House Architect/builders In Chaiyaphum

[breaker97]

My new wife and I will spend 9 months of the year in California and 3 months in Chaiyaphum. She owns a lot in Chaiyaphum on which we plan to build a house. She says the lot is 200 by 100 meters which by my quick calculation makes it over 4 acres. She wants to put a small 100sq mtr. house on this lot but I would prefer at least 200 sq mtrs and a swimming pool.

Because we are only there a short time each year (school vacations) should we put up a modest Thai house or a more elaborate American style house and how do I find an architect who can do the design and a builder who will do the work.

Her parents live in Chaiyaphum and we would have to trust them (i.e. pay them) to oversee the project and make sure it is done right.

Thanks for any help

[lopburi3]

You are talking one of the poorest regions of Thailand and thinking US style home with swimming pool making it among the top 1% in the country and are only planning to stay for 3 months a year?

1. Nobody is likely to be able to take care of a pool when you are not there even if upkeep expense is not a problem. Probably most of your 3 months will be getting it ready to use each year. But if a must have you will probably have to have someone from Bangkok or Pattaya travel up there as do not believe you will find any local expertise.

2. If you want a nice/large house you had better be ready to supervise daily IMHO. Contractors in general are not very exacting in sticking to plans and finnish quality is likely to be in the chicken house category. I would go with a small home that locals can build for vacation time use. Believe it would be very frustrating for parents to be tasked with supervision of something they probably don't have a clue about.

3. Most homes are built on the fly with a drawing at best and usually just a sketch.

4. Although your plan may stand you in good with the family as the rich husband believe it will be viewed by every drug user/village thief as a potential prize break-in target.

[breaker97]

You are talking one of the poorest regions of Thailand and thinking US style home with swimming pool making it among the top 1% in the country and are only planning to stay for 3 months a year? 

1.  Nobody is likely to be able to take care of a pool when you are not there even if upkeep expense is not a problem.  Probably most of your 3 months will be getting it ready to use each year.  But if a must have you will probably have to have someone from Bangkok or Pattaya travel up there as do not believe you will find any local expertise.

2.  If you want a nice/large house you had better be ready to supervise daily IMHO.  Contractors in general are not very exacting in sticking to plans and finnish quality is likely to be in the chicken house category.  I would go with a small home that locals can build for vacation time use.  Believe it would be very frustrating for parents to be tasked with supervision of something they probably don't have a clue about.

3.  Most homes are built on the fly with a drawing at best and usually just a sketch. 

4.  Although your plan may stand you in good with the family as the rich husband believe it will be viewed by every drug user/village thief as a potential prize break-in target.

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[breaker97]

Thanks for the info. I will rethink

[lopburi3]

Did not want to be as negative as I sounded but believe a better plan would be to start modest in a spot where you can later expand house as your needs require, and when you can be there full time to oversee it. Good luck in whatever you decide.

[Thaicoon]

I was going to have a swimming pool built at my house, i was told by a couple of ferangs, do not do it, one built a swimming pool a few years ago, he had more hassle with it than it was worth, he also was going back and forth to UK every couple of months, the pool was never clean it use to get full of bugs and rubbish, you know what the thais are like with litter, the chemicals were so expensive and also every time he returned he had to call somebody from Bangkok to sort it out, it is not the same in esarn as by the coast, i think he has now turned it into a fishpond, he's waiting for a Thai mer"maid" to keep it clean.

[dereklev]

You are talking one of the poorest regions of Thailand and thinking US style home with swimming pool making it among the top 1% in the country and are only planning to stay for 3 months a year? 

Have you never visited where you intend to build??

There is a drought in Isaan now. So from where do you fill this pool whilst your neighbours have no water!!

Build your swimming pool and enjoy the local cows and buffalos drinking whilst you swim.

Enjoy your time in LOS but surely your wife understands where she LIVED!!!

Edited January 14, 2005 by dereklev

[mickdundee]

Lopburi has given good comments, I have just returned from infilling land (two plots) in wanon niwat, north east of Udon Thani. This took 7 days 5 days to infill just under an acre 315 trucks at 350 baht each and 65 trucks for the smaller plot in town. We counted every truck to make sure we were geting our moneys worth e.g., not getting ripped off, however, family did help, which for counting trucks is very easy. Also visited two builders in wanon one company called Home Tec, which seem OK, have yet to inspect their work yet, but I have a year before I can build. This will take about six to eight months, and will include 5 stage payments fisrt payment of 10%. This means five trips for me during this period as I cannot behere tio supervise fully, may have to leave my wife here. The house is costing between 1.7 tp 1.9 million baht, which depend on whether the prices go up between now and december this year. You have to also buy kitchen and bathroom sanitary ware etc, including tiles etc, which is better in my view. I visited pattay before my return and placed deposits for kitchen etc, and priced up some other items e.g., air con, water pumps. In addition to this will also bring some of the stuff over from the UK next year, sockets and ligt switches. Also roof tiles is a good one builder stating do not pick blue as they are the most expensive, pricing the roof up this would cost 148k in thai baht, the blue roof tiles are only 48 baht each in Udon Thani, which works out less than what the builder quoted.

