Potential problems with having a house built May to September?

[cheeryble]

2 hours ago, Stevemercer said:

It is fine to build during the wet season. The main difficulty might be site access for heavy vehicles. Construction traffic will certainly churn up your future garden area.

 

I'd go for a tile roof. Metal roofs, in theory, are cheaper and should last longer, but there can be problems in the long term with leaks that are difficult to track down. 

 

Tile roofs are relatively easy to fix, if needed, and much quieter when it rains.

 

Hmmm Steve just read Sandy's post above he's pretty anti-wet.

IF you read it would you care to comment?

Good point about truck access.

We already have a 60 metre long 3m wide access from the road laid with black clinker so that should hold up (though width would prohibit big trucks) but after that yes the site could be a wet mess.

 

As for roof we already built a chalet for Mum with metal roof (which we were thinking of extending for the main house area via an "L".

We used foam lined sheets and also rockwooled the ceiling and she says it's fine for noise.

But i plan to wait for the first heavy rain when Im there to judge for myself.

It's also possible I should use the profiled PE insulation under the sheets. Very insulating.

My calculation was not just about cost (is there anything in it if the metal sheets are properly insulated?) but was actually thinking they're less likely to leak if done properly, don't retain heat like concrete tiles, and being extremely lightweight one could perhaps have the concrete support posts farther apart then 4m (I want at least a 5m wide sitting room and would prefer only posts in the corners.)

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

Edited May 6, 2018 by cheeryble

[khunPer]

5 hours ago, cheeryble said:

Yes Per it can be hit or miss drilling a useful hole in a regular block!

I think for me 10cm block is ok ( I bet if you’re Danish yours are thicker). I’ve lived 14 years without aircon......no glass windows in fact....so fans and some aircon for occasional use will be luxury.
But I’d prefer 10cm to the standard 7.5cm so conduit can be chased in easier, wee bit more sound and hear insulation and easier to lay.

If I go for the separate roofer it brings the problem of responsibility and coordination but that shouldn’t be insurmountable.

Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

 

Danish blocks are available in both 10cm and 20cm – and probably other thickness as well – both today mostly used in connection with burned bricks and outher wall, mineral wool insulation, and aerated concrete inside. The Danish blocks can also be delivered in big plates, which is a wall-piece from floor to ceiling, and easilly glued together. Windows and doors are sawed out...

 

I used the thin QCon blocks here in Thailand, same thickness as the cheap standard blocks, but as double walls following the initial post's thickness, so I have no visible posts on the walls in my house; however I did not fill the space between the QCon blocks with "Rockwool", or any other brand of mineral wool. Using double-walls gives a much better heat-insulation. You can choose the cheap normal block for outer wall and the QCon for inner wall, saving some money in the material budget, and still gain a good insulation.

 

Depending of Sun the walls can get quite hot. There's a huge difference between a double QCon wall and a normal wall, and just a single QCon compared with a normal wall. I did a single normal wall on East and West side of my beachfront balconies – believing they would not be important heat-wise – but I was wrong. The balconies are facing north, and with a roof cover they never get direct Sun because of the sidewalls; but the side a wall facing the Sun got very hot. Therefore I asked my workers to build an inner wall, with a thing foil insulation between the two walls (to save balcony space), which made it Okay; however the material price for duble normal blocks, and foil insulation, equaled the QCon cost, and on top we bricked up two walls instead of one.

 

The second floor balconies got an extra side-wall bricked up to stop to much sun-heating.

 

I have a ceiling fan in all rooms – very nice with little air circulation from a fan at lowest speed, and in my opinion better than a revolving floor-stand fan, but that's a matter of taste – and aircon if necessary. I spend a little extra for the bedroom aircons, and bought inverter-type, as bedroom aircons might run more hours during all night, and inverter-type aircons can up to half the electric power consumption. So together with good heat-protection, i.e. insulation, the power used for aircons is minimal; even when I have friend on visit for a month, using aircon all night, and cool down to almost Nordic temperatures in their bedroom, it's only a few hundred baht extra on the electric bill. Another benefit from inverter-aircons is that they can actually heat the bedroom, if it gets too cold – below 20­° is way too cold when one is a Scandinavian temperature-refugee...

