Building a new house in Isaan

[firewight]

Very interesting! Did they end up costing much more than off the shelf versions?

[Encid]

18 hours ago, firewight said:

Very interesting! Did they end up costing much more than off the shelf versions?

To be honest I don't know yet... 

 

Door supply was originally part of our builder's scope of supply, and I kept asking him regularly had he ordered the doors until he finally admitted that he could not order what we wanted from the usual outlets, and that we would have to go with custom-made doors.

 

The reason why I was asking him was that I wanted to be able to lock up the bedroom area and use it as a storage area for some furniture that we had ordered and was being held (reluctantly) by the store in storage. They wanted to deliver it ASAP, and we needed somewhere safe and clean to put it.

 

I guess we will have to wait until we rationalise the BOQ at the end of the project to determine if the cost is to our account or his.

 

2.2m high doors have been on the drawings since day 1... 

[firewight]

17 hours ago, Encid said:

2.2m high doors have been on the drawings since day 1... 

You've got me thinking now. My ceilings are drawn 3m high throughout, but my doors are all 2m. What was the thinking behind the higher doors, maybe I need to consider this myself for our build...

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, firewight said:

You've got me thinking now. My ceilings are drawn 3m high throughout, but my doors are all 2m. What was the thinking behind the higher doors, maybe I need to consider this myself for our build...

The door hight should be proportional to the ceiling hight. Think of stately homes with 8 meter ceiling’s and 3~4 metre doors.  In general anything over 2 metres is an artistic choice, but with ceilings of only 3 metres higher doors will look disproportionately tall.

[Reginald Prewster]

Many times I threw this idea behind, but the Thais who live in such a house outmatch always my doubts.

...and I actually LOVE this houses. 

I visit many Thais and sometimes the celebrations let us stay over night. 

The wood smells so nice, the house itself stays cool inside even in the midday sun and a decent size is 450.000 THB (excl, electrics and plumbings)

 

I am 60 now, do I really need to take the burden of building a brick house when these are tailormade available and they sure last a "lifetime" ?? 

 

480K

 

 

360K (2 Bedrooms and huge open Kitchen which can easily be closed)

 

3 bedrooms, big kichen, 2 bathrooms... 580K 

 

The wood is hardwood, recycled and hence no risk that termites will chew through them. 

A cousin bought it 20 years ago and its still in a mint condition, the only thing he complains is, that the houses got pained and that makes it necessary to repaint all 3 - 5 years...   

 

[Reginald Prewster]

Many times I threw this idea behind, but the Thais who live in such a house outmatch always my doubts.

...and I actually LOVE this houses. 

I visit many Thais and sometimes the celebrations let us stay over night. 

The wood smells so nice, the house itself stays cool inside even in the midday sun and a decent size is 450.000 THB (excl, electrics and plumbings)

 

I am 60 now, do I really need to take the burden of building a brick house when these are tailormade available and they sure last a "lifetime" ?? 

 

480K

 

 

360K (2 Bedrooms and huge open Kitchen which can easily be closed)

 

3 bedrooms, big kichen, 2 bathrooms... 580K 

 

The wood is hardwood, recycled and hence no risk that termites will chew through them. 

A cousin bought it 20 years ago and its still in a mint condition, the only thing he complains is, that the houses got pained and that makes it necessary to repaint all 3 - 5 years...   

 

[Encid]

7 hours ago, firewight said:

You've got me thinking now. My ceilings are drawn 3m high throughout, but my doors are all 2m. What was the thinking behind the higher doors, maybe I need to consider this myself for our build...

We like the look.

Our current house has 2.15m high doors and the ceilings are only 2.4m high (with 2.6m high recesses for aesthetic appeal).

And yes... they are all solid teak wood.

It does not look disproportionate to me.

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by Encid

[Encid]

4 hours ago, Reginald Prewster said:

I am 60 now, do I really need to take the burden of building a brick house when these are tailormade available and they sure last a "lifetime" ?? 

