Air bubbles in concrete

[kitjohnson]

I'm going to build a house, and am not sure whether to hire my own contractor/architect, or go through one of the companies that will do the whole process for you.

I went to an open day by Built to Build group. We looked at show homes as well as their factory. I was quite impressed, though the prices are impressively high to match.

As we were going around the factory I took these two photos. One shows air bubbles in concerete posts, and the other shows rust on the metal bits that come out of the concrete posts. (You can see I'm not exactly what you'd call a construction expert.)

I just wondered whether these air bubbles and rust are normal, and represent the high quality workmanship that they kept telling us about on this open day.

Edited January 14, 2015 by kitjohnson

[IMHO]

Those air bubbles aren't *too* bad - they have obviously used a rattler to try and disperse the air when pouring the concrete, otherwise it would be a lot worse than this. I wouldn't be too concerned if that's the worst you can see.... If this was one of ours, it definitely would have been patched over though - you don't want water or fire heat getting near the rebar inside.

As for the metal in photo #2, other than the fact that it has surface rust on it that's not going to get any better without treatment, it's also probably OK. Yes, it's going to be somewhat of a 'conduit' for rust to get into the rebar if it's left untreated, the high Ph of the cement in the concrete should be enough to stop the rust going too far... It definitely should have a coat of oxide paint applied to it though.

Edited January 14, 2015 by IMHO

[kitjohnson]

Thanks, IMHO, for your advice. I took a photo of the worst air bubbles I could find. Most of the concrete looked better than that. I just have no mental image to compare them to, so I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.

It sounds like the rust isn't much of a problem either.

Thanks again!

[mikemac]

"I'm going to build a house, and am not sure whether to hire my own contractor/architect, or go through one of the companies that will do the whole process for you.'

Be careful whichever way you decide to go. I did a lot of research via this forum, other building forums, and talking to people who had built houses in Thailand, and found out it is very easy to be overcharged for the finished product.

My wife and I are having a house built in Saraphee, just outside of Chiang Mai, due to be finished next month. We found a book of house plans at a bookshop and were lucky enough to find one which was ideal for our block of land, all we did was add one bathroom.

We found a qualified draftsman who drew up the plans based on what we showed him, and our builder is the Father of a good friend of ours. He is doing a really good job and seems to be building everything according to the plans.

We submitted our plans to the government department, not sure what it is called, and that was easy enough.

All in all I am glad we went the way we did and we were very lucky to find a good honest builder.

Hope your building experience is as easy and hassle free as ours has been so far, and best of luck.

PM me if you need any additional information, photos etc.

Edited January 19, 2015 by mikemac

[ExPratt]

, That can happen quite a lot when you strike the formwork, you have to be careful vibrating concrete next to the formwork or you can blow the shutter, so you always end up with a few holes , Just make it good its nothing structural

[kitjohnson]

"I'm going to build a house, and am not sure whether to hire my own contractor/architect, or go through one of the companies that will do the whole process for you.'

Be careful whichever way you decide to go. I did a lot of research via this forum, other building forums, and talking to people who had built houses in Thailand, and found out it is very easy to be overcharged for the finished product.

My wife and I are having a house built in Saraphee, just outside of Chiang Mai, due to be finished next month. We found a book of house plans at a bookshop and were lucky enough to find one which was ideal for our block of land, all we did was add one bathroom.

We found a qualified draftsman who drew up the plans based on what we showed him, and our builder is the Father of a good friend of ours. He is doing a really good job and seems to be building everything according to the plans.

We submitted our plans to the government department, not sure what it is called, and that was easy enough.

All in all I am glad we went the way we did and we were very lucky to find a good honest builder.

Hope your building experience is as easy and hassle free as ours has been so far, and best of luck.

PM me if you need any additional information, photos etc.

Thanks very much for saying that. I must say the whole process can seem overwhelming, and that the people who have told me their story of building a house in Thailand only have negative things to say about getting ripped off and shoddy work. So thanks for putting a positive light on it. If only I could find a contractor here in Bangkok who is as good as the ones you've got...

What was the name of the book of plans that you used? I've been to Asia Books and Kinokunia and couldn't see anything like that in the architecture section.

[mikemac]

Hi kj,

The book I mentioned is published under the Home Collection Group, and the book itself is entirely in Thai so I cannot give you the English name of it, but it is a hardcover book about 10" x 6" and looks like this -

This is an earlier version of the book, circa 2009, the one I bought late 2014 is also numbered "120" but has a pink cover and a different house on the front cover. Most decent sized bookshops will stock them. Each featured house has a picture of the house, as above, the actual plan of the house, and a picture of the roof.

Very good books with loads of ideas. I think I paid about 330 baht for mine.

If you show this picture to a Thai person they should be able to find the book easily.

Good luck and let me know how you got on.

[kitjohnson]

Thanks very much. I'll go check it out.

The house will be in a district which floods, so a bit of clearance from the ground (like on the cover photo) might be a good idea!

[cheeryble]

"I'm going to build a house, and am not sure whether to hire my own contractor/architect, or go through one of the companies that will do the whole process for you.'

Be careful whichever way you decide to go. I did a lot of research via this forum, other building forums, and talking to people who had built houses in Thailand, and found out it is very easy to be overcharged for the finished product.

My wife and I are having a house built in Saraphee, just outside of Chiang Mai, due to be finished next month. We found a book of house plans at a bookshop and were lucky enough to find one which was ideal for our block of land, all we did was add one bathroom.

We found a qualified draftsman who drew up the plans based on what we showed him, and our builder is the Father of a good friend of ours. He is doing a really good job and seems to be building everything according to the plans.

We submitted our plans to the government department, not sure what it is called, and that was easy enough.

All in all I am glad we went the way we did and we were very lucky to find a good honest builder.

Hope your building experience is as easy and hassle free as ours has been so far, and best of luck.

PM me if you need any additional information, photos etc.

Hi MikeMac

I must be just down the road from you in Hua Dong also Sarapee......though it's wife's (grandma's) house.

I'd be very interested to know how much your build is costing per sqm in this area and also how much to draw the plans up from the outline.

cheers Cheeryble

[kannot]

Ive built two houses now, both by myself as all the builders I spoke to were a waste of oxygen, they had almost zero skills and no understandings of many things.............concrete vibrator?????????? wassat, lets make the concrete like water with a few stones in= normal............ finishing skills = zero and as I spent 35 years in the Uk in construction I know whats good and whats crap.

If you want photos of my 2 builds ( and I mean built alone inc mixing all cement and laying all blocks myself) let me know.............trust any Thai builder????????? good luck with that..seriously , you are in for a world of pain if you do.