–but luckily it only happens extremely occasionally on a Southern Gulf-island...

[khunPer]

5 hours ago, sandyf said:

Very nice brick work – and great idea to erect the aerated inner walls first, and place the electric pipes in the coming space between inner and outer walls...

[DJ54]

6 hours ago, cheeryble said:

I'll explain for Sandy.

THere's an inner wall of QCon blocks and an outer wall of bricks. It insulates from heat and sound and allows a nice brick appearance.

The cavity is not usually filled but can be with more insulation or even burnt coconut husk.

But he is going to be very well insulated and soundproof just with the cavity.

He has also managed to hide the concrete posts.

 

I like the idea of inner wall for insulation. My posts show on the inner walls. 1room is AC is it possible to fairly easily add Qcon blocks to flush out the walls? I don’t know the thickness of Qcon blocks or if there would be enough space to work effectively 

[cheeryble]

Danish blocks are available in both 10cm and 20cm – and probably other thickness as well – both today mostly used in connection with burned bricks and outher wall, mineral wool insulation, and aerated concrete inside. The Danish blocks can also be delivered in big plates, which is a wall-piece from floor to ceiling, and easilly glued together. Windows and doors are sawed out...
 
I used the thin QCon blocks here in Thailand, same thickness as the cheap standard blocks, but as double walls following the initial post's thickness, so I have no visible posts on the walls in my house; however I did not fill the space between the QCon blocks with "Rockwool", or any other brand of mineral wool. Using double-walls gives a much better heat-insulation. You can choose the cheap normal block for outer wall and the QCon for inner wall, saving some money in the material budget, and still gain a good insulation.
 
Depending of Sun the walls can get quite hot. There's a huge difference between a double QCon wall and a normal wall, and just a single QCon compared with a normal wall. I did a single normal wall on East and West side of my beachfront balconies – believing they would not be important heat-wise – but I was wrong. The balconies are facing north, and with a roof cover they never get direct Sun because of the sidewalls; but the side a wall facing the Sun got very hot. Therefore I asked my workers to build an inner wall, with a thing foil insulation between the two walls (to save balcony space), which made it Okay; however the material price for duble normal blocks, and foil insulation, equaled the QCon cost, and on top we bricked up two walls instead of one.
 

The second floor balconies got an extra side-wall bricked up to stop to much sun-heating.
 
I have a ceiling fan in all rooms – very nice with little air circulation from a fan at lowest speed, and in my opinion better than a revolving floor-stand fan, but that's a matter of taste – and aircon if necessary. I spend a little extra for the bedroom aircons, and bought inverter-type, as bedroom aircons might run more hours during all night, and inverter-type aircons can up to half the electric power consumption. So together with good heat-protection, i.e. insulation, the power used for aircons is minimal; even when I have friend on visit for a month, using aircon all night, and cool down to almost Nordic temperatures in their bedroom, it's only a few hundred baht extra on the electric bill. Another benefit from inverter-aircons is that they can actually heat the bedroom, if it gets too cold – below 20­° is way too cold when one is a Scandinavian temperature-refugee...
–but luckily it only happens extremely occasionally on a Southern Gulf-island...

Huh?
Kh Per.......are you saying inverter aircons generally can be used as heaters? I know specialized aircons can, but have never seen the controls on a regular inverter allowing for heat.
If I’m wrong I need some!


Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[khunPer]

1 hour ago, cheeryble said:

Huh?
Kh Per.......are you saying inverter aircons generally can be used as heaters? I know specialized aircons can, but have never seen the controls on a regular inverter allowing for heat.
If I’m wrong I need some!

Sent from my iPad using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Yes, I'm using Mitsubishi Mr. Slim Super Inverters – just the smallest 8655 BTU unit, which when I bought it was product number MSZ-SGE09VA for 29,900 baht each (a similar normal non-inverter and thereby cheaper Mr. Slim was 18,400 baht, which I installed in livings rooms, but only use one of in rare hot cases), products numbers and prices might have changed since I bought them from HomePro – there's an English language page here, click at right on "Download" to obtain an English PDF-brochure (Klimakatalog).

