Advise for first time building a new house. What mistakes did you make, what would you (NOT) do again.

[TigerandDog]

23 hours ago, martijn12345 said:

Very good advise, thank you. I have yet to work out how many sockets I need. Sort of a next step thing now that we got the 2d/3d design 95% where we want it to be. Roof will be simple I'd say.

Shiny tiles in the living room, not slippery tiles in bathroom and kitchen. 2nd floor undecided for now, probably not shiny tiles or parket. Shiny tiles are easy to clean, but indeed slippery when wet.

Window security, as much as I hate them, will be there prison bars in front of the windows. My wife really wants them, and I have no better solution.

bad idea with the prison bars on the windows. Yes they may keep the bad guys out BUT you need to consider that they are also a potential prison/death trap for those inside the house in the event of a fire. We're building at the moment and my wife also wanted the prison bars until I explained the danger and showed her some videos ( Australian fire dept ) showing how people can get trapped inside, especially if upstairs, and die from toxic fumes because they are unable to get out of the house.  Also I would strongly suggest the use of autoclave bricks rather than the flimsy, poor quality clay bricks used here.

[Darkside Gray]

On 9/5/2021 at 2:57 PM, jak2002003 said:

We have had built 3 houses in Thailand over the years we have lived here. 

 

These are my tips.

 

1.  Double brick all the walls, especially the exterior ones.   This provides great insulation, sound proofing, and hides unsightly support columns.  

 

2.  Have high ceilings with high windows to let the heat rise and leave the house.

 

3.  Get good installation in the roof to keep the heat from the baking sun out.

 

4.  Big tall windows and doors for air flow. 

 

5.  Have the house positioned so no rooms are going to get the strong sun shining into them from midday and afternoon. 

 

6.  Use the thick grade aluminium for the window frames so they don't warp, get damaged..etc...

Agree with all points except no 6. Go with the good plastic windows from eorope

[Isaan sailor]

Just a couple of tips;

• Marble floors much cooler on your feet than tiled floors

• Grade A panel doors worth the extra cost.

• Watch counter heights in kitchens and baths.. Thai people are shorter, thus the 33” height standard in Thailand.  Your back will thank you

[bwanajohn]

Lots of good advise in the above

    Remember that the SSW side of the house will get very warm at the end of the day so if those are bed rooms make sure that 3Mt deck runs along there. Use Bamboo blinds on the deck at the rail edge ,cooling and creates a lovely ambience. I use the blinds to block sun in the winter when its low and to block  some of the heat rising up from the valley in the hot season. 

I prefer AAC block to double brick and I think it holds and transfers less heat.

   I vent the black water where it enters the house with two inch pipe up over the eave rather than the thai style  of a 1 inch pipe out the top the septic tank. I think its more effective. Grey water I forgot to put P traps in the shower but was able to buy some very neat little rubber things that fit in the drain and look like a heavy duty condoms with the end cut off ,They open when water flows and close back up when empty . We had abit of smell before we got those. I actually think alot of the smell in Thai bathrooms is from the grey water not the loo, where they are separate systems.

  I agree with not going for security bars . With battery powered tools B&E is simple as these days,

  a battery operated saw in  three minutes  can cut the whole lockset out of the wooden door or make whole large enough to reach in and unlock it all.

    My neighbours are adamant there are no thieves  in the village and all new faces are suspect, but they all have security bars.

  We have built several houses, 2 in Thailand one in NZ and 3 in Canada. The two in Thailand are in Chiang mai province at 1000metres above sea level so we have a very unique climate . A few nights in winter it gets down to close to frost 2C and lots of single digit nights and in the hot season 

it will hit 40. Not this year though because we had a very rainy April from the very first day,

   In the rainy season its consistently 19 to 21 at night and 26 to 30 in the day ...occassionally a couple degrees  hotter if the sun is out all day. We wanted a house that needed no heat or AC . Thats worked out quite well.  Our kitchen living dining is open air and in the dead of winter its too cold in the late evening in the open parts of the house so we retreat to the closed off rooms.

 Breakfast when its gone down to 2 at night is time to channel my inner Canadian spirit and put on my snugglies and a toque .It warms up pretty quick and we have a sunny spot on the back side of the house for morning coffee.

