Building a new house in Isaan

[Encid]

Then came some bad news... he sent me a photo of the 1600L septic tank that had been already delivered.

It was not the same as the one specified on the drawings... same make, but wrong model.

We specified a DOS HERO tank, not a DOS OK tank.

This is what was delivered...

 

 

And this little video explains why we specified the DOS HERO septic tank:

 

 

I sent the video to our builder and told him that his substitute was not acceptable because it didn't have the features that the HERO model had, and he has agreed to change the tank to what was specified on the drawings.

 

I suspect that he has delegated some of the procurement to his staff, and they are looking for opportunities to save money on the build... there is only about 500 baht difference between the two tanks but I guess every little baht bit helps. 

 

Anyway, we are going to get what we wanted.

[indyo]

16 minutes ago, Encid said:

He even produced a flyaround video of his proposal so we could visualize it better.

 

 

Note how the black water from the toilet is the only thing going into the septic tank, and that is vented through the roof just outside the building.

 

The grey water from the shower and the bathroom sink goes into the western soakaway, and the eastern soakaway receives the grey water from the kitchen sinks and the overflow from the septic tank.

 

The grey water systems are also vented through the roof just outside the building.

 

We had quite a detailed discussion a month or two ago about the importance of venting both black and grey water drainage systems, which usually isn't done correctly (if at all) here in Thailand.

 

I was pleased to see that he had taken heed of our discussion (although I might ask him to downsize the black water vent pipe from 4" to 2"). 

is it ok to put the soakaway very close to concrete footing?

[Encid]

And here is a photo of those little spacers being put to use... inside the beams formwork.

 

It may not be up to Western standards... the rebar may not be perfectly straight and the ties may not be perfectly vertical, but it is acceptable for me.

 

[Encid]

Just now, indyo said:

is it ok to put the soakaway very close to concrete footing?

If you go back a few pages in this thread you will see that every footing is sitting on top of a 26x26cm x 6m long pile.

Nothing is going to wash them away... 

[Encid]

And by 5pm on Friday afternoon the beams formwork is pretty much complete (except for the carport).

 

 

 

 

 

[Encid]

I marked up a modified septic vent system for my builder... we really only need a single 2" vent stack, not a 4" and 2 x 2" stacks.

 

He's given me the thumbs-up as it saves him time and material labour and money of course. 

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Encid

[Encid]

And this morning the concrete is being poured...

 

 

 

 

[Muhendis]

Good to see "There's a Whole Load of Shakin' Going On"

 

Would that be the village communal vibrator?  

[Encid]

The last couple of days has seen some more activities... the formwork is being removed and the concrete beams are being regularly watered, the hole for the septic system has been filled in and the correct location is being excavated, the  blue non-pressure PVC drainage piping is being positioned, and the green pressure containing PPR piping is being positioned.

 

All the PPR piping will be 32mm OD (1" nominal diameter) from the pump discharge through the filters and only reduce in size to 1/2" at the outlets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Encid]

The black poly anti-termite spray piping system is also being installed and the inlets have all been gathered together at one location for easy access from the carport.

 

 

 

 

 

[Muhendis]

Curiosity has the better of me. 

Why are you using PPR pipe?

[Encid]

Just now, Muhendis said:

Why are you using PPR pipe?

Because it never leaks.

PPR joints are installed with heat by a PPR welding machine, thus making PPR pipes and joints homogeneous, eliminating water leakage problems after installation is completed.

 

It is also more chemically resistant, more flexible, and more UV resistant than PVC, and can be operated at higher pressures and temperatures.

I have sized it at 32mm OD PN10 with 2.9mm wall thickness, reducing in size only at the outlets via reducing elbows like these:

 

[sometimewoodworker]

8 minutes ago, Encid said:

Because it never leaks.

PPR joints are installed with heat by a PPR welding machine, thus making PPR pipes and joints homogeneous, eliminating water leakage problems after installation is completed.

 

It is also more chemically resistant, more flexible, and more UV resistant than PVC, and can be operated at higher pressures and temperatures.

