Trial and error of building a cheap house in Isaan

[unheard]

3 hours ago, Encid said:

I bought a cheap laser level on Lazada... used it instead of a dumpy level to determine elevational differences between the road, the rice farm bund walls, our perimeter wall, and our finished land level.

 

I showed it to our builder and told him that I'd be checking his work... he just laughed! 

It's a common story everywhere in the countryside, especially farther out, away from cities.

In most cases it's still possible to bring in qualified workforce from the nearby bigger cities but at much, much higher cost compared to locals.

[MAF666]

12 hours ago, kwonitoy said:

I had 25,000 liters of storage next to my house in Issan, I thought it might take weeks or even months to fill.

One good downpour of about 6 hours filled everything to the brim.

I did have eves troughs funneling all the water from the entire roof into the storage though

We have 550sq metres of colourbond for rain collection.

Off grid water.

Third season of upgrading water storage. Currently 30,000 litres, which is enough for a family of 3.

Agree that you can fill all of the tanks with a few storms.

We have an extensive first flush and overflow system into a 1 Rai dam.

[Lacessit]

6 hours ago, unheard said:

Why?

What are you suggesting?

I am suggesting finding groundwater under igneous rock would be as rare as hen's teeth. How does water permeate through such rock to form an aquifer?

[unheard]

9 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I am suggesting finding groundwater under igneous rock would be as rare as hen's teeth. How does water permeate through such rock to form an aquifer?

I don't know what it has anything to do with water wells and deep aquifers?

 

Please take a look at the physical map of Thailand.

Roughly half of Thailand can be considered having difficult to drill geology.

Yet there are existing deep bore water wells in just about every corner of the country, most of which are producing water.

Common methods of drilling bore well

The method of drilling bore well, depends on a number of factors, such as its suitability for a particular type of geological location and soil (e.g. bouldery soil, hard rock soil, alluvial soil), cost, bore well diameter and depth, and the purpose of the bore well intended.  

• Water Jetting – Shallow bores in alluvial soil
• Augur Drilling – Shallow bores in alluvial soil
• Calyx Drilling – Shallow borewell in both hard rock and alluvial soil
• Percussion Drilling – Deep bores in bouldery soil
• Rotary Drilling – Most common method used for drilling large and deep bores in alluvial soil
• Down the Hole Hammering (DTH) Drilling – Most common method for drilling large and deep borewells in hard rock soil

https://agrotexglobal.com/complete-guide-for-borewell-setup-and-cost/#Common_methods_of_drilling_borewell

[Will B Good]

19 hours ago, Encid said:

I bought a cheap laser level on Lazada... used it instead of a dumpy level to determine elevational differences between the road, the rice farm bund walls, our perimeter wall, and our finished land level.

 

I showed it to our builder and told him that I'd be checking his work... he just laughed! 

Wife has grown a pair with the last lot of 'builders'.....(I keep well out of it)....

 

Refused to pay them until various bits and pieces were corrected, chased them down when they failed to turn up one day, demanded to know where was a bag of cement she had expected to have been left over and told the foreman one of the workers was not acceptable and had to go.....555

[ncc1701d]

For the price I'm guessing it's not too bad - provided the structure stays in place. Some of the pictures of the concrete look a bit worrying to me, but that doesn't mean it's not sound. I dread to mention it due to the negativity it will probably raise, but there are some "knockdown" houses that some companies are building that seem very good. Albeit it probably more expensive than this. Will be interesting to see what your interior will look like. 

 

 

 

[Lacessit]

3 hours ago, unheard said:

I don't know what it has anything to do with water wells and deep aquifers?

 

Please take a look at the physical map of Thailand.

Roughly half of Thailand can be considered having difficult to drill geology.

Yet there are existing deep bore water wells in just about every corner of the country, most of which are producing water.

Common methods of drilling bore well

The method of drilling bore well, depends on a number of factors, such as its suitability for a particular type of geological location and soil (e.g. bouldery soil, hard rock soil, alluvial soil), cost, bore well diameter and depth, and the purpose of the bore well intended.  

