Land development with wall and house...photo thread..first effort.

[Marmite the Dog]

Someone (Marmite I think) commented on 15-20 cms.....actually the beams are 15cm thick and 60 cms deep..!!

I was actually commenting on the thickness of the pour over the sand/mesh for your patio areas, not over the pre-cast floor slabs.

[koman]

Someone (Marmite I think) commented on 15-20 cms.....actually the beams are 15cm thick and 60 cms deep..!!

I was actually commenting on the thickness of the pour over the sand/mesh for your patio areas, not over the pre-cast floor slabs.

OK got it. Actually I got my thickness wrong in my last post too. The poured readymix is 10 cm deep over the precast slaps. (and not 5cm as I stated) ...and somewhat thicker over the compacted sand/mesh... 12=15cm. The cement pour was done in two parts....by two different cement trucks which arrived about two hours apart....so there's a lot of cement laying there ...

[Koetjeka]

Is this the top-layer of rebar on the precast floor planks? What's the diameter, because they look very thin on photo.

[koman]

Is this the top-layer of rebar on the precast floor planks? What's the diameter, because they look very thin on photo.

That's not rebar....it's just wire mesh.....all the floor area is covered with it to help the poured concrete bind....it's pretty heavy wire, but nothing like rebar..

[Koetjeka]

5 characters (can't delete post..)

[Bettyboo]

Everybody loves a concrete pour... A photothread of a concrete pour is right up there with the major forum highlights...

I've been looking for something to point out, a flaw or something that may need attention, but I'm rather at a loss.

So, in the pic below, the bits of metal sticking out aren't perfectly parallel or perfectly the same length. Could this damage the build?

[koman]

Everybody loves a concrete pour... A photothread of a concrete pour is right up there with the major forum highlights...

I've been looking for something to point out, a flaw or something that may need attention, but I'm rather at a loss.

So, in the pic below, the bits of metal sticking out aren't perfectly parallel or perfectly the same length. Could this damage the build?

Yes BB, it's an absolute disaster having those bit of rebar just sticking out like that.... all non-parallel and not even of equal length.....

I do however think that once they are bent into shape and encapsulated inside a set of concrete steps they won't be so much of an eyesore.... or have any serious effect on the final result. I can only hope...

[Koetjeka]

So, in the pic below, the bits of metal sticking out aren't perfectly parallel or perfectly the same length. Could this damage the build?

I guess they are part of the roof and they are in sight too!

What's the reason you only see this metal sticking out on the right side of the photo?

[Albert Shagnastier]

...and my wife carries on with her plant watering no matter what....this type of.house building is for farangs...

Fantastic watering cans

[koman]

What's the reason you only see this metal sticking out on the right side of the photo?

That rebar is sticking out there because it will be used to anchor a set of concrete steps to the foundation beam. That's the edge of a front porch... I think it's always prudent to have your steps properly attached to something......

[koman]

...and my wife carries on with her plant watering no matter what....this type of.house building is for farangs...

Fantastic watering cans

Yes indeed. Thailand is well in the lead when it comes to watering can technology... and so much more traditional and romantic than some pressurized irrigation system... which I'm already being encouraged to invest in.....because of the vast revenue potential that all this horticultural adventurism is supposed to generate ....

[Koetjeka]

What's the reason you only see this metal sticking out on the right side of the photo?

That rebar is sticking out there because it will be used to anchor a set of concrete steps to the foundation beam. That's the edge of a front porch... I think it's always prudent to have your steps properly attached to something......

Yes that would indeed be useful, hehe.

About the watering can, I've got a similar one and really like it. It's a little heavy though.

[koman]

About the watering can, I've got a similar one and really like it. It's a little heavy though.

Well my wife weighs in at almost exactly 50 kilos and she carries two of them on a yolk thing carved out of a piece of scrap wood. It provides perfect balance so she can go for hours without getting tired.... She's a bit of a watering can fanatic actually... always watering something.... I use the excuse of having to take lots of photos for TD to get out of this kind of thing.....

[Marmite the Dog]

It's a little heavy though.

Empty them first.

[koman]

That last photo in my last photo posting shows my number 1 ace welder trimming off the excess rebar from the top of a column. All the columns will be trimmed and have heavy steel plates welded to the rebar stumps. This is to provide a base to which the roof beams can be welded.



Here's my number 2 ace welder working on the plate. I was wondering about the gap beneath the plate causing an obvious weak spot.....but of course they inject cement under the plate to fix up that little problem...



Two welders, two plates....they finished all the columns in one day...and a bit....




Up goes the first of many 4 x 4 steel beams.....this is pretty heavy work.



A little bit of cleaning up the end before it gets lifted unto the plate.....might as well try to keep it nice.



...and there it is...up on the plates. It will now be welded to the plates once the alignment is satisfactory.



Down at ground level, lots of welding going on....preparing the support beams which are of double thickness. (ie. they weld two beams together)



Two welders working as a team.... you can see the thickness of the double beams quite well in both of these welding pics.



A bit of progress here. All the perimeter beams will be installed first. Then they will start on the cross beams. A few bits of building material has arrived.....Q-Con block and roof tiles all over the place.



Quite a dramatic shot of this fellow mounting a cross beam... you will notice the very high safety standards that prevail on Thai building sites....



More drama....manhandling these things is heavy and quite dangerous work.....I can just imagine a site safety inspector or trade union rep showing up for this show....



I just love welding pics......this one even has a few sparks drifting down......



