House Building Costs On Ko Chang

[johnson36]

I am interested to find out what is the building labour rate per day / per week etc to employ some builders on Ko Chang or maybe Ko Mak.

Have any of you tv members employed builders on any of these islands on a labour only basis, with yourself and your wife sorting out the buying of all materials and fittings to ensure you get the quality you want ?

[Changian]

Quotes for labour vaqry quite alot on Koh Chang - as they do anywhere. Depends what time of year you are building, the scale of your project - a small house or a resort? if you want Cambodians or Thais. If you want a group of friends who have their own hammers or want someone more professional etc. But for daily wages for a Thai labourer figure on 200 - 250 baht/person.

We've done stuff just by paying the labour and buying the building materials ourselves. There are several builders merchants on the island and some are better than others for different things - so you need to shop around. Most items are similar to prices in Trat but for some items, concrete poles, for example, you can get them far cheaper by ordering from Klung where they are made. If you want a good choice of tiles / bathroom fittings etc then get them yourself from the mainland - Chantaburi or Rayong.

If you dont know much about building and want something done well i.e. not an upcountry style house or wooden hut, then speak to Nong at KEC in Klong Prao. They are an architect firm with their own construction company. They will do a very good job and work within a budget you give them. But obviously they cost more than if you do everything yourself.

Koh Mak is more of a hassle due to logistics as there's no vehicle ferry to the island, so you need to be far more organised and need a builder who can plan what they are doing and when they will need various supplies - you cant easily just pop down to the shops if the builder has forgotten something like you can on Koh Chang. Everything has to come from the mainland and be loaded onto to boat by hand at the pier in Laem Ngop and off again onto a truck when the boat reaches Koh Mak. This adds considerably to expense and breakages. Figure on building anything on Koh Mak costing at least 20% more than on Koh Chang.

[johnson36]

Thanks for your reply Ian.

Ive been studying your websites for 5 months now and have read just about every word. I haven't emailed you directly as I didn't want to take up too much of your time, I don't plan to move to Thailand till mid 2010 at the earliest.

I think what you have done with fishermans house is fantastic, do you still have the other fishermans house you bought ? I will be looking to rent a house for 6 to 12 months while I work things out and decide if Ko chang is for me, if I like it I would be looking to buy a plot of land big enough to build 2 houses (400 sqm upwards, would prefer 800ish), I am uptodate with whats availible on your website at the moment and just hope similar pieces of land are availible in 2010. I will be visiting Ko Chang again Dec 2009 / Jan 2010 and hope to stay various places down the west side, I will try and book for a few nights at your place. I see you only have 3 rooms for rent, do you manage to keep these booked up most of the year ? just wondered as people keep telling me there are no visiters to Ko Chang between the end of April and the begining of November which accounts for 6 months of the year. Thanks again Ian

[Changian]

We stay pretty full from September through to end of May / mid-June - but that is due to having the website, everyone who stays comes via it. We have virtually no walk in guests, maybe one a year. Possibly due to not having any signs up directing people to it.

Koh Chang is dead now - we have more guests staying than some of the large beachfront resorts which are deserted - zero guests. So unless you have a good way to get customers you'll find that any resort that isnt well known or in a good location i.e. by the beach, will only be busy from mid December - March.

Anyone who told you there were no visitors in May obviously didnt see the 7km long traffic jam of cars waiting to leave the island three weeks ago after a long weekend holiday. Hotels do get busy in the rainy season but with Thai visitors, not foreigners, and only at weekends. And as most small farang run places don't try to attract Thais they are empty.

There are lots of small resorts & businesses for sale on Koh Chang now. Some sensibly priced, some crazy considering they don't have registered land leases.

We've got an old house in Salakkok but no plans to fix that up anytime soon. The location is too remote for most people. We also bought one neighbour's house but again, that wont be rebuilt this year. Maybe next, depends on money. And we will rent the neighbours house on the opposite side to give us a couple more AC rooms and a lot more space. Probably won't make any profit but it will guarantee that the area around us will stay quiet for our guests.