Cost Of Building A House In Udon

[eljeque]

I am goingo be building a house in Udon and would like to get an idea on what I should pay per meter, and for tile, roofing, etc. Any form of information in greatly appreciated.

[_Echinochloa_]

I am goingo be building a house in Udon and would like to get an idea on what I should pay per meter, and for tile, roofing, etc.  Any form of information in greatly appreciated.

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What size house???

[eljeque]

110 sq meter

3 bedroom

2 bathroom

[ray23]

I am goingo be building a house in Udon and would like to get an idea on what I should pay per meter, and for tile, roofing, etc.  Any form of information in greatly appreciated.

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What size house???

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I have yet to hear of a cost per meter, house with land included 1.4 mill will get you a 18 X18 Talung wah ( approximately a sg meter) lot and a three bedroom two bath house nicely built wth sqaure footage of 1200 sqft or so. This is for a single storey house and you will have to pay roughly another 100K to get farrang amenities, after the house is finished.

In Udon count on a water storage system with a pump if you want a consistent water supply. Thia houses don't come with built in closets so you have to decide what you want to do about that, depending on what your choices are it will drive costs one way or another. In addition you may want to consider additional insullation it gets very hot as well as sun blocking awnings. You will be installing a your own screens. More then likely you will want additional electric outlets. Then you have to decide what parts you want aircondioned. Most Thia's set a house up for a kitchen outside, even in the newer homes. However most places have sufficient room on what they call a kitchen to sit up an indoor facility. If you have a Thia wife she is probably going to want a stove outside. You will be looking at additional costs in drapes. In the bathrooms you will be looking at a water heater unit at a minimum, sometimes the wiring is there sometimes it is not. additionally there are many solar units available and set up to have hot water through out the house. Landscaping is an additional cost.

Generally speaking you are not going to find a house set up here as you would see in the States a a new home. If you do the costs are going to be high, much more then if you just took on the project yourself. Material and labor are inexpensive and I found that the small craftsmen are very easy to work with.

I went the builder route at first and I'm now involved in a Law Suit, becuase of it. Once the builder got his down payment he wouldn't even talk to me about items as minor as the color of wall paint. I would really think twice about getting involved in that. My search is still on, I want to find an existing home and then just modify the things I want. No matter what you do you are going to end up doing this anyway. I have now sit it up a small home on a two year lease which allows me to take any improvements I wish when I leave. I am at this point very comforatable and have two years to resolve the ownerhip issue. I only pay 3500 K a month while I do this. It cost me about 80 K to sit it up the way I wanted, I will probably lose les the 10K when I move. There is a lot of planning required and I would recommend to anyone to take this kind of time before moving into ownership.

So as you can tell your question is very difficult to answer

[eljeque]

Thanks for all of the information. I will forward it on.

[udon]

See http://coolthaihouse.com/

[lungbing]

May I suggest that you get plans drawn up and then get two or three quotes for labour only. That's the way we did it and the builder would then ring my wife up and say he needed say 40 bags of cement and three square metres of sand so we would dash to the nearest builder's merchant and buy it and they would deliver to site. Build up a good relationship with a builder's merchant. You won't get much if any discount, but nor will you pay the 'farang' price either. That way you get to chose the tiles, roof tiles, doors windows etc rather than have the builder put in the cheapest as made by his brother-in-law at a special (farang-chargeable) price.

Make the labour payments at specified work-related intervals, (roof tiled, floors down, tiles down etc and stick to them. My wife was harder than I was on that point. Also make sure you pay the labour payments on site so the workers see you paying the boss. Otherwise he'll deny it.

Gawd, ain't I cynical.

It worked for us and we now have a beautiful three bedroom two bathroom bungalow on 114 darang wah site here in Khon Kaen. The total cost was 1.8 million baht including lights, fans all fittings etc and the land at 400,000 baht. Tthis was nearly two years ago.

Start an account book, write down every penny you pay out and keep all receipts. You might also keep a diary of what you do each day on the house. You'll have a hectic few months but it will be worth it. Obviously take lots of photos. If nothing else it will make an interesting history of your future home.

Good luck,

Derek

aka

Lung Bing

[surin]

May I suggest that you get plans drawn up and then get two or three quotes for labour only.  That's the way we did it and the builder would then ring my wife up and say he needed  say  40 bags of cement and three square metres of sand  so we would dash to the nearest  builder's merchant and buy it and they would deliver to site.  Build up a good relationship with a builder's merchant.  You won't get much if any discount,  but nor will you pay the 'farang' price either.  That way you get to chose  the tiles, roof tiles, doors windows etc  rather than have the builder put in the cheapest as made by his brother-in-law at  a special  (farang-chargeable) price.