    Although not the most efficient use of materials a long narrow house one room thick allows great cross ventilation and the deck doubles as a hall ways. Rooms can be interconnected as per use.

    I think cavity walls would be the best and my next project will be a steel framed house with insulated cavity much like the stick frame they build in Canada.  A lot of people think insulation is just for the cold but it aint so. I think you can easily get close to R 20 with this method and nothing else will come close to that.

    With AAC block our rooms stay about 6 to 10C degrees cooler than the outside if we are conscientious about closing up during the day and opening in the evening but at some point in March  April it will get overwhelmed if we have a couple warm nights and hot hot days.

      I think our climate is unique here and so probably not everything will be applicable. I think our village has the highest above sea level hospital,high school and 7/11

 Good luck and have fun.

      Dont build two storeys with out a convection chimney and preferably an outdoor covered stair case . I ve rented two and three storey houses here and with out AC the upper floors are hot hot hot almost all day all year.

 Plant trees  lots of them

   My two satang ...hope it helps.

 

[millymoopoo]

We built (for the first time) in our local village about 30 km outside Chiang mai.

Points to consider:

1: If you other half is local get them to do all the negotiating, then after everything is settled step out of the shadows. Once the local builder realises it a farang they are building for, up goes the price by 50%.

2: The common building method for hundreds (possibly thousands) of years is 'post and beam', and the only modernisation of this method has been replacing teak with concrete. It's difficult for Thais to think out of the box.!

3: Consider 'slab' construction. This has significant advantages over the clay, earthquake prone region of Chang rai. Concrete 'post and beam' houses crack up with subsidence and/or a bit of a shake. A 150cm slab doesn't, it sits on top of the clay and when it moves it takes the whole house with it. 

4: Large ceiling space, with ventilation at both ceiling height and roof height, as well as lots of insulation and 1 or 2 large 'whirlybirds' in the roof. This, verandas an all sun facing aspects and the slab will help reduce you aircon bills dramaticly. Keeping the sun off the walls, the air circulating through the ceiling cavity and having the slab and thus the house in direct contact with the ground should go along way to keeping it cool in the hot months.

5: Thais have this thing about odd number of steps, our builder wanted the front door to be 7 steps up from ground level, OK if your young and fit, but Yai (Grandmother) is 89, 7 steps is ridiculous, we opted for 3. Any odd number is OK, If you're going to be there for a very long time maybe consider your future agility, maybe 3 steps would be better.?

6: If you do go post and beam, Thais have this stupid idea that the post needs to be on the inside, which leaves inside rooms with out flat walls, the post protrudes into the room, there is no reason for this, if you want flat walls inside, insist on the posts protruding out into the outside of the wall, so then it can even be made as a feature of the wall, and you have flat walls inside with standard corners, and thus furniture will go up flat against the wall or tucked into a corner.

7: And finally insist on trap drains, we did and the builder ignored us, so all the bathrooms smelt of sewerage because the hand basins and shower recesses were plumbed directly into the septic tank with straight pipe, when we showed the builder he had agreed to trap drains he was most pxxxed off at having to dig up the shower recesses and replumb them with traps, at least the hand basins were less of a hassle to fit traps to.

There's lots of other tips, well covered by other members here.

Good luck with it.

[Stevemercer]

Most Thai built houses have a 1 metre wide concrete path around the house starting from the house wall.

 

We left a one metre gap between the wall and the concrete pathway, allowing us to plant flowers, shrubs and small shade trees next to the house. It also means that the plumbing lines aren't buried beneath the concrete and you can easily dig them up if there is a leak or something. I also suspect it might be a little cooler having greenery next the house rather than bare concrete. It certainly looks better.

[GreasyFingers]

On 9/5/2021 at 3:53 PM, martijn12345 said:

Uhm... got 0 idea about this. I was thinking to maybe in the future, get a gutter installed at 1 place, and use that to collect rainwater to use for the plants. I think we gonna raise the land 50 cm, but thats all... I think. Am I missing something hugely important?

 

The first thing to solve in any construction is where the rain water will go as @Hummin has said. It is most important if you do not want water problems in wet season.

As you know nothing about building and the methods that should be used you are very, very lucky. The most common expression from me in our build was "you cannot be that stupid".

