Thread: Building a house in Nakon Ratchasima province(Isaan)

Originally Posted by showupman

they werent happy on the beginnings and said,no problem you can add as many powerpoints as you want....yeah for about 600Bht one piece and cheap shit....lol..
the whole electrical layout on the original was crap anyway.....and me as a sparky would never trust a thai sparky....have seen enough of it......

well on the end it was all good...you have to keep up with construction flow and we can give you no warranty for the electrical work they said....no worries mate i said.....

Ya very lucky you are a Tradesman and can do ya own Spark work.

Most are held hostage to the Chicken Heads and have Zero recourse when Somchai does a dodgy Job.

When I had my house built the coonts would never put things where I wanted them ie electrical, toilet, doors etc. They used to believe farang knows nothing. A house build for me was a nightmare.

^

I respect guys like you mate simply because I could not deal with the stress involved with a new house build here in this shit house.

On the other hand I'd love to do a reno, I would do most of it myself and contract and watch over the chicken head coonts as needed.

Originally Posted by terry57

On the other hand I'd love to do a reno, I would do most of it myself and contract and watch over the chicken head coonts as needed

Terry you can watch them all you like but when given the chance they will do things their way. This is Thailand and things are done the Thai way.

Just had my house painted inside and out. The guys claimed they worked prior in BKK. Don't they all?
First day on the job they wanted sellotape to mask off the areas for painting. Sellotape, 2 inch wide, was what they used in BKK so they said. I bought them the white paper masking tape and told them to use that as it's what it was intended for. They were uncomfortable using it and towards the end of the job gave up on it and did things free hand.

Hey Show, great to see a new building thread! Good luck and hope all goes well. Keep em coming

^^

I painted my own Gaff in Bangkok, three different colors and not a drop of paint spilt, gaff taped of properly and drop sheets spread.

The head maintenance Chicken Head came in and nearly had a heart attack.

He said, oh you Color technician. ???? Velly good job.

Fook off Chicken Head.

On the other hand my Handbag contracted a Thai to paint her Gaff inside and out, I was rather shitting myself because it was a big job and the agreed cost was high.

I thought, fook me, he will spill paint everywhere and use cheap shit paint for sure.

So we front up a week later and him and his wife were just finishing off the outside wall.

Bloody wonderful professional job they had done using top quality paint. No over spill and great detail taken.

I could not of done a better job.

So there ya go, it's a dogs breakfast in this shit house and ya just never now how things will pan out.

Big problem being this, when retard Somchai fooks up us Farang have very little recourse.

Realising and accepting this is the key to the game.

thxs for all the replies...

my grey hair grew a lot more during the house-built....and yes it was-still stressful sometimes to deal with them....my wife translates it to thai...and then back to english.....
its better i forgot a lot of thai in the last couple of years(went to school almost a year in bkk)i reckon its better otherwise Somchai and team wouldnt be very happy with me..

still couldnt manage to upload my updated drawings,looks like only jpg. are allowed...have to scan them first then....

there is fair a bit of things i want to share,help others,tell what happend with us,people who want to build a house....etc...whether to go with PD HOUSE or not.

i dont want that someone just goes with PD while seeing stuff here(i think it happend before-not me,someone else)

we would get 10'000-20'000Bht from PD if we could bring them another customer.
at this stage i would not recommend to build with PD....
(pro's and contra later......)


we had to cancel-hold back nearly everything we ordered early October.
Kitchen,in built furniture,air con,beds,curtains,ceiling fans, dining table and so on.

talked with PD in august if its possible to finish inside,yes no worries again from them....
as soon as we left for bkk they left too for months,no one here.....because of a huge house in korat(more money)

ive got friends from switzerland who come over mid january,they cant sleep in the new house with us.....we have to stay in my wifes parents house...just annoying.....

confronted back then the foreman and he said there is no work here....what a f@#* head he is....
we told him to paint everything again indoors and fix ceilings,walls before laminate comes.....no hearings....


.....so try to upload some pics....

they just done the laminate and the steps last week...external contractors which have done a very good job indeed,in very happy with their work
there are some good tradesman here but it is a rarity.......

Originally Posted by terry57

and me as a sparky would never trust a thai sparky

yes mate,ive seen enough here and they coudnt handle it anyway how and what i wanted...

I told them I wanted 3 wires with a green earth - so I ended up with 2 wires , one of them green

classic one....

I paid someone else to come later and fix it as in the upper roof space it was typical thai , twisted wires and shortest distance and gpo's and lights on the same circuits

..and probably on 32A breaker....

a lot of the plumbing fittings etc , you are likely to replace after a year or so , as somchai will buy the cheapest and fit them with chewing gum[/quote]

a lot of truth in here too....

Originally Posted by showupman

They just done the laminate and the steps last week...external contractors which have done a very good job indeed,in very happy with their work
there are some good tradesman here but it is a rarity.......

There are indeed top class contractors here who perform work to Western standards, the huge problem is sourcing them.

The other problem is most of them are working on major projects getting paid decent money so don't fuk around doing the small shit.

I've stopped and watched Electricians wiring the new downstairs of MBK Bangkok.

All steel Conduit, properly color coded wires and really nice clean work being done.

Trouble is in this shit house, any dumb arse Somchai can pass himself as anything he wants to be with no recourse.

Us Farang are simply quite powerless over these Somchai coonts, once they have fooked it up it's a tad late innit.

And Somchai fooks his own over as well so it's not only us.

Originally Posted by baldrick

I told them I wanted 3 wires with a green earth - so I ended up with 2 wires , one of them green.