The morale of the story here is that the more you can do yourself and take care of the better, as my friend built a house in Ubon and was ripped on to the sum of £10,000.00 mainly due to the family taking care of it and his wife ripping him off to pay her Thai boyfriend. The Thai builder may also provide sub standrad materials e.g., grade c rather than grade a, the latter of which is the best.

My new wife and I will spend 9 months of the year in California and 3 months in Chaiyaphum. She owns a lot in Chaiyaphum on which we plan to build a house. She says the lot is 200 by 100 meters which by my quick calculation makes it over 4 acres. She wants to put a small 100sq mtr. house on this lot but I would prefer at least 200 sq mtrs and a swimming pool.

Because we are only there a short time each year (school vacations) should we put up a modest Thai house or a more elaborate American style house and how do I find an architect who can do the design and  a builder who will do the work.

Her parents live in Chaiyaphum and we would have to trust them (i.e. pay them) to oversee the project and make sure it is done right.

Thanks for any help

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[Pseacraft]

I'm curious as to how much land (rai) you actually had filled in @ both of your sites, which type of material - clay (brown wannabe dirt) or red clay/gravel mix and how deep you filled. We plan on building in our rice field but may decided to purchase some other land on which to build our house if our filling it going to be too much to undertake.

Cheers,

Eric

[Cheeky Farang]

Check out my BLOG ( anyone wanting to know more than I post PM me )

My Thai Visa BLOG?

[lowerlakeside]

[Hi..just new to the forum..and saw your post.i am soon to be in a similar situation, that is, married a thai girl from Chaiyaphum ,and her father has given her land , and we will build there for winter get aways(im from Canada)I wondered how things have progessed since your first post here? Any tips to pass along..Much appreciated.

Edited January 29, 2006 by lowerlakeside

[excaliber]

Architect/Builder in Isaan.....

Edited February 1, 2006 by excaliber

[Carmine6]

My new wife and I will spend 9 months of the year in California and 3 months in Chaiyaphum. She owns a lot in Chaiyaphum on which we plan to build a house. She says the lot is 200 by 100 meters which by my quick calculation makes it over 4 acres. She wants to put a small 100sq mtr. house on this lot but I would prefer at least 200 sq mtrs and a swimming pool.

Because we are only there a short time each year (school vacations) should we put up a modest Thai house or a more elaborate American style house and how do I find an architect who can do the design and a builder who will do the work.

Her parents live in Chaiyaphum and we would have to trust them (i.e. pay them) to oversee the project and make sure it is done right.

Thanks for any help

My girlfriend's family rebuilt their house in Chayaphum last Sept. - Nov. They're about 20-30 minutes outside the main city.

It's 2 story and about 200 sq mtr. with the kitchen out back and bathrooms outside not included in that total. It could be half that size and would be just fine in my opinon. The entire upstairs isn't used except for guests, and the front 60% of the bottom isn't used. The back of the house is really the only part that's used, since that's near the kitchen. The tv is also back there and 1 bedroom.

If they had the kitchen and bathrooms inside they could probably still have gotten 2 bedrooms into 100 sq mtr.

My girlfriend was there every day to supervise the construction, otherwise they tended to slack off or do things not quite right. They also didn't really do anything until the foreman showed up, no matter how late. I think they had a plan, but it wasn't blueprints, it was something basic, and the house is similar to others in the area. For example, the bedroom downstairs is actually the bathroom in another house. It's built the same and they even put vent slits in the concrete of the bedroom as if it were going to be a bathroom. The room has 3 large windows so there was no need for that. There are some other houses nearby that suppossedly cost much more to build because the design wasn't as familiar. But these are similar sized houses too, a smaller one shouldn't have such a high additional cost.

She bought all the materials herself which meant she got what she wanted and suppossedly saved a great deal this way. They also had a lot of wood left over from the old house. Unfortunately upstairs you can now see light through some of the old nail holes and other defects, and I'd rate the woodwork as ok since some windows need more fitting. The downstairs concrete and tile looks great however.

One side note is that while they were saving up to rebuild the house, they were living in basically a 3 sided, tin roofed shelter next door (now gutted to house the cows). All their stuff including the tv was just there in the open. Now, even though they have all the same stuff, they lock the windows and doors if all of us leave. Not sure if it's their habit or they were worried about my stuff and my girlfriend's stuff.

Not that I'd know, but as of Feb. 1, the ponds seemed to be just fine in Chaiyaphum. I still wouldn't think anything other than an indoor pool would be maintainable up there.