1 Storey House Versus 2 Storey House

[lopburi3]

Appreciate you are facing go/stop posts and must be hard to read so sorry if this is another. You as a foreigner can not buy land. That should not even be on the table if from family - they should be more than happy to provide for there daughters home if they already have it - if it really a major family loss some compensation might be considered but this appears to be a bit OTT but may be because of family position you mention (they need to get more to maintain face). Foreigners are expected to be cash cows and are routinely shown as such so it may be hard to avoid - but in most cases a face saving agreement might be possible as showing you/wife gave money that in fact mostly was returned. If this is not on the table would have serious questions on long term relationship. But your question is house.

1. The wind through screens does not happen - if you want good ventilation you will likely not want them. In the city they are fine but in the country it might be best to avoid and use traditional nets for sleeping - during the day the bugs are normally not an issue.

2. Getting upstairs has become an issue for many members of my family in there 60-70 age range so you might not be happy with it long. It is easy enough to design single level to get away from kitchen/living area. Better to have your bedroom on ground level now than have to change later. It also allows you to visit easier and be a part of the life you want to interact with from your posts. Only if others from family might want to use upstairs would I advise two story if most local homes are one. Many Thai do share homes with extended family and at older age that can be nice (as long as you have a place to disappear). I would strongly advise a large bedroom with room for computer/TV area that you can call home when avoiding the more deadly food odors. On that note be sure to have outside covered kitchen area even if you have an inside kitchen - much easier to keep clean if wok cooking is done outside.

3. Don't know what the building situation would be there - here in Bangkok most will leave land a year or more before construction and do not use floating foundations (built on stilts driven deep into ground).

[villagefarang]

1. The wind through screens does not happen - if you want good ventilation you will likely not want them. In the city they are fine but in the country it might be best to avoid and use traditional nets for sleeping - during the day the bugs are normally not an issue.

Maybe our house is an exception but we have excellent flow-through with screens on all windows and doors. House orientation and design play a big part.

[lopburi3]

Try opening the screens - believe you will find a big difference - but if rooms are closed rather than open it will always be limited - was thinking Thai style open plan. In rural area as believe you are and he would be probably orientation would be more important. And if he is building in a rice field suspect growing some trees (as wife plans) would be an excellent idea as they will greatly help cooling (probably freeze at night though).

[Xonax]

Two floors is convenient when / if the flood comes. You can in short time rescue all furniture from the ground floor, by carrying it up the stairs.

[SlyAnimal]

@ OP - If you have enough money to build a house, with still plenty left over, then go for it. At 68, you should do what makes you happy.

However, that's on the proviso that you have enough money, as just because you "can" build an expensive house, doesn't necessarily mean that you "should" build an expensive house. You would likely want to have 5,000,000 - 10,000,000 THB left over after you build the house (Towards the lower end of that if you'll also have income from a pension as well), at then you should still have a passive income of 25,000 - 50,000 THB per month.

Remember, that the opportunity cost of spending 1,000,000THB on a house, which you then live in, is around 5,000THB per month (Since finding investments which give a net return of around 6% isn't difficult). So 5,000,000THB spent on a house, is the equivalent of spending 25,000THB on a house per month. So think about what sort of income you need, and how much it is to rent a house instead (Renting a reasonably nice house in my town, is only around 3000-4000THB per month, renting instead of building, could leave you with significantly more disposable income).

For myself, I was intending on building a house on a similar budget (I don't see the point in building an average house, if I'm going to fork out, I want my dream house), although ended up putting those plans on hold as the land I was looking at was simply too expensive (I wish I could find land in an area my gf wants to live in which was 400,000THB for 2 rais!! But that's the price of living in a growing amphur town, rather than a sleepy village).

For myself, I was going to go for 2 stories, mainly to get a better view from the upstairs rooms. For you, having a second storey might not be a good idea, as being 68, stairs might become a problem in the not too distant future. And since you have 4 Rais to build on, you don't really need to build up, you can just build on the ground floor and ensure that it's raised up reasonably high (With maybe a bit of additional drainage setup as well, just in case it gets really bad).

