Sixty residents flee for their lives as block of flats leans over backwards in Bangkok

[Wullie Mercer]

I remember back, late 80's we used to pass a block of flats on the way to/from Pattaya to airport which was like the leaning tower of pizza, had a photo but cannot find it.

[pacovl46]

9 hours ago, jerolamo said:

This named a deep foundation with piles. In EU we use more steel piles, but in Thailand i see special armed concrete one (who can be very good to). This is good foundation and should be first apply by a geometer to test the soil (wish material, wish density at wish time of the season, how dry is the soil, how deep to go with what is the target to know next). It was a job i did before...

Well, the pile effect most of the time is not to support the building only by stop in the rock (that should be the best, but sometimes, many times in Thailand, you have 150m of clay ground under... you can not push a pile so far, and it serve nothing), but the friction effect on the surface of the pile should be enough (and there is calculus for that) to maintain a foundation. Next should be to drain the soil under (french drain around is a good and non expensive solution), because the water move and retention can become a big problem later.

12m is a standard (from UK) and they have some standard molds they use. So if the ground is still no good at 11.5m deep, they add some more piles to friction support.

There is other one way to do deep foundations, but the piles one is the cheapest one and can be very efficient if the calculus made by geometer and architect are good enough (or by experience if skills is there). It is rare to see that in Thailand, they do it for water tanks now, and for some temple, and all government building, but only for rich people houses... even if the piles and the job to put them are very cheap in Thailand.

You seen probably a really good job this time (if they didn't break piles).

They put two 12m long poles on top of each other and then cut off the excess that stuck out of the ground. Most of the poles had to be hammered into the ground with a really heavy weight, but in a few spots the first pole just disappeared into the ground with one slap! It was an amazing sight! 

[DJ54]

It looks like may have been workers Quarters.. build that close to water

[Pilotman]

7 hours ago, kiwikeith said:

Yes the footings are the problem here, mind you Bangkok was a rice field years ago. They have done a pretty good job considering the amount of flyovers and buildings in this concrete jungle. 

makes you wonder if it will still be there in 100 years time. There was a good reason why Sukhothai and Ayutthaya were the Capitals of Siam for many hundreds of years. 

[Myran]

There's an amazing video of this online (wife showed me). Apparently, a beautiful Thai woman was living alone in one of the apartments, and when it started to lean, 4-5 guys ran to her apartment to try to break her door down to save her (there's CCTV footage of it). One of them was a shirtless guy, and afterwards they interviewed his wife, who said he left her on the top floor to come to the young lady's rescue instead ????

[Harry Fingerling]

A lean to, just like that! ????

[wotsdermatter]

On 8/19/2020 at 9:59 PM, ezzra said:

the can rename the leaning condo of BKK now..

It was actually done by TAT in order to be used as a tourist attraction like the tower of Pisa.

'nuf sed.

 

[RocketDog]

Half the walls in thus country are leaning. Sure, it rains and floods here. It also rains in other countries and techniques exist to solve those problems. 

The typical Thai grasp of concrete, plumbing, electrical, and standard building techniques is woeful. Everything is done by gosh and by golly. 

I watched builders prepare (?) a grade, pour concrete, no rebar at all, and then proceed to (not) cure it. Sure enough, it turned out just as you would suspect. 

The curious thing is that they know how it will turn out and, as with many things here, simply don't care. Then they spend the next few years applying half-ass remedial efforts that compound the problem when they should just tear it down and do it right. Wash, rinse, and repeat. 

 

Some things will never change because it's a cultural attitude and failure is accepted as inevitable. Mai pen rai. 

[impulse]

27 minutes ago, RocketDog said:

Some things will never change because it's a cultural attitude and failure is accepted as inevitable. Mai pen rai. 

 

And how many properties in Australia are currently empty and/or under lawsuit because of mai pen rai?

 

The big difference being that an Aus condo costs many times what a Thai unit costs...