• Water Jetting – Shallow bores in alluvial soil
• Augur Drilling – Shallow bores in alluvial soil
• Calyx Drilling – Shallow borewell in both hard rock and alluvial soil
• Percussion Drilling – Deep bores in bouldery soil
• Rotary Drilling – Most common method used for drilling large and deep bores in alluvial soil
• Down the Hole Hammering (DTH) Drilling – Most common method for drilling large and deep borewells in hard rock soil

https://agrotexglobal.com/complete-guide-for-borewell-setup-and-cost/#Common_methods_of_drilling_borewell

IMO the key word here is soil. Igneous rock is not soil.

The wells I see in Thai villages are on flat low-lying terrain. The water supply I see in the mountains comes from dams designed to capture runoff.

[lost in isaan]

Pillars are finally done and they started with the roof:

 

The house packet didn't come with any insulation or ventilation, but i guess it's the norm for thais in rural villages. Even the builders don't think it's necessary.

 

I've been reading a lot regarding this topic and some people on older topics claim that insulation can be harmful in Thailand due the humidity levels. Maybe it can be true if there's lack of ventilation?

I decided to take this as an experiement and install 6 bluetooth temperature sensors around the house. I'll monitor the temperatures and see if there's any point to improve the ventilation and insulation.

I refuse to believe that it's not necassery at all so i will start with bare minimum and bought thai style ventilation for the attic

Similar to this, but its from pvc and has a mosquito net.

Many people seem to favor reflective foil, but it's unclear if it's more effective to have it on top of the ceiling or under the roof tiles with few cm gap. I decided to get drywall panels that come with the reflective foil.

If these are not enough, i'll install reflective foil + insulation under the roof at attic and get some exhaust vents running. I'm still not sure about intake vents but might get them as well for better airflow.

[sometimewoodworker]

55 minutes ago, lost in isaan said:

Many people seem to favor reflective foil, but it's unclear if it's more effective to have it on top of the ceiling or under the roof tiles with few cm gap. I

Just under the tiles it isn’t acting as a reflector but as a radiant barrier, put it on the ceiling and it is a reflector but will decrease in effectiveness as the dust gathers.

[lost in isaan]

15 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Just under the tiles it isn’t acting as a reflector but as a radiant barrier, put it on the ceiling and it is a reflector but will decrease in effectiveness as the dust gathers.

That's a good point. I'll try to remember to clean the dust off before the hot season ????

[patman30]

On 3/21/2023 at 7:57 AM, lost in isaan said:

Thanks for the battery tip. So far I've been considering buying it from lazada

i did look at those batts myself before going with felicity
from felicity Just under $2000 (currently 68k thb) will get you 48v 300ah battery delivered to your door
This one to be exact
https://www.felicitysolar.com/48-volt-300ah-lithium-ion-phosphate-battery-aa-rechargeable-lithium-power-batteries_p108.html
 

the only problem i have with no brand batteries here, is nobody is putting their name behind it, and cost is similar
felicity also sell everything else needed too, although i use growatt inverters

as for room
everything will function
but temperatures will affect battery life
i have FTKZ09VV2S daikin aircon in my small room
Daikin FTKZ models are most efficient
all depends how cool your room is without aircon

one thing i would also definately suggest (finding this out recently)
you could greatly benefit from having a few panels face/angled WEST
just to get more of the late afternoon sun, so you start discharging from battery later
Peak day you will generate excess and likely lose this excess if no demand for it once batt is full
as you can see from my image

i am off grid
 

[Encid]

1 hour ago, patman30 said:

one thing i would also definately suggest (finding this out recently)
you could greatly benefit from having a few panels face/angled WEST
just to get more of the late afternoon sun, so you start discharging from battery later
Peak day you will generate excess and likely lose this excess if no demand for it once batt is full
as you can see from my image

Thanks for confirming what I already suspected, but was debunked by some "experts" on this forum.

"Panels must always face South" was their mandate.

It makes a lot of sense to harvest as much solar energy as you can in the late afternoon, which your graph clearly shows.

Well done. 

