Building a new house in Isaan

[Encid]

Land fill stage 2 summary: 644 trucks @ 180 baht/truck = 115,920 baht.

 

Next step will be to try to stabilize the sloping walls with vegetation before the really heavy rain come in September/October.

 

We are planning on travelling up on Monday to 1) visit a local nursery and purchase several hundred suitable plants, and 2) visit the local PEA office in Prathai to get our meter installed and connect to mains power.

 

Next major steps will be a perimeter wall on 2 sides (the 2 sides closest to the road) and a sliding lockable gate.

We are thinking along the lines of a simple concrete block wall similar to this:

 

 

But no concrete rendered finish to be applied.

We also want the wall to be 3 metres high... very high from the outside but only waist-chest high if walking on the filled section inside.

The wall will be constructed on the border of the chanote so might need the local lands office to verify before we start to avoid any potential issues with the owner of the land to the south of us.

We have been very careful so far to ensure than none of the new fill falls on anybody else's property.

 

The gate I want to have (and I have admittedly never seen one here in Thailand) is a lockable rut-runner gate that is wide enough to allow tractors and other farming equipment to pass through.

 

The gate would look something like this:

 

 

 

In the future we will look at automating it by adding a motor with remote control, but for the short term it will suffice to keep unwanted animals (cows, dogs, people etc) off the property.

As the wall will be 3m high, the gate should probably be at least 2m high,

 

Thoughts?

[Muhendis]

1 hour ago, unheard said:

I think so - the second one is the kind of an insulation material (not as thick) that I was talking about.

Now you're talking.

That second one I really like.

How do they join together?

[Muhendis]

11 minutes ago, Encid said:

Land fill stage 2 summary: 644 trucks @ 180 baht/truck = 115,920 baht.

 

Next step will be to try to stabilize the sloping walls with vegetation before the really heavy rain come in September/October.

 

We are planning on travelling up on Monday to 1) visit a local nursery and purchase several hundred suitable plants, and 2) visit the local PEA office in Prathai to get our meter installed and connect to mains power.

 

Next major steps will be a perimeter wall on 2 sides (the 2 sides closest to the road) and a sliding lockable gate.

We are thinking along the lines of a simple concrete block wall similar to this:

 

 

But no concrete rendered finish to be applied.

We also want the wall to be 3 metres high... very high from the outside but only waist-chest high if walking on the filled section inside.

The wall will be constructed on the border of the chanote so might need the local lands office to verify before we start to avoid any potential issues with the owner of the land to the south of us.

We have been very careful so far to ensure than none of the new fill falls on anybody else's property.

 

The gate I want to have (and I have admittedly never seen one here in Thailand) is a lockable rut-runner gate that is wide enough to allow tractors and other farming equipment to pass through.

 

The gate would look something like this:

 

 

 

In the future we will look at automating it by adding a motor with remote control, but for the short term it will suffice to keep unwanted animals (cows, dogs, people etc) off the property.

As the wall will be 3m high, the gate should probably be at least 2m high,

 

Thoughts?

A good idea would be to visit your local stainless steel gate man. He will have a book full of designs to choose from.

[Will B Good]

Just now, Muhendis said:

A good idea would be to visit your local stainless steel gate man. He will have a book full of designs to choose from.

Not those tacky tacky Thai ones???......Sorry if I offend, but told the wife I will leave her if she puts those in

[Will B Good]

14 minutes ago, Encid said:

Next step will be to try to stabilize the sloping walls with vegetation before the really heavy rain come in September/October.

I am now considering "banking", not too big, around the edge of the topped up land......just enough to catch the rainwater and stop the erosion, in the hope it then drains into the ground????

[Will B Good]

19 minutes ago, Encid said:

We also want the wall to be 3 metres high...

Might be talking out of my ****, but you might want to check with the head honcho about wall height.

Edited March 31, 2022 by Will B Good

[Excel]

3 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Not those tacky tacky Thai ones???......Sorry if I offend, but told the wife I will leave her if she puts those in

100% agree that most Thai gates look really awful for our tastes. Looks like the kids have been let lost with a bending machine some of them.

[Will B Good]

1 minute ago, Excel said:

100% agree that most Thai gates look really awful for our tastes. Looks like the kids have been let lost with a bending machine some of them.

Glad I didn't offend.

[Muhendis]

Just now, Will B Good said:

Not those tacky tacky Thai ones???......Sorry if I offend, but told the wife I will leave her if she puts those in

Yeah. Some can be a bit on the thin and scruffy side.

The thicker tubes both round and square, are available if you ask for them.

Better than rusty old mild steel by far.

[Excel]

1 minute ago, Will B Good said:

Glad I didn't offend.

Even my wife, who is Thai considers that they belong to a bygone era.

[Will B Good]

2 minutes ago, Excel said:

100% agree that most Thai gates look really awful for our tastes. Looks like the kids have been let lost with a bending machine some of them.

Going for this......but each to his own.

[Excel]

Just now, Will B Good said:

Going for this......but each to his own.