[Westaurel]

Two storey house if you are sure that the builders have the adequate skills to build it because the farmers/builders in Far East villages don't have it usually but are cheaper than cities workers or the best are building enterprises but for that you should pay the max price. And for farang it's going up faster !

In the Isan village I built my house, a farang built a one storey smaller house than mine for one million bahts (without land cost). Everybody call it "Nueng laan baan".

But I don't paid this price for a one storey bigger one.

Edited March 13, 2013 by Westaurel

[lovelomsak]

I am also in the process of buying housing for my wife at this time. I went for a large open air main floor, which gives a feeling of spaciousness, with the mainbedroom attached on the ground level. We have a very large thai style kitchen ,and large dining room at the back of the house.We have 2 bathrooms and 2 showers separate on the ground floor.So we can basicly live on the ground floor. Our upstairs is not as large as the ground floor area but has 2 bedrooms,and storage area.Air con only in masterbedroom. Large ceiling fans and wall fans cool the rest of the house.Lots of trees around to keep the house cool.

A house like this is quite affordable and serviceable. I feel it offers the best of both designs.So think of one like this perhaps.

[Cuban]

Sorry if my points are already covered, too much to read above.

Regardless of current situation if you seek security for your dwelling you absolutely must ensure the paperwork is legal and correct, to do otherwise will simply open you up to greater expense in the future.

Who holds the channot for the land in question? Is it full title with rights to build a dwelling? Does it have it's own point of access to a road and services, water, electric etc. If you need to cross another's land, even if that is also held by the family that is a problem. You must must must obtain an usufruct on the use of that land, you can not hold the deed to the land but you can hold the ownership of the house and rights to use that land for the house for a period of 30 years + a 30 year extension, long enough for most people.

Although I am sure you are in a stable relationship you must consider what happens in the event of your wife's death, the child is hers so you have no rights based on supporting your offspring unless you have legally adopted, which I doubt as the paperwork loops through which you must navigate are extremely complex and lengthy, also it would only 'work' until the child is 18 years old.

So you need to be on a "retirement" visa to ensure you don't suffer the 7 days to leave the Kingdom if you are on a visa based on marriage.

The risks are that someone in the family suffers a "problem" for which money is often the solution, unless you have control the land asset (and maybe the house) it becomes a commodity that provides a mortgageable security against which to borrow money. As the only person that will truly suffer in the event of default there may be little motivation to service that mortgage loan, the land reverts to the bank or moneylender and you might be given a few days to remove "your" house if you are lucky. It does happen, to think it won't happen to "me" is naive.

I have two friends locally that have suffered this type of situation because they have no control or even input to the decisions made by emotionally driven spouses reacting with short term "planning" regarding land value and sales. One lost about 2 million in moving a business venture based on a spat between his wife and another Thai, the other friend is now paying back a ~5/6 Million Baht loan on assets he bought outright some 5 years ago. Neither feel an usufruct was worth the effort or fees.

On two storey vs one: Being higher up does allow you to benefit from any breeze and gives some protection from the ground dwelling hazards in a rural setting, snakes etc. Although that said I have found two small scorpions in our first floor bedroom before now, snakes in the in-door kitchen happen from time to time. During party season being at height can mean you get a louder experience of the neighbouring village's party than you would at ground level. But those that integrate into Issan life will be at the party anyway and not hear anything at 4am when you crawl home.

A larger single storey house provides greater surface area for collecting rain water, but this is countered by the greater captured and stored daytime heat from the sun. Having an upper floor effectively providing shade for downstairs bedrooms can be an asset, we have two bedroom upstairs and two downstairs on the shaded side of the house. So plan for where the best shade is during the hottest seasons. People seem to like tiled roofs which require a strong steel frame, this acts a great heat collector and is transmitted by conduction into the walls on which the steel frame is mounted, unless you enjoy electric bills much planning and building education will be required by you as the Thais will not consider any of these points.

If you are looking at a true rice field you will need to infill the land first (12-18 months to settle the land), the added height helps the breeze and counters some flooding risk. If you are wise you might consider heat pumps while doing this, I wish we had.