[lost in isaan]

4 hours ago, patman30 said:

i did look at those batts myself before going with felicity
from felicity Just under $2000 (currently 68k thb) will get you 48v 300ah battery delivered to your door
This one to be exact
https://www.felicitysolar.com/48-volt-300ah-lithium-ion-phosphate-battery-aa-rechargeable-lithium-power-batteries_p108.html
 

the only problem i have with no brand batteries here, is nobody is putting their name behind it, and cost is similar
felicity also sell everything else needed too, although i use growatt inverters

as for room
everything will function
but temperatures will affect battery life
i have FTKZ09VV2S daikin aircon in my small room
Daikin FTKZ models are most efficient
all depends how cool your room is without aircon

one thing i would also definately suggest (finding this out recently)
you could greatly benefit from having a few panels face/angled WEST
just to get more of the late afternoon sun, so you start discharging from battery later
Peak day you will generate excess and likely lose this excess if no demand for it once batt is full
as you can see from my image

i am off grid
 

Thank you for the link and tips. You are right, that battery does seem way better option. I'll most likely buy them if i don't find better options ????

 

My house will be pointing south-west, so i'll get some of the evening sun. Only issue is my neighbours trees that create some shading on the roof after 4pm. Hope i'll find an agreement about cutting them down.

I dont think microinverters are worth it since I won't have any shades 7am - 4pm

[patman30]

1 hour ago, lost in isaan said:

Thank you for the link and tips. You are right, that battery does seem way better option. I'll most likely buy them if i don't find better options ????

 

My house will be pointing south-west, so i'll get some of the evening sun. Only issue is my neighbours trees that create some shading on the roof after 4pm. Hope i'll find an agreement about cutting them down.

I dont think microinverters are worth it since I won't have any shades 7am - 4pm

when i purchased from felicity
i simply sent them the money and waited for delivery
no dealing with customs etc.
make sure you are there for delivery as they are very heavy
a lot heavier than the delivery guys may expect as was the case with mine
 

[patman30]

4 hours ago, Encid said:

Thanks for confirming what I already suspected, but was debunked by some "experts" on this forum.

"Panels must always face South" was their mandate.

It makes a lot of sense to harvest as much solar energy as you can in the late afternoon, which your graph clearly shows.

Well done. 

For small on grid systems, especially those without battery storage
i would likely agree, as all you mostly aiming to do is generate as much as possible
if you are one these folk that like to (illegally) spin their PEA meter backwards, to reduce monthly PEA bill
or if most power is used during daytime
Myself, i am off grid, i dont want to care about PEA today or in future, or what day the meter guy comes,
or how low i can get my bill while making sure its not negative, i got better things to be getting on with.
Batteries are the way to go for myself, and if off grid your batts are your night time power, so the later you start discharging them the better
i would also suggest some panels facing east for the same reason,
but west is more important imo as long as batts still have enough juice to cover you till 7am

i am about to build a solar water pump which all the panels will be facing east
as it will be used in the morning only
panels on my well face south-east (installers choice) to get water a little earlier

my next step is to start acquiring NiFe batteries/cells
only the 1200ah are decent value,
cheapest i seen is $450 each
and you need 10 for every 12v, as they only come in 1.2v

[lost in isaan]

Roof is ready and things are going forward without major issues. I'm amazed how hard working the builders are. They work 10h every day, even in 40 degree heat.

 

It's been over 4 months since it last rained in my area and the water pressure from main line is dropping. I noticed that our 2000-litre water tank was almost empty, so got to reduce the water usage. When i asked around, the people said that on years where it's dry like this, the groundwater starts running out around June ????

This proves that my decision to store water will be on point and 10000 litres might not be enough, as many of you have already mentioned.

 

Some pictures from past few days:

 

[ncc1701d]

Looks like a super strong base. Very thick ????

[4MyEgo]

On 3/21/2023 at 1:21 AM, lost in isaan said:

there was one instance where they insisted that insulation was unnecessary in an Isaan house due to wind.

Please tell me you didn't listen to their advice.

 

Get the place insulated, and while your at it, put sisalation under the roof, then throw on a few whirly birds and hopefully eaves at least 600mm wide and vented, as well as some panels to allow air to enter and exit the roof while the whirly birds suck the air out, this is the only way your going to keep your place cool in summer.

 

If you are going to use an air conditioner, the above will help keep the cool air in, as opposed to rising out through your ceilings as the insulation batts will stop the cool air from leaving and the hot air from entering through the ceilings.

 

I have a 300 square metre single level house and it cost me 120,000 baht to do the lot and to me, it is like living in an air conditioned house, without the air conditioner being on, so well worth the investment. air conditioner only goes on at night for 30 minutes to cool the room down, then off it goes and on goes the fan on low to circulate the "trapped" cool air that the air conditioner circulated into the room earlier.

