Construction Supervisor Unit (small trailer)

[jaywalker]

Am considering doing my own construction supervision (Project Management) for a house in Huay Yai.

I've done it before on commercial projects.

I need to be there every day, as I know how they like to take short cuts. I'm looking for a small trailer (caravan) that I can use for an office on the building site.

Does anybody know where I might acquire such a contraption?

Just need something big enough for a desk is all.......Something I can haul away & either sell or burn after it's finished = nothing too fancy.

Of course I'll install an AC unit in it. Electricity is already there.

I'm guessing something about 4 meters long & ~3 meters wide?

[rhodie]

Easier to just build a temporary shack. Few poles and a roof would do.

[jaywalker]

Easier to just build a temporary shack. Few poles and a roof would do.

You're certainly correct about that being an easier option, just would prefer to work out of something a little more professional. I don't want to look like a Burmese construction worker when I'm the boss.

It'll be a 10-11 mil THB project, so dropping 100 or 150K for an office is fine by me.

If I hire a management firm to do it they charge 25% of construction costs, so 100 or 150K would be a bargain.

Oh yeah, I'm a mechanical engineer. I can handle that end.

Any electrical engineer that might want to help, well, PM me. I have some specific requirements for the electricity, mostly making sure I have proper gauge wiring and making sure EVERYTHING is grounded (earthed). I even plan to install lightening rods on the roof.

Lightening popped a tree next to my parents' house when I was a kid in Florida. It FRIED everything in the house.......We went 2 months before Dad bought a new TV.

He installed lightening rods, and whilst scary as hell, lightening has popped them a few times. All the juice went straight into the ground & no harm to anything.

Construction probably starting early January. My wife will say

================================

EDIT: Just re-considering the shack idea Rhodie. Thanks. Plywood floor, plywood walls, BIG-ASS tinted windows (so they never know when I'm watching them & when I'm not). a window-shaker AC unit, desk & office chair....probably easier than trying to find a trailer.

Edited September 5, 2014 by jaywalker

[LennyW]

Go out to Laem Chabang on the #7 motorway, at the Laem Chabang junction on the southbound carriageway of the #7 is a company called Container Construction, they have a number of 20 foot office modules with windows in etc. some have air-con, less than 100K, some around 50K.

Also on the #36 between Mapthaput turn off and the Map Kha junction on the northbound side there are a few places have the same.

[KittenKong]

I would be a bit concerned about being anonymously reported to Immigration for working without a permit if I did this.

[jaywalker]

Go out to Laem Chabang on the #7 motorway, at the Laem Chabang junction on the southbound carriageway of the #7 is a company called Container Construction, they have a number of 20 foot office modules with windows in etc. some have air-con, less than 100K, some around 50K.

Also on the #36 between Mapthaput turn off and the Map Kha junction on the northbound side there are a few places have the same.

Thanks Lenny!

A 20 ft container with windows would be the Cat's Meow.

==============

As for the work permit Nervous Nellies, all I plan to do is stand & point, inspect materials & blueprints etc.

Make sure that when they run out of 4 inch sewer pipe, they don't just reduce it to 2 inch (then quickly bury it just because that's what they have laying around), ya know, just ensuring they actually perform to specifications.

None of the below will be allowed.......Trust me....I've worked with Thai folks....I KNOW how they work.

http://youtu.be/FB2uHnztADU

[thairastawoman]

Just inspect or not on a daily basis with your own official office there you are taking some risks, especially if any supplier or worker starts not to like you anymore...

Be careful <3

[khunjamesjohnson]

The owner can make 'suggestions', no?

[jaapfries]

PM me for some interesting pieces of advice, if you like,

Cheers,

JK

Jomtien

[petercool]

Your choice, of course,but to be seen in any way to be involved in "managing" a project without a specific Work Permit is in no way any different for a bar owner being seen to be overseeing his bar and many have been caught by Immigration officials etc. for simply that.

[champers]

Your choice, of course,but to be seen in any way to be involved in "managing" a project without a specific Work Permit is in no way any different for a bar owner being seen to be overseeing his bar and many have been caught by Immigration officials etc. for simply that.

And that would include for something as mundane as picking up a few glasses or emptying an ashtray. What the OP is intending to do goes way beyond that. I too would recommend extreme caution, especially in the current "climate". Good luck, all the same.

[dBrown]

A foreigner can own his own house in Thailand, he just has to apply for the building license in his own name, then he is allowed to build his own house same as one is allowed to repair his own car or build his own boat.

[KittenKong]

A foreigner can own his own house in Thailand, he just has to apply for the building license in his own name, then he is allowed to build his own house same as one is allowed to repair his own car or build his own boat.

I dont think a farang can do any of those, legally, without a work permit for the specific task. The wording of the law is (deliberately?) extremely vague and almost any mental or physical activity could be construed as being work if the result is something that you could employ a Thai person to do.