Perimeter Fence In Khon Kaen

[sirineou]

Last week I prepared to start on a 2 m high 117 m long fence, I started a thread on 2012 construction wages, to find out what I should be paying people.You were all very helpful with your replies and I appreciated it. Some of you asked me for associated costs and methods, and to show my appreciation for your very helpful replies I will now share my fence building story with you.

First we needed to clear some of the land,

on the property there is already a small house where my wife's sister lives, an Ideal situation for as, as we love her sister, and she can keep an eye on the house when we are not in Thailand. On the part of the property where we plan to build, some one had , a long time started to build, and had abandoned the effort, so first task was to remove 12 precast columns that were standing up in the property. I was not there when it happened, so I don't have pictures, but you will see the columns paying on the ground in some of the other pictures. I will use them later to build a storage shed and a covered patio for the sister in law. The cost for removing the columns was 2,000 bht

Then on to removing some trees and leveling the land.

First we hired a local farmer with a small tractor to remove the tree stumps and level the land,

But his tractor was too small to remove the tree stumps, he asked for 200 bth for his effort, but we gave him 400 bht as we thought 200 was too litle and we did not want to cheat him.

Then we hired an other local farmer with a big Ford tractor

He made small change of leveling the land but had to work very hard on one particular tree stump that was very large underground, and did not want to give up the spirit.Took him over one hr digging around it and pounding on it until

it came out.

Total cost for tractor 3000 bht

On to building the fence.

Hired a local Husband and wife team. for 500 bht a meter, LABOR ONLY and I will be providing the material, estimated finished cost 1000 bht per meter.

this is the design of the proposed fence and location to scale of the house we plan to build there, on the other side is the sisters house

First and most important the foundation,

Footings 50 centimeter deep

Steel in foundation, they tried to pure the cement with the steel saying on the ground, and too close to the side of the form, a no-go for me as the steel should not be touching the ground, and should have at least 1 inch cement coverage on the side.

finally after some explaining we got the front foundation poured, and are ready for some block, and to start on the foundation for the sides.

Notice the rebar connecting the two sections of block., I asked for a longer piece of steel, and on the other courses for block we will be putting a larger piece.

Ok I got to go to work now, will post more pictures soon.

[passingas]

Looks like you are on original (virgin) ground....that is always good. We had to add a little umph to our footings, as it was also going to hold some back fill and I didn't want it leaning out in a couple of years. Yours looks mighty fine....pg

[cdmtdm]

yes look forward to the progress , what dimensions are the footings ie... 500 x? x? and did you have a plate on the bottom end of the post rebar? how did that look i am curious .....also how did you manage to get them to hold the steel in place on the bottom beam to ensure you were happy? did you form it up with something ...cheers and look forward to the progress ...well done

[sirineou]

yes look forward to the progress , what dimensions are the footings ie... 500 x? x? and did you have a plate on the bottom end of the post rebar? how did that look i am curious .....also how did you manage to get them to hold the steel in place on the bottom beam to ensure you were happy? did you form it up with something ...cheers and look forward to the progress ...well done

I did not measure the footings, I will do it later today. but they looked adequate, if I had to guess I would say 16inch by 16 inch.. I did not have a plate under the footing rebar, what I did was to wait a few minutes until the cement had stiffened some what and then pulled the footing rebar up a couple of inches.allowing concrete to get under the rebar. as far as the beams are concerned , we did form them with 12 inches of wood in both side,

will take some pictured when we do the other side.

on top of the form we nailed spreaders every few ft to keep the form from opening up when we poured the cement, I used a piece of tight-wire to hung the steel rebar from the spreaders keeping it off the dirt.

The Day before Yesterday we laid the block in the front

and yesterday we poured the Columns and some of the top-beams. I dont have pictured of the beams yet as I had some problems with the battery in my camera, but I got a new battery last night and will take some more pictures today.

[cdmtdm]

great stuff looking good , are your guys mixing the mud themselves or are u getting a truck in ? look forward to the top beam pics

Cheers

[sirineou]

great stuff looking good , are your guys mixing the mud themselves or are u getting a truck in ? look forward to the top beam pics

Cheers

They are mixing the mud theme selves, as we are doing sections too small to require a truck load. I Have to keep on top of them with putting too much water in the Mud,they just don't understand that too much water in the mix compromises the strength of the concrete. Luckily in a fence the strength is not that critical, if I was pouring structural columns or beams in a house, I would not dream of letting them mix the mad.

Today we did not do any work , as it was Labor day and every one had the day of.

We all went to the Ubonrat Dam for some food and relaxation. In the beginning it was great , listening to the voices of the children playing in the water, the sound of water gently lapping on the bamboo hut while we enjoyed some Chang and barbecue. Coong. Then this Yahoo with aspirations of being a disc jockey, arrived in in a pickup truck, parked a couple of huts away, opened, the doors and windows of the truck, and began to blast Isaan music, at a volume so loud I could feel the base in my stomach.A few minutes later an other pickup truck arrived. The driver of the second truck was offended that an other truck had a radio louder than his, and proceeded to crank his radio as high it could possibly go,creating an unimaginable cacophony. For those of you who go to the Dam , you know what I mean.