Make the labour payments at specified work-related intervals, (roof tiled,  floors down, tiles down etc and stick to them.  My wife was harder than I was on that point.  Also make sure you pay the labour payments on site so the workers see you paying the boss.  Otherwise he'll deny it.

Gawd,  ain't I  cynical.

It worked for us and we now have a beautiful three bedroom two bathroom bungalow on 114 darang wah site here in Khon Kaen.  The total cost was  1.8 million baht including lights, fans all fittings etc and the land at 400,000 baht. Tthis was nearly two years ago.

Start an account book, write down every penny you pay out and  keep all receipts. You might also keep a diary of what you do each day on the house. You'll have a hectic few months but it will be worth it.  Obviously take lots of photos.  If nothing else it will make an interesting history of your future home.

Good luck,

Derek

aka

Lung Bing

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Excellent comments....also, the builder gets a discount and will pass it on to you from suppliers. I reckon I've save half a mill in doing it your way in Surin

[lampard10]

s. I reckon I've save half a mill in doing it your way in Surin

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A lot of the Farangs around Surin now are using the local English builder

[lungbing]

I've just belatedly read my own reply and I think you'd be better off buying sand by the cubic metre rather than the square metre!

Lung Bing

[Pink Mist]

dont get a great deal of sand in a square metre

[ray23]

May I suggest that you get plans drawn up and then get two or three quotes for labour only.   That's the way we did it and the builder would then ring my wife up and say he needed  say  40 bags of cement and three square metres of sand  so we would dash to the nearest  builder's merchant and buy it and they would deliver to site.  Build up a good relationship with a builder's merchant.  You won't get much if any discount,  but nor will you pay the 'farang' price either.  That way you get to chose  the tiles, roof tiles, doors windows etc  rather than have the builder put in the cheapest as made by his brother-in-law at  a special  (farang-chargeable) price.

Make the labour payments at specified work-related intervals, (roof tiled,  floors down, tiles down etc and stick to them.  My wife was harder than I was on that point.   Also make sure you pay the labour payments on site so the workers see you paying the boss.  Otherwise he'll deny it.

Gawd,  ain't I  cynical.

It worked for us and we now have a beautiful three bedroom two bathroom bungalow on 114 darang wah site here in Khon Kaen.  The total cost was  1.8 million baht including lights, fans all fittings etc and the land at 400,000 baht. Tthis was nearly two years ago.

Start an account book, write down every penny you pay out and  keep all receipts. You might also keep a diary of what you do each day on the house. You'll have a hectic few months but it will be worth it.  Obviously take lots of photos.  If nothing else it will make an interesting history of your future home.

Good luck,

Derek

aka

Lung Bing

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Excellent comments....also, the builder gets a discount and will pass it on to you from suppliers. I reckon I've save half a mill in doing it your way in Surin

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I found this very interesting, how did you pick your land site?

How did you find the guy to do the plans?

How did you get three bids?

How did you supervise the builder?

Did you get the builders dicount passed on to you?

[pnustedt]

How did you find the guy to do the plans?

I'm almost ready to start building - drew the plans myself. Need to get verification from an architect/builder on some of the specs tho. There are many publications available from which you can buy ready plans - however, they would invariably need to be adapted to the way Thais build houses. Get out and about and study how they build before finalising anything.

How did you get three bids?

If you're going to buy the materials yourself you are really talking about hourly rates of builders. Competitive tender is not as important as the ability to do the job to your satisfaction. Check out the work that each builder has done and get their customers to vouch for them. Do they turn up when they say they will and act in a professional manner, etc.?

How did you supervise the builder?

By being on site, checking everything. I had some work done on some land at New Year and had a guy (a nephew) on site and he issued a ticket per hour per person to the supervisor - you pay the No. of hours by the No. of tickets issued. This can be the most harrowing part of the project and the area where you are most likely to meet friction with your spouse - she has to be on your side.

Be careful about bonuses and "perks" on site - e.g. finishing the day with a few crates of Chang. You will be taken advantage of. By all means have an "ontime completion" bonus but be very specific about the terms and conditions under which it is paid.

Did you get the builders discount passed on to you?

Shop around - don't necessarily buy from the local merchant who discounts his prices for you. They may be marked in the first place. Also the materials may not be up to the standard you require - depends where you are. The builders will have merchants whom they regularly use and would introduce you to them.