My wife and I agree on everything Thai, from tipping a good cab driver to eating, to building our house.

But one thing we just can't agree on is building "temporary" things like garden beds, trellises, those outdoor eating shelters.....

If we had it my way everything would be made once from industrial grade stainless steel. The wife is happy to make them from bamboo and sticks, and do it all again next year.

This seems to be the Thai way.

We manage to somehow compromise. Bamboo and sticks with a coat of varnish.

She obviously has a sense of style, stainless steel garden sala? Bamboo

from experience i know where you're coming from as to where you're going too mmmm?

joking aside consider this before you arrived on the scene what was their disposable income

my wife has a small amount of land with ample bamboo growing like crazy

its just pure economics and traditional ways that drive these ways of construction easily available products are utilized what makes you think it will last a whole year

generally some things have to follow a strict pattern of natural deconstruction usually about 2 years

I have a stainless steel carport which has mould in the roof, leaking roofgutter, rotting dead bolts and even the stainless steel has rust spots.

I have massive teakwood kitchen for which they had to come back several times because drawers won't close and the counter wasn't leveled so the granite wouldn't fit properly.

Massive teakwood table where the decorations came off because i put a glass of water on them. Then they repaired the table for warranty and still didn't use waterproof glue for the decorations so it is still crap. Also it has a huge crack in the middle.

I have steel bars with powdercoating that is rusty after 3 years while they have never ever been wet. Have stainless steel bars in the showers which are rusty and i had to tell them 10 times to use stainless steel bolts for them, i finally had to go get them myself and let them install it.

They damage all other things in the house while they come to work, sometimes they don't show up for appointments.

I ordered concrete powdercoated stones for outdoor, they delivered dirty ones who had been in the flooding and were stained from that. Stonestrips from a quality that seems to fall appart after a year, they had good ones in the showroom though.

I can go on like this but i won't....you have to accept that this is a 3rd world country and they have never learned to do things properly.

My wife explained it perfectly. Nothing lasts forever.

People coming to my house caused me so many problems I now do it all myself.

Painted it all to find people coming with their filthy hands all over it, slapping the walls saying it looked good leaving huge black hand prints on them, sleeping leaning all over the walls, dragging ladders on them.

All banned now, no consideration for the time and effort I put in in building totally myself 2 houses, and I dont mean hiring people to do it I mean laying the blocks mixing the cement, plumbing, septic tanks, electrics etc etc.

Of course as they cover it in filthy marks they all say suay mak mak!!!

They bungle their way through all the jobs they did.

I can go on like this but i won't....you have to accept that this is a 3rd world country and they have never learned to do things properly.

Ah yes the white mans burden, bloody natives cant do anything properly...

My wife explained it perfectly. Nothing lasts forever.

forever does

And before we get too carried away. This isn't intended to become a Thai tradesmen bashing thread. More a DIY bashing thread.

Well yes whiteman can do it better, in Europe we have buildings that lasted 2000+ years even americans can learn from that. I also do everything myself now, from buying materials to cleaning it up when it's finished. The place even burned almost down from a fire in the fusebox that Somchai (official electrician from a huge developer) made.

But today i found out something great, i 'll never go to homepro or homeworks no more, Thaiwatsudu is a great shop and even on sunday nobody annoyed me while they had nothing to do. Wished i discovered that shop some years ago.

I even had a whole 10l bucket of paint on my watertank, the painter from the neighbours fell from the roof....another neighbour had construction and the sparks from his grinding wheel burned into our tiles and windows but he had to pay for that. He had no choice but had 1000 excuses.

It's the same with the motorbike and car but we just buy new ones after 3 years, much easyier.

Now i understand why Thai love to buy show houses in the new built moobaans, then you don't have all the problems that they have to come back many times. They are fully decorated and even have furniture in them, much better.

I don;t understand why construction company's here don't have an insurance for damage, well actually i do understand it because the insurance would go bankrupt in a week.

I also don't buy anything made in Thailand no more, it will break very soon.

I can go on like this but i won't....you have to accept that this is a 3rd world country and they have never learned to do things properly.

Ah yes the white mans burden, bloody natives cant do anything properly...

If i recall well then you were from Africa right?

Don't know about your wife, Sipi, but mine is going on for a long time now that she want's a wooden Ban Noi (small house in the garden.