I spend several minuted fantasizing that I was Dirty Harry, and I walked over to the trucks, and with my Magnum 357 , I blasted their radios.

But all I did was get up and leave, never to come back at the Damon a holiday.

Any way, that was my rant for the day, I have others but who wants to hear them?That by the way is not a rhetorical question, any one wants to hear them let me know, I would be Happy to oblige

Back to the wall. We poured most of the Columns in the Front, and half, of the Top beams, and look forward to pouring the foundation on one of the sides tomorrow

.

a picture of a form for a column

columns, and top-rail beam in the front, poured in such a way as to encase the block by a couple of inches,providing some structural strength to the breeze block. , Notice the rebar sticking out of the column. Make sure that when placed in the form, the end that goes inside the form is bend 90 degrees so that it cant pull out later.

the bottom 4 are to tight the top beam bebar to, the top two are for attaching the metal rails that will be installed later.

[cdmtdm]

yes i have had many of the same situations ,,,, out for dinner at a seaside place in Hua Hin .... usually quite but that night was the birthday party of some local teenager ...dont get me wrong i love music ..but thai music at full blast in a tiny retsr on a cheap system ... we lasted 20 mins after asking the owner to turn it down a little , so we walked and wont be back ....

back to the wall .... so your top half will be steel ? is that in the 1100 baht per metre ? looks strong as good job mate ......

[sirineou]

yes i have had many of the same situations ,,,, out for dinner at a seaside place in Hua Hin .... usually quite but that night was the birthday party of some local teenager ...dont get me wrong i love music ..but thai music at full blast in a tiny retsr on a cheap system ... we lasted 20 mins after asking the owner to turn it down a little , so we walked and wont be back ....

back to the wall .... so your top half will be steel ? is that in the 1100 baht per metre ? looks strong as good job mate ......

For the front 10 sections that the block is only 1 m high, on the top second meter that is open , I will be welding two horizontal pieces of steel, 1"x 3",on the protruding rebar.

and on the horizontal steel, I will be ,attaching vertical Shera wood pickets, painted brown to look like natural wood.

The installation of the steel and sherra wood is included in the 500 bht labor price, because if we did not install the Shera wood, he would be laying an other meter of block any way..

The cost of the steel and Sherra wood is comparable to what I would have spend if I did solid 2 m block, so the cost for the Material also remains the same.

So the cost of 1100 bht per meter includes the steel and Sherra wood material and installation.

All said, after he finishes the front wall and welds the 1x3" inch steel, which I have already primed with red oxide primer, I will be probably installing the Shera wood pickets my self, as I hate sitting around and doing nothing while others are working..I try to jump in there and help when ever I can, I think the team appreciates and respects a Farang who is not afraid to work.

Edited May 2, 2012 by sirineou

[cdmtdm]

did you require any backfill on the land (din)? ... i just leveled one rai needed 116 trucks @ 350 baht per truck incl leveling using the very same ford tractor you used ...gutsy machines ....and my operators were great ..i think the 350 per truck was good and it was a painless exercise over and done in one day ...onto my wall next ... look forward to your next update

cheers

[sirineou]

did you require any backfill on the land (din)? ... i just leveled one rai needed 116 trucks @ 350 baht per truck incl leveling using the very same ford tractor you used ...gutsy machines ....and my operators were great ..i think the 350 per truck was good and it was a painless exercise over and done in one day ...onto my wall next ... look forward to your next update

cheers

No I was Lucky, The property is high and dry, and well compacted over the years, which was not so lucky for the people doing the digging as the clay was hard as cement.

I will wait until I finish building the house next year ro bring a few inches of good topsoil as I am sure I could not grow any grass on this clay, and to assist with my gardening, I dont want to do it now as I am sure the topsoil will get trashed during the building process.

The fence building is coming along nicely, after a few days of for RR and a visa run to Laos. we are back hard at work.

The corners on the front portion of the fence were straitened, in preparation for rendering,and the 1"x3" inch steel was welded to the reed bar sticking out of the columns in preparation for the pickets.

The front walls columns and beams were rendered, started to install the pickets, and started work on the sides and read walls.

Steel was painted with oil based enamel

Installed the pickets with self tapping screws,the pickets are Shera wood, which is not wood at all, but it looks like wood .They are 6" wide and are spaced 4 " apart

Paid 107 bht for each length of shera wood, and was able to get 5 pickets out of every length, at a cost of 21 bht per picket,

each section required 7 pickets, and I had 10 sections.

All in all , an attractive and inexpensive solution IMO

Work continues on the sides

tonight's dinner for some of the crew

The kids are pretty brave with it as they think it is dead, you should see them pun when I poke it with a stick and it moved

Me included.

Work was proceeding a little too slow for my taste, as I have to return to the States at the end of the month, so I decided to order a couple of cubes of ready mix concrete,at a cost of 3800 bth for 2 cubes This speed things up, I think I will do the same for the columns and beams.

Today we are getting ready to finish with the block and start on the Columns and beams,

will post pictures when we pour them

[cdmtdm]

thanks mate looking great the pickets were a very good cost saver .....