Bottom line compare all your building costs vs rental.

(A question to ask yourself: Are you building for you or a relative?)

[KBAA]

Basics !

Houses cost 6-10.000 Baht per M/2 to build in Thailand.

1 story house cheapest.

The difference in price is, roofing, Eterneit or roof slates.

Also the price on tiles have a big impact on total price !

A standard house 130 M/2 should not cost more then 1 Million if you not want fance tiles, special windows etc.

I know nice houses in a very good standard build here in Khon Kaen cost less then 10.000 Baht per M/2 in construction !

[NanLaew]

4 rai should be adequate for a single level house of decent proportions. Personally, I don't like stairs (big, airy mezanine maybe) but whatever turns your crank.

Make sure the house is oriented to minimise late-afternoon heat and sun and maximise cooler early morning sunlight, ie. where the patio will be for sundowners!

Also try and catch the natural breezes; open plan is good for this. One can still build a decent single-level house with large, open-plan daytime/family areas and still have quiet, self contained bedrooms and private lounge/library areas. If you do go with an upstairs, you may have to forego the wider, more open spaces downstairs as you need the pillars to support the upper floors (unless you spend extra on rebar and stronger load-bearing lateral beams.

Dig a hole for a lake like villagefarang did and use that for filling the land where the house will go. Lakes are a nice water feature.

Use the new technology of aerated concrete blocks instead of the usual red bricks. More expensive per brick but you use less of them (apart from in shower and wet areas where red bricks are a better option for the lower part of the walls). Better thermal insulation properties too. These bricks also permit you to avoid those terminally ugly internal corner beams showing that figure as a construction feature in LOS, even in expensive builds. Use PVC/UVC window and door frames or wood before those hideous bronze, anodised aluminium types as they get really hot in the sun.

You can get decent, government approved, fully comprehensive house plans from you local amphur. These can be used as a basis for any design and give you basic specifications for foundations, footings, plumbing, septics and electricals. We started with one of these simple, single-level, 3 bedroom builds from such a plan and expanded it to 4 bedrooms when we realised we had over-run on some steel, roof tiles and bricks. The whole lot cost about 1.1 million; built by the wifes family who were experienced journeyman builders.

Edited March 13, 2013 by NanLaew

[XINLOI]

We need to know who is paying for everything?

Before we can advise on the best course of action.

Well my first plan of action would be, to send the GIRLFRIEND to every bank within a 100km radius and see how much any bank is willing to loan her.

The amount they are willing to loan will dictate the style/size of house which can be built.

Until you have that information, do nothing.

in an abandoned rice field of about 4 rai

There is no such thing as abandoned land, it will belong to someone, even if its only gov't land, best you get a copy of the land deed/title.

Once you get that, take a photo and post it up on here, dont worry we can read Thai, we are looking for whats written in the top RH side.

Once we know the type of land, that will dictate whether to proceed with the house build.

While your G/F is at the bank ask about a loan to purchase the land as well.

Dont be like many and purchase land the family already own.

Sorry for being cynical, but have heard it all before, its called CYA.

Save yourself some time and forget about the bank. They have no intrest in loaning money to you right now. Land and a house have no equity at this time (Udon Thani). They will give you a line of credit if you have the cash for them ( give me 1 mil baht with my 1 mil as collateral and I can't touch it. 4.5% interest. I am about 50% done on building just as you describe. I went single story 3 bd/2 bath. 2400 sq ft. Moderate size house. 65K USD

[carken]

Expat from USA. Been in Thailand since April 2006. Started in Phuket. Met future Thai wife in May, moved in together with 2 sons in July married in Oct 2006. Her Mama Papa both dead so I did not have to send any monthly money to relatives as most do. Her 3 brothers are on their own. We decided in Oct 2009 we could not afford to live in Phuket (We get $1100 USD Soc Sec a month). Moved to Tha Yang. (2 and a half hours southwest of Bangkok) Rented house for a year then bought land 25K from Tha Yang. Paid 70,000 Baht for 1/4 of a rai out in the sticks (rural/country area). Yes small but all we could afford. Cost included a few under the table kick backs to expedite paperwork and get what in Thailand is called "strong paper" (no question on who owns land). "Strong Paper" is a must even or I should say especially with relatives involved. You can't own land but she can.

Found local independent builder. We built a not small, not big single level home 11 mtrs X 13 mtrs (1550 sq ft) Liv Rm Kit combo 5 X 10 (16.5 ft X 33 ft) called "great room" style liv rm and kit separated by a long serving/eating counter top mstr bdr 5 X 5 (16.5 ft X 16.5 ft) mstr bath 2 X 6 (6.5 ft X 20 ft) 2nd and 3rd bdrm 4 X 5 (13 ft X 16.5 ft) 2nd bath 2 X 4 (6.5 ft X 13 ft) laundry rm 2 X 2 (6.5 ft X 6.5 ft) hall 2 X 5 (6.5 ft X 16.5 ft) cost 930,000 Baht total cost land/home 1,000,000 Baht took all our savings but extremely happy with home and no mortgage payments. I was 68 my wife was 25 when we met. I'm now 75 and she is 32. Age difference is no big thing as far as we are concerned. It get's better for us every day. We struggle financially even in Thailand especially since we send 2 teenage boys to private school everyday, but we make it somehow. I have no desire to ever go back to USA, even for a visit. It's a different America today than I grew up in, but that's another story.

[TommoPhysicist]

I got to agree with the previous poster

1M for a 25YO Vs 5M for a 40YO

I'll take the 25YO ................. house is OK too.

Edited March 13, 2013 by TommoPhysicist

[KarenBravo]

I have the best of both worlds. A one storey house built on stilts to the height of a two storey house.

[comserve]

All I can say is my experience in house buying.

My house is a 2 level house which was built on a 0.8 rai block which has been fenced & filled.

It was built as a spec house & has 4 B/R + bathroom upstairs & downstairs is pretty much open plan with good sized office off it + good sized kitchen divided off with glass partition & door & B/R..

We saw it before it was finished & they were asking 0.5mil for land & 2M for house which was more than I wanted to pay.

After it was finished it sat empty for 6 mths (apparently it was bought by a lady in BKK who could not get a bank loan). The builders found where we were living in town & got us interested in it. We eventually bought it all up for 1.6M. Could have bought another place (a small single level cottage on about 4 rai for the same price but I did not want that much land).

When we moved in the plumbing had not seen a drop of water, in fact the toilet cystern was not even screwed to the toilet so when the pump was turned on there was water everywhere. Took 3 months to fix the plumbing but after that everything has been great. I think the plumber had been using a 6 year old tub of glue!!

A friend of my wife, a teacher, has built a house on family land & with her English husbands money. We know she had more than 1M of debt with the education department. Built a fancy single level house (for 6-7M). Nice house but I bet she also paid off her debt & also the new car with that money. (The husband has had to delay his retirement for a couple of years to pay "for the house"!

BE WARNED! Also be aware that Thailand does not have any planning restrictions so since we have moved here we have had a warehouse built on adjoining vacant land and there is a "Wig Factory" being built on land over our back fence. Could have been worse though, the warehouse does shelter us from the occasional westerly storms & being owned by the area's electricity supplier, it is not too noisy. Our outlook has been completely eliminated though.

(We still have the regular fire crackers from the nearby Temple though & be careful about the placement of the village loud speakers as if you have an enthusiastic village headman, the blaring music & announcements can be pretty trying at times.)

Be warned, if you pay for the family land, you should be able to roll that into the bride price for your wedding!

[masuk]

Although most homes in Thailand are actually two story (because of the real need to avoid water during floods) most were open until several decades ago on the ground floor so not that expensive to build. If you can afford to build land up it would likely be a better choice at your age (we do appreciate not having to climb stairs at a certain age) and the ground will help to keep area cooler than an upstairs being heated from the floor. And also avoid the termite problem that would accompany wood usage. They do fly so almost impossible to avoid (and they will find a source of water even if they have to dig have way to the USA. As said house construction should not be anywhere near 4-5 million for normal quality and size home - especially if only one story.. But bragging rights are a major factor of life so don't expect any help in cutting corners and they may equate single story to cheap so you may not have an easy choice.

Yes, the ground floor is invariably cooler, and no-one in Thailand insulates the ceiling areas. So upstairs you have a ceiling temperature of around 60 to 70C during the day, (I'm not kidding!) which makes upstairs stinking hot as it radiates this heat into the rooms! A good few people in tropical Australia would sleep downstairs in the hot months to avoid baking upstairs.

Things have changed with most houses now insulated, and I've even heard of this in Thailand. If I had my own house, either 1 or 2 story, the ceiling would be insulated, the roof cavity ventilated, and save a heap in air-conditioning.

Go for 2- story, keep fit climbing those stairs and keep dry if the water rises!

[Longtooth]

A few of you have made merit today, giving this guy some solid advice, not to mention a wake up call. Hope he listens!

To anyone who reads down this far: As we all know, all too well, there is no such thing as "gratitude" in this local.

[Anon999]

I built a farang house in Isaan on the outskirts of a city that was completed in June 2011. My intention is to live there for the next 25 years or so.

My design was cribbed from a similar layout of a modern house in England but increased to 226 sqm. To reduce the heat absorption it is long in the East West plane with the garage on the West end acting as a heat sink.

Accommodation.

4 bedrooms

Master bed has dressing area

3 bathrooms, en-suite with double shower 2 wash basins WC, Family double shower and corner bath, wash basin, WC, bath 3 single shower, wash basin WC

Through lounge

Dining room

Through kitchen/breakfast room

Utils room

Hall

Double garage

Construction, etc

All walls archichaved aerated concrete blocks

Rafters lightweight galvanised steel

Dry roof system, tiled with insulation under and ventilated uPVC soffits. Do not use wood for fascia boards compressed cement ones don't rot.

Fully insultaed loft 6"

Double glazed uPVC window frames, patio doors and rear entrance doors (2)

uPVC gutters all round

All internal doors wood

Real wood laminated floors except kitchen/breakfast, utils and bathrooms, Granito tiles

Farang style steel front door

Roof tank 550 litres

Hot tank 100 litres

Underground tank

H&C water throughout

Western fitted kitchen system and appliances

Underground electric supply

Philips lighting

7 air cons

3 core electrics

Plus many minor finishing touches and such things as cupboards, etc.

It's a good idea to use siik/satin finish paint inside, on the ceilings and outside too. My builder said no too much reflection and then copied me for his own house.

Total cost 2,750,000 baht.

Suggest you build up the land, level with a main road that does not flood, if possible. I also had the ground floor level raised a further 80cm above land level.

Maybe you should do some costings, get 3 quotes with one from a builder who can speak good English. Standard business practice.

Visitors always say the house is cool.

It's a comfortable size for 4 of us, my wife and her 2 daughters.

Best of luck and do your homework first.

Edited March 13, 2013 by Anon999

[Anon999]

All I can say is my experience in house buying.

My house is a 2 level house which was built on a 0.8 rai block which has been fenced & filled.

It was built as a spec house & has 4 B/R + bathroom upstairs & downstairs is pretty much open plan with good sized office off it + good sized kitchen divided off with glass partition & door & B/R..

We saw it before it was finished & they were asking 0.5mil for land & 2M for house which was more than I wanted to pay.

After it was finished it sat empty for 6 mths (apparently it was bought by a lady in BKK who could not get a bank loan). The builders found where we were living in town & got us interested in it. We eventually bought it all up for 1.6M. Could have bought another place (a small single level cottage on about 4 rai for the same price but I did not want that much land).

When we moved in the plumbing had not seen a drop of water, in fact the toilet cystern was not even screwed to the toilet so when the pump was turned on there was water everywhere. Took 3 months to fix the plumbing but after that everything has been great. I think the plumber had been using a 6 year old tub of glue!!

A friend of my wife, a teacher, has built a house on family land & with her English husbands money. We know she had more than 1M of debt with the education department. Built a fancy single level house (for 6-7M). Nice house but I bet she also paid off her debt & also the new car with that money. (The husband has had to delay his retirement for a couple of years to pay "for the house"!

BE WARNED! Also be aware that Thailand does not have any planning restrictions so since we have moved here we have had a warehouse built on adjoining vacant land and there is a "Wig Factory" being built on land over our back fence. Could have been worse though, the warehouse does shelter us from the occasional westerly storms & being owned by the area's electricity supplier, it is not too noisy. Our outlook has been completely eliminated though.

(We still have the regular fire crackers from the nearby Temple though & be careful about the placement of the village loud speakers as if you have an enthusiastic village headman, the blaring music & announcements can be pretty trying at times.)

Be warned, if you pay for the family land, you should be able to roll that into the bride price for your wedding!

Bride price for a 40 year old widow! You can't be serious.

[manarak]

some of the advantages of a two floor house is that you can have twice the square footage for half the footprint, this is particularly adventitious if you have a small building lot. bedrooms upstairs separate from living space downstairs affording privacy, increased view, and let's nor forget the all important advantage of being able to throw water balloons at people downstairs.

some of the disadvantages, are the stairs that could become a hindrance as one gets's older, increased cost for upstairs and ,increased difficulty in construction.

not only the above, but maintenance is also made a lot more difficult with 2 storeys. for example cleaning/repainting walls and replacing rainpipes/gutters.

[ThiAmo]

Dear forum writers, I am overhelmed by all your qualified and sound advice. Yes, I really
would be an „old fool“ (thanks for the compliment) turning a deaf ear to all your very interesting experiences but also to your
warnings and alerts.

Maybe you can comprehend my cold surprise and present gnawing uneasiness as regards my growing
suspicion that I could have fallen victim to a fraud attempt. How could it be
possible that an intelligent and bright person working temporarily in the
mooban bank, also making part of a commission deciding over the granting of loans
to mooban farmers and having a well known builder/constructor as father gets wrong by over 50% by
estimating the cost of a new house (2 to 3 mn. baht of difference) in said aera?
Why does Miss ask money for an estate transaction which to no other Thai family would even come in mind, all the more
so that every family member already has gotten it’s quota of heredity?

Even before „comserve“ made his #45 enlighening posting today (great!, thank you) I tried
to find and understand the mechanism which could lie behind this possible
scheme. And I didn’t have to search very long. Down in the south this winter by
means of a friend of mine I got to know a cousin of Miss, being up to her ears
in debt, total amount (have a guess) also 7 digits. In comparison to
Miss a completely different character of a person, I don’t want to say more in
a public forum, you understand. By means of Miss, who is extremely influenced by her cousin and who was used as a
dummy, already down there there was an attempt involving my money in an
investment. And of course it was her cousin who introduced Miss to me. Got it ? The big mistake I made down there
was having forgotten to suppress temporarily my natural characteristic of a marked generosity.

Now what? I don’t blame Miss. I know for sure that she suffers because of the very
difficult situation her cousin is and has always been in. I don’t know enough yet
about Thai family solidarity but I could imagine it is fundamental. By means of remarks and questions concerning my financial situation made from
time to time by Miss, I think she wanted to make sure that by helping her
beloved cousin on the one hand she would not trespass exceedingly upon my
property on the other hand. With which assumption, by the way, she is not wrong.

I shall inform you in due course if I’ll be in a position to cut this delicate Gordian
knot with which Miss and I are currently tied together. Very difficult task seen
the actual physical distance between us as well as language problems.

On this I do not ask you for help and suggestions. This is something to clear between
Miss, her cousin and myself personally.

No idea either concerning the consequences for the house building project. Who knows maybe I'll build with the reasonable 2 to 2,5 mn. and help cousin separately to start a new life.

Khop khun khap once again, amigos, great advice from all! And thanks ThaiVisa and the people behind it for providing this platform

Alf

[wayned]

Try opening the screens - believe you will find a big difference - but if rooms are closed rather than open it will always be limited - was thinking Thai style open plan. In rural area as believe you are and he would be probably orientation would be more important. And if he is building in a rice field suspect growing some trees (as wife plans) would be an excellent idea as they will greatly help cooling (probably freeze at night though).

Agree 100%! I live in the sticks and built my house 14 years ago in farm country. I have screens on all windows but they are normally open to let the breeze through. We don't have a misquito problem here but do close them every night from December to Songkran since they burn the sugar cane every night and the house would be full of burnt cane leaves in the morning. Have air in the bedroom but haven't used it in over 3 years. They really do block airflow whether they are clean or dirty.

[TommoPhysicist]

@OP

Glad to see you are listening to us.

Don't worry too much, understand that grabbing large amounts of money is what many of these girls will do, if you give them the chance.

It's up to you, as the man and the cash owner, to control their acquisitive nature. Rent a house with her for a year or two.

No rush to build or buy. If you buy a car, buy it in your own name.

If you do buy or build a house, let her get a 90% home loan and you pay the deposit and make the payments.

Alternatively, many nice wooden homes can be built which you can own, and easily dis/reassemble on a plot of land.

Hold on to your cash, you earnt it.

The danger is in any large cash transaction, so just don't do any. Little bit at a time, protects you.

PS

No need to tell her NO outright, not the Thai way.

Delay indefinitely, Thai way

Exchange rate is really bad at the moment, have to wait for things to improve.

Need to see my bank back home, flight next year.

etc.

Edited March 14, 2013 by TommoPhysicist

[SlyAnimal]

Dear forum writers, I am overhelmed by all your qualified and sound advice. Yes, I really

would be an „old fool“ (thanks for the compliment) turning a deaf ear to all your very interesting experiences but also to your

warnings and alerts.

Maybe you can comprehend my cold surprise and present gnawing uneasiness as regards my growing

suspicion that I could have fallen victim to a fraud attempt. How could it be

possible that an intelligent and bright person working temporarily in the

mooban bank, also making part of a commission deciding over the granting of loans

to mooban farmers and having a well known builder/constructor as father gets wrong by over 50% by

estimating the cost of a new house (2 to 3 mn. baht of difference) in said aera?

Why does Miss ask money for an estate transaction which to no other Thai family would even come in mind, all the more

so that every family member already has gotten it’s quota of heredity?

Your wife hasn't necessarily mis-represented the costs to you.

She has likely been looking at the cost of pre-designed houses from a website. Where they give you a picture of a finished copy, a list of the materials and then they can't actually tell you how much it will cost (Since labour / materials vary in cost over time), so the only thing they can do is find out how much other people paid for the same home recently. My gf was looking up the house she wanted on a website, and indications were it'd be 3-4 million THB, and it didn't even seem like that bigger house to me. By comparision, when asking a teacher from my school, who has a very nice house, reasonably similar to the one on the website which my gf was looking at, how much her house cost to build, it was around 2.4 million THB, although that was 3 years ago and the local builder had unfortunately already passed away. The homes from these websites are, I believe, well built, but they are also likely quite expensive compared to using a local builder.

So please don't necessarily doubt your wife, but get her to give you an idea on how much it might cost. One of the better ways to think about the cost of your house, is to get her to drive you around the local village or amphur, and try to find some houses which you like the look of. Then, if she doesn't know already (And she might, since everyone loves to gossip about nice houses), ask the owners roughly how much their home cost to build, and for the details of the builder. You should then be able to build a similar house, for a similar price (Maybe a bit higher as cost of materials increase over time), with a builder who has built that style of house previously, thus should hopefully know what he's doing.

[Card]

Just built a house - in Nan. Did 2 stories with the large ground floor left wall-less. It serves as a car port and a cool breezy place for the partner's neighboring family to chill out. I love the upper floor north-facing balcony, but the back wall of the room is exposed more to the sun and gets quite hot as it has a single wall - use a double brick wall if u have 2 floors. The ground floor is kitted out with electrics, finished cement floor if ever I want to enclose it for living later. I would definitely go for 2 floors.