[lost in isaan]

On 4/4/2023 at 4:33 PM, 4MyEgo said:

Please tell me you didn't listen to their advice.

 

Get the place insulated, and while your at it, put sisalation under the roof, then throw on a few whirly birds and hopefully eaves at least 600mm wide and vented, as well as some panels to allow air to enter and exit the roof while the whirly birds suck the air out, this is the only way your going to keep your place cool in summer.

 

If you are going to use an air conditioner, the above will help keep the cool air in, as opposed to rising out through your ceilings as the insulation batts will stop the cool air from leaving and the hot air from entering through the ceilings.

 

I have a 300 square metre single level house and it cost me 120,000 baht to do the lot and to me, it is like living in an air conditioned house, without the air conditioner being on, so well worth the investment. air conditioner only goes on at night for 30 minutes to cool the room down, then off it goes and on goes the fan on low to circulate the "trapped" cool air that the air conditioner circulated into the room earlier.

Thank you for the advice. I fully agree with you and will most likely add insulation under the roof. Since it's not that hard to add, i decided to wait until it rains first to see if there's any leaks. I also might add some extra solar panels to the roof, so i'd rather confirm first that there are no extra holes.

[lost in isaan]

The builders completed the walls and are off to one-week holiday. The quality of the work has been getting poorer and some of the walls are not straight ???? oh well, at least the pillars are straight.

Now that it's time to talk about extra work (car port, extra plugs, tiling etc) they offered to do everything for 300k. I would gladly pay that amount, if the quality of the work was on par, but it's not. The real value of materials and labor should be around 150k, so we decilined most of the extra work and will do it once the house is built.

To be honest, it's probably better this way. Now we will have better control over materials and quality.

Latest pictures:

[4MyEgo]

13 hours ago, lost in isaan said:

Thank you for the advice. I fully agree with you and will most likely add insulation under the roof. Since it's not that hard to add, i decided to wait until it rains first to see if there's any leaks. I also might add some extra solar panels to the roof, so i'd rather confirm first that there are no extra holes.

You won't regret it.

 

If you can, get the thermal reflective sisalation, it will work wonders. Here is a link https://www.polytechinc.com/products/thermal-insulation-foam and it's the 3rd one down when your scrolling.

 

I purchased mine at DoHome, however I don't know if they stock it any longer, not cheap, but very very affective.

 

Then once you put in those insulation batts on top of your ceiling, your laughing.

 

R38 Stay Cool are the ones we put in, the thicker the better.

 

Picture below.

 

Purchased at SCG.

 

[4MyEgo]

13 hours ago, lost in isaan said:

The real value of materials and labor should be around 150k, so we decilined most of the

extra work and will do it once the house is built.

You will be surprised how much you can save getting the materials yourself and getting someone else to do the work once the builders have finished.

 

13 hours ago, lost in isaan said:

To be honest, it's probably better this way. Now we will have better control over materials and quality.

Amen to that.

 

Be interested to know what the build has cost you, e.g. builders cost to lock up stage + materials if your willing. If I were to take a guess, I would say around 700k baht including rendering inside and outside 

[lost in isaan]

1 hour ago, 4MyEgo said:

You will be surprised how much you can save getting the materials yourself and getting someone else to do the work once the builders have finished.

 

Amen to that.

 

Be interested to know what the build has cost you, e.g. builders cost to lock up stage + materials if your willing. If I were to take a guess, I would say around 700k baht including rendering inside and outside 

Total price for the finished house is around 720k. This is the original offer:

We increased the length of the house by 1m and got thicker roof steel. That cost me 70k extra.

Up until this point we have paid 600k (includes the rendering). Another 120k for tiling, paintint, electrical work etc.

So it's quite cheap and i'm not too stressed if the house quality will be medicore. I'll build a proper house if i'm still staying here after couple of years.

[4MyEgo]

 

1 hour ago, lost in isaan said:

So it's quite cheap and i'm not too stressed if the house quality will be medicore. I'll build a proper house if i'm still staying here after couple of years.

Your on the money.

 

For what it's worth, we built a bungalow or small house back in 2008 for us to stay here when we would come on holidays, 2-3 months at a time.

