I'm just about to start building a house. I plan to have a Thai builder do the work and I will buy the materials. Two questions for anyone who might know these things. 1. Does anyone know of a free bill of materials software to help me calculate quantities? At the moment I am using a spreadsheet and taking dimensions from the plans.

2. Is there anywhere that keeps track of prices here? (eg cement, premix, steel, roofing etc. so i can be sure I am getting a good price ( I always send my Thai girlfriend to negotiate as seeing a Farang is the same as the word DOUBLE AT LEAST )

Of course any other tips from those who have done it before would be welcome.

Thanks a lot

This is is a link to a concrete and block calculator, it is in feet an inches,, if you do a search on google you will find many others some in metric.

http://www.concrete.com/calculators/concrete-materials-calculators

This website has a lot of good information on it for building a house.

http://www.coolthaihouse.com/