Pre-fabricated Thai Home

[Azul_Blanco]

Hello,

I have finally got my little plot of land near Had Yai (well my wife has it) and I want to build a Thai style wood home on it --- Thai on the outside, modernish on th inside. Has anyone had any experiences with pre-fab Thai homes or builders in this area? Also, for all those builders out there, is teak wood the only option or is there another (cheaper) wood that is similar? Thanks.

[lopburi3]

Are you sure the wife wants a wood home? Wood is not a low cost building material here anymore and is subject to termite attack. Not sure of where in Hat Yai you are talking but the whole area was under a huge amount of water a few years ago and this could easily happen again so you may want to have it a pole house if wood. Have never heard of any prefab construction either but there could be.

If it is style you want a normal concrete home with exterior artificial wood can be quite attractive.

Am not from that area so hope someone with local knowledge can help you more.

[Azul_Blanco]

thanks for the reply. Yes, a wood home is what I'm after. I've got land on a hill overlooking the ocean so flooding isn't an issue. And I've seen a few "100 year old" teak homes so I hope it can withstand the critters. As for pre-fab homes, it is my understanding that that is the way Thai's have been building these things for a long long time - craftsmen build it up and then assemble it on your lot. I've found a bunch of pre-fab places around Ayuthaya but have not been able to locate much in the far south ----- I contacted a few up north and they could not comprehend sending it that far south. As for the price, well the wife chips in what she can (which is a good portion) but I am footing most of the bill - I'm looking at spending around 2 mil. Anyone else done this? I'd really appreciate a PM from those that have or we can keep it going on the board for others.

[lopburi3]

I know the places you see on the Asia Highway near Ayutthaya but believe most of the selling is roofs for decoration and rooms for restaurants and the like rather than working homes. Teakwood is just too expensive to build with now. I would not like to lose 2 million at the toss of a match or the blow of a typhoon. But do hope others can provide you more information.

[sbk]

thanks for the reply. Yes, a wood home is what I'm after. I've got land on a hill overlooking the ocean so flooding isn't an issue. And I've seen a few "100 year old" teak homes so I hope it can withstand the critters. As for pre-fab homes, it is my understanding that that is the way Thai's have been building these things for a long long time - craftsmen build it up and then assemble it on your lot. I've found a bunch of pre-fab places around Ayuthaya but have not been able to locate much in the far south ----- I contacted a few up north and they could not comprehend sending it that far south. As for the price, well the wife chips in what she can (which is a good portion) but I am footing most of the bill - I'm looking at spending around 2 mil. Anyone else done this? I'd really appreciate a PM from those that have or we can keep it going on the board for others.

I've lived in Surat Thani for over 15 years and have never seen anyone build a prefab home here. Sorry, everyone I know does it the usual way, hires builders, buys the materials and builds on site.

What you might try is going up north (Tak around there) and seeing if there are any old homes for sale, I have heard of people buying them, having them disassembled and then reassembled on site (or even building a different house but with the old wood). Teak is best, termites don't seem to find it tasty. Alot of people build with cement /concrete blocks, but speaking from personal experience, they are hot and hold the heat for hours after the sun goes down. If I were to do it all over again, I would build with wood. Or maybe try that wood laminate stuff I have seen advertised?

[otherstuff1957]

My Thai sister and brother-in-law dissambled their old teak house a few years ago and recycled the wood into floors, interior walls, windows, doors, etc... for a new concrete house. The resulting house is quite attractive!

They live in Sukhothai and used the recycled wood because new wood was either too expensive or of inferior quality.

[Azul_Blanco]

thanks for the replies. I've found a company out of BKK that does very nice looking work - For anyone else looking for the same thing I've found these:

google search:

cvs thailand

Delice Thai Co Ltd.

real-estate-insider

they all look very nice.

