Thread: Pool construction costs (Laos)

I've made up my mind I want a pool, my lands not huge but I figure a 7x7 pool is more than doable, I've got an above ground spa which has served it's purpose well over the years, paid 180 000 baht for it in udon thani and successfully had it smuggled over the border thus dodging the tax, I would expect to get maybe half that back when I sell it ? It does have a very lovely sala hut built over it which I want to keep and incorporate into the pool, got a quote from a farang in town the other day he will supply all materials, pumps filters etc, he wants 40k used that's about 20 k over the top I reckon, or. Am I wrong? Mate of mine built a 12x4 a couple of years ago using the same guy, to be honest I can't seethe price of cement and rebar gone up all that much, but at the same time, I want it done properly, what do you guys think ?

Oh, and by the way before the nay Sayers jump in I'm not married to noi or nok from Lolita bar, I'm seriously interested to know what the TD construction thread punters reckon

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Oh, and by the way before the nay Sayers jump in I'm not married to noi or nok from Lolita bar, I'm seriously interested to know what the TD construction thread punters reckon

I can provide superior advice - gratis. I have experience in Oz.

Simple - DON'T DO IT!

40k US dollars?
Tell him he's dreaming.
That's western prices.
Check construction, couple of recent pool builds.

That's what I figured neckers , surely he is taking the piss, I figured 25 K max . But having been around these parts a while and dealing with Lao folk on a daily basis I've seen them turn the simplistic jobs into an absolute shitfight, just figured that it would make my life easier having it farang supervised, anyway I'm going to call a couple of Lao construction companies that have also been recommended and see what they say, I don't want to sound like the Gent or seeking asylum as he is now known as ,but I really have little faith in the locals here. 9 years of living in Lao May of made me somewhat pessimistic? Or perhaps realistic.

If it can help, look into my thread https://teakdoor.com/construction-in-...d-so-easy.html where I had described rather easy (read affordable) construction, with easy equipment (no Hi-Tech), easy maintenance, however daily usage throughout the whole year in a clear water. And that despite my troublesome input water.

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

I figured 25 K max

If you mean in $?
In my case, divide by 10.

Originally Posted by cnx37

Originally Posted by beerlaodrinker

Oh, and by the way before the nay Sayers jump in I'm not married to noi or nok from Lolita bar, I'm seriously interested to know what the TD construction thread punters reckon

I can provide superior advice - gratis. I have experience in Oz.

Simple - DON'T DO IT!

Great advice mate? what do you base this sage advice on? Reading your house construction threads I can't help but notice you keep banging on about how your farang relatives fucked you over for 300k , I'm after a bit of sound advice for a pool for me the wife and kids, if I do happen to get fucked over in the process i,ll let you know.

Look at doing it yourself mate theres loads of information about
Its not a hard job to construct the hardest part will be the quality control, speak to the local concrete suppliers about a good mix C32/40 should do it(watch for cold joints) and where to get the rebar, use a water resistant grout for the tiles
They will probably know a local who will do the work
you can get dwgs off the net. just dont rush into it,i think the hardest part is the filter/cleaning system
40k is a load of bollox
I am doing one myself i have just finished my house, and looked at loads of web sites in california and Australia
Do your research and you will piss it. I am a construction manager in the UK and have built them here, but working in Asia is a different kettle of fish
Just dont let them cut corners mate
Good luck

Cheers Klondike, I did enjoy your thread about your pool, and it was also quite humorous, The thing is ,I work away for 2 weeks at a time and the missus has no fuckin clue about pool construction , she specialises in eating papaya salad and sleeping mostly, I'm also not a construction guy but I've got a lot of info from this forum and googling it, I'm pretty sure the dynamics of getting someone to build me a pool in Laos compared to thailand is completely different , for sure the Thais are more skilled in most things than Lao, this has been my experience anyway, I hope to stand corrected on this hence the reason for starting the thread, if any posters in Laos have experience then that would be great but I'm sure I can get a ball park figure from Thai based posters,

And cheers jimbobs, the farang who quoted was really trying on the old salesman speel but to be honest he lost me when I asked about the terms of payment, I suggested I could wedge him up 50% and 50% on completion , He looked quite shocked and said oh fuck no . I can't have that amount of money in the bank, The wife will spend it, I will take your advice jimbobs, not going to rush into it, although it would be nice to have one by the hot season, plus I dont wanna deal with a pussy whipped farang

Between 15-20k baht per sqm is about what pool companies will charge.

I'm in Vientiane, so it's a slightly different project than Los, I know the Thais can do a good job, it's the Lao people I'm worried about , I work on a mine site in Laos and if it wasn't for the Thai subbys we would get fuk all done, sounds harsh I know, but the reality is the Lao are lazy coonts, very few skills here, in fact all the renovations I've done to the house here have been done by the Vietnamese, hard workers who will set a price and show up everyday, tried the Lao dudes but always disappointed, maybe have to look for some vietnamese pool builders in Laos or at least a Lao company employing them, there are also a couple of pool company's here that will build you A lined pool, one is French called Jesdoyou or something like that, the other is one I've seen in many parts of Thailand called JD pools they both want about 40 K to I am told

If it all gets too much, just fill it in - plant a nice garden. You would not be the 1st to apply this technique.

Firstly, think over the size. 7x7? If you want to swim daily, to keep yourself in shape, better than torture yourself on gym machines or long joggings. 7 m is not enough for swim my daily 1 km, 10m at my former pool was not either, now 12 m is OK.

And what for another 7m across? For the kids? They will enjoy the swimming in much narrower pool either. Compare the water volume of 7x7 with my 12x3.

And when cleaning (brushing, vacuum cleaning), reaching all pool spots just from the 2 long sides with not so long stuff... Think that nobody will clean the pool but you only. In fact, it is good for you, not only the swimming gives you the exercise an old man always needs.

And not to speak about the increased costs of a oversized pool.

Regards the maintenance issue.

When I bought a house with my last hand bag it had a pool, she wanted it so I told her that Its her gig to maintain it and don't ask me fok all.

She looked after it for 7 years. Anyway my mate has one in Bali and pays a guy to come sort it.

labors cheap so just pay some tosser to look after it, saves the grief.

Pools in Asia are brilliant simply because they can be used year round, just don't go to big.

One don't swim in it anyway, beerlao will be sitting in it drinking piss.

It is not a high tech construction as you see in my thread, anybody can do it. All my partial jobs on it was done by village workers who never had done it before.

Roughly:
Excavation by a backhoe 1/2 day 4,000 B
Rebar net 1,000 B
First foundation concrete 15cm, ca. 6m3 @1,650B = 12,000 B
Walls by double blocks 40x20cm 60m2 @150B = 9,000B
Rebars 3mm in-between the layers 200m = 2,000B
Cement 50 bags @120B = 6,000B
Sand 2 trucks 2,000 B
Nam yaa waterproof 5 x5L @200B = 1,000B
Ceramic tiles 100m2 @ 150B = 15,000B
Fine cement ca. 20 bags @ 50B= 1,000B
Various 3,000B

--
Total material 56,000 Baht you buy yourself, all in village shop

Then only you find small group of village bricklayers and negotiate the price, either one lump sum (in Thai Mau) for all or one for finishing the walls and another one for the tiles. I think we did it all for 40,000B.

The filtering equipment you can buy in Global House, Filter for 7,500B, pump for 7,500B, few more blue PVC pipes 1.5" and valves at local hardware shop for some 1,000B, installation with village chang naam for 1,000B.

To get it all in a proper shape it needs from you to think each step over and to explain it to the head worker, step by step. And to the wife too. And to look after them regularly. Few missteps can occur, anything can be cured and overworked.

Another few (ten) thousands can be spent more for any unforeseen troubles. Still better than to hire a contractor for 1M$ who never did it before (what he humbly will not mention) and get a headache anyway.

Any detail you need to explain, do not hesitate to contact me.

Our pool cost us around 800,000 Baht. 9m x 5m with a 1.8m x 1.5m spa at one end. It is salt water and is absolutely no bother to maintain. Troublesome pools that are a lot of work have either not been designed correctly or been fooked up construction wise. I vacuum our pool once a week and check the water a couple of time a week. Pool runs for 3 hours in the morning and 4 hours late afternoon / evening. I am a Civil Engineer and it really was simple to construct. BL if you want to see any pics just message me.

Thanks mate , I would love to see pics and get some more advice. I can google the fuk out of it but great to hear from guys who have built a. Pool or 2 klondikes thread has been a real eye opener, the more advice the better, I'm not gonna rush in to it but it would be great to get something done now in the dry season

Send my cv to that gold mine on Vientiane

Originally Posted by Tassini

I vacuum our pool once a week and check the water a couple of time a week.

Any recommendations on pool vacuums? Mine is a fish pond which gets leaves in it, especially in the dry season. So does that make difference? And where I can purchase one in CM area? Thanks, Terp

Originally Posted by terp80;2946682
Any recommendations on pool vacuums? Mine is a fish pond which gets leaves in it, especially in the dry season. So does that make difference? And where I can purchase one in CM area? Thanks, [COLOR=red

Terp [/COLOR]

Terp,
Actually, you can suck the bottom of the pool by a simple submersible pump (Thais call it daiwoo) that you fix to a longer handle for shifting it around the pool.

Or you can have the pump there permanently, sucking the dirty water, bringing it to a tank (or a cascade of tanks) where the dirt settles (and can be timely drained). Then the clean water (after settlement) is returned back to the pool.

The daily production of the dirt by the number of fish is quite enormous, the water needs surely something more than an impressive fountain.

I have shown in my thread of swimming pool my construction for the fish pool cleaning. In my way the water goes thru outlet at the bottom slowly into cascade of tanks where the dirt settles. The level switch in the last section control on/off a simple pump outside the tank, bringing clean water back into the fish pond.

The first inlet tank (my blue plastic barrel) is very important. The inlet dirty water circulates around the walls, the dirt settles slowly down to the bottom (for a daily drain). Clean water is collected in the middle of the tank inside a makeshift cylinder from a filtering mat, forwarded to further sections where the remaining dirt further settles (and can be drained).

I have some 25 kois in pool 6x2xH0.7m.:

https://teakdoor.com/construction-in-...ml#post2866185