#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Construction in Thailand >  >  A New Village House

## pominasia

This weekend we have the Tam Boon for our New Village House in Tak Province.   

I have been a lurker on TD, CTH and TV getting useful ideas and information, and feel I should repay by describing our experiences in building the house.  Since the work is complete, I propose to post pictures, with explanations, of the various stages.  It has taken a fair bit of time working out how to post pictures, but I think I know how now.  Since I will be posting from work, postings will depend on time available.

I am in full-time employment in Bangkok and my wife (the Manager) has been supervising the work.  I designed the house, but the Manager and Builder took the final decisions.  So it was a very off-hands input from me.  I would have phonecalls asking for decisions, not always knowing the full story.

The reason for the new house was that since my wife inherited the old family wooden house after her mother died, it has been deteriorating.  To save the wood it was decided to build A New Village House of brick and timber - using as much as we could of the timber from the old house.  The house is on half a rai owned by my wife.  The rai plot is shared with her sister who has her own house there.  I guess when I retire we will share time in our house in Bangkok and in the village.

The arrangement with the Builder is that we buy all materials, and only pay him for labour.  The Manager has kept detailed records of all expenditure, and when I get the items translated into English and onto a spreadsheet, will be able to give actual costs, and the time for construction.

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## boloa

Sounds great....looking forward to seeing the start of the photo's

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## rickschoppers

You are off to a very good start by using the wood from an older house. This will save you money and it is nice to hear there are no issues with worrying about "ghosts." The other great decision you made is to buy all the materials yourself and to pay the builder for his labor. May I ask what will be your payment arrangement for this labor? Is it a flat fee or by the day?

By following this site and others to see what it takes to build a house in Thailand, you have also saved a lot of time and headaches. This is the best advice I can give anyone thinking about building a house in Thailand. Do not rush into anything and learn as much as you can from others.

I look forward to your pics.

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## Makmak456

Thanks for posting !
Looking to a great build thread.
Mark

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## pominasia

The old house

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## pominasia

Another view, showing the two houses joined by a deck

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## DrAndy

yes, it looks tatty but may have a treasure load of great wood inside

It is amazing what can be salvaged from what looks a very poor house

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## Necron99

Decent size.
I'm annoyed that all the old wood houses in my family that are left are tiny.

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## pominasia

Ooops, I think I posted the thumbnail.

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## pominasia

The foundations.  Note the mixture of concrete and timber posts

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## pominasia

The basic idea was to construct a simple small cheap house.  It did not turn out that way.

Since there was not enough wood from the old house, a combined brick (ground floor) and a timber (first floor) design was planned.  The first floor would be timber.  After several layouts were considered, a simple 9 m x 9 m layout was chosen.  The 6 m concrete columns are at 3 m centers and the vertical distance between floors 3 m.  The 3 m span was chosen to allow for poor concreting workmanship.  There was a simple outside stairway in the front (facing north) of the house and an interior stairway.  The outside stairway was changed by Variation 1.  See later.

Downstairs there was planned a 6 x 6 m living area, storeroom, kitchen and Thai open-sided kitchen.  Later the Thai kitchen was changed to a downstairs toilet/bathroom.  See Variation 3.

Upstairs there are 3 bedrooms, one 6 x 3 m and two 3 x 3 m, a toilet/bathroom and a spare room/study.   The toilet/bathrooms are in the same corner.  I had arguments with the family who said that the rooms were too small.  Now there are complaints that the house is too big.

Windows are large - generally 2.0 m x 1.2 m high.  Downstairs aluminium frame and upstairs timber frame.

The roof to be coloured concrete sheets.  The chosen colour was mangkhut (a mauve/brownish colour).  At first I did not want a colourful roof but after seeing houses with it, I felt it would complement the timber.

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## pominasia

Now we had to find a builder.  This delayed the start of the house.  Eventually my wife's sister found a builder who was local and available.  So we went to look at a house he had recently completed.  I was impressed with the workmanship.  The detailing was good.  The front gothic stairway was something else, and we agreed that we did not want that.  Note the manghkut roof colour.

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## pominasia

This is the ceiling of the gothic stairway !!

