Encid

And on the 16th of June some roof sections were finally delivered and erected. The carport is being done first so the area can be used for storage and also shelter from the rain. In the end we opted to go with the 25mm thick PU foam backed metal sheet roofing from Sangthai Group. If we opted to go with the 50mm thick PU foam we would have incurred an additional 52,500 baht. With the savings from the roof material we will be spending about 30,000 baht on this good stuff instead:

Well it's been a couple of weeks since my last post and I have visited the building site twice in that time. I am very happy to advise that there no "drummy" rendered walls... both inside and outside the house. But as with all projects not everything has gone to plan... not a disaster but some rectification work has been needed to be done in a number of areas, particularly with the water piping. Firstly, at the raw water storage tanks the plumber decided to reduce the outlet of the pump discharge piping from 1" to 1/2" before it went into the 2" ring main around the pond. Why? Because that's how it's done in Thailand! I spoke to my builder abut it and showed him where he could salvage most of the piping already in place but remove and replace the 1/2" reduced section to enable full 1" unrestricted flow to the ring main. He agreed with me without questioning, and was also scratching his head as to why his plumber would pipe it up like that! The next issue was the raw water supply to the GH. It was run underground in a 2" PVC pipe across the building site to the edge of our retaining wall, where I wanted it to branch in several directions... 1 to supply the water filters and water tank in the carport, and 3 more to supply 1/2" taps for watering our future garden along the retaining wall. After the filtered water fill pipe to the tank, all piping from the tank to the pump and then to the water distribution system in the house was to be D32 (1") PPR piping up until the wall outlets which would be 1/2" female treaded joints. So it was a simple concept (so I thought)... PVC piping for the raw water system, and PPR piping for the filtered water system. The PPR fittings required at the outlets are these ones: But somehow all of this got lost in translation (despite detailed drawings and schematics) and the plumber ended up doing this: He had connected the unfiltered raw water supply directly to the PPR distribution system for the house! I also noted that the fitting he used upstream of the tap in the photo above (which is for the washing machine in the carport) was actually D25 x 1/2" and that the D32 pipe had been reduced to D25, which made me suspect all of the other PPR water outlets in the house (whose piping by now had been covered up by cement render) and sure enough, they were all D25 x 1/2" too. I spoke to my builder who talked with his plumber and apparently he was unable to buy the D32 x 1/2" fittings at the shop he went to, so he bought reducers and D25 x 1/2" reducing elbows instead. I told my builder that this was unacceptable and they all needed to be replaced with the correctly sized components. I did test the water pressure of the hose connected to the tap in the picture, and it was strong enough to sufficiently fill our water tank (or a washing machine) so I told him that that particular outlet could remain as-is, however all the other water outlets in the house must be changed to the correct fitting size so we can get full pump water pressure and flow rate. He agreed with me without questioning. I am sure that he will have words with his plumber for not following the drawings and the specifications. We had a brief chat about talking with me first before deviating from any drawings and specifications, and "taking initiatives". If "initiatives" are deemed (by me, the customer) to be an improvement to the design or a cost saving, then they will be considered, otherwise there are to be no deviations at all... and my builder has agreed. We shall see...

OK I have progressed enough with my post count on the forum to be now labelled as an "Apprentice Member" which is proudly displayed underneath my username on the forum... but to be honest it's a little boring! But I see that some members have edited this to become something more interesting... like "Bull Powered Member" or "Displaying my Member" etc. I have looked at my profile to try to see where this can be edited but cannot find it. Can anyone please help?

Neither do I... we had an earth leakage from a Mex water heater in one of our rental houses that travelled via the hot water to the mixer faucet in the shower... every time you went to adjust the hot water you received an electric shock! In our own house we have Mazuma Redring units... never a problem in 15 years of use.

I haven't received the usual email reminder notification since my last successful online 90-day report back in December. I thought it had been a while since my last report, so I checked my emails and sure enough... no reminder and therefore no submission. My visa extension is good until August, but my reporting is overdue. What should I do?

