Price Paid For Block Wall

[Gary A]

We just completed another 80 meters of two meter high (nine blocks) cement block wall. Material totaled about 30,000 baht and labor was about 20,000 baht. The price includes a cap on top of the wall but no rendering nor paint. So it cost about 625 baht per meter including material and labor. The labor was provided by our village locals.

[binnsy]

that sounds reasonable I was quoted 4400 per lock of which i need 105

[Naam]

We just completed another 80 meters of two meter high (nine blocks) cement block wall. Material totaled about 30,000 baht and labor was about 20,000 baht. The price includes a cap on top of the wall but no rendering nor paint. So it cost about 625 baht per meter including material and labor. The labor was provided by our village locals.

including foundation?

[Gary A]

We just completed another 80 meters of two meter high (nine blocks) cement block wall. Material totaled about 30,000 baht and labor was about 20,000 baht. The price includes a cap on top of the wall but no rendering nor paint. So it cost about 625 baht per meter including material and labor. The labor was provided by our village locals.

including foundation?

Of course it has a foundation. There are four pieces of 1/4 inch steel re bar wired into the 4 inch pre-formed squares. I skimped a bit on the cap. There are only two pieces in the cap. The poured posts are 2.6 meters apart. The posts also have 4 pieces bent around the foundation and cap re bar.

[mgjackson69]

If your place is the one I am thinking of, you have a lot of wall already...and a lot to go

How many somchais, and how long to do the 80 meters?

[Naam]

We just completed another 80 meters of two meter high (nine blocks) cement block wall. Material totaled about 30,000 baht and labor was about 20,000 baht. The price includes a cap on top of the wall but no rendering nor paint. So it cost about 625 baht per meter including material and labor. The labor was provided by our village locals.

including foundation?

Of course it has a foundation. There are four pieces of 1/4 inch steel re bar wired into the 4 inch pre-formed squares. I skimped a bit on the cap. There are only two pieces in the cap. The poured posts are 2.6 meters apart. The posts also have 4 pieces bent around the foundation and cap re bar.

i am confused Gary. you use the expression foundation but from what i gather your wall does not rest on a foundation

[Gary A]

We just completed another 80 meters of two meter high (nine blocks) cement block wall. Material totaled about 30,000 baht and labor was about 20,000 baht. The price includes a cap on top of the wall but no rendering nor paint. So it cost about 625 baht per meter including material and labor. The labor was provided by our village locals.

including foundation?

Of course it has a foundation. There are four pieces of 1/4 inch steel re bar wired into the 4 inch pre-formed squares. I skimped a bit on the cap. There are only two pieces in the cap. The poured posts are 2.6 meters apart. The posts also have 4 pieces bent around the foundation and cap re bar.

i am confused Gary. you use the expression foundation but from what i gather your wall does not rest on a foundation

The poured posts are dug down at least 50cm deep. The foundation itself is below ground level about 30 cm and is above the ground level another 20 cm so the foundation itself is a total of about 50 cm. deep. The width is about 20 cm. Everything is tied together with the re bar. The blocks are laid on top of this nine blocks high, then the posts are formed up and poured. This type of wall is NOT suitable to be used as a retaining wall. It took a crew of between four and six guys about ten days to finish it. The high tech equipment consisted of a mechanical buffalo, a trailer with the concrete mixing tub on the trailer and an old bath tub for mixing the mortar. All the workers had their own plastic bucket. The forming lumber came from the sawmill and had bark on one side. My wife is planning on using the forms for her dragon fruit supports. My wife was the supervisor and managed the project. I was happy to sit back and watch as I had learned from the previous 240 meters of wall that I supervised. All I did was inspect each days work after the workers had gone for the day.

[mgjackson69]

So while this project was going on, you were free to have off-site meetings with Roger and Maigo6 at that place on the corner.

[Gary A]

So while this project was going on, you were free to have off-site meetings with Roger and Maigo6 at that place on the corner.

I find drinking beer much more pleasurable than keeping an eye on the workers. I have a wife who knows EVERYTHING. I end up walking off from most projects if she insists on supervising me. I'm not allowed to cut weeds because I cut good stuff. I'm not even permitted to empty the trash because I throw away good stuff. I've got this thing worked out pretty well.

