Housebuilding Thread

[Litlos]

Well done on moving in As they say in the classics all is well that ends.

Totally jealous as that is somewhere to live in and enjoy, and done as a design and construct, albeit with a few hiccups along the way.

Maybe a few more years in "Beautiful Bangladesh" and I can do the same as yourself.

Sit back and enjoy, whilst wifey starts planning the next stage.

Cheers

Litlos

[David48]

Crossy ... have followed from the beginning ... great post.

But no photo of a smiling Crossy and the Misses together outside or enjoying your new abode?

[Crossy]

OK, OK, when I get home from Singapore next week will get photos of myself and Wifey

By then the grass may actually be green rather than brown / mud coloured

[Crossy]

OK time for an update.

The original design had the lawn coming right to the house, this however has some drawbacks, not least is that rain coming off our gutterless roof splashes mud all over the wall. I thought it may improve once the grass gets going but with constant washing nothing actually grows.

Plan 'B', a concrete walkway all the way round with a splash preventer where the roof drops its contents.

In consultation with the contractor it was deemed necessary to place piles for the path, the fill is new and may drop away from a simple concrete path causing cracking.

The hexagonal piles were cut to 1m length

And placed in pre-dug holes, a final bit of persuasion bedded them down.

Looks like this when ready for concrete, yes, they did place reinforcing mesh.

Then it's time for a rest.

At this point there is a discontinuity in the space-time continuum. I had to go away to earn more cash, Wifey forgot to take any photos.

So now it looks like this.

There is a 6" French Drain under those river rocks (OK it's a trench filled with gravel with 1/2 a 6" concrete water pipe in the bottom) which connects to our main outgoing rainwater drain.

Meanwhile, trees and flowers are going well

Wifey seems to be growing plastic bags

More trees to mask my expensive but boring wall

I'm going to have to do something about that half buried blue pipe, it's the vent from the septic.

Wifey doesn't stay still long enough for a photo except when gassing on the phone, even then it's a case of taking photos of trees with her in the background.

Damn, she ran away again

River is quite high, but at least 1.5m before we will need to worry about flooding

Wifey's fruit and food area, the paving will be tidied up when things dry out a bit. We're probably not going to turf this area, just cut whatever comes up, there are apparently going to be creatures involved in this area too, so a fence will be installed. The row of trees and flowers marks the limit of 'my' area which will be turfed once it's dried enough to walk on.

Finally the single most important part of our build. This little dish provides our TOT 7Mb internet connection

[Crossy]

Crossy ... have followed from the beginning ... great post.

But no photo of a smiling Crossy and the Misses together outside or enjoying your new abode?

Here we go. Yes, that's tea (PG Tips) in the pot

[thaibeachlovers]

Crossy ... have followed from the beginning ... great post.

But no photo of a smiling Crossy and the Misses together outside or enjoying your new abode?

Here we go. Yes, that's tea (PG Tips) in the pot

Thanks for the interesting thread.

You don't look anything like what I imagined ( not in a bad way )!

[Crossy]

You don't look anything like what I imagined ( not in a bad way )!

That's scary, what did you imagine I looked like, Davros?

I thought all TV members were fat, balding, 50+ ers

[thaibeachlovers]

You don't look anything like what I imagined ( not in a bad way )!

That's scary, what did you imagine I looked like, Davros?

I thought all TV members were fat, balding, 50+ ers

50!!!!

I thought you were in your 30s when I saw the photo. I expected someone that looked older.

[Crossy]

You don't look anything like what I imagined ( not in a bad way )!

That's scary, what did you imagine I looked like, Davros?

I thought all TV members were fat, balding, 50+ ers

50!!!!

I thought you were in your 30s when I saw the photo. I expected someone that looked older.

PiYF (Photoshop is Your Friend), although you may want to visit the optician if you have me down as 30

This is what I look like at my day job:-

[necronx99]

Well done Crossy, enjoy.

Thanks for the thread.

Edited October 1, 2012 by necronx99

[Proud Derek]

Very nice reports, I will build a house for me and my Pakpoom soon so this will be very helpful.

[longball53098]

Crossy, great read as have never read all the posts in one sitting

The house is super and really all in all not too many problems with the build as you were around most of the time to head off the major disasters,,,,,,,the wiring/cable issues were unfortunate though but as you said they were resolved.

Great house and super read

You will enjoy the house for many years I'm sure

[Crossy]

Part I of what promises to be a looooong story of our gates.

Wifey shelled a not insignificant sum on a pair of steel / wood automatic gates. The company have a nice glossy catalogue and came promptly to measure and quote.

I strongly recommend that you do NOT use the same gate supplier. Forum rules prevent me from naming-and-shaming, but if you're in northern Bangkok and the crew have a red pickup with a hole in the hood where it wouldn't close over the replacement engine, run!

The crew arrived today, a day early, and got off to a bad start by getting to work without announcing their presence.

