canopy

Good. The render thickness is often a function of the accuracy of the block laying. The ideal 5mm is more theoretical than practical. Since the minimum render thickness should never be less than 3mm anywhere that means in order for a wall to be suitable for 5mm thick render no block can deviate over 2mm anywhere across the entire wall. That's hard to do. I builder once told me about a wall built so sloppily that he had to use 12cm thick render--thicker than the blocks themselves! It pays to be accurate like using lasers and string lines 

Note your render is quite a bit thicker than what you want which is 5mm so you'll be buying 3 or 4 times more render and since render is a thermal mass overdoing it is not good for keeping a house cool. The first 3 days after the render goes up should be spent methodically watering the render minimum 3 times a day to cure the cement to an appropriately strong level and prevent cracking. Once cement dries it stops curing and the process can never be restarted again.

And I haven't seen the word primer appear yet. Before you think about paint, you need to primer the walls. The primer you choose will often say how long to wait after rendering before applying. Often 30 days of drying time is desired, but some primers, like expensive oil based ones, claim it can be down to a matter of days.

2 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

E-fuels that can be used in combustion engines that are being currently being developed will be more useful and have a lower carbon footprint than EVs

You wouldn't by chance have a credible source to verify that? Thought not.

2 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

problem is, that vested interests/big business have decided on EVs and investments have been made.

No, it would mean the smart players would rush in and crush EVs exactly what we are seeing with EV's rushing in to crush ICE. But the real answer is there is no such technology.

2 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

To make EVs ubiquitous, then it's not just about infrastructure and associated practicality challenges but also about where all the electricity comes from as the scale-up will need to be huge,

Of course EVs will accelerate this, but power is always being scaled up every year so nothing new there. It happens automatically as the country develops and the population grows. Do you know that building a new shopping center in Bangkok draws more power than entire provinces do in Thailand? They have demonstrated that they are perfectly capable of handling surges in increased demand. Also don't forget as time goes on more people will also be charging at home on solar.

2 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

that's before we even get started on the issues regarding lithium batteries and their sourcing/disposal etc.

It's already been thought of. New chemistries optimize out rare earths. The beautiful thing is they discovered it's cheaper to recycle an EV battery than to build a brand new one from raw materials. Thus, recycling is huge...just see what VW or battery recycling startups are up to.

2 hours ago, Sir Dude said:

countries like Thailand will have to figure out how to meet the changeover and up-take goals but still be about to scam it somehow. 

That's a collision course. Here they are fat, dumb and happy boasting there will be this million EV's out there. Yet when people look and see the prices are double other countries no one is buying them. Not two years ago, not last year, not this year, nor will they buy them next year or the years after. Rather than fix the pricing problem, more than likely they'll just dream up excuses as to why Thailand is slow to adopt.

34 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

cobalt

Actually it is your thinking that is short term and dated. Cobalt is being dropped completely from newer EV battery chemistry.

34 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

Hydrogen is surely the way to go.

Quite the opposite. When you consider the entire life cycle, hydrogen is too polluting and makes no sense. BMW's power of choice will be the death of them--developing new cars powered by gas, diesel, hybrid, hydrogen, and electric all at the same time meanwhile smarter companies focus on optimizing for the electric future where all the growth is. You can make something a lot better when you have all your people working on the same thing working towards the same goal.

1 hour ago, Don Chance said:

Just tell the world to stop eating sugar and they will have to stop growing sugar cane.

Won't help one bit. The fire bugs manage to ruin everyone's air not just during sugar cane harvest, but continuously. Whatever a thai farmer grows, he burns, even when growing hydroponics and trees they have managed to introduce god awful burning. And they also burn their plastic garbage, the forests, and just everything they can get their hands on is all burnt to a crisp. This is what they enjoy doing and nobody will dare tell them to stop so get used to it.

Good info. I noticed that product is on lazada. I will give it a try.

15 hours ago, Mark1066 said:

My point was that a large national concern is encouraging farmers to grow crops on fields where using a tractor is simply not possible.

By "encouraging" I guess you mean they pay better than growing other things. Many other types of crops are grown on steep slopes without machinery besides corn. In my area hilltribes plant their traditional sticky rice on steep slopes. I have also seen corn, hydroponics, and various other crops grown on steep slopes. All are subject to burning.  Remember that traditional Thai farming involved no machinery and no burning. Everything was all organic until about our generation. Burning arrived not because of steep slopes or mechanization, but because of chemical fertilizers. The field residue became a waste product rather than an asset for the soil.