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## DrAndy

I think it looks fine except for the lamp

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## pominasia

Setting out the house.  Note the red string.  I planned to have a 4 m gap to the neighbour's wall.  They chose 2m - the legal minimum.

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## pominasia

The Kuen Baan Mai ceremony

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## pominasia

The first post.  Wife, SIL and BIL.

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## Necron99

Pom, do you have any floor plans?

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## Dead Metal

Very impressive work by your builder, can't wait to see pics of yours during construction.

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## rickschoppers

The house your builder showed you is similar to what I would have liked, except to have it more open on the first floor. Finding a good builder is the most difficult step in any house build IMO. 

If he is that good at the woodwork, or at least knows someone who is, your outcome should be very nice and the quality what you expect.

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## ossierob

Good luck with your mission....I eagerly follow your construct as I am wanting to do a Thai style wood house out back in the future so am currently in the looking and learning mode

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## pominasia

The weekend was successful.  The Rot Nam Dam Hua, the traditional payimg respect to the elders was on Monday, and the Tam Boon the following day.

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## pominasia

To give some idea how informal the design was, here are the first sketches of the house.  The sketches were initially to get the family to agree to the design, and then given to local draughtsman to develop them into a standard good enough to get planning permission. 

Initially the house was to have two pitched roofs with an open space between on the 1st floor.  The wife wanted an open Thai style kitchen and balcony for drying the washing.  The balconies could alsdo hold the A/C compressors.  A deck at the front of the house allowed access to the first floor.





To g

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## pominasia



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## nigelandjan

Good luck Pom will be back later off to work now cheers mate we love these threads

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## pominasia

The second revision had a conventional pitched roof to save cost and avoid problems of leaves clogging gutters.  The Thai kitchen was enlarged at the expense of the downstairs bathroom.  The open space was reduced.

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## pominasia



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## pominasia

The final designs will be revealed in due course as the pictures are posted.  

However here is the sketch of Variation 1 proposed by the Builder.  It is to replace the symmetrical front deck/stairway.  Based on this drawing the OK was given to go ahead with it.   Now the costs start creeping up - but we got a better house.

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## DrAndy

Thanks for the drawings

it is always nice to see the plans before any building takes place - all part of the story

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## boloa

Is there no-way you could have designed the house without that column in the middle of the living room?

See you have nice Teak Skirting boards though ( I used the same  :Smile:  ),so much nicer than the half-tiles that some go for IMHO.

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## Tarl

I can never see the pics people put up - wish I could this thread sounds like it has a nice house in it  :Smile:

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## pominasia

Yes, that living room column was a source of much concern.  I did not want a 6 m span as I was not sure of the construction standards, and 3 m spans are pretty safe.  I had considered 3.75, 1.5, 3.75 m spans but it created other problems. eg the interior stairway, toilet sizes, roof trusses, etc so I stuck with the simple 3 x 3 m column layout.

By placing a large sofa (2.5 m) against the column it effectively divides the room and the column does not disrupt the space.  The sofa faces the large side windows allowing the TV to be watched without any window reflection on the screen.  See later pictures.

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## nigelandjan

Thanks for the plan pics so far PIA ,, looks quite a large size place , looking forward to seeing it come up from the ground , good luck mate all the best to you and your wife

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## pominasia

A column base.  The house is founded on 1 x 1 m spread footings, 1 m deep (approx).  The soil is sandy alluvium so there is no problem with the bearing capacity

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## pominasia

The first column pours.  Note the old house being slowly demolished

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## pominasia

Since the house floor is 1 m above ground level, the space below the ground beams is filled with bricks

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## pominasia

Mixing concrete.

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## pominasia

Placing concrete

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## pominasia

Stripping formwork.  These are columns form the external stairs

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## pominasia

Sand infill for the floor slab.  This the first layer.

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## pominasia

Ground beam corner detail

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## pominasia

Preparing the timber from the old house

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## DrAndy

> Is there no-way you could have designed the house without that column in the middle of the living room?


of course he could, by using a massive concrete beam across or a steel girder

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## nivram

Very interesting post. I also plan to live in the Tak area in the near future as I have a G/F there. Maybe we will meet up somewhere sometime.

