#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Construction in Thailand >  >  > Building in Thailand Famous Threads >  >  My Traditional Thai House Too

## Twocam

Following on from Ciaphas' great effort, ta-da, here is the beginnings of our very own Little House on the Prairie..oops Rice Paddy. Wood is mostly from father-in-law's 30-40 year old Mai Daeng trees, cut 12-18 months ago and left to season under the pig-shed roof. A few bits of wood to be purchased here and there including some floorboards cos the father-in-law underestimated and didn't cut enough.  Land raised up 2 metres 2 years ago and settled through 2 rainy seasons.

We have no electricity and no running water, although plenty laying around in the paddies. This is a real country-style build, with a toothless foreman and a bunch of village guys being ordered around by my partner, who has visions of the house being the same quality as a 5-star hotel villa....

When we started 2 years ago we budgeted 400,000 baht but will probably be closer to 600,000 once I add in all the bits I forgot before (the wood milling, transport for the traditional roof tiles etc).  Building expected to take 2-3 months depending on the weather and my finances!

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## jandajoy

That's great 2cam. 

Anything missing ?   :Smile:

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## Marmite the Dog

> once I add in all the bits I forgot


Like the photos?

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## Loombucket

Good start twocam, It sounds wonderful! 


*Edit* I see that those above have already mentioned the apparent lack of 'colour'.   :Smile:

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## Chairman Mao

Can't ye see the pics?

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## shunpike

Good on ya 2cam! Love these threads..got some rough floorplans to show the fans?? Some piccies?? :Smile:

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## Marmite the Dog

> Can't ye see the pics?


There are none. I had already checked the coding.

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## Chairman Mao

Yes. Sorry about that.

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## Ciaphas

Looking forward to hearing your experiences, and watching your dream house come to life.

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## luangtom

Yup, the pix would be nice to see......

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## BKKBILL

Now look what youve done no pictures and now no twocam although it hasnt been a full day yet.    :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## Twocam

> Now look what youve done no pictures and now no twocam although it hasnt been a full day yet.


haha, I'm actually at WORK.  Unlike some lucky buggers I still have to clock on every day.   Will have another go at pics tonight, our ISP is so slow it refused to upload anything last night.  

By all accounts the 'sao ek' ceremony went well today and the puu-yai baan and orbortor were suitably plied with father-in-law's sato and are nursing nice headaches.  No photos though because the better half forgot to charge the camera....typical.

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## hillbilly

Don't worry Twocam. Some of these spoiled posters of TD want instant gratification.  :Smile: 

Ok, that is enough of a warning. Now where are the damn pics?

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## shunpike

The hell's wrong with instant gratification??

Yeah, don't worry 2cam...good luck uploading tonight.  :Smile:

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## Twocam

The land before, relatively close to the front of our 10 rai and between rice paddies and the mango trees. Hmm, let's see if I can get this picture to post....hmm maybe not!

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## Twocam

Ah, that's how the photos should work!  Land after filling and settling.  After a few months we ran a tractor over it and ripped it up a bit and patted it down flat (hmm not sure about the technical term, sorry guys).

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## Twocam

And these are the smaller bits of wood that we cut The larger stuff was stored up in the eves, so it was less obvious to thieves.

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## Twocam

Someone asked about plans. Well we kind of have plans...they were originally from a Thai house, scaled down for model-making and now we're scaling it back up to real size. Hoping to get something based on one of these. Would love to build the whole compound but just can't afford it.

We officially have one post in the ground as of today 29/10.

No more pics until late November I fear as that's when the better half will next visit and collect the next tranche of money!

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## shunpike

Looks nice 2cam..good luck!

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## danno5

Looking forward to following this!

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## Twocam

We have just been doing our sums today. Our original budget when we started planning 2 years ago was 400,000 baht. With prices rises in the last 24 months plus a major decision to go for traditional clay tiles instead of roofing panels or tin, we are now looking at around 550,000 - 600,000.  That's without a bathroom and kitchen cos we share those with father-in-law whose house is next to us.  We will build those later once we have a chance to use the house a little and find out what 'works' for us.

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## jandajoy

How much wood are you going to need?

How much have you got?

It's as expensivew as all buggery up here in the north. Smuglling it in from Laos is a bit of a concern too.

