Thread: Thai Dhupp and Princess Joy's Thai House Build

Originally Posted by Norton

Could have been clearer.

Under the tiles a thin aluminium heat reflective sheet. On the ceiling, insulation. 6in.

In any case what you have is fine.

Exactly, I used Lohr for a house in Pattaya, waste of money, traps the heat in the roof void and doesn't allow it to breathe, if you do have a leak from the roof, which we did its an absolute nightmare to repair, sure Lohr give you a guarantee, which means they eventually arrive on site and ask you what you wont to to do?
Without ceiling insulation you are paying to cool the roof void, which still gets very hot no matter what you use to insulate the actual roof. Better to treat them as to separate areas, air flow through the roof void, insulate directly above the rooms you need to be cool

Hi TD, your humble abode is looking real good, amazing builder.

Any idea on costs so far ?

Originally Posted by Dead Metal

Hi TD, your humble abode is looking real good, amazing builder.

Any idea on costs so far ?

hi DM, all well with you?

Costs? yeah...I got a pretty good idea 'cos I track all the costs in my spreadsheet, so I know whats been spent outside the agreed contract price.

So far we are only over by 15,000 for that duct bank I retro-fitted.

I think i mentioned before about the Mai daeng flooring but that we would save some by not needing tiles in those rooms, and overall savings on tiles in general

Yeah... pretty much bang on the money (up to today anyway!)

When I built my place 13 years ago. Cost about 15,000 per sqm. All included except furnature. Must be far higher now.

Originally Posted by Norton

When I built my place 13 years ago. Cost about 15,000 per sqm. All included except furnature. Must be far higher now.

I'm somewhere handy to that figure but I am sourcing the kitchen and bathrooms separately.

IE he is labour only

Sorry to hear about your mom, I lost my dad about 10 years ago but my mom is still going strong, her 96th birthday this month.
I really like the look of that roof, the silver foil under the roof tiles is that only foil or does it have some insulation as well?

Originally Posted by dennis4558

Sorry to hear about your mom, I lost my dad about 10 years ago but my mom is still going strong, her 96th birthday this month.
I really like the look of that roof, the silver foil under the roof tiles is that only foil or does it have some insulation as well?

Thanks for the condolences, Dennis... I've just about come to terms with it now...

That is roof insulation, yes, not just baco-foil!

You get it from the building materials store, sold as 'roof insulation'.

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

You can buy a gel that birds hate that is available in tubes that look like the acrylic and sealant tubes.

I've used it before and it has kept pigeons away for the last 3 years.

Definitely going to check that out - thanks for the heads-up LT..,

Fitting the ceiling hangers - first floor

OK ... what we do downstairs of course we do upstairs too!

First floor suspended ceiling hangers going in:

He's made a mistake though - can you spot it!!?

Of course, he's going to say he was not told... but he was. and we sent him the pictures to, for guidance.

It's getting changed...

Originally Posted by David48atTD

Humm, my humble take is ...

The call for 6 " of insulation is silly (Norts, you posted before I did). If you are going to be an igloo with triple glazing, every door/window closed
24/7 and not other Thai stayers (they leave everything open) then the 6 " might, I say might, help you.

So, some questions, and my apologies if you answered it before.

The roof insulation (against the tiles), already installed, is it a simple 'single layer foil saking', 'foil saking with a sandwiched bubble rap', or
'foil saking with a layer of fibreglass insulation'?

Are you going for ceiling tiles or a completely dry wall/gyprocked ceiling?

Will the windows/doors be open during the day?

wow...I missed this reply... sorry bout dat, David....!

Its got the sandwiched bubble wrap, its not the heavy insulation option.

Gyproc ceiling panels not 'tiles'

Im hoping to hermetically seal us into the house and never come out... no not really - sure... doors n windows will be open some not necessarily all of the day.

Those big folding doors will be put to as much use as possible for sure.

Originally Posted by Airportwo

Exactly, I used Lohr for a house in Pattaya, waste of money, traps the heat in the roof void and doesn't allow it to breathe, if you do have a leak from the roof, which we did its an absolute nightmare to repair, sure Lohr give you a guarantee, which means they eventually arrive on site and ask you what you wont to to do?
Without ceiling insulation you are paying to cool the roof void, which still gets very hot no matter what you use to insulate the actual roof. Better to treat them as to separate areas, air flow through the roof void, insulate directly above the rooms you need to be cool

We will have the three, AP2...

The roof mounted reflection, the air flow-through and the above ceiling fibreglass.

I remember, was it Slick, way back at the start of this thread, telling about how he fitted a thermo-controlled fan in the roof void to actively expel the hot air.

I liked that idea and might do the same

(He's another one who posted regularly then suddenly fell off the face of the earth!)

Originally Posted by Airportwo

Exactly, I used Lohr for a house in Pattaya, waste of money, traps the heat in the roof void and doesn't allow it to breathe, if you do have a leak from the roof, which we did its an absolute nightmare to repair, sure Lohr give you a guarantee, which means they eventually arrive on site and ask you what you wont to to do?
Without ceiling insulation you are paying to cool the roof void, which still gets very hot no matter what you use to insulate the actual roof. Better to treat them as to separate areas, air flow through the roof void, insulate directly above the rooms you need to be cool

Upstairs in our house was always hot, with much of the heat coming from the roof void. 3 years ago we painted the house exterior, which included painting the existing roof tiles a charcoal grey colour (with the obvious increase of heat absorption that would induce). Prior to painting, we had 50mm of spray foam applied to all of the underside of the roof tiles (with the tiles themselves checked for cracks/gaps beforehand, and any remedial work done first).

What a difference that has made. The roof void now is as cool as the upstairs of the house (around 3-5 degrees cooler than before) with the bonus of the foam effectively locking the tiles in place to prevent movement through weather/animals. 3 years down the line and no problems to report.

Some photos:

Once you climb under the roof in day time, you will be surprised how the roof structure (rafters) - if not covered by insulation - are hot.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Once you climb under the roof in day time, you will be surprised how the roof structure (rafters) - if not covered by insulation - are hot.

That's true - they are like mini radiators

Originally Posted by PAG

Upstairs in our house was always hot, with much of the heat coming from the roof void. 3 years ago we painted the house exterior, which included painting the existing roof tiles a charcoal grey colour (with the obvious increase of heat absorption that would induce). Prior to painting, we had 50mm of spray foam applied to all of the underside of the roof tiles (with the tiles themselves checked for cracks/gaps beforehand, and any remedial work done first).

What a difference that has made. The roof void now is as cool as the upstairs of the house (around 3-5 degrees cooler than before) with the bonus of the foam effectively locking the tiles in place to prevent movement through weather/animals. 3 years down the line and no problems to report.

I considered this too, PAG but in the end we went with the 2-stage insulation + air flow-though.

I Know its pretty good - there is an element of security increase too, if anyone tries to prize your roof tiles off to gain entry...

Originally Posted by Thai Dhupp

I Know its pretty good - there is an element of security increase too, if anyone tries to prize your roof tiles off to gain entry...

We put a couple of motion sensors in the roof void, probably overkill but cheap enough, you would need "Spiderman" to remove your tiles to gain entry, heard many "tales" of houses being broken into through the roof, but thats all they have been, why go to all that trouble, so many easier routes into a house, especially if you have a battery powered grinder!

Originally Posted by Thai Dhupp

He's made a mistake though - can you spot it!!?

Of course, he's going to say he was not told... but he was. and we sent him the pictures to, for guidance.

It's getting changed...

Thai Dhupp
I am waiting for you to let us know what the mistake is.
To me it looks like in some areas he has put the hangers at the wrong level. It looks like there are runners around the wall showing where there should go.
I won't bet on this being the mistake because in a couple of the pictures the angle of the photo gives a deceptive perspective.

Every time I come to this thread and look at a picture of that roof I can't believe someone would even try and build it let alone succeed (so far).
Have you come up with a solution for the "channel" between the 2 roofs?
Good luck with the rest of the build.

Originally Posted by Airportwo

We put a couple of motion sensors in the roof void, probably overkill but cheap enough, you would need "Spiderman" to remove your tiles to gain entry, heard many "tales" of houses being broken into through the roof, but thats all they have been, why go to all that trouble, so many easier routes into a house, especially if you have a battery powered grinder!

as you say.. motion sensors are cheap...

I intend to have a multi-stage intruder alert system using motion sensors (and other components) too... but from wall/gate and inwards so hopefully we would be alerted long before anyone actually got to the house itself.

I agee... would be crazy trying it on my roof..... its a minimum 6m fall if you get it wrong and, as I mentioned before...that's a an almost guaranteed fatality.

Plenty of crazy people out there, though...

Originally Posted by Thai Dhupp

He's made a mistake though - can you spot it!!?

Of course, he's going to say he was not told... but he was. and we sent him the pictures to, for guidance.

It's getting changed...

OK... we originally wanted cathedral roofs in the bedrooms and living room.

In fact, we wanted the recessed ceiling in all rooms.

K.Pot err... 'forgot' all that ans started doing flat over ceilings everywhere!

Hes modifying / changing ceilings now... update photos coming, once i get back to work.

He's not doing full cathedral ceilings now but there will be a deeper recess to give be the height and heat dissipation that I wanted.

Outside walls

So anyway.... outside walls, specifically.. the upstairs ones.

If you cast your minds back 50+ pages of this thread (!), right at the start I was blathering on about build with modern tech but I wanted it all to 'look' old a la Thai Lanna / Ayutthaya.

The bottom was going to be rendered block and painted, the top would look like wood, all being well.


This is possibly a bit ornate, but the right idea...



yeah...that's more like it.


More matte finish, don't want that glossy finish the Thais love...

One of the things that swung us to K.Pot was his ability to create 'wood effect' with building materials - the very thing i wanted.

Sure... I could have built modern and then clad it in wood, but the cost? OMG.. we did actually look at this and quickly gave up.

So K.Pot can do architrave detailing to create the appearance of wood - gloss finish, matte finish, painted, grained, bare sealed, etc etc.



this is actually mortar - not wood.

i have of course told him we will not be having a high gloss finish like this one (the client was v happy, apparently)

In general if he can create the pattern and appearance of the fist 2 photos in this entry, I will be pretty happy

Originally Posted by Thai Dhupp

More matte finish, don't want that glossy finish the Thais love...

Again, your taste matches mine. That looks really good, especially matt.

Originally Posted by Thai Dhupp

wow...I missed this reply... sorry bout dat, David....!

Its got the sandwiched bubble wrap, its not the heavy insulation option.

Gyproc ceiling panels not 'tiles'

Im hoping to hermetically seal us into the house and never come out... no not really - sure... doors n windows will be open some not necessarily all of the day.

Those big folding doors will be put to as much use as possible for sure.

I think you need a foot or two of polystyrene immediately above the ceiling. Cheap to do now and will pay for itself in no time at all. Source scrap polystyrene, even better for the wallet and the environment.

Outsde walls - fixing the wood pattern

The first part of it is to fix the pattern desired - in my case that standard, staggered block effect, using additional building materials for architraving.

In the following photos, the team are cutting and placing those materials to the upper floor external walls to create the relief - the 3D effect as if wood had been used to build upstairs.


The production line hard at it...


This bit almost finished though we changed the design under the windows.


It takes time, but its worth it. the effect is pretty good, I think...


The method is really quite simple as you can see....


... but the effect is pretty good. Imagine when it has been made to look like wood and then painted.

Originally Posted by Thai Dhupp

but the effect is pretty good.

Yep. A good choice by you and Princess.