On 6/29/2019 at 1:43 PM, moontang said:

It's practically the Thai trademark.. no expansion joints... I hadn't heard of them doing post tension slabs here, like they do when they build on expansive soil in the West.  And the plumbing  vent stacks?

When talking to a qualified Thai architect about building a car port, I asked why Thais like to tile their driveways. She said that the tiles hide the concrete cracks. When I suggested constructing my driveway with rebar, expansion foam and crack joints, she just shook her head and walked off. 

On 6/29/2019 at 1:56 PM, Munsterman said:

I’ve had this discussion a few times recently, and thought it worth raising here. In my search for a house builder a year or so ago I had a lot of expats bemoaning the sub-standard work of Thais and saying I really needed to pay the premium that falang builders charge to get quality. However, despite these warnings of dire outcomes, I found a young Thai builder and liked the quality of his previous work and his attitude toward building standards.
To cut to the chase -  in my area (Doi Saket, near Chiang Mai) there are a number of houses being built, and 3 that I know of well. Mine (Thai builder) and two others (falang builders). We moved into our Thai built house a month ago - it took 6 months from start to finish. We have only the most minor of gripes, and  got a very good job at a good price - with quality inclusions and great attention to detail.

Meanwhile falang house no. 1 that started in the same week as us, and is of a similar size and construction, still hasn’t got a roof on after 6 months, has had numerous delays, cost blow-outs and many other problems. Watching the procession of workers there, I must say I prefer my builder, who has mostly permanent staff rather than a host of subbies and day labourers.

Falang house no.2 is even worse. The builder seems to have been totally incompetent. An engineer who inspected it recently recommended tearing it all down, as the work was so sub-standard as to be dangerous. The owner now has a court action in process to recover money paid to the builder, and has taken over supervising the repair & renovation of the building using local workers he has found.

So, disregard the myths about inferior Thai builders. There are of course bad Thai builders, as there are of course good falang builders - and all builders are limited by the technology, training levels and materials available here. Due diligence is the name of the game, and don’t fall for the myths.

I recently moved into my freshly renovated house with a few new extensions. Although the builder lives opposite my house (and she showed me one of her building sites to convince us to go with her), she completely failed in all aspects of our renovation and build. This has caused so much tension between me and my wife that she wants to divorce me now, mainly because she wants to resolve things the Thai way by letting the mistakes progress until she can no longer ignore them rather than pointing out unacceptable workmanship as they arise during the build. For example, the main bathroom floods during showers as the water doesn't flow away. The other bathroom stinks 24/7. Presumable, the plumber did not install venting pipes. I know that they poured unused cement down the pipes. Also, instead of installing plumbing to accommodate a dishwasher, they merely installed a blue pipe sticking out of the wall and no connections under the sink, and, we've already had water leaks. As the blue pipe prevented the dishwasher from being installed, I told them to remove it and I made the proper connections under the sink myself. That alone caused a lot of argument between my wife and I. The paint is bubbling and peeling off of the outside walls. They used ordinary indoor plaster to smooth out areas where they had removed moist render/cement before painting the outside. The brand new gutters are leaking. Instead of using proper fit for purpose rebar for the gigantic triple car port, they used ordinary chicken-wire. Instead of using dedicated expansion foam, they used white packing Styrofoam. They wanted to create crack joints two months after the concrete had dried although I sent them instruction how and when to cut them. The solar installer (who is German) just told me that instead of using 4mm wire and a 30A breaker, they only used 2.5mm wire and a 20A breaker for high current-draw areas. Home Pro installed 7 air cons and used one breaker for three of them. My wife thought that I was a pedantic trouble-maker and know-it-all. In the meantime, she acknowledges that I was right about everything. All failures have occurred as I had predicted. All arguments with my wife have occurred as I had predicted. yet, if I identify an issue post-build, she practically tells me to shut up and let it go. When the independent solar installer and his Thai wife explained the risks of fire and other electrical issues and dangers to my wife, she was forced to listen. She could not dismiss them as she does me. It is appalling that Thailand lets unqualified tradespeople rip. Worse is that Thais generally accept poor, non-compliant  workmanship, even if it endangers their lives.

