House Construction

[Gerbil]

Hi,

Has anyone got any experience with construction companies on Samui?

Any info would be much appreciated!

Thanks for your time.

[MSingh]

I have lots, what do you wnat to know ??

[Gerbil]

Hi,

Recommendations! who to avoid!

Anything that might make the process of choosing easier, if that's not an oxymoron!

Thanks

[Eric1949]

Hi,

Recommendations! who to avoid!

Anything that might make the process of choosing easier, if that's not an oxymoron!

Thanks

I can recommend the company who built my house 4 years ago ( a big house).

It is a smallish company, with family origins in Samui, unlike the big companies.

You can PM me for details if you are interested.

[Boo]

Eric1949 in 6 years on this website, yours is the oddest avatar I have ever seen. Is that Patrick Stewart getting rolled along after Indiana Jones by a pussy cat?

very surreal!!!

[marcus]

Read "Building in Thailand" from Philip Bryce. He build his house on Phangan and wrote his experiences in this book. Highly recommended !

[Eric1949]

Eric1949 in 6 years on this website, yours is the oddest avatar I have ever seen. Is that Patrick Stewart getting rolled along after Indiana Jones by a pussy cat?

very surreal!!!

Sure is....

[Samuinick]

Good quality and very well priced

http://www.rsbuilt.com/

[madwest]

We are looking to build a house in Samui this year, what is the approx build cost per sqm? just for the shell, no bathroom or kitchen furniture, tiles, but electric.

Also what is the average cost of a pool 8x4? The house in and out sqm is 232 sqm. half and half. On sloping land on a hill side.

Surley it must be a "buyers market" at the moment with the down turn.

Thank you for any replies.

Edited March 15, 2009 by madwest

[simey]

Just make sure you use someone reliable, apparently nailing roof supports holding 200 kg per sq metre doesn't work in my case.

[samuicoconut]

We are looking to build a house in Samui this year, what is the approx build cost per sqm? just for the shell, no bathroom or kitchen furniture, tiles, but electric.

Also what is the average cost of a pool 8x4? The house in and out sqm is 232 sqm. half and half. On sloping land on a hill side.

Surley it must be a "buyers market" at the moment with the down turn.

Thank you for any replies.

Building costs all depend on the quality you require. Anywhere between 25,000 - 40,000 per sqm (some houses even more).

[t.s]

Just make sure you use someone reliable, apparently nailing roof supports holding 200 kg per sq metre doesn't work in my case.

im sorry, but that is priceless.

[bophutbob]

Good quality and very well priced

http://www.rsbuilt.com/

Some new ones are ok or try

CEC -for Big Villas ( up and down ,but good rep )

Mapleleaf

Happy Elephant Construction

or a local Thai Company with local ties to samui ,but you will need a good Pmto oversee it

Rsbuilt i think have a very good PM

[Gerbil]

Hi,

Anyone had any dealings with:

Samui villas and Homes

Profmil

SWR

Sterling

Thanks

[bophutbob]

Hi,

Anyone had any dealings with:

Samui villas and Homes

Profmil

SWR

Sterling

Thanks

Samui Villas and Homes,I beleive there MD is John Birt , An expereinced Property Man that most have good words to say about .

I have met him and he is your old school surveyor , so yes a good compamy with a a respectable man at the helm

[MSingh]

My Friend had his Development built by Happy Elephant in Bophut, a nice mixture of Gentlemen but very approachable even if your first impression would say the opposite..

http://www.jakerobinsonsdiy.com/twilight.html

http://www.samuipropertyinvestments.com/pr...pavilions-samui

The new recently appointed Liason Officer from Australia & Ex Head of the Tourist Police Volunteers ( Mr Noel Kelly ) had his Villa built buy them too & he told me when i had Coffee with him a while back..

http://www.ddevolution.com/tranquil-heights-koh-samui.html

I know for a fact they are also building the Bophut Residence Project which people are living in so i can only assume, & assumption is all this is, but they must be doing something right & as an earlier Poster pointed out, they are supported by Samui Thai's which is always a good thing.

http://www.bophutresidence.com/

E4dit : I'm not sure if we can post links so apologies if we're not, i just saw a link posted further above..

