Rebuild Front Wall.

[Eastender]

Two questions re. my mother-in-laws house pictured here.

Firstly, we'd like to replace the whole front wall, removing the shuttering and fitting a wooden door and window. This is really just to make it easier to get in and out. We would extend the concrete say a meter in front at the same time. Can anyone suggest a very approximate ball park figure for materials and labour?

Secondly, it was pointed out that some of the internal and external walls are coming away from the upright posts (there are, I think, 4 rows of 4 posts). I had a quick look, but couldn't see how they were supposed to be attached but my wife commented that it hadn't been built well! Any idea if and how these should be attahced? Is it possible to strengthen these by securing the walls to the posts, perhaps with metal plates,or must these walls be rebuilt from scratch?

Thanks for any help.

[sunholidaysun1]

It might be better to strip of the roof , knock the place down and rebuild it , then put the roof back on .

Costs for the wall building is normally about 300 bht per Metre. Guessing that the house is 6m x 2.5m = 15m x 300 bht = 4500bht for labour. You have to buy your own bricks , sand and cement. Breeze blocks average at 5 bht each, Cement at 130 bht per 40kg bag , sand one truck 800 bht , if you want a concrete floor 1200 bht for one truck of stone pebble. If you want the builder to do all inclusive he will price it I think between 1300-1800 bht per mtr .

If you need new posts for the house, you can buy already made and just need to be dug in and set. Not expensive to do .

[Pib]

The problem with rebuilds is they can easily turn a one bedroom house into at least a two bedroom house with full indoor plumbing and other modern conveniences/add-ons, especially if the owner/resident is not the person footing the bill. An assumed low cost rebuild can easily turn into a not-so-low-cost rebuild and expansion. Either do the proposed minimum modifications or just pay significantly more to rebuild the whole house reusing whatever material you can. Building costs can vary a lot depending on current condition of the house, material, labor costs, etc. Get a couple of quotes from local builders---they will probably have some ideas on how to best handle the job-- assuming you are not still just in the pondering-only mode as to whether to accomplish the modification. I know getting some on-location quotes could move a person to the "gonna do it for sure stage" in the eyes of the in-law. Good luck...sorry I couldn't provide some specific estimates but they are just too many variables/unknowns.

[Eastender]

Thanks for your help guys. Actually, this house is bigger than it looks in the photo, large living room, 3 bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. Sadly it's in a sorry state and could do with all walls and electrics replacing.

[Pib]

After opening up the full size picture versus just looking at the thumbnail I would definitely just do your suggested modification, patch the cracks in the walls, and paint. Yes, some of the cracks will reappear to a degree after a while but it will defiinitely look better than just a big crack. Kinda like taking an old car in to fix dents/dings/rust and putting a new paint job on it. Lot cheaper than buying a new car.

Regarding the electrical wiring, if all/most of the wiring is mounted on the wall "surface" and just laying up in the ceiling, a major rewire would be much easier/cheaper than if the wiring is "in" the walls.

[travelmann]

Thanks for your help guys. Actually, this house is bigger than it looks in the photo, large living room, 3 bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. Sadly it's in a sorry state and could do with all walls and electrics replacing.

Looks to me like the weight of the roof is splitting the house apart are there no cross member across the roof? like an "A" frame ie the roof is trying to go down and splitting the walls apart, any crack filling will be pointless.