House Building / Living In Issan

[Lite Beer]

A bit of info here. Not too much though.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=59349

By the way, the main wet season starts around August.

Edited June 14, 2008 by Lite Beer

[Naam]

The only thing bothering me now is how long I need to prepare the land for (i.e. filling/compacting etc.), I was hoping not to wait a couple of years before starting, surely there is a quicker way, anyone got any ideas?

there's no need to compact below the foundations of the skeleton pillars as you will be definitely below the fill (if not, fire your contractor). what has to be thoroughly compacted is the fill below the sections of the concrete slab. if your contractor doesn't own a compactor he has to rent one. compacting is done for every layer of fill after 20-25cm are brought in. any compacting (as it is often done) beyond this thickness is USELESS. best fill is a clayish fill but make sure it is not used outside the slab (drainage problems).

to sum it up: fill is brought in and compacted. no need to wait 2 years.

[rick75]

With all the horror stories on here I would not rush it either and I would be in charge of the project the whole way, if not I fear you will be on here in twelve months time talking about how your house is sinking and the roof leaks and a electrical fire broke out in the walls. Sorry to be pesamistic but I think you have to be realistic about what is likely to happen. Not to mention the high risk of you not being around to enjoy your house once its been built. Have a look at all the, "I built my Mrs a house and bought her a new car then I was kicked out and her Thai husband moved in stories". Just food for thought.

Edited June 14, 2008 by rick75

[gymshark]

With all the horror stories on here I would not rush it either and I would be in charge of the project the whole way, if not I fear you will be on here in twelve months time talking about how your house is sinking and the roof leaks and a electrical fire broke out in the walls. Sorry to be pesimistic but I think you have to be realistic about what is likely to happen. Not to mention the high risk of you not being around to enjoy your house once its been built. Have a look at all the, "I built my Mrs a house and bought her a new car then I was kicked out and her Thai husband moved in stories". Just food for thought.

The thing is, I am not really in a rush but don't really want to wait 2 years before construction starts, however, I am a realist and if I have to do that then I will, after all, I don't want to buy a pile of crap. As for overseeing, my job doesn't allow me that luxury, I work away every couple of months so I can't be here to watch over things.

As for the getting kicked out bit, that is not a problem, I don't know why people always assume Western/Thai relationships will go that way when all the ones I have ever known have been doing well for many years, I guess that's for another topic though.

I have started proceedings today, they are coming to clear the land tomorow so we can start raising the height up, I'll keep you posted, thanks again for all the input, feel free to throw any other pearls of wisdom my way if you get the time.

Cheers

[jay-uk]

The only thing bothering me now is how long I need to prepare the land for (i.e. filling/compacting etc.), I was hoping not to wait a couple of years before starting, surely there is a quicker way, anyone got any ideas?

there's no need to compact below the foundations of the skeleton pillars as you will be definitely below the fill (if not, fire your contractor). what has to be thoroughly compacted is the fill below the sections of the concrete slab. if your contractor doesn't own a compactor he has to rent one. compacting is done for every layer of fill after 20-25cm are brought in. any compacting (as it is often done) beyond this thickness is USELESS. best fill is a clayish fill but make sure it is not used outside the slab (drainage problems).

to sum it up: fill is brought in and compacted. no need to wait 2 years.

There is something to be said obviously for been around when the build commences to make sure all goes well. However I was in a similar position where work and my son's health would not allow us to spend enough time to oversee the building of our own house so we had to use contactors at arms length while we were in UK. It worked out ok for us as my father-in-law has building experience and watched the whole project from start to finish over 5-6 months. It was not a big project initailly and the bungalow we built was only 700,000 baht. So far we have had no major problems with the house and any minor issues were down to electrics only and a garden pond. The building standards are rarely as good as back in the western world especially up in Isaan but at the kind of price we paid we didn't expect too much and the build quality was fine for us using our property on a limited basis for holidays once a year. I trust my wife's mom and dad to look after things while we are away and all is well after 5 years now. If you have a trust worthy hard working family then they usually know about up keep on a property and maintain things well. There are stories of Thai families not looking after houses when your back's turned but I thankfully have not had those problems. In fact I much prefer having them stay there as the house would not last long if left empty for any great length of time. Since the original build went ahead we have added things over the years and did alterations, walls and a garage/sala etc..when on holidays. We spent more financially on land than we did on our bungalow as I personally think its risky having too much money tied up in property rather than land unless you are somewhere like a holiday resort or bangkok. Some people choose to spend more on a house when they are living there but for us land was more of a safe bet.

[Lite Beer]

As for the getting kicked out bit, that is not a problem, I don't know why people always assume Western/Thai relationships will go that way when all the ones I have ever known have been doing well for many years, I guess that's for another topic though.