[Cake Monster]

My Wife and I built our own House just outside of Pattaya.

Mistakes, there were many.

The most obvious one , that we were not on site enough to oversee the Quality of Building work.

Also there was a fair amount of theft while we not there.

Things such as Ceramic tiles for Bathrooms, Roof tiles and Metal, Electrical wire and fittings, and much more .

The usual excuse for all this theft was " I did not work it out correctly "

Well, I did, and thats how I know its theft.

As a plus to all this, check the Invoices for Materials, and accept only those on a reputably Company Heading, or source your own... just ask Builder what he needs and when

 

[rwill]

I would make sure all the sockets have a proper ground/earth.

 

Also I would use floor drains that have the spring loaded flap to close when no water is draining.  Keeps odors and critters out of the house.

 

Since others were talking about warranties, this is landy homes:

(landyhome.co.th)

 

 

Edited September 6, 2021 by rwill

[transam]

I bought land with a choice of 2 house designs from a local developer 14 years back . After being shown a show house, I altered the room layout for my build. I also did away with an entrance door because the staircase rake angle was ridiculous, I also showed them the places I wanted earthed wall outlets, there were loads of them, to be no extension leads.

 

It actually went well, but I was there near every day, if I wasn't, I am sure problems.... 

[Peterphuket]

The biggest mistake I made when i built my house 12 years ago, was that I didn't build it on stilts from about 1 mtr high.

If so you can always get under the house if you have problems with, for example, the drains.

My experience as an older person, you must have built at least 3 houses, before you have the perfect house.

[sometimewoodworker]

On 9/5/2021 at 3:34 PM, martijn12345 said:

Window security, as much as I hate them, will be there prison bars in front of the windows. My wife really wants them, and I have no better solution.

Really good quality window frames with 1.5mm laminated glass will give much better security than the visual monkey bars, one of our rooms is here

.

It is certainly safe when the windows an doors are closed. This is the same glass used in places like diplomatic homes if the don’t need to be bulletproof, just burglar resistant.
However the most common entry point is actually through the roof tiles

 

But you are probably not going to change your wife’s mind.

[hanuman2543]

If possible buy aircons which can cool and heat if you want to avoid making fire outside during winter. In Chiang Rai the winters can be quiet cool.

[elcaro]

On 9/5/2021 at 2:15 PM, martijn12345 said:

 

We already have a piece of land, we have contacted 3, hopefully reliable companies in the area (Chiangrai)

I'm currently building my house near bandu with a construction company called C&E if you PM me I can send you some pictures. Happy with them so far

[choff56]

2 hours ago, Isaan sailor said:

Just a couple of tips;

• Marble floors much cooler on your feet than tiled floors

• Grade A panel doors worth the extra cost.

• Watch counter heights in kitchens and baths.. Thai people are shorter, thus the 33” height standard in Thailand.  Your back will thank you

While on the subject of counters, a 4"(10cm) recessed toe kick will be a lot more comfortable.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 9/5/2021 at 8:34 PM, martijn12345 said:

Very good advise, thank you. I have yet to work out how many sockets I need. Sort of a next step thing now that we got the 2d/3d design 95% where we want it to be. Roof will be simple I'd say.

Shiny tiles in the living room, not slippery tiles in bathroom and kitchen. 2nd floor undecided for now, probably not shiny tiles or parket. Shiny tiles are easy to clean, but indeed slippery when wet.

Window security, as much as I hate them, will be there prison bars in front of the windows. My wife really wants them, and I have no better solution.

Your wife is a wise woman.

[thaibeachlovers]

2 hours ago, Stevemercer said:

Most Thai built houses have a 1 metre wide concrete path around the house starting from the house wall.

 

We left a one metre gap between the wall and the concrete pathway, allowing us to plant flowers, shrubs and small shade trees next to the house. It also means that the plumbing lines aren't buried beneath the concrete and you can easily dig them up if there is a leak or something. I also suspect it might be a little cooler having greenery next the house rather than bare concrete. It certainly looks better.