 

Also check and compare with other manufacturers making inverter aircons, I cannot say if my choice is the best.

 

The smallest one that I use works however fine for cooling my partly insulated rooms up to 20-25m²...

 

I actually only used the heating function once by mistake when changing battery, and when resetting the remote I got the heater on. OMG it heated – I should had remembered that the night when we had a 100-year cold-record with freezing 17.9°C...

[grkt]

10 hours ago, cheeryble said:

I'll explain for Sandy.

THere's an inner wall of QCon blocks and an outer wall of bricks. It insulates from heat and sound and allows a nice brick appearance.

The cavity is not usually filled but can be with more insulation or even burnt coconut husk.

But he is going to be very well insulated and soundproof just with the cavity.

He has also managed to hide the concrete posts.

 

 

Thank you ! very good idea, why not all builders do it ?

 

 

[cheeryble]

27 minutes ago, grkt said:

 

Thank you ! very good idea, why not all builders do it ?

 

 

In Thailand? Cost.

 

[cheeryble]

1 hour ago, khunPer said:

Yes, I'm using Mitsubishi Mr. Slim Super Inverters – just the smallest 8655 BTU unit, which when I bought it was product number MSZ-SGE09VA for 29,900 baht each (a similar normal non-inverter and thereby cheaper Mr. Slim was 18,400 baht, which I installed in livings rooms, but only use one of in rare hot cases), products numbers and prices might have changed since I bought them from HomePro – there's an English language page here, click at right on "Download" to obtain an English PDF-brochure (Klimakatalog).

 

Also check and compare with other manufacturers making inverter aircons, I cannot say if my choice is the best.

 

The smallest one that I use works however fine for cooling my partly insulated rooms up to 20-25m²...

 

I actually only used the heating function once by mistake when changing battery, and when resetting the remote I got the heater on. OMG it heated – I should had remembered that the night when we had a 100-year cold-record with freezing 17.9°C...

I would love heating too......get cold every winter.......but that's extremely expensive for a 9kbtu unit.

I actually do own a Mr Slim which was larger and cheaper but highly doubt if it heats. I think u have a special model.

The Thai at the top doesn't mention heating.......does one of the icons below do so?

[cheeryble]

11 hours ago, cheeryble said:

 

Hmmm Steve just read Sandy's post above he's pretty anti-wet.

IF you read it would you care to comment?

Good point about truck access.

We already have a 60 metre long 3m wide access from the road laid with black clinker so that should hold up (though width would prohibit big trucks) but after that yes the site could be a wet mess.

 

As for roof we already built a chalet for Mum with metal roof (which we were thinking of extending for the main house area via an "L".

We used foam lined sheets and also rockwooled the ceiling and she says it's fine for noise.

But i plan to wait for the first heavy rain when Im there to judge for myself.

It's also possible I should use the profiled PE insulation under the sheets. Very insulating.

My calculation was not just about cost (is there anything in it if the metal sheets are properly insulated?) but was actually thinking they're less likely to leak if done properly, don't retain heat like concrete tiles, and being extremely lightweight one could perhaps have the concrete support posts farther apart then 4m (I want at least a 5m wide sitting room and would prefer only posts in the corners.)

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

My mistake I meant profiled PU (polyurethane) insulation.......far better and more resilient than PE.

[cheeryble]

On May 5, 2018 at 7:42 PM, DJ54 said:

Was a bit concerned after watching the perimeter wall surrounding the

property going up 1/2 day or less working balance eating a drinking Thai whiskey......

 

the house builder was a different group very professional head contractor spoke some English and wrote good English. Started in April finished in time and budget in September. 

 

They worked 8-5 everyday I think one Sunday off with short lunch. Very satisfied. This is in the N.E. 

 

He travels to other locations after this build he was building 6 houses in one compound. 

