Buy Or Build A House

[sirineou]

My Wife wants to buy an existing structure in Khon Kaen, I want to build our own house. There are advantages and disadvantages associated with building or buying a house, but what I am mostly concerned with is , quality of constructions of existing structures, and building codes.

Where I come from when a house is build there are periodic inspections,for instance before the walls are closed, the electric is inspected, and signed to be up to code, or the plumbing, or the insulation, etc. at the end of the constructions,with all the proper inspections completed, you get your Certificate Of Occupancy (C.O.). Same thing applies when you make an addition, the proper permits must be obtained, structure must be build to code, and a CO must be obtained.

In Thailand, the good thing is,, people have more freedom to do things. In Thailand the bad thing is,, people have more freedom to do things. so I see all sort of homes, and additions to homes being build.

So the question is:

In Thailand,When buying an existing structure, how can you be reassured that,the proper material and techniques have being Used to build that structure?

[Langsuan Man]

In Thailand,When buying an existing structure, how can you be reassured that,the proper material and techniques have being Used to build that structure?

You can't, and you can't if you have a house built either, unless you are going to be on site and double check every delivery, invoice, and purchase.

When a building permit is obtained they are supposed to send out inspectors to check the work as you describe, but in a country where everyone has their hand out you really can't tell if it was done

If you build, find a building consultant to manage the job for you

Hopefully someone here at TV will be able to steer you to an engineer who can check out an existing structure for you

[trogers]

how can you be reassured that' date='the proper material and techniques have being Used to build that structure?

[/quote']

What is proper in Khon Kaen? Which yardsticks would you use for measurement?Local, provincial, city codes, country codes, Western codes, Asian codes, etc?

In the end, build and supervise you own house construction, and to your own yardsticks, but first, ensure your yardsticks comply with local codes...

[A. BOOZER]

In Thailand,When buying an existing structure, how can you be reassured that,the proper material and techniques have being Used to build that structure?

You can't, and you can't if you have a house built either, unless you are going to be on site and double check every delivery, invoice, and purchase.

When a building permit is obtained they are supposed to send out inspectors to check the work as you describe, but in a country where everyone has their hand out you really can't tell if it was done

If you build, find a building consultant to manage the job for you

Hopefully someone here at TV will be able to steer you to an engineer who can check out an existing structure for you

I concur!

Wishing you the very best of luck!

[sjeng]

good question,

in my opinion, and i build a new house last year, i would recomment to buy.

1, no stress during the build, when you are on site everything goes well, when you turn yot back they do something unexppected and mostly in a bad or wrong way.

2, controle of the costs, when you build, it mostly goes over the planned budget. an existing home you can buy cheap in the marked, a lot of interesting offers from farang who want to sale at any price.

3, no mess in your garden, when you buy you see what you get.

4. is it build strong and safe? even a new building wil have some cracks after a while. an existing one might have or had some. but you can check it out.

5. when you build you chose the location, when you buy it might not be the location you had in mind or the model you like.

so when i restume in mine experiance i would have been better of buying one.

[Thailaw]

As noted, both buying and building come with risks regarding quality of construction, but having a qualified construction engineer come in and do a thorough inspection of an existing house from top to bottom is probably as good and a whole lot easier than hiring a construction engineer to manage and oversee the construction of a new house on a continuous basis. In addition, given the present market, I expect that the price at which you can buy an existing house will (should) be much cheaper for equal quality than you will pay for a new home.

[craigt3365]

We recently did a renovation. Bought an abandoned house and then kitted it out. The good thing is we got exactly what we wanted...within the constraints of the existing structures. The bad thing is we couldn't change the existing structures due to their layout on our property (i.e. would love to have the pool in a different location, but way too expensive to fill it in and move it 4 meters. Would also have loved to have the garage attached to the house, but due to different heights, was too expensive to retro fit.)

Building costs are way up over, say, 5 years ago. And it is a buyers market. I would think you could buy an existing house fairly cheaply if you look around?

[bbradsby]

With an experienced construction manager or architect with good technical chops (not all qualify on this score...), an existing building can be reasonably assessed for MEP systems capacity & performance, waterproofness of the envelope, energy efficiency or lack thereof, for rationality of structural geometry, for signs of structural movement, and for any life safety issues. For a one or two story single family residence, this should be enough.

But without destructive or high tech non-destructive testing, you'll not know concealed conditions such as size, spacing & detailing of concrete reinforcing in beams, columns & elevated slabs and concrete compressive strength. If the building was built by a reputable, merchant builder in a larger town or city, and has been standing for several years, destructive testing should be unnecessary since the standards & practices of the trades have some built in redundancies (too lengthy to go into here) and any problems should have surfaced in some way by now. When you have an unknown builder, extreme due diligence is called for, especially over one or two stories' height.

As for build vs. buy, each real estate market has it's own calculus for cost/quality of location/supply/demand, so you'll have to use your own divining rod on that score. As for building technics, with a new building you get the assurances of having all of the above properly supervised and executed, and you get the building designed exactly as you want. You can rationally plan for a phased building program, and you can design to respond to the views & micro-climate of your site - which you can also choose.

Good luck with your project, and let me know via PM if you need any further assistance.

-bruce bradsby

bdb/a

San Francisco | Bangkok