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## Abundanceman

> This weekend we have the Tam Boon for our New Village House in Tak Province.   
> 
> I have been a lurker on TD, CTH and TV getting useful ideas and information, and feel I should repay by describing our experiences in building the house.  Since the work is complete, I propose to post pictures, with explanations, of the various stages.  It has taken a fair bit of time working out how to post pictures, but I think I know how now.  Since I will be posting from work, postings will depend on time available.
> 
> I am in full-time employment in Bangkok and my wife (the Manager) has been supervising the work.  I designed the house, but the Manager and Builder took the final decisions.  So it was a very off-hands input from me.  I would have phonecalls asking for decisions, not always knowing the full story.
> 
> The reason for the new house was that since my wife inherited the old family wooden house after her mother died, it has been deteriorating.  To save the wood it was decided to build A New Village House of brick and timber - using as much as we could of the timber from the old house.  The house is on half a rai owned by my wife.  The rai plot is shared with her sister who has her own house there.  I guess when I retire we will share time in our house in Bangkok and in the village.
> 
> The arrangement with the Builder is that we buy all materials, and only pay him for labour.  The Manager has kept detailed records of all expenditure, and when I get the items translated into English and onto a spreadsheet, will be able to give actual costs, and the time for construction.


Yes, please follow through with pictures and spread sheet info. What a great idea and service you are providing...thanks

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## WhiteLotusLane

> Originally Posted by boloa
> 
> Is there no-way you could have designed the house without that column in the middle of the living room?
> 
> 
> of course he could, by using a massive concrete beam across or a steel girder


Right, but then it wouldn't be old Thai style anymore.  :Wink: 

In general though I think many architects have too much of a fetish for avoiding any and all interior posts.  Look at the Suvarnabhumi terminal building; great achievement, but does anyone notice after the whole place is filled up with booths and counters, other than fellow architects?

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## godfree

This is a wonderful project  in many respects. Thanks for going to so much trouble to document and share it.
Once it's done I'd love to share it with my newsletter readers, all of whom a planning to retire in Thailand.

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## pominasia

The formwork for the ground beams.  It was decided by the Manager not to have crawl space under the floor slab, so the floor is about 750 mm above ground level.  The infill sand was well watered for compaction and doused with an insecticde against termites.

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## pominasia

Floor slab reinforcement.  Not what my drawings showed.  The toilet in the far corner is empty, waiting for the blue pipe plumbing.

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## pominasia

The only time a truck mixer was used

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## pominasia

Column formwork going up.  The long drop should help to compact the concrete

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## pominasia

Pouring the concrete for the columns

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## pominasia

Scaffolding for the 1st floor beams.  The columns in the foreground are for the external stairs (Variation 1)

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## pominasia

Roof truss steel preparation

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## pominasia

Steel member sizes

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## pominasia

First king-post

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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Apparently the welders were on leave from a job in PNG, and had time to work on the roof

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## pominasia

The stairway roof.  Pouring the concrete for the last columns

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## pominasia

The house is taking shape

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## pominasia

The Carpenter.  He is the Contractor's father

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## pominasia

The Contractor and the Manager discussing roofing details.

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## nigelandjan

Your cracking on at a pace now PIA ,, looking good mate

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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Fixings for the floor beams

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## nivram

Thanks for the message pominasia. I will respond when I can (when I make the 20 post limit)

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## pominasia

The rooms are taking shape

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## pominasia

The worst of the honeycombing of the beams.  That's why I had a good FOS in the beam design !

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## pominasia



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## ootai

Having gone through the building process and showing it on a thread on here I appreciate the effort needed so thanks for making the effort to create this thread and to post the pictures.

I have one question.  In post #60 the concrete in the right hand column does not go all the way up to meet the sttel of the roof.  In the next post it appears that it is not only the front corner column that suffered this fate. Is it by design that the concrete was left short?  If not what is the reasoning behind doing like that?

Having build a shed that involved 3 additions there were some occassions where they got the levels a little screwed up and come up short. In my case they welded the steel reinforcing in the column to the roof steel and then boxed it up and added more conrete.  If the roof is going to be heavy tiles I would be a bit concerned and make sure that the conrete is added prior to the tiles being put on the roof.

