#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Construction in Thailand >  >  > Building in Thailand Famous Threads >  >  Thailand House Build

## dirtydog

Well this house build is actually in Pattaya near my land, about a year  ago they added about 40cm of topsoil to raise the land, a lot of that  washed away during the rainy season, and a couple of weeks ago they  started the build.

The land area is around 20 meters by 20 meters, ie 100 farang wai, maybe  slightly bigger, the only problem I can see is there won't be a garden,  they have left about 1 meter down the sides and 2 meters at the front,  no off road parking here as the soi is too narrow so the parking bay  must be part of the house.

The land with the holes dug for the footings.



You can see they used a digger and didn't dig out by hand, got to admit  on seeing those holes I thought it was going to be a block of 3 story  shop houses, as this is a dead on Soi with the maximum potential of  another 5 houses being built and only 1 there at the moment it wouldn't  be a good place to open a business.



Anyway I caught them working today, it's going to be a single story  house, but a big one, think there is about 25 posts so thats going to be  a lot of rooms.



The footings supported on breeze block, pretty big area for a single  story house, got to assume the soil is soft here, you can see the 3 by 3  by 3 breeze blocks that have been used for the form work, each breeze  block is 40cm by 20 cm so the footing will be 120cm by 120cm.



Little spindly posts using 12mm steel for the uprights, they are going  to look pretty ugly once the building is complete, still, it is a Thai  area.



Completion is estimated at 3 and 1/2 months, doubt they have taken into  account Songkran in April in about 2 and 1/2 months, still we shall see  if they complete in time.

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## Norton

> Little spindly posts using 12mm steel for the uprights, they are going to look pretty ugly once the building is complete


Ugly and not very sturdy. Upright size about right for a wall. Hope they aren't planning much weight for roof materials.

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## hazz

stupid question, but I'm not a builder

assuming that they leave the breeze blocks holding the rebar above the ground in place when they poor the concrete, isn't water going to get in a rust the rebar rather quickly?  would this weaken the foundations? shouldn't they be using concrete supports to hold the rebar above the ground?

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## dirtydog

Structurally it won't make much difference as the footing is real big, although personally I wouldn't do it like that, rather have it held up by rebar rather than blocks taking up such a large area. Underneath the blocks is a thin layer of non reinforced concrete which is what the block form work is attached to.

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## nigelandjan

Looks like theyre building on good solid ground ( not )

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## dirtydog

Went past the site today, not a Thai workman in sight, hmmm, 3 1/2 months to finish, well not a good start, anyway it seems I under estimated the size of the building, it is 5 posts across and 9 posts deep, thats like the building will be 30 odd meters by 17 plus meters, pretty damn big.

This first photo shows how close it is to the left hand side wall, they aren't going to have much of a view on that side.



A picture from the left hand side showing the rest of the building plot.

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## Norton

The columns 4m spaced? They look much less.

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## dirtydog

I think 3.5 or slightly more, don't forget those holes are like 1.5 x 1.5 meters each.

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## CDNinKS

I am just at the same stage with my build. I am on virgin soil, no fill at all and we went down 1.2 meters.  My posts are all 16mm rebar and more steel at that. The ones in the pictures shown are very cheap charlie build.

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## dirtydog

^I assume your going 2 stories though?

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## ootai

dirtydog
In your Op you reckoned that the land was 20m x 20m and then you estimate that the building is about 30m x 17m are they trying to fit a a square peg in a round hole?

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## wazza

looks like they are building a single level block of rental bungalows

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## Bettyboo

Short time hotel for walk ins?

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## Norton

^Won't be successful. No space for curtained parking spots.

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## Bettyboo

^ If it's a bit lowso around DD's area, maybe they'll just have slots for motocycs...

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## CDNinKS

> ^I assume your going 2 stories though?


Single story and actually the architect specified 20mm rebar but my builder said that was overkill and 16 was sufficient.