Edited March 17, 2009 by MSingh

[Maipenrai007]

Hi,

Anyone had any dealings with:

Samui villas and Homes

Profmil

SWR

Sterling

Thanks

Just cross out Profmil now

[PoorSucker]

Read this for info from Frofmil.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Official-Sta...il-t300624.html

[womble]

Not mentioning any names or companys, but several of those companies listed are complete cowboys, and a couple of them are run by farangs who think they are mafia and have used strong arm underhand tactics when things don't go their way........

Let me say one thing, stay away from slimy farang salesman who masquerade as builders. They spend little to no time on site, and you are basically just paying them to act as middle men. Most has no building background before coming to samui. They will promise the earth, and when things go wrong and it will cost them $ to fix, some of the less scrupulous ones will threaten you with mafia contacts.

Be warned!!!

Best way if you have the time is find a local Thai builder that has done many projects and been around for a long time. Check out their work and finishing from stuff done 7 years ago to stuff being built now. Talk to the owners, partiulary those of older houses, see what problems have appeared further down the line. Did the builders come to rectify expensive problems (very important).

I really think the biggest mistake is getting a "farang builder" most of them don't even speak Thai, they are salesman, not builders, in many cases you could use their construction team and a reduced cost if you go direct to the Thai.

Also these farang builders take on many subcontractors, particulary when they were busy, often without vetting just so they could bang things out as quick as possible. These subcontractors often came from the mainland and when finished on the job they were gone. If they messed up the farang builder couldn't get them back to fix problems so was left with the bill themselves, they din't want to be out of pocket so instead of fixing from their own funds they'd rather threaten and scare you into backing down and footing the bill yourself. These rotten apples took on as much work as they could with no concern of quality control, in the end they just wanted the cash and had no way with their lack of knowledge and experiance of making sure the quality was consistant.

Now is a great time to find a builder, things have slowed down, and some companies now have many projects behind them so quality can be checked back many years.

Best thing to do is find a company that has been around many years that is based locally, hire an independant site manager, ideally a highly skilled Thai engineer. He will be worth his weight in gold as he can be on site daily to check everything is being done properly, he will also help with language barriers. The ideal candidate for this job would be someone who has worked abroad and has english skills.

Also try to make your own payment plans, most builders want payments weighted so they have all their $ on the second to last payment, do not agree to this. Have it weighted so they are out of pocket until the job is entirely finished, that way any problems and you can hold back a decent amount of $. Many builders will walk away after getting the second to last payment if they are going to go over budget.

Be wary in this economic climate of any builder that can't agree to these terms, he is eigher afraid of his quality or has very poor cashflow, any builder that has been successful on this island for more than 5 years should have bags of cash, if not something is wrong........

Edited September 26, 2009 by womble

[pogibro]

Read Building in thailand from Philip Bryce. He build his house on Phangan and wrote his experiences in this book. Highly recommended !

But horribly inaccurate with regard to the legal information in there.

[pogibro]

Not mentioning any names or companys, but several of those companies listed are complete cowboys, and a couple of them are run by farangs who think they are mafia and have used strong arm underhand tactics when things don't go their way........

Let me say one thing, stay away from slimy farang salesman who masquerade as builders. They spend little to no time on site, and you are basically just paying them to act as middle men. Most has no building background before coming to samui. They will promise the earth, and when things go wrong and it will cost them $ to fix, some of the less scrupulous ones will threaten you with mafia contacts.

Be warned!!!

Best way if you have the time is find a local Thai builder that has done many projects and been around for a long time. Check out their work and finishing from stuff done 7 years ago to stuff being built now. Talk to the owners, partiulary those of older houses, see what problems have appeared further down the line. Did the builders come to rectify expensive problems (very important).

