Using Free Plan For Building House . Is It Ok?

[sramkok-pratum]

We r going to build small house outside BKK, but we have to do land foundation first, In oder to prep the land it will cost about 460000( 1800 baht per car for 260 car) it 's a good size land but lot lower than street level. All my friends tell me to ask OO BOR TOR to get a free house plans that from goverment. They gave me this web site http://www.dpt.go.th/workinfo/house_model/detail/no09.html

we were copy the plan and show it to several builders to get the estimate cost . They said plan is good to build and if we want to build it exactly like the plan it will cost us about 1.6m. (with 2 years warranty and 10 years warranty for roof). But if we are not using this free plan, the cost for drawing house plans run around 90000-130000 ( 2 strory house with 130-160sqm ) We don't really know much about biuld a house . Do you think it 's ok if we use these plans? thank you for every recomments . and one more question the builder said i have to ask permit for driveway connection from department of road ( or something) in order to build way from road to our land it will cost us about 60000 total for 8meter width and another 40000 for electri line . is this number sound right? P.S our land locate at Pratum-thani . thank you

[otherstuff1957]

It's interesting that the builder quoted 1.6 Mil. to build the house. According to the website, that house should cost 868,000 baht.

Of course, costs have gone up considerably in the past year and building in BKK will always be more expensive than building out in the country.

[raro]

The price for the architect sounds reasonable if it includes also arranging for construction permit etc.

What I did: I bought an architecture program and made the layout by myself. This I presented to an architect and he made some changes and had some suggestions and came up with a final drawing according to my ideas. After all, I have to live in that house and not the architect...

[splitlid]

ummmmm 1800 per truck load sounds expensive, im currently paying 650 a truck with tractor.

house plans should be about 250-500 per square meter,

house build should be from 8000-15000 per square meter.

depending on the finish- thai or western.

but im outta bangkok so dont know for the area your in.

who does the access road belong to, be careful about this,

electricity sound ok if they have to bring it on to the land.

[Crossy]

ummmmm 1800 per truck load sounds expensive, im currently paying 650 a truck with tractor.

We paid 1700 per truck in Pathum Thani. That was the 'official' rate, we got about 30% at less than 1000 because the boss was away (always pays to buy the workers a little something in a bottle when they pack in for the day).

To the OP, there are some quite nice houses on that site, how do we get our 'free' plans??

Edited March 31, 2006 by Crossy

[sramkok-pratum]

ummmmm 1800 per truck load sounds expensive, im currently paying 650 a truck with tractor.

We paid 1700 per truck in Pathum Thani. That was the 'official' rate, we got about 30% at less than 1000 because the boss was away (always pays to buy the workers a little something in a bottle when they pack in for the day).

To the OP, there are some quite nice houses on that site, how do we get our 'free' plans??

Every city districts (AUM PER)have their own main dept. ( OO BOR TOR) to take care prople in that district. Ask them about free house plans for people ,they gave the big 5 books contain about 30 hosuse styles .i think this book from TUKSIN President (his families picture on this book) . i paid 40bath fee for plans 'copy of the house that we picked . http://www.dpt.go.th/04work/house_model/doc_house.html

[bina]

just out of curiuosity,

u paid for the plans?? we downloaded the plan, the boyfriend took one look and said, i can do that (he can, i've seen him build w/no plans actually).... we downloaded and enlarged a simple thai style (poor farmer type) house... so what did u pay for.... more detailed blue prints?

at moment just for fun to look at houses in far distant -if ever- future

[sramkok-pratum]

just out of curiuosity,

u paid for the plans?? we downloaded the plan, the boyfriend took one look and said, i can do that (he can, i've seen him build w/no plans actually).... we downloaded and enlarged a simple thai style (poor farmer type) house... so what did u pay for.... more detailed blue prints?

at moment just for fun to look at houses in far distant -if ever- future

I paid a permit fee for using these plans and yes we pay for making copy the whole plans from that house plan book cause in the web it's not complete. ( the plans are free) . The plans that we copied contain more detail such as drain system line , size of iron ect. Actually i don't really know much

[BKK90210]

Using free plan is ok, especially they're from the local government or proven to be adequate.