This isn't the 1950's you know. Houses in Thailand should not be built using old fashioned bricks since better technology is now available. Bricks make the inside too hot. AAC blocks should be used and go as thick as 25cm if desired. Something as important as a house you need to think about heat and noise. The beauty is all said and done AAC is just as cheap as bricks.

16 hours ago, Mark1066 said:

A certain large food and retail organisation pays farmers around Chiang Mai to grow corn on fields in the mountains: fields with gradients that make it impossible for them to use a tractor in them. The company and its actions are well known but nobody is going to do anything about it.

What an amazing factoid to learn that farmers actually get paid for growing a crop. Choosing what to grow is up to the farmer.  Choosing to burn is up to the farmer. No one is forcing them to do any of this.  One of the most foolish places to burn is on a steep gradient because when it rains, the valuable top soil goes running down the hill. It's economically foolish for a farmer to burn yet they don't care. So I fail to see how pollution has anything to do with a certain company. Let's blame the people who deserve it. Whatever a farmer grows, he burns. However flat or steep the land is, he burns. No matter if he uses a tractor or not he burns. Do you see the pattern? The farmers are to blame. Some of you folks need to get out and ask farmers why they burn instead of making up conspiracy theories. It will be very enlightening to you. I have.

On 3/16/2021 at 2:12 PM, Moonlover said:

The first tractor arrived in our village 3 years ago. (I saw it still in its delivery wrapping!) Prior to that, those that did  prefer to plough in used the two wheeled 'walking tractor'. There are now 'combines' available now as well, which I never saw when I first came here 4 years ago.

So yes, mechanization an evolving phenomenon. And yes, there is less burning than there was back then.

The walking tractors are still sometimes favored even when tractors are available for hire, but this is also a form of mechanization. I have not seen anything to indicate there is less burning when a tractor, walking tractor, or a combine is used. Right before they plow or right after they harvest with machinery, burning is common. I would expect burning in Thailand to increase because the population is growing (more is consumed and burned), more land is being farmed, and ever more land is being encroached from the forests. I don't see mechanization as any sort of answer to the problem and I don't notice things getting better.

On 3/17/2021 at 9:46 AM, Kwasaki said:

One is 92 the other 88 so there's their perspective.

You are talking anomalies right? You don't find villages full of people that reach the ripe old age of 90. On the contrary you get a lot of funerals in the villages for people in their 40's and 50's. People in the countryside have a much shorter lifespan than those in bangkok. The reasons may not be fully understood, but part of this is surely the air that has already sent a quarter million people to hospitals in just the first two months of the year and this is the time before it gets really bad.

59 minutes ago, SomchaiCNX said:

Karens can live very well in harmony with the forest

Having lived among several types of hilltribes for over a decade in Thailand I cannot in good conscious support this statement. Don't get me wrong they are nice people and I have friends among them. But hilltribes hunt, burn, and destroy every bit of wildlife they can get their hands on and their farming practices are as chemical and poison laden as anyone else's. Count Thai's here too, but just no poor people go into the forest to appreciate the beauty, they always go to take and destroy and I see it every day. There is no concept of conservation. They will kill the last thing and when it's gone, they won't care. They light careless fires that ravage untold forests and pollutes the sky and no one cares. They aren't doing any of this because they are starving to death. They are just poor people taking land, game, just anything they can because it's there. It was a cold dose of reality that in real life hill tribes aren't the meek people caring for the earth I was taught. Nothing is further from the truth I am afraid.

Snipping the tap root is the strangest thing because I had read long ago that is one thing that will kill a papaya tree. I use big, deep pots so the tap root and root mass can remain undisturbed when planting in the ground. My papayas do well in pots for any length of time, even a month or two. It's when they go into the ground something finds them. Mold? Subterranean bugs? Often after the attack the trunk is loose and will fall over, severed under the ground.

I plant papaya seeds one per 1L pot and when they are around 15cm tall plant them in the ground. For many years this has worked, but the last 2 years something has gone wrong. No matter where I plant them, no matter how much or little water, no matter what soil conditions, no matter if my own seeds or store bought, every single one of them withers and dies a few weeks later like something has hit the roots. I've planted 50 at a time and when freshly planted they are healthy as can be for a week or two growing well and looking fabulous, then they just die suddenly. I don't want to give up on papayas as they are such a wonderful fruit for the wildlife from birds to civets so any insights or suggestions are welcome.