I have started proceedings today, they are coming to clear the land tomorow so we can start raising the height up, I'll keep you posted, thanks again for all the input, feel free to throw any other pearls of wisdom my way if you get the time.

Cheers

Yes. Plenty of us have a very happy life with our wives. Go for it and keep us informed.

Just make sure you choose the tiles and paint. Make sure there is enough electric points and it is all earthed.

Buy the workers a few beers or Whiskey now and again but after the days work is done.

Good Luck

[Lite Beer]

Any prizes for guessing what the Ladies are eating?

[jay-uk]

Sticky Rice!

[plachon]

With all the horror stories on here I would not rush it either and I would be in charge of the project the whole way, if not I fear you will be on here in twelve months time talking about how your house is sinking and the roof leaks and a electrical fire broke out in the walls. Sorry to be pesimistic but I think you have to be realistic about what is likely to happen. Not to mention the high risk of you not being around to enjoy your house once its been built. Have a look at all the, "I built my Mrs a house and bought her a new car then I was kicked out and her Thai husband moved in stories". Just food for thought.

The thing is, I am not really in a rush but don't really want to wait 2 years before construction starts, however, I am a realist and if I have to do that then I will, after all, I don't want to buy a pile of crap. As for overseeing, my job doesn't allow me that luxury, I work away every couple of months so I can't be here to watch over things.

As for the getting kicked out bit, that is not a problem, I don't know why people always assume Western/Thai relationships will go that way when all the ones I have ever known have been doing well for many years, I guess that's for another topic though.

I have started proceedings today, they are coming to clear the land tomorow so we can start raising the height up, I'll keep you posted, thanks again for all the input, feel free to throw any other pearls of wisdom my way if you get the time.

Cheers

Thailand is replete with people who wanted a house built asap and started building almost as soon as the dump trucks had left on raising the land. The results are plain to see nationwide in cracked walls and in some cases entire bits of the house collapsing. Patience is a virtue when it comes to housebuilding, so don't rush into building anything, or you'll come to regret it later. Let that infill settle and slowly. What's 2 years in the greater scheme of things? In-laws pushing you along can often be a bad harbinger of things to come, but I have no idea in this case if you should be concerned, and would just counsel caution (unless you can afford to throw away good money).

[Lite Beer]

Sticky Rice!

And Som Tum.

[Lite Beer]

Another Land Fill thread.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/lofiversion/...php/t65668.html

[gymshark]

The only thing bothering me now is how long I need to prepare the land for (i.e. filling/compacting etc.), I was hoping not to wait a couple of years before starting, surely there is a quicker way, anyone got any ideas?

there's no need to compact below the foundations of the skeleton pillars as you will be definitely below the fill (if not, fire your contractor). what has to be thoroughly compacted is the fill below the sections of the concrete slab. if your contractor doesn't own a compactor he has to rent one. compacting is done for every layer of fill after 20-25cm are brought in. any compacting (as it is often done) beyond this thickness is USELESS. best fill is a clayish fill but make sure it is not used outside the slab (drainage problems).

to sum it up: fill is brought in and compacted. no need to wait 2 years.

There is something to be said obviously for been around when the build commences to make sure all goes well. However I was in a similar position where work and my son's health would not allow us to spend enough time to oversee the building of our own house so we had to use contactors at arms length while we were in UK. It worked out ok for us as my father-in-law has building experience and watched the whole project from start to finish over 5-6 months. It was not a big project initailly and the bungalow we built was only 700,000 baht. So far we have had no major problems with the house and any minor issues were down to electrics only and a garden pond. The building standards are rarely as good as back in the western world especially up in Isaan but at the kind of price we paid we didn't expect too much and the build quality was fine for us using our property on a limited basis for holidays once a year. I trust my wife's mom and dad to look after things while we are away and all is well after 5 years now. If you have a trust worthy hard working family then they usually know about up keep on a property and maintain things well. There are stories of Thai families not looking after houses when your back's turned but I thankfully have not had those problems. In fact I much prefer having them stay there as the house would not last long if left empty for any great length of time. Since the original build went ahead we have added things over the years and did alterations, walls and a garage/sala etc..when on holidays. We spent more financially on land than we did on our bungalow as I personally think its risky having too much money tied up in property rather than land unless you are somewhere like a holiday resort or bangkok. Some people choose to spend more on a house when they are living there but for us land was more of a safe bet.

Thanks for the positive vibe, great looking house you have there. I agree with what you say about not expecting the same standards as back home but like you I plan to live in this place a few times a year when we are here (we are planning to stay in UK for a couple of years). Both my Father and sister in law have both worked in construction and the have both had their own houses built which are still in good condition and no subsidence etc. so I think I will be OK if I oversee the buying of the materials and then let them supervise the building. As I see it I don't really have much choice anyway.

