Building. On The Cheap.

[greytown]

Anyone has any info or experience building a house in Thailand for a very low cost? In another thread there was a mention of a reasonable size bungalow built for 800k baht (excluding land). How about self build homes and the like? Any special obstacles to self build / alternative build homes in Thailand?

[Bemused]

Anyone has any info or experience building a house in Thailand for a very low cost? In another thread there was a mention of a reasonable size bungalow built for 800k baht (excluding land). How about self build homes and the like? Any special obstacles to self build / alternative build homes in Thailand?

Barriers to self build:

1) Foreigners are allowed under any circumstances (including with a work permit) to do physical work. Immigration won't be lurking about the hillside, but you might p*ss off the locals.

2) Man, its hot. 2 hours hard work and you will realise why thai builders work so slowly. Westerners find it difficult to do manual labour in thailand, leave it to the locals.

3) Thai people cost 150b a day unskilled, to 400b a day for a really skilled electrician or site foreman. Your daily living costs will be more than the cost of hiring two locals to do the work. From this perspective alone, the more your rely on your labour (ironically) the more it will cost you overall.

If you want to save costs you try to manage the work yourself, rather than actually doing it yourself. Then again unless you are good with the language and know where to buy materials cheaply you might save money by paying extra for someone competent to manage the work for you.

The issue of alternative builds is a good question. Half of Thailand lives in what from a western perspective we would think of as an 'alternative build' - uses local natural materials, low emmission (ie. the walls don't meet the roof to allow natural cooling), fully recycleable except the roof. People use concrete to get a cleaner western finish.

There is the start of a 'kit house' thing in Thailand. Maybe another poster might have some information. I don' think Hauf will deliver to Thailand, but you never know.

[Spoonman]

2) Man, its hot. 2 hours hard work and you will realise why thai builders work so slowly. Westerners find it difficult to do manual labour in thailand, leave it to the locals.

You work an office job dont ya......Im a "farang" i do manual labour every day, 10hrs a day 5 days a week, i pull a "western" salary though.

[greytown]

Anyone has any info or experience building a house in Thailand for a very low cost? In another thread there was a mention of a reasonable size bungalow built for 800k baht (excluding land). How about self build homes and the like? Any special obstacles to self build / alternative build homes in Thailand?

Barriers to self build:

1) Foreigners are allowed under any circumstances (including with a work permit) to do physical work. Immigration won't be lurking about the hillside, but you might p*ss off the locals.

2) Man, its hot. 2 hours hard work and you will realise why thai builders work so slowly. Westerners find it difficult to do manual labour in thailand, leave it to the locals.

3) Thai people cost 150b a day unskilled, to 400b a day for a really skilled electrician or site foreman. Your daily living costs will be more than the cost of hiring two locals to do the work. From this perspective alone, the more your rely on your labour (ironically) the more it will cost you overall.

If you want to save costs you try to manage the work yourself, rather than actually doing it yourself. Then again unless you are good with the language and know where to buy materials cheaply you might save money by paying extra for someone competent to manage the work for you.

The issue of alternative builds is a good question. Half of Thailand lives in what from a western perspective we would think of as an 'alternative build' - uses local natural materials, low emmission (ie. the walls don't meet the roof to allow natural cooling), fully recycleable except the roof. People use concrete to get a cleaner western finish.

There is the start of a 'kit house' thing in Thailand. Maybe another poster might have some information. I don' think Hauf will deliver to Thailand, but you never know.

Thanks for the input.

Did you actually mean "1) Foreigners are NOT allowed under any circumstances (including with a work permit) to do physical work."

I think you're right about labour cost. I'd be interested to know the calculation (for a typical build) of the labour cost in Thailand per SQ Meter.

I've been looking into alternative building techinques such as straw bale, prefab / modular homes etc. and would be interested in any insight on how these could be applied in Thailand and if they would make economic sense.

[xerostar]

I've built what I consider to be cheap houses, but we're on a rural property about 300 Km North of Bangkok. So we didn't need to get permission or submit plans.

It would be different in a township or city though, I believe you do need to submit plans etc.

As far as I know we could have built in any style or materials we chose, assuming we had the money to do so..

We used local labour and materials and that seems to limit your choice of style or materials since most hardware stores carry the same basic materials and nothing fancy at all.

Local materials are basically concrete bricks, concrete columns, concrete floors with ceramic tiles, wood framed windows. Steel roof frames. Roofing of fibro or steel sheets.

Basic plumbing using cheap sinks and non-flush toilets all help to keep the price down but how far do you go before the house becomes uncomfortable.

If you choose something different, the locals probably won't know how to do it unless they are closely supervised by an expert.

I would say that to achieve western standards you would need to hire a proven building company and be prepared to pay a premium price.

If you're happy with a functional house without too much style then you can build amazingly cheap houses compared to what you could do back home.

e.g. We built a basic house for my Thai sister-in-law - 3 bedrooms, living room, kitchen, bathroom, toilet.

Total cost $26,000 - we already owned the land. That was four years ago so prices may have increased since then. BTW that's the SIL's old house on the right.

Edited October 10, 2009 by xerostar

[greytown]

Thanks xerostar for the post. Good info. House looks great.

Would be great to see more similar low cost houses.

Edited October 10, 2009 by greytown

[endure]

http://zerocabin.com/?p=117

[greytown]

http://zerocabin.com/?p=117

Thanks for the link. I've seem interesting homes made of containers. I take it this is one rare (if not unique?) example in Thailand.

[petertucker48]

Thanks xerostar for the post. Good info. House looks great.

Would be great to see more similar low cost houses.

http://www.thai-land-house.com/

http://www.crossy.co.uk/Thai_House_Plans/

[katabeachbum]

Anyone has any info or experience building a house in Thailand for a very low cost? In another thread there was a mention of a reasonable size bungalow built for 800k baht (excluding land). How about self build homes and the like? Any special obstacles to self build / alternative build homes in Thailand?

If you are in an area where buildingpermit is required, the rules are giving limits on how cheap/short lifetime you can build. Check this out for a start.

Your local Tessabaan would have some house plans already aproved and inexpensive to build. A 80-100 sqm bungalow at 800k should be no problem to have build with good quality.

[Rimmer]

I built this as a family guest house for when they come to stay. costs as shown:

LABOR 50,000

MATERIEL 120,000

ROOF 16,223

WINDOWS 15,000

ELECTRIC 10,000

211,223

AREA

LOUNGE 13.0

LOUNGE 11.0

BEDROOM 13.0

BATHROOM 4.0

DECK 12

TOILET 3.0

TOTAL 56.0

The key is to employ and pay your own workers directly from the wife's village, bring them down yourself, house and feed them, make them friends and 'supervise' the work yourself, That's not hard just a walk around twice a day with some suggestions, that will do it. And buy all your materiel yourself.

Don't get involved with all this straw bale and clay alternative nonesense, building materials are cheap enough here and all the teams of workers know how to work well with them and will make a good product if you are there to watch.

BTW I think container houses look like S**T and would do well as a site office. For the small costs involved do it properly.

[katabeachbum]

The key is to employ and pay your own workers directly from the wife's village, bring them down yourself, house and feed them, make them friends and 'supervise' the work yourself, That's not hard just a walk around twice a day with some suggestions, that will do it. And buy all your materiel yourself.

Don't get involved with all this straw bale and clay alternative nonesense, building materials are cheap enough here and all the teams of workers know how to work well with them and will make a good product if you are there to watch.

I agree, build as the thais do with concrete columns and clayed brick walls. Its cheap and durable.

Purchase materials yourself, and have workers on day salary.

[greytown]

I built this as a family guest house for when they come to stay. costs as shown:

LABOR 50,000

MATERIEL 120,000

ROOF 16,223

WINDOWS 15,000

ELECTRIC 10,000

211,223

AREA

LOUNGE 13.0

LOUNGE 11.0

BEDROOM 13.0

BATHROOM 4.0

DECK 12

TOILET 3.0

TOTAL 56.0

The key is to employ and pay your own workers directly from the wife's village, bring them down yourself, house and feed them, make them friends and 'supervise' the work yourself, That's not hard just a walk around twice a day with some suggestions, that will do it. And buy all your materiel yourself.

Don't get involved with all this straw bale and clay alternative nonesense, building materials are cheap enough here and all the teams of workers know how to work well with them and will make a good product if you are there to watch.

BTW I think container houses look like S**T and would do well as a site office. For the small costs involved do it properly.

Thanks for the details. Very economical indeed. I think probably straw bale may not be appropriate for Thailand. Container homes could look good with some good design but don't usually do. Plus they might actually be more expensive in Thailand I think than more conventional options.

How long did the house take to complete?

Edited October 11, 2009 by greytown

[greytown]

Thanks xerostar for the post. Good info. House looks great.

Would be great to see more similar low cost houses.

http://www.thai-land-house.com/

http://www.crossy.co.uk/Thai_House_Plans/

Thanks for the links.

[Rimmer]

I built this as a family guest house for when they come to stay. costs as shown:

LABOR 50,000

MATERIEL 120,000

ROOF 16,223

WINDOWS 15,000

ELECTRIC 10,000

211,223

AREA

LOUNGE 13.0

LOUNGE 11.0

BEDROOM 13.0

BATHROOM 4.0

DECK 12

TOILET 3.0

TOTAL 56.0

The key is to employ and pay your own workers directly from the wife's village, bring them down yourself, house and feed them, make them friends and 'supervise' the work yourself, That's not hard just a walk around twice a day with some suggestions, that will do it. And buy all your materiel yourself.

Don't get involved with all this straw bale and clay alternative nonesense, building materials are cheap enough here and all the teams of workers know how to work well with them and will make a good product if you are there to watch.

BTW I think container houses look like S**T and would do well as a site office. For the small costs involved do it properly.

Thanks for the details. Very economical indeed. I think probably straw bale may not be appropriate for Thailand. Container homes could look good with some good design but don't usually do. Plus they might actually be more expensive in Thailand I think than more conventional options.

How long did the house take to complete?

I think I had four people working on it for maybe 5 or six weeks, not long.

I have just remembered, the original design had an open lounge running onto a covered deck. My wife's sister who now stays there did not feel comfortable with that so we fitted a large glass double sliding door instead of the open look, that cost about 12k so add it on.

You may also be interested, the walls that do not face the sun are ordinary 3baht gray blocks, the walls that get the sun are Q Con.

The roof may look C Pack but in fact only the front is C Pack tile. The rear sloping roof is matching cement sheet tiles. If you have gentle slope on a C Pack or similar roof the rails lift up the front of the tile and the water can run backwards into the house. The only way to deal with a gentle sloping roof is to use the 60cm sheets with a good overlap.

Floor tiles are normal ceramic bought at special end of line prices and skirting boards Conwood. For ease of instalation the electrics are a UK style ring main which was laid in conduit before the cement floor was poured, not expensive and by far the best way.

Main Sow poons are cement pipe filled with concrete and steel standing on concrete feet about 18 inches in the ground, no movement, no cracks, nothing.

Outside kitchen and sink, one nice bathroom inside and one mmm style one outside.

Maybe I've got some construction pictures I'll check.

[steve187]

I built this as a family guest house for when they come to stay. costs as shown:

LABOR 50,000

MATERIEL 120,000

ROOF 16,223

WINDOWS 15,000

ELECTRIC 10,000

211,223

AREA

LOUNGE 13.0

LOUNGE 11.0

BEDROOM 13.0

BATHROOM 4.0

DECK 12

TOILET 3.0

TOTAL 56.0

The key is to employ and pay your own workers directly from the wife's village, bring them down yourself, house and feed them, make them friends and 'supervise' the work yourself, That's not hard just a walk around twice a day with some suggestions, that will do it. And buy all your materiel yourself.

Don't get involved with all this straw bale and clay alternative nonesense, building materials are cheap enough here and all the teams of workers know how to work well with them and will make a good product if you are there to watch.

BTW I think container houses look like S**T and would do well as a site office. For the small costs involved do it properly.

Thanks for the details. Very economical indeed. I think probably straw bale may not be appropriate for Thailand. Container homes could look good with some good design but don't usually do. Plus they might actually be more expensive in Thailand I think than more conventional options.

