Thai Dhupp and Princess Joy's Thai House Build

[dennis4558]

By looking at the pictures your tiling guys are doing an excellent job, I've seen some very poor jobs in a lot of the house I've been to over there. Everything looks like it's coming along very nice, don't want to speed up the finish work. I wish I was that far along.
I had to do some catching up on your site, since I got back I've been busy converting a Ram 3500 pro master cargo van into a camper, I have to have it finished before spring because I have 8 grand kids that like to go camping and it's fun to go with.

[Norton]

Ram 3500 pro master cargo van into a camper,

Good luck. No need for a house when done.

[BoganInParasite]

Noticed this interest in contract payments. Here is mine (will post in my thread as well). Google Translate has left me with a few challenges which I've made educated guesses at.

15% - Building plan approved, contract signed, mobilized to site including delivery of bulk materials for foundations, foundations complete.
10% - Beams, pillar and floors for both level complete.
10% - Roofing complete.
10% - Structural work/walls, water supply/electrical piping complete.
15% - Walls rendered and ceiling complete.
10% - Tiling complete.
10% - Doors and windows complete.
10% - Plumbing, sanitary and electrical complete.
10% - Painting, cleaning and defects clearance complete.

Approximately 70% of the builders profit is in the last payment. My payment schedule doesn't have the incentive for the builder to remedy defects identified in the immediate period after hand-over.

Regards, -BiP

I'm not sure about BiP' build, but for us. K.Pot gave us the initial contract price, and I then divided the work into stages.

Stage payment was an equal sum, and paid only on COMPLETION of the stage (i.e in arrears). Therefore, incentive was built in to encourage completion. The stage completion had to be agreed and both parties sign off before the stage cash was provided.

The first stage, piling and slab was paid equally even though the work was relatively cheap, to give him a little working capital for those ongoing purchases.

The killer clause I included was the retention to be paid 6 weeks AFTER agreed completion to allow for snag list rectifications.

This had a 3- fold effect.
1. it was a large chunk of his profit
2. he only got it once the completion was AGREED and the snagging list was rectified and the time had expired - minimum 6 weeks no matter what, but could extend if snags not fixed.
3. he had an incentive to close out even the last, small work at the same quality to avoid snags which might ultimately delay that last retention payment

That's how we did it, anyway....

[Thai Dhupp]

Noticed this interest in contract payments. Here is mine (will post in my thread as well). Google Translate has left me with a few challenges which I've made educated guesses at.

15% - Building plan approved, contract signed, mobilized to site including delivery of bulk materials for foundations, foundations complete.
10% - Beams, pillar and floors for both level complete.
10% - Roofing complete.
10% - Structural work/walls, water supply/electrical piping complete.
15% - Walls rendered and ceiling complete.
10% - Tiling complete.
10% - Doors and windows complete.
10% - Plumbing, sanitary and electrical complete.
10% - Painting, cleaning and defects clearance complete.

Approximately 70% of the builders profit is in the last payment. My payment schedule doesn't have the incentive for the builder to remedy defects identified in the immediate period after hand-over.

Regards, -BiP

Hi BiP...welcome back!!

He might have 'struggled' a bit after 2 and 3 because the roof can be a biggie - all the trusses, battens, welding, insulation, the roof tiles and of course the labour to do it.

but... lol... he must have worked it out as 'ok' because you are past that now on the build!

Thinking about it...maybe your roof was a little bit less of a biggie - you can see the roof construction my guy had to do - it was a biggie but we had the budget for it because I paid him equally even though some of the early stages were not expensive.

At the end of the day we don't push them too hard on the payment plan and they should speak up if they will hit a snag BEFORE signing - hopefully both want the project to get to the end so fixing / agreeing that contract is pretty important.

so..who's going to finish first - me or you!!?
(kitchen not in the race - we are nowhere near choosing that yet)

[BoganInParasite]

I'm thinking we'll get the hand-over in the second week of January. We're in Bangkok 23-28 December so don't want it this year now. We will likely move in without our kitchen installed. That is looking like third week of January. We are also going to move in without boundary fences, that will be a separate post one day. Regards, BiP

Hi BiP...welcome back!!

He might have 'struggled' a bit after 2 and 3 because the roof can be a biggie - all the trusses, battens, welding, insulation, the roof tiles and of course the labour to do it.

but... lol... he must have worked it out as 'ok' because you are past that now on the build!

Thinking about it...maybe your roof was a little bit less of a biggie - you can see the roof construction my guy had to do - it was a biggie but we had the budget for it because I paid him equally even though some of the early stages were not expensive.

At the end of the day we don't push them too hard on the payment plan and they should speak up if they will hit a snag BEFORE signing - hopefully both want the project to get to the end so fixing / agreeing that contract is pretty important.

so..who's going to finish first - me or you!!?
(kitchen not in the race - we are nowhere near choosing that yet)

[Thai Dhupp]

By looking at the pictures your tiling guys are doing an excellent job, I've seen some very poor jobs in a lot of the house I've been to over there. Everything looks like it's coming along very nice, don't want to speed up the finish work. I wish I was that far along.
I had to do some catching up on your site, since I got back I've been busy converting a Ram 3500 pro master cargo van into a camper, I have to have it finished before spring because I have 8 grand kids that like to go camping and it's fun to go with.

Hi Dennis - welcome back!

Thanks for the comment - yes they have certainly had a lot of tiles to do, and so far its been pretty good

For most of the build, I was a little detached from thinking about completion because I did not want to become 'obsessed' with that and not do my day job but now the end of stage 1 and 2 is in sight, I cannot help but get excited about it

...so if you have not read it for a while there must be a tonne of pages to go!

Good luck with the Project Dodge - we already had a boat-build thread so i hope there is going to be a build thread for that too!?

[Thai Dhupp]

Indeed. I've seen a few myself. While I wouldn't choose that red for my house, I do like the other colours that are often used in other rooms of houses that choose that shade of red for one room. It looks classy (even the red). Looking forward to seeing the rest, TD.

Lol...Nev, I am also looking forward to seeing it, both when I get back there on 21st, and later with ''all the trimmings''

It is the colour I want though, so he's done a good job with it.

[Thai Dhupp]

I'm thinking we'll get the hand-over in the second week of January. We're in Bangkok 23-28 December ...

I sent you a PM re. the above...!

[lom]

Lol...Nev, I am also looking forward to seeing it, both when I get back there on 21st, and later with ''all the trimmings''

Jingle Bells?

[Thai Dhupp]

Jingle Bells?

if shes wearing them...yes!

(she did lat year - pictures to follow)

[Thai Dhupp]

External painting part 2

As i mentioned before...this was the colour we went for....




So now the final coats going on:












Got to find some way to minimise the appearance of the external Air Conditioning units / pipework.

[Thai Dhupp]

External Painting pt 2 - 2

[Thai Dhupp]

External painting pt 2 - 3

[Shutree]

External painting part 2

As i mentioned before...this was the colour we went for....




So now the final coats going on:












Got to find some way to minimise the appearance of the external Air Conditioning units / pipework.

TD,

I continue to follow your very interesting thread. Everything is coming along so well. I think that Magnolia shade is going to look just right. Just my feeling. Others rejoice in electric blue.
You are so right about the aircon units. They just get bolted on and really don't help the aesthetics at all. My own (more modest) plans face the same challenge.

Shu

[Neverna]

How about a half shuttered box that's painted the same colour as the upper wall?

(The box to have a roof to keep the sun and most of the dirt off but with the sides and front half-shuttered to allow air to breath and also arranged to allow the front section to be opened easily)

[Norton]

Got to find some way to minimise the appearance of the external Air Conditioning units / pipework.

Not much you can do now without major rework. Painting the lines same as wall color would help.

[David48atTD]

Ask for a price deduction. Clearly one of the air-cons isn't new ... no carton, no plastic!

Brave choice for the external colour.

[Thai Dhupp]

Ask for a price deduction. Clearly one of the air-cons isn't new ... no carton, no plastic!

Brave choice for the external colour.

lol they were definitely all new David... direct from Daikin...I saw all the boxes last time I was there. You are right to mention it though - that's just the sort of thing unscrupulous builders / electricians might try if the owner is not on site

Colour? but...what should I have gone for? Not white...dirty in 5 minutes! I actually thought this colour went pretty good with the first floor brown but I could be wrong.

Now if you has been referring to the dining room... lol sure not every one would choose red but red IS a classic dining room colour and we do like it....

Wait til the whole room is kitted out

[Thai Dhupp]

TD,

I continue to follow your very interesting thread. Everything is coming along so well. I think that Magnolia shade is going to look just right. Just my feeling. Others rejoice in electric blue.
You are so right about the aircon units. They just get bolted on and really don't help the aesthetics at all. My own (more modest) plans face the same challenge.

Shu

Hi Shu and welcome to the thread at this stage. Glad you have found it interesting. Look forward to reading yours later!

i like the colour, as you say others go a different way. we can always re-paint it later if needed.

Those AC placements do not help but, my question shows the power of this construction community - 2 good ideas from Nev and Norton which i think is the way I will go....

[David48atTD]

Colour? but...what should I have gone for?

Mate, it's all personal choice, but the external colour, I would have thought more a dirty cream.
Something with less of a yellow hue.

That said, it does pick up the 24 carat gold inlays.

Man, you must be minted

[BoganInParasite]

That's basically the same as we went for TD, inside and out. Regards, -BiP

External painting part 2

As i mentioned before...this was the colour we went for....




So now the final coats going on:












Got to find some way to minimise the appearance of the external Air Conditioning units / pipework.

[lom]

How about a half shuttered box that's painted the same colour as the upper wall?

I guess you've never seen the inside of an aircon outdoor unit, you can't box it in.
The radiator occupies all space on 3 side of the unit and the 4th side is almost completely taken up by the fan.

[Thai Dhupp]

I guess you've never seen the inside of an aircon outdoor unit, you can't box it in.
The radiator occupies all space on 3 side of the unit and the 4th side is almost completely taken up by the fan.

Hi Iom...

What about if it was louvred, not solid sides...to allow air flow? i think this was suggested.

...would that not be enough airflow?

[Klondyke]

^
You can create something like I have shown in:
https://teakdoor.com/construction-in-...-build-16.html (Baanpong House Build)
and make use of it for something (flower shelf?, cabinets for some stuff?)

or single boxes as e.g.
https://www.hertoolbelt.com/wood-louver-ac-unit-screen/

[Thai Dhupp]

Mate, it's all personal choice, but the external colour, I would have thought more a dirty cream.
Something with less of a yellow hue.

That said, it does pick up the 24 carat gold inlays.

Man, you must be minted

haha. David. if you knew what i actually paid for all this... you would fall off the chair in disbelief... and not in a ' i thought so' bad way!
its about planning planning planning and then more planning. tonnes of research, a negotiating ability, knowing what stuff costs, and not being afraid to call out the builder if he tries anything, plus some cheaper options such as the wood effect upstairs all comes together in what you see in the thread.

Remember i took 6 months+ to select that builder? i did not waste that time. i checked out the going rates Thai-style for each stage so i knew what he would be thinking of asking and was able to negotiate it down a bit. PJ was helpful in that too. lastly we bought some stuff direct, saving his mark up. and... he had all the plant n equipment that i would otherwise have had to hire.

That magnolia external paint will die back a bit over time and the sun plus it will pick up some dust..sorry..i mean 'patina' - we planned for that - lets see what its like in June!

its not 24 carat BTW, its only 18 carat but they polished it a lot!