On 11/5/2025 at 6:10 AM, ZigM said:

I recently moved into my freshly renovated house with a few new extensions. Although the builder lives opposite my house (and she showed me one of her building sites to convince us to go with her), she completely failed in all aspects of our renovation and build. This has caused so much tension between me and my wife that she wants to divorce me now, mainly because she wants to resolve things the Thai way by letting the mistakes progress until she can no longer ignore them rather than pointing out unacceptable workmanship as they arise during the build. For example, the main bathroom floods during showers as the water doesn't flow away. The other bathroom stinks 24/7. Presumable, the plumber did not install venting pipes. I know that they poured unused cement down the pipes. Also, instead of installing plumbing to accommodate a dishwasher, they merely installed a blue pipe sticking out of the wall and no connections under the sink, and, we've already had water leaks. As the blue pipe prevented the dishwasher from being installed, I told them to remove it and I made the proper connections under the sink myself. That alone caused a lot of argument between my wife and I. The paint is bubbling and peeling off of the outside walls. They used ordinary indoor plaster to smooth out areas where they had removed moist render/cement before painting the outside. The brand new gutters are leaking. Instead of using proper fit for purpose rebar for the gigantic triple car port, they used ordinary chicken-wire. Instead of using dedicated expansion foam, they used white packing Styrofoam. They wanted to create crack joints two months after the concrete had dried although I sent them instruction how and when to cut them. The solar installer (who is German) just told me that instead of using 4mm wire and a 30A breaker, they only used 2.5mm wire and a 20A breaker for high current-draw areas. Home Pro installed 7 air cons and used one breaker for three of them. My wife thought that I was a pedantic trouble-maker and know-it-all. In the meantime, she acknowledges that I was right about everything. All failures have occurred as I had predicted. All arguments with my wife have occurred as I had predicted. yet, if I identify an issue post-build, she practically tells me to shut up and let it go. When the independent solar installer and his Thai wife explained the risks of fire and other electrical issues and dangers to my wife, she was forced to listen. She could not dismiss them as she does me. It is appalling that Thailand lets unqualified tradespeople rip. Worse is that Thais generally accept poor, non-compliant  workmanship, even if it endangers their lives.

Most contractors in Thailand tend to work below standard, and unfortunately, there is no strict regulatory body that consistently monitors construction quality. When disputes occur between homeowners and contractors, most cases end up in court — where judges typically try to mediate rather than issue strong penalties.

Even when the homeowner wins the case, the compensation is usually very small and rarely worth the time, stress, or legal expenses. If the construction contract is not written clearly, many homeowners actually end up losing the case despite being the wronged party, while irresponsible contractors often face no real consequences.

Large and well-known construction companies are not always the solution either. Their prices can be extremely inflated, and surprisingly, several big-name companies in Thailand have been involved in major fraud cases in recent years, with damages reaching hundreds of millions of baht.

For foreigners planning to build a house or any type of property in Thailand, I strongly recommend hiring construction supervision to oversee the contractor’s work.

Thailand does have professional construction consultants — licensed engineers and architects — who can properly supervise and manage the construction process to ensure it meets engineering standards. Their fees are not expensive at all, typically around 2,500 THB per visit.

I can personally recommend a reputable consultancy:
wisawa construction supervision in thailand > https://wisawa.co.th/en/construction-supervision/

On 6/29/2019 at 2:11 PM, colinneil said:

Quite funny reading this.. Farang builders better than Thai, if you use Thai builders they use Thai workers.

If you use farang builders they use Thai workers, so at the end of the day you get the same end result.

Colin is back

On 6/30/2019 at 10:56 PM, JimHuaHin said:

As some people have commented already, there are good and bad builders in every country, and the same goes for the farang and Thai developers in Thailand.

 

I had 3 houses built for me to live in in Australia over the years.  For each builder I went around and checked about 10 houses that they were building over several months.  Sometimes I went on Sundays to check the work that was being done, when the workers were not there.  Once I was satisfied that the builders' workers' work was up to MY standards, then I signed the contracts, and was not disappointed.

 

In Thailand I have followed several builders, mostly farang developers, and found thier work standards and quality have been substandard, from MY perspective.  But I have also followed two Thai builders who were recommended to me - in both cases the builders' workers produced very high standard work and paid attention to the details.  One builder was too expensive for me; the other builder produces great quality work, at a lot cheaper cost than most fanang developers I have come across.

 

Do your home work!!!

 

 

 

 

I sued Masterton Homes in Australia in 2009-2010. We settled out of court. Their workmanship was non-compliant with the BCA (now NCC). While it is true that there are good and bad builders all over the world, if you want completely and totally unqualified workers who bring infants to work and use your property as a daycare center, go for a Thai builder. I've spent 2.5 million baht on renovating two houses in Thailand, and while I might have also had issues had the properties been in Australia, Thailand is the worst by far. Workers use a jackhammer barefoot, they weld without goggles or insulating themselves and they lie. I just had a German solar installer rewire my house by his qualified electrician. Yes, there are qualified people here too but because nothing is regulated, I wouldn't know where to look. Because the Thai builder who oversaw the renovations hired people from Cambodia, the quality was as expected. When I spoke to the German solar installer, we understood each others' expectations... but the Thai builder just laughed when I pointed out issues.

On 11/17/2025 at 10:41 PM, still kicking said:

Colin is back

No he isn't.