We must have similar tastes because same as ours except ours are vertical. ( didn't want to give kids the temptation to climb up them )

[Will B Good]

3 minutes ago, Excel said:

didn't want to give kids the temptation to climb up them

Damn....never crossed my mind.....mmmmm??

[MJCM]

9 minutes ago, Excel said:

We must have similar tastes because same as ours except ours are vertical. ( didn't want to give kids the temptation to climb up them )

Just put an electric fence (or at least the "stickers" that you have it) that will deter them

[Will B Good]

Just now, MJCM said:

Just put an electric fence (or at least the "stickers" that you have it) that will deter them

Now that is clever....my mind jumped straight to broken glass and razor wire.....tut.

[MJCM]

2 hours ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

I  havent found it worthless its quietens  rain noise better than none and does  offer  some protection form heat, I  rely  mostly  on the ceiling insulation not the roof, out of interest I  just went into the loft space of  one of  my houses to see  how  it was  holding up after 3.5  years, looks  fine to me

I will post a picture of what ours look likes but it looks a bit like this

 

 

[Encid]

27 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Might be talking out of my ****, but you might want to check with the head honcho about wall height.

Good idea.

I will add it to our agenda for next week's visit.

I'd like to meet him anyway... he's been asking about our plans and the in-laws have been deliberately vague to everyone up until now.

That has been specifically at my (and my wife's) request... not their business.

I don't want every local Tom, Dick, and Somchai pestering my family with offers of their expertise or services etc. knowing that we are about to invest significantly in their vicinity.

[bankruatsteve]

47 minutes ago, Encid said:

We also want the wall to be 3 metres high... very high from the outside but only waist-chest high if walking on the filled section inside.

If the wall will be retaining the fill, you will probably want to add some anchors to the mid sections.  It doesn't take much rain on land fill to knock out unsupported walls.

[Encid]

28 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Going for this......but each to his own.

Really nice for suburbia, but not suitable for our rural location.

[Encid]

Just now, bankruatsteve said:

If the wall will be retaining the fill, you will probably want to add some anchors to the mid sections.  It doesn't take much rain on land fill to knock out unsupported walls.

The walls will not be retaining... they are to stand alone.

That's why we made sure that all the fill was done well inside the property boundary.

[sometimewoodworker]

55 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Not those tacky tacky Thai ones???......Sorry if I offend, but told the wife I will leave her if she puts those in

So this is tacky? 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by sometimewoodworker

[Will B Good]

18 minutes ago, Encid said:

Really nice for suburbia, but not suitable for our rural location.

Funnily enough we are out in the sticks......and by chance I drove beyond our house (to be) and a guy about a mile down the road has gone for the same style.......now it looks like we are copying him!!!

[Will B Good]

5 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

So this is tacky? 

 

No....very similar to what I have in mind

[Will B Good]

7 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

So this is tacky? 

 

 

[Will B Good]

Might get something like this.....555

[Excel]

30 minutes ago, Encid said:

Really nice for suburbia, but not suitable for our rural location.

Why not ?

[Muhendis]

On 3/30/2022 at 3:48 PM, Encid said:

Yes I've been thinking about that too.

As soon as we have electric power I want to drill a well... apparently the water quality is pretty good only a few metres down.

I want to go deeper though... maybe 20 or 30 metres.

Even if the water quality is good (and we plan of having it tested) we will probably need a filtration system of sorts, so I am thinking of doing the following:

 

 

It is a simple cascading gravity flow system from two small filter tanks (with bleed valves at the top of the media level for routing cleaning) into a 1000 litre storage tank.

Not all couplings and unions are shown... it's a schematic (but drawn to scale wrt the tanks).

Everything could sit on an RC pad with the elevated filter tanks sitting on AAC blocks.

The tanks could all fit under the extended eave (now 2m) on the East side of the Guest House (no windows).

As they would be facing East they would see the morning sun, but only until about 10:00am.

If we need further filtration or softening we could install one (or more) of those cylinder style filters downstream of the pump.

With initially only a few of us staying there, we'd probably have to refill the system from the well pump once every 3-4 days.

If it overflows it doesn't really matter.

 

What do you guys think?

Looks OK but what about maintenance. How will you clear out the sediment etc.

Here's some pictures of mine.

I have two water sources. Surface well (5.5 metres depth) and bore hole (51 metres depth)

Bore hole is 2000 ppm calcium so it is only for emergency.

Filters are 2x carbon and 1x resin all can be backflushed and the resin rejuvenated with brine.

That white box in pic 1 is the surface well pump.

Storage tank (pic 2) is 2000 Litre with level sensors.

Control box on wall to auto select pump and detect fault conditions.

Yellow pump next to tank to supply house.

Third picture is hot water tank supplied from flat panel heat exchanger on roof.

[sometimewoodworker]

7 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

 

Now that is tacky, unless you are from the House of Windsor and you are 1 or 2 in line

[sometimewoodworker]

2 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Might get something like this.....555

You are a hobbit?

[Muhendis]

4 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Might get something like this.....555

You trying to make me ill?