My wife's siblings have been a real nightmare when working in our business, we either sacked them or they run away in the middle of the night after getting paid. Now we won't have anyone else from the village work for us.
For building it's been a different experience, we've used two uncles because the locals quoted us horrific problems and it was clear they'd rob us every step of the way. The uncles came down on short notice and have been there for a month. They've never asked how much we'd pay them, have been hardworking, taught me a lot and saved us a heaps.
My Mrs. wouldn't let her dad come down and help us, seems the more direct relations are the most difficult to deal with.
Nice looking wood. Keep the photos coming; even the "artistic" ones!Originally Posted by Ciaphas
Very happy to hear it. Keep the piccies coming.Originally Posted by Ciaphas
looks a nice place, but it is hardly traditional!!
a kitchen, steel roof etc
That floor looks great! You may have mentioned this already, but are you using new or recycled wood?
Are you still within the original 250K budget Cia?
The place looks great.
Dr A - point taken but it's still more traditional in style compared to the other building threads on this forum so think the header is warranted.
Qwerty - Unfortunately we brought new wood. We brought the wood for the floor with the BIL and I myself with little knowledge in the building trade thought nothing of it. But when the new builder started one of the first things he said was because we had new wood it would shrink over time leaving gaps in the floor and that we should have brought old wood. Another reason not to employ family members. We decided to carry on with the new wood and just live with it, with the idea of filling the gaps once the wood has settled.
Sabang - the budget seems to be spiraling out of control at the moment and I now think if we get the build in at around 600k we will be doing well. I think part of the problem was the BIL's guesstimate and me and the wife not doing enough research in the true cost of materials plus not considering the hidden extras.
Cost so far
BIL and workers 20K
New Builder and workers 65K
Teak beams and floor 92K
Steel and extras for roof 25K
Air con unit main bedroom 19K
More wood 57K
Roof tiles 32K
Lights/Plugs/Switches etc 31K
More stuff (sorry receipt in thai) 6K
Even more wood 36K
Stuff 75K
Something 10K
Another receipt 5K
Designer Tiles for bathroom 20K
Another 5 receipts on my desk for stuff 13K
Double teak door 12K
Wooden Window frames 3K
Breeze blocks for bathroom 3K
Total 524K
Sorry I can't be more specific on the receipts for stuff at the time of buying it was all things we needed like nails, flexiboard, paint, termite replant, walls etc
Well done Ciaphas, keep sharing the ups and the downs. Costs do have a nasty habbit of going out of controll but it is starting to look good. Best of luck and keep the pictures coming.
Things are now coming along nicely bar the spiraling costs.
This should have gone in the last post
This is the main support for the floor and as we discovered once the floor boards were laid there isn't enough support beams as in certain places the floor is very bouncy!
This will be the Veranda in the not too distant future.
The working hard under the beady eye of the MIL. The area between the two posts will be the main living area and in the top corner is one of the bedrooms.
More floor, no gaps at the moment but apparently the gaps will be around 2-3mm once the wood has settled.
The first wall begins this is a side wall with windows for bedroom and living room.
Front of the house.
Other side of the house. In my OP I said that we intended to build the house out of teak but after buying the teak for the floor and realising it would blow our budget if the entire house was made out of teak for the walls we decided to use Shera teak texture strip which saved us a great deal of money. It also has the added benefit of not being prone to weathering and termites like wood does, it also saved us money on paint!
More materials arrive.
These tend to add up....Originally Posted by Ciaphas
Nice looking place.
sorry about the bouncy floor, I suppose you can support it more somehow?
as for wood shrinking, even old wood seems to do that. Our floor was old wood from another house and was laid tight without any gaps. Three months later, there were small gaps appearing between the boards. Most of these will get filled with dirt when the floor gets washed though!
referring to your comment above, what is Shera texture stuff? is that the fibreglass board? I hope it doesn't disappoint you later
I have reported your post
^You may get used to the bounce. The house I built on Saipan had a twelve foot floor span. I used blocked 2X12's under 3/4" plywood.
I didn't get used to the bounce so added concrete piers in the center of each room. (Under the flood, natch!)