Task-1 remove and cut the wood slats so that the pedestrian door would open, note that they did this before even attempting to hang the gates.

They had also failed to pre-make the hinge plates and so spent several hours failing to fabricate on-site, before finally disappearing for two hours to get them cut and drilled. I will never understand how a crew who (supposedly) do this job all the time can fail to have the relevant tools. TiT I suppose.

Plates were attached to our gate posts, sadly nobody taught the chaps to use the spirit level (bottom right) or a tape measure. This resulted in the gates not being remotely centred on the plates, I wondered if these chaps had ever installed gates before. They were bemoaning the fact that we have hinged gates not a slider, so maybe they haven't.

To give them a little slack, the gate posts inner faces aren't vertical, for some reason the contractor decided they would look better off square, of course this means that the hinge brackets are all different.

Gate is held in position and the hinges TIG welded to the plates, no regard taken that these are moving parts, let's get the bearings nice and hot to ensure they will seize at the first opportunity.

At least the welder chap had a proper mask

Not a washer in sight I did try asking why they had not fitted them, I got the expected blank stare.

The anchors do come with washers so that's not the reason, of course they've cut off the anchors too short to add the washers now.

Having welded it all up they tried (and failed) to open the gate, evidently a misalignment somewhere. The idea of loosening the anchors on the centre hinge and waggling the gate did not occur to them.

Then the rain arrived so everyone went home, leaving our one gate half open and tied back so it won't move in the wind (maybe). I'm half hoping for a decent blow tonight to take it off so they'll have to fit it again properly.

[Crossy]

The Gates Saga Part II

The boys arrived bright and early (10:30) to finish the job of hanging the gates.

Pretty much the same as yesterday, they did however put some washers on (but no split washers).

They then set about trying to sort why the first gate would not open properly.

The left hand gate still does not open freely, Wifey says they 'forgot' to oil the hinges and will do today.

It's obvious when you move the gate that there is a slight mis-alignment of one hinge. An easy fix, slacken the nuts on the centre hinge, move the gate around to align and then tighten the nuts. Easy that is until you see that some <deleted> has welded up the nuts to 'stop them coming loose', if they had used the supplied plain and split washers the nuts would not come loose anyway.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Finally the completed job, don't actually look too bad.

Until you get up close.

Overall I am extremely disappointed with the installation, the gates themselves are OK (not wonderful).

Such is life in Thailand, I know that when I moan, if I'm not totally ignored as a picky farang, the 'repair' will look worse than the original job. Is there any point complaining I wonder?

Part III "The electric opener chap is coming today" to follow.

[harrry]

Just noticed on your photo of the finished house. Work will start again soon......will have to paint as the wall is already staining at the bottom.

Seriously it looks great. You had more trouble than I thought you would with all you experience, makes us all feel better.

Hope you are all happy there and enjoy the river for many many years to come.

[Crossy]

I'll do some more photos now the splash preventer is down and the wall re-done, assuming the sun comes out sometime today

To be honest, apart from the idiot sparks, and latterly the idiot gate installer, we've really not had too many issues.

[thaibeachlovers]

Sorry Crossy, but it's obviously YOUR fault for wanting hinged gates and not sliders, like every job they did before ( I hope you understand that that is my attempt at humour, not a criticism of you ).

Sadly, I would be reluctant to install anything that requires welding, in Thailand, given the rubbish jobs I see everywhere, though when I see welding being done with sunglasses or even nothing at all, it doesn't surprise me.

As a welder myself, it makes me "weep" to see the welding atrocities all over the place, and I hope to be buying a welder soon to redo all the bad welds around our house.

Anyway, having only a few "problems", I think you've probably been lucky! I've spent months sorting our house, just on the basics like electrics and doors, and I'm not even going to try to sort the really big problems like the roof and the retaining wall along the stream, which is leaning out slightly more each day ( hopefully we'll have moved before it collapses ).

Oh well, TiT.

[Crossy]

As promised, newer outside photo, splash preventer in place, walls cleaned and re-painted. We've had some pretty heavy rain recently not a hint of splatter

[David006]

The Gates Saga Part II

The boys arrived bright and early (10:30) to finish the job of hanging the gates.

Pretty much the same as yesterday, they did however put some washers on (but no split washers).

They then set about trying to sort why the first gate would not open properly.

The left hand gate still does not open freely, Wifey says they 'forgot' to oil the hinges and will do today.

It's obvious when you move the gate that there is a slight mis-alignment of one hinge. An easy fix, slacken the nuts on the centre hinge, move the gate around to align and then tighten the nuts. Easy that is until you see that some <deleted> has welded up the nuts to 'stop them coming loose', if they had used the supplied plain and split washers the nuts would not come loose anyway.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Finally the completed job, don't actually look too bad.

Until you get up close.

Overall I am extremely disappointed with the installation, the gates themselves are OK (not wonderful).

