN

Some people insist that AAC is unsuitable for damp areas, but IMHO that is BS. Read some of the HEBEL brochures, from countries where building standards are enforced, as are laws against false advertising claims ...for instance, I don't think hebel Australia could afford to claim that " Hebel is ideal for bath, shower and spa hobs' if that was demonstrably untrue. (http://hebel.com.au/uploads/downloads/HELIT024_Oct15_Houses_PRGuide.pdf)

A friend in Aus had a Hebel block home, only the shower recess and close to the washbasin/kitchen sink areas were tiled, other walls were just painted. Built by a qualified and licensed builder, okayed by the local housing inspector ...good enough for them, good enough for me.

17 hours ago, sirineou said:

 Most place code for steps including  international residential code  is Riser no more than  7 3/4 " tread  no less than 10".   

If it is difficult to maintain a 10" tread you can gain 1" ro 1 1/2" by making the riser at an angle.

In the company that I work We do most of our stairs that way.

 

 

That angle does give you a bit of extra toeroom going up, but surely that has no benefit when coming downstairs ?

only the 20cm blocks are load-bearing, and even then you would have the problem of finding a team that can build without the usual columms.

Q-con do have an English language handbook, have you read that ? Bottom of this page : https://qcon.co.th/en/product/q-con-block/

It has a comparison for the thermal and acoustic values for the different thicknesses, and details about how high/long you can build without the concrete tie beam.

I see onestickhome does an installation service for blocks at 138bt Per sqm.

I don't think they do it themselves, think they are just quoting a standard (BKK?) rate.

Any of the SCG outlets can order q-con for you, another option is through onestockhome.com ( https://www.onestockhome.com/en/products/18631970/q-con-light-weight-brick-g2 ) .I doubt you can get stuff any cheaper than from them but you do have shipping costs to add on, so you have to order as much as possible from them to get good value. Their price on 10cm Q-con is 23.55 baht/block.

11 hours ago, JohnLick said:

It takes skills to keep a tiny island under floodwater

Especially one that is mainly one long hill.

The only large flat area is along the Sunrise Beach area, towards the village centre. Some localised flooding perhaps, but "the tiny island remained under high floodwater. " seems a bit of an exaggeration.

5 hours ago, YetAnother said:

distasteful ? sure; illegal ? doubtful; i wonder how much spotlight this would have gotten if they were thai

Street vending is reserved occupation for Thais only, so yes it is illegal.

49 minutes ago, roo860 said:

He's already appeared in front of Railway Authorities, and immigration are investigating.

 

 

Apparently he is going on a 4 week holiday around the world with his 20y.o. fiancée next month ...... he might find he is not allowed back even if nothing else transpires.

40 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Now that would be one hot viral youtube video. 

especially if it was done like most of his most popular videos .....in slow motion.

Rather than a tripod, perhaps a photographic light stand might be the thing ? You can get them extendable up to at least 4 meters and are strong enough to hold a large studio light. Several places in Fortune Town and MBK 5th floor sell them

4 hours ago, digger70 said:

Good idea, everyone should be able to get an Insurance in the Country they Reside in.I think it would be better for the Hospitals in general,they would get payed all the time.they should provide an insurance for expats to. If it was a  few thousand THB more then the THB 1,600 I think most expat would dump their ripoff  insurance what they have got now .The expats who don't have (can't afford one) would get an insurance too.

I would have no problem with paying a reasonable amount on top of the visa extension fee every year, for coverage at a govt hospital. If you were working and earning 65,000 baht a month as is required for a retirement extension, how much would you pay into the Social Security Fund for the free medical treatment ? That would be a fair amount IMHO. If the govt hospital is not good enough and you want to go to Bumrungrad then get private health cover.

16 hours ago, ChakaKhan said:

ANYONE witnessed seeing ONE car on a lift getting towed/impounded??????

Or is just news to appease the masses...i saw some cops today by police

station--drinking and enjoying songkran in uniform.....no impounding that i saw

Not a car, but last night I did see an army truck being loaded with motorbikes at a checkpoint on On Nut Rd ....as well as many young girls "dressed provocatively " and "dancing sexily" on the back of pickups which I thought had also been banned, all on the opposite corner of the intersection from the police !

3 hours ago, Suradit69 said:

A Thai friend was asking about purple mangoes and whether they were found in Thailand. Anyone know?

   

What do these taste like ?

1 hour ago, hEaDy said:

Do not use this company. They will scam you the moment they see an opportunity. Go to paypal sucks to hear stories of thousands who've been cheated by PayPal! Sad but true

I have been using PayPal for many years, and the only problem that I have encountered was with a recent hotel booking that only accepted PayPal , but I suspect there was a glitch in the link provided as the system would not accept my payment so I had to pay cash on arrival...inconvenient for the hotel owner but certainly not a scam !

5 hours ago, catman20 said:

ok i dont agree on a safety issue with people in the back of pick ups but this is Thailand and its their country and their people. many thais are poor and can barley afford to make ends meet, you have the worker taking his workers to work how will they get to work if there only being paid 3/400 baht a day it could cost almost that to get to there job and back. this is Thailand and we all came here and enjoyed the relaxed rules for years i say if they Thai people want and need to carry people in their pick ups let them do so. the Thai government should listen to what the Thai people want for a change let them carry on.  i think it will only cause Thailand more problems if this law is enforced. 