Good luck and keep posting.

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## DrAndy

> Right, but then it wouldn't be old Thai style anymore.


well, the old style Thai was essentially a wooden structure with posts placed at the maximum interval for the wood used

this is a new house made with lots of concrete so leaving out a post or two would hardly compromise the building

the trouble with having posts in the middle of the building is they limit what you can do with the interior space

not necessarily a problem unless you want something a little different

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## pominasia

> Having gone through the building process and showing it on a thread on here I appreciate the effort needed so thanks for making the effort to create this thread and to post the pictures.
> 
> I have one question.  In post #60 the concrete in the right hand column does not go all the way up to meet the sttel of the roof.  In the next post it appears that it is not only the front corner column that suffered this fate. Is it by design that the concrete was left short?  If not what is the reasoning behind doing like that?
> 
> Having build a shed that involved 3 additions there were some occassions where they got the levels a little screwed up and come up short. In my case they welded the steel reinforcing in the column to the roof steel and then boxed it up and added more conrete.  If the roof is going to be heavy tiles I would be a bit concerned and make sure that the conrete is added prior to the tiles being put on the roof.
> 
> Good luck and keep posting.



ootai

There were several columns that were cast short on that side of the building (west).  The roof truss steel was welded to the column reinforcement and then the columns extended.  See picture below.  I am not sure whether this was just casual construction which could be corrected later, or intentional to allow for accurate levelling.  The columns to the external stairs were mostly cast short.

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## pominasia

The start of fixing the roof sheets.  I wanted to have a reflective foil under the sheets and duly bought a few rolls.  Apparently I got the wrong stuff and they had problems with it.   Not being on site I am not sure what the difficulties were, or what I should have bought.  Anyway, in the end we got a foil under the sheets.  See below

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## pominasia



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## pominasia



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## pominasia

This was my first view of Variation 1, as shown on post # 32, and was pleased with the decision

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## pominasia

This is wood from the old house not suitable for reuse.  The good stuff was used for the floor and front of the house.  It apparent that we would need to buy more wood.

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## pominasia

Wood for external cladding

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## pominasia



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## pominasia



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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Upstairs bathroom on left, 2 small bedrooms and passage.  I wish we could have left the upstairs like this - open on all sides !

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## pominasia

Main bedroom with nice large windows

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## pominasia

Bedroom view

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## pominasia

Upstairs bathroom

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## pominasia

Variation 2, also proposed by the Builder, is what I call a skirt roof.  See the steel work just above the downstairs windows.  The roof prevents rain from running down the wall onto the windows and provides additional shade to the downstairs concrete walls and windows.  In my opinion shade is one of the best ways to avoid a hot house.

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## pominasia

Variation 2

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## pominasia

Living room and a spare room.   The area behind the Manager is for the internal stairway

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## pominasia

Living room from the other view.  The kitchen is to the left

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## pominasia

The start of the external stairway.  The first landing makes a nice deck.

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## pominasia

The outside stairs looking down onto the deck

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## pominasia

Balustrade to the second landing

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## DrAndy

looking good, progress ....




> I wish we could have left the upstairs like this


you could have done, it is your build

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## pominasia

Walls from inside

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## pominasia

Walls from outside

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## pominasia

Upstairs doorway entrance

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## pominasia

Shuttering for the upstairs bathroom floor

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## terry57

Nice big house mate, love the extensive use of wood. Nice stuff.

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## pominasia

Concreting the upstairs bathroom floor

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## pominasia

Upstairs bathroom walls

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## pominasia

The outside stairs from the doorway

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## pominasia

The Village House taking shape.  After arguments about how small it was going to be, now its "why so big" ?  The outside stairs make it look big, but only the deck is useful - for drinking a beer as the sunsets.  And wait until you see Variation 3.

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## ootai

pominasia
Thanks for the reply. It was just as I thought. leave the concrete short level it all up then add more concrete to the top of the column.
I personally would prefer them to pour the column slightly taller asnd then cut it back to level up the roof.  They might use low tech clear palstic tube and water to find their levels but it works really well.