[gymshark]

Another Land Fill thread.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/lofiversion/...php/t65668.html

Thanks for that Bro, I have been searching all over the place but must have missed that one, I found loads of useful info on coolthai house.com which will be read over the next week or so. We have decided to go with the house plan No.8, looks really nice, with just a few mods here and there. An Aunt nearby is having a big hole dug (some kind of pool for watering rice etc.) so we are going to go in with them and take the soil from here to help fill our land. I am off to work for a few weeks soon so the wife will fly up for a few days to supervise getting the land raised by about half a metre. Some people seem to think that we could build as early as the end of this year but having raed a lot of the threads I am now thinking it may be better to wait a bit longer, She will try to find someone with compacting machinery also, I guess every bit helps. Just a quick question, if we build a perimiter wall, does the land under that need to be prepared in the same way or not?

Thanks again to everyone for their valuable input.

[raybingham]

We have decided to go with the house plan No.8, looks really nice, with just a few mods here and there.

Gymshark - do you have a budget or a quote for your build ? Lite Beer indicated his house cost 1.2m Baht a year ago - are you in the same ballpark.

(I am particularly interested in house plan no 8 myself)

Thanks

[gymshark]

We have decided to go with the house plan No.8, looks really nice, with just a few mods here and there.

Gymshark - do you have a budget or a quote for your build ? Lite Beer indicated his house cost 1.2m Baht a year ago - are you in the same ballpark.

(I am particularly interested in house plan no 8 myself)

Thanks

Hi,

We are waiting for a rough quote from a builder. We guess around the million mark for the basics. Don't want to go as high a 2 mil because it is just a holiday home. Some rough ideas we have got have been from 700,000 up, but it all depends on the materials I guess, we are sure everything is expensive now.

[Lite Beer]

How are you off for water supply. Do you have village water or will you have to sink a bore?

[gymshark]

How are you off for water supply. Do you have village water or will you have to sink a bore?

There is the choice of both although I think it will be better to sink a bore because sometimes they control the villiage water supply flow. What did you do?

[Lite Beer]

How are you off for water supply. Do you have village water or will you have to sink a bore?

There is the choice of both although I think it will be better to sink a bore because sometimes they control the villiage water supply flow. What did you do?

Bore Hole as the village water is always being turned off.

Went down 50 meters. Cost 18,000 Baht including the pump and pipes.

Some more lengthy reading.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=81390

[gymshark]

Yeah, sounds like the best plan, one of our Uncles has the same set up, I will get it checked out when I go up next. Apparently they rarely turn the water off theses days but sometimes reduce output so the bore hole will be perfect. We only need it to service the house and not any agriculture so it should be fairly straight forward.

This will sound pretty weird but we were wondering what the place would look like with furniture in etc. and where to site powerpoints etc. and I don't have any professional software so I use the game "The SIMS" where you can build houses and put in furniture etc. Of course it is crap but it has given us a rough idea, check out the pics for a laugh.....

Let me know if you can't see them SIM PIX

[bartomeer]

Here some pictures from the house i build in Krasang near Surin. It is not almost finished. Cost till today 300 000 bath

S5001181.AVI

[Lite Beer]

Yeah, sounds like the best plan, one of our Uncles has the same set up, I will get it checked out when I go up next. Apparently they rarely turn the water off theses days but sometimes reduce output so the bore hole will be perfect. We only need it to service the house and not any agriculture so it should be fairly straight forward.

This will sound pretty weird but we were wondering what the place would look like with furniture in etc. and where to site powerpoints etc. and I don't have any professional software so I use the game "The SIMS" where you can build houses and put in furniture etc. Of course it is crap but it has given us a rough idea, check out the pics for a laugh.....

Let me know if you can't see them SIM PIX

Still waiting for it to download.

To be honest house no.8 the kitchen is a bit small. We built an outside Thai one.

Edited June 15, 2008 by Lite Beer

[gymshark]

Yeah, sounds like the best plan, one of our Uncles has the same set up, I will get it checked out when I go up next. Apparently they rarely turn the water off theses days but sometimes reduce output so the bore hole will be perfect. We only need it to service the house and not any agriculture so it should be fairly straight forward.

This will sound pretty weird but we were wondering what the place would look like with furniture in etc. and where to site powerpoints etc. and I don't have any professional software so I use the game "The SIMS" where you can build houses and put in furniture etc. Of course it is crap but it has given us a rough idea, check out the pics for a laugh.....

Let me know if you can't see them SIM PIX

Still waiting for it to download.

