Day 1: Udon Thani

[rickschoppers]

Very nice design David and I hope all goes well with the build. As far as builders go, keep asking around or take a drive until you find a nice house and ask who the builder was. Stay away from the large building companies since they are much more expensive and inflexible as you have already mentioned. I believe most of the posters on this site found their builder by asking questions and taking their time. If they didn't, they wound up with issues and a house that does not match their wishes.

Around Udon there are many nice houses now and the amount of builders must be growing. Be sure and ask the owners about their experiences with builders and if they would recommend someone. Alec should also be dialed in as far as knowing some good builders. By all means, TAKE YOUR TIME. Interview several before making a final decision.

With my build, I interviewed several builders, but none were to me liking and I was running out of time. I wound up hiring my brother-in-law to put together a crew of good workers and in the end, it worked. I know this is not recommended by many others, but in my case it got the job done. They completed the raw structure in just two months, which left the finish work to be done. There in another builder I met during the search phase who I would like to do this finish work and I have examined several of the houses he has completed. Just finding someone who can paint a strait line or wire a house with a proper fuse box can be challenging. Once you do find a builder, make it clear that you would like to be involved with picking materials since there are so many different grades in Thailand.

I wish you the best, and if I can be of any help, just let me know. I am currently back in the US now making more money to pay for the finishing touches, but should be in Thailand before you start the build. You will more than likely spend a lot of time in Global House where I have found fairly good prices on building materials. There are many tile stores in Udon including marble and granite. Udon is a good area to build since there is quick access to almost anything you need.

[davidbyron]

So we are in GO! GO! GO! mode. Which is very exciting.

The best bit right now is that after years of diligently saving and having cold soup for supper every night we now get to spends thousands of pounds every day. Which is isn't as frightening or worrying as I thought it might be though after nearly five years of researching, planning and general accumulation of paranoia as to what can wrong, we are as prepared and rehearsed as we could be.

And I have peace of mind via having the best project manager that I could have asked for in my wife Shanana. She is presently, as I understand, creating quiet mayhem around the building merchants of Udon Thani in order to reverse the present trend for rising material prices. Sadly though she wasnt cheap to hire but I am sure it will equal out in the end.

We will start loading pictures in the next day or so that will hopefully be showing slow but steady progress of a house rising from the the ground up....but lets see.

Firstly though a big thanks and high recommendation to Alec Johnson from NKD builders who has been both a great architect to us in developing our house plans but has also shown immense patience in tutoring us over the last 12 months in how to build a house in Thailand. Also thanks to Nigel for the original contact. Invites for food and drink will be coming in about 8 months time.

[Necron99]

Good to hear mate. Looking forward to it.

[davidbyron]

One of our first tasks has been water. We have a wonderfully eccentric neighbor who bought a 39 rai plot next us originally to keep pigs but when this proved unprofitable he switched to mushrooms. Bacon is more tasty than mushrooms but mushrooms are quieter and don’t smell so we see this switch as an overall good thing. And it’s been quite interesting learning about growing mushrooms from him.

He has also done us a few favours in setting up his farm one of which was to get the mains water brought to the land. Originally we had been planning to dig a well but now no need. The water people came, set up a separate meter and account and job done in one morning. We then just bought a big hose to get the water from the tap to where the labour camp will be.

This is my son in the car with the hose. He looks very happy and excited here though I am sure that’s more to do with the snacks we gave him than the hose.

His favourite saying at the moment is Go! Go! Go! which I suspect he picked up from us.

[davidbyron]

And here you can actually see that there is a temporary tap and the water people laying the hose into the ground.

I know that connecting a hose to a tap and burrowing it into the ground is not such a big feat but its the first task completed successfully and so confidence is high at the moment.

[davidbyron]

So this one didn’t go so smoothly. There is a small tree lined river that runs around the edge of our land which was one of the features that attracted us to this plot. The road into the land runs along the river and is little more than a track. Big enough and solid enough for a 4x4 in the dry season but probably not big enough for loaded trucks in the wet season.

So, as we were concerned about large vehicles getting stuck and creating an access block, we decided to widen the track and make it into more of proper road before the rains come. We ordered 21 trucks of soil and a small bulldozer to flatten it. We will add gravel at some point for drainage so it doesn’t eventually turn into a mud bath.

They did a good job of widening the road but then the soil truck got stuck. They tried to use the bulldozer to pull the truck out without success so the truck we hired to ensure no vehicles got stuck and blocked the road is now stuck and blocking the road. We are seeing this as blessing in disguise that we can fix this now when it’s just a soil truck and not something more vital.

The road looks nice though so quite happy.

[nigelandjan]

Thankyou kindly David ,, I am glad things are beginning to work out .

I only ever try to help out , allthough at times some people slate me ( and others ) because we dont ( yet ) live in Thailand . I myself have picked up some great tips and tricks on here , and hope to learn many more during our upcoming small build.

I shall be in Udon area from about November until April next year all being well so mabe we can pop along some time then.

Cheers all the best for the build

[davidbyron]

So this is another job jobbed.

Our mushroom farming neighbor had added electricity to the land which we thought would be a further saving for us but it turned out he had 5 amp only installed which wouldn't be enough. Even he said he couldn't run two acs at once.

When we spoke to electric city people they quoted 3 options which were:

- 3 phase today for 1m baht on the grounds that the nearest 3 phase was some distance away and we would need to buy our own transformer.

- 3 phase at a non specified time in the future once the 3 phase has been connected past our land and at a much lower price

- 1 phase @ 30amp tomorrow for 140,000 baht including our own transformer. This still meant bringing the power nearly 1 km as we are a little distance from the road.

So we obviously opted for 1 phase and if needed we will upgrade to 3 phase when it comes past us. I suspect running pools and all the acs at the same time may be a challenge but lets see; we can always just learn to be more energy friendly.

I am not sure how much of what we paid them was a genuine cost and how much will go to their various 'charitable causes' but they did come and do the posts the very next day and the wiring the day after. So happy with the outcome and the price and that we have power for the labour camp meaning no hold ups with building work.

And another job jobbed by my super project manager.

It was also quite satisfying to see something 'going up' even if it was just an electric post.

In the first picture below you can also see the access road we have flattened for the trucks, the river is to the left. This road is about 800m away from us.



This post is where the 'gate' to our house will eventually go. It is not exactly beautifully positioned but by the time we get some shrubbery up hopefully it wont become an eye sore. We will hopefully run the wires under the ground frobuilding itself.

[davidbyron]

This is my junior project manager who is clearly feeling the strain a bit

[nigelandjan]

We will hopefully run the wires under the ground frobuilding itself.

er, you might like to give that one some thought Dave , only my opinion ,, I know its what we would do in the west to tidy things up , but what would worry me out here in the future would be someone coming round to do some job for you and you wernt there for whatever reason ,,, just a thought .

[poorfalang]

So this is day 1.

So far I have:
1 x irrational and impulsive Thai wife
1 x son with the above wife
1 x plot of land (in my dream there was always a river but I am now thinking if a plot of land alongside a river is really a good idea)
1 x some savings (reduced to my wife's shopping habit but decent enough and we are still working)

So the next bit is the thai teak house. In my mind’s eye this isn’t that difficult. I have seen many wonderful picture threads which all follow the same progression from no house to, via a few more funny than anything incidents, to a completed house. I see no thread where the end scene is total destruction, devastation and ruin. I somehow also imagine my final house to the most elegant, costing virtually nothing and all done in a single Saturday afternoon. And the roof will also never leaks, and mosquitoes stay a considered distance away.

We are Udon Thani based so would love to hear from anyone who is also doing the same or just done the same. Appreciate thoughts on: Is the river thing really a mistake; where are the last secret piles of wood and how long can a Thai teak house last before we need to build a new one.

welcome and Good Luck

[davidbyron]

Saturday 1st June was our first official house building day (last week just being electrics, water and labour camp) and things seemed to go well and move quickly through the process.

To begin all the materials we had ordered turned up in the morning including the stone, sand, cement, rebar, nails, formwork and so on with no truck getting stuck.





Then we did the rough laying out of the foundations - that's me in the background. This will be the the junior project manager's last day on site - he has a natural instinct to run towards anything and everything that could hurt him - as with big heavy equipment and material turning up its too dangerous. From now on he is back room duties only.





And then our building team went back and did the proper layout of the foundations. I was actually impressed that this did this in just a few hours but when we checked it all seemed spot on to the plans. We did think we may have wasted time and funds in getting detailed plans drawn up believing that thai builders wouldn't necessarily be able to read or follow the plans and that they would be just a road map for us to follow. But they are, as far as we can see, studying them and following them. Certainly at the moment we do trust our builders; they came very highly recommended and we have seen some excellent villas they have built which are wonderful quality and in the style similar to that we want to recreate. I think this is one of the reasons we feel quite confident of a good build is that we do have a good working relationship with our team and high levels of trust. Early days obviously.

It was also quite exciting to stand in the space for the first time that will become our house. As first time builders the one issue I struggled with the most was deciding room sizes and how they would feel to live in once converted from plans to real life. I actually ended up constantly carrying a tape measure with me and measuring rooms that I came across that 'felt about right'. In the end we still edged everything up a little to make sure even though this will add to cost but we felt this was better than ending up with a cramped room that we couldn't then change. Seeing the foundations now it all seems about right though possibly the livingroom width is a little small but we will stick with it as the budget is now fixed.




The team also built a basin for holding washing water - its tucked into one corner so will probably just become a flower bed at some point - as well as a stand for the water tank. The water tank is there at the start to give a good water source for the camp.



And then the digging started.



So I think in the first week we managed to get a lot done and to get things up and running. So feeling positive though our main enemy now would seem to be the weather. Until Saturday every days was seemingly sunny and dry, after Saturday it has rained every day. I like to think this is coincidental.

[Necron99]

Dont worry about it looking small, without walls for scale, slabs and ground markings always seem smaller than you would expect.

[davidbyron]

Dont worry about it looking small, without walls for scale, slabs and ground markings always seem smaller than you would expect.

I think you right actually. In the middle of last week I decided that they had put the posts too close together...rushed back and re-measured all the distances.....and everything was as on the plan and as should be. Our builders seemed to find it all quite amusing but double checking will continue unabated.

[Necron99]

When I built my first house I went out after they had poured the slab and swore it,was about half as big as it should be.
I raced to the builders office to check they hadn't screwed up and they said everyone does it. Slabshock they called it.

[davidbyron]

Dont worry about it looking small, without walls for scale, slabs and ground markings always seem smaller than you would expect.

When I built my first house I went out after they had poured the slab and swore it,was about half as big as it should be.
I raced to the builders office to check they hadn't screwed up and they said everyone does it. Slabshock they called it.

Well its good to know its a common ailment though we are mindful that compared to local house and room size we are building something big and spacious. Our neighbor did ask, when he saw the original perimeter layout, if our project was to build a warehouse so I guess its all relative.

[davidbyron]

We had our post raising ceremony on Sunday June 9th at 7:05am. My conspiracy theory was that it was that early in the morning as our monk had somewhere to be later in the day but my wife assured me that this was just the most auspicious time. Actually in the end it was quite stunning to have the ceremony as the sun was rising so worth the effort of getting up early.

My wife and her bother are also dedicated followers of feng shui and there was a little awkward moment at the start when they decided that the alignment of the house is about 5 degrees off what it should be for perfect spiritual happiness and life energy. This was almost certainly caused by using the compass on a iphone when we set the initial post layouts rather than a real compass. Nothing to do about it now obviously.

This though is the first rebar footing going into its hole.



The first rebar column going up.



The blessing





Our two posts up





All credit to my lovely wife and project manager Shanana. She takes her Buddhism very seriously, for which I respect her very much, and when she visited the monks in February to get the time and date she was then determined to organize everything to be ready for this moment. Made it with a day to spare.

[davidbyron]

And one week on this is where we are: Most of the posts of the main house are now up.





and the rice in the fields is starting to look lovely and green too!

[davidbyron]

One of the decisions that we hummed and arrghed over for a long, long while was roofs. I absolutely adore the traditional curved roofs but in our planning stage everyone told us, though admittedly most of these were local building companies, that curved roofs were immensely expensive...many millions of baht and so on. We actually delayed the building of our house for a year in order to save up more money due to 'curved roof cost fear'.

What convinced us to go for curved in the end was seeing the roofs at Green Gecko Villa during a holiday stay there and seeing how elegant they looked from the inside. Also seeing that the design of the roof structure was quite simple and that actually a curved roof really didn't really need to cost much more than than a straight roof.



The reference we used in the planning is the roof below which has the steeper pitch to it and is the style I adore the most though Shanana worries that there we run the danger of being misidentified as a temple.



This is how our roof looked on the plans from Alec of NKD builders





This is the shop we used to get the curved tubular steel beams that will provide the shape of the roof. We simply ordered the steel through them and they bent it on site. We were concerned that this might be a lengthy process but all 90 pairs of supporting beams took just two days to bend. If you want to find them you can by heading out of UTH towards Khon Kaen from the ringroad and doing a u turn after 1.5km. There are a couple of shops there but this was our preferred choice as they came across as the most professional and reliable.



This is the bending machine they used to bend the steel. We gave them the total length of the steel we needed, the angle at the top and bottom along with the plans from Alec. The cost of bending was negligible after buying the steel.



And this is the first pair of curved roof supports finished. This was actually a very exciting moment. Presently our construction site is just rebar posts sticking up out of the ground but this was the first time we could actually see something to do with the shape and style of the house even if it was just two beams laid flat on the ground.





Junior project manager just finishing his inspection and his snacking.



In the end I don't think there was any real cost difference between straight or curved roof. The steel bars here are more expensive than c section or box section but not by much. Where the cost did go up was in the choosing terracotta tiles over cheaper alternatives with roof tiles being now being about 30% of the total cost our roofs. But essentially we think 'curved roof cost fear' is unjustified and local builders just mark up the price of curved roofs in the same way pool builders exaggerate the cost of building pools. Fortunately this markup then disappears once you become DIY.

[nigelandjan]

Looking great so far David , lets hope the weather holds for you a bit .

Thanks for all the updates + pics , allways makes some of the best reading on TD for me

[davidbyron]

Out of interest the shop we used to bend the steel also had a machine to cut steel to computerized shapes and designs using powered water. They told us it cost 7m baht to buy and was was the only one in North Thailand. Looked very new too. I mention this in case someone is desperately looking for a cutting steel with water machine and cant find one.



Very dangerous too but cant cut intimate shapes and sizes.



Anyway you can find them by heading out of UTH towards Khon Kaen from the ringroad and doing a u turn after 1.5km.

[davidbyron]

Looking great so far David , lets hope the weather holds for you a bit .

Thanks for all the updates + pics, allways makes some of the best reading on TD for me

Thanks Nigel. According to the charts June is actually a wetter month than either May or July but still we should only get 15 days of rain. This June though we have already had that and the forecast is for more rain every day for the next 10 days.



This provides a couple of worries. Our original timing was to get the roof on before August so maybe, maybe not now with delays for extra rain days.

Also our poor road never seems to dry out out long enough for us to fix it properly so that might make access difficult. Anyway will get stones on it shortly.



Flooding is also a worry but we did also check for a history of flooding and our mushroom farming neighbour - who has been there 10 years - told us there was no history of floods.

Interestingly we are actually on a very large island between two sections of a river that splits and then rejoins. We are on the bank of the smaller tributary, the other tributary is the main flow of the water and is about 2km away from us. Upstream from us are the reservoirs and downstream are the damns that hold back the river water to keep the reservoirs full. So essentially the land should never flood as there is water management. Apparently though the only time the area has flooded was during the the floods two years ago when they simply shut the damns to save Bangkok. Our land got two inches of flood water (and we have raised the land to above that level) but worse was the area below the damns when they had to do an emergency dump to levitate pressure on the damns. Anyway our mushroom farming neighbor assures us that we have nothing to worry about as there are now new rules and regulations that the water / reservoir authorities must follow as to maximum water levels behind the damns and which means no flooding can ever happen again.......

This pictures shows our land and the damns. Our house is the red square, the damns are the red circles and where they join back is the red hexagon (or big red circle).



This is one of the reservoirs upstream.



Anyway with the end of the world imminent, flooding is a minor concern anyway.

[davidbyron]

A quick progress report....

We have most of the columns done for the main house. This is looking across the main living room over which the master bedroom will eventually sit. Columns are all up and they are starting to lay down rebar for the beams.



Sadly there is now a raincloud that is sat right above our build and will not go away so we have lost most days over the last two weeks which is boring and a little costly. We have a water pump to keep pumping the water out of the holes but there hasn't been enough break in the rain to do anything before they fill up again. So nothing to do but wait for a break in a weather.







This last picture fortunately isnt flloding - just an area where the rain water doesnt drain quickly since we built the road into the land and cut of the natural drainage into the river. We will build a drainage channel shortly.

[nigelandjan]

Dunno about stones Dave you will lose them in there ,, can you not find any loads of hardcore out there ?

BTW this is the kind of work I am involved in back in the UK ,, we would use some terram followed by some rough crushed hardcore then topped with brick fines 6F2

[nigelandjan]

BTW Dave I dont know if this helps you but I see your using the TD gallery to post pics , do you know if before you post them , if you click it one more time it will go to a better size before copying the image address to post it ?

sorry not trying to be clever , just trying to help , mabe you like the pics small , but IMHO the bigger pics are better to look at ,, mabe its just because I am an old barsteward and wear glasses