I want wood

[mrsquirrel]

There have been several threads over the many years of TD where people have bought wood houses, dismantled and reconstructed.

Can someone give me the ins and outs of the wood house buying process.

What are the do's and don'ts.

After 8 years of TD, I may now be seriously considering buying a house here, and may fulfull my lust for wood.

[Necron99]

Apart from the ms traveller redding your will get there are two problems with buying old wood.

You can only trust your own judgment and the minute a farang turns up the expectation of the seller goes up in quantum leaps.

In general, with thais if you ask to buy the expectation of worth grows vs if they are offering to sell to stupid levels.

My Bil has a two story house where they all live in concrete boxes under the original wood house. Nice floorboards cut 30 odd years ago an they never use the upstairs room. Planks are maybe 50 cm wide and an inch and a bit thick. I offered to buy them and replace the floor with plywood/tile and he threw out a million baht for maybe 80- sq meters!!

No one else has ever offered to buy them.

[snakeeyes]

I'll give you wood ,

[mthompson]

I might have some roof lumber available in a couple months - check out the newer thread above yours: Salvage 1985 Treated Roof Lumber

Basically, 32 treated (5cm x 15cm x 5m to 6m) rafters, the 8 scalloped eave pieces (2cm x 10 - 15cm x 4.7m) that fit up under the roof tiles, and the main eave sections (2cm x 17(?)cm x 4.7m)

I have no idea what lumber is worth now days, but I guarantee it'll be less than a million...

[kingwilly]

I think he wants to buy the whole house.

[BaitongBoy]

Initially, I thought Viagra might help...

But that would be the erection thread...

[Wasp]

Initially, I thought Viagra might help...

But that would be the erection thread...

Nah.

Decided not to comment BB .

[BaitongBoy]

^Just stay away from termites if you pop a pill...

[mrsquirrel]

So how do I find these houses for sale?

Is it just a case of driving around trying to buy them?

[Bettyboo]

I'll give you wood ,

I don't know why this image sprang into me mind, I hope I'm not stereotyping...

[rickschoppers]

So how do I find these houses for sale?

Is it just a case of driving around trying to buy them?

Use that wonderful thing called a search engine. I used to have a site saved that sold old wood houses. It was a bit expensive, but seemed to have numerous houses and the agent knew passable English.

The most cost effective way is word of mouth and having a Thai go-between and pay them a small finders fee.

[crazynoonga]

There have been several threads over the many years of TD where people have bought wood houses, dismantled and reconstructed.

Can someone give me the ins and outs of the wood house buying process.

What are the do's and don'ts.

After 8 years of TD, I may now be seriously considering buying a house here, and may fulfull my lust for wood.

hi new to this forum , but lived in thailand a while..
if you want wood firstly through normal avenues it will be over priced and mostly imported.. malaysia and philipines is a major source.. , laos is another..
generally for interiors wood is imported form america and germany..
typically the ranged of legally obtainable woods is very narrow here.
mostly the woods will be Sal wood (in thai is is called mai teng), rubber wood, brich, beach, oak, thai teak (which is mostly of a very inferior grade) and imported india teak which is much bigger in price.. ... there is also a number of other inferior asian hard woods imported as well. dont know their common names. used in wall batons and such . brittle wood reddish colour stright grain.. thais dont kno what it is but its common here used in tool handles too.. very poor material splits easy... (beats pine though)
that list would be the standard list if you were buying from a factory or form a large lumber yard.. such wood would be kild dryed to western standards.. normally.. as its all imported..
factories here prefer european woods.. beach birch oak for truning as its working well its cheap consistant and it not breaking like local wood does..

most common wood here by far is rubber wood..

rubber wood is not very good for much its not very hard its a termite magnet and its not strong it also dosnt look very good.

teak here is of a poor quality and the price is high.. it is very soft typically as the thais have a habit of harvesting young trees..
thais have a superstitious belief that teak is some how "good" or"superior" to other wood, in fact teak is .. an rather inferior wood all round id compare ti to walnut. teak is neither insect water or rot resistant.. keep it inside..
its not jarrah or red gum or some such.. it will rot and stain..
when you go to a shop theylly just parrot TEAK TEAK TEAK at you and every wood you ask about show them or select theyll say TEAK TEAK TEAK could be a hunk of rubber wood theyll still say teak..