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## dirtydog

You don't need 20mm rebar on a bungalow, I assume you kept hassling him about you wanting the house to be strong, if he suggested it himself he shouldn't be doing house plans.

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## CDNinKS

I didn't hassle him at all and the specs came from a certified structural engineer....... I agree it is a bit of overkill, but I would much sooner more than less.

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## CDNinKS

Speaking about rebar, what's the concensus on what is referred to as morgor (spelling) rebar? I am told by my building supply company that there are basically 3 grades of rebar available and it all has to do with how much it weighs per length.  The building supply said that morgor is only used on government or large condos/hotel projects. Virtually everyone uses the mid grade for residential construction.

Comments?

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## dirtydog

Do you mean the oily one with ridges? I've only ever used it on buildings 3 stories or more, wouldn't bother using it on a bungalow.

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## dirtydog

Well all the footings have been poured and they are now doing the concrete posts, seem to be saving on wood by doing a 1/3rd at a time, here's a post with formwork in place.



They seem to be straightening up the corners, not sure why as most of the post will be hidden in the dirt, maybe someone practising perhaps, also they are all at this strange height, ie around 30cms above what the ground level will be, perhaps the building is going to be raised off of the ground?



And another view from the far left handside of the land.

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## Tubtaywun

I have read ....everywhere... that when pouring concrete you pour in one go, with as few wet on dry joins as possible....if any.

How important is that?

Where is the best place to join?  If i poured my concrete floor and it dries then pour my posts there would be a join at the base of each post.

I know a good bit about building homes, but never used concrete as the load bearing structure...I could have done with some experience with concrete before I start my house.

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## dirtydog

> If i poured my concrete floor and it dries then pour my posts there would be a join at the base of each post.


Footings, beams, posts, brickwork, render, floor is the general order.

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## CDNinKS

> I have read ....everywhere... that when pouring concrete you pour in one go, with as few wet on dry joins as possible....if any.
> 
> How important is that?


This is what's referred to as a "cold joint". It is very important when pouring a horizontal load bearing beam or a floor slab as this will be a weak point. On a vertical load such as the main posts it is not so important. Concrete (properly mixed) is extremely strong in compression, not so much in tension, hence the requirement for rebar in any situation that the concrete may be subjected to tension (pulling) or bending loads.

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## CDNinKS

> Footings, beams, posts, brickwork, render, floor is the general order.


Should be: Footings, beams, posts, floor  is the general order. Brickwork and render come after the floor, especially in a 2 story house ;-)

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## Tubtaywun

> This is what's referred to as a "cold joint". It is very important when pouring a horizontal load bearing beam or a floor slab as this will be a weak point. On a vertical load such as the main posts it is not so important. Concrete (properly mixed) is extremely strong in compression, not so much in tension, hence the requirement for rebar in any situation that the concrete may be subjected to tension (pulling) or bending loads.


Thanks ..that makes sense. My head was melted...I could not comprehend how to pour a floor and the posts at the same time..as i said no experience with concrete.

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## dirtydog

Well I was back in the wilds of Jomtien and had to go into Pattaya so went the long way to stop off at the land and also to see how the house building was going, it turns out they will be 3 seperate houses, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms each, the builder reckons on 500,000baht each labour and materials, although he isn't using ant Q Con or insulation blocks, just ordinary blocks, he did say he was putting a proper roofup though.

This picture is from the back of the first house, pretty crap view for him and basically right next to the road.



This is the second house, they are just finishing up the form work for it, so it looks like a few months time we will get to see what a half million baht house looks like.

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## Mamasun

If the house is only for exemple 70 m2 ! it will be around 7000 Baths m2...not so cheap !

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## Troy

Something doesn't look quite right to me. I am more of a sparky than a builder but I did manage the building of my bungalow 12 years ago (in Isaan) and it's still looking good now.

