Highly Recommend Local Building Company

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

Hi there,

My house is nearly completed and I wished to show a few pickies of it and basically give a recommendation for the firm that I used - I know how tricky it can be to get decent service over here, and I can't rate this little firm highly enough. My good friend also had his place built, slightly bigger with 2 floors and more wood - he is really happy with them too.

I am based in Lampang, and they do local jobs, so they are OK to take work anywhere in Lampang, Phrae, Lamphun and Chiang Mai town...

The team is great: The husband is the building manager and the wife the interior designer. Her sister is the architect and the brother in law is the no.2 building manager. They have a lot of experience and are very pleasant to deal with, however, their English is very minimal. It was really good not having to communicate with 3 different groups of people, they all sang from the same sheet.

The process is beautifully simple, one of the reasons that I chose them. I discussed my total budget for the house (the one in the picture is a 2 bed, 2 bath single story with 130m2 floor space with 32m2 decking) and they gave me a couple of options based on a price per m2. The price per m2 depends on the quality of materials you use as well as the budget for fixtures/fittings/tiles that you want.

I told them my budget was about 1.3 million. They came up with 10,800 Baht / m2. I then came up with a simple house plan and we worked from there, them giving me their professional input and me telling them what I liked and didn't like about their ideas.

When the time came to fit out the house (floor tiles, bathroom tiles, kitchen etc.) we spent a few hours at a place in Chiang Mai choosing the items - they had given me a budget for every item. Mostly, the budget was OK (such as floor tiles), sometimes, I opted to buy something a little over budget allocated (the shower heads)... so, you know exactly what is going on and if you overspend, you know exactly by how much and on what. Of course, if you underspend (e.g. floor tile budget was 250 bhat / m2 but we found a good deal and spent 229 baht) the amount saved can be 'transferred over' to some other area. Pat, being the interior designer, was happy to design our two bathrooms for us. I gave her the layout and the choice of tiles, she came up with a great design! Also, she was full of helpful hints about colour co-ordination etc.

Before they start building, you get a contract with a completion date (1500 Baht paid to me for every day they go over the 150 day agreed time period)and a list of all the fixtures/fittings included in the price (e.g. a price for things such as the toilet, the sink, the kitchen sink, the floor tiles, the toilet holder, the bum blaster...)

During the building process, I have been in almost daily contact with them, sometimes on site, sometimes their place. They have been kind and open. They always use the same builders, tilers, painters etc. and I have total faith in them. There is a 1 year guarantee on the property. As you can read, I am delighted with them and it is my pleasure to give them this recommendation.

If you wish for any further information, feel free to PM me or respond on this thread PM me and i'll be happy to answer you.

Cheers

[stgrhe]

Thank you for sharing this with the rest of us here on TV.

[lingnoi1977]

Nice work, looks good. I have had a similar experience which I will share in due course.

Can you tell me how much land you have and did the cost include everything...landscaping?

If not, what do you think you will spend to get it up to scratch?

Cheers.

[Jim's_a_Thai_Fox]

Hi there,

As for landscaping, they will bring in a tractor and clear out all the cr*p such as broken tiles, bricks and bits of cement etc... (if there is any negative comment, it would be that the workers aren't so mindful about clearing up their rubbish)

This clearing up is fine for me as i will move in after total completion, whereas my friend started on his garden a little while before completion and was in a small battle with the builders to ensure his plants weren't ruined.

After the cleanup, I am planning to turf a fair section of it. The land is two plots consisting of 587 delang-wah (nearly 1.5 rai) and we are building on just over a rai.

Cheers

James