your worst Thai builder story?

[oneday]

Honestly, would anyone be so utterly stupid to pay 500k in advance ??

Anyone that stupid may as well lose all his money right now.. because for sure he's going to lose it all soon.

NEVER put a builder in a position where he is better off to not come back !

So you a re recommending zero deposits?

No advance payments to buy materials?

"technologybytes" is being a little harsh, but he isn't wrong. 500,000 is way too much to advance to a builder in Thailand...maybe 100K-200K max. My builder, shockingly, asked for no deposit. We paid in 5 stages with timelines and penalties. Our first payment was not made until the columns were up.

[jacky54]

Anyone used 'Alan the builder'? probably not allowed to post the website but it has a lot of houses on it he built mostly in Issan, look pretty good too. I expect cost a bit more than Somchai the bodger but probably worth it.

Edited February 14, 2015 by jacky54

[wolfmanjack]

The first house I had built in thailand I had a couple of problems.

I told them to put the bottom of the windows 1 meter from the floor. I came back and they had measured the windows to be 1 meter from the ground instead of where the floor was going to be. When I told them they were doing it wrong they acted like i was crazy so I stacked up cement blocks to the level where the floor would be so they could see how low the windows would end up being after the floor was poured.

The second problem was I bought non slip tile for the bathroom and the kitchen. I had to go out of the country for a month and when i came back they had used the non slip tile to create a design in the middle of the living room instead of using it in the bathroom and kitchen.

When they put the roof on the eaves came down at such a sharp angle we could not open the doors all of the way. They had to go back and cut the eaves off.

Edited February 14, 2015 by wolfmanjack

[jacky54]

They can be a bit daft. Went to inspect a new house with a friend for fault finding, could not get the kitchen units to open. When we did get them open found out the builders had screwed all the handles on the inside of the doors, I thought just for a laugh, but here probably not.

[Rhys]

A while back we had the kitchen enlarged... All taken care of with Thai people, friend of a friend, relative of a friend.. that type of thing.

Construction went on time.. then we would notice, the construction workers would not come for a few days.. later we learned they were working on several jobs at once..

Payment, half up,(construction materials) then the rest... Then in checking the materials it appeared they were not following the plans.. saying.. that particular door was not available.. only to discover what I we were told was a common practice...

Some construction workers/companies

use the up front money to pay off old construction job cost.

[KittenKong]

Sorry, cannot contribute to this thread. We are about 3-4 weeks away from our house being finished and our builder is the best I have every heard of or read about. I have read a lot of stories in CoolThaiHouse (a website devoted to falang building in Thailand). Our builder not only knows how to build a good house he is extremely organized and spot on with his scheduling and the people he hires are as good as I've ever read about.

That's possible. It's also possible that you just haven't yet realised what is going on behind your back.

The only thing that I can say is that in Thailand it is sometimes very hard to differentiate between crass incompetence and out and out dishonesty,

Good luck to you, either way.

That would be implying I know nothing about good construction or bad construction and you would be quite wrong. You have no idea what my level of expertise.

I dont, which is why I said that both are possible.

[jacky54]

we just went with the builder to buy tiles, he spent the whole journey telling my mrs how many women he has had (256) he has 4 wives and 11 kids, don't know how he finds the time.

[akampa]

here`s one I caught just in time the basic foot print was to be 6 meters * 12 meters .he measured only 11 meters in length and had dug and filled only 9 out of 12 footings so from that time one I trippled checked everything and a few minor mistakes along the way which got rectified .house got finished on time.

[IMHO]

Once, our workers placed a footing 10CM out of alignment, because they measured to the outside of the post instead of the middle. A lot of digging, and a 20-ton jack fixed it.

Edited February 14, 2015 by IMHO

[ExPratt]

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Once, our workers placed a footing 10CM out of alignment, because they measured to the outside of the post instead of the middle. A lot of digging, and a 20-ton jack fixed it.

