Building a new house in Isaan

[farmerjo]

18 hours ago, MJCM said:

That Vehicle access could be anywhere. Why?

 

Because in the Rice Harvest season they uses Rice Field dividers to cross from 1 field into another and they don't care if there is a Power Cable hanging a bit low ????

Higher the better for safety of course.

My tallest tractor(6610) and harvester(dc-70) come in at just under 3 metres in height.

The 5.5 metres would be for a lorry full of sugar.

[Encid]

Another visit to the farm last week and with all the heavy rain this year the grass is doing very well and we have no erosion problems.

The vetiver is even flowering!

A quick run around with a whipper-snipper (or weed-whacker) on a regular basis keeps the boundary clear and our wall prominent.

 

 

 

 

 

We will continue to wait for the land to settle before we start building.

 

[Encid]

Next on the agenda is to plan the entry ramp to the site (and an exit ramp into the farm).

 

It needs to be concrete and not too steep as one of our vehicles has low suspension (factory built) and we are also thinking of buying a small 4 wheel electric bike for trips into the village, so both need to be able to manage the changes in grade without scraping on the underside.

The ramp will also need to be wide enough to allow farming equipment to access the farm for crops preparation and cultivation as well as harvesting.

Currently only rice is being grown so tractors are the only machinery accessing the farm, but we would like to consider alternative crops in the future so alternative vehicles might need access.

 

I am thinking about using some kind of geotextile to lay over the soil after levelling and compaction (it is a very sandy loam), then a 50mm layer of crushed rock, followed by a second geotextile layer, followed by compacted sand, then finally reinforced concrete.

 

My concerns are not so much about water permeability and drainage, but with stabilizing the geotechnical structure and increasing the soil shear strength capacity.

 

Has anyone got any experience or ideas on this subject?

[MJCM]

We, for our entrance road, use something called "Hin Kluk" (หินคลุก)

 

It's Stone (smallish) mixed with fine crushed stone / sand and when it settles and is compacted (so cars driving over it) it is can become as hard as concrete. The only issue we have is because of the rains the soil on which we put the "Hin Kluk" can get washed away if the soil underneath is not completely settled yet, but just get another truck in (we paid 3m³ for 1800 THB) and put that over the old surface. Maybe have to do that for another 1-2 years and then it will last a long time.

 

Any builder merchant that sells stone, sand etc for construction should have it!

 

It's a lot cheaper then just stone, but we got better result from this then just stone (size 3/4) we used for the rest of the property (which we laid on geotextile)

 

[sometimewoodworker]

14 minutes ago, MJCM said:

The only issue we have is because of the rains the soil on which we put the "Hin Kluk" can get washed away if the soil underneath is not completely settled yet, but just get another truck in (we paid 3m³ for 1800 THB) and put that over the old surface. Maybe have to do that for another 1-2 years and then it will last a long time.

The answer to the stone and rock disappearing is not that it gets washed away, it doesn’t it sinks into the earth, but before laying the rock/stone dust put down blue plastic and put the stone on that. If you have builders stone then you can use a 60% or higher shade cloth.

 

that is what we have done on our drive way and car port and the rock can migrate so needs to be raked but after 6 years it’s still there, though with added grass ???? 

[unheard]

2 hours ago, MJCM said:

Maybe have to do that for another 1-2 years and then it will last a long time.

How long has it been since the rock placement?

[unheard]

2 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

before laying the rock/stone dust put down blue plastic and put the stone on that.

How would plastic help with his problem?

I don't see any plastic being placed under crushed rock during roads construction.

[MJCM]

30 minutes ago, unheard said:

How long has it been since the rock placement?

Less then 2 years since we live here.

 

The Road is approx 1m higher at the main road and it slopes down.

But the total Road has been raised approx 2-2,5m this was farm land before we build on it.

 

Here some pictures (also please note there is a 60(ish)cm Water pipe laying under the road because on the left there is a small lake and that connects to the rice fields and flows via "our pipe" to the lake which is in front of the house

 

 

 

[unheard]

21 minutes ago, MJCM said:

Less then 2 years since we live here.

You might have a problem if that section continues to sink this time next year.

[sometimewoodworker]

51 minutes ago, unheard said:

How would plastic help with his problem?

I don't see any plastic being placed under crushed rock during roads construction.

Did you actually read my post??? Because the answer is there

 

You obviously haven’t watched many roads being built as plastic is part of the construction.

 

You also don’t see crushed rock being placed on bare soil in road building do you?

[MJCM]

14 minutes ago, unheard said:

You might have a problem if that section continues to sink this time next year.

We already had a "small problem" with a smallish "sink" hole on the side close to the edge where the sand underneath had eroded and some edges where also dangerously loose.

 

But totally NO issues on the "tracks" the cars normally take to enter.

 

Problem easily solved be adding more stones and trying to compact it as good as we can, but as it was very close to the edge did not dare to drive over it.

 

Builder said, the soil below is getting washed away and if we keep filling it up (with this mix) for the next 1-2 years it will last along time.

 

Fortunately that Hin Kluk is cheap, but if the problem gets bigger / worse we will pour 10-15cm of concrete hardened with steel mesh over the whole "access road" (would need approx 4,5m³  of concrete)

[HighPriority]

I was surprised OP went with power poles to bring the electricity in, did you investigate trenching it in ?

[unheard]

15 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

You obviously haven’t watched many roads being built as plastic is part of the construction.

