Thread: Only in Thailand??

What is it about a modest single story house here that requires huge frickin footings for poles and or pilings, multilayer floor/slabs, steel girders for roofs etc...strong enough for a family of rutting elephants?
I am thinking a sheet of plywood on top of an empty beer box makes a pretty strong seat after all.

Never seen the like anyplace in the world of what appears to be "it might sink or blow away" paranoia. Did we just look at what Thais build and quadruple the amount of steel and concrete just to show 'em how smart we are? Or have we just been duped?

Just tongue in cheek but WHY? Do we want to leave behind a 1000 year monument to our western ingenuity????

Originally Posted by crepitas

What is it about a modest single story house here that requires huge frickin footings for poles and or pilings, multilayer floor/slabs, steel girders for roofs etc...strong enough for a family of rutting elephants?
I am thinking a sheet of plywood on top of an empty beer box makes a pretty strong seat after all.

Never seen the like anyplace in the world of what appears to be "it might sink or blow away" paranoia. Did we just look at what Thais build and quadruple the amount of steel and concrete just to show 'em how smart we are? Or have we just been duped?

Now now Creppy . Something seems to have upset you .

More details coz this looks interesting ?

But as an answer ....... I think I will be guilty of this when I come to extend Wat Wasp .

So why ? Well ...... looking at what the unsupervised guys build and reading the comments in many threads I do think the Thais are content to spend on a build and watch it sink , crack , deform , twist , lean and subside inside 5 years .

They seem to accept that that's just what happens . Whereas we would go nuts .

Makes not much difference to the costs if you make a 50 cm thick concrete pad or an 80 cm one .
Tell you what boys ..... make it 90 while you're down there .

Probably you're right about overbuilding ...... but I have very little confidence in the lasting power of what Missy's cousins built and I have EVERY confidence in the strength of what koman and his crew built !

So do tell us please ............. did something specific get up your nose to make you cross ?


Wasp

5555 frickin happy happy dogs tripped me up and made me drop me bottle of beer..on me toe! Otherwise all well in my concrete bunker....

oh BTW wasp....ya gonna build something in a swamp with no backhoe access....do tell.......... is your truck amphibious or will you have a heliport..555

Why do you seem to be so angry Crepitas?

Did we just look at what Thais build and quadruple the amount of steel and concrete just to show 'em how smart we are? Or have we just been duped?

I guess you're not in the construction business but every year houses blow away or collapse in Thailand, do you want that to happen to your house?

Last year 2 (new) houses were blown away by the storm, nothing remained but broken concrete poles and pieces of wood. That's not what you expect when you build a 10m THB mansion. It's no wonder this has happened, the guy in the orbortor knows shit about doing construction calculations. Most of them just use knowledge/experience from the past, just like we did 500 years ago in the middle ages.

You might have confidence in Thai building but I certainly don't.