House Demolition Costs?

[ando]

I own a house at Sattihip. Or rather, my Thai wife does.

Its an old wooden structure. About 40 years old. High set, about 120 square meters floor area.

Its sitting vacant at the moment, and we want to tear it down and build a new place on the land sometime in the next couple of years.

Does anyone have an idea of how much the demolition and clean up of the site might cost? I have been told that the second hand wood can be sold to help cover the demolition costs.

I am only guessing here but I figure that two guys on a basic Thai wage would have the job finished in a month. Add truck hire to cart the rubbish away and maybe 20,000 baht all up? Resale of second hand wood and fittings perhaps might bring back around 10,000 baht ?

Do those figures sound about right to you guys?

[terdsak_12]

Stick a big sign outside the house saying they can take this house free. It'll be one pretty sharpish I reckon.

[Carmine6]

Stick a big sign outside the house saying they can take this house free. It'll be one pretty sharpish I reckon.

May want to word this as can take this wood free. Otherwise I can just imagine anther posting on how to evict squatters.

[BKK90210]

This option is always worked for me

In Thailand the temple is like the other cityhall, this is where most thais go during full moon day to pray and everybody pretty much knew each other.

Ask you wife to go to the nearest temple during very early afternoon (before 2 pm) on this temple day (full moon day) and ask around or to offer/donate free woods. Believe me you will have more people showing up at your house than expected!

Remember...most thais are not rich, and you will find yourself doing a one good deed!.....this donation could translate to even a few small houses for the very poors.

[GuestHouse]

I suspect that it is not just the house you want removing, but also the existing undergrounds, toilet etc.

I would offer the house timber for free but on the agreement that the undergrounds are removed too (Removed not burried), If you are building a new house you do not want an old septic tank burried under the floor.

It might be best to get your builder to remove the house and undergrounds as a no charge item.

[Carmine6]

I suspect that it is not just the house you want removing, but also the existing undergrounds, toilet etc.

I would offer the house timber for free but on the agreement that the undergrounds are removed too (Removed not burried), If you are building a new house you do not want an old septic tank burried under the floor.

It might be best to get your builder to remove the house and undergrounds as a no charge item.

How big are these tanks normally? Are they deep? The back of my girlfriend's parent's outside bathroom is maybe only 5 ft from a 3 ft. drop off to the neighbor's yard (and maybe 4 ft. further to the neighbor's front porch!). This doesn't seem big enough to squeeze a tank into. But there are some concrete lid looking things back there.

[GuestHouse]

You will most likely find that the septic tank is in truth three of four 1 meter diameter concrete pipes stacked, one on top of the other.

If I was building on top of this I would insist that it is completely removed. ie emptied and then dug right out of the ground – Two guys can do this in one day.

If you ask a Thai contractor to do this he’ll do one of two things – BS you that it doesn’t need to be removed or agree to remove it and then fill it with rubble/soil when you are not looking.

Either way leaving you with a void under your foundations which is, by definition, full of sh1t. You can then look forward to future leaks of smelly and dangerous gasses into your house and seepage of the <deleted> into the water table around your house.

So, I’d remove it, and I’d set myself up in a deck chair right in front of the guys doing the removal – It’s one of those ‘Get it right first time’ jobs that Thais love to skip.

[ando]

Good advice I think.

Thanks.

It might be better to leave the old place standing and get the new builder to do the demolition and rebuild all in one go.

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I suspect that it is not just the house you want removing, but also the existing undergrounds, toilet etc.

I would offer the house timber for free but on the agreement that the undergrounds are removed too (Removed not burried), If you are building a new house you do not want an old septic tank burried under the floor.

It might be best to get your builder to remove the house and undergrounds as a no charge item.

[chippie]

Hi Ando, I have a construction company and would quite happily quote for any work undertaken. Either PM me or put a photo on here and I can estimate the cost of demolition. Cheers.

[ando]

Hi Ando, I have a construction company and would quite happily quote for any work undertaken. Either PM me or put a photo on here and I can estimate the cost of demolition. Cheers.

Thanks Chippy. I dont have any photos. And the wife (legal owner) refuses to let me demolish the old place till we start on the new place, which will probably be a couple of years yet.

I would like to get the old dump knocked down right away because its an old wooden place sitting vacant and has termites. That leaves us open to the problem of squatters and liability to neighbours in the case of fire or if it falls over in a storm. But I cant seem to get that through to the missus. I guess she wants the security of knowing she owns a house.

We still live in Australia and wont be retiring to Thailand for a few years yet. One option might be to go over there and take out a Thai morgage in the wifes name so we can get started on the new place. But I am nervous about quality control during construction if I am absent while its getting built.

If you shoot me a PM with contact details for your company I will keep it on file.

Thanks,

Ando.