19 minutes ago, SomchaiCNX said:

Rotation is not slash and burn

This is not rotation. Karen are flocking to new areas of the forest and carving out new lands to farm because they feel it is their god given right to take whatever they please. The forests need protection from everyone no matter their walk of life.

Reading the article they tolerate the karen living in the national park, but do not tolerate them destroying new areas. Slash and burn of what remains of the national forests should never be permitted in the 21st century by anyone no matter how rich or how poor they are.

Ah, I thought 'q' was a variable, not a word. I suspect they are saying 'cube", not 'q' which is the Thai short hand way to say cubic meter. That would be 1x1x1 meter. To be safe, you should not ask the price or be there when it is asked. Tell a thai that might passably buy some wood what you want and have that person ask the price. Otherwise it's ripe for double pricing. Payment should be by cashiers check along with a signed order form in Thai so records are available if they don't deliver.

A lot of terminology working with lumber. English has many classifiers like a school of fish, a cubby of quail, a pride of lions, and so on. In thai likewise there are also many classifiers. The classifier for number of boards sounds like the english word pan (แผ่น), as in frying pan. So you would say sip pan if you wanted 10. Cost is sometimes calculated by sawn board feet which you can look up how that is calculated. Length is sometimes measured in sawk (half meter units). Face dimensions are often inches (niew).

For logs the classifier is tawn (ท่อน). Larger quantities of logs are sometimes sold in cubic meters. Lengths are typically 6 meters.

I would recommend getting familiar with the terms your supplier uses and stick with those terms to avoid any confusion.

For large quantities you should definitely, absolutely for sure buy logs and get a portable saw mill to make the lumber--the price will be astronomically cheaper and quality of lumber can be way higher. The middle men in Thailand mark up the prices a fortune and the quality of milling is poor. They typically eyeball down a band saws with no fence and the wood ends up curved and wonky, especially as they are drinking whiskey as they go along.

While you could work around some problems using concrete rock, there are good reasons not to use that type of rock for roads. Because the rocks are the same size there will always be gaps between them and the rocks will never fit tightly together (that's by design so when making concrete sand will fill up these gaps solid). This means such rock never packs down completely and stay loose. This is not as comfortable or stable a surface to drive on, like driving on marbles. It can also slush the rocks over to the sides of where the tires are running and you need to regrade it. It also makes for more dust plumes with the rocks rubbing and chalking each other when you run over it. And for most people the biggest problem is the mud oozing up through the gaps. I see no advantage of using concrete rock for roads, only disadvantages. Use heen klook (หินคลุก). It's designed for making roads and works better, is cheap, and easy to find. What's not to like?

It never ceases to amaze me that the world learned how to make good rock roads since roman times, it's easy, and yet so many still live the in the dark ages and just slop something on and see what happens. But all you have to do is follow several simple, cheap rules:

1. compact the road. take a truck full of rock and pay him to run up and down the road moving over a little each time to pack down the loose earth. do this on a day it isn't too muddy.

2. You are using the wrong type of gravel. Your type is designed for making concrete, not roads. I see this all the time--waste of money. When using aggregate of equal size there are gaps between the rocks. This allows the mud below to squish and siphon up through these gaps like a sponge and you get exactly what is in your picture--mud on top and rock below. The type of rock for making roads in Thailand is called "heen klook". It's common and easy to find. Heen klook is varying size aggregate and will create a solid mass.

3. pour new rock and crown the road. water standing on the road is your worst enemy. 

Mine looks like new after over 10 years. I've never added more gravel or regraded it and it takes the weight of excavators, 22 wheel double trailers, just anything. Why? Because the dirt is compacted, the road is crowned, and the rock is the correct type. That's it, piece of cake. Your road is now done and you never have to worry about it ever again.

11 hours ago, sirineou said:

it is all about economics

Farmers do not burn for economics. This can easily be verified by asking them why they do it. But if believing that allows you to sleep better through all the smoke then so be it. Look around, everything down to the smallest leaf, twig, and blade of grass in someone's yard is burned in this country. It's never about economics.