[nakhonandy]

We have two floors, living in a raised area around Nakhon Sawan we don't have any water/flood issues so the downstairs is open (well with a temporary bedroom for us) while the upstairs will be three bedrooms bathroom etc.

The big advantage is privacy, if the family turn up and I have had enough I can just go upstairs and chill out.

It also has the advantage that when my family/friends come from Europe I have room for them.

It is standard conctrete downstairs and "treated hardwood" upstairs. Pretty standard really.

Costs, land given to my wife by her father when he died.

House existing, only costs modernisation.

I looked at knocking it down and rebulding on a larger scale, about 1M, no more.

My advice evaluate all options/prices and take your time.

[rgs2001uk]

For the OP, if you dont think Thais will rip off other Thais, or family doesnt rip off family, you are sadly mistaken.

I remember years ago a Thai wanting to introduce me to her sister (who was already married to a farang), when I questioned her about that, the answer was, oh dont worry she doesnt love him she is looking for a new husband.

Taught me about how ruthless and uncaring they can be.

Pity the poor ignorant sap that was married to the sister.

[TommoPhysicist]

Your wife hasn't necessarily mis-represented the costs to you.

Just to point out, the OP stated her dad is the builder.

If he doesn't know the cost of the houses he builds, who would?

Edited March 14, 2013 by TommoPhysicist

[DerkMR]

On this I do not ask you for help and suggestions. This is something to clear between

Miss, her cousin and myself personally.

No idea either concerning the consequences for the house building project. Who knows maybe I'll build with the reasonable 2 to 2,5 mn. and help cousin separately to start a new life.

Exactly this I think is one way to go.

The hard work is to communicate this.

The other way would be with a different Miss...

I am asking myself: If I were a native person from the

Isaan, to which version would I probably give the preference and why?

My partner would like to make the ground buildup NOW

before the rainy season starts.

• Making a landfill now without knowing which type of baan to build later???
• Best season to start a buildup?
• How much time should you concede to
• the buildup to settle before starting to build the baan?

Making the fill up has to be done now to let the ground compact during rainy season.

The settlement time was already mentioned, 12-18 months. By doing it now it wouldn't be sufficient time to start building next dry season, so you would end up with 20 months settling and start building in January 2015.

Regarding the future house - you don't have to know what to build when making the fill as usually you fill in more than the space later cowered by the house, e.g. have 4 Rai, dig a 1,3 Rai pond and fill up everything, so you don't end up with different levels on your land.

Should cost you around 50k now and then you have sufficient time to sort out all other things

My GF and me were just looking at different houses and pointed out which ones we like.

Unfortunately we both like the same, classic Thai wooden 2storey which would be significant more expensive than the 1storey concrete.

Due to budget I think it will be 1storey when time for building is coming as until now we just rented a small farm.

Maybe our house is an exception but we have excellent flow-through with screens on all windows and doors. House orientation and design play a big part.

Orientation, orientation and orientation!

Our rented house has the 2 bedrooms on the S to SE of the house making it a perfect bakery. Also the fast growing excellent shading trees were planted on the... yes NW part of the house

If going for 1storey:

- high rooms

- different area house with "wind channeling walkways" in between

- ...

If going for 2storey:

- sufficient room downstairs to live there when stairs are getting a problem

- ...

On any house I would separate the electric wiring for light from the rest, so when you have a defective item you don't have to sort out this in dark...

Bye,

Derk

[KarenBravo]

All houses built in tropical climates before the advent of air-conditioning have a few things in common to keep the house cool.

These are:-

1. Built on stilts to stop heat radiating from the ground.

2. Orientation to catch the breeze.

3. High ceilings so that hot air will rise above head height.

4. Large, overhanging eaves to keep the sun off the walls when the sun is high in the sky.

5. A large volume roof space with ventilation so that heat doesn't build up and get transmitted to the rooms below.

I have followed these rules and My house is always cool, even during April when the weather is hottest. I don't need, or use air-cons.