All this talk of plumbing reminds me of the outside bathroom my BIL made for me when I moved to the family house. There was a problem with the outflow from the basin. Some time later I was putting pavers around the bathroom  and had dug up the ground to put sand under the pavers. I discovered the end of the outflow pipe stopped a few feet from the bathroom and didn't lead anywhere except dirt!

[jak2002003]

4 hours ago, Darkside Gray said:

Agree with all points except no 6. Go with the good plastic windows from eorope

Yes that could be a good idea.  Having never used them I can not comment 

 

Do they last a long time and are they resistant to the sun here without the white colour turning yellow? 

 

I would be interested to try them if we do another house. 

[Jen65]

If tiling inside (or marble) always put half a tile up around the inside edge !  makes cleaning and mopping out much easier and no marks on the walls .

Thai's have a habit of either not aligning the toilet drain properly with the pipe or fail to install the proper seal between both ! I have seen them just caulk up around the toilet base thinking that would be watertight !!!  Result - blocked toilet / bad smells !! Watch this.

Another issue is with tiling - many amateur builders don't use tile spacers and just stick the tiles edge to edge - completely useless if there is the slightest subsidence or movement as the new house settles - the tiles will crack .  Ensure you you use tile spacers and grout.      

[zzzzz]

On 9/5/2021 at 3:03 PM, martijn12345 said:

Thanks very useful. 1 and 5 we have designed the house so that rooms used in the daytime are kind of shielded from the strong sun from west/south side. Also on these sides the outside walls are double indeed. North and east are single, as they get less heat. 

ceiling high discussed so far is 280 cm. They told the real hight will be 3. then 20 above the ceiling is used for cables, aircon ducts and so on. Recon this is okay, or advice to push it to 300 cm?

3 and 6. I will ask in more detail what they plan to use for this and if it will do

Thanks!
 

 2nd house; 1st was in Phuket
this one in Kep Cambodia
my ceilings in house i am building now is 300, the drop ceiling will be at 280. plenty high enough

double bricked  YEP

Cables under for sockets under the tiles an in pvc< ground ur electricty ( all plugs are 3 prong)

built in kitchen exhaust fan above stove

Gable vents help with the heat in the attic

use induvial hot water heaters, those big ones eat up electricity

make sure ur land is elevated when the rains hit

Rain gutters and store the rain water in thee inexpensive cement open barrels u see everywhere, fun to shower outside and good clean water

in Phuket had large aluminum windows, no bars, Unfortunately  you NEED bars in Cambodia  ;-(
sliding door for bathroom
STORAGE - CLOSETS ( doors open OUT) < something severely lacking in most homes

set up all ur internal water runs thru a good outside water filter

run cables for ur internet/sat dish (if ur going to get one) same as ur electrical wires, under the floor
put ur gas tank for stove outside in a metal lockable cage

be on site for the all the finale work and from start check on a few times daily

 

make sure in ur building contract you dont pay the finale % ( mine was 10%) until 30 days after you move in!!

I paid 30% up front than 20-20-20 as the building progressed>

 

My phuket build was 1 month over and in contract we had that 25,000 paid for every month over the stated time

My Cambodia build will come in on time  ????

 

 

 

 

[khunPer]

On 9/5/2021 at 9:15 AM, martijn12345 said:

What I am looking for is experience from others, what mistakes have you made, what would you have done differently in hindsight, what should we really not overlook. Any input is very welcome! Thanks all in advance.

There are already a couple of very good threads here in ASEAN NOW forums with a number of excellent advises about building a house in Thailand, from first idea and layout, choice of materials and labor, till finish and products to choose.

 

Take a look in the Thailand Real Estate Forum and especially the sub-forum Real Estate, housing, house and land ownership, or use a search function, Google might work well if you end the search-sentence with "site:aseannow.com", and "site:forum.thaivisa.com" for older postings.

 

A quick look at a few topics, which might be of your interest (I have posted about drawings in this thread's page 3)...

and

There might also be good advises to find in local forums, for example like this one (I have posted about my personal house-building experiences in this thread, might be worth reading)...

Some other interested threads about hoses construction (I also commented in them)...

 

What mistakes have you made...

The mistake I made was to believe that plumbers are plumbers, but actually anybody that can glue two blue pipers together is considered a plumber in Thailand, so I regret I didn't seek more knowledge in that field...????