Your model looks fantastic but a massive amount of good quality wood needed.

More pics please.

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## jaiyenyen

Another quality building thread in the making.
Good luck to you.

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## Wayne Kerr

Love these threads, with any luck I might have enough dosh to one day build myself a shag pad in Thailand. Any thoughts about the landscaping yet mate? That's one thing I'd love to try my hand at too if I can escape my transient existence one of these days.

600,000 don't sound like much for a flashy wood joint like that, ya sure the sums are ridgy didge?

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## jandajoy

> 600,000 don't sound like much for a flashy wood joint like that, ya sure the sums are ridgy didge?


If the build is based on the model I doubt the costings. Sorry to say.  :Sad:

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## Twocam

Actually we've bought nearly all the supplies needed & have a contract with the builder for labour costs, so we're pretty confident of coming in close to the target. Of course Thai partner has probably made some alterations to the plans that I don't know about which will jack up the price  :Smile:  Also we don't have to buy the wood, when father-in-law got the land 30 years ago he immediately planted enough mai-daeng and mai-pradoo to build a house for each of his 7 children.  We are only the 2nd to build so there was a good choice of trees to cut and mill. The only wood we have to buy is for the doors and windows which are being made from recycled wood sourced locally.  Add to that the house is not very big (12 sao) and we don't have anykitchen, bathroom or electrical fittings (no electricity on our land) and it will be a pretty basic, but hopefully solid, little holiday house.

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## DrAndy

> Well we kind of have plans...they were originally from a Thai house, scaled down for model-making and now we're scaling it back up to real size.


make sure you do not scale any cockroaches up to the new size

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## jaiyenyen

^^ Good old dad.
What a good father to be 'forward thinking' enough to plant trees, so his children can have timber to build a home. I think you owe  him a big THANK YOU.

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## ShilohJim

> Someone asked about plans. Well we kind of have plans...they were originally from a Thai house, scaled down for model-making and now we're scaling it back up to real size. Hoping to get something based on one of these. Would love to build the whole compound but just can't afford it.
> 
> We officially have one post in the ground as of today 29/10.
> 
> No more pics until late November I fear as that's when the better half will next visit and collect the next tranche of money!


Looks great, why can't you build it in portions as you can afford? Would seem you intend to stay and that is a beautiful plan. I do suppose electricity and modern plumbing are in the plan?

ShilohJim

 :deadhorsebig:

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## bobbysan124

Good luck with it.

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## Thailing

> Originally Posted by Wayne Kerr
> 
> 600,000 don't sound like much for a flashy wood joint like that, ya sure the sums are ridgy didge?
> 
> 
> If the build is based on the model I doubt the costings. Sorry to say.


 
not sure about that , there are many good examples in pak chong for same price.

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## hillbilly

One main problem with an all wooden house is upkeep.

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## DrAndy

Like what, HillBilly?

They just need a nice oiling if you want them to look fresh, otherwise nothing

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## DrAndy

> Originally Posted by jandajoy
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Originally Posted by Wayne Kerr
> ...


 
well, the model cost B1500

it is a 1:20 scale so the cost will be....

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## hillbilly

> Like what, HillBilly?
> 
> They just need a nice oiling if you want them to look fresh, otherwise nothing


My experience has shown ants, termites and other bugs can wreck havoc upon one's home. Why?

The landscaping around ones home invites the ants and bugs. Termites will find their way to any concrete and chew.

I have heard Thais say that old Teak wood is almost bullet-proof. I say no. Additionally, I have talked to the caretakers of Vinanmek Mansion in Bangkok. Maintence is constant.

How many truly old teak homes does one see?

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## DrAndy

> My experience has shown ants, termites and other bugs can wreck havoc upon one's home. Why?


because they like it for food; but that also applies to any wood in a concrete home




> I have heard Thais say that old Teak wood is almost bullet-proof. I say no. Additionally, I have talked to the caretakers of Vinanmek Mansion in Bangkok. Maintence is constant.


no, not bullet proof but it is insect and rot proof

as for Vinanmek, did they say what maintenance they did?  that place is massive and ANY house that size requires a lot of work

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## Twocam

One photo arrived from 29/10 the first day of building. Sounds like the entire day consisting of raising the sao-ek (first support pole) which had the good luck package tied on, then drinking a lot of rice wine. Seems to be moving faster now, all 12 supports are concreted in and they are rust-proofing/painting/prefabbing the roof structure while they wait for the concrete to set.

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## S Landreth

Nice to see it has started

Thanks for sharing

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## somtamslap

> not sure about that , there are many good examples in pak chong for same price.


 Not the same size as splitlids design though..the closest I've seen in Pak Chong to splitlids design is 9 million baht..I'm assuming we're talking about the place on Mittrapharp Rd just before you take the turn of for Pak Chong?

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## somtamslap

Ok so it's a bit bigger than Splits but this is on sale for 9 million..

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## Twocam

Ouch that's huge, a bit too bit for our little holiday shack and slightly over budget. Maybe when I win Lotto! BTW that gorgeous model a few posts back was made by my better half whose supervising the housebuilding. So I'm thinking if the real house is half as nice I'll be pretty happy. 

Today our roof-tile supplier piked on us and said they won't be able to fill our order. Now we need about a squillion small traditional kabuang-kroc in short order and it seems they can't be found for love nor money in Nong Khai or Udon. Oh well, at least we hadn't paid the supplier yet. Looks like a weekend trip to Korat/Dan Kwian is in order.  Grrrr.

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## Twocam

Latest update is that we have all support poles cemented in place. A spirit level even made an appearance when they were being erected, which I'm guessing is a good thing. The basic frame is up but pre-fabbing the roof was delayed while they cleaned up the wood posts (sao) being used inside the main room of the house. Since my better half forgot to take any photos, here are some random shots from the process, starting with the 10-inch wide mai-pradoo floorboards at our local secondhand wood dealer, which we didn't end up buying, but they were very tempting.

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## Twocam

Our future furniture, roots of one of the mai daeng we cut for timber to build our house.  The photo doesn't show any scale but it is huge and took a truck and sling to move it from where it was dug up.  A friend is going to sand it back and see if he can turn it into some useful furniture for us.

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## Twocam

Finally a progress photo from my other half that isn't out of focus and actually shows the whole structure.  Moving along nicely considering the builders are working with a small Kubota generator for power.

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## Takeovers

> Our future furniture, roots of one of the mai daeng we cut for timber to build our house. The photo doesn't show any scale but it is huge and took a truck and sling to move it from where it was dug up. A friend is going to sand it back and see if he can turn it into some useful furniture for us.


Looking forward to see the photos of that furniture.

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## crazyswede

*Great , here´s another subscriber!*

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## Thaiguy

Let me know if you have any luck with the pictures? - I see you said you will have another go ? - I haven't been successful yet.

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## smeden

nice pics i will folow your progres          :Smile:

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## Twocam

Another progress pic from the field. The roof structure has now been welded on site and is almost ready to be lifted on. The traditional terracotta tiles will be put on in early Jan as the manufacturer can't get them to us any sooner. It's starting to look like a house, rather than a big pile of money...oops I mean building materials.

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## Twocam

We are really pleased with the way our home-grown wood looks. These are floorboards.

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## danno5

looks great, what kind of wood are the floorboards?

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## Twocam

These ones I think are mai daeng (we have a mixture of mai daeng and mai pradoo).  They're homegrown, 25 or 30 years old.

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## Twocam

Roof is up, these are some ceiling rafters.  We have a double-row because the space in-between is going to be the ventilation gap running around the top of all 4 walls. It will have mosquito netting fitted somehow...haven't worked that out yet.

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## Twocam

The beams that will support the floor upstairs.  Apparently there are some screws involved in securing them, as well as the nails I see in the photo. I can't guarantee that but partner assures me it is so.

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## Twocam

The roof frame is at least capable of holding our midget builder...

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## Twocam

And the morning view is pretty cool

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## Twocam

My Xmas present - it's finally starting to look like a house  :Smile:

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## smeden

nice pics i will follow the tread as new pics come      :Smile:  :Smile:  :Smile:  :Smile:  :Smile:

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## Twocam

Just found out they only working with 2 staff at the moment after the boss and the 2IC had a fight and the boss walked off the job with most of the staff. We like the underling better anyway but it's hard to get anything done with so few people.   