I like the way the house is shaping up. As you said the stairs don't add much in the way of useful space but they give it a grand look.

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## nigelandjan

Blimey thats a big place PIA  how many of you will live in there ?

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## Dillinger

^I see you like looking at all these build threads Nige, can't wait to see your 'ouse with all the inspiration you must have gained and that artist that lies within...


Nice looking house BTW Pominasia, you could get 724 Thais co-habitating in there to my reckoning. :Smile:

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## nigelandjan

^ Dont get too excited mate its only a little one bed shack in the jungle ,, allthough I am pleased to say I have designed the plans myself .

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## danno5

nice house, and thanks for taking the time to post!

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## pominasia

Variation 3 - the Thai kitchen or Outside Kitchen (OSK).

I agreed that we needed an OSK kitchen and a balcony, so drew up sketches of a 6 x 2 m extension at the back of the house.  I left it up to the Manager and Builder to sort out the details.  What we got was a 9 x 3 m extension - increasing the floor area from 182 sq m to 236 sqm (excluding Variation 1 and including the balcony) !   To use this extra space, I included a 3 x 3m storeroom next to the OSK.


Around this time the Builder was getting quite ill and had to visit the hospital regularly, which slowed down the work, and I was not sure if we should give the OSK to him.

I have put all the OSK pictures together.
Here are the ground beams

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## pominasia

The OSK is founded on spread footings under each column and is not attached to the house

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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Upper beams.  To the right is the door from the house

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## pominasia

Precast planks for the roof slab.  The mesh was cast into the screed.

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## pominasia

Lifting the beams into place.  I am glad I was not there to watch.

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## pominasia



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## ossierob

Thanks for a good construction thread....Your house looks a similar size to the one I built a few years back. I have internal staircase but I do love the way you designed yours and I also love the extensive use of timber.  At the time mine was built I was not very involved and would have incorporated a lot more timber as it just looks so bloody good. Well done mate

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## pominasia

The upstairs balcony to be used for drying clothes, BBQ's or getting away from everyone ?

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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Cutting a groove for the washing machine drain

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## pominasia

Painted OSK

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## pominasia

Cooking the first meal

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## pominasia

> Blimey thats a big place PIA  how many of you will live in there ?


Nigel and Jan

Yes, a good question.  One of the parameters in sizing the place was that when the family (7 siblings) come home at Songklan they have to be accommodated in the (inherited) family home.  We had 10 staying last week.

Otherwise, its going to be empty with only us staying there.  However there will always be room for visitors !  I have suggested turning it into a "home stay"

P

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## nigelandjan

Well I have to take my hat off to you mate for catering for the masses .

Your place is looking really great now .

I love the look of your outdoor kitchen , bet you wife loves it to .

There are IMO so many bloody awfull tiles the Thais use but I am really liking those you have on your kitchen floor ,, compliment the unit colours very well . 

I know each persons place is theyre own etc but jeez when you go in some bathrooms it looks like they got a job lot of 8 boxes of pink tiles then couldnt get anymore so then bought 4 boxes of blue ones to finish the job off !

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## DrAndy

> Concreting the upstairs bathroom floor


make sure that is waterproofed before tiling, otherwise you can get small leaks making a lot of problems in the future

I think they use brush-on bitumen coats

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## pominasia

Downstairs bathroom slab

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## pominasia

Looking from living room toward downstairs bathroom.  Two walls to be constructed parallel to the work bench

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## pominasia

Damage to the bottom of the beam

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## pominasia

Upstairs wall paneling to the main bedroom

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## pominasia

Upstairs corridor looking toward the balcony

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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Upstairs main bedroom

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## pominasia

Stair well.

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## pominasia

Inside stair construction.  Due to changes in the design the space for the stairs was reduced from 3 m to 2.5 m, making them steeper than ideal, and for a tight headroom.  A "stepped turn" was used in place of the initially designed landing.  However they are OK to use.  

I wanted to use one of the posts from the old house to give some connection.   The idea was that the post would extend the full height up to the handrail.  What I got was a short stump !