Such is life in Thailand, I know that when I moan, if I'm not totally ignored as a picky farang, the 'repair' will look worse than the original job. Is there any point complaining I wonder?

Part III "The electric opener chap is coming today" to follow.

555555 sorry had to laugh mate....it so fricking frustrating isn't it....wonder we stay sane...or maybe we don't?

Just contemplating replacing the temp ( 3 years..lol) bamboo veranda rails with mild steel but I am so afraid I will kill somebody when they come to fit. Fully expect mega f ups and find 'em sleeping on our bed or something..think will buy a welder and some steel myself since I have nothing better to do...need to learn how to weld also and get some designer sunglasses..

BTW great house..many happies....

[Mike45]

As promised, newer outside photo, splash preventer in place, walls cleaned and re-painted. We've had some pretty heavy rain recently not a hint of splatter

Crossy

I'm not sure what you meant by a splash preventer? I want to keep water off the walls of the house I'm having built. I specified 1 meter of cement skirt around the house. Will this keep the splashed water off my house?

Thanks

Mike

[Crossy]

We were having problems with rain off the roof bouncing and spreading yukky muddy carp all over our white walls.

We have a 1.5m roof overhang, the concrete path round the house does not reach far enough to catch the roof drop off so we have installed at 50cm wide 'splash preventer'. It's a french drain with coarse gravel to ground level and topped off with river rocks (mostly decorative). The water off the roof lands in the river rocks and runs away through the french drain.

Have a look at post #246 http://www.thaivisa....25#entry5709664 sadly no pictures of the construction but the finished article is visible.

[Theboy]

We were having problems with rain off the roof bouncing and spreading yukky muddy carp all over our white walls.

We have a 1.5m roof overhang, the concrete path round the house does not reach far enough to catch the roof drop off so we have installed at 50cm wide 'splash preventer'. It's a french drain with coarse gravel to ground level and topped off with river rocks (mostly decorative). The water off the roof lands in the river rocks and runs away through the french drain.

Have a look at post #246 http://www.thaivisa....25#entry5709664 sadly no pictures of the construction but the finished article is visible.

Would a gutter not be suitable ?

[Crossy]

Would a gutter not be suitable ?

We did consider gutters, but decided against them because a gutter big enough to handle the discharge from our roof at peak rain would detract from the look of the roof. We are going to install a gutter at one point were water coming off the roof is a problem but it won't be visible for the most part.

[Crossy]

I suppose an update is in order since we are now in a new year

Wifeys pets are now in residence and we have acquired some roll-up blinds for the downstairs seating area (so we can see the TV). We're going to need some pelmets to tidy up the top of the blinds.

Grass is looking green (ish), not turfed or seeded, an experiment by wifey, just pull out the grass she doesn't like the look of. Downstairs sitting area now has a TV and coffee table.

The centre tree can see the light and has decided that growing is a smart idea, meanwhile we have a new and larger brolly upstairs.

The pet-proof plant nursery, and wifey talking to her plants.

The Bougainvillea (I think it is) came from Gungadin just before he died (RIP mate) and survived the floods, needs a bit of a haircut. More pets, these supposedly eat troublesome bugs on plants.

[cheeryble]

Hello Crossy

The gate posts should actually have been erected with a simple wooden squared frame (detachable obviously) between as a guide.

When they came they should have best suggested mortaring the inside surfaces of the posts to make them square before measuring.

Anyway congratulations it's beginning look like home...

Edited February 1, 2013 by cheeryble

[Crossy]

Thanks Cheeryble, we are very happy with our new palace, Wifey now wants a maid to help her keep it all clean

You're right about the gate posts. They are only slightly off vertical and neither myself nor the gate chap noticed until they came to do the installation.

But such is life and they work OK now except that the expensive Italian electric opener failed after about 6 weeks. We're awaiting the arrival of a pair of new motors so the gates are currently wife-operated.

[harrry]

I bet those pets work better than any watchdog.

Your house looks great and I am sure you will be happy there.

You promised to invite me to your housewarming but didn't. (Don't blame you for that )

[Crossy]

I bet those pets work better than any watchdog.

Your house looks great and I am sure you will be happy there.

You promised to invite me to your housewarming but didn't. (Don't blame you for that )

555 Harrry, we've not actually had the housewarming yet, been waiting for at least some grass to grow.

Where are you located? We're in Ban Pathum may be a long trip for a bit of barbecued chicken and a beer (OK, two beers ).

Yes, the creatures are definitely more effective than a dog, and they lay eggs (if you like egg custard it's fantastic made with goose eggs)

[Crossy]

It gets dark here too so Wifey bought some floodlights, luckily low-energy, total is less than 250 Watts

[cheeryble]

That looks nice, lighting makes all the difference.

When you say low energy.......are they conventional or LED?

I need to soft floodlight five floors of balconies on a condominium but trying to avoid the big.....and juicy....lights.

Edited February 6, 2013 by cheeryble