If you could build your house again....

[krisb]

Do you wish you had done anything diferently?

Would you change anything?

Did you forget to do anything?

Tell us your experience(s)...

Edited October 10, 2013 by krisb

[rgs2001uk]

The only comment I will make, based on what I have observed over the years from houses being built in many areas and having differing budgets.

Wait until you have the money to build exactly what you want and do it all in one go.

The biggest problem I have seen is always extensions that either sink or pull away from the original building.

The second problem is getting different contractors in over a period of a couple of years to do bits and pieces as budget permits.

[Crossy]

Definitely would build with the ground floor 1m higher than it is now, flooding would not be an issue and cost penalty would actually have been minimal.

Should have designed in an outdoor kitchen, SWMBO told me she didn't want one, wrong!

Still tweeking the electrics and plumbing.

[trogers]

Definitely would build with the ground floor 1m higher than it is now, flooding would not be an issue and cost penalty would actually have been minimal.

Should have designed in an outdoor kitchen, SWMBO told me she didn't want one, wrong!

Still tweeking the electrics and plumbing.

Yes, a wet kitchen outside the house, and a dry kitchen inside.

Have both in my condo as well. Toaster and microwave in the dry, while the wet is used for steaming, frying and such, and extractor ventilates outside.

[wayned]

I would definitely build it smaller. Much of the space i not used and a PITA to keep clean.

[wayned]

Definitely would build with the ground floor 1m higher than it is now, flooding would not be an issue and cost penalty would actually have been minimal.

Should have designed in an outdoor kitchen, SWMBO told me she didn't want one, wrong!

Still tweeking the electrics and plumbing.

I designed in an outdoor kitchen but it's never been used. My wife would rather cook with her friends in the gazebo in the front yard on charcoal! Some of the dogs have made their bed on the counter top! Actually, in retrospect, my house is just a big dog house and I thank my mutts for letting me stay there with them.

[krisb]

Definitely would build with the ground floor 1m higher than it is now, flooding would not be an issue and cost penalty would actually have been minimal.

Should have designed in an outdoor kitchen, SWMBO told me she didn't want one, wrong!

Still tweeking the electrics and plumbing.

Ok Crossy, why is an electrician obviously as cluey as yourself still 'tweaking' things?

[krisb]

Thailands weather easily allows for the outdoor kitchen idea. Nice one;)

[jbrain]

What I would change ?

I would have it build by people who actually knew what they were doing.

Hmmm, probably would never be build in that case.

[Sirius1935]

Make sure that you specify that the sockets should have three pins and the earth wire should actually be installed, connected and go to earth.

Also demand twice as many sockets that they would normally allocate. Then light switches to be put in practicable positions.

[thrilled]

I hear all the time that people would do things differently with their house.This will be my first house built.And it will be on the outskirts of Korat.Are there any contractors that you would recommend etc?

[krisb]

Not Korat sorry. I have in Chaiyapum and Chumphae but thats probably not much help.

[krisb]

What I would change ?

I would have it build by people who actually knew what they were doing.

Hmmm, probably would never be build in that case.

Oh dear, any horror stories?

[Crossy]

Definitely would build with the ground floor 1m higher than it is now, flooding would not be an issue and cost penalty would actually have been minimal.

Should have designed in an outdoor kitchen, SWMBO told me she didn't want one, wrong!

Still tweeking the electrics and plumbing.

Ok Crossy, why is an electrician obviously as cluey as yourself still 'tweaking' things?

Stupid things like which lights are on the security timers, which outlets on the UPS. Not something that's truly necessary, but it keeps me occupied. And there's still a borrowed neutral somewhere in the bedroom.

It also takes living in a place to realise that you don't have an outlet in the right place for some appliance or other.

[Lefty]

Two key items for me were pressurized whole house water system plus central hot water system. Just love taking high pressure hot water shower.

Lefty

[meatboy]

I hear all the time that people would do things differently with their house.This will be my first house built.And it will be on the outskirts of Korat.Are there any contractors that you would recommend etc?

i have read good reports about allan the builder.

would i have had the house built any different,for a start you need to be on site 24/7.

we did have a 5bedroomed house built but converted it to 3.

i would have used if you can find one,a profesional window fitting co.[and not wood]

out door cooking area is a must as i like to doo meat and fish smoking.

and oh the garden i would have made them take all the shit and rubbish with them not bury it.

i could go on and on but if i was there when the build took place i would have needed counciling.