Shera wood is a joke! Sorta like a cement thin plank to look like wood.
My BKK home has a fence out of Shera wood. Never again!
Why?
Let's pretend that you are throwing empty beer cans at the top of the fence.
With Shera wood, it is easy to knock off the tops.
Been there, done that. Trust me on this one...
Last edited by hillbilly; 24-05-2008 at 06:07 PM.
Not structural then, I was thinking of using it as cladding 'coz it looks a bit like wood. Do you reckon it's viable if fastened over Q-con block?
EDIT finally persuaded the website to work MAHAPHANT shera and Ha Huang Non Asbestos and Fiber Cement Manufacturer looks like the stuff is really intended to be used as a decorative cladding, hope it works out for our OP.
Last edited by More Volts Igor; 24-05-2008 at 08:39 PM.
I used fiber cement board substitute for 1x6 wood siding on the rear wall of an 1845 frame house in Washington, DC, and am happy with it. It comes with an extremely long warranty and is impervious to termites, a big problem there. I tend not to toss beer cans at my walls so that's not a problem. If you expect people to be tossing beer cans at your house, use cinder block.
DrAndy - thanks for the advise on the gaps.
Buad - thanks for the advise on the bounce now thinking about adding a few more concrete posts will see how it goes for a few months living there before I decide.
Volts - Yes it's the concrete filled stuff and used like cladding, we had a look at a couple of houses in the local area that use it and looks pretty good and apparently lasts a long time.
Hillbilly - Thanks for the advise. (note to self do not throw beer cans at house)
Things have been coming on leaps and bounds since my last post, everything seems to be going well at the moment with no major surprises or upsets
Inside walls are now starting to go up this will be the main bedroom.
The bathroom walls starting to go up, all of a sudden it looks too small it's 2m x 2m.
The main living area.
The kitchen area and front door.
Another shot of the living room and main bedroom.
Better shot of the bathroom when I came to look at progress I discovered they had changed the layout of the bathroom from my design. I wanted the toilet and sink on the right and the shower on the left with the door to the left hand side as well. But after 30 minutes of discussion and lots of mime acting from the builder, I have to concluded the builders positioning of the bathroom furniture far better so well done him.
Going back a few posts remember the arguments and the BIL walking off the job over the insulation going in the roof. Well now it's going in the walls as it couldn't go in the roof as the roof was too far gone to install it. I can't see it doing much good in the walls but I'm past caring as far as the insulation goes.
The wiring starting to go in and it seems we have found a good electrician who understood that I wanted each room to be on a separate fuse and has installed an earth from the fusebox. An earth in all the sockets now that's another matter but I'm working on the principle that just having the fuse box earthed should be reasonably safe. If anyone can enlighten me on this I would be great full.
The main bedroom.
Some equipment, mainly computers, water heaters and white goods requires a grounded outlet for safe operation. Simply bringing the ground to the fuse box will have zero effect upon safety
I know it's heresy, but take a look at the DIY forum on Thaivisa (at least I can write the name of the forum in a thread without it being censored). For some unknown reason their electrical threads seem better subscribed than here. That said the building threads on TeakDoor are second to none
House looks great, as you say the bathroom does seem a tad on the miniscule size though, my missus would fill it with creams and soaps etc. wouldn't be room for my razor and smelly
Nice pictures Ciaphas. 2M X 2M is a little small for a bathroom, if you only have the one. At least it doesn't have a real bath in it, then you would have problems. If you want a decent earth, you need the third wire from every socket, or it's no bladdy good. Good report, keep it going.
Last edited by Loombucket; 04-06-2008 at 09:55 AM. Reason: Missed a bit
You can even post a link to relevant threads if you want.Originally Posted by More Volts Igor
This chap seems to have some sensible views on Thai wiring The Thailand Wiring Page
Last edited by More Volts Igor; 04-06-2008 at 11:23 AM.
Somtamslap asked for some pictures of my house so I thought I might as well finish of this thread at the same time. The rest of the build was pretty quick, with the new team doing a sterling job.
About a month and a half into build.
The bathroom looking good, perfect size for a sh*t, shower and shave in the morning.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)