1 hour ago, KittenKong said:

Maybe you missed my post back on page 1 where I explained why none of what you have done so far will help much with sound insulation.

 

 

For the particular issue with the junction boxes - and assuming that you do nothing more on the lines I suggested - then uPVC foam will probably be the simplest and cheapest solution. Mass loaded vinyl would be better but rather pointless unless you do the whole wall, which is what you should be doing.

Thanks for your comments and I did read it. But in the end I agree with your statement: "Good luck finding a Thai builder who has the faintest idea what any of the above are for."

Close-up pic of the electrics.

 

All power points are grounded. The white wire is USB.

Hey I see socks and sandals ! ! [emoji39] [emoji38]

Maybe my eyes aren't so bad.  Do the denyers still say green is missing? 

14 minutes ago, bankruatsteve said:

Maybe my eyes aren't so bad.  Do the denyers still say green is missing? 

There is green, by why two blacks?

Maybe my eyes aren't so bad.  Do the denyers still say green is missing? 

I see green, black and blue

52 minutes ago, Bassosa said:

All power points are grounded. The white wire is USB.

How does your USB setup work. Are you using a central power supply with negotiation modules at each outlet?

1 hour ago, bankruatsteve said:

Maybe my eyes aren't so bad.  Do the denyers still say green is missing? 

No, now the photo is close-up I can see blue, green and black. Black? Thai standard now is brown (live) blue (neutral) green (earth).

 

Once again I could be wrong (I usually am). Maybe @Crossy could put us right?

 

Plus, I definitely see a black wire taped-up and splitting into a blue and green wire. What's that all about?

Sometimes black is live, white/grey neutral and green is ground/earth

2 minutes ago, johng said:

Sometimes black is live, white/grey neutral and green is ground/earth

He just said his white is USB. God, I love Thai electric topics.

Always best to check what is what ,never rely on the colors.

1 hour ago, johng said:

Hey I see socks and sandals ! !

Is socks and crocs ok? At least it rhymes.

2 minutes ago, johng said:

Always best to check what is what ,never rely on the colors.

I sacked my electricians after they switched all the neutrals. Mind you, at least all the wires were blue. And yes, I did check, all the live wires are brown.

1 hour ago, Bassosa said:

The white wire is USB.

There is no USB cable, do you mean sets of twisted pair, probably Cat 6 Ethernet cable?

14 minutes ago, grollies said:

Plus, I definitely see a black wire taped-up and splitting into a blue and green wire. What's that all about?

Probably used to pull the wires through the conduit.

5 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Probably used to pull the wires through the conduit.

I would agree if it was two wires coming out of the wall on a single wire but the photo shows a single black wire out of the wall and what looks like the black twisted together with a blue and green wire? Have another look at the pic.

14 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

There is no USB cable, do you mean sets of twisted pair, probably Cat 6 Ethernet cable?

What if the guy has his own USB supply arrangement. I have a 12 volt supply connected to four negotiation modules along the office desk.

This is great. If the OP's missus read this she'd go apeshit.

58 minutes ago, grollies said:

1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Probably used to pull the wires through the conduit.

I would agree if it was two wires coming out of the wall on a single wire but the photo shows a single black wire out of the wall and what looks like the black twisted together with a blue and green wire? Have another look at the pic.

I looked closely before posting and again just now and stay with my diagnosis. The curled black was hooked through the end of the fish tape. 

 

They did not have to pull all the wires at the same time.

2 hours ago, Fruit Trader said:

What if the guy has his own USB supply arrangement. I have a 12 volt supply connected to four negotiation modules along the office desk.

You can certainly use Ethernet cable to supply low voltage power and USB power and data but it is still Ethernet cable.

2 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

There is no USB cable, do you mean sets of twisted pair, probably Cat 6 Ethernet cable?

 

2 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You can certainly use Ethernet cable to supply low voltage power and USB power and data but it is still Ethernet cable.

 

Whatever the cable type if its purpose is for supplying USB outlets then we can call it the USB cable. There can be several identical multi core cables in a system each individually identified by purpose.  There is no mention of CAT cable so lets keep to the facts until the owner says otherwise.

10 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

I looked closely before posting and again just now and stay with my diagnosis. The curled black was hooked through the end of the fish tape. 

 

They did not have to pull all the wires at the same time.

Yeah,  looking at it on a laptop I think you are correct. 

How do Thai builders typically tie new brickwork into an existing horizontal concrete beam?

 

This is a renovation project so the brickwork is a fill-in cavity wall in between existing structure.

 

 

4 minutes ago, Bassosa said:

How do Thai builders typically tie new brickwork into an existing horizontal concrete beam?

 

Straps nailed into the posts

11 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Straps nailed into the posts

Just so I understand 100%, the correct procedure is to screw "straps" into the existing concrete beam where the arrows are in the pic below?

 

New brick = red, existing concrete beam = grey

 

 

1 minute ago, Bassosa said:

Just so I understand 100%, the correct procedure is to screw "straps" into the existing concrete beam where the arrows are in the pic below?

 

New brick = red, existing concrete beam = grey

 

 

No, those are beams not posts.

 

Usually no separate tie into the beams but it can't hurt.

 

with AAC you tie every second or third row into the posts.

1 minute ago, sometimewoodworker said:

No, those are beams not posts.

 

Usually no separate tie into the beams but it can't hurt.

 

with AAC you tie every second or third row into the posts.

Thanks for the info. The brickwork was indeed tied into the posts, but not into the beams, hence my question. Makes sense to do it, otherwise the top of the brick wall is just sort of hanging there right?

3 minutes ago, Bassosa said:

Thanks for the info. The brickwork was indeed tied into the posts, but not into the beams, hence my question. Makes sense to do it, otherwise the top of the brick wall is just sort of hanging there right?

If it's tied into the post it isn't going anywhere, I would not bother with anything else.