ok so thats that list is the large wood suppliers... theyll also have processed imported product like wooden flooring bamboo flooring ect ect.. not produced here.
you can generally expect their wood to be of a consistant standard..
also the price will not be lower that your own country. by western standards it will be higher many times!!! (not always but mostly)
the biggest area that has wood house hold products fittings banisters ect.. is the
wood street in bangkok, the area is called bang po.
its got about 200 shops, as i said dont expect anything very cheap or impressive

ther es one or two shops with a bigger range of woods.. and some big importers with more european woods , cherry for example can be had or walnut..... but prices are.. unplesent


ok so .. small range huh? crazy this is a tropical country where all the wood

sooo. mostly its illegal to sell many of the woods and illegal to import without documentation if those trees are also native and controlled here..
hence the most common solid hardwood is Sal from malaysia which in thai is called mai deang

so the native hard woods and the more pretty stuff.
theyer sold either are reclaimed wood.. I.E.. from old buildings or from rail road ties.. or its sold illegally

now the most common woods are from the ptrocarpus family..
narra, red padauk, yellow padauk, burmese padauk , merbau , ect these are nice woods and have a very good smell when you cut them. theyer not all that hard but not soft either.
some can have bright red wood (which can stain stuff when fresh cut) others yello or brown or orange.
very handsome when polished and oiled and not to brittle to carve..
also there is mai deang wich is ormally called pyinkado in english this is the other desired wood for thais aside form TEAK TEAK TEAK.
it is actually a good solid rot resistant wood.
ther eis many other types of hard wood too
but now becuse technically its illegal to sell these.. unless you have permission for a specific lot of trees to cut and sell (even if its your own land.. this also applies to teak, which is farmed here!!)
so.. when you buy these woods take care.. because they may very well not be properly dried... normally drying of such moist hard woods takes years to avoid cracks and twisting and have a good polish..

but thais just chop them down cut them up wet and leave them in the sun and rain.. and so your 30000 bht beam of mai padoo may suddenly exibit cracking or warping.
so thats why many people prfer to buy old wooden homes and slavage the mateirals have them resawn and use them instead.

the best place to buy such homes is generally in north thailand.. as the price is lower, that way you dont have to wait years for you hardwood log to be dry or rish cracking .
because the beams will be aged they will finish to a very fine degree the wood having settled 100 years ago already

that would be the cheapest and most reliable option, your loooking at aout 1.4 the price of buying new wood.. (which i cant say 100% wont develop cracks)
however these old beams will be full of cracks too..
poeple in south east asia just never seemd understand the needed to age wood or didnt car about cracks

there is very good aged lumber comming out of kambodia and lao .. but it goes stright to china and japan. because of crazy thai import laws.
smuggling it form kambodia use to be a very profitable business (its mostly harvested form the bottom of dams)

so now option be you want new wood , so where to buy new wood, well firstly around bangkok forget it untless you want to pay the world.. the best areas are around the kambodian boarder or in the north.. but agai it wont be aged properly. however buying it privatly youll save a heap..

the other place i found aside form wood traders was
Temples.. temples are fantastic blades to buy newly cut wood and alos buy old aged wood from the temple and for very cheap prices.

thai people think its lucky to buy plants and plant them at the temples...
which is good for use and they mostly plant hardwood trees of above mentiond pytrocarpus family..
the temples cut them down when they get big an then people plant more.. so the temples have normally very good supplies of wood for repairs and building new things they will sell it if you ask.. and you can negotiate.. and you can look through their old lumber and buy that too... every rural temple will be like this and you can imagine how many temples in villages there are!

ive found wood in temples for about 1/4 to 1/5 the prices.

it is always good to go with people who know the temple monks as well
a large temple will have enough wood for 3 or 4 houses..

also dos and donts ..

ok i must admit.. of the many things thai people dont know or cant do.. WOOD is just about their top thing..
thai peple can not tell you what wood is good for what or what wood is form what tree .. ect.. they use typically in their own language generic names like red wood strong wood golden wood black wood ect.. which apply to maybe 20 different plants..

so aksing or describing a wood will be useless.. pointless(im talking about professional fucken wood sellers here. average peasant in the street wont know a thing and little villages are the same) so dont trust them when they say they have this or that wood or the "recommend" teak teak teak.. its teak .. ect.
also joinery and carpentry is.. not so.. good here.. sorry sorry i should say nonexistent here.. so be sure you know the worker whos fucking your pricy wood up.....

look at the wood , learn about asian hardwoods and what youll use it for.. and then select based on what you like the look of..

so if you want flooring the options are many and no problem to obtain.
for cabnetry 100% if reccoment to take care and buy wood you know is aged properly.. ive seen many of the TEAK TEAK TEAK.. you buy now.. shit just crack up and fall apart..

large beams are the thing , price can be very big. ofr example maybe you want a 35-40 foot beam from hard wood maybe 1 1/2ftx1 1/2ft. you looking at big money

beset way to buy the old houses is just go and look for a broken down old place and offer for the wood... but but then you dont know how much useable wood your getting thats why i suggest checking some big temples first.. as youll have to get all the wood milled anywany as those oldhouse the thais make are just fucked held togeather with string and sticks not a single straight line :S...

having it milled and finished correctly will be cheap and it will look fantastic when its done.

Now if you want to buya factory made prefabricated thai wooden house ther eis companies in ayuttaya and in chaing mai who make there.. there... they can be located via internet.. or visit in person.

they offer the whole complete "thai style" house. i should say the wood structure of it..



hope this has been at least a little helpful

[Wasp]

[Wasp]

Bloody informative crazynoonga !

In fact excellent !!



Wasp

[thaimeme]

Bloody informative crazynoonga !

In fact excellent !!



Wasp

Yep, quite informative for those don't know the ins and outs.
Very helpful. Great contribution.

Redundant for those of us that already know all this shit.

[crazynoonga]

Bloody informative crazynoonga !

In fact excellent !!



Wasp

thanks ...
i at fist though buying wood should be so easy here too, like indonesia for example or india..
but .. alas through regular channels ...not easy.. i new a thai who would before the junta smuggle wood from kambodia.. old river logs brought up for dredging.... he was a professional man but he made just so much more money doing it.. 40000-100000bht profit on a truck load.. (well you can imagine he sint doing it any more. due to the police) but hed have the customers already and every month or two work it all out to get his wood over here without being stopped..

also thais are ot really living in the jungle or something they live in villages and cities.
so its not like indonesia where you can just on any island find wood workers , carvers, engraved bronze casters, stone carves . hire them and build your palatial mansion to spec
ive never een seen a bronze/silver caster in thailand (in indonesia theyer normally like a professional craftsman who makes bells and statues and such for religious stuff but they also make knvies some times and gongs door hinges.. door knockers chase and carve metal ect)
just like stone carvers, ive never seen one.. ive seen factories where they make stuff with air powered tools.

same goes with cabnet or interior wood carving its done first the pattern from a designer and then its cut with a router and then the more complicated stuff the pattern is cleaned up by hand mostly by burmese unskilled workers who are all high on yaba ..
the bigger factories will have 100s of workers mostly from northern thailand.. and make 100osnds of "handmade" products per month... mostly carvings and doors furnature ect..
a bullshit c grade heavy teak door with carving on both sides in the shop will be 18000-24000 bht (same door from fine oak and heavy forged hinges and high quality free hand carving in hungary or romania would be maybe 2/3 of that..)

there is 3 reasons for these bullshit prices.

1 thai people mostly cant make these things them selves.. ie no crafstmen to push down the price only factories.

2 thai people are the customers not us.. and they pay these bullshit prices.. (profit on the door for 24000 is around 2000% so better than selling drugs)
because they belive its "worth it" because if a chineseplastic door is 2000bht well then a wood one can be 20000.. why not haha :S

3, thai people presume wood prices are high so the retailers make the prices high..


also when your buying or dealing in these things think firstly what would you really value this at if you had to buy it and sell it again
and two ask many business and .. also get a thai friend to ask if you can..

and also thais will make all the prices up and try to rip you off even further .. or give you something different than you actually ordered..
NEVER ever accept this assemple all your materials get a ful invoice in english and thai , check the invoice fully with each item let them kno what your doing and before you a agree ask clearly is there any guarantee on these materials.. (for example they say the wood is kild dryed and such and such wood and its not or its go bugs in it or something ect ect)

once you have all your materials you arrange to move them promptly.
its common thai practice to swap expensive materials on you especially if they think theyll never see you again.
and with wood or machines your dealing with 1000snd$$ it can be with all sorts of stuff (for example you order 5 tonnes of crushed rock and you want say grade a without dust washed.. and you want .. such and such a stone and you come and see and its good.. you pay they deliver.. when it arrives its a different maerial full of dust and about half the value.. and now your fucked as you agreed. later you go back to the invoiceall in thai and it very vague as to what your buying just saying "rocks" or something)

electrical wiring is very problematic here as is roofing plumbing and tiling..
if say youd be better off for those jobs if you want them safly and correctly done to get a "farang" to do it


actually for the wood working and wood carving i dont know why somebody didnt just travel to nepal (Tibetan wood carvers are very good) or indonesia and get some wood or stone carvers they have there and fly them back here pay em 400 bht per day and theyll be happy get to work for ya . they dont need a visa for 30 days would be hard to speak to them though :S haha would be a funny idea though.. and youd have "more" chance getting what you wanted than with local thais. .

[Klondyke]

Can someone give me the ins and outs of the wood house buying process.

If you are in the North and want an old recycle timber from dismantled wood houses there are few villages here around where they collect and stored the old timber pieces. One is Ban Thi in Lampun area, and there are few more.

You can buy also a timber from Forestry Industrial Company (OOP), mostly teak, various grades, various prices.

There are few shops in larger cities where they have also a new teak for exorbitant prices, in CNX it is well known Suksawat. These shops have also other cheaper kinds of construction timber that is mostly imported from Indonesia, Malaysia. They have their Thai market species names that will not say you much.

Otherwise, there is not so many Thai timber for construction available in Land of Teak. That's why you never see a new roof construction by a timber except of at a new wooden house of rich people in the villages who have to show off their position. But they do not get the wood in the channels you would buy from. And mostly these wooden houses have their roof construction by steel profiles.

The largest volume of available wood in Thailand is rubberwood, however, not really suitable for constructio. Used hugely by manufactures of kitchenware and smaller indoor furniture. That's why a non-Asian wood (mostly from USA) is imported in a quite surprising volume to Thailand with prices up to Bkk port. (There are plenty of empty containers from USA returning to Asia offered cheap).

If you need more info about possibilities, give me PM, I am in this business.

[Little Chuchok]

(There are plenty of empty containers from USA returning to Asia offered cheap).

Really? I was of the opinion that empty containers were a little rare in Thailand, due to the huge amount of exports from there?

[Klondyke]

(There are plenty of empty containers from USA returning to Asia offered cheap).

Really? I was of the opinion that empty containers were a little rare in Thailand, due to the huge amount of exports from there?

Perhaps you misunderstood: there are thousands of containers daily bringing goods from Asia to US. Just look in the US shops whether you find something what has not been manufactured in Asia.

All these containers have to be shipped back to Asia for the new goods. What do you think that the Asian countries buy in USA? (apart from the weaponry, it surely is not transported by these merchandise containers )

So the freight forwarders are very happy to get some load for the container, not to ship the vessel back with empty containers only.

Surprisingly for some, the containers from Asia are full of Hi-Tech, from USA they ship raw material

[Wasp]

mrsquirrel .... your title was " I want wood " so maybe you might like this wood .


Three huge pieces of timber ................





Each piece is 2660mm in length .

At the narrowest point they measure 665mm wide and then flare out to 850mm at the end.

And they are 115mm thick .





Each piece is 5000 Baht . They are near Korat so you would need to collect them . And they are heavy .

But you may be interested ..................




Wasp

[ltnt]

There's a recycled wood shop on the main road near the Chiang Rai Airport turn. check him out if you're in the neighborhood.

I just demolished/dismantled a wood house on my property, gave it to my BIL for free.

Why would any sane person want to live in one of these...7 months of hell is what I got from the experience.

[whiteasian1111]

Do not underestimate the effort of dismantling and rebuilding an old house. You will end up replacing more than you initially calculated.

[rickschoppers]

Crazynoonga, basically good information but I do have to disagree with a couple of points you made about teak. You stated teak was not weatherproof or insect rèsistent. Teak was, and still is, used quite a bit in boat building due to its weatherproof and water proof quality. If you want it looking prestine, you will need to sand and varnish it on a regular basis otherwise it will turn dull and grey. Teak will last for many years, but since it is organic, it will deteriorate a bit over time. Just take a look at some old teak houses and rice barns in Thailand and you will get an idea of its weatherproof qualities.

Teak is also insect resistent due to its hardness and termites do not like the oil that teak contains. Your statement about keeping it inside is misguided. Patio furniture is often made from teak wood due to its weatherproof quality and durability. Again, it will need to be sanded from time to time since all sealers will weather in the sun, or you can just let it turn the natural grey color from oxidation.

If you do not believe what I am telling you, just talk to any knowledgable sailer who has owned a boat with teakwood trim.

[ltnt]

^I use Teak oil.

[rickschoppers]

Teak or tung oil works well and gives the wood a more natural appearance. There are many UV resistant sealers as well that will need reapplication depending on the extent of sun exposure.