I have seen many such houses in the villages in Isaan... we drive through 4 separate villages from the highway turnoff on the way to my wife's village, and most such houses have been abandoned because of termite infestation... saying that they are made of hardwood that is termite-resistant is simply not true unless it has been chemically treated with a product like Chaindrite and regularly re-applied.

I'm sure that I would not like to risk my health by living/eating/sleeping in a chemically treated timber house.

 

I'm 65 now and my knees are shot from playing football in my youth... I want a house that has as few stairs/steps/landings as possible, and is as maintenance-free as possible.

I also want a comfortable house, one that is not subjected to the uncomfortable ambient temperatures around Songkran time.

Our Guest House will be quite passive by design, and will cost next to nothing to maintain (maybe a lick of paint every 15 years or so?)

For me it is not a burden... but it is certainly a challenge, and one that will be rewarding for me and my family.

 

But each to his own... 

[firewight]

3 hours ago, Encid said:

We like the look.

Our current house has 2.15m high doors and the ceilings are only 2.4m high (with 2.6m high recesses for aesthetic appeal).

And yes... they are all solid teak wood.

 

Thank you, yes I can certainly understand the aesthetic appeal. For me being 185cm tall, my question was for practical reasons. I have found in many Thai built buildings, and indeed in my current rental, the drop floor in bathrooms means the top of the door frame is quite low, meaning I actually have to be careful so I don't bump my head...

Whilst my build will not have dropped floors in bathrooms, I do like the idea of taller than normal doors.

Cheers!

[Elkski]

On 8/3/2023 at 12:59 AM, Encid said:

And this morning (3 August) the doors and frames were delivered to site:

 

 

 

Very nice looking doors.  And in earlier post i wasnt chastising yiu dir not being in site every day   your lucky and smart ti have a system where family goes every day with pictures.  Line app is great. 

[Reginald Prewster]

14 hours ago, Encid said:

I'm 65 now and my knees are shot from playing football in my youth... I want a house that has as few stairs/steps/landings as possible, and is as maintenance-free as possible.

I also want a comfortable house, one that is not subjected to the uncomfortable ambient temperatures around Songkran time.

There we go,

I have been working 42 years in the offshore and 21 years from it in the wind energy sector. Climbing ladders was not what my legs were made for.

Both knees and the right hip bone is due.

I must agree that the coating this is a reason I always step back from the wooden houses.

All my family has wooden top floors but none has termites. 

 

My wife and I plan to build 3 houses same style on our farm.

One for an old man and his wife who are a wealth of knowledge.

They lost all in a inheritage case and since then lives on our farm as guard and supervisor.

One for our housemaid who is the working horse and voice since decades...

All are long years friends and none is family. The family my wife kicked out because the old story = Farang must pay = ATM)

and the last is for me and my wife. 

Thinking about how we live, we decided a big Kitchen is a must (also to handle farm produce) an small office, a bedroom and one bathroom.

We skip the living room as we never used one in the past, it was always a kind of workshop... 

All 3 houses shall form a kinda eco village hence none of us is superior... 

[sirineou]

2 minutes ago, Reginald Prewster said:

I have been working 42 years in the offshore and 21 years from it in the wind energy sector. Climbing ladders was not what my legs were made for.

I sympathise with you, As the site  safety  manager for a High-rise construction co, in the US. before moving to management, I was climbing up and down the top three floors our company was responsible for, (floors below were handed to other trades).

My legs are shot!! (Swimming laps is good, low impact exercise for that)

Anyway, We build our house while I was working and made three times what my retired income is now, And build the two story house I always wanted)

Big mistake because back then I never thought I would get older. Lucky for me I did, and going up those stairs is a pain. I will walk up to go to bed only to realise I forgot my phone in the car, down the stairs and Up the stairs again, Grrr

Another thing to consider is although wood is wonderful (I love it) . It requires a lot of maintenance, and you might be willing and able to do so now, but what about when you get older? and how about after you pass away and you leave the wife along , would she be able to maintain it?