The initial pictures showed some plant life around, which is not good. However, the worrying thing is the cross beams being too high above ground level. I would have expected them to be at ground level (the top of them) to ensure that any movement of one of the posts, due to soil movement, would not be in  isolation and cause severe tension in the beams and eventual fractures in the building walls.

As I say, I am only a sparky so expect someone to put me right on the purpose of these intial cross beams and there position in the photos shown.

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## dirtydog

Nothing wrong with a raised house with the ground beam off the ground, don't forget they put real big feet on this building.

I done the same for my garden wall, I aint buying dirt when previously I used to charge for dumping it for them  :Smile:

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## Troy

^ Thanks for the explanation...I didn't use such large post feet as the ones shown.

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## dirtydog

Nearly a month has passed and I haven't seen anyone working there, may delay the expected completion date of 3 months to finish a bit.

Photo from the front left of the land.



They have set up supports for the concrete plinths and thats about it  :Sad:

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## splitlid

> They have set up supports for the concrete plinths and thats about it


 
'plinth' ??- im sure they are there for the precast concrete planks. :Smile:

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## dirtydog

From wiki.

In architecture, a _plinth_ is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or *structure rests*.

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## Marmite the Dog

> In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests.


On the ground, yes. Not up in the air.

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## BKKBILL

Ouch! Also noticed the re-bar is getting a nice patina.

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## dirtydog

Well this thread started in January, they said 3 months to finish, it is now June and they are finally back on the job.

They got all the floors poured, this they mixed by hand, not really enough room to get a concrete lorry in there.

Here is one of the Thai workers just finishing the leveling of the concrete for the last bathroom.



Each house has 2 bathrooms, note the waste pipes are already in, also they are lower than the main floor so they are obviously expecting leaks  :Smile: 



The end house they are starting to weld up the steel work for the roof, joined all the upright concrete posts together with steel.



View from where the entrance to the house will be, to the left will be 2 bedrooms, 1 with ensuite bathroom, down the end on the right is another bathroom, far left is a small kitchen area. Living room seems a bit narrow.

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## dirtydog

The end house they are doing the block work, shame they didn't use qcon or some other type of insulating block, suppose it all comes down to how much the customer will pay.

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## dirtydog

Well the Thai workers seem to be zooming along now, well the welder at least, this picture is from the front left of the land, the 2 houses behind the steel work for the roofs are complete.



The far end house the roof tiles are going up, yeah they used the big horrible ones.



Walls and room divisions are nearly complete for the last house, this is the living room with bedrooms to the left, the kitchen at the back is quite big, shame the living room is so narrow.



Just a few more rows of blocks to finish the walls on this house.

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## nigelandjan

Christ no liner or insulation under those crappy tin tiles ,, hope they supply buckets + mops with the title deeds ,,,,, my SIL,s new home has just been roofed like that ,, allthough she had to go to the market for the buckets + mops  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

The Thai labourers have put in a hard week, probably about 10 of them so they have done well, the block work is up for 2 of the houses, roofs nearly complete on all 3 houses.



Rendering is about half done on the end house, the kitchens are quite big, still don't like the narrow living room though.



They are hiding the electric cables in the walls, albeit in grey conduit for some reason, obviously recessed plugs etc.



Fascia is going up and a tiny bit of roof ventilation.



Nothing better than sitting out on your porch all day and getting pissed as a sack, trouble is they are south facing, going to be a tad warm out there.



The house front doesn't look bad for what the houses are costing.

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## dirtydog

Now this suprised me, all 3 houses have/had that open air underneath section which I would imagine would be good for cooling, although with it being dirt would be a great place for snakes and poisonous insects to live, personally I would have concreted it and left it open, nice place for the family dogs to spend the day, but they are blocking it all in with breeze blocks/cinder blocks.

Beam work going in.



Breeze blocks and little red bricks to block it up.



The whole lot being rendered off so nobody would even know it was there.