[ignis]

Do you wish you had done anything diferently?

Would you change anything?

Did you forget to do anything?

Yes, Yes and Yes....

If I could go back 10 years, when the house was built, and with what I know now.......... The main thing I would have done is had the shell built only with roof and done the rest myself.. I did drive out here most days and stayed onsite for some hours, trying to make a builder understand common sense is not easy, and had to make them re-do things most days... even so I missed things, even something simple I missed... in the main big bathroom 2m x 2.5 m they did not [forgot?] to put a drain, how can you have a tiled bathroom without a drain ? the on suite and the downstairs do have drains but in the corner which is highest... would have had 1x less bedroom, and that would make the other spare bedrooms bigger.+ yes other things would have changed with hindsight could have been better designed.

The kitchen I did build myself outside, 7m x 3m, also built a large keeping room/shed on the one side of house, both I built 9 years ago and has not sank or come away from main house.

Getting to old now so to build another house and do myself guess have missed the boat as it were... anyway like it here and the area, so will do for the rest of my life.

[apetley]

Definitely would build with the ground floor 1m higher than it is now, flooding would not be an issue and cost penalty would actually have been minimal.

 

Should have designed in an outdoor kitchen, SWMBO told me she didn't want one, wrong!

 

Still tweeking the electrics and plumbing.

 

Lol about the kitchen. Wifey insisted a western kitchen was fine when we designed and built our house. Soon as we moved in she was planning a seperate Thai style kitchen:-):-):-)

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[apetley]

......and never trust a plumber who's one word of English is 'sure'.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[meatboy]

......and never trust a plumber who's one word of English is 'sure'.

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

also when they NOD.

[55Jay]

3 pin/grounded electric sockets throughout. 2 pipe plumbing for central hot water boiler. Insulation under roof tiles and better (natural) attic space venting to knock down the heat migration into the 1st floor/bedrooms. No basement, which at worst this year so far, had about 2 inches water as the surrounding ground water level/saturation rose.

[henkie220358]

I would do it completely different,

I would instead of 5 bedrooms make 4, 3 bathrooms instead of 4, an outdoor kitchen and a simple kitchen inside, the fuse box on another wall and not in the middle of my house, more plugs,and a good earthwire connection , my house in a different place in my garden, create more outdoor space

[keeniau96]

Many good ideas above. Oversize power to house, 3-wire electrical properly grounded (test with plug-in testing tool, many will be wrong). Solar hot water to kitchen and bathrooms. Two kitchens (ours is a larger Western style and just a bit smaller Thai one with lower counters). Light switches in convenient places as you enter room; many, many sockets especially in kitchen where they should be proper height for counters. Fans in all rooms including baths.

The most important items are super-good foundation and fireproof foam spray coating on underside of roof tiles after roof all finished. Attic ventilation fan with vented space on other end; if two-story allow a vent space in stairwell into the attic.

[Farma]

Preplanning helped us a lot. Whenever we stayed in a resort or hotel in Thailand or abroard and the wife liked the layout or something she would take a photo for reference. We then sat down and went through the pics and decided how we wanted our bathrooms etc.

Next was anti slip tiles on the stairs, bathrooms, entrances and pebble finish around the outside of the building. U bends on all drains was a must.

We get a lot of road noise so roof /ceiling insulation played a big part in construction too. That combined with high heat resistant roof sheeting has helped.

From the resort photo ideas we added in more than enough well placed earthed power outlets throughout the house including wired in DSL and TV sockets in all rooms.

Fire alarms are fitted in each room. Fire extinguishers are placed in convenient positions. Metal security grilles were designed to allow easy opening from inside whilst making it difficult to break in from outside. CCTV is installed as well.

Hardest part was making sure things went to plan during construction. We bought the materials and hired in contractors to do the work. That worked out well as it turned out we fired 2 contractors for shoddy work and attendance. We caught them in time so no harm was done to the build.

There were other little hiccups like the builder pouring concrete over the copper earth rods before the electrician had time to connect the earth. New earth rods had to be installed elsewhere. The kitchen fitter marked some tiles that had to be replaced when he sat his still spinning angle grinder on the floor. But apart from that things went smooth albeit slowly at times when all the contractors disappeared for rice planting.

There are a couple of little things I'd like to change but most are cosmetic. Little niggles like a cupboard door opening left instead of right etc. A built in wardrobe I think is too deep and wastes a bit of space.

