Buiding My Own House

[Kevinandnoot]

[RamdomChances]

Where?

[Khutan]

Where?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Exactly my question.

[Kevinandnoot]

Where?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Kevinandnoot]

The land ( 1 rai ) is in banpo near Kumpawapi.Any ideas?

[RamdomChances]

The land ( 1 rai ) is in banpo near Kumpawapi.Any ideas?

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"Kumpawapi" Sorry although I know several "ban po's" I justs cant work out where this is?? What, province of thailand are you talking about. Anyway I'll atempt to help you, generaly out in the sticks it just word of mouth, does your wife have any family or friends who have had somewhere built, ask them who is good in the area. Do they know any builders, talk to them ask about a day rate or set rate for the whole building (day rate is fine but its best if you are actually there). Are there any "nice" houses around, if so stop and ask them who built it,most thai people are only to glad to help.

Sorry I know its all pretty general, but generaly you dont really get building companies outside of town enviroments.

[Khutan]

I was going to recommend my builder, but, I think it would be too hard unless you have formal PMI qualifications. Building and workmanship, he is excellent, the rest is shocking - Materials Budget, timeframe, and estimating.

He will work anywhere in Thailand though.

PM me if you want more info He also only speaks Khmer and reasonable Thai.

I will post a picture of my house - Semi completed in the next few days.

Matt

[RamdomChances]

I was going to recommend my builder, but, I think it would be too hard unless you have formal PMI qualifications. Building and workmanship, he is excellent, the rest is shocking - Materials Budget, timeframe, and estimating.

He will work anywhere in Thailand though.

PM me if you want more info He also only speaks Khmer and reasonable Thai.

I will post a picture of my house - Semi completed in the next few days.

Matt

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Matt of the top of my head I know at least 3 good building "teams", they would work anywhere (if the price was right), but they are'nt companies, you just buy the labour and have to manage the rest yourself. As the margins are so low here any company will never "quote" where they may make a loss, so if they have to include all materials and lobour it will always be much higher, as the don't have the back up to make a loss. The down side is if you just get a team in you have to be involved in the whole process.

I've been building here for about 3 years on and off and basicaly I manage it but buy in a forman and crew.

The bottom line is you pay for convinance.

Cheers RC

[Spee]

Once you have a builder selected, if you want to talk about some of the gotcha's and things to watch out for, then feel free to PM me.

I would agree that the selection of reputable builder is key. We lost a bit of money when we had problems with our first builder. The second was much more reliable.

I've tried to keep a pretty good record of the status of our house through various phases of construction:

http://www.thaivisa.com/gallery/HousePix

Do you have the big questions answered:

1. How much money do have to spend?

2. How big of a house do you want?

3. 1 Floor or Two?

4. Concrete/Re-bar or Wood Frame?

5. Traditional or Modern style?

6. Traditional or Modern bathrooms?

While I am generally happy with how the place turned out, I do have a list of things that I would have done differently, as well as things that I may want to add on (e.g., generator and water purification for emergencies and outages).

Chok dee!

[Spee]

but they are'nt companies, you just buy the labour and have to manage the rest yourself. As the margins are so low here any company will never "quote" where they may make a loss, so if they have to include all materials and lobour it will always be much higher, as the don't have the back up to make a loss. The down side is if you just get a team in you have to be involved in the whole process.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This was my experience as well. I paid for labor and my fiancee's mother just kept receipts for materials, which I paid for as they were needed.

[dclaryjr]

http://www.thaivisa.com/gallery/HousePix

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very nice! I really like the way that stairway came out--well done!

[Khutan]

I know its in Surin, and not part of this area (so slightly off topic)

but this is my house in Surin.

.

The guy and his crew will travel

RC, yes yes yes.

You get a company and you get the convienance of having the project management paid for.

It seems to be about 50,000 to 100,000 extra. But if you can't sit there on site for 3 months or visit nearly every dsy, then you need to do that.

As I said before, I don't strongly recommend this guy, even though his work is excellent, more the management of him and his "Ways"

BTW turn-key price of the house itself was about 1 million baht. Its about 300 square meters and has all the western inclusions. So for 32,000 Australian dollars, or 25,000 USD, I think its fantastic. For the same in Sydney would be around 120,000 or more.

MAtt

Matt

[lopburi3]

Matt

You might want to consider gutter on roof over balcony as there is likely to be a lot of water dumped there is a very short time and those three drains may not get it out before it goes under the bedroom door if at floor level.

[Spee]

You might want to consider gutter on roof over balcony

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good thought! We did not get gutters put on initially, but I definitely want them so that I can have a bit of control over where the water goes. (When does rainy season start again? )

Anyone have any ideas on how much some tanks for a water farm would cost and who in the area can provide them?