[sbk]

Any idea if they go south? Or of pricing? I would be interested to hear your results as my husband & I are thinking of building a small home (a bit further away from the in laws if you know what I mean )

[Johpa]

Alot of people build with cement /concrete blocks, but speaking from personal experience, they are hot and hold the heat for hours after the sun goes down.

For what it is worth a bit late in the conversation, I find my newer concrete block house built around 1997, to be much cooler than my older wood and brick house which we built in 1986. I find the older wood homes to be much hotter than the newer syle block homes. And by the way, I have never seen prefab homes in Thailand. What would be the point as it is cheap to build on-site if you (preferably a Thai) are buying the building materials directly.

Building a new home out of legal wood would be prohibitively expensive. Usually only the most well connnected people can find a way to build such homes and they do not pay the "legal" pricing. Even 17 years ago, when we built our first house, the teak we used for our doors and windows was delivered at 4:00 AM as of course we were not using "legal" wood. Then again, nobody was using legal wood even back then in the villages. And the days of finding older teak homes to tear down and re-use the wood are long gone.

The key point is not the materials, but the ventilation and shading. You need high ceilings, vents in the attic space, complete shading of the south face, and lots of screened windows and fans.

Easiest thing to do is find a house you like and then tell a local builder to build the same house for you. Do not let a Thai spouse try to design a house. I find that other than architects, most Thais are very weak in visualizing spatial relationships. Just watch how long it takes the average Thai, even the educated ones, to orient themselves relative to a map.

[sbk]

looking for something else and found this website mae sod in phuket

I don't know how easy it is to completely shade a cement block house. Ours is shaded pretty well and still retains heat in the hottest parts of the year. Also, in the South, one of the biggest problems with having a house that is in a really shady area is it brings on even more mozzies than usual.

Agree with don't let your thai partner design the house, unless they have a degree in design or architecture. We have a Thai friend who studied design at Uni in Bangkok and has designed a terrific house for himself, only to have his father step in and try to change things to suit his idea of what is good. (Amazing, really, the father isn't even going to be living in the house!) And most of the time the dad's ideas are just awful!

[lopburi3]

We have a Thai friend who studied design at Uni in Bangkok and has designed a terrific house for himself, only to have his father step in and try to change things to suit his idea of what is good. (Amazing, really, the father isn't even going to be living in the house!) And most of the time the dad's ideas are just awful!

Ok. A friend it is. But one might have suspicions after your previous post about moving away from the in-laws.

I would highly advise using brick rather than cement blocks as the cost is not that much more and it provides a much stronger wall. You should make sure that they run rebar and cement about a third up the wall (below windows) to help prevent major cracks and provide more strength. I am not a builder but have watched at lot.

[sbk]

Ok. A friend it is. But one might have suspicions after your previous post about moving away from the in-laws.

No, no it really is a friend. Just one who has parents similar to my in laws

[sabaijai]

We have a Thai friend who studied design at Uni in Bangkok and has designed a terrific house for himself, only to have his father step in and try to change things to suit his idea of what is good. (Amazing, really, the father isn't even going to be living in the house!)  And most of the time the dad's ideas are just awful!

Ok. A friend it is. But one might have suspicions after your previous post about moving away from the in-laws.

I would highly advise using brick rather than cement blocks as the cost is not that much more and it provides a much stronger wall. You should make sure that they run rebar and cement about a third up the wall (below windows) to help prevent major cracks and provide more strength. I am not a builder but have watched at lot.

I'd second the vote for brick, which is also a heckuva lot cooler than block. If you don't like the look of brick walls, you can plaster over them in any colour you choose. I've contracted several houses or associated structures, in three countries, using wood, brick and block. The only ones I'm happy with are the brick.

Old teak is very resistant to termites, but new teak - that is plantation/farmed teak -- is much less so. If you decide to build with wood, go for recycled teak. Only problem is it's almost impossible to find in Hat Yai And you need a permit to move teak from one district to another.

Edited August 9, 2004 by sabaijai