Building Your Own Shophouse

[dirtydog]

Now they got the form work up and are doing the pour for the beams, messy work

[buadhai]

Great thread. Keep it coming.

Very interesting for me to compare concrete work here compared to how it was done by the Filipino workers on Saipan.

[friscofrankie]

Spent ten years in and out of the operating engineers back n the states late 70s - late eighties. Speciality was concrete pumps (mechanic). i've seen a few u phere and in BKK what's the cost? It's amazing the methods used
been considering a monolithic pour for posts and beams on the bottom half of my home to be, using vibrators (i've seen 'em in equipment shops though nevere seen a pour yet that could have possible used one) and masonite covered ply for forms. Would I need to import labor?
Not above muckin about in cement, showing how it's done but not really my heart's desire.

[dirtydog]

Nipped down there again today, it seems that a few got back from songkran and now they are building the walls, aint these Thai bricks crap.

[Texpat]

They do look a mite flimsy. I would imagine I could stumble through that wall if I got good n liquored up.

Aren't there western (brick) options?

[dirtydog]

Ahhh, as you will notice in this picture they have formed a concrete beam halfway up the wall, this will give it the strength it needs Texpat.

Also it seems that a lot of the wood for forming the posts has been stolen or destroyed, in this picture you can see posts with formwork, finished posts and posts that haven't been started on.

[dirtydog]

Here we have an exciting action shot of the labourers pouring concrete into the form work.

[Dougal]

Do they ever use vibrating pokers or are they agitating the pour with anything?

[dirtydog]

This is Thailand Dougal, so no they aint agitating the pour, generally you can get away without agitating the pour, note the word generally, it is bad practise though and there is no way you would be allowed to get away with that in a normal country, I would say that 99 percent of the time the beam comes out ok, and with labour being so cheap here why worry if you have to smash down 1 beam out of every 100, my vibrator cost about 18,000baht and is petrol run, but the way they are running at the moment on this job they would do just aswell with a long piece bamboo.

[dirtydog]

Just to give you a better idea of the next floors beamwork at the shophouses, here is a picture I took of a house being built where we are working, at moment they are tieing up the rebar, well one or 2 of them are the others are just sitting there going wot the fok am I doing up here when it's 100 foking degrees Well something like that I should imagine, so next time you think Thais are lazy I will pay you one days salary for every 2 hours of work you can manage, Thai salary that is

[dirtydog]

As you can see in this picture they have used precast concrete beams for the floor or ceiling depending which way you look at it, these are about 5cms thick, you can see in this picture that they are supported with wood to stop them sagging or them breaking when they do the concrete pour on top of it, alas they always sag and if it is the roof area this is where water will saty due to the sagging in the middle.






Anyway I had a quick climb up their makeshift ladder today risking life and limb to see if they had done the pour on the second floor, and yep, here it is





On this block of shop houses they are still doing the beamwork for the second floor.






The original block they are now doing the beamwork on the 3rd floor, things are zooming along at a nice pace

[dirtydog]

I suppose you are all just as anxious as me as to how they are getting along with these shop houses, well it still seems they are lacking in staff, maybe due to the rice planting season perhaps.

[dirtydog]

Rebar and beams.

[dirtydog]

Well I am still disappointed at the pace of work, lack of workers I should imagine plus all the rainy days we have had in the past few weeks, the beam work is now up for both buildings second floor, but will they build a third floor?

[Eliminator]

When they use small bricks or evne the smaller blocks, why don't they put in a wire mesh BEFORE doing the screen work?

[dirtydog]

They do put in the rebar before doing the form work, or have I missunderstood your post?

[dirtydog]

Well I have to admit to leaving everyone in suspense about what is happening down there, here is a picture I took last week, now looking at this you can see the sky through the concrete plinths, now these are like 30cms wide, 5cms deep and probably upto 5 meters long, you can order the size you need, anyway these are just laid across the beams and then more rebar/steel-work is chucked on top and then another concrete pour is done, as you can see they are supported with old bits of wood so they don't collapse or sag too much, I have to admit everyone we have tiled though the original floor sags in the middle by about 3 cms have to use loads of cement to correct that

[Marmite the Dog]

Originally Posted by dirtydog

here is a picture I took last week,

Where?

[NickA]

Originally Posted by dirtydog

my vibrator cost about 18,000baht and is petrol run,

[Marmite the Dog]

Oh, there.