Anyone ever built a house on a rice paddy field?

[bbabythai]

I was looking at 3 rai of land for sale. Its currently used to cultivate rice. The land would have to be raised to a higher level (same as the road in the pic). 

 

If I did pay for x amount of trucks to raise the level of the land on 1 rai ( out of the 3) and did correct draining etc..... would it be structurally safe to build a house on that land? I was thinking of a single story house (4 b/r 3 bath) new house. 

 

If you have ever had to pay for truck loads of soil to do a job like this how much did you pay per sq m?

 

I know that I would have to pay for retainer walls to be built around the newly formed raised land areas. Nearby I drove past other land that paid for land to be raised but no retainer walls as yet. The heavy rain is now washing most of it away at the sides. Very stupid...

 

The nearest electric poles are 500m down the road and same with city water. Is this going to cost a fortune to get city electric and water to the land?

 

It sound a bit of a hassle but it is stunning land. I think that I would have to go to PEA and ask them for estimate costs and PWA to see if its viable or not. 

 

But if you have ever done this in thailand please leave a comment. 

thanks

 

 

[rumak]

where is your land ?

 

some of your questions are very easy for you to find answers by yourself .. .... and you will learn

a lot in the process.     If you do not speak thai now is also a great way to learn (like i did)

 

ASK  neighbors:    how much is a truckload of dirt  ( the 6 wheel trucks are usually 5 cu  capacity)

                        yes,  sometimes they do not look completely full

     Another way is to pay for set area of land for a set price ( you agree how high you want the fill to be    ( usually about 1 meter)   .    Look at what they use for roads  (din ruuk rang .....but thais make it sound like  Luuk Lang .       

 

the temptation is always to try to save on the filling.   not smart.   Get more than you think you need,

it takes time (one rainy season) to settle and be firm.   Retaining walls not really needed , but depends on you .   A good wall around a rai of land will cost about 600 baht per linear meter LABOR,  and materials about that much as well  ( 2 meters high)

 

electric office and water office will tell you how much it will cost to run lines to the land

 

so on and so on.......          many houses built in rice fields.    Be sure to have good windows forwhen they  burn the rice stalks       

 

 

[EVENKEEL]

We did the same on rice paddy. Not a rai of fill but maybe 1/2 rai of fill dirt and let it sit for a year to settle. This was 11 yrs ago the house was built.

[Maha Sarakham]

Retaining wall is a must, but it is more expensive than you think.  It is quite costly and will contribute quite significantly to larger projects.

[Daffy D]

Fill the land higher than the road.

 

In fact raise it as much as you can afford. 

 

In the future when the plots round you start to be developed they will raise their plot higher than yours, then the next will raise his even higher and so on and eventually you will find you have the lowest plot and catching all the run off.  

[Kwasaki]

12 hours ago, bbabythai said:

But if you have ever done this in thailand please leave a comment. 

thanks

3 rai is a large size to infill seeing the high of the road in the pic. 

 

Where we live in Sukhothai we did things in stages on our 2 rai piece of land to be able to build and infill we started with about a quarter of a rai to make it about 50 CM higher level.

Cost was at 70 baht per medium tipper lorry loads about 2 year ago.

 

From memory about 30 lorry loads I'll check with the Mrs for sure so you can calculate.

 

You would have to ask in your area for availability of landfill. 

 

We only put fence posts around our land with runs of barbwire, a wall was out of the question because of price. 

 

The landfill needs to consolidate for at least 3 months, we used a tractor to run over the infiled area and scrap it flat unless you pay more for heavy equipment which again was too expensive. 

 

As for PEA where l wanted electric was 120 metres away,  we got them to put a meter in, obviously at the main road on the power poles and I put a post and a metal box with a Chang isolator fused switch inside for them to connect to so it only cost the same as a house by the road. 

 

I then later run my own cables bought from Global House.

We were lucky enough to have an address already for the land because if you want supply from government water or PEA I seem to remember you need to get an address first, again best you check that within your area. 

 

Drainage would have to be designed to distribute within the land area.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

 

 

 

[LosLobo]

Back 10 years ago did a similar thing, in Issan 40 km from nearest 7/11, except it was 4 rai and part of which was to be used as a farm.

 

The closest power pole was about also 500 metres away.

 

I supplied the cable, FIL the poles (trees) and a local electrician strung the cable and powerboard cost all up about 25k baht.

 

I hired a excavator and 3X6 wheelers and they dug a pond 35x15x2 metres and used the fill to build up the driveway and house pad cost about 100k. A berm was also built around the pond.

 

The pond was half full of water the next day.

 

No retaining walls were built, the fill edges were stabilised with kikuyu and other plantings.

 

Dug a 30 metre bore for about 20k including pump.

 

The fill was levelled and compacted by local tractor 1K.

 

The footings of the house were only dug to original ground level, though it was only a wooden house.

 

It was a good experience though I wouldn't do it again. The peacefulness away from the mooban was great but the isolation eventually got to me.
 

[Halfaboy]

Very good info. I have plans to build a house on a 8 rai rice field. The land was excavated and somewhere in the middle is an elevation with a pool. The idea is to build a house next to the pool and leave the land as it is (rice field). I have the basics of the plan in my head, but need many ideas before it can be worked out to a final plan. Thanks for all the valuable contributions. 

[Boomer6969]

12 hours ago, rumak said:

A good wall around a rai of land will cost about 600 baht per linear meter LABOR,  and materials about that much as well  ( 2 meters high)

A good wall around a rai of land will cost about 600 baht per linear meter [to paint] ( 2 meters high)

[Kwasaki]

12 hours ago, bbabythai said:

If I did pay for x amount of trucks to raise the level of the land on 1 rai 

Re my post OP whoops , checked with Mrs it was 300 baht a lorry load for a bit under 1/4 rai and it was 30 lorries. 

 

So for 1 rai for us, dunno cost in your area, we would be looking at around 40,000 for a rai approx 50 CM higher.

[Kwasaki]

22 minutes ago, Halfaboy said:

Very good info. I have plans to build a house on a 8 rai rice field. The land was excavated and somewhere in the middle is an elevation with a pool. The idea is to build a house next to the pool and leave the land as it is (rice field). I have the basics of the plan in my head, but need many ideas before it can be worked out to a final plan. Thanks for all the valuable contributions. 

I would recommend you go a bit higher than your pond for the future ground level foundations of your house.

 

With all the funny weather with such heavy rains of late I've seen some people wishing they had built higher. 

[EVENKEEL]

This brings to mind a saying my mother had regarding owning land, "never own more land than you can have under your fingernails"

[Boomer6969]

3 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

This brings to mind a saying my mother had regarding owning land, "never own more land than you can have under your fingernails"

We are in Thailand Mate; can't own even that one.

[EVENKEEL]

8 minutes ago, Boomer6969 said:

We are in Thailand Mate; can't own even that one.

And still we keep on putting out money into land, amazing farang.

[Kwasaki]

17 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

And still we keep on putting out money into land, amazing farang.

I did 20 years ago put money into Thailand to retire,  I think being married like many of us, me for one is happy my much younger wife will not go back to being poor when peg it. 

[1FinickyOne]

As mentioned above - many of your questions need to be answered locally... we had to fill and build a wall for 3 rai and each step was more than we expected... even though we got a good deal on the dirt, it just took more truckloads than I might have imagined... 

 

good luck - houses in the rice fields have a nice aura about them

[EVENKEEL]

25 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

I did 20 years ago put money into Thailand to retire,  I think being married like many of us, me for one is happy my much younger wife will not go back to being poor when peg it. 

I did the same 11 yrs ago, but for every satisfied foreigner I'll bet there are a few who didn't get the dream they thought they were buying.

[1FinickyOne]

4 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

I'll bet there are a few who didn't get the dream they thought they were buying.

Dreams are wispy things by nature... expecting one to last a lifetime is not rational...

 

And dreams can become nightmares too... sometimes it just happens...  sleep well

1 hour ago, EVENKEEL said:

a saying my mother had regarding owning land, "never own more land than you can have under your fingernails"

Did she do the food prep in your home when growing up? 

[EVENKEEL]

6 minutes ago, 1FinickyOne said:

Dreams are wispy things by nature... expecting one to last a lifetime is not rational...

 

And dreams can become nightmares too... sometimes it just happens...  sleep well

Did she do the food prep in your home when growing up? 

We had a dairy where my mother did one milking a day, you do understand it's a whimsical saying.

[1FinickyOne]

22 minutes ago, EVENKEEL said:

We had a dairy where my mother did one milking a day, you do understand it's a whimsical saying.

of course, I do... and you do understand I was just being light-hearted in these difficult times

[1FinickyOne]

1 hour ago, EVENKEEL said:

We had a dairy where my mother did one milking a day, you do understand it's a whimsical saying.

There was a scene in a Woody Allen movie where his father, A Russian, had a prized possession, a piece of land... and he would carry it around under his jacket as it fit in the palm of his hand... and they zeroed in on him as he said joyfully, "some day I am going to build on this land!"