The only thing you have to worry is making sure that the right design of the foundation and footing sizes are right for the soil in your location. Do they need to be bigger, wider, or deeper? Only the experienced architects or engineers can answer these. So modifications in this area may be needed.

Edited April 5, 2006 by BKK90210

[sramkok-pratum]

Using free plan is ok, especially they're from the local government or proven to be adequate.

The only thing you have to worry is making sure that the right design of the foundation and footing sizes are right for the soil in your location. Do they need to be bigger, wider, or deeper? Only the experienced architects or engineers can answer these.

My understanding ,(which is still confusing me)my builder said they gonna press all 12 main poles deep down as much as possible and he will build the house on them (not on the ground and my house will float) He said thailand soil is not stable . They showed me couple houses that they builded this way , i see it sit on land too .They insisted that it was not like that before. But in the back of my head i really don't know they will do. please someone give me advise thank you

[BKK90210]

I don’t know if Thailand’s using any building code or not. But below is general rule of thumb.

If the soil in the area is not stable: you have 2 choices

1)- Having all your columns/poles deep enough until they hit the firm stable soil. This could be anywhere between a few feet to X ft….but who knows how deep where the good/firm soil is. Only local good and experienced builders or engineers will know this.

2)- If your soil is mostly unstable, and it could be clay. I think your area is farming area, isn’t it? Then most likely your soil is a clay soil. Clay soil is just like Jello – very unstable. If you have clay soil and nothing else underneath it, you may not have to go deeper, but just have to make your footings - under the columns/pole – wider, spreading the loads. Just like the Eskimos with their wide snow shoes walking on the fresh unstable snow.

The builder will not know how wide the new footings will be, only the engineers can provide the sizes with backup calculations to prove this.

Edited April 5, 2006 by BKK90210

[sramkok-pratum]

. I think your area is farming area, isn’t it?

yes the land used to be a rice farm. thank you for your advice.

[Crossy]

As has been noted the plans located here http://www.dpt.go.th/04work/house_model/doc_house.html are not 100% complete

HOWEVER if you poke around on the site and download the CD data (a nightmare download BTW) you will find the plans are complete with all re-bar installations, beam detail, wiring, plumbing, drainage etc etc. Should be easily enough to build from.

If anyone is interested I've downloaded and burned the CD including all the Bills of Quantity (BOQ), larger images of the models and larger perspective overviews.

Drop me a PM if you want the CD (no charge, well maybe you can buy me a beer).

[JimmyGreaves]

... ...

Edited June 27, 2006 by jflundy

[sramkok-pratum]

Drop me a PM if you want the CD (no charge, well maybe you can buy me a beer).

thank you for the offer .. i like to catching up with you someday (my neighbor-i guess you live not too far from me ) but right now i still work my axx off in US. .. . . so i have to take a rain check this time .. next time in los i will bring 6 packs..

[maprao]

We r going to build small house outside BKK, but we have to do land foundation first, In oder to prep the land it will cost about 460000( 1800 baht per car for 260 car) it 's a good size land but lot lower than street level. All my friends tell me to ask OO BOR TOR to get a free house plans that from goverment. They gave me this web site http://www.dpt.go.th/workinfo/house_model/detail/no09.html

we were copy the plan and show it to several builders to get the estimate cost . They said plan is good to build and if we want to build it exactly like the plan it will cost us about 1.6m. (with 2 years warranty and 10 years warranty for roof). But if we are not using this free plan, the cost for drawing house plans run around 90000-130000 ( 2 strory house with 130-160sqm ) We don't really know much about biuld a house . Do you think it 's ok if we use these plans? thank you for every recomments . and one more question the builder said i have to ask permit for driveway connection from department of road ( or something) in order to build way from road to our land it will cost us about 60000 total for 8meter width and another 40000 for electri line . is this number sound right? P.S our land locate at Pratum-thani . thank you

Firstly excellent website, been looking for something similar for a long time. I work in the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere so seeing architects is out of the question. However I have dealt with house plans before. You can certainly hand these to a builder and say build this

Thanks for taking the time in making the post. Your concerns are my solution!!