You can't learn that sort of stuff , the bloke was obviously a Natural

[ChrisB87]

I can't complain. We found the best architect (and project manager) ever!

I actually think we paid the first installment in advance. Maybe 100k of so, can't remember. Just for him to start buying materials.

He is just about to finish his current job at the end of March. He's from Ubon Ratchathani . Anyone interested, i would be happy to get him more work.

He worked for ItalThai as an architect in Chonburi before coming back home to start his own business. Very easy to work with. He will write up a contract, so there's no running away, and he guarantees any problems for 1 year.

He says he would charge 1.7m for a house like ours now. He actually under-priced ours (it was his first job) at 1.4m and didn't really make any money to shout about, maybe 50k or so (over a 6 month period of project managing). But, we later got him a 3 million job with a friend of ours. Bloody mansion. I can get pics of that later.

And he's great at doing high ceilings :-)

Edited February 15, 2015 by ChrisB87

[UKJASE]

I can't complain. We found the best architect (and project manager) ever!

I actually think we paid the first installment in advance. Maybe 100k of so, can't remember. Just for him to start buying materials.

He is just about to finish his current job at the end of March. He's from Ubon Ratchathani . Anyone interested, i would be happy to get him more work.

He worked for ItalThai as an architect in Chonburi before coming back home to start his own business. Very easy to work with. He will write up a contract, so there's no running away, and he guarantees any problems for 1 year.

He says he would charge 1.7m for a house like ours now. He actually under-priced ours (it was his first job) at 1.4m and didn't really make any money to shout about, maybe 50k or so (over a 6 month period of project managing). But, we later got him a 3 million job with a friend of ours. Bloody mansion. I can get pics of that later.

And he's great at doing high ceilings :-)

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1.4 million for labour only, or does this include materials?

[Langsuan Man]

This photo is pretty representative of the lack of common sense that I found during my building project

And exactly how are you supposed to change the light bulb if it is up almost against the ceiling ?

Here it is fixed

[Daniel Boon]

If the photo i of the house, it will not be cool ...

Sorry, cannot contribute to this thread. We are about 3-4 weeks away from our house being finished and our builder is the best I have every heard of or read about. I have read a lot of stories in CoolThaiHouse (a website devoted to falang building in Thailand). Our builder not only knows how to build a good house he is extremely organized and spot on with his scheduling and the people he hires are as good as I've ever read about. If we get our house in 3 weeks then it will be just almost 4 months from start to finish.

IMG-20150205-WA0014.jpg

[Oziex1]

Having a house built in Issan right now some quirky stuff going on like, mounting the decorative vents in the gables in a position that required the Shera board to have substantial cut outs to fit. Why,with a little forward thinking could have raised the vents 40mm and had the chera board run flush along the bottom of the vent.

They build with no plan and not a spirit level to be seen.

They started painting while all sorts of other work was going on and although he promised to dress the upright concrete posts that support the roof and the walls tie into, of course once painted the blemishes in the uprights were highlighted, but thats ok because now he can see where to apply filler??

The electric cables are outside the walls covered with plastic strips, have to say i'm happy with this as opposed to burying the cables in the render.

One last thing gotta love the building suppliers, choose, buy, go around the back to load on the ute "sorry no have" back to the showroom with questions. Oh sorry this one last one on display, can we do a deal on the display item I ask? No cannot it is to show what we have!

It's been fun.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Oziex1

[jacky54]

That's a great looking house Chris, what did it cost all in? The builders have been given a new job in the front roofing over with those metal bars. Mrs took them to look at some very decorative ones in the village, rather Chinese looking metal work and quite intricate, no problem says the builder. Disappointingly it's just like all the other stuff he I have seen him do, quite plain and nothing like what he said he could do, seems to have just the one design of 'fancy' - blocks of metal in between two bars. Of course they started it without yet finishing the first job, i'm having a beer and hiding, she can sort it out.

