The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Loombucket

This is starting to get interesting now. No offence intended wanna, but the pillars/footings really need to be matched to the load that they will carry. You can borrow from another design, but again, I strongly recommend against it.

splitlid

well, i think everyone on this side is pretty much in agreement wanna.
are you 100% convinced?
what are the issues you have?
were all friends here, you can tell us.
we can help if you need us

wanna

hi Loombucket,

i agree with you that ideally it should be matched.

the footings i shown here is from a 4 storey house which if i use for the planned build would probably be overspec. so i think there is a large margin of safety.

the way the horizonal reinforcement for the columns are twisted at 135 degree are not something i have seen before.

construction photos of the best i have seen so far are those twisted at 90 degrees and then tied together with thin wire

so if the building does collapse, it would be due more likely to poor construction( contractor, labour crew) than to using the specs from the particular house

wanna

hi splitlid

i think it is a universal issue of getting value for your money paid.

for an analogy, you go to a local wet market and looking to buy oranges. after comparison at a few stores, you narrow down to 2 stalls which on initial inspection seem to offer the same quality for the same price.

after deciding to buy from that stall, you are told that the oranges can only be collected after 1 week. ok...but then 1 week later, the seller said to wait another week. this goes on for 1 month.

finally you can collect the orange. but you are not happy.

then you think of buying apples. so you decide to scout around now by going to the other stall. the seller lets you try the apples for free and you are happy with the quality. collection would be a few days time. significantly shorter than the 1st stall.

so u ask the seller how much. he say cannot sell to you. why? because you didnt buy orange from him the 1st time. his is a package deal. you have to buy the orange and the apples together from him.

so he advised you to go back to the 1st stall to get the apples...

splitlid

oh nice anology,
however i would liken it more to a chef and asking him for a bowl of soup, when you get the soup it tastes bloody awful,
so you take the soup to another cef and ask him to make it taste better, but no matter what the chef does with it, it will always have the origional soup taste.
better to get the new chef to throw away the old soup and start agaain.

apples and oranges....ummmmm...starting to sound like a good comparison actually.

wanna

start again is very expensive

no analogy is 100% i think, more important is friend can help or not

splitlid

^agreed,
thats why we need to find a solution, and using someone elses foundations are definately not the answer.

dirtydog

to get the steel round to 135 degrees would double the time on making them on each one, make sure if you want to go this route you stress this to the contractor as it will double the time needed and increase his labour cost.

wanna

hi splitlid

if you check the drawings no name and signature of the architect can be found, as i had explained the nature of the land to him

subsequently no liability can be assumed for any party helping out a friend

splitlid

^ i believe thats not actually true,
the copyright stays with the architect, he basically only gives a lisence to use his design.
regardless of whether his name is on the documents.
for anyone to do any work on the drawings should require the origional architect to sign the drawings over.

splitlid

anyho, back on topic,
so can you now, summarise your options please, as the last 3 pages are confusing.
also please can you reiterate what you really need to proceed with the build.

wanna

hi DD

yes i will be upfront with any potential contractor when soliciting quotation from him

wanna

yes ideally that should be the case, if everything is in black and white

however there are lots of grey area where it involves internet...and friendship

wanna

from various discussions on the internet these few days, i'm given to believe that a typical thai architect would provide the following:

1. architect drawing
2. foundation drawing
3. shop drawings

options are:

4. boq

i have emailed you the plans. i do have more details drawings down to 1:25 scale, but i do not know whether they constitute shop drawings.

i definitely dont have foundation drawing.

i am also given to believe that shop drawings are not necessary for a contractor, ie only architect and foundation drawings are necessary.

if however, that proves to be not the case, i would need foundation + shop drawings.

so i need your confirmation on this point.

the various options at this point are as follows:

1. i) simple foundation only
ii) analysis of whether number of columns can be reduced further
2. foundation + shop
3. foundation + shop + boq

ultimately, which option is selected would be based on what is necessary vs the costs involved

splitlid

your cheapest option is the foundation/structure( roof beams/slab) etc option.
you definately wont be cutting down on column numbers, probably increasing in my opinion. but thats minor.
take your drawings to the local govt as already suggested and ask them to get them done for you.
this will be your cheapest option.

boq you can try and work out the best you can, then just blag it.

that sould be enough to get the builder to quote.

dirtydog

Your trying to save maybe 10,000baht on what will be your home and in most countries the most expensive investment you will ever make, what are you thinking?

wanna

this sounds ok

wanna

hi DD

i have given some background to the situation.

granted, i may have to pay some money to obtain the needed information, but i would like to obtain quality information for the same price, if possible.

also, advice in these forums are free and largely unbiased, so it gives a better idea for me how to proceed ahead.

i do understand that people do not work for free and of course expect to be paid a certain renumeration for doing so.

you may have noticed that in my various interactions with splitlid, i did not in anyway try to force him to come up with the foundation drawings for free.

ideally, friends and business should not mix. but if they do, maybe friendship price, but not free.

i was just waiting to see if splitlid might come up with a quotation.

but he isnt interested, so i respect his decision

lob

ive been to great pains to reply, as nobody can wind me up face to face as i'm too astute, its been done once. your whole thread is absurd, well not the thread as much as you wanna. your building a f#### house not a nuclear power station. i do enjoy all the building threads as its one of my main hobbies. the underlying theme tho, is, that its all good fun by the proposed tennant, some know a little and one in particular knows fuck all but has read a lot and understood fuck all, no prises for the correct answer. not sure where you're comming from or what you're after, no ones going to step up and build it for you or pay for it, so stop the bull shit you're becoming boreing. if you want the details of the ampure architect and builder that i told you about before, ring my wife on the number, i think u have. this will be my last word to you as your whole aproach is farsical. sorry to be blunt mate but a prick is just that.

splitlid

ouch