Anyway just some food for thought, you best know your what you like and need. 

Start your own Thread so we can flow you building story. Best of luck

 

 

[Encid]

We isolated the electrical problem last week (no pun intended)... it wasn't an earthed active feed... the cables were stripped when they were being pulled through the 2" PVC pipe that was buried underground and that is why we were consuming so much power via earth leakage.

 

Stripping occurred at the PVC pipe elbows because the cables were pulled only, not push-pulled.

An unfortunate and expensive lesson learned by our builder and his team.

 

The cables have now been cut as they are unusable and new cables will be pulled through an HDPE pipe and tested before reconnection.

[Encid]

Our double glazed uPVC windows and doors arrived on Monday and were fitted over the following 3 days.

 

A great job by the ARC-CMR team and I would recommend them to anyone considering something similar.

 

Ours are 6mm clear/8mm air gap/5mm clear insulating glass and all the hardware components are Deuceninck from Belgium, all assembled by ARC-CMR in Banglamung, Chonburi.

 

We had one small hiccup when I noted that one of the sliding doors was in the wrong location, but it was quickly resolved without any drama.

 

One important thing to remember when ordering sliding doors and windows... the architect normally provides a drawing or two called a "door and window schedule" and these are typically drawn in elevation view from the outside looking in... however in our case the installation team assumed that they were drawn from the inside looking out... hence the error in orientation.

 

Anyway, after a bit of magic involving rotating and reversing panels and locks, the error was corrected and everyone was happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2023 by Encid

[Encid]

On Thursday afternoon the ARC-CMR team had finished their work and had cleaned up... the house is nearly at lockup stage now, although there is still a lot of painting to be done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Encid]

Work has also started on our access road... it is 4m wide reinforced concrete and is being poured in 8m long sections.

We will be using a 20cm high HDPE water seal as a construction joint between the 8m sections, rather than the traditional Thai way of making construction joints by cutting the concrete then filling the cuts with bitumen.

The road will slope very slightly towards the East where a spoon drain will be installed to drain off rain water.

The first 8m section was poured on Wednesday.

 

 

 

And on Thursday the boxing was being removed and the concrete was cured enough to be able to walk on and the next section was being prepared.

 

 

This is the 20cm high HDPE water seal to be used for the construction joints:

 

[Sigmund]

Some popular pool villa developpments in Hua Hin I visited sometime back, already had cracks on the walls that I saw from outside,  on houses that were just completed.

 

They may look fine on completion , but how to say what materials were used and how the stuff was built, considering such pool villa developpments are practically a mass produce product ? ? Not to mention the electrical issues with those multiple bulbs on the roof that just tend to fuse one by one and need constant replacement.

 

The OP is right in building his house under his full supervision, It  may be a administrative headache but definately will not lead to unpleasant surprises that can occur in those ready built pool villa developpements in Hua HIn or surely elsewhere.

[Muhendis]

57 minutes ago, Encid said:

cutting the concrete then filling the cuts with bitumen

And don't forget the grass which will be very happy with this idea.

 

These are expansion joints. What is the gap you will be making between 8M sections?

 

Further to my earlier comment don't forget the landing lights for your Cessna runway which needs to be at least 10M wide. 

[Muhendis]

1 hour ago, Encid said:

We isolated the electrical problem last week (no pun intended)... it wasn't an earthed active feed... the cables were stripped when they were being pulled through the 2" PVC pipe that was buried underground and that is why we were consuming so much power via earth leakage.

 

Stripping occurred at the PVC pipe elbows because the cables were pulled only, not push-pulled.

An unfortunate and expensive lesson learned by our builder and his team.

 

The cables have now been cut as they are unusable and new cables will be pulled through an HDPE pipe and tested before reconnection.

My fix from a couple of comments ago, assumed that the installation had been successfully done.