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## nigelandjan

> Now this suprised me, all 3 houses have/had that open air underneath section which I would imagine would be good for cooling, although with it being dirt would be a great place for snakes and poisonous insects to live, personally I would have concreted it and left it open, nice place for the family dogs to spend the day, but they are blocking it all in with breeze blocks/cinder blocks.


       From what I have seen on other builds this indeed is the case , plenty of airflow ,, looks to me especially with the fresh looking wall foundation put in this is a last min change of plan either by the builder or by the client who has his name down for it.

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## dirtydog

Quite amazing where Thai's can sleep, the roofer is having a little nap.



Normally under the roof tiles you fit a plastic strip that goes with the curves of the roof tile, this is to stop birds getting in and making nests, a packet of these strips cost next to nothing, here they are cutting the board to the shape of the roof tiles, obviously have way too much spare time as noway on earth is it cheaper to do it this way, might look slightly better but nobody notices that sort of thing anyway.



Would you have noticed on the roofline?

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## English Noodles

> Quite amazing where Thai's can sleep, the roofer is having a little nap.


All three are.

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## dirtydog

A view of the back of the 3 houses, shame the wall is there otherwise they could have a nice view of a lake, with the houses so close to each other none of them really have a view of anything other than concrete walls.




The ceilings are going up, well at least the aluminum frame work is on the first house, this system doesn't take long, just flat ceilings though with no fancy bits.



Outside the are finishing off the front porch.



Down the side of the house also.

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## dirtydog

All the block work is up for the 3 houses and rendering nearly finished, just a bit to do on the last house.

First house plaster board ceilings are up and finished, no fancy lighting in these houses, ie just a light in the middle of the ceiling, and 2 in the living room, so now it's a quick single coat of paint to tidy them up and than the floor tiles and bathroom tiles can be layed, once they are done the electricians will probably come and finish their stuff and then the painters will be back to paint over the light switches, plugs and lights.

Still, they aint bad for what? 12k stirling?

Front porch area looks quite nice.



Living room still too narrow, 2 bedrooms to the left, far right is a bathroom, far middle is the entrance to the kitchen.





Main bedroom with en suite bathroom, note the cable for the single light, another 10k baht and they could do some real nice lighting, oh well.

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## nigelandjan

As you say for about £12k  not too bad at all if your happy with that kind of living arrangement

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## Mamasun

> Quite amazing where Thai's can sleep, the roofer is having a little nap.
> 
> 
> 
> Normally under the roof tiles you fit a plastic strip that goes with the curves of the roof tile, this is to stop birds getting in and making nests, a packet of these strips cost next to nothing, here they are cutting the board to the shape of the roof tiles, obviously have way too much spare time as noway on earth is it cheaper to do it this way, might look slightly better but nobody notices that sort of thing anyway.
> 
> 
> 
> Would you have noticed on the roofline?


Dirtydog How much is the plastic things for under the tiles (to stop the birds ) ? here they want 20 bahts for one ! thanck you

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## terry57

Thats $15,600 AUD.

Could near on go halves with a mate and use it as a crash pad.

Whats the deal on Farangs buying these places ? 

Cant do it Eh, as one can only own a condo.

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## dirtydog

> How much is the plastic things for under the tiles (to stop the birds ) ?


If I remember rightly they come in packs of 10 and cost around 60baht a pack.



> Whats the deal on Farangs buying these places ?


The price is for the house build, doesn't include the land, these are going to be for rent I think, not for sale.

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## Marmite the Dog

> Whats the deal on Farangs buying these places ?


You can put it in the Midget's name.  :Smile:

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## Bung

My builder put those little plastic shape things on the inside which I thought was a good idea.

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## dirtydog

Well judging by the colour scheme I shall take a wild guess and say a Thai chose the colours, still its quite bright and cheerful, of course it does make you wonder what shade of green they will use for the floor tiles  :Sad: 





Waste pipes ready to run into the cesspit, does the angle look wrong to you also?



Square cess pit, not sure what they will put inside there as everything is normally circular.

