Light Weight Construction In Thailand

[jinjinswing]

Would like to hear from anyone who has experiance useing light weight materials for any construction in Thailand, including getting away from concret slab flooring, ie in total or part, including metal studs steel comerical type steel framing, things of that nature.

[sezze]

Steel roofs like colorbond is readily available in Thailand and are a delight in form of price / quality / thermal qualities and are very lightweight .

For walls similar things are possible . For floors , well you do not need to use a concrete slab , but i do not really know what you want to reach with it . Many buildings in Thailand are still made of wood and have no concrete slab . You can use the same technique with Shera or similar on top .

[bankruatsteve]

If you just want to be "comfortable" with the materials used, I think you are fighting a losing battle if you need metal studs, etc. There's lot's of ways to build local but few if you need that. Cheers.

[jinjinswing]

Thai building style has been inported, being a tropical country some of the materials used are really not sutiable, i dont want to get into a debate on what is and what isnt a good product as most speak from limited or no experiance, im no expert on tropical construction and i have read as much as i can find on the subject that you can build cool houses from masonary products.

I think there is a better way than the current way, light weight materials wont raidiat heat as masonary will, put it with what we already know and theres a good chance the house could be several degress cooler again.

[sezze]

Thai building style has been inported, being a tropical country some of the materials used are really not sutiable, i dont want to get into a debate on what is and what isnt a good product as most speak from limited or no experiance, im no expert on tropical construction and i have read as much as i can find on the subject that you can build cool houses from masonary products.

I think there is a better way than the current way, light weight materials wont raidiat heat as masonary will, put it with what we already know and theres a good chance the house could be several degress cooler again.

Shadows and venting makes the deal in Thailand . What help also a lot are high ceilings / roofs . 3th and a BIG time mistake is indeed the roof tiles . You are 100% right on the import of stupid plans for western/ cooler climate building styles in Thailand which are now more or less the biggest one . Traditional Thai buildings are made out of wood ( mighty expensive these days ) with very high pitch rooflines and massive venting . The roof itself is made out of various natural materials as bamboo , palmleaves or wood which are all still the coolest to find .

The nice clay roof tiles ( or similar ) are the single worst mistake people are now using for Thai building as these are superheavy and suck it the heat transforming the place below like a gaint pizza furnace . I never been in a Thai home who did have these systems are were nice and "cool" without aircons . As a alternative i used steel sheets roof , which you do have in different degrees of finish ( from simple corrugated galva plates till heavy colorbond ) and these cool down at night very quickly . Also i did a high pitched roof and the house is shadowed for a part from bamboo and a big tree . As a 3th thing i did make a lot of double doors which are opened in the morning and they provide a massive airflow . As a last thing , big overhangs as there is no sun going on the walls to act as a heatsource .

I have no insulation whatsoever , and no aircon and my house is always nice inside ( as like sitting under a tree outside ) . It is not 18 degrees , unless it does gets that temp outside , but it never feels hot from radiation from 1 source or another .

[jinjinswing]

Yes i agree with how you gone about it, i got an idea early in the year when i saw something in BKK and now ive seen a couple of guys incorporating it into there design/build that post on here and thats having a roof over a roof one who put up a drawing here is pretty much a 2 story but with the second story open on all sides and this allows air flow, this area becomes a huge open area for entertainment cooking or whatever.

I would go further and try and get something like a 1.8m eve over hang all the way around with dutch gables that have vents installed.

His house is on a slap and the upper floor is also a suspended slab, this im not comfortable with apart from liking timber floor boards they dont hold any heat, since timber is im told expensive here how about steel purling joists?

I could live with double masonry walls but really do we need to build with it?

Yes Metal roof is the way and maybe metal exterior walls too if its shaded, timber paneling, AC paneling either in sheet form or plank form, you can really make the place look modern and funky with a bit of planning.

Foam Is used quite a lot in australia, excellent insulator wont hold heat and once rendered looks like a masonry wall, of course it wont hold itself up, again since timber is expensive, metal studs seem logical, there used in commercial building in AU and id be surprised if they didnt here too, ive seen them used in chiang mai recently.

I wouldn't have a problem with the way they go about the structural side of the building, ie concrete post and beams, just fill it in with metal studds and purlins but we could go with structural steel channel instead.

The main reason i started this post is to see if anyone has or knows of someone who has gone out of the thai build comfort zone, if i was going to build in Thailand then my concerned is about heat retension in the house materials, sure air flow, shadowing, plants etc all come into the design and planning stage, im confident i could build a cooler house with out spending wads of money....with enough research.

[jinjinswing]

Up date...i can answer my own question now, while in phuket i came across a renovation and addition on one of the islands there, later back in bkk i stumbled onto a building supply business.

Light weight cladding, range of corrugated iron, timber battens and timber sheet paneling air guns etc pretty much every thing we use in AU is here, picked up a few pamphlets one showing steel truss roofs made to order in the factory, if like AU they might do walls as well.

Foil back plaster sheets, suspended celings everything..light weight blocks perfect as they dont hold heat.

Im confident that the materials are here for what i have in mind.