I keep resisting for years, asking what's the purpose of it?

You've got a big veranda with 2 ceiling fans to enjoy yourself'

The answer is:

To put you in there when you die and come and say hello to you

The fact that bamboo is cheap (possibly free), widely available and easy to work with without needing anything more than a machete rather than welding gear and a bit of welding skill doesn't come into it I suppose?

I can go on like this but i won't....you have to accept that this is a 3rd world country and they have never learned to do things properly.

Ah yes the white mans burden, bloody natives cant do anything properly...

What ho Carruthers!

Don't know about your wife, Sipi, but mine is going on for a long time now that she want's a wooden Ban Noi (small house in the garden.

I keep resisting for years, asking what's the purpose of it?

You've got a big veranda with 2 ceiling fans to enjoy yourself'

The answer is:

To put you in there when you die and come and say hello to you

build it next to your milking shed Costas...

The fact that bamboo is cheap (possibly free), widely available and easy to work with without needing anything more than a machete rather than welding gear and a bit of welding skill doesn't come into it I suppose?

No problem termites will eat it in just a few short years.

And before we get too carried away. This isn't intended to become a Thai tradesmen bashing thread. More a DIY bashing thread.

"tradesmen" ????????

Hi Phil:

What I decided to do in the home furnishings department was to slowly purchase quality furniture over time.

The vinyl covered 'sudden-cushion-failure' sofas, the spot welded, cushions screwed into nothingness chairs, the laminated and veneered particle board "wood" furniture, the either spongy or 'bed-of-nails' mattresses are all crap -- bottom line -- a stone cold rip off.

The manufacturers of this crap ought to be lined up against a wall and shot.

Buy quality whenever possible, would be my advice.

Bamboo

Cheap

Available

Doesn't need powder coating

Can be anchored with string, twine, nails

Easily erected

Easily removed

Perfectly acceptable building product for someone who has seen it used for their entire life

Sounds versatile to me

The fact that bamboo is cheap (possibly free), widely available and easy to work with without needing anything more than a machete rather than welding gear and a bit of welding skill doesn't come into it I suppose?

No problem termites will eat it in just a few short years.

So we can add 'easily replaceable' to the list of advantages for bamboo.

We manage to somehow compromise. Bamboo and sticks with a coat of varnish.

yes bamboo and sticks lays some where between Industrial stainless steel and nothing,,,,, all and all a fair compromise

I dont think you compromised, I think you capitulated

A disgrace to all man , very very sad I would have raised the stakes and have gone for spend plutonium rods,

just explain to her , all the money you will save from not having to turn the lights on at night.

Bamboo is very easy to worrk with. And every year you can change the layout

The Thai way of building a house would be that the Thai wife would pay for the materials and building of the house totally financed by herself and the farang husband would not have any say in the project whatsoever, as a matter of fact they believe in the farang having no say in the house so much, that the authorities actually made it the law.

Stainless steel is expensive stuff.

Be happy she wants to use a cheap product that I think suits Thailand.

I want one of those bamboo, grass roof bars if I can find one.

Stainless steel of course only being one choice of materials along with treated timber, zinc or powder coated aluminium etc. However I have been losing this arguement for years and can't see things changing. I am destined to an eternity of cutting bamboo and painting.?

Just a small piece of trivia- inch for inch bamboo is stronger than steel.

Ha ... I have the opposite problem.

A (one day will be) Thai Father-in-Law who tends to over engineer some things.

We built a double Carport space for him, space for me.

I suggested a galvanised roof baton ... no, no, ... must be Steel C-Section, which the whole Family was involved in priming with the anti-rust paint before construction.

No cutting corners with this guy. Heck, he even ground the welds lightly and then painted them before the roof tiles went on!

.

Edited November 3, 201411 yr by David48

In the construction and Railway industry in this part of the world its known as . Do it nice or do it twice

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Just a small piece of trivia- inch for inch bamboo is stronger than steel.

Can be stronger but also can be much weaker . There are not many QC inspections on Bamboo, the only way you find the weaker stuff is when it fails

Just a small piece of trivia- inch for inch bamboo is stronger than steel.

In what respect ? UTS, compression, shear ?

Saying something is stronger, you need to have a point of reference as regards "strength"