Thread: Traditional thai wood house build...

Speaking of looking at yards for used wood, does anyone know where the yards might be located in the Udon Thani area? Not sure if the government yards are more reasonable than the private ones. This might be worth looking into as well.

Thanks

Thanks for the info Dr andy much appreciated.
BD

Agreed........It depends on what you are looking for and how much effort you are willing to put into it. Also how much time you have to research. I think both of you have taken the best approach for your particular needs. For me, I will be looking at both approaches to compare since I have the time. So far it is making the most sense to look at the yards for posts and building wood. If I want teak, I will take if from a house and more than likely wind up with some of the posts and buidling wood and may have to buy some wood from the yards to complete the build. Different strokes for different folks I guess, but I do agree that one has to seek out all the options to find the best solution. Once I start to build the actual structure, I will start my own thread to let everyone know what I have decided. It is great to have all of you giving your ideas and offering solutions I never even knew about or thought of. For now, I will be expanding my pond and begin the hunt for old houses, wood yards and a reliable builder. No small task........

Originally Posted by benlovesnuk

but in this process i have found even cheaper ways to make wood buildings. But these I will keep for myself at this time

make them smaller?

Not smaller, as such, I suppose traditional ie. Not western.

Our place is massive,(well for us anyway) this is my first house, as I'm a youngster so have only had flats etc before.

We have about 320 sqm but with room to add more as and when.

The secret is tied into the more you look the more you find.

Sounds like you did a lot of looking......

More photos please Ben.
BD

more pics of the house as requested.



some up floor shots:







And there we go we have stopped for now, the roof is on and most of the floor is complete. We are working on some change of plans to move the back section kitchen into the main building and turn this space into 2 bed and 2 ensuites.This will give views of Doi suthep and the mountian from the bedrooms sitting on top of each other, they will overlook the back garden and mountains. So we are getting the architect to draw something up in January and then hopefully when we find some wood we like that we will fill the walls, windows and doors with.

We hope to start work again in feb/march funds willing, and then more pics and more information to boot.

over and out until the new year. cheers

Looks like your house is coming along! Please keep in mind that if the house is going to sit there while the funds accumulate, some of the wood will attract insects.

Good pics and I hope you are able to resume construction soon. You are doing a great job so far and look forward to your progress.

Thanks for the photos Ben, I am just doing some calculations for our house what spacings have you got for the floor supports ?
Thanks once again BD

Good pics and I hope you are able to resume construction soon. You are doing a great job so far and look forward to your progress.[/quote]

i wish,
i think a traditional teak house is far better ,
than the barret type modern houses .

Originally Posted by hillbilly

Looks like your house is coming along! Please keep in mind that if the house is going to sit there while the funds accumulate, some of the wood will attract insects.

Cheers Hillbilly i like what you've done with your places and have watched your threads wit interest.
The main builder is a good friend and lives only 800 m away he looks after the place and checks for intruders, of all kinds, and we make sure he gets paid appropriately.

We are hoping to start again in the new year, but we are using 30-40 year old teak on a lot of the house, so its not too big a risk.

cheers anyway.

Originally Posted by bankao dreamer

Thanks for the photos Ben, I am just doing some calculations for our house what spacings have you got for the floor supports ?
Thanks once again BD

Hang on, let me recap in my head ........ok.

Between the width of the house the spans are 2.5 m, but length ways they range from 2.5 to 3 m, which runs pretty much how the old house did. We had to change the width of the house, because we only had a certain width to the land and needed to leave 1.5 meter to the perimeter. The floor joists themselves i have no idea this was down to the builder and i wasnt there at the end to see this done, but to guess from the picture about 35-38 cm to each joist.

I love the floor, and all the floorboards have been re planed and toungue and grooved for better fitting without spaces.

hope this helps?

cheers to everyone for the interest. I was 26 when i started this and i think it will be getting close to my 28th when we finish completely, but its been a very fantastic journey.

Yes Ben thanks for the info I wouldnt worry about how long its taken you, I would look forward to the years of pleasure you and your family will enjoy living there.
BD

Thanks to everyone for their comments and help, It means a lot to have 5 stars to this thread. I dont think its for my story or exciting dialogue so i must presume is for the house, in which case i thank you all. We hope to finish sometime in summer 2011 and when we do i will post a lot more pics.

cheers have a merry xmas and happy new year.

Originally Posted by bart

i think a traditional teak house is far better , than the barret type modern houses .

obviously, but the choice is much wider than that!

I really like the idea of taking proven building materials that the Thai's have used over centuries and then tweaking them to suit our needs like Ben, Dr. A and others. Teak was surely the building material of choice when it was readily available decades ago, but now it is overpriced. Really do like the grain of teak and the fact that it repels termites, but there are a lot of other hard woods that can work as building materials. Looking at some of the building threads will show the use of these woods and materials. Personally, I would like to use as much wood as possible and that my pocketbook will allow, but I think we can learn a lot from local builders and how they have used what was available. There are now some good alternatives and upgrades that I plan to use but keep the overall floorplan of a typical Thai house. Farangs do have something to offer by bringing technology and building practices that can improve on the typical Thai house. I hope to create a hybrid like many have to be comfortable, keep the electric bill down and have a small ecological footprint.
Great work Ben.....

Originally Posted by rickschoppers

I really like the idea of taking proven building materials that the Thai's have used over centuries and then tweaking them to suit our needs [...]

I also like the traditional layout of the Thai house because its suits well the tropical climate. I like wood but must wooden Thai houses are too dark inside.

The main problem in Thailand with Teak and other hardwood is that there are no sustainable resources available. To my knowledge there is no single FCS-labelled Teak or other wood plantation in Thailand.

Exactly my point. Teak is nice and a good building material, but now we rely on recycled teak that Thais obtain from old houses, rice barns, bridges, etc. Since we farangs seem to be the ones who drive the demand, the Thai's have figured out to raise its worth to a level where only westerners are the buyers. So we need to look for something else with similar qualities but without the inflated expense.

Hello, Once again we have found the money to hopefully finish off what we started, so bear with me as will be heading back in February for building to commence.

In the menatime i was wondering if anyone had any advice on electrics?

Can you get someone from the Thai electrical board to come and do your electrics, or to either check the electricians wire/Earthed standard they should now be practising or is this not possible?

Does anyone have any other advice on this.

We will have:
Bathroom:
2 bathrooms 2 shower heaters 3.5kw
Kitchen:
2 fridge (1 up, 1 down)
Rice cooker
Lounges:
2 pc
1 laptop
Wireless router
3 tvs (all led lcd tv) (2 in bedrooms)

All lights will be led g10 3 watts, everywhere in the house.

Many thanks as the electrics is the one thing i just cant seem to get my head around??????

cheers

ON with the build.......

Check out jandajoy. he is having the electrics done on his build now Ben. The thread is called BUYING SOME WOOD TO EXTEND THAI HOUSE.