[RY12]

The poured posts are dug down at least 50cm deep. The foundation itself is below ground level about 30 cm and is above the ground level another 20 cm so the foundation itself is a total of about 50 cm. deep. The width is about 20 cm. Everything is tied together with the re bar. The blocks are laid on top of this nine blocks high, then the posts are formed up and poured. This type of wall is NOT suitable to be used as a retaining wall. It took a crew of between four and six guys about ten days to finish it. The high tech equipment consisted of a mechanical buffalo, a trailer with the concrete mixing tub on the trailer and an old bath tub for mixing the mortar. All the workers had their own plastic bucket. The forming lumber came from the sawmill and had bark on one side. My wife is planning on using the forms for her dragon fruit supports. My wife was the supervisor and managed the project. I was happy to sit back and watch as I had learned from the previous 240 meters of wall that I supervised. All I did was inspect each days work after the workers had gone for the day.

I'd like to build a wall and I'm still learning this process: so is there a rebar running horizontally from the formed posts across the top of each row of blocks? Is that a necessary thing to do for block walls and does it have to be done with every single row or can you alternate? I guess it just needs to be built strong enough for say a car accidently bumping into it without it crashing down. Also, what exactly are 'blocks'- are they they the equivalent of hollow cinderblocks (8'x8'x16'), and why don't people just use red bricks (are they too thin for a wall even if they have rebar reencforcement?

[mgjackson69]

I have a wife who knows EVERYTHING.

<ack> - Don't we all?

I end up walking off from most projects if she insists on supervising me.

<ack><ack>

Usually I just have to set the ground rules, how it will be done and the budget.

And if it is not done to my specs, it will be redone, but the budget does not change. It only took one time, where the wife did not check with me about something, and she ended up dipping into her bank for a couple thousand baht to redo something.

I have a wall issue looming right now in Nong Hin. All of a sudden we need a wall at our house where Nong Duean lives. I asked the reason, I was told "because neighbor make something, take place we".

The last time I was in Nong Hin, we all went over to said house. Two sisters + mom. The sister who lives there and the one who lives next door, plus an assorted nephew or two.

Nobody knows how to read the chanote, including me. They were futzing around with a tape measure, trying to find the corners of the property...amusing, that was.

I still am not clear on what "neighbor put". I think it might be a post that was used to string the power wire from the "government pole" to the neighbor's house.

I said, "We need to have a survey done so we know where the wall belongs."

More chatter.

Wife: "Mom tell, not do survey. Cost money for survey and then have to court to make neighbor move something. Mai bpen rai, can let neighbor take little bit, not make problem."

Me: "Just take the chanote over and give him the entire property then."

Wife: "Mai dai."

More chatter.

Me: "I do not care about problem with neighbor. If I pay for the wall, we will have a survey done and the wall will be put in the proper place. Otherwise, I will not pay for it."

More chatter.

Wife: "Mai bpen rai, can wait til next time."

The project is on hold.

I figure it is no big thing...the house has been there for 28 years with no wall, it will survive a bit longer without.

Edited September 11, 2008 by mgjackson69

[mgjackson69]

Gary, the wife just asked me..."How many block and how much for one block?"

Could you share those figures, if you have them?

Thanks

BTW, she says you paid the workers too much <shrug>

[Gary A]

The poured posts are dug down at least 50cm deep. The foundation itself is below ground level about 30 cm and is above the ground level another 20 cm so the foundation itself is a total of about 50 cm. deep. The width is about 20 cm. Everything is tied together with the re bar. The blocks are laid on top of this nine blocks high, then the posts are formed up and poured. This type of wall is NOT suitable to be used as a retaining wall. It took a crew of between four and six guys about ten days to finish it. The high tech equipment consisted of a mechanical buffalo, a trailer with the concrete mixing tub on the trailer and an old bath tub for mixing the mortar. All the workers had their own plastic bucket. The forming lumber came from the sawmill and had bark on one side. My wife is planning on using the forms for her dragon fruit supports. My wife was the supervisor and managed the project. I was happy to sit back and watch as I had learned from the previous 240 meters of wall that I supervised. All I did was inspect each days work after the workers had gone for the day.

