Expats living in Thailand high rise condos in the wake of the Florida disaster

[Jingthing]

I think condo towers totally collapsing is exceedingly rare. But now we know it can really happen, even in first world USA. I recall there was a case of  condo failure in Malaysia years ago but I forget the details. 

 

I reckon everyone has heard about the disaster in Florida by now. 

 

I wonder if that has made condo dwellers here start to wonder about the stability of the high rise condos that they live in.

 

I heard an engineer on the news mention some warning signs including doors not fitting in frames, and buckling floors.

 

Are there mandated structural inspections here and if so, at what intervals?

 

In any case, I certainly am curious to hear about what they eventually conclude was the cause of the Florida condo disaster. Was it a flaw in the original construction or perhaps related to the water seepage issues in the Miami area related to global climate change (as it was right near the beach). Of course Bangkok is supposed to be "sinking" too. 

[Ventenio]

6,000,000 Chinese died due to only TWO floods.........so maybe we should everyone living in a flood plain.

 

Next up.... EARTHQUAKES...... millions and millions...

 

Number 982734893247329840327483  High rise condos.  

 

I'm still on Number 1.  When I get there, I'll comment.......too busy!!!! lol

[Jingthing]

2 minutes ago, Ventenio said:

6,000,000 Chinese died due to only TWO floods.........so maybe we should everyone living in a flood plain.

 

Next up.... EARTHQUAKES...... millions and millions...

 

Number 982734893247329840327483  High rise condos.  

 

I'm still on Number 1.  When I get there, I'll comment.......too busy!!!! lol

So your answer is to change the subject?

[digbeth]

This is a quite known case in Bangkok, a few years back, the floors collapsed and they had to support it with cables until it could be fixed 

[sammieuk1]

Nothing to worry about here with Thai safety and some bamboo is there ????

[WineOh]

It's bound to happen in Bangkok sooner or later.

 

Question is, will it be a high rise condo or a section of the BTS that goes first???

 

What's everyone's money on?

[Jingthing]

Interesting.

But a case of total almost instant collapse as in Florida, I'm not aware of hearing about such incidents before. As has been mentioned on the news, it looked like an intentional demolition. 

[digbeth]

This is in Pathum Thani, technically not a condo, but many of cheap charlies live in similar styled place in Pattaya 

[Heng]

Not worried.   That said, since we're only issued one life... how troublesome is it to only live in say 20 year old (or less) buildings?   Super easy if you're a renter, and not too troublesome if you're an owner (you just need to add to your condo portfolio periodically and only live in your new units).

 

Thanks JT, now I have to go add "construction completed" dates to my chanote folders.       

[digbeth]

2 minutes ago, WineOh said:

It's bound to happen in Bangkok sooner or later.

 

Question is, will it be a high rise condo or a section of the BTS that goes first???

 

What's everyone's money on?

 

The original section of Bangkok expressway was finished in 1980-81, still standing, 

some US highways from the 70s already failed right? 

[LomSak27]

Ancient History

 

There was a Hotel in Khon Kaen that collapsed in early 90's. Killed a few people as I recall. Long forgotten, the only reason I remember is because I stayed in the bleeding place, 89, a year before it collapsed. Must have been a mid range hotel recommended by Lonely Planet.

 

Thankfully that is one of the few in Thailand. Yep you would think more given the lack of regulations, but this was an exception. I believe it was Cairo Egypt which had repeated collapses back in those days, but you not going to retire there anyway so ..

[worgeordie]

I don't think we need to go there, enough worries with the Covid,

in Bangkok just as likely a condo to sink ,as fall down,the biggest

danger here are the roads.

regards worgeordie

 

[clivebaxter]

I would never live in one, I always worry about the electric failing and while i'm in the lifts

[Damrongsak]

Video of the collapse in Florida: 

 

[tomazbodner]

17 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Interesting.

But a case of total almost instant collapse as in Florida, I'm not aware of hearing about such incidents before. As has been mentioned on the news, it looked like an intentional demolition. 

There was a Sampoong Department Store collapse in seconds in Korea. There was a Royal Plaza Hotel in Nakhorn Ratchasima that collapsed in seconds. There were many buildings around the World, high rise and low rise that collapsed without warnings, due to various reasons. In Thailand, high rises require all the plans and construction to be checked, while low rises have no such need and anyone can do whatever they wish, including adding floors on top, removing support rebars, etc. Which shows the importance of only buying your place from a reputable company with a verifiable track record. No matter it's a condo or a house or commercial building. Anything can collapse if it's built without supervision by a fly by night contractor.

[The Cipher]

45 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I wonder if that has made condo dwellers here start to wonder about the stability of the high rise condos that they live in.

 

Not any more than before. The answer, as usual, is to play the probabilities. There have been high rise condos throughout the world for decades now. The vast majority don't collapse.

 

Disasters like the one in Florida make international news for a reason - because they're exceedingly rare.

[HashBrownHarry]

Why worry, it might never happen.......

 

the mind boggles

[tomazbodner]

 

From video of collapse it seems that the part just left of what's left gave way first, near what is probably lift. The way it fell down it seems that support failure happened at the bottom, which would probably mean foundation gave way.

