Farangs know nothing

[colinneil]

Having a new veranda built on our home.

We are paying for materials, workers labour only.

Fun and games, worker gives my wife a list of materials, wife shows me. !! what is this !! list for materials darling says the wife, rubbish says i.

I had already calculated quantity of materials required, after 42 years in construction in UK i think i know what is required.

Workers ordered 3 concrete columns, i said 2, workers ordered 2 cube sand 2 cube stone 14 cement.

I said 1.5 cube sand 1.5 cube stone 5oo kilos of cement. 5 cube dry materials/mixed 3.5 cube wet.

Roof sheets workers want 68, i said 60. Steel i said 9 4x2 workers said 13, i said 14 2x1 workers said 8.

Ceiling sheets i said 6, workers said 4. shera wood workers said 100, i said 80.

Quess who my wife listened to, me or workers?

Easy she listened to (rice farmers) workers.

Now we have 1 concrete column left 5 cement 3/4 cube sand 3/4 cube.

8 roof sheets , 22 shera wood.

We had to order 4 more 4x2 steel, 5 more 2x1 steel, 2 more ceiling sheets.

What a bloody fiasco, but darling workers said, i listened, why you not listen to your husband, who has more than 40 years experience.

You work in England this is Thailand. So you require the same materials no matter what country it is.

The mind bogols at the logic of Thais, or lack of logic.

[Rooo]

Moved to Expat Forum.

[ThaiPauly]

Welcome to Thailand.

I have heard many stories of a similar nature to yours.

If you have hair ,be ready to tear it out, but don't worry too much, it will all work out in the end.

Good luck

[benalibina]

I always had the impression by reading your posts that you were respected.......ahhh well....

[SoiBiker]

Sounds like you have enough left over for a nifty spirit house.

[redandyellow]

Thai culture is often at 180 degrees to the west, and this causes no end of grief for both parties of peoples.

Both look at the other - and ridicule them

Both are right

Both are wrong

But try to tell them that

Even me, even you

Cannot

Because perception is reality, and the other way around too

Funny how that works every time

Just ask the Arabs and the Jews

Or the Thais and the farang

[worgeordie]

who is the boss in your house?,the wife ,the workers or you,

you knew you were correct in the quantities of materials you

needed,why did you not put your foot down,you were paying

i would think.

regards Worgeordie

[piersbeckett]

Not as easy perhaps if you can't 'run about' yourself otherwise you could have insisted on your estimate of quantities and popped back to the builders merchants if it turned out that you needed more.

'Anyway, anyway', how was the job?

At least you'll get Buhn when you give the left over mat's to a neighbour!

Edited April 28, 2015 by piersbeckett

[samsensam]

maybe they're not very good at maths...

[Sharp]

It actually is logical.... They always order extra to take back to their base camp (builders yard)... Only way the stocks are kept up.. My builders yard has more stock than Homeworks and all from extra ordered from other jobs..

[MrWorldwide]

Experienced this myself the other day, but its someone else's problem now and when the unit they paid good money for no long powers up no doubt they will blame the Farang who tried to tell them that simply pulling the power plug out of the socket isnt the correct way to power it down. Its all in the extensive user manual which I have no doubt remains untouched - as I said, its all their problem now.

[MrJohnson]

Please re-title thread. Husband knows nothing.

[colinneil]

who is the boss in your house?,the wife ,the workers or you,

you knew you were correct in the quantities of materials you

needed,why did you not put your foot down,you were paying

i would think.

regards Worgeordie

Who is the boss in our house !! I am paralysed from the chest down. So i cannot get around to do things myself !!

[Aussieroaming]

Excellent, now you have enough for the extension to the extension

[BudRight]

Intellect is not cultural.

Edited April 28, 2015 by BudRight

[CharlieH]

Well, the good news, if anything like the builder yards around here, you can take the boards and concrete pole etc back and get that refunded. The excess sand/cement etc, well, guess your stuck with that.

In the past I always order the materials, and if anything order under slightly. easy to add a little but stuffed if over on things like sand/cement, unless you have more work coming up.

