Building a new house in Isaan

Encid · July 22, 2023

And then the back-hoe got to work preparing the surface.

These photos are from yesterday... 21st July, and you can see the result of the recent rains.

Encid · July 22, 2023

We have also negotiated with our next-door neighbour (my wife's sister) to obtain a small amount of land next to their farm to enable us to install some sliding gates at our boundary wall.

We will be extending the existing 2m high RC slat panel wall one more bay (2.5m) then erecting a couple of 40x40cm square columns 4m apart to act as the gate supports, then add a couple more bays of the 2m high RC slat panel wall which will hide the gate when it is in the open position.

The 2m high gate will be electrically operated by a 220V motor inside the gate and controlled by hand-held battery-operated remote controllers.

TimeMachine · July 22, 2023

1 hour ago, Encid said:

I also used CAD to indicate the type of finished surfaces we want on the outside of the building.

Using AutoCAD I referenced in an aerial photo I had taken with the drone, then drew lines and text etc. on top of the raster image to show our builder what we want.

I had already calculated the areas required for the "copy stone" and "copy wood" surfaces, added 10% for contingency, and ordered the material from Thaiwatsadu... they get delivered to site early next week.

After discussions with our builder we agreed to do this work after the uPVC windows and doors have been installed, so there are no complications from incorrect positioning of any cladding.

Just out of interest, this particular photo was taken at midday on July 4... which was about 10 days after the solar solstice.

This particular solstice means that the Earth's Northern Hemisphere has tilted as far as it can toward the sun and the sun's rays are reaching as far North as they possibly can, giving us the maximum amount of sunlight we will get all year.

Our build location is about 16° North... and you can see from the shadows in the photo that the North face of our building is receiving some direct sunlight (albeit minimal and only for a short duration).

As my grandmother used to say.

Da wall, She noa lookada straight

Muhendis · July 22, 2023

6 hours ago, HighPriority said:

Then the PEA charge rate will change from temporary to residential.

I hate being a pessimist but it took us seven years to get put on residential rate. Mind you there were plenty of ready reasons for PEA to hide behind. The main one seemed to be that there was neither road nor posts for the PEA to run their cables from the last post in the village to our house. A distance of 1km. We also had to have at least 5 other houses needing supply along the 1km route. Not a problem for me because I had 8kw of off grid raw solar power which only required two sets of batteries in that time and, because of the temporary supply rate, payback was within the first 5 years. When PEA eventually ran our supply on their posts along the new government road to our house. I recovered all the old cables (2km Al 25mm²) and got a good price for some scrap and some resale to some of the villagers. It was a bit of a pain getting some of the cables out of the trees though. Trees do have a habit of inconveniently growing around them.

Encid · July 22, 2023

Just now, Muhendis said:

I hate being a pessimist but it took us seven years to get put on residential rate.

I hope that ours will be considerably quicker than that.

It was the PEA that made the suggestion originally... ie. a temporary meter and rate.

I posted about it here back in March 2022.

I believe that all we have to do is to apply to the local government for a house number, then a rep will inspect the property and in particular the sewerage plans and details, then we can notify the PEA, then they will change the charge rate.

All the power poles and cable from the PEA meter on their pole to our guest house were paid for by me... and they are not on public land.

Encid · July 22, 2023

Just now, TimeMachine said:

As my grandmother used to say.

Da wall, She noa lookada straight

I can assure you that all walls are perfectly straight and vertical.

I know... because I used a laser level to verify them (as did the builder too).

sometimewoodworker · July 22, 2023

1 hour ago, Muhendis said:

I hate being a pessimist but it took us seven years to get put on residential rate. Mind you there were plenty of ready reasons for PEA to hide behind.

You were in a rather unusual situation. The majority of people are quite close to a PEA supply. For us it was so much so that while we had a temporary PEA supply we also had a direct supply from our neighbour (we paid the full bill) so the vast majority of our build was using the standard rate.

When we swapped from the temporary supply to the permanent one it was just a case of arranging for a PEA visit so days or at most a week or 2

Muhendis · July 22, 2023

7 hours ago, phetpeter said:

The problem with insulation it works both ways, when the house heats up from the walls and open door ways etc., the insulation holds the heat in. but, thank the lord for AC., and later when you hear the little feet running around making nests in the insulation. still give it a few years and you will accept that nature wants to share your home with you. Welcome the yard dog to help keep thing low key.

A great dog for protecting your room agaist snakes ,rats certain birds and drunks.