In that case I will test the walls next time I am on site. First time that I will have taken a screwdriver to the building site... Thanks for the suggestions @HighPriority and @carlyai

I can understand how hot it could get inside a concrete pool hole with no shade and poor ventilation... but our building was rendered above ground with good ventilation. I will however give a few walls "the knock test" next time I am on site. Does anyone else know of problems relating to the adherence of the cement rendering to AAC blocks? Apart from wetting the wall first before applying the plastering mortar there is nothing in the QCON Handbook on the subject.

Whilst on the subject of breaker sizing, I have a related question about cable sizing. We are about to start the electrical wiring of our new house build in Isaan. I have read that wire size AWG 18 is good for 10A or current, AWG 14 is good for 15A, AWG 12 is good for 20A, and AWG 10 is good for 30A. The problem is that most Thai electricians use only one sized wire throughout the entire house unless told otherwise. So I am thinking that apart from the circuits for the water heater (6000W therefore 30A wiring required) and the air conditioning units, I could have the rest of our new house wired in AWG 12 (20A) for all the power circuits, and AWG 14 (15A)for the lighting circuits. We have no plans for an electric oven so that is not on our consumers list. Thoughts/comment please?

Thank you! Although we have tried to make it "reasonably passive" we also wanted to retain a modern and eye-catching look to the building, as well as providing functionality for practical outdoor living/eating/drinking areas. We will have large areas of glass on the North and East sides of the building, but the double-glazing (as well as suitable curtains) should keep most of the heat out, except in the cool season when a bit of morning warmth from the sun will be most welcome. The only changes we have made to the architect's original plans are 1) a concealed sloping steel roof instead of a flat concrete roof, and 2) a 15° sloping roof on the South facing carport which will provide support for near-future PV solar panels.

No to be honest I hadn't even considered that... what did you use for the tapping? Am I likely to hear any difference between tapping a cement rendered AAC block and a cement rendered RC lintel or RC column?

This stuff works well... link.

Overcast but not a drop of badly needed rain here in Sattahip.

I have used Netafim 8mm micro drip line systems and they do a great job around our fruit trees. The dripline goes around the trees so gives a really good deep watering way better than any sprinkler IMO because they do clog up. However I'm willing to give these a try... thanks!

Not that I know of... In any case my TV does not do the 10-bit HEVC H265 codec translation... the Android box with Kodi or VLC software does.

I have never "cleared the cache" on my Hisense TV... do it regularly on the Android box of course but never the TV. I guess you are using the "smart" features of the TV and not like a dumb monitor like I am?

All the internal and external cement rendering of the building (except for the bathroom) is now complete, and the next work face is the gutters/roof drainage. The number and size of the drains are being modified from 2" to 4" as agreed with our builder, and will be completed, sealed, and tested for leaks before the roof goes on. The drains will pass through the wall and the rain water will cascade down to the lower roof level, which in turn will be drained into a 12" PVC pipe in the carport which will initially discharge to the West side of the building... away from the retaining wall. All these drains will be concealed by the ceiling(s). Should we get any leaks in the system in the future, the leaks will be on the walls in the rooms on the South side of the building, ie. the bathroom and the internal kitchen. We have no plans for any electrical appliances to be inside the kitchen so if leaks do occur they will not be too much of a problem. If leaks do occur we can always cut the AAC blocks and the concrete gutter and install more 4" drains... but I am hoping that we have over-designed it sufficiently so this will never happen. Future plans of rain water harvesting may be possible and fairly simple to implement, as it would only involve re-routing the 12" PVC pipe... but that is another project and not being considered seriously just now.

Yes, I should have been more concise... as you can see from the charts below, there is a significant 5mm difference in the ID between D32 PN10 pipe and D32 PN20 pipe... between 26.2mm and 21.2mm.

I bought a 65" Hisense 4K TV from PowerBuy about 2 years ago and have it connected via eARC HDMI to my Marantz AV receiver which is connected to an Android media player box. It is also connected to my home network by Cat5E ethernet cable, so software/firmware updates happen automatically when it is in standby mode. As it is connected to my home network I can use the TV remote to connect to YouTube (and Netflix if I had a subscription) and the eARC HDMI would pass the audio channels back to my AV receiver and play the sound on my surround speaker system. I have never had a problem with it and have been very happy with the picture quality and resolution. I don't normally use the remote control for it except for turning it on and off, as everything else is controlled by my air mouse. Occasionally we get power outages and brownouts which upset all electronics including the TV, but turning everything off, waiting 15 seconds, then turning everything on again (aka a hard reset) always fixes the problems. If and when this one dies, I would definitely consider another.