[Khutan]

Matt

You might want to consider gutter on roof over balcony as there is likely to be a lot of water dumped there is a very short time and those three drains may not get it out before it goes under the bedroom door if at floor level.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Lop;

Current work in progress, gutters, piping and going through a 11 micron filter into a tank, being pumpud back to the kitchen and hand-basins.

Save a heap in drinking water.

I am also adding a Dust-overflow tank, so the first rain of the season doesn't fill my drinking water with dust from the roof.

Just off the garage - recently removed - we collected 5,000 litres of good water, so the while house

Plenty of work to do, including finishing the pool

[Spee]

BTW turn-key price of the house itself was about 1 million baht. Its about 300 square meters and has all the western inclusions. So for 32,000 Australian dollars, or 25,000 USD, I think its fantastic. For the same in Sydney would be around 120,000 or more.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Really nice looking place, Matt !! I like the style. Looks like you have the same kind of windows as we do. I also like having the open air upstairs patio for a place to sit and relax.

On our upstairs patio, the walls were supposed to have holes in them, for places to let the air flow, place some flowers, etc. I guess that will have to be one of those things to be fixed over time.

Our place (see link above) so far has been just about 2M ThB for about 400 square meters (appx 16m x 12m x 2 floors). That total cost includes the 1 rai of land that the house sits on, and a bit of money that we lost on the first builder. Our cost ran a bit higher than I expected because my fiancee's mum went a bit overboard with the amount of tile. But that is a relatively minor thing, her mum did a lot of work with the place in watching over the construction, and I'm generally happy with the way it turned out.

Best thing of all is that it is entirely paid for. We own everything! That is virtually unheard of in the states, where even in the small midwest town where I came from, 1 rai of land would probably be about 1-2M ThB (about 25K-50K USD), and then a house like the one we built would easily be 10M ThB (about 250K USD). And all of that would be heavily leveraged through a bank mortgage.

What's not to like? The house is done. The wedding is being set for November (all North of Bkk Forum-ites invited of course, details to follow). Life is good!!

[Khutan]

Spee;

Must say there are some very nice similarities and some interesting (thinking for the next one) differences.

I went for upstairs - wood, because in Surin it "apparently" affects the resale value. So apart from the walls everything upstairs is that "Jungle Teak". I love the evvect of the huge polished floor. Obviously the upstairs bathroom is Cement, ceramic etc.

The one thing I insisted on was a wooden staircase, I wanted to showcase local wood. In my opinion alot of work for a small result, To find the trees cure the wood and have it installed, was probably about 11,000 baht, huge whan you consider to total cost of the project.

I am certainly looking forward to the wedding party. Hopefully we can have a drink or three before. Trust me, support of people you "know" at a wedding upcountry in Thailand is well worth the few baht we will eat and drink.

Lastly - I love it too - owning the thing. No bank, no repayments, nothing. I am looking at a job in Surin city. I was thinking well its a round trip of about 140km. Then I realised - hey I don't have any rent to pay and no bank...

[AjarnJohn]

Hi,

Read all the posts with great interest.

I actually want to build my own house in Hat-Yai in the south. I have a budget of 800,000 baht to play with.

Just need some advice regarding this. For this amount of money, what sort of house could I get?

Don't have any firm plans as yet, but I'd like the contact info for the team which did your house Mattnich.

I do have a Thai partner who would own the land and house once built.

Any advice would be great,

[Digger]

Hi,

Read all the posts with great interest.

I actually want to build my own house in Hat-Yai in the south.  I have a budget of 800,000 baht to play with.

Just need some advice regarding this.  For this amount of money, what sort of house could I get?

Don't have any firm plans as yet, but I'd like the contact info for the team which did your house Mattnich.

I do have a Thai partner who would own the land and house once built.

Any advice would be great,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If your building your own house be sure to specify exactly what finish you want - look at these photo's and see what you like and do not like and then be very specific with the builder as to the specification. For example, exposed shower heaters can be tucked under a sink cupboard and then piping put behind the wall to supply hot water to the sink, bath and shower. Same with electric cables - easy and costs no more to put them into the wall through a conduit pipe. Central pillars (eg in two of the shots of Spee's house) can be hidden through clever design and it does not add anything to your overall cost of construction but the end result is more asthetic to the eye. Construction costs are typically in the range of 5,000 to 7,000 baht a square meter, which will allow you to get an idea how large a house you could construct. Also its common to have 2 prices, one calculated as cost per square meter for bathrooms and one for everywhere else. Reason being that bathrooms have fully tiled walls which need to be factored in in terms of additional costs. Smaller bathrooms equals slightly lower costs for you.