This character is the son of one of the workers. He spent a week or so running wild all over the site. I mean what better playground for a three year old than a site laden with welders, grinders, cutting machines and all kinds of live electrical cables laying around.....what could possibly happen to a 3 year old???

[Boon Mee]

Excellent stuff, koman!

You might have mentioned earlier what your budget is for this build but I missed it. Excluding the wall & fence, I'd reckon you'll be ~4-5 mil?

That's w/out carpet & drapes.

[koman]

Budget???? what is this budget you speak of Booners.....

This question has come up before.... but I really don't want to get into costs just yet....we have a long way to go and we are making little adjustments and additions almost daily. I really don't have a budget as such......it will end up just costing whatever it costs. It will not be anywhere near your estimate for the house though.....although a good few contractors and other experts told me it would be in that range, I refused to believe them.....and did a lot of my own cost research. It too me a long time to find someone who could manage this project this based on MY estimates......but there it is.

Once we are done, I will provide all the cost details....which I think will be quite a surprise to many folks....

[Boon Mee]

Budget???? what is this budget you speak of Booners.....

This question has come up before.... but I really don't want to get into costs just yet....we have a long way to go and we are making little adjustments and additions almost daily. I really don't have a budget as such......it will end up just costing whatever it costs. It will not be anywhere near your estimate for the house though.....although a good few contractors and other experts told me it would be in that range, I refused to believe them.....and did a lot of my own cost research. It too me a long time to find someone who could manage this project this based on MY estimates......but there it is.

Once we are done, I will provide all the cost details....which I think will be quite a surprise to many folks....

That's good because I was going on some recent building costs in my area. New construction is running 3-4 mil for a 4 bed/2 story attached house. Very small yard. This Changwat has become popular lately as it never floods.

Your house looks like there's attention to detail.

[koman]

Budget???? what is this budget you speak of Booners.....

This question has come up before.... but I really don't want to get into costs just yet....we have a long way to go and we are making little adjustments and additions almost daily. I really don't have a budget as such......it will end up just costing whatever it costs. It will not be anywhere near your estimate for the house though.....although a good few contractors and other experts told me it would be in that range, I refused to believe them.....and did a lot of my own cost research. It too me a long time to find someone who could manage this project this based on MY estimates......but there it is.

Once we are done, I will provide all the cost details....which I think will be quite a surprise to many folks....

That's good because I was going on some recent building costs in my area. New construction is running 3-4 mil for a 4 bed/2 story attached house. Very small yard. This Changwat has become popular lately as it never floods.

Your house looks like there's attention to detail.

Don't know your neighbourhood but around the last house we lived in they were building pretty low quality 3/4 bed two storey houses on ridiculous little bits of land and selling them in the five to six million range. The number of bedrooms and bathrooms seems to be the principle measure....never mind that most of the rooms are hardly big enough to turn around in.

Many of the new developments around KhonKaen are hideous....the houses are so packed in you can hardly see daylight. They also throw them together as cheaply as possible and cover up all the sins with a layer of rendering and a lick of paint. I don't know how long this can last.....I have not regretted for one moment the move away from it all despite the chaos, mayhem and sheer craziness of my temporary accommodation in this village.....

My daily presence on the building site along with the frequent visits and inspections by my project manager keep things under control. My crew does a very good jib for the most part, but they do have their "Thai" moments.....like furiously building a wall and forgetting that there is supposed to be a window in it.....that happened three times.... As long as you catch these little cock-ups right away they are more funny than annoying...and very easy to correct.

[Wasp]

Hello koman .

I too wonder a little bit about what this construction will cost . Ignoring the cost of the land and the high-value toilets .
I wonder only because every time I look through your thread I think this one thread has such clear construction steps and great pictures it's all a template for others ( me ) to follow . But it's such a good quality of construction I can only wonder at the cost. And specifically the cost of your manager .
A really good template for building - because of the pictures .


Wasp

[Bettyboo]

I think it's always prudent to have your steps properly attached to something......

Why? My builders didn't bother over-engineering that. Steps is steps, innit...

[Bettyboo]

Your places oozes quality, Koman - frankly, never seen aything like it in Thailand before...

Many of the new developments around KhonKaen are hideous....the houses are so packed in you can hardly see daylight. They also throw them together as cheaply as possible and cover up all the sins with a layer of rendering and a lick of paint. I don't know how long this can last.....I have not regretted for one moment the move away from it all despite the chaos, mayhem and sheer craziness of my temporary accommodation in this village.....

The current place we rent in Bangmod, for the princely sum of 5,500 per month, is a 2 up 2 down house in an estate that's about 10 years old. The new ones sell for just over 2 million. They are awful. After 10 years, the foundations have all come up (I could park my car under my house, just drive straight under the foundations...), plumbing leaking everywhere, awful flooding in the sois, etc, etc. But the Thais all seem happy enough...

Not everybody likes to ensure the build standards that we adhere to, mate...

[Koetjeka]

I think it's always prudent to have your steps properly attached to something......

Why? My builders didn't bother over-engineering that. Steps is steps, innit...

Actually you don't want the steps so sink into the ground at a different rate/speed than the rest of your house, else cracks will appear in the concrete. To clarify, you might not see your house sink but over the course of 50 years it certainly does.

I'm not sure the rebar is enough to carry the steps though, or the other way around of course.

[Wasp]

Sorry ....... accident .

[koman]

About 45 minutes ago, I presented my builders with 2 cases of Leo, half a dozen bottles of Hong Thong. and 4 roast chickens.......Happy New Year..... I don't expect we'll see much progress for a day or two....