Perhaps they should buy a songtaew with seats and canopy ? Would be able to carry cargo and their workers. Perhaps restrict their speed limit to 70 or 80 kph, after all they are mainly just local transport. And perhaps even fitting a lap belt would be better than nothing.....

And no, I do not expect to see either happening in the near future !

On 4/6/2017 at 0:21 PM, bheard said:

Maybe a heavy duty campaign on Brit social media could be enuf to shame him into coming home.
Then again, he's got no sense of shame, so that wouldn't work.

Sent from my F3116 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Might be enough for Red Bull to stop his VIP access to events though ! 

12 hours ago, tonboy said:

You buy a pickup with two seats, the so-called bench was never intended (by the manufacturer) to be used for accomodating people. So why be angry on the gov now they agree on letting you use the bench to transport people as long as they are using seatbelts ? 

Then why is the same model fitted with seat belts overseas ? Even my old 1995 made in Thailand hilux extra cab was fitted with seat belts and legally able to carry passengers.....it's just to put the vehicle in a cheaper tax category and so the local distributors save a few baht by not fittting the belts, the mounting points are already there.

4 hours ago, ThaiCitizen said:

Maybe their work should get them private health insurance!

 

 

And buy a songtaew instead of a pickup to legally transport those workers ? Same vehicle but a few baht extra for the roof !

18 hours ago, fruitman said:

So the only way to put more cash on the rabbit card is at the counter of the bts right? I wished macdonalds also could upload cash onto my rabbitcard.

At Phrom Prong station they have recently put in a couple of machines to add value to your card also. Located near the entrance to emquarter walkway.

Anybody seen these machines at other stations ? Certainly hope they have the common sense to install add-value machines for the spider cards when they eventually get here.

4 hours ago, colinneil said:

One thing nobody has mentioned, is over 60 years old get in free.

A while back , before my accident i took my FIL to the fish caves 15 kilometers north of Mae hong son.

I went to pay and the lady said over 60 free, showed my passport and went in free.

At Khon Kaen Zoo they have a big sign in Thai and English listing prices, and discounts for over 60s, handicapped, under 5s, etc ....when I asked for the over 60s price I was told "No, only for Thais" .....Uh, so why have the sign in English ? Idiots. AND they refused to give the discount to a handicapped THAI person in our group !

2 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

And yet an Australian company owns the Aquarium at Siam Paragon and operates dual pricing. I suppose When In Rome.....

I thought that Bangkok Sealife was just copying the Sydney logo, you know, "thainess", but after reading your comment I checked and apparently the Merlin Entertainment Group ( http://www.merlinentertainments.biz/) owns both, and according to Wikipedia ... "Merlin Entertainments is a British-based company headquartered in Poole, Dorset (England), which operates 127 attractions, 19 hotels and 7 holiday villages in 24 countries."

Those attractions range from the Falls Creek and Mt Hotham ski resorts in Australia, various Legolands and Madame Taussauds around the world, and even the Blackpool tower. It is a publicly listed company on the British stockmarket, so If anybody has any shares in them they could always go to the AGM and ask why they practice racial discrimination ! Do they have special prices for Thais at the Blackpool tower, or Madame Taussauds in London ? I bet not !

And actually, looking at the Sealife Bangkok website it is triple pricing....the sign at Siam Paragon just has different 2 prices in Thai and English but according to the website tickets bought online for Thais and expats (must show work permit/license/Thai ATM card/utility bill) are 440baht, for foreigners they are 890 baht, for Chinese 1100.50 baht (charged in US$)

39 minutes ago, snooky said:

Whatever happened to the news some time ago that a new station was to be built on the Silom Line between ChongngonSri and Surasak?

 

And whatever happened to the plan to demolish saphan taksin station and build a walkway from surasak ? Because it was always planned as only a temporary station, so somebody said ....never mind that it connects to the ferry.

4 hours ago, Mojomor said:

When I was there a few years ago the charge was 100 for a ride to Railay on a long tail boat. Is this guy saying the price has been 400 baht for 10 years. I certainly will not be paying 400 baht. In the past I have refused to pay extortionate rip-off charges in many places.

Just let the Thais go in and I wait outside and have a coffee.

No, it is the National park entry fee, not the boat man's fee for a trip to Railay..read the very first sentence : debate call by tour boat operators in Krabi to decrease the present entry fee to Nopparat Thara-Phi Phi Islands national park

21 hours ago, Assurancetourix said:

Beautiful shoots;

may we have the name of the camera, the lens u used and other  " exif", please;

Thanks in advance

Nikon D7200,  first 2 photos with 50mm f1.8, 1/800sec, other with 85mm, f1.8 at 1/500 sec (all with HSS fill flash set to manual at 1/32 power if I remember correctly). If you are interested, more photos at my pbase galleries ; http://www.pbase.com/mike_n/japanexpo2017

On ‎15‎/‎02‎/‎2017 at 8:47 AM, Peterw42 said:

There are all sorts of checks and balances that happen at the land office, and the sale wont proceed unless the property is unencumbered, no mortgage, caveats etc. Also proof that condo fees up to date, within foreign quota etc. The land office will advise the buyer when to pay the seller, sale has gone through.

In most instances, the agent (the person getting a commission) will help both parties at the land office, as its in their interest for the sale to be finalized.

You mean "there all sorts things that happen at the land office', don't you ?.... like officials' friends and family acquiring National park land, land reserved for farming, property belonging to other people, etc etc. Thailand is NOT the hub for checks and balances ! A condo is probably safer than other sorts of property but I would be hiring a lawyer if it was me.