I have sized it at 32mm OD PN10 with 2.9mm wall thickness, reducing in size only at the outlets via reducing elbows like these:

 

I really hope that if you have any double outlets (hot/cold) that you use these

as if you try to use 2 singles I don’t envy the problems that you will have. DAMHIKT ???? ????

Edited March 28, 2023 by sometimewoodworker

[Muhendis]

11 hours ago, Encid said:

It is also more chemically resistant, more flexible, and more UV resistant than PVC, and can be operated at higher pressures and temperatures.

Yes I agree with most of this and would add that, for hot water, the PPR pipe has very poor thermal conductivity meaning that the water in the pipe stays hot for longer.

The UV resistant comment is only true for specialised PPR pipe which has been treated. Unless you are absolutely certain that your PPR is UV resistant you had better keep it away from sunlight.

I had some left-over PPR which I used for aerial cable support rings because I thought it was UV resistant.

During the 5-6 years of daily exposure the rings have almost completely disintegrated whereas other PVC blue pipe similarly exposed is merely discoloured and probably brittle.

[Encid]

17 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

I really hope that if you have any double outlets (hot/cold) that you use these

 

as if you try to use 2 singles I don’t envy the problems that you will have. DAMHIKT ???? ????

Not in this build as we are planning on installing a 5.5kW HAFELE AQUA PRO rain shower with hand shower like this:

 

But thanks for your suggestion... I will consider them for the Main House build as we intend to have either under-sink demand water heaters or a solar hot water system... either way we will have separate cold and hot water piping systems there.

 

I had to google DAMHIKT... 

[Encid]

6 hours ago, Muhendis said:

The UV resistant comment is only true for specialised PPR pipe which has been treated. Unless you are absolutely certain that your PPR is UV resistant you had better keep it away from sunlight.

Thanks for that tip... handy to know. 

As you can see, all of our PPR piping will be run either underground, or under slab, or inside the walls... so zero UV exposure.

The house water storage tank, pump, filters, and PPR piping will be inside the carport which will be concrete block walled on the East and South sides, so zero UV exposure there too.

All piping (PVC and PPR) will be painted if visible to match it's supporting structure (house, wall, carport etc.) as I really have an aversion to seeing (predominantly blue) piping everywhere, so that should increase its UV resistivity.

[Encid]

Yesterday the internal floor slab beams were delivered and installed...

 

 

 

Also the waterproof barrier was laid in the bathroom and rebar mesh positioned and connected to the RC beams rebar.

 

 

And by 5pm the external decking areas had also been prepared with waterproof barrier and rebar mesh...

 

 

[Encid]

This morning the concrete was being poured...

 

 

 

[Encid]

And by this afternoon it was looking like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Encid]

Today (Thursday 30 March) the formwork for the columns for the house and the carport are being erected, and the concrete will be delivered and poured tomorrow.

The septic tank will also be installed today.

 

 

 

 

[Muhendis]

Coming together very nicely.

I hope they remember to true up them pillars...........

[Encid]

Just now, Muhendis said:

Coming together very nicely.

I hope they remember to true up them pillars...........

I hope so too!

Some of them are on a decided lean at the moment... 

 

I will be meeting with the builder on site on Saturday, and I will be bringing my laser level.

The AAC blocks are scheduled for delivery on Saturday too so if his crew does not have one, they can use mine.

 

The uPVC windows and doors have been ordered, but the final dimensions need to be verified after the final rendering is done, so it's important to make sure that the brickies leave correctly located and sized openings in the walls.

[Encid]

A few days later (April 1) and the build is really coming together nicely.

All the columns are straight and vertical and wrapped in plastic to prevent drying out too quickly (they are using a laser level), and we arrived just after the concrete floor for the carport had been poured.

 

I did ask the builder what size rebar or mesh he used as I was concerned that he had not listened to me when I explained that we wanted to deviate from the architect's design and wanted stronger reinforcing as we planned to install a couple of water tanks in there.