Overall I think constant supervision plays a big part in the build. It allowed us to make changes and correct possible problems during the build.

Edit to add: In the interest of health and safety (and to stop myself cringing at some of the antics) I provided welding goggles to replace one contractors welding sunglasses plus earplugs and safety goggles for all the contractors.

Edited October 11, 2013 by Farma

[David48]

Farma ... a great post above ... I, for one, really appreciate that type of advice ...

krisb, maybe you might wish to share the house plans first here on the Forum before things are built so that some cost saving suggestions could be made.

One thing that I've learnt from reading the Forum (and I'm the first to admit that I've built zilch in Thailand) is that a lot of money can be saved by adopting a few Thai approaches.

Not the dumb ass no drain holes in the bathroom or it sloping the wrong way ... as the poster above mentions, but fundamental simple stuff like the standard 4m x 4m Thai building grid.

For some reason, they just seem to love this basic measurement.

Termites are everywhere ... they ate through the electric cable at the Farm <deleted>.

Proper foundations go without saying.

For some reasons Thais seem to like to build up off the ground, but still build a concrete slab.

The concrete slab on ground does have the thermal efficiency of being a heat sink.

One guy pointed out that the raised house does eliminate the amount of dust blowing thorough the place and when you consider that most houses are 'open door' houses ... apart from Naam's air-conditioned mansion ... ... that could be part of the reason ... flooding maybe another.

Crossy is having issues with potential flooding and, in hindsight, wished he's built higher.

Thais generally seem to have little in the way of a formal 'garden' in the way we do in the west (though I'm sure some do). More things seems to be in pots or they are productive fruit trees etc.

I would have thought that a gently raised house plot of say a metre above the surrounding ground and building slab on ground might provide both a dust and flood barrier and still have the thermal benefits.

Difficult to find an example, but this is close ... gentle slope up to the house.

With fill, it can be achieved fairly easily (and I know you love fill on your block)

Protective plastic barrier of course under the slab, of course.

Thais hate the front and back doors being aligned as the money will run out of the house or something like that ... ditto the driveway gate.

While BS to you and me ... it's you and your wife who have to live in the place and you know the old adage ...

If you're happy, doesn't necessarily mean your wife is happy

If she's happy, you have a chance at being happy

If she's not happy ... brother ... you have no chance of ever being happy

... so take into consideration of some of her ideas.

Does it really matter if the front and rear doors are offset.

Fight for the important things.

If you go two story, consider splitting the electric circuit along those lines, that way, if you do get flooded in on the lower floor, the 2nd story could still work for you.

I know that some place every electric outlet at +1m height on the lower floor and hope that that strategy works.

Mate, that will do it for the moment ...

Cheers

.

[NanLaew]

Already started here

But if I was unfortunate enough to need a new pile built in LOS, I would use the aerated concrete bricks which probably rules out using the in-laws again who did a superb job on the first casa. That was done with 'conventional' Thai brick and pile and is crack and crumble free after almost 6 years of Isaan extremes.

I would bring high-pressure water pipe fittings and ALL electricals from the UK.

And a plumber.

And an electrician.

Edited October 11, 2013 by NanLaew

[krisb]

NanLaew, I am seriously considering bringing those 2 trades in already. Bit of an outlay but I could see it saving money in the long run. Not as silly as it sounds mate!

[samuibruno]

high pressure fittings and electrical kit are all available in thailand already

you need go no further than bangkok

[jbrain]

high pressure fittings and electrical kit are all available in thailand already

you need go no further than bangkok

They are available all over Thailand, but I think KrisB had in mind of having the electrical and plumbing work done by a foreigner.

And if that's correct, bring one from abroad, because the foreigners in the trade in Thailand are no better than the Thais .

[krisb]

high pressure fittings and electrical kit are all available in thailand already

you need go no further than bangkok

They are available all over Thailand, but I think KrisB had in mind of having the electrical and plumbing work done by a foreigner.

And if that's correct, bring one from abroad, because the foreigners in the trade in Thailand are no better than the Thais .

Thats right jbrain. More so the electrician. Bit sad having to do that but unless the next time I'm in KK and can't find one, think that is a good possibility. Plumbing on the other hand I can work out with some ease, and also keeping water to a minimum. Surprising how many plumbers I chat to on sites here in Australia who have no idea how to set up a septic tank system. Bit of internet research gives the answer.