 

It was a one bedroom 4 x 4 with a lounge/dining/kitchen 8 x 4 plus a bathroom/laundry 4 x 4 so it was about 64m2 all up plus a front porch 8 x 3 and it cost us 500,000 baht back then, materials were up, especially steel.

 

That bungalow was later extended in 2014, in other words we built our house forward from the bungalow as the bungalow was down the back away from the street front and is now my man cave, the old front porch was extended forward and made into a family room, but I use it as my bedroom 8 x 6 and the old lounge/dining/kitchen is a gym 4 x 4 and a sitting room 4 x 4 but both open like the old lounge/dining/kitchen were, except we took out the kitchen and the bedroom is used as his and her clothes room, wife has too much sheet to put in one of the other rooms....lol

 

We added 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms, an 8 x 4 kitchen/dining room, and a loungeroom/entry foyer 9 x 4. 

 

We purchased all the materials 1,000,000 baht and 500,000 was for the builder. We went for the polished concrete floor look and did some nice matching featured arch's/left and right matching the floor with shelves.

 

The kitchen and bathroom were done by hand, e.g. concrete basins counters, timber doors etc.

 

It's important to buy your own materials otherwise they load the price, the sisalation, and insulation was separate to the bill, but built in wardrobes (open) no doors included, we later bought concertina style sliding PVC doors and added them on ourselves. Also doesn't include air conditioners, but if you set them up right, you can have one at the front and one at the back looking straight at each other, close all doors and let them rip for a couple of hours and they will cool the house down after 2pm in really hot climates.

 

Just remember, only invest as much as your prepared to walk away from, 10%, 20% max and have the balance as your plan B exit.

 

EDIT: The concrete floor as of this year are no longer, we covered them with that timber flooring look, 5 square metres for about 600 baht, cheap enough and easy to lay for the Mrs as she is handy, so instead of tiling, you might look at PVC flooring on Lazada, just watch out for the delivery prices as they can charge 200 baht per 5 square metres (box). The timber look has brought the house up to date vs the polished concrete flooring of 8 years ago.

 

[Denim]

At some stage in the future you may want to enter the roof space for one of several reasons ( check on leaks , add more insulation, check wiring etc. 

 

To facilitate safe and easy access in the attic, I had the builders weld steel walk ways along the length of the house with a couple of spurs running off this.  Now , whenever I go up in the attic I can move around easily without having to worry about falling through the ceiling.

 

The guys from 3BB really appreciated this the other day when they had to replace some wiring that a mouse had nibbled through. They said they were often unable to work in attics and had to run cables along outside walls then drill through to wire people up..

 

On the subject of ventilation , we had  ventilated soffits all around the roof overhang plus ventilation slats front and rear. Nonetheless there is zero air movement in the attic and it gets very hot. We do have 6 inches of insulation on top of the ceiling but if I was doing things again I might try installing a couple of large extractor fans to suck out the hot air late in the afternoon around 5 pm ish. Because there is little air movement in the attic it retains the heat for quite a long time after the sun has gone down.

 

There is a forum dedicated only to building houses in Thailand. Very useful info there and I believe it is not treading on this forums toes :

 

https://www.coolthaihouse.com/forum/

[4MyEgo]

3 hours ago, lost in isaan said:

electrical work etc.

I forgot to mention as the poster above just reminded me, make sure you get whoever is doing the wiring to feed the cables through either PVC pipes or those coiled aluminium looking ones so as to stop the rice field mice eating through your cables and short circuiting your place, that and circuit breakers and an emergency (red) safety switch in your main switchboard.

[4MyEgo]

1 hour ago, Denim said:

I might try installing a couple of large extractor fans to suck out the hot air late in the afternoon around 5 pm ish.

Depending on your type of roof, e.g. gable, I put in a couple of "whirly birds" extractors as some call them, and they do suck the heat out, mine spin practically all day long, one at the front and one at the rear.

[lost in isaan]

1 hour ago, Denim said:

At some stage in the future you may want to enter the roof space for one of several reasons ( check on leaks , add more insulation, check wiring etc. 

 

To facilitate safe and easy access in the attic, I had the builders weld steel walk ways along the length of the house with a couple of spurs running off this.  Now , whenever I go up in the attic I can move around easily without having to worry about falling through the ceiling.

 

The guys from 3BB really appreciated this the other day when they had to replace some wiring that a mouse had nibbled through. They said they were often unable to work in attics and had to run cables along outside walls then drill through to wire people up..

