Panicked residents flee as Samut Prakan homes tilt on foundations

[webfact]

Panicked residents flee as Samut Prakan homes tilt on foundations

By The Nation

 

 

SAMUT PRKARN: -- Residents of a Samut Prakan housing estate are seeking urgent government assistance after sudden subsidence around midnight on Monday left eight townhouses visibly tilting with cracks in walls, beams and pillars.

 

Waritha Doundsungnoen, 50, who was among 20 residents of the Saeng Tawan Housing Estate in Bang Sao Thong district who had to flee their homes in the middle of night, said her family’s sleep was interrupted by what sounded “like rats running around the ceiling”, followed by loud cracking and the whole house shaking. 

 

“We ran outside and saw that our neighbours were doing the same,” she said.

 

Once the din subsided, they went back inside to investigate and realised that their houses had tilted backwards and had cracks running through the infrastructure. 

 

Waritha said she bought her house 12 years ago and had never before had subsidence problems. One other house in the neighbourhood did suffer slight subsidence previously and was being repaired, she said. 

 

“My family members and our neighbours have been adversely affected and we need help and shelter,” she said, urging authorities to provide aid. 

 

Disaster prevention and mitigation officials in Tambon Bang Sao Thong assessed the damage on Tuesday morning and summoned inspectors and aid agencies. 

 

The neighbourhood was sealed off to safeguard against injury in the event any buildings collapse.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30320433

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-07-11

[snoop1130]

Families flee homes as townhouses ‘crack’ and tilt

By The Nation

 

 

Families fled their homes into the street for safety on Monday night after subsidence caused the foundations to shift, cracking walls and leaving eight townhouses tilting at the Samut Prakan housing estate.

 

The owner of the project on Tuesday promised to repair the homes back to their previous condition. 

 

Some 20 residents had to flee their homes at Saeng Tawan Housing Estate in Bang Sao Thong district as sudden subsidence around midnight on Monday left eight one-storey townhouses visibly tilting with cracks running through the walls. 

 

Waritha Doundsungnoen, 50, who was among the affected residents, said her family’s sleep was disturbed by what sounded “like rats running around the ceiling”, followed by loud cracking and the whole house shaking. 

 

“We ran outside and saw that our neighbours were doing the same,” she said.

 

Suwit Sothipreedawong, the housing estate project's board member, said the incident was caused when the footings of the houses were pushed out of place. This was due to subsidence a few days earlier, which was in the process of being repaired. 

 

He said the project would take responsibility for reparing the eight homes to be “good as new” – which would take up to two months to complete. 

 

The affected residents and their belongings were moved temporarily to newly-built two-storey townhouses on the same estate, until their homes were repaired.

 

Tambon Bang Sao Thong Administrative Organisation president Kasem Saelee said the houses had been sealed off for safety. He said the administrative organisation officials would check on the progress of the repairs periodically and prevent future problems. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30320450

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-7-11

[perthperson]

The people should contact their local District Office and request(insist) a Structural Engineer is appointed to advise. 

[scorecard]

31 minutes ago, perthperson said:

The people should contact their local District Office and request(insist) a Structural Engineer is appointed to advise. 

 

And, there's probably a good chance the footing were sub-standard, so how many more houses in this development are also sitting on sub-standard footings?

 

It that being investigated?

 

As said, an honest structural engineer should now be examining the original plans and the actual construction. 

[trogers]

37 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

And, there's probably a good chance the footing were sub-standard, so how many more houses in this development are also sitting on sub-standard footings?

 

It that being investigated?

 

As said, an honest structural engineer should now be examining the original plans and the actual construction. 

Have to look further than footings. That area needs pile foundation. Built the Seagate factory there in 1988, and the excavator sent in for pilecap construction sank into the soil till the level of the roof of the driving cabin.

[Seismic]

This seems to be a fairly common problem here. The land is not prepared properly for building, not enough foundation columns and not deep enough. Basically many companies are just building moobans on undeveloped ground. You can see the result in many of them, subsidence of driveways and dividing walls, cracking of frontage and gate columns, roofing that leaks. The motto seems to be build cheap and move on. There are well built and planned houses in Europe that have lasted well over a hundred years, here if a house lasts 10 years without needing major renovation, you are lucky.

 

[Golden Triangle]

20 minutes ago, Seismic said:

This seems to be a fairly common problem here. The land is not prepared properly for building, not enough foundation columns and not deep enough. Basically many companies are just building moobans on undeveloped ground. You can see the result in many of them, subsidence of driveways and dividing walls, cracking of frontage and gate columns, roofing that leaks. The motto seems to be build cheap and move on. There are well built and planned houses in Europe that have lasted well over a hundred years, here if a house lasts 10 years without needing major renovation, you are lucky.

 

Many houses in the UK are well over 100 years old, my parents lived in a house that is in the Doomsday book, well old, some of you may have to Google it for an explanation 

[Ruffian Dick]

They'll find more if they google "Domesday" of course.

[scorecard]

4 hours ago, trogers said:

Have to look further than footings. That area needs pile foundation. Built the Seagate factory there in 1988, and the excavator sent in for pilecap construction sank into the soil till the level of the roof of the driving cabin.

 

My mistake, wrong word, should be piling rather than footings.

[Golden Triangle]

1 minute ago, Ruffian Dick said:

They'll find more if they google "Domesday" of course.

Not really as both spellings bring up similar results, but you get my drift 

[williamgeorgeallen]

as if people need more reasons not to build or buy in thailand, not a big deal if your renting, just move to another house and hope it does  not fall down on you.

Edited July 11, 2017 by williamgeorgeallen

[Classic Ray]

 If you are going for new build, better to supervise yourself and have a good architect and structural engineer, paid for by you, not the builder.

[little mary sunshine]

So sad for the families...No doubt

the construction is out of business,

poor owners are just stuck

[KKr]

Wonder how the Builder will repair the houses that have shifted, plaster over the cracks maybe,
or jack up the house and put piles under the foundation (if any) ?
But if that does not work, of course there is Legal recourse towards the architects for planning errors and lack of oversight, the builder for construction errors, etc.
 

[fakename]

Probably built on filled in wet swamp, or even over a filled in pond, filled with garbage! I seen a pond once, felt sorry for the fish and animals that lived there, in the garbage. Came back a couple years later, and there were houses built on top of all that garbage, 

[johncat1]

Thais do not dig down to get to solid ground for their foundations or foundation posts. Instead the build up land with soil sometimes to a ridiculous height which is at least a metre above normal ground level . then they build on it  before it has even compacted. which is why many of their buildings  crack when the land settles 

In the UK we dig down to solid ground before we start building. which is why most of the buildings never crack even after a hundred years

In Thailand you would be lucky not to get cracks after 1 year Nothing is made to last here