[spidermike007]

Having a new veranda built on our home.

We are paying for materials, workers labour only.

Fun and games, worker gives my wife a list of materials, wife shows me. !! what is this !! list for materials darling says the wife, rubbish says i.

I had already calculated quantity of materials required, after 42 years in construction in UK i think i know what is required.

Workers ordered 3 concrete columns, i said 2, workers ordered 2 cube sand 2 cube stone 14 cement.

I said 1.5 cube sand 1.5 cube stone 5oo kilos of cement. 5 cube dry materials/mixed 3.5 cube wet.

Roof sheets workers want 68, i said 60. Steel i said 9 4x2 workers said 13, i said 14 2x1 workers said 8.

Ceiling sheets i said 6, workers said 4. shera wood workers said 100, i said 80.

Quess who my wife listened to, me or workers?

Easy she listened to (rice farmers) workers.

Now we have 1 concrete column left 5 cement 3/4 cube sand 3/4 cube.

8 roof sheets , 22 shera wood.

We had to order 4 more 4x2 steel, 5 more 2x1 steel, 2 more ceiling sheets.

What a bloody fiasco, but darling workers said, i listened, why you not listen to your husband, who has more than 40 years experience.

You work in England this is Thailand. So you require the same materials no matter what country it is.

The mind bogols at the logic of Thais, or lack of logic.

Force your wife into admitting her fault. Force her to introspect, and acknowledge the gravity of her error, and the amount of money she cost the family. Force her to apologize and to promise she will never side with a fool again, over a trusted spouse. Only in this way will she grow, develop as a human being, and improve as a person and a spouse. This kind of thing is very painful for a Thai, as introspection is not something they like to engage in. But, it works. I have used it, and it works.

[ThaiRich]

They had you order extra everything so there would be something to steal. They way you worked it out there was nothing for them.

[pigeonjake]

we are just having these 2 guest rooms built, i orderd all the materials, the builders like it that way,

im over on a few bags of cement and a little sand, but ill use them up doing something around here,

col mate if thats all you have to worry about you arnt having a bad life mate, enjoy your new veranda,

im having the 2 guest rooms built hopefully for paying guests to come and have a look at a thai falang working farm, and ask me questions on how to get things running with pigs,chickens ducks and fish, ive made a few mistakes along the way, maybe ill be able to help other not to,

can tell them the prices for building works ect,

we all know the score man meets girl and they want to start a farm, well come and stay here for a week or 2 to see if its your kind of life,,lol

take care all

jake

[colinneil]

we are just having these 2 guest rooms built, i orderd all the materials, the builders like it that way,

im over on a few bags of cement and a little sand, but ill use them up doing something around here,

col mate if thats all you have to worry about you arnt having a bad life mate, enjoy your new veranda,

im having the 2 guest rooms built hopefully for paying guests to come and have a look at a thai falang working farm, and ask me questions on how to get things running with pigs,chickens ducks and fish, ive made a few mistakes along the way, maybe ill be able to help other not to,

can tell them the prices for building works ect,

we all know the score man meets girl and they want to start a farm, well come and stay here for a week or 2 to see if its your kind of life,,lol

take care all

jake

Jake i would love to come, only 1 snag!! You have wheelchair access?

As i am now paralysed from the chest down, it is difficult to go anywhere.

[Berkshire]

Please re-title thread. Husband knows nothing.

Agree. This thread has nothing to do with farangs and Thais. The wife doesn't believe the husband. You would think the wife would know him best.

[Soutpeel]

Having a new veranda built on our home.

We are paying for materials, workers labour only.

Fun and games, worker gives my wife a list of materials, wife shows me. !! what is this !! list for materials darling says the wife, rubbish says i.

I had already calculated quantity of materials required, after 42 years in construction in UK i think i know what is required.

Workers ordered 3 concrete columns, i said 2, workers ordered 2 cube sand 2 cube stone 14 cement.

I said 1.5 cube sand 1.5 cube stone 5oo kilos of cement. 5 cube dry materials/mixed 3.5 cube wet.

Roof sheets workers want 68, i said 60. Steel i said 9 4x2 workers said 13, i said 14 2x1 workers said 8.

Ceiling sheets i said 6, workers said 4. shera wood workers said 100, i said 80.

Quess who my wife listened to, me or workers?

Easy she listened to (rice farmers) workers.

Now we have 1 concrete column left 5 cement 3/4 cube sand 3/4 cube.

8 roof sheets , 22 shera wood.

We had to order 4 more 4x2 steel, 5 more 2x1 steel, 2 more ceiling sheets.

What a bloody fiasco, but darling workers said, i listened, why you not listen to your husband, who has more than 40 years experience.

You work in England this is Thailand. So you require the same materials no matter what country it is.

The mind bogols at the logic of Thais, or lack of logic.

Force your wife into admitting her fault. Force her to introspect, and acknowledge the gravity of her error, and the amount of money she cost the family. Force her to apologize and to promise she will never side with a fool again, over a trusted spouse. Only in this way will she grow, develop as a human being, and improve as a person and a spouse. This kind of thing is very painful for a Thai, as introspection is not something they like to engage in. But, it works. I have used it, and it works.

why not take the whip out beat her, chain her to table and withhold rations as well, your dealing with an adult not a child, how perfectly arrogant of you

I suggest we do something similar for farangs...dunce cap and sit the corner facing the wall, based on a lot of the response on TV going to need a big wall and a lot of dunce caps...

[MaeJoMTB]

Please re-title thread. Husband knows nothing.

Agree. This thread has nothing to do with farangs and Thais. The wife doesn't believe the husband. You would think the wife would know him best.

When my misses wants to do stuff her way and I want to do it my way,

Problem solved very easily, I just say your way, you pay!

[Pheat123]

who is the boss in your house?,the wife ,the workers or you,

you knew you were correct in the quantities of materials you

needed,why did you not put your foot down,you were paying

i would think.

regards Worgeordie

Who is the boss in our house !! I am paralysed from the chest down. So i cannot get around to do things myself !!

Don't fall out with the wife or you will,be brown bread

[pigeonjake]

we are just having these 2 guest rooms built, i orderd all the materials, the builders like it that way,

im over on a few bags of cement and a little sand, but ill use them up doing something around here,

col mate if thats all you have to worry about you arnt having a bad life mate, enjoy your new veranda,

im having the 2 guest rooms built hopefully for paying guests to come and have a look at a thai falang working farm, and ask me questions on how to get things running with pigs,chickens ducks and fish, ive made a few mistakes along the way, maybe ill be able to help other not to,

can tell them the prices for building works ect,

we all know the score man meets girl and they want to start a farm, well come and stay here for a week or 2 to see if its your kind of life,,lol

take care all

jake

Jake i would love to come, only 1 snag!! You have wheelchair access?

As i am now paralysed from the chest down, it is difficult to go anywhere.

col i know you are mate,

in fact i think ill put a ramp in, so if you want to come and look at a farm working, with a thai lady and falang man come along, but we just arnt there yet, another month or so and we will be ready for guests,

a good tidy up after the building work, ive started a bit of a web page, not much in that to see yet, just pics of me and the family on the farm and a bit of how we got started,

ill pm you when we are ready,

you take care Col

jake

[marko kok prong]

Colin,i used to get this all the time,now i don't stress and let them get on with it ,we always have bits of steel,and stuff leftover,but they always come in handy for something in the garden,mate hard as it is just remember you are retired now ,not running a construction site.

[NickJ]

You have it left.....wow thats a first....majes one wonder.

[marko kok prong]

Yes ,i always survey what is left on the last day and remove it to a safe location,my builder is very good and actually a family friend,but it's the labourers who are prone to walk of site with leftovers.

[Gecko123]

Farangs know nothing?

No, no. Shultz knows nothing.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Gecko123

[angiolo]

I constantly have to argue with my G/F . She will listen to gossip from uneducated clowns around us and what they say is gospel . Such as how much he should give you each month. Why has he not bought you a house. Of course they know everything and I am ignorant. Really pisses me off.