Edited June 29, 2006 by maprao

[chownah]

Maprao,

It might be wrong to assume that a Thai builder can read blue prints well.....especially one that you might run into out in the middle of nowhere. For instance, none of the people who worked on my house could read blueprints except for me.

Chownah

[maprao]

Maprao,

It might be wrong to assume that a Thai builder can read blue prints well.....especially one that you might run into out in the middle of nowhere. For instance, none of the people who worked on my house could read blueprints except for me.

Chownah

Thanks Chownah credit where credit is due! My wooden house was the solution then I started looking into the "teak" types then this one assumption, that builders can read blueprints I can see caution is going have to become my middle name.The only way I am going to get what I want is to be "on the ground" in Thailand.

Where I intend building can is in the country. My reference to the middle of nowhere is where I work

Your help is once again appreciated

[Loom]

Helpful plans...I assume "Bills of quantity" means the list of materials and supplies. Seems like putting a package like that out for bid to a few different suppliers would prevent the builder from tacking on a margin for himself.

We had a plot filled on top of a rice field nearly 2 years ago ~bt400/truck well above road level. Were advised to wait at least a year for it to settle down. This was out in the boonies and we're in no rush to build anything.

[maprao]

We r going to build small house outside BKK, but we have to do land foundation first, In oder to prep the land it will cost about 460000( 1800 baht per car for 260 car) it 's a good size land but lot lower than street level. All my friends tell me to ask OO BOR TOR to get a free house plans that from goverment. They gave me this web site http://www.dpt.go.th/workinfo/house_model/detail/no09.html

we were copy the plan and show it to several builders to get the estimate cost . They said plan is good to build and if we want to build it exactly like the plan it will cost us about 1.6m. (with 2 years warranty and 10 years warranty for roof). But if we are not using this free plan, the cost for drawing house plans run around 90000-130000 ( 2 strory house with 130-160sqm ) We don't really know much about biuld a house . Do you think it 's ok if we use these plans? thank you for every recomments . and one more question the builder said i have to ask permit for driveway connection from department of road ( or something) in order to build way from road to our land it will cost us about 60000 total for 8meter width and another 40000 for electri line . is this number sound right? P.S our land locate at Pratum-thani . thank you

Anyone know what happened to the link? It seems that it is no longer available Any ideas where it has gone?

[soic]

If you can find a good builder and have a creative mind you can make it a living project and be a little outside the box. I realize ours isn't the Taj Mahal, but it was fun for us to build and we just pointed and said we want this and want that... and 1.5mil baht later we have this...

[soic]

If you can find a good builder and have a creative mind you can make it a living project and be a little outside the box. I realize ours isn't the Taj Mahal, but it was fun for us to build and we just pointed and said we want this and want that... and 1.5mil baht later we have this...

[sramkok-pratum]

They gave me this web site http://www.dpt.go.th/workinfo/house_model/detail/no09.html

Anyone know what happened to the link? It seems that it is no longer available Any ideas where it has gone?

may be the server was down

try this www.dpt.go.th

and click the last block

and go to number 8

[maprao]

They gave me this web site http://www.dpt.go.th/workinfo/house_model/detail/no09.html

Anyone know what happened to the link? It seems that it is no longer available Any ideas where it has gone?

may be the server was down

try this www.dpt.go.th

and click the last block

and go to number 8

Thanks sramkok-pratum I think their server was down because I could not access it from my location. My friend could not access it from Europe either. I can see it now.

[migrant]

If you can find a good builder and have a creative mind you can make it a living project and be a little outside the box. I realize ours isn't the Taj Mahal, but it was fun for us to build and we just pointed and said we want this and want that... and 1.5mil baht later we have this...

Beautiful!!

Great price also! When the time comes will you share plans?

[soic]

If you can find a good builder and have a creative mind you can make it a living project and be a little outside the box. I realize ours isn't the Taj Mahal, but it was fun for us to build and we just pointed and said we want this and want that... and 1.5mil baht later we have this...

Beautiful!!

Great price also! When the time comes will you share plans?

Sure... it's just a simple layout.... we just pointed and told them to do...

Thank you!

Edited October 11, 2006 by soic

[chownah]

Good luck with point and click Thai building....it might work with some crews but you could end up with a house you are not satisfied with if you have the average Thai crew....from what I've read on this forum anyway. My own experience is if you let a Thai carpenter from your village make decisions on his own then the details and quality will be like what the rest of the houses in the village are like. If you find yourself hiring locals who are part time carpenters (and part time farmers...like the people I hired) then you should go look at some of the houses in the village that they have worked on (probably their own homes) and see if they do things as you like them.....if not then be prepared to do alot alot alot of explanation and alot alot alot of watching to make sure they actually do understand the explanation and are actually doing it as you explained....and then do alot alot alot of more explanation.....rinse and repeat.

Chownah

[soic]

Good luck with point and click Thai building....it might work with some crews but you could end up with a house you are not satisfied with if you have the average Thai crew....from what I've read on this forum anyway. My own experience is if you let a Thai carpenter from your village make decisions on his own then the details and quality will be like what the rest of the houses in the village are like. If you find yourself hiring locals who are part time carpenters (and part time farmers...like the people I hired) then you should go look at some of the houses in the village that they have worked on (probably their own homes) and see if they do things as you like them.....if not then be prepared to do alot alot alot of explanation and alot alot alot of watching to make sure they actually do understand the explanation and are actually doing it as you explained....and then do alot alot alot of more explanation.....rinse and repeat.

Chownah

I'll agree with you there. My wife was the biggest driving force for our home. She was there everyday and every step of the way. She bought everything, and maintained tight control over everything. The builders built what she wanted and that's it. Our house started a boon in our area, now there are several houses similar going up, there's even a hotel towards Chok Chai that was modeled after our style. There were several bankers that stopped by after the house was finished. A house like mine has it's upsides, but then you really have to watch what's going on and at least have a bit of knowledge of construction. For us, the idea of doing it together, building exactly what we wanted and doing it a stage at a time has made it "OUR" home. It's simple, but it's become a part of our lives and we couldn't ever think of making another home anywhere.

[suiging]

Good luck with point and click Thai building....it might work with some crews but you could end up with a house you are not satisfied with if you have the average Thai crew....from what I've read on this forum anyway. My own experience is if you let a Thai carpenter from your village make decisions on his own then the details and quality will be like what the rest of the houses in the village are like. If you find yourself hiring locals who are part time carpenters (and part time farmers...like the people I hired) then you should go look at some of the houses in the village that they have worked on (probably their own homes) and see if they do things as you like them.....if not then be prepared to do alot alot alot of explanation and alot alot alot of watching to make sure they actually do understand the explanation and are actually doing it as you explained....and then do alot alot alot of more explanation.....rinse and repeat.

Chownah

I'll agree with you there. My wife was the biggest driving force for our home. She was there everyday and every step of the way. She bought everything, and maintained tight control over everything. The builders built what she wanted and that's it. Our house started a boon in our area, now there are several houses similar going up, there's even a hotel towards Chok Chai that was modeled after our style. There were several bankers that stopped by after the house was finished. A house like mine has it's upsides, but then you really have to watch what's going on and at least have a bit of knowledge of construction. For us, the idea of doing it together, building exactly what we wanted and doing it a stage at a time has made it "OUR" home. It's simple, but it's become a part of our lives and we couldn't ever think of making another home anywhere.

Fantastic story. Well done to you both, great example of what can be done by local people, you do not always have to go to the big boys for a fine home.