In our village we have a dog looks just like that. His name........Covid. Poor b'gr.

Muhendis · July 22, 2023

3 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You were in a rather unusual situation.

Ha.

You can say that again. It hastened my solar installation which I did within a few weeks of moving in.

Because our temporary meter was 1km from the house and well beyond direct observation, uncle Tom Cobley and all were trying to "borrow" our temporary 'lectric.

The temporary power and the temporary road gave us the feeling of being comfortably well away from the smoke and noise of the village.

TimeMachine · July 22, 2023

2 hours ago, Encid said:

I can assure you that all walls are perfectly straight and vertical.

I know... because I used a laser level to verify them (as did the builder too).

Haha. Yeah Im sure. Just a classic Aussie joke amongst builders. This ensures everybody goes overboard to make sure everything is straight as a dead eye dick. Looks good.

HighPriority · July 23, 2023

22 hours ago, Encid said:

We have also negotiated with our next-door neighbour (my wife's sister) to obtain a small amount of land next to their farm to enable us to install some sliding gates at our boundary wall.

We will be extending the existing 2m high RC slat panel wall one more bay (2.5m) then erecting a couple of 40x40cm square columns 4m apart to act as the gate supports, then add a couple more bays of the 2m high RC slat panel wall which will hide the gate when it is in the open position.

The 2m high gate will be electrically operated by a 220V motor inside the gate and controlled by hand-held battery-operated remote controllers.

You’re not going for a solar gate motor/controller ?

Encid · July 23, 2023

Just now, HighPriority said:

You’re not going for a solar gate motor/controller ?

Eventually all our domestic electricity will be solar powered... however initially (or until we get our house number and the PEA changes our usage rate) I will not be installing any visible PV panels.

We may have a few solar-powered lights dotted around the property and perimeter wall, but nothing too serious.

I'd rather give the PEA nothing to be concerned about when they visit our property so we have the greatest chance of keeping our existing spinning disk meter.

Most electric gate openers range from 370W to 1200W (depending on the weight of the gate that it has to move) so it is definitely an item that would benefit from being powered by solar power.

Encid · July 23, 2023

18 hours ago, Muhendis said:

Because our temporary meter was 1km from the house and well beyond direct observation, uncle Tom Cobley and all were trying to "borrow" our temporary 'lectric.

Our temporary meter is also about 1km from the house, but we do have a clear and direct line of sight to it.

Rather than walk across the rice fields to take a look at it, I have used the drone on a couple of occasions to fly over and zoom in on the meter to determine the current reading.

Because it is out in the open on a public road it would be easy to spot if someone was trying to "borrow" our power.

HighPriority · July 23, 2023

13 minutes ago, Encid said:

Eventually all our domestic electricity will be solar powered... however initially (or until we get our house number and the PEA changes our usage rate) I will not be installing any visible PV panels.

We may have a few solar-powered lights dotted around the property and perimeter wall, but nothing too serious.

I'd rather give the PEA nothing to be concerned about when they visit our property so we have the greatest chance of keeping our existing spinning disk meter.

Most electric gate openers range from 370W to 1200W (depending on the weight of the gate that it has to move) so it is definitely an item that would benefit from being powered by solar power.

I’ve only had a solar 12v gate opener for about 12 months, but it’s been great so far, whereas I’ve heard that 240v installations can be prone to lightning strikes.

Encid · July 23, 2023

Just now, HighPriority said:

I’ve only had a solar 12v gate opener for about 12 months, but it’s been great so far, whereas I’ve heard that 240v installations can be prone to lightning strikes.

Nice installation :thumbsup:

Looking at the road quality in your photo, the reflective markers on the posts either side, the overhead power lines arrangement, and the gum trees in the background etc. I'd hazard a guess at being located somewhere in Oz... one of the Eastern states perchance?

Is that a LiFePO4 battery I see next to the inverter in the control housing?

sometimewoodworker · July 23, 2023

26 minutes ago, Encid said:

Most electric gate openers range from 370W to 1200W (depending on the weight of the gate that it has to move) so it is definitely an item that would benefit from being powered by solar power.

While the gate’s motors are indeed quite high consumers, unless you are opening and closing the gate very often, the actual power usage is minimal as they are probably using less than 1~2 units per month.

HighPriority · July 23, 2023

4 minutes ago, Encid said:

Nice installation

Looking at the road quality in your photo, the reflective markers on the posts either side, the overhead power lines arrangement, and the gum trees in the background etc. I'd hazard a guess at being located somewhere in Oz... one of the Eastern states perchance?