Plastic or geotextiles?

 

[MJCM]

7 minutes ago, HighPriority said:

I was surprised OP went with power poles to bring the electricity in, did you investigate trenching it in ?

Did you see on what the put the Power Poles????

 

Hint: On Rice Fields dividers!

 

Whatif he trenched it in and some farmer wants to dig an opening to let water go from one field to the next and he hit the 220V power cables which the OP had trenched in. Could result in Instant electrocution!

 

Edit: Even if he put it in HDPE conduit it is no match against those tools the Farmers use to dig holes. (Tried that with 40MM HDPE, it went straight through)!

 

One of these I mean

 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

2 minutes ago, unheard said:

Plastic or geotextiles?

 

Plastic 

[MJCM]

Just now, sometimewoodworker said:

Plastic 

Our main road in front of the property was just recently build (concrete) but I haven't see them using Plastic. Only builders sand, then wire mesh and then they poured the concrete over that!

[unheard]

6 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Plastic 

In what form?

Plastic sheets or plastic structural cells?

I see plastic sheets being used for initial erosion control.

But I've never seen plastic sheets being used as a layer under the fill material.

Can you point me to relevant websites?

[HighPriority]

6 minutes ago, MJCM said:

Did you see on what the put the Power Poles????

 

Hint: On Rice Fields dividers!

 

Whatif he trenched it in and some farmer wants to dig an opening to let water go from one field to the next and he hit the 220V power cables which the OP had trenched in. Could result in Instant electrocution!

 

Edit: Even if he put it in HDPE conduit it is no match against those tools the Farmers use to dig holes. (Tried that with 40MM HDPE, it went straight through)!

 

One of these I mean

 

 

Yes, I understand that.

By trenching I meant a minimum 900mm deep.

[unheard]

17 minutes ago, MJCM said:

Our main road in front of the property was just recently build (concrete) but I haven't see them using Plastic. Only builders sand, then wire mesh and then they poured the concrete over that!

Yeah, that's how they do minor roads here.

Over here we have a major type of a road being expanded to add more lanes.

They use lots of sand, different types of gravel and many huge compactors going back and forth as a prep work for the top hard surface layer.

[MJCM]

15 minutes ago, HighPriority said:

Yes, I understand that.

By trenching I meant a minimum 900mm deep.

Oke, but again rice fields divider stick around 60-90cm above ground so to let the water flow from one field they have to dig all the way down. So for the OP to be really safe, at least 1,5m down over that length, a lot of work!

 

In your own property I fully would go with trenched, but IMHO if you span that length of cable over that many different fields (and who knows how many different owners) poles is IMHO the best solution!

[sometimewoodworker]

17 minutes ago, unheard said:

In what form?

Plastic sheets or plastic structural cells?

I see plastic sheets being used for initial erosion control.

But I've never seen plastic sheets being used as a layer under the fill material.

Can you point me to relevant websites?

As to websites you will have to do your own investigation. I have seen the plastic being placed on road construction on R2 between KK & Udon

[Muhendis]

1 hour ago, unheard said:

I don't see any plastic being placed under crushed rock during roads construction.

If Encid had a few tonnes of vibrating road roller he wouldn't need plastic either.

[unheard]

2 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

As to websites you will have to do your own investigation. I have seen the plastic being placed on road construction on R2 between KK & Udon

I did a quick search and couldn't find anything relevant to your claim.

Plastic being placed on freshly poured road surface might be used as a protective barrier to preserve surface moisture.

[unheard]

2 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

If Encid had a few tonnes of vibrating road roller he wouldn't need plastic either.

Why would he need any plastic to start with?

What is its purpose?

[Muhendis]

1 minute ago, unheard said:

Why would he need any plastic to start with?

Good question.

I didn't put any under my layer of stones and after 10 years the road is still good enough.

I guess it must depend on the density or otherwise of the soil and the wetness of the rain.

[sometimewoodworker]

10 minutes ago, unheard said:

Why would he need any plastic to start with?

What is its purpose?

 

[unheard]

7 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

 

He asks for an advice on geotextiles which are being used on "difficult" soil/terrain variations in road construction.

Geotextiles are permeable fabrics - nothing to do with plastics (at least not in their common definition).

[sometimewoodworker]

14 minutes ago, unheard said:

I did a quick search and couldn't find anything relevant to your claim.

 

No claim.
 

An observation of the way national roads are being constructed in Khon Kaen and Udon Thani provinces.

[sometimewoodworker]

7 minutes ago, unheard said:

He asks for an advice on geotextiles which are being used on "difficult" soil/terrain variations in road construction.

Geotextiles are permeable fabrics - nothing to do with plastics (at least not in their common definition).

Virtually all geo textiles are plastics they include low density polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP) as well as a variety of other material 

You seem to have some special individual meaning of plastic that is something like ‘a material that is different from the one being described or the one I’m thinking of’

 

The blue sheet commonly used in construction sites is a perfectly adequate underlay over soil and under rock/stone dust/sand. It does not degrade significantly over time, we have some that has been down for 6 years, I’ve just checked and it’s as good now as when we put it down.

[unheard]

5 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

The blue sheet commonly used in construction sites is a perfectly adequate underlay over soil and under rock/stone dust/sand.

The key word is permeable.

I don't know what blue sheet you're referring to.

Initially you've called it "plastic."