Rubber Trees

[buriramboy]

rubber trees are no problem, all growing well, now the in-laws tell me they need to build a 2 room hut on the land for drying the rubber and doing something else to it that i didn't quite follow, anyway the question is, how big should this hut be, what exactly do they need it for and how much should i be paying to build it (if neccesarry) ??

the land is between buriram and satuek.

[mark131v]

rubber trees are no problem, all growing well, now the in-laws tell me they need to build a 2 room hut on the land for drying the rubber and doing something else to it that i didn't quite follow, anyway the question is, how big should this hut be, what exactly do they need it for and how much should i be paying to build it (if neccesarry) ??

the land is between buriram and satuek.

Hi BB,

good to hear that your trees are doing well. As for the question i will try to answer it though iam no expert myself.

There are a number of reasons for building an hut. Firstly as you mentioned is the drying of the raw latex. You have probably noticed as you drive through the area lots of mats of latex drying outside of buildings or being stored untill they have enough to take to market this however is the final part of the process.

Prior to this the raw latex is tapped from the tree and then accumalated into one place. The liquid at this stage is milk like in appearance and some preservative is now added (cant remember exactly what it was called) This process is quite equipment heavy in that you need lots of pots and trays for the prepared latex to be stored in

After the material has set for a while each individual pot is emptied onto a work top and it is rolled out (almost like pastry but with heavier duty rolling pins!) This is done to get the material to a suitable thickness and ready to be rolled. This is done through a selection of rollers (thicker then thinner and almost like your grannies old mangle in appearance) and can be done by hand (bloody hard work spent a couple of hours doing this and you soon get a sweat on) or you can rig up a motor (tractor) to the system.

This has to be done to each individual mat of latex and it is only after all this is done that the latex is ready for drying. If you are working out in the sticks or a long way from home it makes a lot more sense to do this in situ as the prepared latex is very easy to transport at that stage but you need somewhere to store the machinery and equiptment. As for size well depends how much latex you are going to be processing/storing and to be honest i would leave that to the in laws they will have a pretty good idea of what they need.

Cost wise the only thing i can imagine costing much is the tin for the roof. It sounds like they/you own the land and they will probably use there own timber off the land (that is how my in laws build everything on our/their land) Hope this helps like i said iam no expert but i do have a working knowledge of the process and i think it is pretty reasonable that they would need a building to store equiptment and work from

all the best Mark

[timber]

In the south the rubber latex is generally processed on site. Need as said chemicals rollers and other equipment and a lock up storage area for the movable stuff. Generally have cement block walls. The mats are generally moved home to dry. There is a lot of thief if you leave it on site, even at home the rubber will disappear on occasion. Its worth a lot of money to the rubber people and people who don't tap.

[buriramboy]

thank you for replys, most helpful.

BB

[69_68iou1]

You might want to look at the option of not drying the latex in to sheet and selling it in its liquid form.

It can be stored in oil drums mixed with ammonia so it does not set.

The amount of work you have to do to process the sheet is quite a bit and then you have to dry them making sure that they don't get mold on them.

So I am told it is some times a problem to sell the sheets for the price you want, as mould and not being fully dry lower the grade of the sheet.

Factories can process the latex in to sheets or concentrate a lot more efficiently and smoke/treat them to stop mould than on site and to a higher quality and therefore get a higher price for the product.

My GF parents used to do sheets, but when the plantation got a lot bigger it was not worth the hassle for the extra money. Alot of the bigger plantations seem to be doing this around us. With only the small 5 - 10 rai places making pens as they have the time and need all the cash they can get.

[buriramboy]

just to update, they are now building a hut 9 x 12 m, consisting of 2 rooms, all in for 34,000 baht, sounded reasonable to me, so just paid it (hope i did the right thing!!!!).

Also apparantly they want someone to stay there at night as the land is about 3km outside the village just to keep an eye on it, to make sure no-one damages the trees, it is 36 rai of rubber trees, i've got more land (or my daughter has) than i thought i had.

BB

[chownah]

Buriramboy,

Great!!! Looks like the 500 baht per sq. metre house is still possible in Thailand!!!

Chownah

[buriramboy]

they had the wood already, from when they cleared the land, so i think the 34k is just for a concrete floor some bricks and a roof and labour (as you can tell i know f-all about building), anyway they say it will only take 2 or 3 weeks, so i'll post a photo when i see the finished product and you can then tell me if 34k was a good deal or not.

Cheers BB

[guyshown]

last week I bought 50 sheets of tin roof. The price was 105 baht a sheet for 6 foot sheets silver or white as they say. 7 foot sheets were 122 baht a sheet just for your info. best wishes