[TomYumpoochai]

Im watching the house being built right now in fang district and these 3 guys are doing a really good skilled job unlike the new shophouse im renting. It would take a day to type all the pisspoor workmanship but the highlight being that they didnt build a vent pipe into the upstairs toilet so it fills to almost the rim with everything you just downloaded and then slowly drains down. Every water joint leaks and theres 1 electric socket in every room......and that is incorporated in the light switch so everything has to hang off the door to charge it.

I recommend the builders doing my place and 1 is an architect and produces correct drawings. Pm me if you want decent fair priced guys.

[louse1953]

on recommendation from the Family we had a guy put in wooden windows (thai style house in village) this guy made Leggo look good what a utter Arse, had to redo 26 windows but then again my fault as listened to the wife. some people we have hired are great some utter dross, but then again same as the uk you get good builders and cowboy outfits. lesson well sunk in

Rule number1,don't listen to wife when building a house.Also, don't let her go to the hardware shop alone.

[louse1953]

We just bought a few units from Boontathorn, I thought they were very expensive for what they are. When the new kitchen is done the mrs will still be cooking on a camping stove, seems odd to me but she never uses the 'proper' gas cooker in the existing kitchen. Builder tells us to get same electrical wire for lights and mains, I could have sworn this is not correct but 'him know what him do'!

Rule number 1,don't listen to the missus,she knows less than you.

[jacky54]

on recommendation from the Family we had a guy put in wooden windows (thai style house in village) this guy made Leggo look good what a utter Arse, had to redo 26 windows but then again my fault as listened to the wife. some people we have hired are great some utter dross, but then again same as the uk you get good builders and cowboy outfits. lesson well sunk in

Rule number1,don't listen to wife when building a house.Also, don't let her go to the hardware shop alone.

Did this today to buy electric cable and plugs. She decided we were having far more plugs but did not tell me or the builders, they could have installed the wire when building the walls! Now we are stuck with the yellow pipes, she insisted on buying the wrong type of plug sockets. This is the last building i'm ever having done

[louse1953]

My land lady decided to replace the drywall ceiling in my apartment. The ceiling was 4 meters by 10 meters. I had a construction company in the US. I told her fine as long as they covered all the furniture and stereo equipment before starting. Yes, sure. On the day I reminded her to cover everything. Yes, OK. I left and returned a few hours later. Nothing covered , dust over everything. Made them stop and covered everything myself. I watched for a while and went to the landlady to tell her that they had no idea what they were doing. She pooh poohed me and told them to continue. When they were finished I told her that the entire ceiling would fall down in six months max. Six months later I moved out to a smaller house next door. Three days later a huge crash from my former home. The entire ceiling came down on the bed I used to sleep in.

In the same apartment I had the sink drain get clogged up. I asked the landlady to get someone in to unclog the drain. She and the plumber looked at the drain, agreed that it was clogged and proceeded to knock a hole in the wall under the sink and re route the drain into the fish pond drain. Duh? Two days later i went to a hardware store, bought a drain snake for 250 baht, routed out the drain and reconnected the sink. Worked fine.

The moral of the story is,you gotta be there,24/7.They will take a shortcut if possible.I am a builder,i know!

Do it yourself is the way to go.

[louse1953]

I did the right thing for my blood pressure and had nothing to do with my house being built . The missus got it done while I was working in China. I banned certain colours from being used , Purple , Orange ,Lime Green , powder blue and she did a really good job , nice 3 bedroom affair, neutral colours ect. When I came back to Thailand on leave and the house was still being built so we stayed in Bangkok and I didnt see the house until it was finished., Part of my job is checking construction quality , so I didn't want to come home on holiday and have an aneurysm checking their working practices.

I did want wooden floors but I got a call from the missus saying the "Engineer" said we could get electric shocks through a wooden floor ? after what seemed like a 4 hour discussion on an International phone call to my wife , I still had no idea what the :Engineer" was talking about. Anyway we have a Tiled floor now

Tiled floors are the way to go, no shocks,price wise anyhow.Hope the house doesn't fall in on you,wife being a trained builder,wouldn't look good.Any problems,ask the engineer.