To be honest hose no.8 the kitchen is a bit small. We built an outside Thai one.

It looked from the plans like it had a kind of outside kitchen but difficult to tell. Did you make many changes from the plan?

[Lite Beer]

Yeah, sounds like the best plan, one of our Uncles has the same set up, I will get it checked out when I go up next. Apparently they rarely turn the water off theses days but sometimes reduce output so the bore hole will be perfect. We only need it to service the house and not any agriculture so it should be fairly straight forward.

This will sound pretty weird but we were wondering what the place would look like with furniture in etc. and where to site powerpoints etc. and I don't have any professional software so I use the game "The SIMS" where you can build houses and put in furniture etc. Of course it is crap but it has given us a rough idea, check out the pics for a laugh.....

Let me know if you can't see them SIM PIX

Still waiting for it to download.

To be honest hose no.8 the kitchen is a bit small. We built an outside Thai one.

It looked from the plans like it had a kind of outside kitchen but difficult to tell. Did you make many changes from the plan?

The only change we made was to build it upwards 1 meter because the wife was worried about flooding.

Don1t worry. An outside Thai kitchen is really cheap.

[Lite Beer]

Sim Pix

You have got the TV in the right place.

[gymshark]

We will do the same, I think 1 metre should be fine, maybe even less. When I go off to work on Tuesday I will have e few weeks away from the net so I have downloaded and copied all the info I can get my paws on and come up with a master plan, meanwhile the wife will fly up at the end of the month to map out the boundaries and get the extra earth built up and she will also show the plans to the builders and get some rough quotes, should be interesting. I am committed to the idea now so quite excited although we now think we will leave the land to settle for about a year, I am a bit worried to do the building quicker than that.

[gymshark]

Yeah, sounds like the best plan, one of our Uncles has the same set up, I will get it checked out when I go up next. Apparently they rarely turn the water off theses days but sometimes reduce output so the bore hole will be perfect. We only need it to service the house and not any agriculture so it should be fairly straight forward.

This will sound pretty weird but we were wondering what the place would look like with furniture in etc. and where to site powerpoints etc. and I don't have any professional software so I use the game "The SIMS" where you can build houses and put in furniture etc. Of course it is crap but it has given us a rough idea, check out the pics for a laugh.....

Let me know if you can't see them SIM PIX

Still waiting for it to download.

To be honest house no.8 the kitchen is a bit small. We built an outside Thai one.

So is that building at the back a kitchen or what? If you have any more pics I would love to see them.

[Lite Beer]

Yeah, sounds like the best plan, one of our Uncles has the same set up, I will get it checked out when I go up next. Apparently they rarely turn the water off theses days but sometimes reduce output so the bore hole will be perfect. We only need it to service the house and not any agriculture so it should be fairly straight forward.

This will sound pretty weird but we were wondering what the place would look like with furniture in etc. and where to site powerpoints etc. and I don't have any professional software so I use the game "The SIMS" where you can build houses and put in furniture etc. Of course it is crap but it has given us a rough idea, check out the pics for a laugh.....

Let me know if you can't see them SIM PIX

Still waiting for it to download.

To be honest house no.8 the kitchen is a bit small. We built an outside Thai one.

So is that building at the back a kitchen or what? If you have any more pics I would love to see them.

Yeah a kitchen and a storeroom for the lawn mower.

[Lite Beer]

Car Park

[sandman333]

Hi,

Having family up near Sakorn Kakhon and visiting often we are thinking of building a house there. We have about 20 Rai of land and a truck, so that's not a problem.

I just want to ask some of the people who have "been there, done that" to get a few pointers.

This will be more a holiday home than a permanent residence and we are thinking of a single story two bedroom place.

I just wonder how you guys get on with TV / Internet etc. because due to my work I need to be able to check email at the very least once a day and it must be reliable. Is it possible to have sattelite TV/Internet in Issan? The TV isn't critical but would be nice but I must have internet access.

Also, (and I know this is bal park) how much do you think I will need to spend for a small 2 bedroom place, I am getting rough ideas from family between 500,000 and 1,500,000.

Any help and tips about things i haven't mentioned would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

my girlfrined and I have just built a 3 bedroon house just outside Surin, it cost us just over 1800000baht.Unless you live in the city and can get a landline to your house you will have to use mobile phone connection which is very bad.The signal keeps going off.make sure you own the land youare building on.Thai law is not always clear on ownership.

[gymshark]

Sounds good, the land we have is in my wifes name, we have all the documents etc. so no legal issues. I just found out that there is a roller machine (I guess like a steam roller) that they use for building roads. Could we use this for compacting the earth prior to construction? I read somewhere else on the net that this method may be preferable to letting gravity and rain do the work.