Somchai done the same to me in my Gaff.

My Fault as I did not actually watch him.

Learned a big lesson right there.

signed our house contract in october in bkk 2013,they came to our land and tested the ground....
a couple of different tests around site.....

the result came out(a couple of weeks later) that it must be piled down.......hammering about 17 poles into the ground.......

of course it cant be without ceremony......

the pighead tasted nice.....

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

When I had my house built the coonts would never put things where I wanted them ie electrical, toilet, doors etc. They used to believe farang knows nothing. A house build for me was a nightmare.

i had the same problem from the very beginning-its still present...he wont admit...

at the moment im watching the foreman working his bum off with his wife.....
a very very uncommon situation,he has never worked that much in the whole building time,than the last few days ......

PD wanted another payment straight after the laminat guy left...i only saw his car leaving-....and an 1hour later PD rung up......been in bkk with my wife....

2.last payment:still a big chunk

paintings in and outside finished,all floors done,laminat and steps done,dont even speak from missing plastering at some places and groutings in the bathrooms,frames around the windows and doors missing(dont know how to call them proper)tiles not straight,had to be changed,some places dont have a primer paintings on etc,etc........

so last tuesday,PD woman came with the paper,we said we not gonna pay,its not finished.....still a big mouth we told her to come to the house and have a look..
she went quite very quicklymade a lot of pictures,rung to office in korat...
we said once all this things are done we gonna pay nr.6 payment,not before......

as it looks the foreman needs some money too and probably got a big pineapple from the boss......

he deserves it....

more pictures from current state:

THAI PRECISION WORK






the mosaic looks straight(angle of camera)but the tiles behind where the dunny is going is out of whack big times....

2 days ago(22.12.16)

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Originally Posted by terry57

On the other hand I'd love to do a reno, I would do most of it myself and contract and watch over the chicken head coonts as needed

Terry you can watch them all you like but when given the chance they will do things their way. This is Thailand and things are done the Thai way.

so true,you just turn your back and the damage is done......

so here we go,i finally managed it without scanning.......
there are only minor changes made......

...well that didnt happen,far away from.
we asked why nothing happens that long and they said we still waiting for approvals and bla bla bla....it could take another couple of months....

we said no and cancelled the whole thing-put the house built on ice..mothball it until we want a restart.......
my wife was busy with our little boy,back in feb.14...half year old
in hindsight,it was a good decision we made,my wife had all the time to look after the baby and not to worry about the house build.

so i went back to AUS again on a big project,doing FIFO until november 2015

resigned the contract,end of november 2015 with asking them that we dont want to wait that long until construction will begin.....
no problem,we have all the paperwork done already......and a crew gonna start with the piling early January 2016......

alright bring it on,cant wait anymore......

the price of the house went up too from oct 2013 to nov.15 due to inflation and higher material cost(what a rubbish)
popular house-so charge more-get more profit.....

not much we could do,this year,im sure its more expensive,so will be next year.......and each folling one.....

me,my wife and our son went to switzerland until mid february to visit family and friends......
(not this time)..... it doesnt feel like xmas here in isaan village.......

so we got updates via my wifes" LINE "
mid december,they marked out the place,and early january they delivered the piles to whack down into the ground.....

all good,isnt it??!!!! the show is running..... finally.....

.....not long after the piles arrived and the truck with the rig,the neighbor put a complaint in...
"i get cracks in my house,my house gonna fall down etc..etc....its not payed off yet bla bla bla...u cant whack this piles down.........and so on......

they had several meetings with the neighbors(not only the one in the picture)
people involved:

neighbors,the boss of the village,PD representatives and my dad in law was there as substitute for us......

all the paperwork was in place(i think we are the only one in town who have that)

several phone calls between thailand and CH(switzerland)......

PD said we have to change the way to put this piles down.get a big drill-truck,drill them down,put the piles in and fill em all up with concrete,its gonna cost you an additional 100'000 BHT- but we give you 30'000 BHT discount

it looks as the white one is me........

my wife was somehow good with going ahead first with all the sh#% what went down so far...in town...

i said"there is no way im paying any cent more for that.not my problem if they have that problem not executing the way which was supposed to go."

we had a good look in the contract(my wife)and some serious talk beteen us2,she rung up PD and said:
thats all you can do for us,it doesnt say anything in the contract that we have to pay more....does it????
we're not gonna pay,you pay,or you have to come up with another solution---end --

after several phone calls after, they sent us an approved drawing with the new foundation layout,without any additional cost....
out of the blue sky.....coincidence...!!!!???

...while we were still in CH they started to dig the place out....and put the foundation in......

yeah they started,we cant believe it,its actually happening.....or only fake pics???

we gonna see it by our self in a couple of weeks.....

...a couple of trucks arriving in town with the prefabricated structures for the house....

i still love that from PD HOUSE...i have to say that,brilliant......(system from PCC)-

PROSPERITY CONCRETE Co,.Ltd.













beeing delivered .......

as im not a big fan of earth rods(as the thais do-if they do it at all-or in AUS its common there in domestic house building),i applied the system-what they do in CH...as good as i could......

attach a big rio bar(a whole system)as the rio mesh of the foundation is and bring a link out where ever you need an earth....

to my main board,to connect to the sat dish(pole) and the perimeter wall later ,metal roof gutter etc.........like a spidernet in the ground....









i have about 7 or 8 points all up.....some may call it overkill...i dont care....

attached 2 pics how this system works, before i start......





so thats it for today-tonight......

wish you all a merry X-mas