Thread: wood frame or concrete blocks?

Me and my wife will be moving (back) to Thailand and will build a house near Chiang Mai. It will be a large one story house sitting on several rai of land. Should I build the exterior (and interior) walls from concrete blocks or wood frame? Which is more costly and which is better at moderating the inside temperature?

-Gary

colingc hi,

I'm no expert and I'll undoutably be corrected by some on here who are but...

I'd be inclined to say concrete block. Wood is a better asthetic but would surely be more expensive - particularly for the good quality timbers such as teak etc.

Plus the thermal conductivity of wood is really not an issue, it is 1/2 BTU per inch, and you can use the thermal blocks made here and get good insulation in your walls and blanket glass insulation is not that expensive and no bugs will eat a block house, but make sure of a good foundation when you do build and watch the Thai workmen as there is no craftsmen here and the old "close enough is good enough" is the building standard here, that is if you can keep em sober while working, if not they really make a fuking mess of things.
Also I sure would try for dual pane windows with vinyl framing as thats cuts a lot of heat coming in.