 

Hi DJ 

 

Yes looks like you got a nice neat job.

Would you be so kind as to tell us the per sqm cost.

And what would be the fully indoor areas and roofed outdoor areas (normally taken between pillars without overhang)

[grkt]

In thailand inverter aircon are rarely heaters.

In Europe it seems yes.

 

[khunPer]

3 hours ago, cheeryble said:

I would love heating too......get cold every winter.......but that's extremely expensive for a 9kbtu unit.

I actually do own a Mr Slim which was larger and cheaper but highly doubt if it heats. I think u have a special model.

The Thai at the top doesn't mention heating.......does one of the icons below do so?

Yes, heating (and cooling) works till -10°C – it's similar to an air heat pump that is suggested as energi friendly heating in cold Denmark, as heat pumps generates 3-4 times more heat from same power consumption as an electric resistance heater (heat pumps can also work as aircons in the summertime) – but it's an old leaflet I have from when I build my house, now 8-years ago, so might be outdated. Take a look in the PDF that I linked to...

 

The normal Mr. Slim cannot heat, he's not inverted...

[sandyf]

21 hours ago, cheeryble said:

 

Wife was hurrying things as she says it HAS to be started in an "even" month. THat's a Thai month not a regular month.

For me it was the opposite. I was keen to get going but my wife's father had been a builder and said we should wait till October, a few months down the road, at least the soil we had put down was well settled. He went to see the monks and we broke ground on the 26th Oct 2009.

[MikeN]

16 hours ago, grkt said:

In thailand inverter aircon are rarely heaters.

In Europe it seems yes.

 

In Australia we just call them reverse cycle air conditioners, but I’ve never seen one here in Thailand.

[kannot]

Heres a  tip if  you want to get a thicker  wall ( check the price though) lay the Q con on its SIDE and  instead use the 7.5cm block laid sideways.

I used normal block double wall built it myself as good as  qcon with the air gap in.

Edited May 7, 2018 by kannot

[lanng khao]

Heres a  tip if  you want to get a thicker  wall ( check the price though) lay the Q con on its SIDE and  instead use the 7.5cm block laid sideways.
I used normal block double wall built it myself as good as  qcon with the air gap in.

Good to see decent blockwork, full joints and bonded properly, I'm a bricky and some blockwork iv come across in thailand looks like it's been put in with a catapult..

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

[Stevemercer]

Obviously site leveling/landscaping, and other earthworks, are preferably undertaken in the dry season. Similarly, digging and setting the foundation poles are also best during the wet season.

 

However, these works can still be undertaken, if really necessary. It rarely rains for more than a few hours, at a time, and there are plenty of dry days. The work will take longer because it won't be possible to work during the rain. Once the roof is up, the brickwork and other works can usually proceed at any time of the year.

 

Our house was built over a 6 month period from February - July. I attach a few photos.

[DJ54]

On 5/7/2018 at 12:06 AM, cheeryble said:

Hi DJ 

 

Yes looks like you got a nice neat job.

Would you be so kind as to tell us the per sqm cost.

And what would be the fully indoor areas and roofed outdoor areas (normally taken between pillars without overhang)

Sorry I had the floor plan but can’t find it and not good at determining sqmtr it’s 2 bedroom 2 bath large living eating room and good size kitchen. 1 room is master bedroom and master bathroom. I could walk off the perimeter if that would help. Total not including land was 1.1 Mil baht. Will try find pictures of inerior. 

 

[cheeryble]

22 hours ago, DJ54 said:

Sorry I had the floor plan but can’t find it and not good at determining sqmtr it’s 2 bedroom 2 bath large living eating room and good size kitchen. 1 room is master bedroom and master bathroom. I could walk off the perimeter if that would help. Total not including land was 1.1 Mil baht. Will try find pictures of inerior. 

 

Damn DJ I nearly finished a reply and it disappeared.

Perhaps later

Pics would be nice :)

Edited May 9, 2018 by cheeryble

[irlguy1]

If anyone is still in need of a reliable builder drop me a pm.
English and Thai speaking and a proven track record.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk