House Builder In The Tha Tum/surin Area

[feffejonsson]

Hello all forum members.

I´m a new member of the forum but I´ve been a Thai resident for some years now.

Me and my wife have until now been staying in the same house as her parents. However pleasant now the time has come to build a house of our own.

The problem is that we don´t know where to find a reliable construction company/builder. I suggested to my wife that we employ a builder from her family but she claims that you should never hire family for a work like this. Being family just makes them think that they can be both sloppy and lazy.

In Surin I know there is a builder from England but a lot of farang I´ve been speaking to says that he is both expensive and not very good.

Can anyone recommend someone? Thai or farang really doesn´t matter as long as they are trustworthy and professional.

I´m prepared to spend appr. 1,5 million baht on the house. Is this money enough? We already bought the land.

Grateful for any input on this matter

Cheers

Edited August 7, 2007 by feffejonsson

[johnsurin]

I must hasten to add, the builder you are refering to from england is very good and proffesional, and will tailor your needs to your price range. His website can be found at the farang connection advert above.

John

[farangconnection]

It all depends on what you are looking for.

a) Expensive but good

Cheap but no good/average

Most people want option c) Cheap and fantastic, which I'm afraid mostly exists in dreams.

Alan the Builder falls into catogary a)

But as with all things, you get what you pay for. I can guess the Farangs you talked to, had no idea what his work was like, only how much he charged, or had work done, it was good, but a tad on the dear side, so ran him down. I do know of a chap in Surin who had some work done at a fixed price, the work was carried out to his satifaction, then he resused to pay, saying he could get it cheaper with a local doing it.

Personally, I have never had anyone complain about his work, only some of his charges. But then again that is in a town where some Farangs say a Large bottle of chang is expensive in a bar/restaurant at 50 baht.

[erkki]

Hi,

Alan have build my house, and I am very satisfied with the work.

Looking at youre name i quess that you are swedish, if you have any questions you can PM me.

Regards,

Erkki

[feffejonsson]

Yes Erkki. That´s right I´m swedish. And judging by your name you come from our neighbouring country in the east. I will PM you in the weekend. I´m at the office now and time is a commodity I never seem to have enough of.

Cheers

[erkki]

Hi

I,m from sweden!

Erkki

[Lickey]

Whats all this PM thing?? if you have good information on a house builder why not share it with other forum users, after all, thats what forums are for!!

[farangconnection]

Whats all this PM thing?? if you have good information on a house builder why not share it with other forum users, after all, thats what forums are for!!

It is shared...............look at my web-site at the top of the page. There are examples of his work there. And it's quite obvious why they want to PM. They want to discuss it in their Mother tongue, which is not allowed on this Forum.

[erkki]

Hi Lickey,

If you want me to share something on the forum, ask me a question.

I am not a writer and I am not a mindreader, so please help me.

Erkki

[Lickey]

Hi Lickey,

If you want me to share something on the forum, ask me a question.

I am not a writer and I am not a mindreader, so please help me.

Erkki

Erkki and Farangconnection, Firstly i didnt realise mother tounges are not allowed on here, hence the PM thing,

I just wanted to add my own expirence after having lived in our new 4.5 m bht 3 story beauty salon for 6 weeks, we lived near the new house, but i never came to look at the progress much, Mainly because of the safety issues involved, or lack of it!!!, im sure you all understand what i mean, bamboo ladders, no goggles, no helmets, barefoot or flip flops,

Ok, the result of me not attending is electric plug in wall sockets 1.5 mtrs from the floor, so big black wires hang from these, looking terrible, And i wanted our rest area sound-proofed, stopping the noise from speaker Pick-ups and the local market, this was quite successful, but the builders put the double glazed windows to far out, so now when it rains, the water comes down the wall, hits the window lip and comes inside house!!Builders have added a lip above windows and hopefully that will resolve this problem!

Next thing is the bad smells, they failed to put U-Bends on the sinks and shower rooms, although i requested this in the inatial build, Still to be resolved!!!

Also when it rains, the 3rd floor roof doesnt have a gutter, so the water drops onto the steel awning on the second floor, making a terrible noise when trying to watch TV, Weve glued some foam onto this and it helps a lot,

Another thing to watch for is earthing of electric showers and the like, None of our 5 showers were earthed, this has since been rectified!

Something else you might want to consider is an outside kitchen for Thai cooking, as you know, it can smell terrible, and in our case, a beauty salon, you do want to smell fish cooking or the other things Thais cook, so now we have a western style kitchen inside and a thai kitchen outside.

Something else to consider is if you are building your house in a street of houses, put house near the street, then you will have a big private back garden for what you want, Perhaps leave enough at the front for your pick-up off road parking.

And the last point, a thai builder came to do some remedial work the other day, when he finished, my mrs asked me to check his work, i did, and said ask him if he wants another job, mrs asked him, he said Yes, i said ok, tell him to clean up the mess he leave behind, he didnt find the place like that and shouldnt leave the place like that!!!

Erkki, I hope some of the above info is helpful to you, a few tips and things to watch for, good luck with your house.

Farangconnection, ive looked at your site a few times now and promised to visit you soon, we need a break!, we also have built an english style bar [only for friends and salon customers] and we are looking for some old memoribllia, you know, beer mats, cloth beer mats for bar ect, an old guiness pelican, that sort of stuff, just to make me feel at home!! and thanks for sponsoring this forum, a valuable contribution to Thai Visa,

Cheers, Lickey..

[JEUNIQUE]

What a load of "Bullshit" Cheap "pr" work by a bunch of friends. Bussiness must be bad. Did not think this forum was about adverstising. Please be careful when making statements about individuals as mud sticks and it is not fair to the individual when the truth is not told.

Regards to all

[dandare]

Hello all forum members.

I´m a new member of the forum but I´ve been a Thai resident for some years now.

Me and my wife have until now been staying in the same house as her parents. However pleasant now the time has come to build a house of our own.

The problem is that we don´t know where to find a reliable construction company/builder. I suggested to my wife that we employ a builder from her family but she claims that you should never hire family for a work like this. Being family just makes them think that they can be both sloppy and lazy.

In Surin I know there is a builder from England but a lot of farang I´ve been speaking to says that he is both expensive and not very good.

Can anyone recommend someone? Thai or farang really doesn´t matter as long as they are trustworthy and professional.

I´m prepared to spend appr. 1,5 million baht on the house. Is this money enough? We already bought the land.

Grateful for any input on this matter

Cheers

[dandare]

i am currently having a house constructed by alan the builder. i have designed this myself and after initial concerns by alan, because of the design, we agreed a price. the price was a bit more than expected but have offset this knowing the project is in good hands. my wife and i are in the uk working to fund this at the moment sending regular payments to alan. we are coming back home at xmas and all being well our home should be about 50% complete. whilst in the uk alan has kept us upto date with progress and email pictures as things have progressed. had we employed a thai company to carry out this project it would have meant having to be on site every day and none stp hassle from start to finish. having heard some horrer storys concerning thai builders and faranng i am happy to pay the bit extra and let alan deal with the hassle. you cant buy a rolls royce for lada money is the way i look on it. you get what you pay for.

[Lickey]

What a load of "Bullshit" Cheap "pr" work by a bunch of friends. Bussiness must be bad. Did not think this forum was about adverstising. Please be careful when making statements about individuals as mud sticks and it is not fair to the individual when the truth is not told.

Regards to all

Whoes advertising? as far as i can see, they are recomendations, in the end, please your self who you use as a builder, if youve been stung or fleeced, then post the details here, but please dont say this is BS or a PR exercise with old buddies, in my case not true, others were recomending somebody they had good service from, cant see a lot wrong with that!

[lampard10]

First I want to apologise to Lickey. I thought you were one of these other people ( like someone that also replied). I see now you are fishing for information. The reason non-English is not allowed, is to stop harsh insults from people that not a lot of others understand. (eg: arschloch). I actually was one of the luckey ones. My family does all my building work. One just has to look at some of their work to see the quality. The house with a swimming/splash pool, even the extension to the Farang Connection, which by the way was carried out with the customers still sitting there. Two units knocked into one, tiled, plastered, rendered, painted. Ok, the customers in were Yorky and gang, so they were prolly too pissed to notice anything happening anyway. Alan the Builder did borrow a couple of my gang once, when he was short staffed.

I think to sum up, is if you use Alan, you can go about your affairs in your Mother countries, and know the job will be carried out to your satifaction when you return. If you use a local Thai builder, you must be there 24/7. And I mean 24/7. Take 5 minutes off and something will be done wrong, or their way.

And Jenique ( sounds French, so perfectly understandable) can you go to someone elses Forum, if all your going to do is whinge.

[farangconnection]

Sorry Mods, the above post should have been from Farang Connection. Can someone MODIFY please.

[jayenram]

Sorry Mods, the above post should have been from Farang Connection. Can someone MODIFY please.

I don't think that is possible. Re-post as FC and then we can delete the previous one.

[farangconnection]

Sorry Mods, the above post should have been from Farang Connection. Can someone MODIFY please.

I don't think that is possible. Re-post as FC and then we can delete the previous one.

NNNNNAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH.....I'll leave it

[jayenram]

But then again that is in a town where some Farangs say a Large bottle of chang is expensive in a bar/restaurant at 50 baht.

Incorrect analogy, F*t G*t. Whether you pay Bht 35.00 or Bht 80.00 for *Chang*, it's still *Chang*. Paying more does not in this case mean you are getting better *Chang*.

[farangconnection]

But then again that is in a town where some Farangs say a Large bottle of chang is expensive in a bar/restaurant at 50 baht.

Incorrect analogy, F*t G*t. Whether you pay Bht 35.00 or Bht 80.00 for *Chang*, it's still *Chang*. Paying more does not in this case mean you are getting better *Chang*.

No; but paying less means you are getting worse *chang*................................it's called Archa

[TheExpat]

First I want to apologise to Lickey. I thought you were one of these other people ( like someone that also replied). I see now you are fishing for information. The reason non-English is not allowed, is to stop harsh insults from people that not a lot of others understand. (eg: arschloch). I actually was one of the luckey ones. My family does all my building work. One just has to look at some of their work to see the quality. The house with a swimming/splash pool, even the extension to the Farang Connection, which by the way was carried out with the customers still sitting there. Two units knocked into one, tiled, plastered, rendered, painted. Ok, the customers in were Yorky and gang, so they were prolly too pissed to notice anything happening anyway. Alan the Builder did borrow a couple of my gang once, when he was short staffed.

I think to sum up, is if you use Alan, you can go about your affairs in your Mother countries, and know the job will be carried out to your satifaction when you return. If you use a local Thai builder, you must be there 24/7. And I mean 24/7. Take 5 minutes off and something will be done wrong, or their way.

And Jenique ( sounds French, so perfectly understandable) can you go to someone elses Forum, if all your going to do is whinge.

I rarely post here and enjoy all of the forums, but I can't bite my tongue any longer.

I have sent some people to Alan the builder myself and helping a friend is ok. That is business. I think the problem is that there is always some hidden agenda from the FC here. I see bars and business reviews bad and good all over Thaivisa.com, but as soon as a person does not give the FC a 5 star rating the post is removed ASAP. I have had good and bad experiences when dining there. Some food was good (5 star) and some was not to my liking. I know the guy sponsors the forum, but both sides should be allowed to be shared about any business. That is what thaivisa.com is all about, sharing our experiences and views. Some comments might offend others and some might please others. That is why some people do not post when the have been "stung" or "fleeced". I have had good and bad experiences with many of the people that post here. I try to remember the good and speak about the good, but if someone asks directly I will share my opinion. I think the poster with the French name (and might I add that he was insulted as well and not in his mother tongue either!) has shared his views.

[dandare]

well said

[johnsurin]

First I want to apologise to Lickey. I thought you were one of these other people ( like someone that also replied). I see now you are fishing for information. The reason non-English is not allowed, is to stop harsh insults from people that not a lot of others understand. (eg: arschloch). I actually was one of the luckey ones. My family does all my building work. One just has to look at some of their work to see the quality. The house with a swimming/splash pool, even the extension to the Farang Connection, which by the way was carried out with the customers still sitting there. Two units knocked into one, tiled, plastered, rendered, painted. Ok, the customers in were Yorky and gang, so they were prolly too pissed to notice anything happening anyway. Alan the Builder did borrow a couple of my gang once, when he was short staffed.

I think to sum up, is if you use Alan, you can go about your affairs in your Mother countries, and know the job will be carried out to your satifaction when you return. If you use a local Thai builder, you must be there 24/7. And I mean 24/7. Take 5 minutes off and something will be done wrong, or their way.

And Jenique ( sounds French, so perfectly understandable) can you go to someone elses Forum, if all your going to do is whinge.

I rarely post here and enjoy all of the forums, but I can't bite my tongue any longer.

