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  1. #1
    Thailand Expat
    Wasp's Avatar
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    Unhappy The Building Decisions That I Regret .

    .
    So there I was a few days ago looking for threads from which to extract the key Stages of a Construction and I was reading rickschopper’s story ( which is a very good read ).

    In Post number 363 rickschopper suddenly says :
    In hindsight , I see some things I may have done differently …. But ah well !

    --- and that set me thinking .

    We learn a lot from these Threads – but I think we learn most from our mistakes .
    So it would be interesting if the people who have built might come in here and tell us what you think was your biggest mistake / regret / bad decision .

    Now this IS my idea here so I’m not asking for a rewrite of the whole Thread ….
    Just take some time and tell us all clearly One Big Thing that you regret or that you know for sure you would like to have done differently .

    ONE thing .

    ( OK maybe TWO …. But that’s it ! )

    And I’ll start it .....


    Quite some time ago Johnny99 had a Thread in here about his house build and he said this :

    The big mistake that we made was to allow the foreman to install the plumbing. We did get estimates from two legitimate plumbers but my wife was too stingy to consider actual “ plumbers rates “.

    We paid the price by having the plumbing installed incorrectly. Just about all of it .
    After three years I hope I’m finished with plumbing repairs !


    Some standard food for thought there I would think . But enough to make someone pause before cutting that particular corner .

    Please -- I'll certainly be interested at least -- tell us the biggest thing that you wish you had done differently .

    Or hadn't done at all .



    Wasp
    Last edited by Wasp; 30-08-2015 at 02:26 AM.

  2. #2
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    .
    And here is another ......

    On someone else's Thread a contributor called GOOBER wrote this ......


    The mistake I made was paying the contractor for more work than he had finished and the quality went downhill.
    Originally the old contractor was doing all the tiles and marble .
    Then he got some other wanker to do the work.
    I swear this guy had never done tiles before and I only owed the contractor a couple of hundred dollars .

    I was warned – but you get what you pay for. I ended up paying the guy just to get rid of him.
    "


    Again a pretty standard error I would think --- paying the guy before he does the work .

    OK .... more regrets / bad choices / stupidity / errors ...... would be fascinating . Especially for any newbie !



    Wasp

    I'm giving much thought to what my own regret might be .
    Probably in the area of employing a relative .
    .
    .
    Last edited by Wasp; 30-08-2015 at 12:46 AM.

  3. #3
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    Hello Wasp...Hope you are fine...Should get a lot of response on this thread...Simon might have a lot to say, for example...Heh...

  4. #4
    Thailand Expat
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    Unhappy

    I hope so BB .

    Otherwise I'll be looking at photos of terp's wardrobe.



    Wasp

  5. #5
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    Does he have a tear in his housecoat?...

  6. #6
    Thailand Expat prawnograph's Avatar
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    Still undecided on building or buying. Have a section in a subdivision slowly being surrounded by houses and now unsure if that's where we want to be
    No hurry

    Not having built . : . but we were first occupants of a new house, leased for three years. Nice house, moved out match 2014; we got to live through a few problems/ faults

    Start on the exterior
    Two ground level doors, two more on to upstairs balconies. None suitable for exterior use. Warping, two beginning to show signs of rot at the bottom. All should have had a small ? Canopy rather than being flush with exterior walls
    Locks fitted to all four were crap. Owner agreed and i replaced the lot. Pointless cost- cutting on things like that
    Aluminium windows. Again, on a budget, without security bars they were hardly 'secure' as local cop showed us, popped one out of frame in seconds with a pocket knife
    Lack of overhang/eaves on each side of house. Didn't leak from there, but i'd far prefer the standard 1 m overhang all around
    And weirdly, there was no access to the roof cavity. Walled/roofed in, fully. If there'd been a leak, or electrical problems, out with the ladder and axe?

    The two concrete balconies had a small drain pipe at each end, 15mm pipe, constantly blocking and as a result filling with water

    Inside. All doors were full height, I'm 1.87m, no problem, except for the bathroom door, a cheap plastic item in a frame, somewhere about eye level with a step-down to wet area. You'd think i'd get used to it, but no, just needed the occasional smack in the head as a reminder
    While we're there, would have preferred a further step-down to actual shower rather than whole toilet/bathroom on same level. Or ideally, separate toilet room. Floor drained poorly. Made worse by poor plumbing drainage which was eventually replaced/repaired leaving a mess of mis-matched tiles

    Kitchen, a range hood required

    Garage. Wide enough for a small car, Yaris etc but useless for anything bigger unless passenger gets out first and park hard up against left wall
    And the garage roofing, angled up to house wall, rather than proper flashing they'd just used a cement plaster mix, useless, cracked and fell away, resulting in damp/often wet garage floor

    Overall internal. Not enough electric power points. For a new build, no allowance for eg cable tv, internet, required a bit of messy masonry drilling, and too many visible wires

    Sure there's more, but just a start. The owners, lovely couple next door, had their own new house built same time, same builders. Same problems, except for constant roof leaks which, nearing five years on, still not 100% cured

  7. #7
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    Wish I had bit the bullet and installed all aluminum or teak windows/doors..every rainy season everything sticks. Front door is teak...no problems.

  8. #8
    Days Work Done! Norton's Avatar
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    Only thing I would do different is place the boiler type water heater on the ground floor rather than in the attic where I figured would be the best place. Replacement and/or maintenance painful up there. If I have to replace again, will relocate and repipe as needed.

  9. #9
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    My one point of advice would be to actually be present as much as is possible to oversee the build....If you are not there workers at times change a plan to what they think would suit you rather than what you asked for....and just give you that 'blank look when you complain....also if you are not present they cut many corners...ie minimal concrete mud between tiles or no glue on pvc joints etc...

    good luck
    Just a Member number

  10. #10
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    Great idea for a thread to help newbies Waspy! I regret not finding out more about QCon blocks. Paid extra to get them but didn't realize they came in different thicknesses, so I got the thinnest! Also not being on site they stuffed up the tiles in the bathroom and had to take down and re-lay.

  11. #11
    Thailand Expat Storekeeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wasp View Post
    So it would be interesting if the people who have built might come in here and tell us what you think was your biggest mistake / regret / bad decision .
    I made three mistakes:

    1. Putting an extension on the house before I retired and moved to Thailand.
    2. Impulse buying of land in another location I thought I liked.
    3. Not so much a mistake but another impulse buy ... this time a house in another location.

    I came to wish I had lived in Thailand for a year before investing money in land and houses. If I had done this it's possible I would still be there ... maybe.



    I wasn't there for the initial build or the extension so I really had no clue what kind of house my wife was building.

  12. #12
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    ensuring that the electrical was actually 3 wire

    having 50mm water piping for capacity stopping the pump cycling continually

  13. #13
    Thailand Expat terry57's Avatar
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    ^

    It would not cycle properly because the pipe was to large and this affected the pressure. Needs to be 25.

    Is that what caused the problem ?

    Just askin.

    The 3 wire is a trap if not watching them and checking.

    I have an extension lead at home. It is 2 plug at the power in end one end but 3 plug at the other.

    So once again we plug in appliances that need Earth but are not Earthed.

    Just get used to this mad shit huh.
    Last edited by terry57; 30-08-2015 at 03:04 PM.

  14. #14
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by terry57
    It would not cycle properly because the pipe was to large and this affected the pressure. Needs to be 25.
    no

    the idea is to have a larger capacity system so when using water the pressure will not decrease to the start pump setpoint as fast as with a lower capacity which means the pump will not start and stop as often.

    the water outlets themselves would be 20/25 mm
    If you torture data for enough time , you can get it to say what you want.

  15. #15
    CCBW Stumpy's Avatar
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    Great Thread idea Wasp. Should help quite a few.

    Regrets: While I do not have but a few here they are.

    1) While hard to think about future yard ideas at the time of the build, I would have liked to have had the septic tank on the back side of the house. I never gave it any thought until I was thinking about landscaping

    2) Install the 1000L water tank inside the laundry room downstairs versus outside, looks nicer and tank is out of the elements

    Advice for anyone building:

    1) Find a reputable builder. Go see his projects. talk to the end user to see if they like what they got.

    2) Don't be a cheap skate. You only get what you pay for.

    3) Sit down and REALLY decide where you want to build and live. Move around Thailand first. Go north and south.

    I will think of more I am sure

  16. #16
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    Built a bathroom the length of the (small) guest house bedroom. Should have been the width!

    Would have got a much nicer bedroom.

  17. #17
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by charleyboy View Post
    Built a bathroom the length of the (small) guest house bedroom. Should have been the width!

    Would have got a much nicer bedroom
    .
    Oh charley !!!!!

    Funny though



    Wasp

  18. #18
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    Red face

    Quote Originally Posted by crepitas View Post
    Wish I had bit the bullet and installed all aluminum or teak windows/doors..every rainy season everything sticks. Front door is teak...no problems.


    So what DO you have creps ?



    Wasp

  19. #19
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wasp View Post
    So it would be interesting if the people who have built might come in here and tell us what you think was your biggest mistake / regret / bad decision .
    STOREKEEPER

    I came to wish I had lived in Thailand for a year before investing money in land and houses. If I had done this it's possible I would still be there ... maybe.



    There were three points here from Storekeeper but it came down to this ..... which I think is a really interesting suggestion.
    JPPR warns along the same lines about taking your time .




    Wasp

    Storekeeper .... when I pressed reply it looks as though there should be 3 photos in your post but we only got one

  20. #20
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by prawnograph View Post
    Still undecided on building or buying. Have a section in a subdivision slowly being surrounded by houses and now unsure if that's where we want to be
    No hurry

    Not having built . : . but we were first occupants of a new house, leased for three years. Nice house, moved out match 2014; we got to live through a few problems/ faults

    Start on the exterior
    Two ground level doors, two more on to upstairs balconies. None suitable for exterior use. Warping, two beginning to show signs of rot at the bottom. All should have had a small ? Canopy rather than being flush with exterior walls
    Locks fitted to all four were crap. Owner agreed and i replaced the lot. Pointless cost- cutting on things like that
    Aluminium windows. Again, on a budget, without security bars they were hardly 'secure' as local cop showed us, popped one out of frame in seconds with a pocket knife
    Lack of overhang/eaves on each side of house. Didn't leak from there, but i'd far prefer the standard 1 m overhang all around
    And weirdly, there was no access to the roof cavity. Walled/roofed in, fully. If there'd been a leak, or electrical problems, out with the ladder and axe?

    The two concrete balconies had a small drain pipe at each end, 15mm pipe, constantly blocking and as a result filling with water

    Inside. All doors were full height, I'm 1.87m, no problem, except for the bathroom door, a cheap plastic item in a frame, somewhere about eye level with a step-down to wet area. You'd think i'd get used to it, but no, just needed the occasional smack in the head as a reminder
    While we're there, would have preferred a further step-down to actual shower rather than whole toilet/bathroom on same level. Or ideally, separate toilet room. Floor drained poorly. Made worse by poor plumbing drainage which was eventually replaced/repaired leaving a mess of mis-matched tiles

    Kitchen, a range hood required

    Garage. Wide enough for a small car, Yaris etc but useless for anything bigger unless passenger gets out first and park hard up against left wall
    And the garage roofing, angled up to house wall, rather than proper flashing they'd just used a cement plaster mix, useless, cracked and fell away, resulting in damp/often wet garage floor

    Overall internal. Not enough electric power points. For a new build, no allowance for eg cable tv, internet, required a bit of messy masonry drilling, and too many visible wires

    Sure there's more, but just a start. The owners, lovely couple next door, had their own new house built same time, same builders. Same problems, except for constant roof leaks which, nearing five years on, still not 100% cured


    Now look .... this isn't ONE bad decision ! It's ONE huge disaster !!!!

    You broke my rules . If the newbies read this they'll stay in Watford.




    Wasp

  21. #21
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by crepitas
    Wish I had bit the bullet and installed all aluminum
    Similar for me but I'd have gone for UPVC. In fact I'm in the process of doing exactly that. I'm currently replacing all my windows with DiY UPVC.

  22. #22
    Thailand Expat
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pragmatic View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by crepitas
    Wish I had bit the bullet and installed all aluminum
    Similar for me but I'd have gone for UPVC. In fact I'm in the process of doing exactly that. I'm replacing all my windows.
    So what do you have ?

    Just regular timber ?



    Wasp

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by ossierob View Post
    My one point of advice would be to actually be present as much as is possible to oversee the build....If you are not there workers at times change a plan to what they think would suit you rather than what you asked for....and just give you that 'blank look when you complain....also if you are not present they cut many corners...ie minimal concrete mud between tiles or no glue on pvc joints etc...

    good luck


    Would the hiring of an architect help with that matter? I'd expect to to do that in my home country where I have never had a house built for myself.

  24. #24
    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wasp
    So what do you have ? Just regular timber ?
    Yes and they're complete and utter shite. They've never been waterproof from dot one. Thais around here aren't really into doing a good job. Just do the work and fook off. Not too many houses with glass come to that. They have corrugated sheets covering their window frames that they just roll up when they want light or air in the house.

  25. #25
    Excommunicated baldrick's Avatar
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    if there is a bath in the plan take it out

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