We are having a small house built on our new block of land so that we can stay there when we are working with our trees etc as it is only 40 metres away from our other blocks of land plus my wife needs to have a hot house built for all her cactus and our seedlings. She chased up a builder that lives near where the land is and he has been brilliant, he also has a lot of the necessary material(sand, cement, rock, concrete) plus all the machinery  needed, the big surprise is the quality of the workers abilities and how fussy they are, everything is squared and levelled, as someome that was in the building trade for 40 years I am exceptionally impressed especially after seeing how many thai houses etc are built. Each aspect of the building is just so well done and he knows all the various trades people needed including a well digger and the pricing is great as well. If anyone in the Surat Thani region is chasing a builder pm me and I will give you his contact information, once the project is all finished I will post pic. I designed the layout of the house(1 bedroom, bathroom and an open lounge kitchen with a breakfast bar, carport and a good size veranda) and the builder had the blueprints done up for us, everything has just run so smoothly and so fast, its brilliant.

I've had a similar experience with a builder in my GF's village. Turned up with a dozen laborers, everything done by hand. Only power tool was the welder for the roof struts. A 36 sqm guesthouse, done on budget and finished in six weeks. In Australia, I'd be lucky to get anything finished in six months.

My father in law is a brilliant builder who can do it all.

 

Didn't have to look far.

Despite what some people say, there are some really good builders over here.

I also noticed that they seem to have good welding skills, and like to customise things too.We always use Family Friends.????

You guys are all very fortunate. You only have to read the litany of woes particularly in the Pattaya forum when it comes to trying to find good contractors and the general lack of recommendations when people ask to know that your experiences are not universal. 

 

I, and I am sure others, envy you