Thread: Building our Retirement Home in Nan Province

Hi TD, thanks. Went out again today, will post those photos and update tomorrow. I wasn't familiar with the term 'french drain' so had to research it. Turns out I'm quite familiar with the actual construction, incorporated one in each of the last two retaining walls I built to remove excess water. Those two walls were not intended to be porous, some weepage was catered. This wall is intended to allow water through it with minimal disruption. Use of a couple of french drains instead of enclosed pipes direct from the catchment sump is an interesting idea.

The glass colour is black tint. Apparently the wife had a choice of green or black tint and went with the black on the basis that in daytime you can see out but others cannot see in. Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by Thai Dhupp

You could also consider a french drain system - relatively inexpensive and proven technology - standalone or in conjunction with other measures.

The whole place is looking fantastic now - I'm looking forward to dropping by later this year!

What colour is your glass tint?

Almost missed your post NPT. The land is reasonably flat. Along the south (road side) boundary it is level. It falls 1 meter on the east boundary, a distance of about 40 meters. Falls almost two meters on the west boundary over a distance of approx 45 meters. With the fill in place now the north boundary and adjacent ground to the house is basically level. But I could not push fill into the neighboring property at the north west corner, so I need to build a retaining wall and backfill with rocks and rubble. The southern portion of that wall will impede the natural surface water flow so I have to make the wall porous.

If you look at the second photo in post #732 you will see a yellow arrow. This is a natural depression that has in the past collected the surface water of most of our land and taken it over the escarpment in an existing watercourse. I estimate I'll be sending about 20% more water to that depression. The challenge is that most of it will be delivered to that area where the yellow arrow is so it may scour or erode. I'd say I would be causing maybe a threefold increase of the runoff at that point by concentrating it too much. So I need to distribute it a bit before the start of the west boundary retaining wall, and along the retaining wall. I want very little going through the short north boundary retaining wall because that would go through uncontained fill and go over the escarpment in a different location to the natural water course.

I'll likely post some more tomorrow on the retaining wall. Yesterday and today I took some photos that help show what I've got to do. Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

BiP its coming along great, you are going to really enjoy it and the views.

Ref water run off. My main concern would be the run off from out with the property, you appear to be on a hillside. My place is in a hilly area although the land is in a flat area. What i have noted though is the way that run off water can undermine roads and structures beneath them with little prior surface indication, first sign is they collapse.

I assume you've looked at hill run off situation and considered the potential for some gully to capture and divert any run off.

Site Visit 12 January 2019

We went out to the site again yesterday. We've rarely been out two days in a row but True was booked for the installation at 1:00pm. We arrived around 11:30am to find five folks onsite. The general duties gent, a gent installing the baseboard, the two electricians and a gent doing the preliminary brickwork for the mini landing/steps at the external doors and level 1 covered deck. Since we had left the day before a few more window elements had been installed. The electricians were waiting to assist with the True installation and were installing the hot water heaters in the bathrooms while doing so.

True arrived on time and together with the electricians discovered provision had not been made for either their fibre optic cable nor the electric power to enter the house before the concrete apron had been poured the day before. So the east side apron was cut and trenched just twenty four hours after being poured. The True guys pulled the fibre optic cable up the hill to our land, attached it to the overhead poles. Then it was all hands on deck to lay a thick black conduit in the trench that had been dug from the front boundary of the land down to the freshly trenched east concrete apron. Then the fibre optic and power cables were pulled through the conduit. About this time we left to return to Nan. Later the wife got a call from the True lead who was onsite saying the install was fine and they would return once we had power and a television in the place. Since the True guys were the same ones who turned up a few weeks back the wife and I decided to create some goodwill with them by giving a memorable tip before we left the site...seems to be working.

The boundary end of the fibre optic and electric power trench.


The trench runs along the east boundary and is the same one used for the village water. However the fibre option and electric cables are enclosed in a thick conduit.


House entry point, needs a bit of tiding up.


The thinner yellow conduit and power cables are for the water pump. The yellow conduit will also be trenched into the concrete apron and covered.

The True guys doing their thing.

Outside and inside views of one of the three low windows in the kitchen. We've used frosted glass here for privacy since the proximity of two of the windows to the hotplate means we cannot use curtains or blinds. These windows are for added airflow, not views.

Baseboard installation commenced.

Brickwork for the mini landings and steps for the front and side entrances and level 1 covered deck has started. We'll use the same tiles as the covered decks for these.

I was quite disappointed in the plastic water pipes and shower head adjustable holder/rail supplied with the hot water heaters. These were not cheap units. I deliberately went for simple function (no pulsing, aerated water options, etc) but paid mid-high level price on the basis that the core functional components that produce heated water would be good quality and last. The shop display did not include the shower head/pipes/rail and I guess I presumed they would reflect the price we paid. Got it wrong. To add insult to injury the water connector from the stop valve to the HWH was not included. Once again I presumed it would be.

Was looking at the bathrooms yesterday and noticed something...anyone else see it?

All different heights to the shelves?

BiP, ref the windows which i think the black tint works really well, what security measures are you considering. Most of the units with slides i've seen could easily be popped out.

Bip
Thanks for the detailed explanation of your ideas to manage the water runoff and retaining walls. Sounds like you are on top of it.
Two things I will say are:
1. Don't stick to a budget if it means having bigger problems in the future, by all means be as restained as you can but don't be cheap charlie it could come back and bite your arse.
2. How do you plan to have the west side retaining wall be porous? I know it is possible but wondering how you plan to do it. If you decide to let the water flow there don't let it flow "under" the wall as that will eventually cause a problem instead just put in some 1 inch pvc through the wall and some mesh over the end before you bury it in your rubble drain.

When I made my first comment I thought your boundary went all the way to the end of the fill but as the fill will only be 30cm on the NE corner and 1m on the NW corner you shouldn't have a real big issue.

One last comment is there any particular reason you have made the top tread on the stairs below twice that of the lower tread?



Cheers

I was thinking exactly the same as ootai, tread widths need to be the same, otherwise someone will end up flat on their face 555


Frustrating watching them cut your freshly laid concrete a day after it is poured, common practice though

Hi NPT, have decided to have a decent English breakfast at Crossroads Nan this morning so I've got some time to kill before walking there. Just enough to respond.

The kitchen window installation is not yet finished. There is a long strip with a vertical lip that gets fixed to the base on the outside of the window sill. This is sufficient to prevent anyone just lifting the window out. It is installed already on a couple of the level 2 windows. Of course turning up with a Philips head screwdriver will assist a burglary effort as would just ramming something between the sill and the strip and breaking the strip/screw. I'll likely replace those screws with some with a more exotic head, hoping Thailand has such a thing.

Brings me onto the larger question of overall security, particularly as I'm not going to put a high and heavy wall around the property. My current security approach is:
- Dogs on the property.
- Video cameras covering the front and rear of the house and in the dining and living rooms. Maybe a couple of dummy cameras on the east and west side.
- Signs about video surveillance in Thai and English at the front gate and each external wall of the house.
- Proper security doors (likely from Meshtec in Lamphun) on the front and side entrances and the dining room sliding door to the level 1 covered deck. These will incorporate insect screens so the wooden/glass doors can be open during the day for airflow.
- Bars on the level 1 windows for bedrooms 1 and 2. These will be sourced locally in Pua.

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

All different heights to the shelves?

BiP, ref the windows which i think the black tint works really well, what security measures are you considering. Most of the units with slides i've seen could easily be popped out.

Hi Rivo, will respond to your and ootai's comments on the steps as I've still got some time to kill before heading to breakfast.

Look at the first picture in post #758. In discussion with Mart our builder, his supervisor, my wife and I we decided we needed a mini landing 10cm below the entrance door base level, not just straight out onto a step. We also saw we needed another step down before a further drop to the apron/path level. We then considered that in front of the apron/path there, there will be a carport. Carports come with cars, cars with drivers, and sooner or later a driver might misjudge and nudge a step. So we decided to keep the step short of the edge of the apron/path. In deciding the width of the landing and step we were guided by the width of the tile we will use here, the same tiles as are on the covered decks. Two tiles for the landing and one for the step. So that's how we decided the design for the front entrance. Mart then asked about the side entrance and end of the covered deck. We said do the same. The plans for the side entrance originally had a 1 meter wide landing and steps either side towards the front and rear of the house. But that is now impractical for the front direction as there will be a water tank, filter and water pump there. Not a lot of room once you get to the apron level. Too late to change course now...suspect I'll be the first person to misjudge the step.

Subsequently we were walking around Global House and came across several types of those low car parking barriers that you can nudge your tires into. So that problem has a solution...just needs a budget allocation. - Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by Rivo

I was thinking exactly the same as ootai, tread widths need to be the same, otherwise someone will end up flat on their face 555


Frustrating watching them cut your freshly laid concrete a day after it is poured, common practice though

Will do the retaining wall pondering post with photos later this morning.

Yep, a minor thing 99% of others will never see let alone pick up on it when visiting.

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

All different heights to the shelves?

Originally Posted by BoganInParasite

Meshtec

I see they are manufactured in Chaing Mai - About Meshtec factory in Chiang Mai.

are they carried by any of the majorhome improvements retailers ?

Apparently not. We went to the factory there and got a tour of a small display room. They appear to sell direct only in Thailand. They export quite a bit they also said. Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by baldrick

I see they are manufactured in Chaing Mai - About Meshtec factory in Chiang Mai.

are they carried by any of the majorhome improvements retailers ?

So I've failed to do the retaining wall post again today. I've pondered it further and have settled on an approach today and spent this evening drawing up a basic plan. I'll post and discuss that tomorrow. Meanwhile in this and the next post are details of the challenge for retaining, but not for the associated water drainage challenge.

This is the north west boundary corner. The legal boundary corner peg is at the base of the fence post the bamboo is resting against. The bamboo is the level I want the retaining wall to come up to. About 1 meter of fill required here.


This is looking from the corner post and down the north boundary to the north east corner. The fence line will extend in the same direction as the bamboo.


Another view of the north west corner.


Yet another view of the same corner but this time I've placed some more bamboo to show where the west boundary fence line will be.

A closer view of the north west corner with the bamboo showing both the intended fence lines and top of the retained fill.


Looking south along the west boundary. The barbed wire fence was temporary while the house was built and not on any boundary.


Standing adjacent the house and looking north along the west boundary.


A basic plan view of the current situation at the north west corner.

Okay, time to relax this evening. I'll do the retaining wall plan/design post tomorrow (promise) and discuss the associated drainage challenge. And I can see a few other posts I should respond. Thanks for your continued interest. Regards, -BiP

BiP
Thanks for the update and I am looking forward to your plans for the wall.

Just in case it might help when I put in a fence around the back of the house in the corners and for gate posts I used 3 lengths of the concrete (1 foot inside diameter) drainage pipes and put rebar inside them and then filled with concrete. I reckon some could drive a truck into them and they wouldn't move. I used my excavator to lift the pipes up over and onto the rebar.

I am surprised you never had WW3 erupt if you built your temporary fence on the neighbours land. If Thai's get upset about 1 thing its someone trying to encroach onto their land.
I was ploughing the paddies on one of our blocks and was cutting very close to the paddy bund to cut the grass off the vertical edges and the grump old neighbour got onto the missus about me trying to steal his land by pushing the boundary out. As a matter of interest why did you not built it (the temporary fence) on the actual boundary line?

What are you going to put in that pointy end (NW corner) of your block?

Cheers

Hi ootai, thanks for the suggestion but I don't think I need to go that heavy duty. The previous owner was okay for us to erect that temporary fence on his land while the house was built. He wanted to continue to graze his cattle on the adjacent land and we needed a bit of elbow room during construction. He was also feeling a bit guilty having misrepresented the unowned strip of land on the north boundary was part of the sale. I actually think he was unaware it was there and not on the chanote, he'd owned the land 25+ years. His greater problem was that it was actually a very senior government official in Pua, the brother of an ex-work colleague of my wife, that showed us the land with the permission of the old owner, and it was he that showed us the 'incorrect' north boundary. We are probably going to plant papaya trees in the north west corner, three of them. Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by ootai

BiP
Thanks for the update and I am looking forward to your plans for the wall.

Just in case it might help when I put in a fence around the back of the house in the corners and for gate posts I used 3 lengths of the concrete (1 foot inside diameter) drainage pipes and put rebar inside them and then filled with concrete. I reckon some could drive a truck into them and they wouldn't move. I used my excavator to lift the pipes up over and onto the rebar.

I am surprised you never had WW3 erupt if you built your temporary fence on the neighbours land. If Thai's get upset about 1 thing its someone trying to encroach onto their land.
I was ploughing the paddies on one of our blocks and was cutting very close to the paddy bund to cut the grass off the vertical edges and the grump old neighbour got onto the missus about me trying to steal his land by pushing the boundary out. As a matter of interest why did you not built it (the temporary fence) on the actual boundary line?

What are you going to put in that pointy end (NW corner) of your block?

Cheers