 

What would you have done differently in hindsight...

In the always unbearable crystal bright light of hindsight I would have made my house's plumbing different...????

 

What should we really not overlook...

What you really shall "overlook" - i.e. meaning "have a view of from above" - is the building project, so you don't end up with a nice make-up - cement and paint can cover a lot - and find the headache problems a few years later.

Think of maintenance from the beginning, things don't last for ever, in Thailand things sometimes have a shorter life than you expect. Your are the one that is going to take care for maintenance, or at least pay for it, so make it simple to get to stuff that won't last for ever.

 

A very good book to read for preparation to build a house in Thailand is: How to Buy Land and Build a House in Thailand by Philip Bryce (Paiboon Publishing). You can find the book in book stores selling English language books, or order it online fx. HERE. That book helped me a lot, especially to understand what I should look for, and not overlook; unfortunately I skipped most of the plumbing part, leaving that to the experts...????

 

 

 

[desktop]

Build the minimum for your comfort.  Don't overdo it or you will lose baht.  You'll thank me later.

[bbko]

Never pay or give the handy-man, contactor, electrician, plumber etc. the full amount up front or large sums of money to buy materials.  My neighbor told me when he hired a team to install a new roof he foolishly gave the head roofer a large sum of money to go buy materials, the head roofer ran off and was never heard from again.

[HeijoshinCool]

.

 

Make sure light switches are properly located, where you enter a room, not on the other side, or behind a door.

 

Locate outlets 18" above floor, not high up on the wall where unsightly cords will drape from. Obvious exceptions, kitchen and bath.

 

Consider not tiling floors if you'd like to save money. Polished concrete is beautiful and long-wearing and can be colored, and is being accepted by more and more Thais (for resale consideration) but can always be easily tiled over if buyer desires.

 

Vinyl click plank flooring is very nice, too. Just be sure you get the thicker planks that have a rubber backer and are 100% waterproof. Good looking and very pleasant to bare feet.

 

Consider hiring a third party to monitor building. 

[OneMoreFarang]

I didn't make this mistake but I read about it in a novel and I won't forget it.

Make sure you have enough small and big storage spaces, i.e. for cleaning equipment like a vacuum cleaner and things like that. Some of us, and I include myself, never use those things and have no idea where they are stored. But the are used by those house elves and they store them somewhere. ????

[2009]

Don't be nice and bring the workers drinks, they will just leave bottles everwhere to get buried.

[thaibeachlovers]

12 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Really good quality window frames with 1.5mm laminated glass will give much better security than the visual monkey bars, one of our rooms is here

.

It is certainly safe when the windows an doors are closed. This is the same glass used in places like diplomatic homes if the don’t need to be bulletproof, just burglar resistant.
However the most common entry point is actually through the roof tiles

 

But you are probably not going to change your wife’s mind.

Given that I did not have AC in the living room, and I had all the windows open, safety glass isn't going to stop an opportunist burgular entering while I'm in the bathroom, or kitchen. I'll go with bars, thanks.

[thaibeachlovers]

8 hours ago, HeijoshinCool said:

Locate outlets 18" above floor, not high up on the wall where unsightly cords will drape from.

Not a good idea in areas that might flood. My wife's aunt had a tide mark on her walls over my head. That's not saying to put outlets over head height, but hopefully normal floods will not be too high.

[thaibeachlovers]

9 hours ago, zzzzz said:

Cables under for sockets under the tiles an in pvc< ground ur electricty ( all plugs are 3 prong)

Don't forget to check that the other end of the earth wire is connected to a proper earth, and not a single 1 foot steel rod. An earth plug only works if the earth is actually an earth.

[misterphil]

On 9/5/2021 at 6:53 AM, martijn12345 said:

Uhm... got 0 idea about this. I was thinking to maybe in the future, get a gutter installed at 1 place, and use that to collect rainwater to use for the plants. I think we gonna raise the land 50 cm, but thats all... I think. Am I missing something hugely important?

 

We raised our land 1 meter and built our house 50cm off the ground to make sure we never get flooded out. We were flooded out when we rented a house in Najomtien so we made sure that would never happen. 
 

All depends where your land is off the road. Make sure its higher than the road leading to your house as the drains will be level with the road.