Thai-style Wooden House, Self-build

[rods]

Hi everyone.

We are intending to build a modest (1-2 bed, lounge, kitchen) wooden house on land in Chantaburi. We will be doing this on a pretty tight budget so are looking for (hopefully local) suppliers of 2nd-hand construction timber. In addition, I would like to do most of the work myself. I know this may sound odd to many people considering local labour costs but I'm a carpenter myself and it's what I enjoy. We'll hire labourers for the hhe hole digging, heavy lifting, etc; I've done enough of that in this life!

I'm wondering if anyone reading this has actually built their own house (as opposed to having one built.) If so, did you engage a Thai carpenter to help you or did you go it alone and figure out the Thai joinery techniques yourself? (If so, do you know of any good resources on the subject apart from the book 'The Thai House'?) Or did you use farang joinery methods? Where did you get your wood and how much did it cost you? Importantly, what are the pitfalls? (there always are!) I'd be very interested to hear about your self-build experiences or if you know of a 2nd hand timber supplier in Chantaburi that would be great.

Thanks a lot

Rods

[chownah]

Rods,

I built my house myself.....by this I mean that I made all the decisions about what materials would be used and the sizes of beams etc. I also did a portion of almost all of the different types of work but did not do all of any of the types of work. The house is reinforced concrete post and beam on the first floor with concrete block infill walls and wood beams holding up the second floor and all wood above except for one end of the building where there is a bathroom on the second floor so that portion of the second floor is concrete beams and concrete block infill walls like the first floor.

The basic design is the local style so the carpenters I hired used all the local joining techiniques.....I live in the north and around here there is not just one way to make structural joints as I have discovered by looking at various houses. The people I hired were all my neighbors or family and there construction experience is mostly in the immediate area so they all learn the same techniques, some of which I found to be not to my liking. It was very difficult for me to upgrade certain aspects of the design in that I was newly married at the time and my wife did not know whether my ideas were good ones or not and the workers tended to think that anything different was not a very good idea so I had to learn how to slowly (over a period of a couple of weeks) suggest my ideas and then think of ways to calm down the wife and encourage the workers......if you do all of the work yourself you probably won't have this type of problem but I thought I should mention it because even if you want to hire a Thai laborer you may find that it is more difficult to explain what you want than you think because they may have a rigid idea about what it is you want and they are so sure that they know what you want (EVERYONE wants it that way) that they might not even listen very carefully to your explanation and instructions but yet indicate in everyway that they understand you fully...nodding head and smiling reassuringly.

Anyway it took me awhile to figure out how to get my ideas across and I discovered that some workers really couldn't accept the fact that I wanted them to do it my way so I eventually stopped employing them...but even ending their employment with me was a problematic thing since they must save face in the process and if there is any hint that they are leaving because you judge there work to be inadequate then they will make sure that everyone knows how deficient you are in your ideas and personal interactoins and how unreasonable you are etc. etc. etc. You should avoid this type of reaction if possible....perhaps its not good to imply to any worker at the outset that you want to always hire them as a semi steady thing....maybe its better to just hire people for a day for a discreet task and then let it simmer and then hire someone else the next time if you have access to many different laborers. Its not possible to really explain how to handle this...every situation is different so I'm just giving you a heads up and I hope you can figure it out yourself.

Its a huge topic you have started and I don't have time spill my guts all at once so perhaps more later.

Chownah

[Farma]

I came across an interesting Thai website recently with all kinds of house designs. It had plans from single bedroom up to rows of shophouses. I think it was a government site. You could download the plans for free and they gave an estimate of the build cost for each plan. I will try to find it again and post the link.

[Farma]

Here's the link I mentioned above. http://www.dtcp.go.th/workinfo/house_model/doc_house.html

The site is all in Thai. It's not too hard to click around and find what you are looking for.

[soic]

Here's a picture of the house that my wife built for us. She hired a contractor and told him and his 3 buddies exactly how to build it. We've done some of the work on it ourselves too. It's been a fun project. We have one more room to add on and the garden between that new room and the carport, then we're finished. We talked about building a new and bigger home, but neither one of us want to leave this one.

[TLloyd]

Very nice. I like it very much. Can you give us an idea of how many bedrooms, baths & square footage or meters. Also, If I may be so bold, can you give us a ballpark figure on the construction costs, excluding the land. If that last question is out of line, please forgive me.

[rods]

Here's the link I mentioned above. http://www.dtcp.go.th/workinfo/house_model/doc_house.html

The site is all in Thai. It's not too hard to click around and find what you are looking for.

Thanks, Farma.

[soic]

Very nice. I like it very much. Can you give us an idea of how many bedrooms, baths & square footage or meters. Also, If I may be so bold, can you give us a ballpark figure on the construction costs, excluding the land. If that last question is out of line, please forgive me.

It's a 2 bedroom right now, once we build the additional section in the back of the lot on the right side, it will be 3 bedrooms. That addition will be an entertaining room with a bed that will fold into a cabinet on one wall. I can't wait to start on that part. I don't honestly know how many square feet it is. My total investment in the land, the materials, fixtures, furniture, appliances basically the whole package...$50,000 usd. That's the gates, carport, flowers and trees too... I don't really know how to break it down into just the house.

Edited December 24, 2006 by soic

[chownah]

There is an internet site called "coolthiahouse" that you should check out. Some of the things they say don't coincide exactly with my experience but I think its a good source of information.

Using used wood is good since most new wood I have found is still green and subject to shrinkage. The best quality construction wood around here shrinks alot when drying and additionally will shrink and swell alot from season to season. I have doors that open quite freely in the dry season but are a friction fit in the wet season. The best quality construction woods are very hard and so you have to drill a pilot hole for them first and then nail them.

Using wood on the first floor has the problem that insects which eat wood have easy access. The termites here will build "tunnels" of dirt along concrete surfaces and even up to the second floor if given a chance and left to their own devices so we keep an eye out for such tunnel building and destroy the tunnel and eradicate the nest if possible. Having wood on the first floor makes it more crucial that you keep an eye out for these tunnels. There are insects that may come with the wood too so you need to keep an eye out for these when building. We just discovered that there was some small bug eating one of our wooden support beams so we bought some Shelldrite (paint on poison) and gave the beam a coat...I don't really like this stuff but it seems like around here you either use it or you are occasionally needing to replace wood. Old wood should be an advantage here too since if it survived then it is probably so hard that insects will tend to leave it alone.

Chownah

[guardian]

One of the TV members, Colonel_Mustard has posted pictures of his Thai house in various stages of completion in the Gallery section. Thought it might be useful to you.

Here's the link

[tutsiwarrior]

I further chownah's suggestion to check out coolthaihouse.com...lots of good info. I wouldn't live in a traditional thai house meself as they are horribly uncomfortable and the interior ambient temperature cannot be controlled...pretty much of a shack on stilts...you got to be comfortable with the outside ambient...but, if one is prepared for this eventuality, then cool...

[pumpuiman]

Here's the link I mentioned above. http://www.dtcp.go.th/workinfo/house_model/doc_house.html

The site is all in Thai. It's not too hard to click around and find what you are looking for.

I had this house built from the government plans. I added a bedroom and changed the entryway and carport, added foam insulation and some other improvements. The quality of the house is excellent. Thanks for the website farma, I had to copy the plans from a book!!

[pumpuiman]

There's the house.....got my uploading sorted out!

[maprao]

Here's the link I mentioned above. http://www.dtcp.go.th/workinfo/house_model/doc_house.html

The site is all in Thai. It's not too hard to click around and find what you are looking for.

This site is excellent. I am 80% complete on building a house from this site. The plans do not include foundation details though! So you need a good builder to overcome that one Even if they all dissapeared to harvest the rice last month!

It becomes more expensive as you change the plans. For instance all the electrics are to UK standards well almost!!!! Changed the color of the roof because all farang have blue roofs! Put teak doors in and shutters instead of glass.

I can reccommend this to anyone considering building a house in Thailand. Working out to about $24000 dollars US at the moment. With many upgrades

Your local Amphur will have all the plans in books form there if you do not want to download them plus many more.

Edited December 24, 2006 by maprao

[londonthai]

even if you are on a tight budget do at least 3 bedrooms - extending your house in the future might be difficult or impossible.

thai houses need deep fundation - up to 6 metres beems to reach the steady ground under. Do house on high stilts because of the rainy season water - doing 3 metres stilts will allow you to build an additional bathroom under the house with a washing mashine, a drying area for a laundry, an open air sitting area, a cover for a car/motorbike as well as a storage room or even an additional bedroom.

buy the second hand wood locally - there is a lot of paperwork to be done if you want to bring it from another province. There should be such shop within a few kilometres of your house - they are often on the back, small sois (so ask your neighbours about their address). I have discovered one by chance just by a few sois from my house simply by cycling around the area. However don't buy second hand windows or doors - repairing them might be difficult and replacing them just after a year or two not worth all the hassle.

I would get some help on a semi-permanent basis - local builder will know cheap sources of materials and even do shopping for you to avoid ripping you off by the shop keepers.

[dreamtime]

That house is fantasic! Great job! I want one just like it

S

Here's a picture of the house that my wife built for us. She hired a contractor and told him and his 3 buddies exactly how to build it. We've done some of the work on it ourselves too. It's been a fun project. We have one more room to add on and the garden between that new room and the carport, then we're finished. We talked about building a new and bigger home, but neither one of us want to leave this one.

[wilko]

Very interesting thread....has anyone built a house on rented land?

I'm interested in building a wooden house, using a modular road-transportable construction, and renting a plot for a period of years.

at the end of the priod I would have the option of selling the house seperately to another location.

[SamSipEt]

Very interesting thread....has anyone built a house on rented land?

I'm interested in building a wooden house, using a modular road-transportable construction, and renting a plot for a period of years.

at the end of the priod I would have the option of selling the house seperately to another location.

Be careful with the rental agreement some state that you can move what you have constructed and some say you can't.

[rods]

Rods,

I built my house myself.....by this I mean that I made all the decisions about what materials would be used and the sizes of beams etc. I also did a portion of almost all of the different types of work but did not do all of any of the types of work. The house is reinforced concrete post and beam on the first floor with concrete block infill walls and wood beams holding up the second floor and all wood above except for one end of the building where there is a bathroom on the second floor so that portion of the second floor is concrete beams and concrete block infill walls like the first floor.

The basic design is the local style so the carpenters I hired used all the local joining techiniques.....I live in the north and around here there is not just one way to make structural joints as I have discovered by looking at various houses. The people I hired were all my neighbors or family and there construction experience is mostly in the immediate area so they all learn the same techniques, some of which I found to be not to my liking. It was very difficult for me to upgrade certain aspects of the design in that I was newly married at the time and my wife did not know whether my ideas were good ones or not and the workers tended to think that anything different was not a very good idea so I had to learn how to slowly (over a period of a couple of weeks) suggest my ideas and then think of ways to calm down the wife and encourage the workers......if you do all of the work yourself you probably won't have this type of problem but I thought I should mention it because even if you want to hire a Thai laborer you may find that it is more difficult to explain what you want than you think because they may have a rigid idea about what it is you want and they are so sure that they know what you want (EVERYONE wants it that way) that they might not even listen very carefully to your explanation and instructions but yet indicate in everyway that they understand you fully...nodding head and smiling reassuringly.

Anyway it took me awhile to figure out how to get my ideas across and I discovered that some workers really couldn't accept the fact that I wanted them to do it my way so I eventually stopped employing them...but even ending their employment with me was a problematic thing since they must save face in the process and if there is any hint that they are leaving because you judge there work to be inadequate then they will make sure that everyone knows how deficient you are in your ideas and personal interactoins and how unreasonable you are etc. etc. etc. You should avoid this type of reaction if possible....perhaps its not good to imply to any worker at the outset that you want to always hire them as a semi steady thing....maybe its better to just hire people for a day for a discreet task and then let it simmer and then hire someone else the next time if you have access to many different laborers. Its not possible to really explain how to handle this...every situation is different so I'm just giving you a heads up and I hope you can figure it out yourself.

Its a huge topic you have started and I don't have time spill my guts all at once so perhaps more later.

Chownah

Thanks, Chownah, for your typically helpful advice. We did in fact have a house built in Bangkok some years ago. Modern concrete construction done by builders but I did most of the woodwork myself. So I can certainly relate to what you say about getting on with (or not getting on with!) Thai hired tradesmen. Hiring workers on a temporay basis is certainly a good idea and contracting out the whole job to one firm is a mistake I won't be making again!

[rods]

even if you are on a tight budget do at least 3 bedrooms - extending your house in the future might be difficult or impossible.

thai houses need deep fundation - up to 6 metres beems to reach the steady ground under. Do house on high stilts because of the rainy season water - doing 3 metres stilts will allow you to build an additional bathroom under the house with a washing mashine, a drying area for a laundry, an open air sitting area, a cover for a car/motorbike as well as a storage room or even an additional bedroom.

buy the second hand wood locally - there is a lot of paperwork to be done if you want to bring it from another province. There should be such shop within a few kilometres of your house - they are often on the back, small sois (so ask your neighbours about their address). I have discovered one by chance just by a few sois from my house simply by cycling around the area. However don't buy second hand windows or doors - repairing them might be difficult and replacing them just after a year or two not worth all the hassle.

I would get some help on a semi-permanent basis - local builder will know cheap sources of materials and even do shopping for you to avoid ripping you off by the shop keepers.

Sound advice, Londonthai. Thanks. Though I beg to differ on having 3 bedrooms: our current house has three - we sleep in one and the other two are full of crap we didn't have before we moved in!

[maprao]

Very interesting thread....has anyone built a house on rented land?

I'm interested in building a wooden house, using a modular road-transportable construction, and renting a plot for a period of years.

at the end of the priod I would have the option of selling the house seperately to another location.

This an interesting site for "off the shelf" wooden houses. Wood is expensive especially teak. I paid from 4000 baht to 12000 baht for doors depending on size, design and carving for teak wooden doors for my house.

Anyway the site for the houses is here. You can download a PDF Ctalogue from here also.

http://www.bansongthai.com/

[sbk]

I found this house plan in the Ban Lae Suan magazine, and when I emailed the editor to ask where to buy plans he said that these house plans were free for use and did not require a purchase. I love this house:

[wilko]

Ok - I’m aware of possible pitfalls in leasing contract.

The sort of things I’m thinking about are quite small..... a modern "Darwin" style house, environmentally friendly or something constructed from recycled wood, i.e. buy a Thai house and dismantle it. I used to live in a 100 year old ironbark Queenslander and found it far better suited to a tropical climate than the concrete monstrosities getting built all over Thailand.

[khunandy]

Here's the link I mentioned above. http://www.dtcp.go.th/workinfo/house_model/doc_house.html

The site is all in Thai. It's not too hard to click around and find what you are looking for.

Thanks, Farma.

I am currently having a house built from plans obtained from this website (house number 30). And it is working out to be pretty well in the ball park as far as the recommended pricing goes.

The Thai builder who is handling the project was more than happy to make some plan changes free of charge and now the house is 50% completed I am impressed with the whole thing.

I was lucky enough to have a builder mate in Thailand for a visit when they were doing the foundations and columns..he was impressed with the plans and the specs.

Andy

[RAZZELL]

Here's the link I mentioned above. http://www.dtcp.go.th/workinfo/house_model/doc_house.html

The site is all in Thai. It's not too hard to click around and find what you are looking for.

Thanks, Farma.

I am currently having a house built from plans obtained from this website (house number 30). And it is working out to be pretty well in the ball park as far as the recommended pricing goes.

The Thai builder who is handling the project was more than happy to make some plan changes free of charge and now the house is 50% completed I am impressed with the whole thing.

I was lucky enough to have a builder mate in Thailand for a visit when they were doing the foundations and columns..he was impressed with the plans and the specs.

Andy

If I read that write...the cost is under 2 million...seems cheap

Well done

[DragonQuest]

Jim Thompsons house is very beautiful IMHO I love thai-style house's

[khunandy]

Here's the link I mentioned above. http://www.dtcp.go.th/workinfo/house_model/doc_house.html

The site is all in Thai. It's not too hard to click around and find what you are looking for.

Thanks, Farma.

I am currently having a house built from plans obtained from this website (house number 30). And it is working out to be pretty well in the ball park as far as the recommended pricing goes.

The Thai builder who is handling the project was more than happy to make some plan changes free of charge and now the house is 50% completed I am impressed with the whole thing.

I was lucky enough to have a builder mate in Thailand for a visit when they were doing the foundations and columns..he was impressed with the plans and the specs.

Andy

If I read that write...the cost is under 2 million...seems cheap

Well done

I was quoted 2 mill if I wanted pilons driven into the land before the foundations were poured, I opted for it as the land was backfilled less than a year ago but was I suprised when the concrete pilons were 5 metres long and thumped another metre below ground level, and there were 32 of the things. I dont think that house is going anywhere in a hurry.

Of course the western kitchen and an additional room downstairs were extra but finished, painted, floor coverings (timber) etc it will be 2.2 mill ready to move in.

The other good thing about these plans are that they are all available from the local Amphur wherever you live and the full set of working drawings are free (at least they were for us)

My only concern is that the walls are single brick and I am a bit worried about the isulation properties.

Anyway, it will be finished in May I am assured so we will see.

[NovaBlue05]

What is the size of this model? Is there a place on that site to click that shows floorplans of the various models? I like the style of the model and am interested in finding a base plan that I could make modifications to to create additional space, etc.

[khunandy]

What is the size of this model? Is there a place on that site to click that shows floorplans of the various models? I like the style of the model and am interested in finding a base plan that I could make modifications to to create additional space, etc.

Yes , the floor plans and N,S,E & W elevations are there. When you click on to the house there is a drop down menu in Thai, the drop down menu is floor plans etc. When you get the full set of drawings from the Amphur they are more concise and detailed.

I will be back up to check progress in a few weeks, in the meantime my wife is keeping a beady eye on things and tells me they will start on the roof in the next week or so.

If you are seriously interested in that particular house I dont mind sharing info with you and some of the changes I made to the original layout.

[NovaBlue05]

What is the size of this model? Is there a place on that site to click that shows floorplans of the various models? I like the style of the model and am interested in finding a base plan that I could make modifications to to create additional space, etc.

Yes , the floor plans and N,S,E & W elevations are there. When you click on to the house there is a drop down menu in Thai, the drop down menu is floor plans etc. When you get the full set of drawings from the Amphur they are more concise and detailed.

I will be back up to check progress in a few weeks, in the meantime my wife is keeping a beady eye on things and tells me they will start on the roof in the next week or so.

If you are seriously interested in that particular house I dont mind sharing info with you and some of the changes I made to the original layout.

korp khun khrap, khunandy. lol...I believe that I overlooked the drop down . It seems to be working so now I can take a closer look.