House Building

[SarahPJ]

HI there,

I'm in the early stages of planning my house build. The floor plan scale has been approved, so now to the full plans!

A pre-requisite is that it has a traditional central Thai style roof.

http://www.thai-blogs.com/images/richard/thaihouse_1.jpg

http://www.phuket-thaihouse.com/image/house2.gif

I've been warned at the costs, which is a little un-nerving. Does anyones know of a roofer/building company that has experience in this field and doesn't cost the earth (literally! - greener option would be good, rather than furter diminishing the teak wood supply).

Alternative suggestions to full on roof to minimise the costs without affecting the overall design? eg:external, subtle cladding - I don't want it look like it is built from anything other than wood and clay/teractotta tiles. Internal: i.e: using timbers from an existing house

PLEASE! No comments on how difficult this is, I am already very aware of the pit-falls of building here, so offers of help rather then hinderance would be most appreciated.

Thanks Building Forum

[kamalabob2]

I have two suggestions. A) If you are in Thailand go this week or weekend to the Architect Expo at Challenger hall to see all sorts of roofs and make contacts with the technical representatives for the roof companies that interest you. I have a different CPAC type of roof, but I have seen very similar (but with a longer lasting glaze than "typical" terra cotta") roof tiles at the "CPAC ROOF CENTER" inside a Surin Home Mart.

I strongly suggest BEFORE you do your home roof design and plan you go meet in person with a CPAC ENGINEER such as "Worachat Neaungchamnong" who works at the Siam Cement building near the Bangsue Train and MRT Stations in Bangkok.

CPAC might have other roof tile experts at an office closer to where you live.

There are other reputable roof tile companies in Thailand including Diamond Brand. Perhaps it is the same with other brands of roof tiles, but I do know with CPAC you have some important features. They will look at the roof plan from your architect and give you an EXACT list of the items you should buy from your CPAC retailer AND they can give you a price quote for CPAC ROOFING SERVICES to do a professional (not cheap) installation. They will tell you if your plan is correct in terms of supporting the weight of the roof tiles with the materials you have in your plan.

In my case I did NOT spend the money for a CPAC ROOFING SERVICE INSTALLATION. I will not bore you, but due to installer ignorance and a different Home Mart selling our builder a metal valley the size DIFFERENT from what CPAC designated we have had roof leak problems.

What I also know is that you decide to purchase CPAC ROOF MATERIALS you can get REAL TRAINING FOR YOUR ROOF BUILDING STAFF (sure the contractor says his staff have done it many times before!!!) either at your job site OR at a Home Mart roof building seminar. If you can't afford CPAC ROOFING SERVICES to do the installation at least pay each workers one days wages to do a training seminar. I did not realize this important FREE training was available until too late for our home.

My wife is a champ, she was in our attic at 2a.m. this morning during a rain storm looking where we have a leak. Our builder did a 99% fantastic job on building our home, but her workers ignorance on the roof installation and Dry Tech installation has been the source of discomfort.

I have a friend in a near by village with a similar style roof to your plans and he has had leaks every year as the "traditional" tiles do not last and they get blown off in heavy winds. He has a pallet load of new terra cotta tiles to install each year. Some of the CPAC tiles that look like traditional "temple" tiles are mounted on your roof in a better fashion and do not blow off in heavy winds.

In my opinion it really would be worth your time and effort in the planning stages of your home to go and visit in person with the Engineers of CPAC roofing. Better that, than have them come three times in one year to show you where new problems are in your roof that cause leaks. If you do have the budget for CPAC roof services they have a written (and honored) guarantee to fix problems.

That is a beautiful design, but please take the time to meet in person with technical staff who speak and understand English so you avoid roof troubles. You do NOT want to have to call technicians to come all the way from Bangkok to tell you why you have leaks like in the photo attached. We loaned the CPAC technician the farmer hat.

[kamalabob2]

SarahPJ: Two roof tiles that in my opinion are in the Central Thai style and might attach properly to a roof with the type of pitch you specified might be CERIS "Biber Round Shape" sold and backed by Siam Cement in Thailand.

http://www.cerisrooftile.com/zBiberProduct.htm information in English

http://www.cerisrooftile.com/zFAQ.htm with contacts and information in English

Another traditional looking tile is Ceris "KITE TILE" not on the web site, but brochures at better Home Mart stores.

It takes about five days for a BOQ once you give Ceris your roof plans.

http://www.cerisrooftile.com/zBOQ.htm

I hope this is of help. You can compare these products and see other major roofing companies products at the Architect Expo this week in Challenger Hall of Impact.

[Svenn]

What about thatch? very green solution, cheap, and actually in one sense more traditional than the terra cotta tiles since most central siamese never really used it on rural houses. In my humble opinion, the Central Thai style you display above is way overdone in Thailand, and I doubt its historical authenticity too- why not try a more interesting Burmese or Laotian style roof? you'd also save money from having to do those gaudy pointed sweeping decoration things at the end of the gables too

Thatch idea:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katandjim/68049027/

you'd actually have to do it a bit tidier than the usual thai does it, like the japanese, to make it look suitable. oh, the Balinese are very good at thatch and making it match a wooden house below.

lao/burmese style roof (ubon):

http://image26.webshots.com/26/2/96/38/233...06ibRihN_fs.jpg

Edited April 28, 2009 by Svenn