Thread: Building a Traditional Khmer House

I'm pretty sure that I said in the last build thread that I'm not going to get involved in another building project for at least five years (standard recovery period).

But my wife owns a great little block of land (800m2) about 20km outside of Phnom Penh that's very secluded and overlooks a beautiful expanse of wetland. It has access to power, mains water, a reasonable access road and is only 2km outside of a district town which has all the essentials.

So we've been talking about building a simple weekend house on it and I just thought I would share my ideas on here, as this place is always good for some ideas and feedback.

Here's the view:



Here's what's there now:



Here's something similar to what I would like to build:



So hopefully the end result would a nice shaded plot with a lot of trees and a nice looking traditional Khmer stilt house with some great views.

We're planning to plant the trees before the start of this web season then start work on the house in the dry season. Hopefully we'll be able to use the foundations and columns of the concrete building that's already there in order to bring the cost down.

How about a similar thing to what Wimpey did? Took an old timber house and moved it to his plot?

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

How about a similar thing to what Wimpey did? Took an old timber house and moved it to his plot?

Do you have a link? The search didn't thrown up anything.

another great thread in the making
cant wait

Originally Posted by OhOh

There is also this thread of a simple "holiday" home

That's a fantastic house and I got some great ideas from it. Unfortunately we won't be able to afford any exotic hard woods, we'll be using one of the lower grade hard woods that are typically used for building here, then will paint it rather than varnish it.

Originally Posted by ChrisInCambo

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

How about a similar thing to what Wimpey did? Took an old timber house and moved it to his plot?

Do you have a link? The search didn't thrown up anything.

https://teakdoor.com/construction-in-...-our-land.html (Buying a village house to move to our land)

Yur gonna have to chase that kid away, he looks dodgy.

nice block.

Originally Posted by sunsetter

another great thread in the making cant wait

yes, some of these construction threads are interesting, amazing and entertaining

keep us up-to-date, please

Thanks marmite, that's a great thread, I'll be keeping a close eye on that thread.

Originally Posted by OhOh

There is also this thread of a simple "holiday" home

That's a fantastic house and I got some great ideas from it. Unfortunately we won't be able to afford any exotic hard woods, we'll be using one of the lower grade hard woods that are typically used for building here, then will paint it rather than varnish it.

I bet I could turn that brick building into something interesting. Have often fantasized about buying one of the old brick tobacco barns common in Chiang Rai and converting it into a weekend cottage.

wimpy, build this^

they are nice

Uncovered kilns from Songkhla province. Why did the tradition of brick have to die out?

They still make bricks near us in Mae Rim

but they are expensive compared to the nasty factory bricks