555... now I know you're having a laugh! Next thing you'll be telling me that they perform slump tests on the concrete before accepting delivery from the local concrete supply factory...

Actually I hadn't, but I believe you have a D32 PPR water distribution system too don't you? What spec? PN10 or PN20?

Thanks for the feedback guys... I will try an 8 hour test to see if we get any visible puddles. I think that 24 hours would be impossible to monitor. Our system is relatively small in volume so temperature will definitely come into play... with ambient temperatures ranging from an overnight low of 25°C to a daytime high of 37°C (in the shade), the trick will be to keep the test rig and the piping fully shaded from the sun during the test, otherwise pressure fluctuations will be inevitable. Having bought/built a house in Thailand before from a property developer but unable to be on-site every day during the construction I was unable to witness the many shortcuts that were taken by the building team... soon after we moved in it was evident that there was a water leak in the piping supplying one of the bathrooms. A lot of concrete and tiles (both inside the house and outside) had to be broken to get to the leak and there was a huge cavity under the floor where the leaking water had washed away the fill. Luckily the developer finally agreed to pay for the costs of repair... although he did try to put the blame on me because I bought a better water pump than the rubbish "standard" pump that the developer had on offer... he said my pump was too strong for the PVC piping! I never want to go through something like that again! Our builder understands my concern and is sympathetic... he is agreeable to performing the test at his cost (although I suspect that he has never done one before). We are both learning a lot from each other during this project, and despite a few hiccups here and there, I am confident that we will end up with a quality result that we will be happy with and he will be proud of.

A few people have asked me how we are going to do this... well it's really quite simple. Our water pump is going to be a Mitsubishi WP-205R automatic pump, which has a maximum discharge pressure rating of about 40 PSI or 2.8 bar. Normally in industry (petrochemical, oil & gas, pulp & paper etc.) piping systems are hydrostatically tested (pressure tested with water) at 1.5 x system design pressure (if working to design code ASME B31.3). Our PPR piping is PN10 grade which means that the cold working pressure is approximately 10 bar or 1MPa. You can buy PN20 PPR pipe which has a cold working pressure is approximately 20 bar, but the wall thickness is greater than PN10 thus resulting in friction losses within the piping system. In our case, I want the system tested to 1.5 times the operating pressure (of the pump), so the test pressure will be 60PSI or 4.1 bar or 410 kPa. The idea is that you fill the piping system with water from the lowest point until it exits the highest point (in our case the shower water outlet) to attempt to remove any air from the system. It is important to do this because air (or any gas) can be compressed, but liquids cannot be compressed, so by eliminating all air from the system will likely yield a good reliable test result with unwavering pressure. After the piping system is filled and all outlets plugged (in our case 1/2" PVC threaded plugs will be used) an inexpensive hand pump like the one in the picture below is connected to the fill point, The pump set comes with a pressure gauge so you can see the pressure within the system. The piping system will then be pressurized using the hand pump until the test pressure is reached (in our case it is 60PSI or 4.1 bar or 410 kPa). The test pressure is then held for 5 minutes during which the piping system is visually checked for any leakages. If leakages are found, the piping is depressurized and the leaks repaired before undertaking a new test. If no leakages are found then the system is left pressurized for a duration of 15 minutes, and if the pressure is maintained for this duration, the test is deemed to be successful. If working to industry code ASME B31.3, the test pressure must be maintained for a specified minimum holding time which can be 60 minutes or more, but as this is simple domestic water supply piping I will be happy with a 15 minute test.

Check out this company... also this website.

You need an LDPE pond liner... check out this company... also this website. Many people around who have a backhoe (and operator) for rent... just drive slowly around the villages after 6pm and see who has one parked in their yard. They could excavate your pond to your desired length shape and depth, and then get it lined before filling it with water.

And the cement rendering is nearing completion...