How long did the house take to complete?

I think I had four people working on it for maybe 5 or six weeks, not long.

I have just remembered, the original design had an open lounge running onto a covered deck. My wife's sister who now stays there did not feel comfortable with that so we fitted a large glass double sliding door instead of the open look, that cost about 12k so add it on.

You may also be interested, the walls that do not face the sun are ordinary 3baht gray blocks, the walls that get the sun are Q Con.

The roof may look C Pack but in fact only the front is C Pack tile. The rear sloping roof is matching cement sheet tiles. If you have gentle slope on a C Pack or similar roof the rails lift up the front of the tile and the water can run backwards into the house. The only way to deal with a gentle sloping roof is to use the 60cm sheets with a good overlap.

Floor tiles are normal ceramic bought at special end of line prices and skirting boards Conwood. For ease of instalation the electrics are a UK style ring main which was laid in conduit before the cement floor was poured, not expensive and by far the best way.

Main Sow poons are cement pipe filled with concrete and steel standing on concrete feet about 18 inches in the ground, no movement, no cracks, nothing.

Outside kitchen and sink, one nice bathroom inside and one mmm style one outside.

Maybe I've got some construction pictures I'll check.

some pictures taken during construction would be nice to see, the design has a nice look to it.

thanks steve

[phutoie2]

I have just finished supervising/funding a Thai style house for the TW parents in a fairly remote area of Eastern Thailand. Its a standard 12 poster Thai style bungalow, steel roof frame construction, two bedrooms, with a kitchen/bathroom attached to rear of the house, plus a large front porch.

I agree with the comments about finding good builders!, our main one a bit of a deadbeat, farmer come semi competent DIYER, however luckily for us his main sidekick had worked on many high quality farang house's in Chonburi and was a skillful jack of all trades!. Rely on your wife to find such folk unless you choose to go the catologue route, This is where gangs of builders are brought in throughout the house construction.

In the sticks no need to worry too much about "building permits!!", but expect a visit from the electric company to check out the installation of all electrics. This house is properly earthed and safety T-Cut too.

I sourced several builders merchants in the local area, find a good one that gives credit!, for general stuff such as cement/bricks/sand. At main distributors for steel & wood (windows/doors) its cash on delivery or up front.

Materiels have steadily risen over the last year, a standard breeze block is now 4.20 Baht, a single red brick now 80 satang, when I built my own place it was 3 red bricks for a Baht.

Bags of cement, are up to 130 Baht a bag.

Well just to summarize, our building labour costs were 90k Baht and the total cost of all materiels, and that is everything, down to the last light bulb was 358,000 Baht.

I have not taken a picture of the finished house but here are some from a few weeks back, it is now finished and will show a photo later.

[greytown]

I built this as a family guest house for when they come to stay. costs as shown:

LABOR 50,000

MATERIEL 120,000

ROOF 16,223

WINDOWS 15,000

ELECTRIC 10,000

211,223

AREA

LOUNGE 13.0

LOUNGE 11.0

BEDROOM 13.0

BATHROOM 4.0

DECK 12

TOILET 3.0

TOTAL 56.0

The key is to employ and pay your own workers directly from the wife's village, bring them down yourself, house and feed them, make them friends and 'supervise' the work yourself, That's not hard just a walk around twice a day with some suggestions, that will do it. And buy all your materiel yourself.

Don't get involved with all this straw bale and clay alternative nonesense, building materials are cheap enough here and all the teams of workers know how to work well with them and will make a good product if you are there to watch.

BTW I think container houses look like S**T and would do well as a site office. For the small costs involved do it properly.

Thanks for the details. Very economical indeed. I think probably straw bale may not be appropriate for Thailand. Container homes could look good with some good design but don't usually do. Plus they might actually be more expensive in Thailand I think than more conventional options.

How long did the house take to complete?

I think I had four people working on it for maybe 5 or six weeks, not long.

I have just remembered, the original design had an open lounge running onto a covered deck. My wife's sister who now stays there did not feel comfortable with that so we fitted a large glass double sliding door instead of the open look, that cost about 12k so add it on.