Is that a LiFePO4 battery I see next to the inverter in the control housing?

Prepare to be shocked, this is Humpty Doo NT, sort of grown up ????

The gate controller is the left box, the battery (x 2 I think) is in the right hand box and I couldn’t tell you if they’re lithium or AGM.

I do know they’re those “motorcycle” sized battery’s.

The big cost here on 5 Acres is the cost of getting 240v to the gate, so the solar units have really taken off in recent years.

Muhendis · July 23, 2023

1 hour ago, Encid said:

determine the current reading.

Nice pun. :thumbsup:

Encid · August 1, 2023

We were on site again on 25th July as the Mazuma water filtration system I had bought was to be installed.

It was a surprise to me as I was under the impression when I bought them that I would be installing them myself, but apparently the installation by Mazuma including first fills were free.

It is a relatively simple filtration system to make our raw water supply from the bore cleaner, clearer, and softer... but will not be used for drinking purposes.

The raw water is supplied via a 1" PVC pipe, which is then passed through the filters into a 2000L water storage tank which has an internal float valve fitted, then the filtered water is then pumped to the house via D32 PPR piping.

The individual filtration components are as follows:

1 x CLEANFLOW 10G-R30 (BLACK) 30 micron particle Filter

1 x B19 DB AUTO FLOW-RS 20L Resin Filter +SAT100 salt regen tank

1 x B19 DB AUTO FLOW-CB 20L Activated Carbon Filter

Encid · August 1, 2023

We also were paid a surprise visit by the PEA, who told us that there was a problem (without being specific) and they wanted to inspect our wiring.

Our builder was on site too so we were quite happy for them to come in and look around.

After inspecting all the connections from the meter to the consumer unit they left, but called my wife the following day saying that there was still a problem and that they could fix it for a fee.

My wife told them not to bother as it was our builder's responsibility to find and rectify any and all faults, and that we would not be paying any extra money for them to come and fix it.

Our builder was 100% agreeable with this.

Encid · August 1, 2023

As the PEA had not been specific about the "electrical problem" I was suspicious of their motives and reasoning... I observed them walking around our property and they were taking a good look at everything including the roof (possibly looking for solar panels?).

I heard one of them mention the word "solar" and our builder was quick to point to our solar powered bore water pump about 200m away across the rice fields, and they were pretty dismissive in their manner, so I gathered that that wasn't what they were looking for.

After they left, I drove around to the meter box (about 2km by car) and look a look to see if there were signs of anyone "borrowing" our power, but there were none.

However, I was alarmed at the speed that the disk on the meter was turning...

The rattle noise in the background is from the Mitsu Pajero behind me, but have you ever seen a meter spin so fast?

I reckon that the cables (and earthing rod) were reconnected incorrectly after last year when they all fell down during the wet season.

I reckon that they have gotten their wires crossed and have incorrectly connected the earth to the active incoming feed instead of the neutral feed.

I reckon we have an earth leakage somewhere... any other guesses?

As all the workers are now on holidays for the 6 day weekend, our builder has promised to fix it immediately after the holidays.

I think that I will also be presenting him with the electricity bill when it comes later this month.

Encid · August 1, 2023

And while we were there I took the drone to perform a brief flyaround to capture the progress to date:

Muhendis · August 1, 2023

Your meter is doing what mine did after the village "expert" reconnected my power ever so slightly incorrectly. PEA would have spotted this if they had thought about it.

The problem is that you have 1km of 25mm ali wire which is effectively running from the meter live to earth/neutral at your house. Taking into account the resistance of that 1km wire you are running about 4kw continuously. Meter very happy with go fast stripes.

Swap live and neutral at the meter or the house isolator and all should be well.

PEA were trying to help. They simply didn't first consider the obvious.

I had problems explaining my similar miss-connection to them. They insisted on checking the cables artistically draped through 1km of trees from the meter to my house which, of course, were quite faultless. Like all engineers, including me sometimes, they were looking for a more interesting and complex problem.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Muhendis

Elkski · August 1, 2023

You can see why most Thailand build blogs suggest to be onsite most days. Thet can get a bunch done in one day. Meaning they can hide lots of shoddy workmanship. Your builder is a saint and should get lots of falang business from this thread.