I need not have worried... he said that he used RB12 rods @ 150mm ctrs... not a problem... you could park a Sherman tank on top of that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Encid]

And from the air...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Encid]

And it was hot... really hot!

Even at 5:20pm the temperature was in the mid-forties... 

 

[Encid]

We did notice a couple of errors and that the people on site were not working to the latest drawings.

 

We had a meeting with our builder the following day so we could discuss rectification of the errors before it was too late, and also to discuss some additional work that we wanted done.

 

The problem areas were as follows:

 

 

Firstly the concrete base for the deck/Thai kitchen needed to be extended by 20cm to cater for a counter, and the carport slab needed to be extended as our water tank(s) were going to sit on the RC beam that spans the two columns, and our water pump and filters and washing machine would sit on the slab extension.

 

These were actually shown on revised drawings I sent him via email a few weeks ago, but he had not printed them and given them to his workers on site.

 

Not a problem he said... "I will fix it tomorrow". 

 

[Muhendis]

32 minutes ago, Encid said:

I need not have worried... he said that he used RB12 rods @ 150mm ctrs... not a problem... you could park a Sherman tank on top of that!

When are you expecting delivery of this new tank and how many litres is it good for?

 

That is one very super-strong base.

 

[Encid]

The extra work that we wanted him to do was to add some additional water storage at the pond because the 2000L tank was running dry every day.

Yes it was filled every morning around 10am when the sun was high enough to activate the PV panels that drive the solar powered bore pump, but the amount of water his teams were using for the build as well as their own personal usage resulted in the tanks running dry in the early afternoon, so someone had to go over to the panels and start the pump again... but that doesn't work if you have thundery clouds floating around.

 

So the existing tank and pump sits at the West end of the pond (which FIL has been draining and catching all the fish before the workers can claim them):

 

 

 

We will add an additional 4 water storage tanks and erect a cover over the top of them all to keep the sun off them, and that will give us 10,000L of storage.

 

The piping from the 250W pump will be increased to 2" diameter and be run around the pond as a ring main in a trench so it can be covered and protected from the sun, with 1/2" offtakes to hose stations around the pond (for gardening purposes) and another 1/2 offtake to the toilet at the East end of the pond.

 

The 2" pipe will then be run underground Eastwards over the site until it reaches the retaining wall, then run up the side of the retaining wall until it reaches the Guest House.

This pipe will be the water feed (after filtration) to the tank(s) in the carport which in turn will be pumped into the Guest House for household usage. We will probably use a float switch in the tank(s) to ensure that they are always full.

 

We have no plans to filter our bore water to safe drinkable levels yet, as there is a local water factory about 5km away that supplies and delivers 20L bottles of drinking water for 20 baht each in our area.

 

Maybe a future project?

 

 

[Encid]

Just now, Muhendis said:

When are you expecting delivery of this new tank and how many litres is it good for?

 

That is one very super-strong base.

 

At minimum a 2000L tank, but maybe more than that depending on head room.

 

My builder has not yet told me what sized steel beams he will be using to support the sloping Bluescope steel PU foam roof raked at 15° for future PV panel installation. (Remember that our original architect's design was for flat (slightly sloping) concrete roofs at various levels, but our builder managed to save us 20% of the build price by using less steel in the concrete beams and columns to support a sloping steel roof behind a rendered AAC block façade).

 

I have used CAD to set out some working dimensions and have calculated that if he uses a 60cm deep beam I will have enough room for 2 x 2000L tanks plus our filters, pumps, washing machine etc.

 

If his beam size is not as deep, then we might be able to increase storage tanks size to 2500L or 3000L, but with the additional raw water storage tanks over at the pond we do not have to worry so much about filtered water storage at the GH.

[Encid]

The next day the preparations for the extra work and the remedial work to the GH started... holes drilled into the slab and starter bars inserted for the slab extension, boxing prepared for the counter extension, and precast concrete columns erected to form the supports for the water tank storage area at the pond.