You may also be interested, the walls that do not face the sun are ordinary 3baht gray blocks, the walls that get the sun are Q Con.

The roof may look C Pack but in fact only the front is C Pack tile. The rear sloping roof is matching cement sheet tiles. If you have gentle slope on a C Pack or similar roof the rails lift up the front of the tile and the water can run backwards into the house. The only way to deal with a gentle sloping roof is to use the 60cm sheets with a good overlap.

Floor tiles are normal ceramic bought at special end of line prices and skirting boards Conwood. For ease of instalation the electrics are a UK style ring main which was laid in conduit before the cement floor was poured, not expensive and by far the best way.

Main Sow poons are cement pipe filled with concrete and steel standing on concrete feet about 18 inches in the ground, no movement, no cracks, nothing.

Outside kitchen and sink, one nice bathroom inside and one mmm style one outside.

Maybe I've got some construction pictures I'll check.

All interesting details.

How might the labour cost have differed had you used a standard contractor / builders for the job? Are people with adequate skills that easy to recruit in villages?

Edited October 11, 2009 by greytown

[greytown]

I have just finished supervising/funding a Thai style house for the TW parents in a fairly remote area of Eastern Thailand. Its a standard 12 poster Thai style bungalow, steel roof frame construction, two bedrooms, with a kitchen/bathroom attached to rear of the house, plus a large front porch.

I agree with the comments about finding good builders!, our main one a bit of a deadbeat, farmer come semi competent DIYER, however luckily for us his main sidekick had worked on many high quality farang house's in Chonburi and was a skillful jack of all trades!. Rely on your wife to find such folk unless you choose to go the catologue route, This is where gangs of builders are brought in throughout the house construction.

In the sticks no need to worry too much about "building permits!!", but expect a visit from the electric company to check out the installation of all electrics. This house is properly earthed and safety T-Cut too.

I sourced several builders merchants in the local area, find a good one that gives credit!, for general stuff such as cement/bricks/sand. At main distributors for steel & wood (windows/doors) its cash on delivery or up front.

Materiels have steadily risen over the last year, a standard breeze block is now 4.20 Baht, a single red brick now 80 satang, when I built my own place it was 3 red bricks for a Baht.

Bags of cement, are up to 130 Baht a bag.

Well just to summarize, our building labour costs were 90k Baht and the total cost of all materiels, and that is everything, down to the last light bulb was 358,000 Baht.

I have not taken a picture of the finished house but here are some from a few weeks back, it is now finished and will show a photo later.

Great pics. Thanks.

[Rimmer]

All interesting details.

How might the labour cost have differed had you used a standard contractor / builders for the job? Are people with adequate skills that easy to recruit in villages?

A 'Builder' will typically quote for a specific job, or if quoting for a house will often quote per square meter.

He will then pay 'his' workers maybe 200 baht to baht350 a day, the rest goes in his pocket as his profit.

So in my case 56 square meters at baht 10,000 a meter = baht 560,000 or even baht 6000 a meter which would be a bare minimum = baht 336,000

To answer your last point the people who build houses live in their village and plant rice and do odd jobs when there is no work, it's the same person as the one who is working for the 'Builder' that you are paying 10k a meter to.

Edited October 12, 2009 by Rimmer

[Rimmer]

I have just finished supervising/funding a Thai style house for the TW parents in a fairly remote area of Eastern Thailand.

BIG SNIP

Nice house phutoie2 you did it right as well, just shows what can be done with a little effort and some friendly supervision.

[greytown]

All interesting details.

How might the labour cost have differed had you used a standard contractor / builders for the job? Are people with adequate skills that easy to recruit in villages?

A 'Builder' will typically quote for a specific job, or if quoting for a house will often quote per square meter.

He will then pay 'his' workers maybe 200 baht to baht350 a day, the rest goes in his pocket as his profit.

So in my case 56 square meters at baht 10,000 a meter = baht 560,000 or even baht 6000 a meter which would be a bare minimum = baht 336,000

To answer your last point the people who build houses live in their village and plant rice and do odd jobs when there is no work, it's the same person as the one who is working for the 'Builder' that you are paying 10k a meter to.

Thanks for the reply. Very helpful.