 

On the subject of ventilation , we had  ventilated soffits all around the roof overhang plus ventilation slats front and rear. Nonetheless there is zero air movement in the attic and it gets very hot. We do have 6 inches of insulation on top of the ceiling but if I was doing things again I might try installing a couple of large extractor fans to suck out the hot air late in the afternoon around 5 pm ish. Because there is little air movement in the attic it retains the heat for quite a long time after the sun has gone down.

 

There is a forum dedicated only to building houses in Thailand. Very useful info there and I believe it is not treading on this forums toes :

 

https://www.coolthaihouse.com/forum/

The steel walk ways are a great idea, thanks.

I'm quite worried about the air flow also. I installed few temperature meters already and will be monitoring the situation. Currently without the ceiling, the hot air clears out really fast and the temperature drops similar rate as outside.

Didn't know about the forum either, i'll check it out.

[lost in isaan]

House is progressing fast and will be completed in may. 

Plastering is done and they are now working on floor tiling.

 

I was waiting for over a month for a family relative to install poles for electric line and pull the cables, but nothing got done so i decided to do it myself during songkran.

Dug ~1m hole for each pole.

Filled the holes with 50+cm of concrete and installed the pole.

And pulled the cable.

All got done in less than 8h and wasn't complicated at all, so i don't really understand the 10k ฿ quete (labor cost) i got from a builder ????.

 

All the 5 poles were 20-25m distance from each other and are 2.5mm thick and 6m in height. Hope they will be strong enough for future storms.

 

Poles cost me 970฿ each and the wire connection parts were around 200฿ for each pole. I have 5 slots on each pole, because one will be for the internet and the other side will be for solar generated electricity for in-laws house.

 

My only mistake was not wearing long pants while doing the welding ???? It was a painful one week after that.

 

To be honest, my initial plan was to put the wires underground, but everyone thought i was crazy. Seems like it's not the norm in here and I didn't really care to argue.

 

 

[murphybridget]

On 4/8/2023 at 10:57 PM, 4MyEgo said:

 

Your on the money.

 

For what it's worth, we built a bungalow or small house back in 2008 for us to stay here when we would come on holidays, 2-3 months at a time.

 

It was a one bedroom 4 x 4 with a lounge/dining/kitchen 8 x 4 plus a bathroom/laundry 4 x 4 so it was about 64m2 all up plus a front porch 8 x 3 and it cost us 500,000 baht back then, materials were up, especially steel.

 

That bungalow was later extended in 2014, in other words we built our house forward from the bungalow as the bungalow was down the back away from the street front and is now my man cave, the old front porch was extended forward and made into a family room, but I use it as my bedroom 8 x 6 and the old lounge/dining/kitchen is a gym 4 x 4 and a sitting room 4 x 4 but both open like the old lounge/dining/kitchen were, except we took out the kitchen and the bedroom is used as his and her clothes room, wife has too much sheet to put in one of the other rooms....lol

 

We added 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms, an 8 x 4 kitchen/dining room, and a loungeroom/entry foyer 9 x 4. 

 

We purchased all the materials 1,000,000 baht and 500,000 was for the builder. We went for the polished concrete floor look and did some nice matching featured arch's/left and right matching the floor with shelves.

 

The kitchen and bathroom were done by hand, e.g. concrete basins counters, timber doors etc.

 

It's important to buy your own materials otherwise they load the price, the sisalation, and insulation was separate to the bill, but built in wardrobes (open) no doors included, we later bought concertina style sliding PVC doors and added them on ourselves. Also doesn't include air conditioners, but if you set them up right, you can have one at the front and one at the back looking straight at each other, close all doors and let them rip for a couple of hours and they will cool the house down after 2pm in really hot climates.

 

Just remember, only invest as much as your prepared to walk away from, 10%, 20% max and have the balance as your plan B exit.

 

EDIT: The concrete floor as of this year are no longer, we covered them with that timber flooring look, 5 square metres for about 600 baht, cheap enough and easy to lay for the Mrs as she is handy, so instead of tiling, you might look at PVC flooring on Lazada, just watch out for the delivery prices as they can charge 200 baht per 5 square metres (box). The timber look has brought the house up to date vs the polished concrete flooring of 8 years ago.

 

Congrats, that looks very nice.