Thread: Shoestring Renovation.

Originally Posted by Ennis

Originally Posted by bindog

Downlights! In a Thai village! Mate, you'll have Kevin McCloud knocking on your door wanting to do a 'Grand Designs' photo shoot.

Haha, you may not be the first with downlights - I've only been inside one Farang house, don't recall if he had downlights / pot lights.

What do you pay for those? Curious, as I'm about to have some installed in new build in Oz - the cheapest Chinese ones seem to be $25 each, then $40 each for installation. So minimum 1600 baht for each light.

Guess you heard neither of your WA teams got up btw. But the 'wobbalies' have flogged the soap dodgers at Twickenham this morning. It's a good day.

Yes mate the Hawks smashed em - sorta knew they would.

Pot light cost 27-29 Baht each. Install is difficult to figure, as they all went in, in one day. 25 lights (not just "pot" went in, together with cutting holes etc.... Prep was one day also. Say 1000 Baht total labour.

Biggest expense was the globes 5w & 7w globes between 85 & 100 baht each.

The yellow LED in the picture was 340 Baht on its own - inbuilt globe. It is "mood lighting", and was a bit of a splurge. There is only one of those in the house. It is on a separate switch in the lounge. Fitting took minutes and he never bothered charging for this "afterthought".

For the sake of clarity, we have 19 pot lights total and 6 other types in the home.

I have to say they look fantastic.......

TILING DAY 1

Levels created.....




MUD MIXED




IT BEGINS




Bedroom 1 finished laying (grouting tomorrow for all)




Lounge





Bedroom 2 is part finished as is the passage, Toilet, shower & kitchen tomorrow, plus finish off the house.

May even be finished tomorrow, will let you know....

Ennis

Oh I forgot, they had to shorten our doors... Three of them.




Ennis

It's looking great, Ennis, thought that door.......

Originally Posted by CSFFan

It's looking great, Ennis, thought that door.......

Thanks Mate..

Well the toilet & Shower room were started today... Here is the picture wall.



Toilet is being tiled with the same tiles.. No picture of course..



Front being tiled as I type.. pics later.

Ennis

Our porch is currently being tiled as I type, those hideous blue columns will be cemented over.

We are also putting aluminium strips on each step, in the hope they will prevent an accident. ALL tiles here are "Non Slip".

Allan, who came to visit a few days ago, told us of his Dad falling on steps like ours. Probably a better way to do it??? But, we gave it our best shot.



Steps



Last one




Costings to follow

Ennis

Looking great... a suggestion re the front steps. Get the local welder to make a stainless steel hand rail going from the top step to the bottom and attached to the house wall. I find most steps in Thai buildings are irregular in height and width, causing some older people to misjudge and sometimes fall. You will be amazed how often you will use the hand rail. Just a thought.

CHEERS,
HAWKEYE

Originally Posted by hawkeye

Looking great... a suggestion re the front steps. Get the local welder to make a stainless steel hand rail going from the top step to the bottom and attached to the house wall. I find most steps in Thai buildings are irregular in height and width, causing some older people to misjudge and sometimes fall. You will be amazed how often you will use the hand rail. Just a thought.

CHEERS,
HAWKEYE

Bloody good suggestion, I honestly never thought of that. Will start asking around tomorrow.

Thanks

Ennis

I'm guessing something like this:-



Ennis

Originally Posted by Ennis

Well the toilet & Shower room were started today... Here is the picture wall.



Toilet is being tiled with the same tiles.. No picture of course..



Front being tiled as I type.. pics later.

Ennis

Have those hinges been nailed on??

Originally Posted by phunphin

Have those hinges been nailed on??

Yes they "were" nailed on, of course they will not be "nailed" when the door is re-hung.

Tiler and his crew did not front up today.

He did say he would be here, however, we knew his missus was in hospital. She has kidney stones and is quite young. They are operating on her today, to remove them.

Fully understandable that this guy wanted to be with her.

Yesterday he said his M in L would be there, however, we felt he was anxious.

So we spent much of the day cleaning up the site a little.

Ennis

Hi Ennis, love your renovation project. My wife has an older condo in Korat which needs this kind of project for sure before anyone could actually inhabit it and I’m kind of looking forward to it.

You have provided very good photos of the tiling and it seems to be the standard Thai way but I’m wondering now days with the self-leveling concrete it would seem more easy and economical to use it when tiling old floors, also one might not have to shorten any doors.

Thanks for sharing

Originally Posted by textalk

Hi Ennis, love your renovation project. My wife has an older condo in Korat which needs this kind of project for sure before anyone could actually inhabit it and I’m kind of looking forward to it.

You have provided very good photos of the tiling and it seems to be the standard Thai way but I’m wondering now days with the self-leveling concrete it would seem more easy and economical to use it when tiling old floors, also one might not have to shorten any doors.

Thanks for sharing

We looked at self leveling concrete, it is (from memory) 380B a 20k bag. We bought 5 bags to do some awkward areas, however, it would have defeated our "shoestring philosophy" to have done the whole house.

If you have oodles of cash, you may want to specify the use of this substance.

This is only my second major renovation, the last was for my Mother in Law, who now has the best house in the street. It cost us around 300,000 The tilers on that job are rank amateurs, compared with this Lamphun Team. I am so impressed, it blows my mind. It is 6:10pm and they are still working, their attention to detail is second to none. Plus they have minimal waste.

Back in OZ my son is a brick paver & tiler, he is an absolute perfectionist. The head honcho of this team is a perfectionist also. A rare find, could not be happier.

Thanks for your comment

Ennis

Originally Posted by Ennis

Safety Cut went in

where ? I only see a 63 Amp dual pole circuit breaker for your mains supply

Originally Posted by baldrick

Originally Posted by Ennis

Safety Cut went in

where ? I only see a 63 Amp dual pole circuit breaker for your mains supply

That probably means a lot to everyone reading, anyone out there care to translate for this dumb cnut?

Never been good at deciphering cryptic messages myself..

Ennis

Originally Posted by Ennis

Electrics were finished today, five "electricians" on site and they blitzed it!!
We insisted on lots of plugs around the house. We have a total of 32 outlets.
Many would say we have gone overboard, however, where I am living now, I am just sick of power-boards all over the place.

Fully agree. I believe there can be never be too many outlets in as many places as possible!

It would also be nice to have USB power outlets (2/2.1A that should be compatible with both Samsung and Apple) but this seems yet uncommon(?), like power strips that have these now.

Putting the thread in mothballs as we are going back to OZ for a short time, later this month.

We are not starting major projects during the rest of the month as we don't want to end up with stuff half finished.

The site will have a 2 guy's stay here, (security) rotating, It is finished enough to accommodate them comfortably. Villagers tell us they are very reliable. Not sure we need it, but??? - who knows.

Any things of interest in the next week or so I will post, E.g.. we are having a gate put in, it will not stop a thief - not much will, it simply defines "our" boundaries.

Ennis

Originally Posted by baldrick

Sorry about being late to reply.
I cannot see a safe t cut ( earth leakage circuit breaker ELCB ) In your photo.
what I posted from your photo is just a normal dual pole 63 amp circuit breaker used as the main isolator switch.

you may want to bring back a clipsal 63 amp single phase ELCB to install when you return. I am not sure the thai safe t cut will have the same level of quality control as the clipsal which you could be confident of it tripping on detection of greater than 30 milliamps current leakage to earth if of course it is correctly installed

I will try and find a "clipsal 63 amp single phase ELCB" I see many different types at my local bunnings store Fuses, Circuit Breakers & Accessories available from Bunnings Warehouse However they are DELTA brandname. As I have no clue what I am looking for, I will take a pic of my current box to the store.

Thanks for getting back.

Ennis

Clipsal - 4RC263SI30 - Residual Current Circuit Breaker, 2 Module, 2 Pole, 63A, 30mA, 6kA, C-Curve, Super Immune Type

Electrical Installation Wiring Pictures: 1-Phase ELCB Connection Pictures

^^^^

Is that your blog you are linking to Baldrick? Good info there.

And while you are answering questions from an electrical "special needs" person like Ennis, here's another question from this truly electrical half-wit: Does Ennis need a "clipsal 63 amp single phase ELCB" because of his particular setup, or is that what any residential home would need? That is, would a more power-hungry home need a higher amp ELCB?

Extra marks if you can imagine my question in Blackadder's Baldrick's voice.

Originally Posted by bindog

^^^^

Is that your blog you are linking to Baldrick? Good info there.

And while you are answering questions from an electrical "special needs" person like Ennis, here's another question from this truly electrical half-wit: Does Ennis need a "clipsal 63 amp single phase ELCB" because of his particular setup, or is that what any residential home would need? That is, would a more power-hungry home need a higher amp ELCB?

Extra marks if you can imagine my question in Blackadder's Baldrick's voice.

Not sure how the linking works - Bald-Rick has been kind enough to chip in with some sound advice. - I am in Australia right now and heading off to Bunnings and the Retrovision electrical superstore, across the road - armed with his advice...

Now watch me fcuk it up some more...

Ennis