[taxexile]

Construction costs are typically in the range of 5,000 to 7,000 baht a square meter, which will allow you to get an idea how large a house you could construct.

that's fantastic , on samui where we are (were) considering building we were quoted 18,000 to 25,000 per sq.m. for a reasonably well equipped house , not including the land (which we bought a couple of years ago).

due to the costs and some of the stories we have heard about builders , budget over-runs, contract breaking , delays and appalling standards we are re-thinking our plans.

mattnich , your house looks just great , not over the top like a lot of falang houses turn out to be , you should see some of the monstrosities that are sprouting up on samui. good luck with it.

[Digger]

Construction costs are typically in the range of 5,000 to 7,000 baht a square meter, which will allow you to get an idea how large a house you could construct.

that's fantastic , on samui where we are (were) considering building we were quoted 18,000 to 25,000 per sq.m. for a reasonably well equipped house , not including the land (which we bought a couple of years ago).

due to the costs and some of the stories we have heard about builders , budget over-runs, contract breaking , delays and appalling standards we are re-thinking our plans.

mattnich , your house looks just great , not over the top like a lot of falang houses turn out to be , you should see some of the monstrosities that are sprouting up on samui. good luck with it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You could well end up with a finished price around 20,000 baht per sqaure meter once you include bathroom equipment, tiles, air con, kitchens etc but pure construction costs are in this range. Dont forget labour is cheap but some elements are very expensive - e.g one square meter of tiles can cost more than the days salary for the guy laying them - unheard of in the west but reality here. Better to always have a base price for construction and the builder agrees to fit your tiles that you buy in his price as an example. Also means you get the products on show that you want as opposed to what he wants. Similar with doors etc which are graded A,B,C standard - for sure, if its left up to the builder you will end up with C grade doors which warp and crack almost before the laquer is dry.

[RCP]

I know its in Surin, and not part of this area (so slightly off topic)

but this is my house in Surin.

.

The guy and his crew will travel

RC, yes yes yes.

You get a company and you get the convienance of having the project management paid for.

It seems to be about 50,000 to 100,000 extra. But if you can't sit there on site for 3 months or visit nearly every dsy, then you need to do that.

As I said before, I don't strongly recommend this guy, even though his work is excellent, more the management of him and his "Ways"

BTW turn-key price of the house itself was about 1 million baht. Its about 300 square meters and has all the western inclusions. So for 32,000 Australian dollars, or 25,000 USD, I think its fantastic. For the same in Sydney would be around 120,000 or more.

MAtt

Matt

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[RCP]

I know its in Surin, and not part of this area (so slightly off topic)

but this is my house in Surin.

.

The guy and his crew will travel

RC, yes yes yes.

You get a company and you get the convienance of having the project management paid for.

It seems to be about 50,000 to 100,000 extra. But if you can't sit there on site for 3 months or visit nearly every dsy, then you need to do that.

As I said before, I don't strongly recommend this guy, even though his work is excellent, more the management of him and his "Ways"

BTW turn-key price of the house itself was about 1 million baht. Its about 300 square meters and has all the western inclusions. So for 32,000 Australian dollars, or 25,000 USD, I think its fantastic. For the same in Sydney would be around 120,000 or more.

MAtt

Matt

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Matt ,

Nice house , would like to start on my house in late Oct ,Nov. If I can locate a builder in my area ( Monorom ) .Have seen a few nice houses in the area .Just have not been able to track down the builders . Again Nice house and all the best .

RCP

[chico]

I know its in Surin, and not part of this area (so slightly off topic)

but this is my house in Surin.

.

The guy and his crew will travel

RC, yes yes yes.

You get a company and you get the convienance of having the project management paid for.

It seems to be about 50,000 to 100,000 extra. But if you can't sit there on site for 3 months or visit nearly every dsy, then you need to do that.

As I said before, I don't strongly recommend this guy, even though his work is excellent, more the management of him and his "Ways"

BTW turn-key price of the house itself was about 1 million baht. Its about 300 square meters and has all the western inclusions. So for 32,000 Australian dollars, or 25,000 USD, I think its fantastic. For the same in Sydney would be around 120,000 or more.

MAtt

very nice house, indeed - mine is about the same size, but bungalow style - as I'm a lazy guy and hate stairs!

by "turn-key" you mean everything included, like european built -in kitchen, walk-in closet, all electricel equipment and furniture?

than it's a real bargain!

Matt

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Dakhar]

Matt, Nice house.

Thanks for posting the details, I do appreciate it.

[STEALTH K3]

Well they are both very nice I am about half way there about 850,000bht stashed