To Have The Workers /builders Build To Your Plan!

[sweeex]

Hello al!

I am faced with a problem, We,, or my thai wife has a house in issan, she had it built in steps before we meet, and it is to thai standards quite good, during some years we have had it "westernized" with a accepteble bathroom and kitchen. not to mush but enough for us to stay the times we come back to thailand. and for grand mother to live in .

The problem that have rised during last years is that almost every summer during rain period the house get floded, well,,, due to heavy rain and poor drainege the water comes in and stands up to 2-3 inch on floor.

Of course this is not acepteble, How this have become a rising problem is the fact that the outside road has been rised, and neighbour house(brother in law) has been rebuilt , and rised up, this without a thought about propour drainige ? why?? I dont know !, maybe the thai mentality or lack of housebuilding knowlige?

anyway it´s now a fact!

The wife want´s to flaten the house to the ground and rebuild it al,,she want this mainly after many of our friends have built new homes ! well, if I was made out of money , that would be a fine solution! but I am not!!

I am a regular man from a western country who suport a 2 child famely on 1 salory, with 2 homes , thai/sweden. My plan to solve this is.

1. to messare the ground level in the house acording to existing drain ditches outside in the field, calculate if it´s possible to dig and construct extra drain from around the house.

(if I have the "fall" needed for the water to drain away)

2. If drain is ´nt possible due to ground level /ditch level,, then I need to raise the floor level. the house is built in stages, and in thai way with concrete poles /bricks. so

it´s not possible to lift the entire house. then one solution would be to keep the exiting walls and fill the floor up half a meter , and brick up the walls aswell.

that would meen to disamble the roof first, and ofcourse some extra remodeling of the house plans , We have used local builders before with oue remodeling, but they dont realy know how to follow building plans and want to "build as they always done"

3.The third and most cosly opption is just to flatten the house down and rebuild a new one, if this shold be the case,, well as I am the moneybank here,, Iwant to have a say about building plans and construktion, If I was able to be there during the construction I feel that it might be possible to control and manage ,,, but I have to work here at home.I also have needed experianse to build this myself, but knowing thai rules that is not an option eighter, ? am I right?

well maybe it´s not so mush a question to you al as it is a need to discuss this with people who have knowlige or experiance in simular matters.

I find it hard (even brother in law , to follow directions, he has been here at my home, building for me, he listens , but when letf alone to work,, he easy fall´s back to what he learned or earlyer building experiaces he had from thailand) with knowing this , ) to trust thai builders to do wat you want! with out them to make thier own thai building decitions.

Our relation is solid , so some solution is needed! we cant have our thai home flooded every heavy rain period!

If it comes to new contruktion,, maybe it´s easyer and more "mind at ease" to set up a contract to pro home builders?

any coment sor hint´s or wiews are most welcome! thanks/Erik.

Edited November 12, 2009 by sweeex

[lassebasse]

Would it not be possible to a pump somewhere on you plan 1 to move water further away from the house when necessary?

[manjara]

I'd look at each of the 'steps' in the house build and perhaps redo or raise one or 2 of them. That way you would have a multi-level house, part of which might get flooded a bit. You can do the drainage part too, to minimise the effects.

Incidentally, our house was also built in steps and they raised the whole thing by around 6 inches without too much problem. It's a bit uneven in places but it's a Thai wooden house so it's not a big deal.

Don't expect too much from the Thai builders, but similarly, don't think that things are not possible.

Also, you can build a new house for a million baht very easily, which is cheap by western standards and your wife could probably get a loan from the bank in Thailand with you as guarantor (I did that for one of our places in BKK). Loan repayments over 10 years would be around 10-11k/month, I think

Lykka til!

[jimmym40]

I know this will sound very silly. But if you are really strapped for money, maybe try this. Warn you, I've never seen this before, it's just a wild thought in my head, looking for a way out of your curcumstance.

Besides digging a trench completely around the home, and have a sump pump run to get water out. How about pouring a one meter concrete foot baht around the home, and instead of having a "step up" to go inside the house, have a "step down", where the foot baht is higher than the floor of the inside living quarters. I don't know how high you would have to go to keep the water out, but you can have it sloping from ground level, upwards to the height where you would feel comfortable no water would get in.

Hope your're not laughing too loud, I said it was just a wild thought...

[chiang mai]

Most Thai builders I have met will do what they want to do in the way that they think is correct, it doesn't matter what the plans say - there are always exceptions to this rule as no doubt somebody will point out soon. But your starting point must be to forget the idea of making a design and plan and entrusting a Thai builder/relative to follow it, it simply will not work out as planned, unless, you are someone like you is on site every minute of every day.

[sweeex]

Most Thai builders I have met will do what they want to do in the way that they think is correct, it doesn't matter what the plans say - there are always exceptions to this rule as no doubt somebody will point out soon. But your starting point must be to forget the idea of making a design and plan and entrusting a Thai builder/relative to follow it, it simply will not work out as planned, unless, you are someone like you is on site every minute of every day.

This is my exeriance aswell! therefore I belive that any steps taken to fix the problem as I see it ,, needs to be done while I´m arround!

to have them do the work with me on disance,, hmm,,

Well,, It´ll be intresting and i´ll keep you updated what hapends.

Yes, I have thought about having some sort of wall/ pumping system installed , but,, I feel that I need to messure the sourronding ground level contra floorlevel up propor first.

[Tokay]

Besides digging a trench completely around the home, and have a sump pump run to get water out. How about pouring a one meter concrete foot baht around the home, and instead of having a "step up" to go inside the house, have a "step down", where the foot baht is higher than the floor of the inside living quarters. I don't know how high you would have to go to keep the water out, but you can have it sloping from ground level, upwards to the height where you would feel comfortable no water would get in.

That may not be a bad idea. A mini wall so to speak, perhaps built with with drain pipes in parts, to drain the water elsewhere.

If you look in the city, when it rains hard, man stores will sandbag around their store. Sort of the same idea, but with a little planning and engineering, you could make something rather nice.

[bkkbill]

My MIL was having a similar problem as her brother filled his land leaving her lower. In true Thai style she just put a barrier across the doorway using hollow cement blocks. This has been working for a couple of years now. Everyone kicks off the sandals and steps over the 20 CM blocks.

[mirthseeker]

My MIL was having a similar problem as her brother filled his land leaving her lower. In true Thai style she just put a barrier across the doorway using hollow cement blocks. This has been working for a couple of years now. Everyone kicks off the sandals and steps over the 20 CM blocks.

Many houses around us in outer Bkk use this method. Have a roof of some sort over the doorway, and either a wall across the doorway, or a raised floor area outside the door, under this roof. The rest of the house is below the level of occasional flooding, you step down into the house. You need to ensure the hong nam is not lower than the flood level, of course, and that any floor drains will not allow water to enter. A simple low tech solution. In western countries it is possible to purchase removable flood barriers, which seal up doorways. I have seen one house in Thailand with a similar solution, with a wooden barrier with rubber seals which is bolted in place during the flood season. Of course, many just use sand bags (usually after the first flood of the season lol).

[trogers]

I would build a single storey house with floor elevated 2m high. Ground level below the house is only +15cm, the thickness of a concrete floor.

Septic tank servicing the bathroom would be place at the northwest corner, partially buried with 60cm above ground and enclosed with brickwalls but with a service door. Vent pipe from this tank to be run up above roof level. This will avoid the problem of not being able to flush toilets during floods.

Area under the house can be used as spare living area for visiting relatives. Bring out the hammocks...