#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Construction in Thailand >  >  Traditional thai wood house build...

## benlovesnuk

Right so here we are....we are currently at the roof stage of building and i thought now was good to start off the story. Unfortunately names of builders will be difficult as i can rarely remember mine, so me and the wife usually make up names.

Anyway you can follow previous meanderings of how we got here from:

https://teakdoor.com/construction-in-...read-ever.html

Where we left off from was having a plot of land in Chinagmai Muang, Padaed. A lovely quiet suburb near the Ping river about 7 mins to center of town. We have 1000 sqm of land over 2 plots split up as 600 and 400 sqm. The first plot is filled and the second isnt, this has now had 2 seasons of rain and is very well weathered.



So now we had the land, we needed a house.

We had compared the different avenues and in our hearts we wanted wood, but prefab wood construction was coming out at about 20,000 badt sqm, where as concrete was coming out at half that value.

I am 27 and have not had a lot of opportunity to build up a mass fortune, so we were settling towards the concrete house. Then my wife read a Thai book about a Thai celebrity who had bought traditional wood houses and built a house from this. She started trawling the websites and we started to find places selling houses for 200,000 badt upto 600,000. 

It seemed like we had found a way to get exactly what we wanted, at a cost that was practical.

From here we started to get ideas about plans and how we wanted it to look see here:

https://teakdoor.com/construction-in-...-to-build.html


We now felt positive we could build a house that we could live in and be happy.

We decided after much trawling on the websites and little wood to be found in Chiangmai, to go to Phrae where we had met a man selling wood houses. We stayed there for a week looking at houses and had fond some really nice wood, at incredible attractive prices. 

But there was one house that gave us the goose bumps as we walked into it (no ghosts) an old styled house which was like a tardis. The wood was mostly TEAK and the house was mostly complete.



The picture is amazingly deceptive, fistly because the house is on concrete pillars and they are about 1.80 m off the ground but secondly because this house is 12 x 10 m. We measured 2 bedrooms lounge and bathroom all good sizes.

But the main ting was the internal space was amazing, it felt like our home and we both instantly took to it.


So we went back to the hotel and me and the wife talked, and we came up with a decision. BUY< BUY<BUY!

This house was without concrete poles but was in amazing condition, we offered 10,000 less knowing it was already good value, and the cost included delivery to chiangmai. It was accepted and now the ball started to roll, we are building a house, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! :Smile:

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## splitlid

good stuff ben. its about bloody time!!!! :Smile:

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## benlovesnuk

WE had labour from NAN come to look at the house and give us an estimate, firstly they said how nice the house was but it would be difficult to build (gulp). They said it would cost 245,000 for labour, i thought thats not bad at all. The builders trundled off to the land, and we got a phone call later that day.

 There is no water and no electric you have to pay for a hotel!

I was surprised at this but more so their attitude, they had started to demand ridiculous things and i could see costs spiraling. We had a quick brainstorm and told them to leave, feeling uncomfortable about the way they had spoken.

We then had a house being taken down but no one to build and no cost of what someone else might charge.  I began to do what any good Englishman would do..... panic!

 After getting all the house onto a truck and travelling 180 km across Provinces at night, especially not having anyone to look after the wood was worrying!

We paid the truck driver and his wife a lot to stay with it overnight and through out the day.....luckily we had friends come to the rescue. 

The builder who had previously tried to find wood in and around Chiangmai, only lived about 1km up the road, was asked to come and have a look and give us an estimate.

Now i had never met him, but if you want to impress a foreigner and get yourself a contract follow these instructions:

turn up on time
come with an architect that speaks english
work out all the problems and siting
give a price and except a discount

This man was amazing, we felt more secure because we'd seen his work in other buildings, he lived not far away, he did everything right and gave in my estimation a more relevant cost that was slightly higher by about 30,000 B.

The first thing we did was talk to the architect whose cost was 9,000 badt for this he would provide 3d sketches of ideas, the whole architectural drawings and support before building. 

Our first meeting came up with this:





sorry about the strange darkness around the pics.

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## baby maker

Have a wooden house, in Non Bor Sar via Non Han, Udon Thani which would be available.....understand price indication, difficult without inspection....see the range you were shopping in was200k to 600k...understood from your posts, trust correctly, you were interested in a second house.

If you have an interest, will scratch up some pics and post....

If you have done your shopping....perhaps you could forward the websites you considered most helpful...or any wholesale buyers for that matter.

Thanking you in advance, 
baby maker...

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## benlovesnuk

we have all the wood we need for now, thanks kindly! They are thai websites can you read thai if so i'll try to find and post.

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## baby maker

> we have all the wood we need for now, thanks kindly! They are thai websites can you read thai if so i'll try to find and post.


Thanks for your prompt reply....unfortunately unable to read Thai and added to that we are not very computer literate in this camp....any help would be a God send.

How much did you pay on site for the house you bought....the broker may be helpful....but would be interested to hear from you by PM the price you paid for the house as it stood.

Regards,

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## benlovesnuk

^ If you are not able to read Thai and dont have someone you can trust to negotiate in speaking thai, I would say that you might find it hard as most brokers middle men do not speak English(none that i have met). You can still buy wood and there are turn key solutions for this thailanna homes is one of them but this is going to cost you a lot more.

The price my wife paid for the house is just under 200,000 badt. Labour is going to cost 250,000 and materials depend on your situation.

I hope this has helped!?

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## BKKBILL

Great to hear all is going ahead and looking forward to the continuation of your build.

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## franny9

what is the situation in Thailand regarding buying or building a house if you are a foreigner or do you have to be married to a thai partner

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## baby maker

> what is the situation in Thailand regarding buying or building a house if you are a foreigner or do you have to be married to a thai partner


 
Just bought 112.4 tlg in my kids names....and will start to build in the next month...the land is frozen in trust until they are twenty....2030...

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## grasshopper

Ben and Nuk,

Good luck and good building. Will follow the developments with interest.  :Smile:

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## Deris

Like the design, give a feel of the traditional Thai style while having a roof over the entire structure. One idea though, drop the urinal and place a cloths washer and perhaps a dryer in it's place.

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## rubik101

Howard Stern was given a new dressing room some years ago. He came on the radio and described it, saying it had both a sink and a urinal. He went on to say that he couldn't imagine why the management thought he would need both!

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## cambtek

A drier-are you mad?
Great project and bloody cheap I think.
can i buy one and take it to cambodia?

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## kiwinev

Looks like a great project, will be watching and following closely. ::chitown::

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## benlovesnuk

> Great to hear all is going ahead and looking forward to the continuation of your build.


many thanks to everyone who has given support, sorry i dont know how to quote in quote. but you know who you are!!!!!! :Smile:

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## benlovesnuk

> Like the design, give a feel of the traditional Thai style while having a roof over the entire structure. One idea though, drop the urinal and place a cloths washer and perhaps a dryer in it's place.



Hi, thanks for the support and comments, the architect is thai and so thinks that if you are rich or a foreigner you have both urinal and toilet. Trust me this is not the final plan, this is the first draft although you will notice the urinal pops up in all. We are also having a walk in shower, the bathroom will be all old wood with no concrete.

The look i think we are going for inside is english manor thats why the master ensuite.....(joke)

We have done a few changes and i will show these as the build changes!

cheers chaps :Smile:

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## pone

& a good roof insulation

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## Deris

One question, is the kitchen at a lower level than the walkway? I see the stairs down into the kitchen and wondered what the elevations were.

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## ARK

::chitown:: This thread is absolutely fascinating and a joy to read.  I look forward to the next set of pictures.  Out of interest, why is bedroom two so much smaller?  Is that the way the original house is?  Will you use it as an office / TV room?

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## benlovesnuk

> One question, is the kitchen at a lower level than the walkway? I see the stairs down into the kitchen and wondered what the elevations were.



Yes the kitchen is at a lower level then the rest of the house, this is so we can see views of Doi suthep, we have a viewing space at the end of the lounge for this. We have a tier on the land that slopes down from the infill 2.2 meters higher than the original land.

you can see this in the diagram below:

here you can see the levels of the land and the tier in the house!

hope this helps, many thanks for your interest and support!

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## benlovesnuk

> This thread is absolutely fascinating and a joy to read.  I look forward to the next set of pictures.  Out of interest, why is bedroom two so much smaller?  Is that the way the original house is?  Will you use it as an office / TV room?


The bedroom was first going to be this size, because we have a 2 year old son. So we would have half size bedroom and then small play area for him so we could see him from the lounge.

In fact we have now changed this plan and i will post this soon, baically this is the same size as bedroom 1. It now has an ensuite, so there will be :


Main house

Bedroom 1 - master ensuite
Bedroom 2 - ensuite
walkway Reception
Lounge - office
Sala

Lower tier

Kitchen / outside dining room
steps to lower garden

Obviously we also have 140 sqm of lower floor space as well, this is 3 meters high and the posts have been modified to make more space.

pictures to follow!!!

cheers for the interest and support.... :bananaman:

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## glennb6

hi

I've been following the building threads for some time now. Wife and I hope to be able to retire back to Issan and tend our/her rubber trees. We'd like build a low cost house near them so I'm trying to get myself edumacated.

1. Most houses I've seen and reviewed in the threads involve pilings driven multiple meters into the ground and the house then build a few meters up on them. Now I'm used to seeing houses here built upon concrete slabs. So... if you want a one story house on ground level why not compact/raise and compact the ground and pour a supporting slab for the ground floor ?

2. I have the idea of buying enough teak or otherwise suitable wood from disassembled old wooden houses and assembling/using same to build upon a concrete slab. My point of reference is framed construction, not supporting pillars. Is this crazy or doable ?

thx
glennb6

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## glennb6

I'm injecting this question into this thread as the drawing of the house is much like what I am thinking about albeit on ground level.
thx again
glennb6

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## benlovesnuk

> hi
> 
> I've been following the building threads for some time now. Wife and I hope to be able to retire back to Issan and tend our/her rubber trees. We'd like build a low cost house near them so I'm trying to get myself edumacated.
> 
> 1. Most houses I've seen and reviewed in the threads involve pilings driven multiple meters into the ground and the house then build a few meters up on them. Now I'm used to seeing houses here built upon concrete slabs. So... if you want a one story house on ground level why not compact/raise and compact the ground and pour a supporting slab for the ground floor ?
> 
> 2. I have the idea of buying enough teak or otherwise suitable wood from disassembled old wooden houses and assembling/using same to build upon a concrete slab. My point of reference is framed construction, not supporting pillars. Is this crazy or doable ?
> 
> thx
> glennb6


I am not a builder, and Whilst i am sure most things are possible, i would point out the problems i forsee from your question. If you buy Teak wood,(and it is Teak) you would be better to raise it for the example of air cooling and space. The only reason where this is not applicable is if you insulate in, and board over so that you can air con the building (or at least bedrooms).

If you were to ask me it only makes sense if you cant get up the stairs on these, otherwise a bungalow wood house in Thailand seems counter intuitive (albeit i have seen them and stayed in them).

Another point is termites, depending on how old the wood is they can eat into layers of the wood, but wont necessarily destroy it but make it look bad. You can inject chemical, you can treat the wood. You might find its an uphill struggle though, but i have no idea as i've never lived in a wood house on gound level for a long period of time!

Pillars are interesting, wood poles are fantastic and when you see these and buy them and have them in your house, you feel good.

Thats all i can provide unfortunately nothing factual all just an opinion!

cheers for checking out the thread!

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## benlovesnuk

Hi Thank you and for your generous commments some pics



front temporary gate in bamboo. In front we have about nearly 600m2 of land to the road and neighbours.



grass is starting to grow.



back terrace looking through main house.



Inside master bedroom with floor done.



A bit of a panoramic to get the feel of downstairs, painting is now finished.



A bit more grass and sun and finished outhouse.



Downstairs bedroom and ensuite in panoramic. Bamboo bed was a great find. This was the last addition and we never really thought we were going to do it. We now have 3 bedroom (between 25-30m2) 3 ensuite and downstairs toilet, 3 lounges,2 kithchens(almost) 2 terraces, 1 sala, 1 studio, 1 reception. Its been hardwork and I think you deserve more pictures and I might take them tomorrow....thank you

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## benlovesnuk

I hope to post some more pics of the house and ricebarn and knockdown grade A house as we develop them.
Might start with some sketchup plans in the next couple of days.

Trying to get good wide shots of house is difficult but dont give up on me yet!

Cheers and a belated happy thai new year.

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## Wasp

What a house , Ben !!


What a house !!! :smilie_clap: 




Wasp

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## benlovesnuk

Thanks Wasp. We are very pleased to have stuck at it.



This was some of the last work carried out the eaves are old teak an finish the terrace off great. The floor was not sanded by machine but hand sanded lightly and then matt polyurethane. The colour in these red wood panels is great the width about 35-40cm wide. The double bay chair is my wifes idea and was a pretty good one we can see a nice vista at festivals like loi kratong. As well as Doi suthep lit up at night.


Inside the master bedroom, the colour of these big red wood planks has come up great with the matt poly we used. We went through a few ideas and options and weighed up oil against water finishes. We went with oil, but after all the smell and time to cure it probaly would have been better to pay abit more for the water finish. 


This terrace is looking really nice with the hand sewn finish preserved and not sanded. The wood looks great and this is going to make a great place to lounge.



Split level lounge to both bedrooms, through to the front terrace. Again the wood has finished really well. We dont have any real furniture yet because we hold out for nice antiques which takes time to find. You can see little features on doors of old building techniques like locks.
This house ia a true pleasure and I hope to send more pics soon

thanks

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## Wasp

Missy never showed any great interest in the homes that fallangs make in Thailand .

Except for this home ................. which she checks on from time to time and always says just 2 words about it .

" Beautiful " 

and ....

" Pang ".


Great place . :Notworthy: 



Wasp

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## benlovesnuk

Wasp and partner

Youre kind comments are very much welcomed. It is a very nice house to live in and we hope to make more interesting pieces in the near future.

Cheers

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## Iceman123

Are you still selling this house or have you decided to hold onto it for yourself long- term?

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## FatOne

Looks very beautiful and comfortable, should be perfect to live in

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## benlovesnuk

Iceman123 - we would like to hold onto it although if the right price was offered we would of course consider as we have had our eyes on a building inside the city. We still have rice barns to build and things to do but if someone was looking for a traditional house and small guesthouse projects this would be right up someones street.

Fatone - thank you its a great place making use of old materials where possible and so far so good

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## window

Well done Ben and partner on your build and thread.
Have worked with wood for years and have always enjoyed working with reclaimed wood. It always has more character and ends up with a nice blend of old and new.
Keep up the good work and Im sure when finished will still be very hard to sell even for the right money, although I understand this build would be a stepping stone to another project. what a difference it makes having a builder that loves his job and not a block working off a plane bashing in nailes

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## benlovesnuk

> Well done Ben and partner on your build and thread.
> Have worked with wood for years and have always enjoyed working with reclaimed wood. It always has more character and ends up with a nice blend of old and new.
> Keep up the good work and Im sure when finished will still be very hard to sell even for the right money, although I understand this build would be a stepping stone to another project. what a difference it makes having a builder that loves his job and not a block working off a plane bashing in nailes


Thank you for your message. We have made a decision to use wood and make a traditional house, because if we were going to the trouble of self build, we wanted to get something that felt right.
We have a house that is comfortable and sits well within the landscape. We both enjoy going to find wood at wood yards and so enjoy every process in the build. 
Seeing a building crafted is a great thing, and being able to add and take on challenges and change when we needed was great.

I would say wood houses can be as modern and confortable as is associated with concrete, in regards to western living. We use cross ventilation, designed in the house, as well as fans to cool the house when really hot. We hope to add various add ons to the house and build a guesthouse very soon.
A good builder will make a massive difference, we have spent years building and has meant getting to know our builder very well. This is important and will make a big difference with the finish.
Hope to post some pictures when im back of the progress.

Cheers

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## benlovesnuk

Over the last 2 years we have remodelled the house and we are still in the process of getting to the end of a very long build.
At the moment we have ended up with 350m2 of livable space, with the guesthouse out the back which you can see on another thread and the front garden and garage.

Here are a few pieces and I will continue to add more as we finish off the house.. thanks.

We were unhappy with the end of the house, as we originally wanted an outside terrace to walk onto. This was the inital idea of extending the house from 160m2 floor space on ground floor to an extra 30m2. Half way through we decided to m ake this an internal space to house internal stairs, kitchen and dining.

We extended the concrete foundations inline with what we had and then built a metal frame which was welded onto plates from the concrete. we used 6x2 3.2mm for the floor base, and as we were using viva board 20mm floor boards we would be going 40cm on center. You can go 30cm on center to increase weight per m2 but this is more for commercial use.

In the pic above you can see we started to use wood framing, however as all things seem to go. we ripped this out and instead used box metal in a rigid frame for the smart board.

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## benlovesnuk

here you can see a view from the guesthouse, with the structural frame complete, and most importantly the seamless metal roof on. This sits on 4mm smart board and 1cm thick foam insulation (this works out much cheaper than buying it glued to the roof). This was mainly not about heat but sound insulation, and seems to have worked well.
I really like the aesthetic and clean lines of the roof, and im seriously thinking of re-roofing the house with this instead of the heavier concrete tiles we currently have.


The terrace will be modern and will have wooden elements so it fits with the more traditional wood house elements, these 2 teak square posts will be an area of wood with doors to outside. You can see where the metal comes out from the posts by 1m and will start the kitchen which will be an L shape.
Before all of this end was closed off with wooden doors and dark, it will soon be light with floor to ceiling glazing.

more to come....

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## sweaty

that metal roof looks nice, could you provide a few more details on it please?

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## FatOne

Looking great Benl, great to see this thread resurected

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## Stumpy

> Looking great Benl, great to see this thread resurected


Hats off to you Ben

I agree M. I saw this thread originally as my wife and I were looking and wanted to refurbish and expand the original teak home that was on our property. As we dug deeper and deeper what we wanted to do quickly became cost prohibitive and a much longer process.

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## benlovesnuk

> that metal roof looks nice, could you provide a few more details on it please?


yes, its a seamless roof design from a company in Chiangmai. Very happy with the roof, we used 4mm smartboard, 10mm foam insulation and then screwed the roof through this into the steel rafters. comes in a range of colours. 

The cost for 0.40m is 90badt a meter length but its half the size of the standard metal roofing you get, at this thickness in colour so its basically double the price. but the look is more distinct, and I think im going to replace the main house roof with this at some point in the future.

Thanks.

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## benlovesnuk

> Looking great Benl, great to see this thread resurected



cheers will be doing a bit more on it.

Have a good one.

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## benlovesnuk

> Originally Posted by FatOne
> 
> 
> Looking great Benl, great to see this thread resurected
> 
> 
> Hats off to you Ben
> 
> I agree M. I saw this thread originally as my wife and I were looking and wanted to refurbish and expand the original teak home that was on our property. As we dug deeper and deeper what we wanted to do quickly became cost prohibitive and a much longer process.



Yes, in the first instance we didnt know what we wanted and we didnt know what we were doing. We got to stages slowly and I think we are getting finally to a place where the finish is in sight. Its cost a reasonable sum, but at the moment we have a 250 tw plot of land with a 4 bedroom 4 bathroom 3 lounge 1 dining 1 kitchen 1 sala house. with a rice barn guesthouse at the back and plenty of more land out the front for building if everything else turns sour. I love the feeling of walking on real hard wood planks, its not the same on laminate or "wood" flooring.

The teak in the house has a great feel about it, I think we will have to keep maintaining and modifying from the builders work, but that's mainly because I like things to be done properly, and now im in a better position to see that through.

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## benlovesnuk

so new parts of the house if you look back you might see the old kitchen which was partly outside under the back terrace, to a winding staircase leading to the downstairs.
now we have


We have a metal frame of hollow box section steel framed between the wood posts, they have viva board, aluminium grey windows, teak wood cladding and floor to ceiling height glass. 
I glazed the frames with wood profiles made from teak that I got from global house. We went with grey because I dont like black or white on metal generally. I think its more sympathetic to the wood and is not such a strong colour, and works well with the viva board which is being left exposed. It will have an epoxy finish.

The steps are teak wood hand cut and sanded, then bolted through the metal. They are temporarily being used, but will get a final sanding and finish coat put on.ntiles finish off the floor. This area underneath will be where the big fridge and small utilities for cleaning and other odd bits go.



This is the now almost finished extension of an extension. originally going to be outside, this is now inside and will be the modern kitchen as you see in this picture taking up the smart board walls and dining on the hardwood floor next to it. I have used aluminium grey windows from home pro, and then teak wood framing for the fixed glass windows.



Here is the view looking up the stairs from the last pictures position in the kitchen. All of this is newly renovated, with concrete wall with a stucco textured finish, behind this wall is one of 2 bedrooms downstairs with aircon for hot aprils and may months. More to show on this later.

The view up you can see the lights which show the terrace to master bedroom, this has all been changed around and we have added walls with teak cladding, and have now although not in picture added railing to the small mezzanine level. This makes this space double height and has a great view out to doi suthep and the temple.

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## benlovesnuk

We were never fully happy with the bathroom in the downstairs, and so this is what we decided to do, break it all up and start again. I had a general idea in my head but as usual we went with no specifics and got started.

my wife really loves it when i start smashing the house up, by the way....

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## benlovesnuk

Some details of the new extension, are teak frames that extend out from the wall, which is a lot more modern. fixed glazing is going to be green glass 6mm from a good company in chiangmai.



Outside the smart board, which will at some point be painted. The frame is exposed it had red oxide painted on first and then 2-3 coats of the enamel paint you see. The floor to ceiling holes will be fixed with 6mm tempered glass. I am using teak wood profiles to hold the glass with foam rod to fill the spaces, and then silicone on the outside. The outside profile is painted with enamel but is also polyurethaned first to close any gaps from water. flashing will be applied and cladding will be used underneath all windows.


Again all joins are poly'd and then will have flashing and cladding put ontop, all fixed tempered glass in these holes.

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## sweaty

Excellent work, quality fit and finish make all the difference

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## Dead Metal

excellent work, looks the biz: certainly given me ideas. 
Thanks for sharing, good read.

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## Paul Louis Venne

Wow and heeeaaaavvvveeeee-looking. I wonder what custom yellow clay thin large tiles would set a person back? I've seen relics of Buddha tiles online. How to incorporate that I wonder. I'm hoping to build a Lanna teak house temple that is old and authentic. How old? Older the better. Thanks, Paul V Bangkok

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## totto

Nice Reading,I hawe started to built a Wood house in Laos 45km North of Vientiane in the Riwer Nam Ngum. We started in Maj 16 and the time for fhinish time if ewer will be 3yearsl.I will follow you and pick up some ideas from you,Yes its the same i shop old Wood when offer comes.Its good to hawe some to compare whit and make a budget for howe much ewerything cost+/- Little bit

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## Dead Metal

Hi Ben, its been about 4 months any chance of an update + photo ?
all the best .

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## benlovesnuk

> Hi Ben, its been about 4 months any chance of an update + photo ?
> all the best .


lots been going on on both the guesthouse and the main house and the front garage, and some other bits, pics to be uploaded soon. Thanks for waiting

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## Dead Metal

.....yep, time is what we have. Looking forward to the pics Ben.

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## blockhead

I see its been years since I commented here when you were beginning. Great looking timber house, well done!

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## benlovesnuk

it seems like I need to do some replanting of pictures, and some updates Ive been busy!

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## HerbertK68

Dear all, as I am new to the forum, I want to ask, why I cannot see some of the photos, it's a pity and makes me curious how to see the photos, as I am intending a similar project in Phrae and one in Sisaket
thx

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## aging one

photobucket gave everybody the shaft..

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## Davis Knowlton

> Dear all, as I am new to the forum, I want to ask, why I cannot see some of the photos, it's a pity and makes me curious how to see the photos, as I am intending a similar project in Phrae and one in Sisaket
> thx


It's not you. A huge number of photos got trashed when Admin 'upgraded' the forum some months ago. Lost some great travel treads, as well as construction threads.

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## HuangLao

> It's not you. A huge number of photos got trashed when Admin 'upgraded' the forum some months ago. Lost some great travel treads, as well as construction threads.


Which were the famed cornerstone base of TD, where folks could still view archival threads up to the present.
Sad that there wasn't any foresight into the retaining of said photos when they decided to go over making these great threads worthless - be it through the old TD gallery of outside image hosting sites.

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## benlovesnuk

Would people like me to do a revisit with old photos anda whats new in a new thread, if so, how do I upload pics from my pc or is there somewhere other than photobucket to host them from? cheers

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## OhOh

> be it through the old TD gallery of outside image hosting sites.


No backups made prior to the new system being turned on then?

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## Chico

Name and shame

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## Thai Dhupp

> Would people like me to do a revisit with old photos anda whats new in a new thread, if so, how do I upload pics from my pc or is there somewhere other than photobucket to host them from? cheers


Hi *Ben*... dunno 'bout anyone else but I for one would very much *welcome* any restoration of the build photos, and an *update* or two, assuming you can dig them out and take the time to do it!

I'm using that *Imgur* site (that was recommended) for photos on this site but although its currently working  I am losing faith in ANY '*online storage*' be it in house or 3rd party!!! 

I have still got *6 months* of  my build to complete so hopefully the online service will last until then.

*Good luck* with it, if you can replace all the threads photos...

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## HerbertK68

I'd also appreciate a restauration of this very interresting story, please go ahead.........

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## benlovesnuk

test

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## benlovesnuk

Ok, so from the start I dont have all the pictures from photobucket, but hopefully I can piece together some remnance of the history of the build. We purchased  2 plots in muang chiangmai a total of 250sq wah (100 &150 plot sizes). This one shows a tree at the back, the land was low lying to the road but only 600-800 meters to 2nd super highway.


We had to put up temporary fencing at the time this was just bamboo cheap effective did rot and fall apart after about a year and a half.

We had to raise the land I cant find the initial pictures of the front when there was nothing here, but when we purchased the land the seller, offered us temporary electric, a deep well pump and to build the retaining wall that straddles the government drain and fill the land all for the price of the sale of the land no extra. This extra we would find out to cost him about  1/4 the price we paid. My wife purchased this land with a chanote the government price at the time was 6000 badt per talang wah, we paid 5000 for the first 150 tw and 3350 for the 100 adjoining it as it could only be accessed by road from our land.

The retaining wall to the left was built by concrete foundations brick built formed walls that concrete then was poured into with concrete anchors running from the wall into the ground  to stop it from falling down, the cost was about 255,000 which we didnt pay a penny. The one aspect of this land plot was that it was in muang chiangmai postcode which we didnt think we could get at the time, for our budget and the mountain view specifically that of doi suthep temple at night.

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## Luigi

> test


Successful.  :tumbs: 

Pls continue.

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## benlovesnuk

With the land we then wanted to build a house, we were in a difficult position with me going back and forth to the UK, my wife being pregnant and we knew noone in Chiangmai. So ideas for a house started basically and then grew. 
We knew we wanted a traditional thai wood house, concrete was not our aim, and in hindsight it would have been a better more easier and comfortable build. however i would always prefer if done right to live in a wood house.



Started using sketch up to get a 3D aspect of the house and land the  land was raised at the front and low at the back.



This was going to give an extension to the main house that had raised foundations to extend over the lower back end of the land. Originally asa big terrace but actually ending up as almost a second house.



I got a bit more specific with my layouts, and anyone thinking about building this is a s good practice to know everything inside out so you spot things early and can remedy them.


We started building when I was probably 26/27 years old and we are still building and redoing a lot of work. We are now less reliable on outside help and we are finding this works best for us.

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## benlovesnuk

I dont have pictures currently of the first part of foundations, and posts going up, but its pretty standard, they marked them out, dug them, profiled rebar accordingly for post foundations and a series of trucks came to pour the concrete.

With wood posts the method at the time for securing wood to concrete was to tie on 2 metal flanges or brackets, that would be cut into the bottom of the post and a bolt put through to secure it. not so attractive but efficient. never had a problem in 8 years of this method.

We sourced the wood from Phrae, at the time again another journey we probably didnt need to make, and Im not quite sure looking back why we did. We looked at a few wood houses and settled on an all teak house square posts uptop round posts in the perimeter. The purchase included delivery, so a congress of trucks got to our land, and then we had to find a builder. We were almost doing this as we were going, luckily we found someone local to us, and this put our mind at rest(if nothing else because if anything went wrong there was no hiding).





The front was planned to have a staircase upto a small seating area, and then up again to a sala seating area and the front terrace, this was covered by a roof, but due to heavy winds still gets wet from side rain, although this is one of the many upgrades that is taking place this year. these big 6m+ posts were purchased locally unlike the main house and I think at the time they were a bargain at 4000 badt each. Sometimes wood is very easy to get and something nice falls into your lap, and other times youll travel to 6 different places and find nothing. The local old wood yards all have interesting people, and this was one aspect me and my wife enjoyed doing together.



We used old wood not new wood on 99% of the house, mostly teak, with some exceptions like cross beams, floorboards etc we have had termites because in the main house we didnt have any piping fitted under the foundations, and this has cause some damage over the 8 years or so, but, we have paid for protection, and now we just use a perimeter barrier that  Im hoping will keep the termites at bay until I can resolve any further intrusions. the termites only affects, one part of the house on one side and has no affect on the part that is raised 2 meter above aground. I would recommend anyone using a large percentage of wood to have a crawl space for easier treatment, rather than putting slab on to soil and even using pipes.
The pictures shows front terrace new planed teak 3x3" joists and a bit of craftsmanship.

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## benlovesnuk

the roof was always intended to be roof tiles we had seen this and really wanted it, we didnt realise how problematic they would be with year after year of rainy seasons. We are going to be changing this roof to a metal frame and a metal roof not the basic type but seamless steel type we have on the extension. This has been without incident and hopefully will give us 20 years of no hassle.

a side view of the roof, the roof was originally not a lanna style you might see around chiangmai, but more middle country low sloped roof. Obviously this slope was increased but might still be too low for tiles and this is why weve had a few issues over the years. The main house which is the one to the right has a complete wood roof, wood battens, rafters etc, and the extension house has metal frame. If you look at the roof now the tiles on the metal frame still look in good order everything is flat and straight, where as on the wood roof there seems to be movement.

 A picture looking up at the roof when first going up, we had intended to keep it open traditionally like thai houses and not put in ceilings, but for privacy etc we decided against this.

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## benlovesnuk

Theres not much to say about foundations here, all pretty standard thai versions of what you should do, that work reasonably well, our foundations have as far as im concerned not caused any massive movement or settlement which has given us any problems no cracks or splits in wood, solid when there was an earthquake back when 4-5 years back. This pour was done by crane and truck. this was then added to with PCC precast planks very reasonable price and efficiently done. never had a problem over the last 5 year with movement tiles cracked or displaced everything seems solid.

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## benlovesnuk



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## benlovesnuk

Both me and the wife agree on reflection that these posts were our best buy, and this was right place right time. We got 15 posts monsters, some almost 8 meters high for about 80,000 badt, which if you tried today would be impossible in and around chiangmai. they look great and made this part of the house a much nicer and easier build. So as you can see concrete is poured as a slab over the PCC, pretty straightforward. Metal flanges for wood posts attached and sunk in. We then lifted the posts up by crane into position sadly no pics. Then we get on to tieing them together with cross beams and joists.

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## benlovesnuk

his part of the house is a much better build then the main house. Im actually redoing the main house now, so wait for pictures of that. The posts, the cross beams and joists are all very good wood specifically picked from the wood yard.

Cross beams are 8-9" x 2" and the joists are 5"x2" set with noggins and braces, this is where our knowledge of building the first part meant we could improve as we went along.

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## benlovesnuk

Inside details of the house were starting to come along, clad walls and ceilings and then the cutting of the floorboards. You can see the same split level in the main lounge upstairs as there was in the house we purchased from phrae. normally this would be left open to allow cool breezes to cool the house but we were going to be putting walls in downstairs, so this would also be capped. Again all the wood is teak old teak not new with the fllors being redwood or mai pradu. all the windows were from the orginal house or purchased locally from a specialist door window seller. they normally range depending on size and wood from about 1500 to 3500 for something bigger.
Alot of this is or will change due to modifications and improvements im doing because of problems not fixed at the initial build stage. Some serious like the  section eaten by termites, which is now going to be replaced with steel joists and viva subfloor, with the same wood flooring on top. the reason for this is to in case of further issues and problems if  we cant fix with chemicals straight away is we know they wont eat the steel. I personally dont have a problem with this modification because its not at a massive cost, and will serve to help make the house stronger and better to live in. (those pics of renovation will be coming at the end of this)

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## David48atTD

Great stuff, enjoying the update

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## JournalistsAreLiars

hello, can you explain me why choosing expensive wood in this termites infested country ?! Thanks.

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## benlovesnuk

Im not quite sure if you mean to do a wood house or to use teak rather than a cheaper wood? but ill answer both.

A concrete house would have been a more comfortable albeit lackluster material for us, we really like wood houses. If you put in the right treatment in the ground like we did with the rice barn guesthouse but not the house, termites tend to be less of an issue. Although simply putting the house off the ground also helps minimizes this, and only the house that has slab on ground has an issue and only on one side. We had been pretty lazy with the fact that there were termites and we might have been able to get something done before they had done more damage, but we are rectifying this issue and hopefully both the metal and ground system will fend them off for the next 5 years +

The reason we chose teak is because it does very well at minimizing damage, where there is teak termites tend to travel over these areas and not destroy them, in a few places where teak was not used this can be seen most clear where the closest wood(teak) was traveled over to get to the wood that they had destroyed leaving the teak alone. The colour of old teak, and then general grain is very nice to look at. the price is not expensive if you get the wood yourself and even cheaper if you put it together(if you know how). it relies on less headaches than concrete and mistakes that can happen structurally, here and wood can be replaced in part if there is a problem.

I would not recommend if doing it again to build the structure in wood on the ground, use raised foundation or piers to check underneath, you could if you wanted use steel for the frame and wood purely for cladding.

We have a wood house, and when it gets a bit run down i replace the bits that  need it and redo, sand finish the bits that need that.

to sit in the house sometimes and look at the wood, and be in a wood house whilst it has downsides, beats the negatives, and I would find it very hard, at least here in chiangmai to live in a concrete building.

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## benlovesnuk

Oh I see the pictures are all back, in that case ignore those pics Ill just take some of the new things happening, and do all the renovation stuff instead. sorry I hadnt look back until now and thought all the pics were still down. my apologies for reposting

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## benlovesnuk

If someone can delete thos newest last posts with pics that would be greatly appreciated theyre just repeating page 1 to 6.

What I will do is show what ive been doing to rectify the building standards which whilst fine, were nagging me, now with the house in diy mode everywhere, ive got until the end of the year to make things ship shape before my wife kicks me out.

Mostly im improving silly lazy work that wasnt terrible but left a lot to be desired and when your using wood ou have to give a bit more time to detail.


One of my biggest annoyances in the air pump gun used for everything, I have taken out thousands of these small needle nails and replaced with screws, I have redone the electrical wiring, roofing, flooring bathrooms and doors and windows. Where I can Im just updating and renovating, and if needs dictate and I need to start again, i take it off glue anything that split in the demolition and sand and start putting it back right.

Ive still got lots to do so dont worry pics will follow and hopefully someone can get something interesting from this.

cheers

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## benlovesnuk

> hi
> 
> I've been following the building threads for some time now. Wife and I hope to be able to retire back to Issan and tend our/her rubber trees. We'd like build a low cost house near them so I'm trying to get myself edumacated.
> 
> 1. Most houses I've seen and reviewed in the threads involve pilings driven multiple meters into the ground and the house then build a few meters up on them. Now I'm used to seeing houses here built upon concrete slabs. So... if you want a one story house on ground level why not compact/raise and compact the ground and pour a supporting slab for the ground floor ?
> 
> 2. I have the idea of buying enough teak or otherwise suitable wood from disassembled old wooden houses and assembling/using same to build upon a concrete slab. My point of reference is framed construction, not supporting pillars. Is this crazy or doable ?
> 
> thx
> glennb6


Hi Glenn

1. Well foundations are relevant to soil type, as I would guess most soils are clay and have a variation from very clayey to moderate will depend on how deep you go, the other reason for  column foundations is that most house are concrete post and beam NOT load bearing walls like in the US or UK. Your foundations should be engineered and it would make sense get a local surveyor and thai drawings from local amphurs office, for a builder to follow.  You could do a continuous concrete wall footing similar to the US if its 1 storey, but again it is really dependent on your soil.
I dont understand what you mean in the latter part of your question about concrete slab, but if you were just to pour a slab on clay especially if the land has been raised, you will get movement you will get cracking from clay movement underneath. a concrete slab should be IMO raised off the ground, protecting against termites etc and should be a precast floor with a slab poured over this, less to go wrong in concrete pours the better.

2.Anything is doable. The problem is if you are doing go ahead. If you want a thai builder to do it dont bother, because you will find it would have been better to di by yourself in the end. If youw ant US load bearing wood frames thats fine but consider termites, and give yourself a walled upside down T concrete foundation, where you raise the concrete footing above ground maybe 60cm and then precast floor and then final pour. I still think columns a re still better less concrete poured or maybe the same, but its what builders know. Do not use soft wood, hardwood(mai na kaeng etc) use only golden teak wood, get it from old houses if you like but technically its better to just by what lumber you need. This is my experience of almost 10 years of building and wood houses specifically.

As a side note putting in pipes for terites is also a good idea or some sort of termite barrier around the foundations like permethrin or fipronil.

PLywood and osb are hard to get good quality for timber framing, again be weary for termites, you can get teak plywood at double the price of normal ply. my experience is global is pretty good as well as independent sellers.
9mm osb is about 300 badt
10mm ply is about 415 badt
10mm teak ply about 700 badt (its actually about 9mm)
12mm ply is 500 badt
15mm osb is 500 badt
15mm ply 550 badt
20mm ply 650 badt

There are many different qualities nothing like what you find in quality like the states, it will warp if left out in the sun. I have actually used non teak ply on the rice barn we are building but this has termite protection and has only 8 specific points of entrance to the wood from the posts and so can be monitored. So far this has worked quite well.

Hope that helps?

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## benlovesnuk

> hello, can you explain me why choosing expensive wood in this termites infested country ?! Thanks.


why do you think its expensive? Termites in my long experience although whilst they can eat teak, seem to skip it.

Therre is never a problem to use wood, to be safe build a house out of metal like hbeam etc and use wood fascias and for decoration. I see no problem using wood if you have good protection and our slab is raised.

Im not very fond of concrete housing, myself, so thats the main reason.

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## benlovesnuk



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## benlovesnuk

sorry im not sure why its not showing the picture and you haave to click it. but there you go.

so This is the renovation of the house, there is a lot to do and its a big house, so it might take some time. In these pictures you can see the main house there used to be walls here and a bathroom.
I had taken the redwood floorboards up and replaced with viva board 16mm. This sub floor had to be flat and square it wasnt previously. This was on 3"x3" teak joists, they needed cutting, sanding and levelling. This meant adding strips to the cross beams where they were originally purposely tilted(dont ask).
Ive used viva before and its very strong and can get wet repeatedely. This bathroom floor will have wood attached to it the same redwood screwed into the subfloor. This will be a satin finish if possible. the shower area will be frame construction again using 10mm viva board to create a tanked or waterproofed area with a cemenetitous flexible membrane.

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## benlovesnuk

This is the bathroom below the upstairs bathroom im working on. 



Here is the ceiling, this is an exposed wood beam ceiling with 3x3" teak joists and viva board. I use epoxy to glue the boards together. The viva will be painted white.

This was tricky because i was working on the outside wall and a roof extension too. This came about from doing the roof and needing to remove the wall.



light is temporary.

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## happynz

# 334


>

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## happynz

# 335


>

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## happynz

# 336 


> light is temporary.


Posting from a phone can be tricky. Hope this helps.

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## benlovesnuk

is there a way to not get a link? I simply uploaded from quick reply, clicked the add photo added from my phones library but unlike on a computer it doesnt input the picture but a link? cheers

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## Neverna

It seems you forgot to use image tags. You need this  after it. Don't leave any spaces.

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## maryterso

To be honest, I am sure that housing prices will continue to rise. Well, think about it, there are fewer places, more people are born. So if you are buying a house, you need to do it as early as possible.

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