That must have neen real disappointing to have the ac lines so low and that ceiling under the beams. Totally different looks. Where or how do you think those features didnt get communicated to the installers? It seems like the ceiling guy would surely look to the drawings? I can see these aircin guys running things the easiest way. And to think this is the guest house! Excellent info and blog

Elkski · August 1, 2023

As far as tiling goes. I use a ledger board on the wall and start on row #2. Then patch , waterproof, the screw holes and then do the floor and then the last lower row of wall tile. Much less change of floor tile damage. But you do need to protect the waterproof material thats in the floor. Of course all change of plane joints need a flexible joint not grout. If you do the floor first one drop of a tool could chip a tile. Removing a chipped tile will most likely damage the drainage plane material. Big difference in most of USA is that the structure is not 100% cement. We rely on a real water barrier on the walls and floor that are connected to the drain assembly. Some use waterproof paint on coatings but i use the Schluter ditra membrane type material and integral drains. All cement products are permeable. Epoxy grout is very good but cracks in all grouts and sealants will occur. I see signs of water seepage from the bathroom above in many condos and hotels in Thailand where they set tile directly on cement thinking its somehow waterproof.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Elkski

Encid · August 2, 2023

18 hours ago, Muhendis said:

Swap live and neutral at the meter or the house isolator and all should be well.

Thanks for the suggestion @Muhendis

I will convey that to the builder immediately.

I know that they are returning to site tomorrow morning after the holiday.

I will be there the week after next as the uPVC windows and doors will be arriving, and I want to make sure that everything is fitted correctly, the right way around, and in it's correct location.

Encid · August 2, 2023

17 hours ago, Elkski said:

You can see why most Thailand build blogs suggest to be onsite most days. Thet can get a bunch done in one day. Meaning they can hide lots of shoddy workmanship. Your builder is a saint and should get lots of falang business from this thread.

That must have neen real disappointing to have the ac lines so low and that ceiling under the beams. Totally different looks. Where or how do you think those features didnt get communicated to the installers? It seems like the ceiling guy would surely look to the drawings? I can see these aircin guys running things the easiest way. And to think this is the guest house! Excellent info and blog

Thank you. :wai:

Yes I would have liked to have been on site more, but my other house and business meant that I could not, hence regular visits at regular intervals.

Having the in-laws take photos of progress and sending them daily gave me a good idea of progress and problem areas, and we were able to discuss the issues in the evening with our builder using the LINE app.

Regular meetings and discussions on site with the builder included progress, rectification, plans, modifications etc. and it all has gone pretty well so far.

For sure there have been mistakes but what job (especially house building) ever goes 100% error-free?

The most important thing for me was to restrain myself and not get frustrated... I continually remind myself that the workers are not university or trades-school graduates, and that their experience is an on-going learning process, so some aspects of our build may have been new to them.

Our builder is very accommodating, and does not get upset or angry... and has never knocked back a request to change or rectify anything due to construction errors on the part of his team... I highly recommend him if anyone else is considering building within 100km of Khon Kaen city.

He has also been fair with his pricing for extras, which we have negotiated with him to a standard rate of cost plus 10%, which I feel is very reasonable.

If anyone is interested in using him please send me a PM and I will forward his contact details to you.

Yes... this is our guest house... and I intend to be living in it full-time and being on site every single day when the time comes to build our main house. :wink:

Encid · August 3, 2023

Our building site experienced a strong local storm last night... the temporary accommodation for the workers suffered as a result, and they took refuge in our carport.

Thankfully nobody was hurt.

Encid · August 3, 2023

Time to talk about our 3 internal doors... we have 1 for the bedroom which is 90cm wide, 1 for the bathroom which is 80cm wide, and 1 to exit the house to the Thai Kitchen on the south side deck outside, and all are 220cm (or 2.2m) high.

This is the style of door that we wanted, as it closely resembled the kitchen cabinets and would provide a nice modern appearance combined with our 3m high ceiling line as opposed to the typical 200 cm high doors that you see on display in ThaiWatsadu etc.:

Unfortunately despite the big stores advertising on their websites that non-standard door sizes can be made to order, they won't do it.

Anything that is not either 70, 80, or 90cm wide and 200 cm high... forget it.

They are not interested.

Our builder recommended getting the doors custom made in seasoned timber with a melamine finish to get the results that we wanted.

He said that they will fit perfectly and will only cost a little bit more than the composite doors that they sell in the big stores (although he hasn't exactly mentioned how much extra they will be).

So we agreed, and he went off to get the custom doors and frames made.

This is the colour/finish that we selected: