Builders Maha Sarakarm (Isaan)

[expatgaz]

Hi, Iam new to this forum so may need help getting it together. I need advice abt house building.I have land in Maha Sarakarm and want to build a place, any advice on companies to do this , what kind of cost etc. All replies appreciated.

[pnustedt]

I suggest that you check out this site

[ray23]

I suggest that you check out this site

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Check out Warning Udon a lot to say about building here. I'm currently involved in a cicil litiagtion in refrence to this subject and have shared what I learned.

[olaus]

Hi, Iam new to this forum so may need help getting it together. I need advice abt house building.I have land in Maha Sarakarm and want to build a place, any advice on companies to do this , what kind of cost etc. All replies appreciated.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not be afraid! If You have thai friends, ask them for advice. If not, walk around and look for places, where buildings are made. Take contact.

In Mahasarakham Province there are many farmers who can make normal thai buildings from bricks. And those farmers have no work Jan - April. If You buy material, they work for about 135 Baht per day. If You rent a gang of 5 men and 3 women, You will have a simple house of 8 by 12 meters ready in less than three months. But You must have a good leader, who You pay a bit more.

In 2001 such a house You could get for 250 000 Baht, both work and material included, not land.

Two things are important: Make a written contract first of all. Look after the workers carefully (check how they make, give them icewater every day and sometimes food and some rum).

Olaus

[MarcoH]

Hi there.

Take yhour time and look around in your area,,,if you want to pay foreigner price then take some company who are building houses to foreigner, thay are specialiced to charge extra,, I took one local company from my town after searching 3mths and make several companies to make me scetch about what i want and normal cortation style,, they all knows that one.

I have house 2 floors and 299m2, cost 750000THB complete European Style, with Build in everything and including Euro Style Kitchen.

My advice is take your time and look around, you will find what are you loking for from Locals.

[astral]

Check out the other posts in the forum about house building.

The need to have a detailed contract.

The need to watch like a hawk at all stages.

10% withheld until you are absolutely satisfied, possibly 1 year.

[expatgaz]

Thanks for the advice. I want a good house to European standards, or close... I have a feeling that it would be better to go to a city close by and speak to a proper developer and if it costs more, then so be it.I really don't want to mess abt buying material and stuff.

[ray23]

Thanks for the advice. I want a good house to European standards, or close... I have a feeling that it would be better to go to a city close by and speak to a proper developer and if it costs more, then so be it.I really don't want to mess abt buying material and stuff.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Quicky of what I learned:

One part you have already, own the land first, great advantage, simply because you can tell people to leave.

Detailed plans. including electrical and phone lines precise measurments, you won't get them but you might get close. Have the plans made by a professional, not expensive and worth every penny.

Contracts with a builder, get an attorney don't proceed until you have an agreement to your advantage, they are enforcceable.

Plan on being ion the job site dailey, you have to se what is going on. Even if you hire a profesional builder, he will still be using the farm labors for the construction. Some are very good craftsman but when rice time comes, they will be on thier way and then return.

Depending on when rice hits you could be looking at six months.

If you want a european style home, you are going top have to speicy exactly what you want an you may even have to find the shower enclosures ect. Remember to a Thia a shower means a pipe running out of the wall. It can be done with wonderful results, but not wihtout effort adn a fair amount of frustration.

I used a profesional builder, I wish I had done exactly as has beem mentioned here, find a really good foreman and gte what I want. The builder I had was very arrogant and within three week would not even discuss anything with me. Be careful cover yourself wioth a good contract, make sure you can fire him. I built on this guys land and couldn't do so, that was a big mistake.

Good luck to you let us know how it goes, it's an interesting aspect of living here.

[astral]

An additional thought after my first post.

Watch out for work that is "subcontracted".

By the time you realise there is a problem the sub-contractor has gone, and you have little redress.

[Kringle]

Plumbing is something you have to watch carefully because they will try to cut corners on this and everything else. Make sure they run vents on EVERYTHING concerning your plumbing because your toilets will gurgle if they don't. If yopu want hot water at every point make sure they run the pipes first. I didn't clarify this and now I have to runm seperate heaters.

[walking wallet]

Can any forum members give me some advice , I am planning to have a house built,( Khorat area) and have read the comments about having a " contract " drawn up with the builder. Can any one give me an idea just what to put in the " contract" and its layout, Any advice on getting the contract right would be appreciated .. Thanks

[Thaicoon]

My Thai family built my house in Buriram and a few lads out of my village with the ladys doing the labouring, i think i got a bargain, 3 million baht, that was 2000 the millenium, i treated myself, anyhow have a look at other ferrang houses around the area, if you see good workmanship and well built, knock the door, they will give you good advise, i have had ferangs come to me and my brother in law has picked up quite a bit of work, which is good.

[Thaicoon]

Expatgaz,

This is my pad for 3 mill,

[expatgaz]

Lovely place, a lot to spend by northern Thailand standards but its a fine place.I will do as you suggest and knock on doors for advice.I need everything doing from land fill upwards.I only intended to spend 1.5 mil max as i want a modest place.It will be a home for my wife in her village, we currently live in a great place on the Eastern Seaboard, so don't intend to have a big place there aswell.

[walking wallet]

Hi .......

I am planning to use my Wife's uncle who is a builder , and he seem's to have a decent track record, but having said that, I still want to have some sort of " Contract'' outlining just what's expected Etc.

I am planning to purchase all the materials my self and he will supply the labour and know how , No way do I plan to put any large amounts of money up front , and my budget is no more than 1,000.000 Bhat , for a 3 bed room bunglow , which will stand on 2 rai ( Chanott Tidin in the Khorat area ) ) which we already have .