The house is not huge - 9m x 6m (2m of which is balcony) but we hope to do a lot of living underneath which will be tiled with terracotta.  No bathroom or kitchen plans yet...

A lot of the shape/style of our build was influenced by this inside-view of a house in Chiang Mai at this link Tii Baan

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## good2bhappy

good luck
and if you can keep close to budget excellent

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## sabang

It's looking very nice indeed.

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## Wallalai

Nice, cannot wait to look more.  :Wink:

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## Ciaphas

It's looking great, all our wooden beams are nailed and bolted together too. I think it keeps the structure more secure with the movement of the wood.

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## Twocam

Things have been a bit slow on the building front.  The shortage of available workers in the village is pretty obvious, there simply isn't anyone around to hire, we have resorted to trucking in workers from the next major town, which unfortunately means costs are up.

The floor is down - this is old wood from father-in-law's house (we laid the new stuff in his place).  All sanded and pieced together it looks nice.  Not sure about the builder's woolly hat, it's HOT at 11am in the morning out there!

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## Twocam

All the spacers are on the roof and here they are measuring up for the final details.  I'm assured our final ones won't be these colours, this is just their life-size template.

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## Twocam

This is what it looks like this month. Slowly but surely...

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## Deris

Looking good. It's going to be a nice home when you finish it.

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## ChoakMyDee

I like it. I wish I could convince my better half to build wood.

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## maraudingscot

:Smile: 

Cool, I have been following some of these builds on here, as it will come my turn in the future.  ::chitown:: 

Anyway as I posted on one of the other threads I like these traditional style houses made of wood.  They say Teak is good but not the best to build, I did read somewhere that there are a couple of other woods that are better than teak, but I must say I failed to ear mark the site  :Sad: 

WIll have to search again!

Anyway will watch this build with great interest, as it is along the lines that I am planning to go, not sure tuther half will agree.  :ourrules:

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## Twocam

We've just had a few days holiday in Chiang Rai and spent some of it in the second-hand wood yards around the traps. The north has a greater choice of recycled wood & house components, and far better quality than we have found in the dealers around our area of Isaan (east of Nong Khai). THe only downside for us is that it's mostly teak - we're building in mai-daeng and pradoo. Plus I imagine there are issues transporting it from province to province.  But if we were to build again and didn't have enough wood of our own I'd look at sourcing recycled stock from the North if at all possible.

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## jandajoy

> Plus I imagine there are issues transporting it from province to province.


BIG bloody issues, mate.   :Sad:

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## maraudingscot

> Originally Posted by Twocam
> 
> Plus I imagine there are issues transporting it from province to province.
> 
> 
> BIG bloody issues, mate.


 
 :ourrules:   So its a late night truck taking back roads, and a wad of money in hand incase of stops!!! :mid: 

Just got to be careful not to run into the other trucks doing the same thing.


Not that, I hasten to add, That I would ever do such a thing at all! :mid:  nope not me never ever ok? ::chitown::

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## bobbysan124

Looking forward to seeing more.  Thanks.

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## bifftastic

> We've just had a few days holiday in Chiang Rai and spent some of it in the second-hand wood yards around the traps. The north has a greater choice of recycled wood & house components, and far better quality than we have found in the dealers around our area of Isaan (east of Nong Khai). THe only downside for us is that it's mostly teak - we're building in mai-daeng and pradoo. Plus I imagine there are issues transporting it from province to province.  But if we were to build again and didn't have enough wood of our own I'd look at sourcing recycled stock from the North if at all possible.



Hi there, new to TD but very interested in this thread. Where are the second hand wood yards in Chiang Rai you visited? Any up near Chiang Saen by any chance? :Smile:

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## SiamRick

Love this thread. Wanted to know if you could post bigger, higher resolution  pictures? This project, with its beautiful wood, cries out for sharp pictures! Thanks.

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## Twocam

Hey Biff, the two main ones were on the road out of C.Rai if you are headed to C.Saen.   Just past the airport turnoff there is one on the left of the road, they have mostly doors and windows and a small selection of 'sao' posts and boards.  A bit further out of C.Rai on the other side of the road is a much larger yard which has everything you would need, mostly in original condition, but they will clean/patch wood for you before delivery.

SiamRick sorry bout the photos, most are taken on a phone so not great quality. 

Today's update is that the roof tiles are on, with a final bit of cosmetic work due tomorrow. Then Monday they start on the walls.

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## Twocam

Well things are moving along slowly - we now have the tiling done, floors down and the windows and doors are being delivered next week. We chose 80 year old doors at a secondhand-wood shop in Udon and had them finished. We also got them to make the windows from old wood from their shop.

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## Twocam

Floors fitted and nailed down in the past couple of weeks. Not too many gaps to be filled.  With a mixture of 40year old wood and some of our own younger wood seasoned for 2 years we hope it will stay that way.

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## Twocam

Test set of 140cm tall windows we had made to see if we liked them...they came out rather well I think, if a bit more expensive than we budgeted at 3000 baht per set.  It's the finishing touches that will send us over budget I suspect.

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## Nawty

> We are really pleased with the way our home-grown wood looks. These are floorboards.


spectacular

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## splitlid

house is looking really good, conrats, and keep us posted.
 :Smile:

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## lozillionaire

Looks great so far; I look forward to ongoing posts.

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## DrAndy

> I like it. I wish I could convince my better half to build wood.


 
she wears the trousers?

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## DrAndy

> Teak is good but not the best to build, I did read somewhere that there are a couple of other woods that are better than teak


for the roof timbers maybe, but teak is best overall



> The north has a greater choice of recycled wood & house components, and far better quality than we have found in the dealers around our area of Isaan (east of Nong Khai). THe only downside for us is that it's mostly teak - we're building in mai-daeng and pradoo.


true, the woodyards tend to have mainly teak secondhand, but you can buy an old house in other woods quite cheaply



> With a mixture of 40year old wood and some of our own younger wood seasoned for 2 years we hope it will stay that way.


it will shrink whatever you use!!  we have small gaps between our floorboards even though it was ancient wood



> they came out rather well I think, if a bit more expensive than we budgeted at 3000 baht per set


they look nice. Is that price including the frame?  why didn't you use secondhand as you did the doors? prob about B1500 incl frames

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## benlovesnuk

I like the roof, could you please explain what materials you used for tiles and also your end gables?

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## highlander

_"With a mixture of 40year old wood and some of our own younger wood seasoned for 2 years we hope it will stay that way._
it will shrink whatever you use!! we have small gaps between our floorboards even though it was ancient wood "

this probably sounds silly or at least naieve but why are the boards only ever butted together and never the tongue and groove method used, 

regards scotty

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## DrAndy

not a silly question. They can be tongued and grooved if you want. It just uses quite a lot of extra wood (unless you have wide planks) and the carpenter also charges quite a lot extra

so it is down to cost, and is it worthwhile

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## Twocam

We considered tongue and groove. But it is essentially a budget built holiday house and a tad too close to budget overrun for my liking.

Dr Andy couldn't find any good solid windows locally.  Most of the wood shops don't keep much stock & good stuff goes straight to Bangkok.

Ben - the roof frame is all metal, rust-proofed and painted a red/brown colour.  Roof tiles are traditional terracotta "kabuang kroc".  The builders laid the roof tiles, then along the edges put down PowerSeal tape covered with chicken wire & then cement. Cement painted the same colour as the metal after it dried. I'll post a pic if I can find one.

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## Twocam

Here you can see the process of edging the roof tiles.

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## Wallalai

The small tiles looks very good.  :Smile:  The front view as well, very nice.

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## shunpike

Roof looks great, nice.

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## jandajoy

Twocam, 

Can I ask you what the roof materials cost? 

That's a really nice look. Congratulations.

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## nevets

I think its absolutely wonderful thanks for taking the trouble to do the thread .

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## Twocam

Here you can see one of the builders working on the end gables. The two reddish-brown metal beams running horizantally beneath him not only support the roof but also form the ventilation gap which will run around the top of all 4 walls. Yet to decide how to enclose the space, but probably use lattice lined with mesh to keep out the mossies.

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## Twocam

Putting up the supports so the roof ends can be closed in.  We tried to get the builder to put in triangular shaped ventilation gaps in each end but he thinks the gaps around the top of all 4 walls will be sufficient.  He was insistent that ventilation gaps in the ends of the roof might make it sail away in a high wind!