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## pominasia



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## pominasia



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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Plastering.  I had an idea to leave the far wall (with leaning conduits) unplastered to have the brick faced surface feature.  The idea was not accepted.

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## pominasia

Septic tanks.  Another worry as I don't have pictures of the pipes to see whether they followed the drawings.

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## nigelandjan

Cor I bet that smells like heaven in there all that fresh planed and sanded timber

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## terry57

Going to be a mansion at the end of the build mate.

Your misses don't look to happy looking at those stairs, hope you don't break a leg as you wont be going up there,  this is the only thing I have against 2 story houses.

My friend built one but thought about the future and installed a lift.

Cost him some nice money but well worth it if the shit hits the fan.

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## pominasia

Ceiling frames

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## pominasia

Wiring was difficult, but in the end I guess it was OK.   One problem was that the first Electrician was not too good.  See joint below.  He was replaced but there problems in the handover, one guy making difficulties for the other.

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## pominasia



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## pominasia



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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Downstairs bathroom

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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Squirter on the Left !!

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## Norton

> unplastered to have the brick faced surface feature. The idea was not accepted.


Far too radical for local tastes. Coming together. Looks good. A few fix its but not bad.

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## pominasia

Upstairs bathroom. The tiles were chosen by the Manager and I like.

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## pominasia



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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Painting kitchen ceiling

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## pominasia

Ceiling to the outside stairs.  All light fittings were chosen by the Manager.  Compare with post # 17.

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## pominasia



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## bobforest

Pominasia

The timber looks great - congratulations on what looks like an interesting place.

In an earlier post you said you aimed to use timber from the original house(s). How much of the original were you able to use and did you have any problems getting new timber that matched the old stuff?

bobforest

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## pominasia

The garden area was filled and leveled with soil for a future lawn.

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## pominasia

The footpath slab around the house.  This was one of the final tasks for the Builder (handling bucket) under the Contract.

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## pominasia

SW corner of the house.  
The nearest room is the storeroom attached to the OSK.  The windows are from the old house.  The glass bricks are for additional light when the windows are closed.
There are four low wattage outside security lights (at each corner)
Note the vent to the toilet pipes extending into the skirt roof (in the concrete box).  I wonder if they put a screen over the end.
Since there are no gutters, a trench filled with stone will be constructed along the footpath (Roof overhang 1.2 m, footpath 1.0 m wide).  This will be a suck-it-and-see design.

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## pominasia

Door to the OSK.  The paved area is for washing stuff.

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## pominasia

New raised wall between the side neighbour

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## pominasia

New wall between the Sister's house - to keep their viscous dog attacking us.

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## slackula

Have to agree with all the other comments about the use of the wood, the place looks really nice.

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## pominasia

Upstairs double doors - way OTT but suit the stair structure.

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## pominasia

Sink drain.  This sort of workmanship is a joke.  A U-bend will be fitted later.

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## pominasia

Starting to move in.

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## pominasia

The living area with that column.
I will try putting a long sofa in the gap with the sunshine
We have satellite TV and TOT Hi-speed connections

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## pominasia

This is the last picture in this series.  It's been a helluva task.  AMA
The 1st meal - it was cooked next door

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## slackula

> Upstairs double doors - way OTT but suit the stair structure.


Bloody hell! 

Where's Black Rod?  :Smile:

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## nigelandjan

555 ^ I dont think he will get that one mate  :Smile: 

My misses is loving looking at the pics of the outdoor kitchen

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## Sailing into trouble

Well done marra! I can only hope it brings you joy and well being.

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## Loombucket

Looks fantastic! Those doors do look a bit over the top, but they compliment the high standard of workmanship that you have achieved, thoughout. That large open balcony is crying out for some sympathetic positioning of a few potted plants and some aromatic herbs. I hope you both have many happy years there.

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## armstrong

lovely house.   

please get an outside table nice enough to match the rest of the place!  my ocd is freaking out.  :rofl:

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## pominasia

> Pominasia
> 
> The timber looks great - congratulations on what looks like an interesting place.
> 
> In an earlier post you said you aimed to use timber from the original house(s). How much of the original were you able to use and did you have any problems getting new timber that matched the old stuff?
> 
> bobforest


Bob

Unfortunately there was not too much wood that we could use from the old house.  Most of it was too short or too thin.  So we ended up using old wood for the stairs, internal and external, the beams supporting the floor boards, and the short wood where we could, including for the slats under the eaves.  We did not want to mix the old wood with the new wood because of problems with matching colour and thickness.