I also plan to be on the site Every day , to keep an eye on what's going on , and stop any thing I don't like stright away.... not forgetting ( the couple of bottles of lao kao each Saturday afternoon and ice water for the workers each day. )

Talking it through with my wife , She seem's to think the Best way to lay out a contract would be have it show building stages. where by we would pay the builder a modest amount on the start of the work, then after say the foundations have been laid ( say stage 1) we would then pay some money ,and more after stage (2) has been compleated say the Roof is put on , Etc until the house is compleated, so the builder does a stage , then if we are happy with the stage result we pay , until the house is finished to our satisfaction

could forum members give me an idea of the order in which the building stages should be listed ....? EG...

Stage 1 . Foundation work

Stage 2. building shell / walls

Etc......

The other areas where I could do with some advice is

in which order do we have to start the " paper" work..? My wife seem's to think we will have to first go to the village Or Bor Tor ...? to get a building premit....? and with this paper, we can then go to the Amphur to get the House registration book and house number..? Next the water and Electricity supplys ...? I do have some building plans that I drew up, and I will have to look for some one to do a set of correct plans .

can any one who has gone through the above processes please give me some advice,and comments which will help

Thanks .....

[Crazy Dave]

i keep reading the words euro style and euro quality homes, i take it you are all refferring to like east germany, cos without euro quality materials you will not get a uk standard type home, and they aint got half the stuff we use in building in the uk, ie in tools and materials, i mean even down to the basics, ie tiles, all the grade a tiles are shipped abroad now and wot was grade b is now labeled grade a and sold here in thailand as grade a tiles, now these can have a 2mm differance in size in each piece, how do you expect a euro quality job with third world quality materials, yep you aint gonna get it, so dont build your hopes up too much...

h.ell even down to ceilings, the professional ceiling companies do not stagger the boards, you ever tried caulking off a ceiling with the boards in a chequer board pattern, also makes for longer cracks in the future...

[ray23]

Hi  .......

I am planning to use my Wife's uncle who is a builder , and he  seem's to have a decent track record, but having said that, I still want to have some sort of " Contract''  outlining just what's expected Etc.

I am planning  to purchase all the materials my self and he will supply the labour and know how , No way do I plan to put any large amounts of  money up front ,  and my budget is no more than 1,000.000 Bhat , for a 3 bed room bunglow , which will stand on 2 rai ( Chanott Tidin in the Khorat area ) ) which we already have .

I also plan to be on the site Every day , to keep an eye on what's going on , and stop any thing I don't like stright away....  not forgetting  ( the couple of bottles of lao kao each Saturday afternoon  and ice water for the workers each day. ) 

Talking it through with my wife , She seem's to think the Best way to lay out a contract would be have it show building stages. where by we would pay the builder a modest amount on the start of the work, then after say the foundations have been laid  ( say stage 1) we would then pay some money ,and  more after stage  (2)    has been compleated say the Roof is put on , Etc  until the house is compleated, so the builder does a stage , then if we are happy with the stage result we pay , until the house is finished to our satisfaction

could forum members give me an idea of  the order in which the building stages should be listed ....? EG...

Stage 1 .  Foundation work

Stage 2.    building shell / walls

Etc......

The other areas where I could do with some  advice is 

in which order do we have to start the " paper" work..? My wife seem's to think we will have to first  go to the village Or Bor Tor ...? to get a building premit....?  and with this paper, we can then go to the Amphur to get the House registration book and house number..? Next the water and Electricity supplys ...? I do have some building plans that I drew up, and I  will have to look for some one to do a set of correct plans .

can any one who has gone through the above  processes please  give me some advice,and comments which will help

                                                                  Thanks .....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Well your thinking is excellent, I hope the uncle works out. A friend of mine did exactly the same thing with a the brother of the wife and it went really well.

Contract, get a Thai attorney up front, there laws are much different then what we are used to.

Make sure your plans are detailed. be prepared to give and take, I doubt htat this would be much different anywhere.

Have the Uncle get bids for materials more then likely he will do better then you.

I would suggest a draw at completion of the fiundation.

A draw at the completion of the walls plumbing and electrical

Electrical make sure you pull wire for future needs as well, or someday you will end up with pipes on your walls or extension cords everywhere. Pull the wire now even you don't use it now it will be available in the future and it will not be expensive to do now. Later it will be a real problem. Don't forget the wire for phone hookups and Television needs as well.

Plumbing same thing, much easier now to get what you want instead of having all your landscaping torn up later on. I highly recomend a separate sewage system for each bathroom. Gives you a back up. Theseptic tanks used here are extremely small compared to the states.

A draw on the completion of the roof.

A draw on the total completion, windows doors paint tile ect.

Withhold 10% for the final walk through.

For one million unless your extremly extravagant you should have a very beautiful home.

Good luck wish I would have known this five months ago.

[Crazy Dave]

reminds me of that old bill pricing joke

25 bucks if we do the work

35 bucks if you want to watch

50 bucks if you want to help

[Crazy Dave]

A draw at the completion of the walls plumbing and electrical

if this stage is complete, then so will all the door frames be in and window frames if using wood, he would also have to have bought all the windows, also all the c line aluminum would be up for the cieling, thats gonna be one he,ll of a draw he needs, its a small job so just give the builder 40,000baht at a time until it starts getting to the expensive stuff like steel for the roof and tiles and bathroom fittings, the idea of the job is that say the walls for 2 rooms are up they will then bring in the ceiling ppl to start on the ceilings, so then u will come to the stage where you have lots of half finished jobs, to do it by structured payments will slow down the job because he knows he has the money to pay for say the walls, so he will just put all the walls up, get that payment, then he will try to do the ceilings himself and they will look awlful.