Do You Live In A Wooden House?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I like modern wooden architecture; you don't see it that much but I like it. In addition to answering the poll, would you welcome building wooden homes and/or using more wood in parts of home architecture?

[mcgriffith]

Voted, but I should have recused my vote; live on 11th floor concrete apt!

But lived in small wood houses much of my life.

Love them, and their warm feeling.

But the snakes were a problem...

[skipvice]

Not big, not small but works for me

[Paagai]

I love my wooden shack, rather humbling, makes me feel in touch with my Burmese neighbours

[hansnl]

I love those wooden house, they look beautiful

The wife has some land near Chiang Yueng, we are having serious talks at the moment.

Anyone could give some advise about the pitfalls, traps & all???

[villagefarang]

No category for what we live in.

[lioness]

Catagory list a bit restrictive but here goes.

My internal walls are mahogany and my ceilings are Teak,, thousands of sections of wood, but the overall effect is rather beautiful if you like wood. Australian farmhouse style to cope with the climate and keep the house cool. Externally I have Teak and natural stone. The veranda support beams are all solid tree trunks, overall effect unique.

I love wood, it has a calming effect and blends in with the natural surrounds.

[Asmerom]

I'm amazed.

So far, 90% of posters own their own home while only 10% rent! Astonishing.

As for the wooden, country bit, I'm going against the grain in protesting that I hate the constant prescence of insects large, small and microscopic throughout the house even though its well served with mosquito screens at all the windows and doors. I think insects penetrate and maybe breed in the wood and probably even eat it. Ants are all over the place ; they love the shower room. A different species of tiny brown ant-like creatures scurry in their hundreds about the kithchen surfaces and anywhere there's a trace of food. Drowning them in bleach doesn't deter their successors. They infest the whole structure. I have to be pretty quick eating from the plate ; as soon as I put it down it will be covered with dozens of these blighters in minutes. I have no idea how they get there. They don't fly and there's never a long ant like trail to the scene. They just suddenly appear. Anywhere. I have occaisionaly seen them in various eating establishments around town.

My other problem with wooden houses is that wooden walls provide literally no sound barrier.So, there's no escape from your neighbours conversations as ,of course, they cook and eat in the garden.Dogs, frogs (all night), there's a large fishpond, cocks crowing. No escape. Give me bricks and concrete everytime. I'd never again live in a wooden house even if I was paid.

Edited December 6, 2009 by Asmerom

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Wow, great responses, and some VERY nice pictures! I'm officially impressed.

It's a good point that wooden walls aren't very sound proof.. What I had in mind would be to start with a very basic one room + roof type structure and then keep adding to it. There's be walkways and/or a center open area of some sort, so rooms wouldn't actually be directly adjacent.. I hope that would address noise issues..

Of course maintenance and pest control are the most obvious challenges. Note BTW that those tiny ant-like creatures can be just as big of a problem in concrete, bricks & cement houses. For wood the answer is probably SERIOUS pest control infrastucture already built in from the foundations up, and then in the type of wood (& wood treatment) so keep bugs from eating it.

[anonymouse]

I didn't like the insect infestations as well back in the day when I lived in a wooden house out in the sticks, we could never get rid of those cockroaches and I can live with most things but there's something about a cockroach that turns my stomach

I'd show a picture of my place but in the last 3 years the kids have managed to destroy most of it

[IanForbes]

I believe house construction should depend on the terrain and country. On the west coast of Canada we have lots of timber, so most homes are constructed of wood. For strength and stability the office buildings and hotels must be constructed of steel reinforced cement. In eastern Canada where there is not as much good timber the private homes are made of brick and cement. Wood is only used as decoration. I've seen some beautiful teak timber used in constructing Thai homes in the mountains. In Canada the stuff is worth a fortune and only used in the furniture and boat building trades. In hurricane regions the locals always built their homes of light materials like bamboo. They could be easily replaced when mother nature decided to act up. Western civilization tries to fight nature instead of bending with it. A good example is building wooden houses in areas that frequently have brush fires.

Sometimes my home is a simple dwelling made of canvas...

But often it's a little more elaborate...

But the place that stores all my toys is made of wood

Edited December 6, 2009 by IanForbes

[Flatouthruthefog]

I love those wooden house, they look beautiful

The wife has some land near Chiang Yueng, we are having serious talks at the moment.

Anyone could give some advise about the pitfalls, traps & all???

Let me pass on some 2nd hand advice, mainly because it comes from a friend with vastly more experience than I.

Having lived in nice houses of different construction in Germany, Spain, Mexico and Thailand, he told me a few years ago: "I would never live in wood again. It is hot in summer, cold in winter and whatever you do you NEVER solve the insect problem."

He designed and helped to build a concrete Spanish style villa north of CM city with great attention paid to direction of sun, breeze etc. And he's very happy.

I took his advice and live in a MUCH smaller version of the same thing, and we are happy too.

Good luck!

[IvanLaw]

Just started to Design/ Plan our house: (about 5 K from Rachaburi)

2 Storey, Brick / Concrete construction with wood cladding to upper floor.

Roof ?

Second floor ceiling possibly concrete slab as other floors

(for storage in attic space & my “Bolt Hole“) BUT thinking of how to cool?

Basic Floor area 10M x 12M Car Port / Workshop will be separate.

Anyone know of a site with plans / costing to help me please?

Regards

Ivan

Edited December 6, 2009 by IvanLaw

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Just sent you a private message with a URL in it. ( Let me know if the link didn't make it uncensored.)

[gravion]

im curious. when u build ur home, its under ur missus name right? so when u die the property will completely belong to her family?

ive seen the preowned houses with land inc. but someone told me when i die, the land + propety will belong to the originals

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Gravion, you don't own it. So it doesn't matter if you die because you never owned it in the first place.

Secondly, you can't take things into the grave with you anyway; that's just peculiarity of life. Any house or other assets are usually inherited by your wife and then your children, not unlike how it would go in the West.

Search the forum for details; thousands of pages on home 'ownership' in Thailand. All kinds of interesting tricks of varying legality and benefit, related to companies, 30 year leases, or putting the whole show on a mortgage so instead of paying rent to someone you don't care about, you do monthly mortgage payments so your wife/children eventually have something to show for it.

[ EDIT: NB: This topic is not about home 'ownership' by foreigners; plenty people decide this is not for them, so they rent or buy a condominium, which is a perfectly sensible choice. ]

Edited December 7, 2009 by WinnieTheKhwai

[Naam]

Gravion, you don't own it. So it doesn't matter if you die because you never owned it in the first place.

Secondly, you can't take things into the grave with you anyway; that's just peculiarity of life. Any house or other assets are usually inherited by your wife and then your children, not unlike how it would go in the West.

not withstanding the fact that this thread is about wooden homes some incorrect information should to be rectified.

-of course a foreigner can own a home. what he can't own is land. my wife and me own our house!

-"usally" does not apply in my case as i neither have a thai wife nor thai children.

- a friend of mine built a wooden house in Chiang Mai on land which is owned by his girlfriend. he owns the house and if his girlfriend tries some dirty trick he will dissamble the house and rebuild it again on leased land.

[gravion]

har har har... can not fully trust foreign women eh.... heeheehee or women?

why not just rent for the rest of ur life??? u can move when u got crappy neighbours, or like when ur home get infested with bugs or sumthing.. lol leaking homes.. or like being TARGETED lol constant vandalism...

as for condos i dont know why ppl buy em... smalls rooms, thin walls, neighbours... crap! u prolly can hear ppl from up/down.sides

anyone been to hillside4 condos? expensive, yet crap facility, jailed for life BR4! that place looks like a morgue 4 sure cuz! har har...

sorry i might sound not as professional or wutever as u expats.. i just wanna gain some knowledge cool!

oh yeah also ive seen some deals on real estate shops, house with land etc...

Edited December 7, 2009 by gravion

[WinnieTheKhwai]

-of course a foreigner can own a home. what he can't own is land. my wife and me own our house!

Right, thanks for adding that.

Nice looking house too!

[sceadugenga]

Basic up country house, brick on the bottom, wood on top.