 

 

And seems they had underground parking as well, which seems to have collapsed as well... Given how close to the sea it is, if I had to bet on something, I'd say support under foundation was washed away, and building was supported by nothing for a while before filling a large hole under it by the collapse.

 

It is really surprising that building was inspected just months ago and this wasn't picked up...

[Ventenio]

13 minutes ago, josthomz said:

Hope you all keep great memories of me 555

 

I have absolutely no idea who you are .    555

 

After this post, I still won't.  

 

I gotta imagine plane crashes are more common than buildings collapsing........

 

Now I'm on MUD SLIDES, TORNADOES, LIGHTING STRIKES.........

 

getting there...

[bunnydrops]

Maybe 5 or 6 years ago one collapsed in Bangkok that was still under construction. It happen on a weekend so no one was hurt. I see a lot of "cold joints" (where the post was not filled with concrete in one pouring) here in Thailand. That leaves a weak spot where the two pours don't bond well. 

[tomazbodner]

Ah here you go...

 

 

[impulse]

If you lived in the dodgiest apartment in BKK, above a shop that refills propane tanks and below a fireworks factory, you're still safer than you'd be on a scooter in BKK traffic.  Even with a helmet.

 

[rcuthbert]

RIP. I hope that they died quickly.????

Hopefully, many of the missing are still alive:

"Families pray for 'miracle' with 159 missing in Florida condo collapse" (20 minutes ago)

Reuters

[bendejo]

3 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I recall there was a case of  condo failure in Malaysia years ago but I forget the details. 

 

I lived in Malaysia for a while, some great English-language newspapers there.  Structures collapsing seem to be a nearly weekly occurrence, my guess is there is some effort to keep these out of the international press.  E.g. there is a park popular for weekend sleep-overs for students; it had an old wooden footbridge over a creek that was falling apart so they built a new steel one.  The very weekend that it was first in use the thing collapsed and a bunch of kids died. 

And these calamities are always the fault of foreigners.

 

Just because a condo complex collapsed does not mean this is endemic to just condos, it can happen with any sort of building or constructed thing.  I have always been amazed that there are not more incidents like that, especially in the developing world.

A town in Brazil built a new road on an incline, paved with cobblestone (the Latin world seems to love cobblestone).  The first rainstorm caused the stones to get lose and roll down hill, looked like a pile a Lego, I saw this myself.  Story afterward was that they didn't use whatever was needed to anchor the stones, after all the siphoning of funds there was no $$$ left for the materials.  "The sand would be under the stone, who is going to know it isn't there?"

 

 

[bendejo]

2 hours ago, impulse said:

If you lived in the dodgiest apartment in BKK, above a shop that refills propane tanks and below a fireworks factory, you're still safer than you'd be on a scooter in BKK traffic.  Even with a helmet.

 

Or in the US your neighbor could be making weed extracts  or cooking up meth, that could blow the place up.

 

 

[AlexRich]

I wouldn’t be surprised if corruption was at the bottom of the Miami incident, lax building standards being ignored in return for a pay off. It will be interesting when the investigation is published.

 

I suspect buildings don’t just collapse without prior clues. Rather you will see some tell tale signs several weeks or months before the incident. If I were at the top of a condo I’d be looking at the building very carefully. Wear and tear, cracks in the building, displacements. Any sign of that and I’d be off.

[Jingthing]

Sea spray can be a factor in corroding steel.

 

Anyway, surely I can't be the only one wondering about this. It was late at night so many of the people were asleep. It happened very quickly. Do you think that those that were asleep were lucky enough to not even feel what happened to them? Yes, I'm assuming all or nearly all still in there are dead.

[Damrongsak]

5 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

 ... From video of collapse it seems that the part just left of what's left gave way first, near what is probably lift. The way it fell down it seems that support failure happened at the bottom, which would probably mean foundation gave way.

 

... It is really surprising that building was inspected just months ago and this wasn't picked up...

From what I've read, the building was on some sort of filled area, and had subsided about 2mm per year for 30 years.  And the 40 year inspection was currently in process.   Ouch.

[digbeth]

I'd be more worried about fires, in my own condos, there are things propping the fire doors open that would render the stairwell useless in a fire, smoke alarms that never got replaced, emergency lights that don't have their batteries replaced and would leave sections of the stairwell in the dark, and we had annual inspection by firemen from the station who seems to just go through the motion and sign things off, Same at work, the local fire station turn up, do a drill on how to use fire extinguisher, show a few horror video of people dying from burns, but said nothing about locked access doors and such. 

Who knows if there's water in the sprinker system, and there might only be a few fire engine in whole of Bangkok that can reach 30th floor

 

 

 

At least in good condos, residents seem to respect the no gas cooking rule, who knows what enforcement of that is in cheaper place like Nirun in Pattaya

[BritManToo]

4 hours ago, Damrongsak said:

From what I've read, the building was on some sort of filled area, and had subsided about 2mm per year for 30 years.  And the 40 year inspection was currently in process.   Ouch.

News report said the re-certification was finished in 2020 with no red flags from the inspecting engineers.