I really think the biggest mistake is getting a "farang builder" most of them don't even speak Thai, they are salesman, not builders, in many cases you could use their construction team and a reduced cost if you go direct to the Thai.

Also these farang builders take on many subcontractors, particulary when they were busy, often without vetting just so they could bang things out as quick as possible. These subcontractors often came from the mainland and when finished on the job they were gone. If they messed up the farang builder couldn't get them back to fix problems so was left with the bill themselves, they din't want to be out of pocket so instead of fixing from their own funds they'd rather threaten and scare you into backing down and footing the bill yourself. These rotten apples took on as much work as they could with no concern of quality control, in the end they just wanted the cash and had no way with their lack of knowledge and experiance of making sure the quality was consistant.

Now is a great time to find a builder, things have slowed down, and some companies now have many projects behind them so quality can be checked back many years.

Best thing to do is find a company that has been around many years that is based locally, hire an independant site manager, ideally a highly skilled Thai engineer. He will be worth his weight in gold as he can be on site daily to check everything is being done properly, he will also help with language barriers. The ideal candidate for this job would be someone who has worked abroad and has english skills.

Also try to make your own payment plans, most builders want payments weighted so they have all their $ on the second to last payment, do not agree to this. Have it weighted so they are out of pocket until the job is entirely finished, that way any problems and you can hold back a decent amount of $. Many builders will walk away after getting the second to last payment if they are going to go over budget.

Be wary in this economic climate of any builder that can't agree to these terms, he is eigher afraid of his quality or has very poor cashflow, any builder that has been successful on this island for more than 5 years should have bags of cash, if not something is wrong........

I agree with you Womble, for the most part. , ...DEFINATELY stay away from them. But the locals are by NO MEANS the way to go...they will rip you off in a heart beat (and most do not know what they are doing)...I say take your time and REALLY do your homework and find "farang" who you can trust, who knows what they are doing and has good relations with local builders, workers, etc.

[kosh]

Just make sure you use someone reliable, apparently nailing roof supports holding 200 kg per sq metre doesn't work in my case.

The builders must be used to asbestos tiles, very light

I must say this is the first case i know where normal roof tiles can kill before asbetos ones......

[stevehaigh]

Read "Building in Thailand" from Philip Bryce. He build his house on Phangan and wrote his experiences in this book. Highly recommended !

thanks

But horribly inaccurate with regard to the legal information in there.

fair comment. it changes so fast and the current version is already 3 years old. i do say in the book to check all the legal stuff with a lawyer and this forum.

Edited September 28, 2009 by stevehaigh

[Rooo]

Please enough with the recommendations / adverts. You have a recommended tradesman thread & free classifieds, use them.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Recommended-...en-t118442.html

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Koh-Samui-Cl...ds-t144602.html

If people wish to become sponsors,contact sales @ thaivisa.

[MaiDong]

Just make sure you use someone reliable, apparently nailing roof supports holding 200 kg per sq metre doesn't work in my case.

That's shocking & I would imagine incredibly upsetting

[deeday]

Very accurate post Womble, thanks for your honesty allas to late. I hope this insight does not come from first hand experience! The fact is it's a minefied out there. People who have had bad experiences with certain builders are too intimidated to share infomation so therefore 'The beat goes on'

[BusyBee123]

'DEFINATELY stay away from them. But the locals are by NO MEANS the way to go...they will rip you off in a heart beat (and most do not know what they are doing)...I say take your time and REALLY do your homework and find "farang" who you can trust, who knows what they are doing and has good relations with local builders, workers, etc. '

My friend built an entire complex using thai builders and yes there were a few ups and downs but that is expected for a first timer and with any builder, he now has a wonderful place and plenty of thai contacts if he needs anything, what is important is having a good thai friend who speaks good english not a farang who speaks poor thai that is where it all falls apart in my opinion. I can pass on his email through pm.