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## Twocam

Thai partner tells me we are nearing completion, with windows in place and the walls on their way to being finished. Steps are made - I asked for "extra wide" so I can sit on them confortably to drink my morning cup of tea! Next is concrete and terracotta tiling downstairs and then to hang my hammock  :Smile:  Visiting mid-June when child's school breaks for the summer. More pics then & final budget tally.  Think we are running over by about 100K (700k versus 600k initial estimate put together this time last year).

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## Twocam

Noticed another thread talking about wood filler - here's what our floorboards looked like when first filled with the glue/sawdust mixture.

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## Twocam

We are basically done!  Still cosmetic finishes such as staining to complete and the tiling/downstairs.  We still haven't worked out how to catch water off our roof since we found out the builder left off the guttering. Not bad though since that's about all we can see that got missed.  Remember this is supposed to be a basic holiday house, we were never aiming for anything else.  We are pretty chuffed.

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## Twocam

The balcony and front entrance. The only wood purchased from outside our property was the front doors (recycled), the windows (made to order with old wood) and the decorative piece over the door (teak, from a shop in Udon Thani).

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## Twocam

Should have shut the windows before taking this one.  This is looking from the centre of the house to one end.  The other end looks identical.  The air flow is fantastic, even in the last few days in the Nong Khai heat the house was cool with a constant breeze blowing through. I'm astonished at how cool the high roof/all round ventilation and traditional tiles make it.

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## Twocam

And my favourite spot in the house - my own reading corner, gets the early morning sun, the best breeze in the house and overlooks the mature mango trees (which you can't see in this pic but are just around the corner of the house).

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## Wallalai

^
Nice.
Looks like my teakwood house in the garden (minus the mango trees)  :Smile:

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## jks

Absolutely fantastic and beautiful home you are building! My budget did not allow me to do like this, but I hope in the future to make a teakwood guesthouse or at least a relax shed in the backyard beside the pond we plan to make. I love teakwood buildings. Keep up the good work and I look forward to follow progress of your building

 :bananaman:

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## Nelly

Very nice build......congratulations! you must be pleased with the result.

Cheers

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## MuckyMan

Nice to see that.

Thanks for sharing

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## afghanpicker

loved the thread and i alwyas wanted on like it in the garden. i will be looking into a smal one bedroom guest type teak in the future.

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## Bettyboo

Very nice; good thread and lovely house.  :Smile: 

One ignorant question: why so high off the ground; looks to be 15-20 feet or so, would 7-10 feet be enough?

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## baldrick

is the toilet/shower to be downstairs ?

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## Twocam

Thanks for the feedback.  We are starting the downstairs tiling next week and should finish off staining the wood as well, right now only the outdoor stairs are done.
Bettyboo the house is 3m off the ground, mostly to try and catch a breeze.  It's amazing how there is often no movement at ground level but 3m up we have a steady breeze all the time. No sweat to be in our house even in the hottest hours, provided the windows facing the sun are closed and the other three sides are opened.  Life is MUCH more comfortable than for my father-in-law who has a tin roof on his place down the track. 
Baldrick - right now we share with father in law, we will build something in a few months once rice season is over. We live in Bangkok so this is only our holiday place and the kitchen will probably constitute a BBQ and an esky for beer and wine!  The outhouse and kitchen will be off to one side as we don't want to block off too much of our space downstairs, it's not very big and I need a lot of swinging room for my hammock!

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## Tubtaywun

Nice,

Is it economically viable to do large houses in this old style?

Anyone know how it would compare to a concrete/block/brick build?

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## benlovesnuk

^It depends on what style and where you live? You can buy houses between 150,000 to 500,000 depending on what wood and how good it is as well as how much. There are many Thai's that buy 4 houses and put them together to create a complex of buildings. 

Then you have to add on labour which is not expensive and materials ie nails, glue, extra wood for broken bits, new wood for bits not there....etc.

On the whole you might find concrete less hassle, but wood is far more satisfying to live in.

What you need is a professional wood builder because it is down to him how your house will end up!

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## Bettyboo

> the house is 3m off the ground, mostly to try and catch a breeze. It's amazing how there is often no movement at ground level but 3m up we have a steady breeze all the time. No sweat to be in our house even in the hottest hours, provided the windows facing the sun are closed and the other three sides are opened.


Excellent, thanks.

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## Tubtaywun

> ^It depends on what style and where you live? You can buy houses between 150,000 to 500,000 depending on what wood and how good it is as well as how much. There are many Thai's that buy 4 houses and put them together to create a complex of buildings. 
> 
> Then you have to add on labour which is not expensive and materials ie nails, glue, extra wood for broken bits, new wood for bits not there....etc.
> 
> On the whole you might find concrete less hassle, but wood is far more satisfying to live in.
> 
> What you need is a professional wood builder because it is down to him how your house will end up!


Hey thanks for that,

I like the sound of being able to build the house in modules.... is this the thai version of prefab...

A few questions ...
Are these new or old houses? 
Can they be made secure? ....as in theft 
There must be a lot more upkeep in a wooden house ...so what are the good points that make it more satisfying?

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## ossierob

Good onya 2cam....all the best...I will follow your posts

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## ossierob

Sorry I got stuck on page 1 ....now I have read the lot and love the look of the place. Congratulations 2cam it looks great...I also am looking for a bit of a holiday shack made from timber. Have read a few posts on here now about building or reconstructing them and the more I see the more I love em.

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## OhOh

Very beautiful home.

Why did you use steel roof structure instead of timber?

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## OhOh

In post 100 you have "ventilation" gaps between the top of the walls and the underside of the roof, have you managed to fill the gaps with anything yet. if so have you photographs?

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## Lucywu2012

Wow, it's woderful, I like wooden house, but why don't you choose the bamboo? I think it's more attractive than wood, it will make the whole house looks great! :bananaman:

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## brian3673

thanks for sharing your house with us,,beautiful...

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## Twocam

We finally sat down and tallied the finances. For the basic house (no bathroom, no kitchen -currently sharing both with father-in-law next door) we came in at a smidge over THB700,000 which was 100,000 over our initial estimate. Two reasons: the steady rise in building materials from the time we started our plans 3 years ago to building this year, secondly the few "extras" that we threw in along the way, like the carved teak panel above the front door and the metal roof beams instead of using our own home-grown wood.

Ohoh we used a metal beam structure in the roof because of the sheer weight of the traditional tiles when they are wet.  We could have cut more trees for the frame but we had to leave some trees for other family members  :Smile:  

We haven't filled the ventilation gaps and it's probably the only thing I'm really unhappy with. I wanted some metal mesh attached but partner didn't like the look.  I'm interested to see what animals have crawled in - we will be back up there in a few weeks to check.  I'll bet my bottom dollar that my man will be up in that ventilation space nailing in some protection pretty quick smart.

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## OhOh

^
Thanks for the answers. If you do fill them in I would be interested in the construction/result.

Are there many houses in your location with the tiled/high roof? Most village houses I have seen are sheet roofing with a flatter roof angle. Probably a more economic build but less imposing.

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## Twocam

No others in the vicinity with the same style roof as it's not really Isaan style. Our place has turned into quite the local attraction. It's 45 mins from Nong Khai though, so a bit far for mass tourism  :Smile:

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## SciFly

Amazing house. How much more would it have cost if you had to buy all of the wood? Also, how much extra do you think the toilet/kitchen is going to cost to build - the other model building squashed up against the main building I take it?

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## Twocam

SciFly I reckon we could have done it for just over a million baht if we had to buy a secondhand house to pulldown for the wood (they run about 300k in our area if you can find one). The labour to pull a secondhand place apart and move it is pretty minimal.
We are doing a concrete kitchen/bathroom construction off to one side for THB 20,000 but that won't be our long-term plan, we just want something to use over the next couple of years, by then the district might have extended the electricity out our way.  The quote for the tiling downstairs seems like a bloody killer though - nearly 30,000 baht for 54sq.m. and we already own the tiles!  I'm not an expert but to me that sounds expensive?

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## johpam

When had some tiles laid last year, I supplied all the materials and the labour was 85 baht per square meter (I think) the total area was 95 square meters and the tiles were roughly 22.5 cm by 22.5 cm. So I think you are paying way over the top unless you have special tiles or many small areas to be tiled.

Cheers Johpam

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## OhOh

The window shutters appear to raise up when they are opened due to the hinge position. How do you keep them in the open position, do you have some sort of catch?

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## Twocam

> The window shutters appear to raise up when they are opened due to the hinge position. How do you keep them in the open position, do you have some sort of catch?


Yes we have those little metal hook things to hold them open. They's solid wood and heavy so we have to be careful when swinging them closed, could easily lop off a finger or two.

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## Twocam

Tiling downstairs is now finished, with the price much less than initially quoted, just a few thousand baht (we already bought the tiles at the same time we bought the roof tiles).  At some point I want to paint the support poles but for now I just want to get my hammock hung up!

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## Twocam

We have also built a simple concrete building off to one side of the main house, it houses the bathroom and kitchen.  I love the view from my kitchen!  The open part is now screened. I specified mosquito netting and they put in chicken wire so I guess that will have to be redone at some point. My fault for not giving them an example of what I wanted.  Oh and there's no drainage from the sink "no problem, we will punch a hole in the wall later".  Okay well deep breath...it's just a holiday house!

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## rickschoppers

Twocam, it's me again and I got your info on the woodyard in Udon. Are you near by? If so I wouldn't mind taking a peak at your place. Your roof is very much like the one I would like if you can recommend the group that did it. Great looking profile.

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## rickschoppers

Twocam, it's me again and I got your info on the woodyard in Udon. Are you near by? If so I wouldn't mind taking a peak at your place. Your roof is very much like the one I would like if you can recommend the group that did it. Great looking profile.

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## JoshuaInMukdahan

Twocam the holiday home looks great. Thank you for all the effort you have put into documenting, photographing and uploading. It is a great looking place and a wonderful thread to contribute here. The kitchen I especially enjoyed, though the downstairs tiling looks just as good.

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## JoshuaInMukdahan

Hmm won't let me edit my previous in this forum... I have heard some define Mai Daeng as red oak. Is it actually oak or is the translation loose?

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## OhOh

> We have also built a simple concrete building off to one side of the main house, it houses the bathroom and kitchen.


Is this adjacent to the main house?

Why not underneath the main house?

In #128 you seem to have a couple of water "jars", are these fed from a village supply or have you drilled a bore hole for the water?

Did you say previously that there was no electricity in the village?

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## Twocam

Hi OhOh.. You are right we have no electricity on our land, although the village 1.5km away has both power and water.  The water channel that feeds the village water supply runs right next to our land so we will run a small pump to fill our water jars ('ong') in dry season.  We are installing gutters on the house for water catchment in rainy season.  Since we don't live in the house full time we don't use much.

The kitchen/bathroom addition is not under the house. My hubby was nearly killed as a baby when their wooden house burned down, so we didn't want to risk any sparks setting off a repeat of that experience  :Wink:    Plus we like the open living space underneath and didn't really want to lose any of that.

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## OhOh

Thank you. I look forward to some more pictures.

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## OhOh

Any new additions to your house?

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## OhOh

Do you, or anyone else , have a likely cost for the roof steelwork?

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## Katrin

Looks much better. I can not wait to see it completed  :Smile:

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## palexxxx

> We are really pleased with the way our home-grown wood looks. These are floorboards.



Very nice floorboards,  beautiful grain.

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## jks

I think it about time for admin to react on this spamming ....

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## Paul Louis Venne

Wow. Coongrats!

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## Davidsmith

Like the photos?

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## terry57

Nice bump, ain't seen this one.    :Smile:

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## Thai Dhupp

I see another request for information on your roof... I too would like that information.
 We will (soon, I hope!) be finalising our own build, a big part of which is a roof (three, actually) very similar to yours. Wood being so expensive n'all, seems like steel is the way to go for us. any information gratefully received. Hey... get me the info and then we can start the build and everyone will have another build nightm... story to follow!

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## BaitongBoy

^ Welcome to the Buffalo Board, Dhupp...Look forward to your thread...

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## fishlocker

The middle east. I sowwie Rick, couldn't help myself. 

Good luck with it and I hope it all goes as planned.

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## fishlocker

> The middle east. I sowwie Rick, couldn't help myself. 
> 
> Good luck with it and I hope it all goes as planned.


Nice looking house. Interesting going through older threads, Some of these guys just don't post as much anymore.

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