The use of bought wood increased the cost by about 25 % - and destroyed the initial concept of the house !

Here is a picture of the pile of unused old wood.

Pominasia

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## pominasia



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## pominasia

Ok, here is a breakdown of the costs. 

Don't laugh, but I thought we could do it for around 1 million, but the 3 Variations soon shot down that idea.  Since the mounting costs will never end, the sheet shows costs up to February 2013.  At this time the house was substantially complete.  Additional costs are the A/C's, the landscaping (!), the walls, fridge, washing machine, furniture, etc.  The costs are recorded in a book kept by the Manager, so are accurate.

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## pominasia

Here is the schedule.

We started during the rains and took about 10 months to substantial completion.  The peak in July was due to the wood purchase and in December was the OSK.

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## Norton

You have wood under eaves similar to what I have. If you haven't already put screening above the wood. Bugs and other assorted critters will invade attic if no screening. I used a white 1 meter wide roll of vinyl screen material. Bought at Global House Roiet. Likely available near you. Easy to install.

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## bobforest

> Originally Posted by bobforest
> 
> 
> Pominasia
> 
> The timber looks great - congratulations on what looks like an interesting place.
> 
> In an earlier post you said you aimed to use timber from the original house(s). How much of the original were you able to use and did you have any problems getting new timber that matched the old stuff?
> 
> ...


Pom

Thanks for the reply. Considering the appearance of the old house(s) in your early photos, I admired your idea about recycling the timber but didn't see much that looked like it could be used. I scanned your photos of the new construction and again didn't see much evidence of recycling of the original wood. I thought maybe you'd abandonned that idea or got some local to scrub up the wood so that it fitted in with the new stuff.

It's looking great.

bobforest

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## pominasia

> You have wood under eaves similar to what I have. If you haven't already put screening above the wood. Bugs and other assorted critters will invade attic if no screening. I used a white 1 meter wide roll of vinyl screen material. Bought at Global House Roiet. Likely available near you. Easy to install.


Norton

Thanks for that tip.  I'll check.  I this was discussed.  I know the birds are already trying to invade the place.

Pominasia

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## Marmite the Dog

Is it against the law in Thailand to have level areas? Wouldn't it be safer & nicer if the washing area continued past the back door, so you missus doesn't break her neck one day?



I also realise I've been here far too long, as I also think some of the tiles look OK.

Fascinating project - thanks for sharing.

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## DrAndy

> Your misses don't look to happy looking at those stairs,


don't know why, they look good

and safe to use

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## pominasia

> Going to be a mansion at the end of the build mate.
> 
> Your misses don't look to happy looking at those stairs, hope you don't break a leg as you wont be going up there,  this is the only thing I have against 2 story houses.
> 
> My friend built one but thought about the future and installed a lift.
> 
> Cost him some nice money but well worth it if the shit hits the fan.


Terry 57

What concerns me as I get old and feeble, I may not be fit enough to climb those stairs, so there is a "spare room" and a toilet downstairs.   Also the place has walls and a gate in case I loose my mind and start wandering !!!

Pominasia

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## slackula

> Is it against the law in Thailand to have level areas?


Makes sense to have a gradient so water from wet things hung out to dry will run off no?

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## Marmite the Dog

> Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog
> 
> Is it against the law in Thailand to have level areas?
> 
> 
> Makes sense to have a gradient so water from wet things hung out to dry will run off no?


When you gain some comprehension skills, have another go.

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## DrAndy

> What concerns me as I get old and feeble, I may not be fit enough to climb those stairs,


when you get to that stage, it is time to think about offing yourself

I would hate to be so doddery and dependent on others

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## DrAndy

> Originally Posted by quimbian corholla
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog
> ...



they are all level, just not the same level!

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## VocalNeal

> The old house


Even If I hadn't been tipped off the car is a dead giveaway :kma:

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