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## dirtydog

Have to admit they have done a good job for waste water for the houses, kitchen has its own soakaway for gray water, both bathrooms have a graywater soakaway and a cess pit outside them, won't be often they need a lorry to pump them clean, I assume the cess pits are connected to the soakaway next to them.



Kitchen waste soakaway above and bathroom cess pit and waste water soakaway below.

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## dirtydog

Well it seems they must read the forum as there has been a colour change, personally I think it looks quite ok, for somebody elses house anyway, wouldn't want mine like that, he's now doing the final painting touches to the 3rd building and next week will go back and refinish the first building, they all seem to be doing quite a good job considering the price of these buildings.

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## dirtydog

Thailand has some absolutely stunning tiles for sale at really good cheap prices, they also have tiles that you a normal farang wouldn't use even if they paid you, also marble and granite flooring is quite cheap in Thaland, but wood flooring is expensive all over the world, so lets stick down some fake tiles that bear a slight similarity to some sort of wood in some peoples minds, shame really, they are so similar to normal human beings then use these.



He is a good tiler though, done a real neat job, nice and clean site, he obviously doesn't get to choose the tiles the customer wants though.

The kitchen, well it has a sink.



The bathrooms remind me of 250baht per night guest houses in Bangsaen, not how I would do my bathrooms.

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## terry57

Its amazing at how cheaply they have build those houses, in Australia one would be lucky to buy a friggin caravan for the money laid out for those gaff's.

How much do they expect to rent them for approximately ?

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## dirtydog

Rental values i have no idea, I suppose between 5k and 10k per month, but Silk Road Place or Village is only a couple of hundred meters away, 3 bed house there cost 15 million baht, really not sure, my land is also there, I bought just under 2 rai for a couple of ping pong balls and a bag of rubber bands, I mean real cheap, a couple of years ago we asked the land office what the value was, seems the declared value, ie what they pay tax on in our land area has increased 5 fold in value, seems too good to be true don't it, so i really don't know.

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## terry57

^

You've had a win then DD, hope you can hold on to it.

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## dirtydog

Well the 3 houses are all finished  and don't look too bad, when you consider they cost 500,000baht each to build and are 2 bedroom 2 bathroom detached houses they may even be considered a bargain, of course there is the land value to be added to the cost.

They have raised the land a bit more.



Nice porch, sadly in full sunlight.



Still all in all the house looks ok.

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## ralphlsasser

> Well this house build is actually in Pattaya near my land, about a year ago they added about 40cm of topsoil to raise the land, a lot of that washed away during the rainy season, and a couple of weeks ago they started the build.
> 
> The land area is around 20 meters by 20 meters, ie 100 farang wai, maybe slightly bigger, the only problem I can see is there won't be a garden, they have left about 1 meter down the sides and 2 meters at the front, no off road parking here as the soi is too narrow so the parking bay must be part of the house.
> 
> The land with the holes dug for the footings.
> 
> 
> 
> You can see they used a digger and didn't dig out by hand, got to admit on seeing those holes I thought it was going to be a block of 3 story shop houses, as this is a dead on Soi with the maximum potential of another 5 houses being built and only 1 there at the moment it wouldn't be a good place to open a business.
> ...


The footers look wide enough, but not deep enough. Maybe I over killed on mine. My footers were 6ft. x 6 ft and 7 ft deep. It looks like in the picture they used #3 rebar for the columns and only 4 uprights per column. I used #6 rebar and 8 uprights per column. It looks like sandy soil. If that is the case, they're probably going to have problems with concrete cracking. I designed and drew my own plans and I've been accused of over kill many times, but I've never had any problems with any building I designed. Good luck.

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## DrAndy

^ overkill is fine for your own house, if it makes you sleep better

If you are building to make a profit obviously you would want to build within specs but not waste money

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## MrBoJangles

> Outside the are finishing off the front porch.
> 
> 
> 
> Down the side of the house also.


Is that just ordinary plasterboard or a external weather proof board?

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