[louse1953]

. When they were finished I told her that the entire ceiling would fall down in six months max. Six months later I moved out to a smaller house next door. Three days later a huge crash from my former home. The entire ceiling came down on the bed I used to sleep in.

Similar thing happened to the SIL new crappy built house in a Surin village. 300 sq meters one story, big ceiling. It rained, half of it fell in from the weight of water and soaking the board. Builder would not do anything and claimed a cat must have got into the roof space and done it!

Hey Jacky,some fat cats in Surin.This is why Surin houses dont have ceilings,fat cat syndrome.

[louse1953]

Honestly, would anyone be so utterly stupid to pay 500k in advance ??

Anyone that stupid may as well lose all his money right now.. because for sure he's going to lose it all soon.

NEVER put a builder in a position where he is better off to not come back !

So you a re recommending zero deposits?

No advance payments to buy materials?

You lazy people just don't get it,take control of your money.Go with the builder,go with your partner,best of all,go by yourself.

[jacky54]

We just bought a few units from Boontathorn, I thought they were very expensive for what they are. When the new kitchen is done the mrs will still be cooking on a camping stove, seems odd to me but she never uses the 'proper' gas cooker in the existing kitchen. Builder tells us to get same electrical wire for lights and mains, I could have sworn this is not correct but 'him know what him do'!

Rule number 1,don't listen to the missus,she knows less than you.

Try telling her that she thinks shes an expert on everything

[cooked]

I have the world's slowest builder, namely myself, but I can do everything apart from the 'lectrics which is a bit of a worry as neither can the Thai specialists that have been here. My builder takes his granddaughter to school at 7am, the best time to start working, and has to get cement and everything cleaned up before he goes to get her at 3.30pm. Meaning I get maybe 6 hours a day in if I don't take a midday nap. Never mind, it fills the time, as well as the weekends.

It does have its rewards if you build yourself, although I admit that the Thais are better at hiding mistakes than I am. I watched a crew next door build a house without a level or a string and I can't see anything wrong with it, I can't say that I have had any bad experiences up to now, apart from the quality of some of the material.

[MrY]

Advice from a German old-timer years ago; "If you ask a Thai to nail your Picasso on the wall, you've only got yourself to blame..."

Edited February 15, 2015 by MrY

[Gonsalviz]

Sorry, cannot contribute to this thread. We are about 3-4 weeks away from our house being finished and our builder is the best I have every heard of or read about. I have read a lot of stories in CoolThaiHouse (a website devoted to falang building in Thailand). Our builder not only knows how to build a good house he is extremely organized and spot on with his scheduling and the people he hires are as good as I've ever read about. If we get our house in 3 weeks then it will be just almost 4 months from start to finish.

IMG-20150205-WA0014.jpg

Hopefully you are a lucky one. The farang builder that built my house should change his advert from house to structure. The structure is fine. The plumbing, electric, roof, paint and interior trim need some major work.

The warranty is a joke. They come out, &lt;deleted&gt; around a bit and leave me with the same problems. I have quit calling them and have started the rework myself. I hired an electrician that has more to do, the paint, trim and plumbing I am doing myself. The house will be 2 years old in May. These problems have been from day 1

Attached is a pic or 2 of my in work repainting. The first pic is the front of the house. The result of using a sprinkler to water the grass. Apparently this paint is akin to the wicked witch of the west. The second pic is part of what they have repaired 2 times before. What I have is a house that cannot get wet. I plan to change that.

The moral of this story is: Do not waste money on farang contractors to get the same work you will get anywhere in the country.

[Jip99]

I have had one or two minor calamities - but I fear my worst experience is yet to happen.

[jacky54]

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Side of our house looks like that after water seepage from the rain. They came round gouged out the hairline cracks that a good paint would have sealed and filled it but did not level out so it's a mess. Ours is two years old also, not falang built though

Edited February 16, 2015 by jacky54