I'd like to build a wall and I'm still learning this process: so is there a rebar running horizontally from the formed posts across the top of each row of blocks? Is that a necessary thing to do for block walls and does it have to be done with every single row or can you alternate? I guess it just needs to be built strong enough for say a car accidently bumping into it without it crashing down. Also, what exactly are 'blocks'- are they they the equivalent of hollow cinderblocks (8'x8'x16'), and why don't people just use red bricks (are they too thin for a wall even if they have rebar reencforcement?

I don't know about brick. We use the hollow cinder blocks. We put the re bar in the foundation, the posts and the top cap. I'm of the opinion that re bar between the rows of blocks would do more harm than good. If something hits the wall without re bar it will break a hole through the wall and that can be repaired pretty easily. If there were re bar in the wall, it would likely take out the whole section and be harder and more expensive to repair.

[Gary A]

Gary, the wife just asked me..."How many block and how much for one block?"

Could you share those figures, if you have them?

Thanks

BTW, she says you paid the workers too much <shrug>

It took about 1,700 blocks and they cost 3.2 baht each. The wife pays the rice paddy workers 170 baht a day. Block layers and concrete workers cost considerably more.

[phaethon]

Just out of interest, would a foreigner be forbidden from building their own wall (if they werre, say, a bricklayer) or any DIY for that matter, without a work permit? And are building and decorating reserved occupations anyway?

Cheers,

K.

[Big Guy]

at the labour prices in thailand why would you build your own wall, much better to pay someone else to build it,

[RY12]

I'd like to build a wall and I'm still learning this process: so is there a rebar running horizontally from the formed posts across the top of each row of blocks? Is that a necessary thing to do for block walls and does it have to be done with every single row or can you alternate? I guess it just needs to be built strong enough for say a car accidently bumping into it without it crashing down. Also, what exactly are 'blocks'- are they they the equivalent of hollow cinderblocks (8'x8'x16'), and why don't people just use red bricks (are they too thin for a wall even if they have rebar reencforcement?

I don't know about brick. We use the hollow cinder blocks. We put the re bar in the foundation, the posts and the top cap. I'm of the opinion that re bar between the rows of blocks would do more harm than good. If something hits the wall without re bar it will break a hole through the wall and that can be repaired pretty easily. If there were re bar in the wall, it would likely take out the whole section and be harder and more expensive to repair.

Makes sense I guess, but what's the point of having of posts if they don't do anything for the blocks between them? why not just have blocks?

[Gary A]

The posts are what holds everything together and are the anchors that keep it standing upright.

[RY12]

The posts are what holds everything together and are the anchors that keep it standing upright.

I'm sorry, I'm still confused- if u poured the posts after the blocks, then only those blocks immediately adjoining the poured post would be supported by it, ...all the other blocks in the middle, if there's no rebar or anything coming out from the posts into the blocks, are just resting there unsupported aren't they? I don't see how the posts can 'anchor' them, especially the middle blocks midway from the posts- unless, this top cap you're refering too runs across the top row of blocks (and isn't just a cap for the column).

The reason I ask is because in the US I've never seen poured posts in cinderblock walls like I do in Thailand- in the US the walls appear to JUST be cinderblock with vertical rebar here and there... so I'm confused.

Edited September 11, 2008 by RY12

[Gary A]

The posts are what holds everything together and are the anchors that keep it standing upright.

I'm sorry, I'm still confused- if u poured the posts after the blocks, then only those blocks immediately adjoining the poured post would be supported by it, ...all the other blocks in the middle, if there's no rebar or anything coming out from the posts into the blocks, are just resting there unsupported aren't they? I don't see how the posts can 'anchor' them, especially the middle blocks midway from the posts- unless, this top cap you're refering too runs across the top row of blocks (and isn't just a cap for the column).

The reason I ask is because in the US I've never seen poured posts in cinderblock walls like I do in Thailand- in the US the walls appear to JUST be cinderblock with vertical rebar here and there... so I'm confused.

Now you're getting the idea. The top cap goes across all the blocks as well as the post tops. The posts are only 2.6 meters apart. Re bar is expensive and I don't consider re bar between the blocks as being worth the extra money or even of any benefit.

Blocks in the US are much wider and stronger so They don't need posts to stabilize them.

[egg6447]

ry12. its a ring beam build. like a bird cage. the blocks just fill in the gaps. the difference in los is they lay the blocks on the lower beam and pour the posts after , thereby binding the whole.