I have sent some people to Alan the builder myself and helping a friend is ok. That is business. I think the problem is that there is always some hidden agenda from the FC here. I see bars and business reviews bad and good all over Thaivisa.com, but as soon as a person does not give the FC a 5 star rating the post is removed ASAP. I have had good and bad experiences when dining there. Some food was good (5 star) and some was not to my liking. I know the guy sponsors the forum, but both sides should be allowed to be shared about any business. That is what thaivisa.com is all about, sharing our experiences and views. Some comments might offend others and some might please others. That is why some people do not post when the have been "stung" or "fleeced". I have had good and bad experiences with many of the people that post here. I try to remember the good and speak about the good, but if someone asks directly I will share my opinion. I think the poster with the French name (and might I add that he was insulted as well and not in his mother tongue either!) has shared his views.

What's wrong with insulting the french? At least everybody has stopped invading them!!!!!

[farangconnection]

well said

Well said.............what are you on about? I have just got cut down for praising Alan the Builder, just like you praised him, and you say"Well said". I think I know who you are now making ridiculous comments like that.

And Expat. Although I sponsor the Forum, I have absolutely no control over it. I cannot delete posts or change them. And, unfortunately, I am not even allowed to see the posts that are deleted.

[dandare]

b f g my comments where aimed at your post not expats.

[farangconnection]

b f g my comments where aimed at your post not expats.

Oh sorry. You should have hi-lighted my post first then, to avoid confusion.

[cockneyrebel]

Hello all forum members.

I´m a new member of the forum but I´ve been a Thai resident for some years now.

Me and my wife have until now been staying in the same house as her parents. However pleasant now the time has come to build a house of our own.

The problem is that we don´t know where to find a reliable construction company/builder. I suggested to my wife that we employ a builder from her family but she claims that you should never hire family for a work like this. Being family just makes them think that they can be both sloppy and lazy.

In Surin I know there is a builder from England but a lot of farang I´ve been speaking to says that he is both expensive and not very good.

Can anyone recommend someone? Thai or farang really doesn´t matter as long as they are trustworthy and professional.

I´m prepared to spend appr. 1,5 million baht on the house. Is this money enough? We already bought the land.

Grateful for any input on this matter

Cheers

Hi All , I know this post is a bit like shutting the gate after the bull has bolted but just came across this post from

Feffejonsson, and thought I would like to add my two penneth worth.

Alan the builder did some work for me in Surin about 2 years ago he built an extension on my house and a drive ,we had several quotations for the work Alan’s price was much the same as the Thai builders’ my wife had asked to quote. We were more than happy with the work Alan’ did for us especially his workers. The job took 4 weeks and my wife was worrying that we would have to stay at home all the time with these strangers in the house, how wrong she was they were a great bunch of people, very clean honest and courteous, we didn’t have to stay home at all, my wife would only get Alan back in the future, also we had a couple minor problems with our house from when the Thai builders built it leaky roof. Depending what way the wind was blowing, No electric earth. (Shocking). Pardon the pun .They fixed all of these things for free so all in all we were more than happy

Footnote do not know what farangs feffejonsson spoke to but most of the ones I spoke to only said go to one person Alan the builder .

[JanAndersLarsson]

Hello all forum members.

I´m a new member of the forum but I´ve been a Thai resident for some years now.

Me and my wife have until now been staying in the same house as her parents. However pleasant now the time has come to build a house of our own.

The problem is that we don´t know where to find a reliable construction company/builder. I suggested to my wife that we employ a builder from her family but she claims that you should never hire family for a work like this. Being family just makes them think that they can be both sloppy and lazy.

In Surin I know there is a builder from England but a lot of farang I´ve been speaking to says that he is both expensive and not very good.

Can anyone recommend someone? Thai or farang really doesn´t matter as long as they are trustworthy and professional.

I´m prepared to spend appr. 1,5 million baht on the house. Is this money enough? We already bought the land.

Grateful for any input on this matter

Cheers

Hello !

If you live outside the town and if you are going to build an ordinary house try to find a local in the ampeur with a good reputation. You don't have to set up a builders camp the workers go home every evening. I something happens after the house is finished you can go to the builders house or to his new workplace and tell him. If he is afraid of his reputation he comes back very soon.

Be careful with electricity and wastewater systems. Especially if you are planning to have flush toilets. You must have a much bigger tank than yhe thais normally have. (Lycka till) JA from Napho (earlier Taby outside Stockholm )