 

There is some gunge available which is applied to cables as they are pulled through conduit etc. which reduces friction and minimizes damage to cable from heat friction.

https://shopee.co.th/product/289493934/10941905043?gclid=CjwKCAjw_uGmBhBREiwAeOfsd5cLxfjLkojwBLeoCoAqnqGZHbTwJqwtKrtnUYyzIwsXLat172_BPxoC2foQAvD_BwE

 

If you can recover the damaged cables there is quite a few £'s worth of copper there. Enough for a good night out. Or did you install aluminium.

[sometimewoodworker]

6 hours ago, Encid said:

We will be using a 20cm high HDPE water seal as a construction joint between the 8m sections, rather than the traditional Thai way of making construction joints by cutting the concrete then filling the cuts with bitumen.

The road will slope very slightly towards the East where a spoon drain will be installed to drain off rain water.

While I have no information of the use or benefits of using the nonstandard water seal instead of the world wide (not specially Thai way) common bitumen joint seal. The first recorded mention I’ve found is from 1902 in Toronto, Canada using “paving pitch”.

 

It looks as if you are negating the effectiveness of the crack prevention as, as far as I can see your workers are using deformed rebar for joint dowels rather than the smooth rebar suggested to allow for the sections to move.

 

I would love to be proven wrong but suspect that you will get cracks radiating at about 45 degrees from the rebar locations. This assumes that you have differentiation in movement between slabs.

Edited August 13, 2023 by sometimewoodworker

[Encid]

20 hours ago, Muhendis said:

If you can recover the damaged cables there is quite a few £'s worth of copper there. Enough for a good night out. Or did you install aluminium.

I don't know what the builder installed... from the cut cable at the breaker it looks like aluminium, not copper:

 

 

 

[Encid]

15 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

I would love to be proven wrong but suspect that you will get cracks radiating at about 45 degrees from the rebar locations. This assumes that you have differentiation in movement between slabs.

I hope that you are wrong too... time will tell I guess.

I will mention the smooth rebar idea to the builder and see what he thinks... thanks.

[Encid]

The local government has been kind enough to resurface the old dilapidated concrete road from the village to our farm in bitumen, for which we are most thankful.

 

It has been painted too and some of the local villagers have been asking the in-laws why we are so special that we get a free road upgrade... 555.

 

 

 

[Encid]

Today (Monday 14 August) was a flurry of activity as the new electrical cables were installed in HDPE pipe underground and reconnected... we are live again now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also drainage pipes were laid under our access ramp to take any water away from our neighbour's property.

 

 

 

 

[Encid]

And our external architectural feature is getting installed as well as the external cladding... I think that it's really going to look impressive when it's finished.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

18 minutes ago, Encid said:

I hope that you are wrong too... time will tell I guess.

I will mention the smooth rebar idea to the builder and see what he thinks... thanks.

FWIW it isn’t my own idea.

[Encid]

Thanks STWW... I will pass it on. 

[sometimewoodworker]

11 minutes ago, Encid said:

Today (Monday 14 August) was a flurry of activity as the new electrical cables were installed in HDPE pipe underground and reconnected... we are live again now!

I really really hope that you have copper feed cables as the PEA prohibits aluminium from being installed underground. I don’t have any information as to the reasons just that aluminium cable must be in the air.

Edited August 14, 2023 by sometimewoodworker

[Encid]

Just now, sometimewoodworker said:

I really really hope that you have copper feed cables as the PEA prohibits aluminium from being installed underground. I don’t have any information as to the reasons just that aluminium cable must be in the air.

I just confirmed with my builder that they are copper. 

[Muhendis]

1 hour ago, Encid said:

from the cut cable at the breaker it looks like aluminium, not copper:

Yup.  That there's aluminium. Still good for half a night out at 22B/kg stripped.

 

 

Fingers crossed Thai style and looks of skepticism from the rest who seem to be standing back a bit.

 

Edited August 14, 2023 by Muhendis