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  1. #1
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    My Traditional Thai House

    Hi all,

    Having read some great posts with regards to building a house in Thailand, I thought I would share my experiences of building a traditional Thai house.

    We decided we wanted a traditional house constructed out of teak. We drew some plans on a piece of paper consisting of 2 double bedrooms 4x4 meters, bathroom 2x2 meters, living room/kitchen 10x4m and veranda 10x3m. In total 120sq meters. Showing the piece of paper one of the BIL in construction he said it would cost around 250,000 Bhat all in, so we decided to go ahead with the construction.



    The basic structure in place.

  2. #2
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    oxyjohn's Avatar
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    Wheres it located? What concessions are you having to modernity? ie air con etc. Look forward to the thread.

  3. #3
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    Interesting, will have a look at your next posts.

  4. #4
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    Damm I hate these trailers..get settled down to watch a good long thread and all we get is one pic. but you got me hooked and looking forward to more..price sounds pretty cheap for 120 sq.m teak..you BIL might get a bunch of customers from here

  5. #5
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    ChiangMai noon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Carnwadrick
    pretty cheap for 120 sq.m teak.
    very cheap indeed I reckon.

    I was surprised at the cost of timber, even the crappy stuff that we used on our house.

  6. #6
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    250k for 120sq m of teak house.
    Not possible!

  7. #7

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    dirtydog's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Carnwadrick
    price sounds pretty cheap for 120 sq.m teak
    What is quoted and what the price turns out to be can be two completely different things

  8. #8
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    oxyjon - the main bedroom will have air con and the bathroom will be modern with a power shower but the rest of the house is pretty simple. Even the kitchen which will be a work surface and a few cupboards and a sink with four stage water filter. The house is being built 10 minutes just outside wang nam yen.

    We went to the timber merchant to buy the wood for the main posts and the floor in total it came to 97,000. So my BIL's original quote has just been blown out the water, seeing as nearly half of it has gone already and that's just on the floor. I have a feeling he just made the cost up without knowing the cost of materials.

    On returning to pay for the rest of the wood the guys a the timber yard had a few cold beers waiting for me, which was nice but I also realised I had probably just paid over the odds for the wood. I asked the BIL about this but he said it was because we spent so much money, later that evening after a few beers he admitted that I probably paid 10-20% more than I should have.

    Lesson learnt in the future I will go with the wife to the construction yards show her what I like, then let her and her brother go without me to buy the materials.

  9. #9
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    The steel support for the roof now completed.


    From the back of the house.


    From the front of the house. All the rubble you see in the fore of the photo is for making the land level in front of the house. They are doing some road works just down the road and these trucks kept passing every hour or so. My wife stopped one and and convinced him to give us four truck loads at 400 bhat a truck. Is that a good price?

  10. #10
    ding ding ding
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ciaphas
    Is that a good price?
    It depends a little on the size of the truck, was it a 4 wheeler or a 10 wheeler but with fuel prices the way they are I think 400 is about right these days.

    Keep the photo's coming

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ciaphas
    My wife stopped one and and convinced him to give us four truck loads at 400 bhat a truck. Is that a good price?
    My wife just finished building up our home site with 200 truck loads at 180 Bht per truck..the area covered was 35 X 30 X 2 meters 2100 CM. quality of the dirt was good and came from a site just down the road , we then paid 30bht per load for the tractor to spread it out. Our home site is next to the river outside Rasi Salai about 50 k north/west of Si Sa Ket

  12. #12
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    ^
    Were only just down the road at Phon sai

  13. #13
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    Teakwood or any hardwood in Thailand is very expensive right now.

  14. #14
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    ^^ hello neighbor..I'm still in California (originally from Glasgow) but expect to build within the year and move out there.where you you from in Yorkshire?

  15. #15
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    Thanks for sharing Ciaphas, look forward to the pictorial of you adventure unfolding.

  16. #16
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    Spin - they were 10 wheelers, thanks for the reassurance

    Carn - thanks for the info. Good luck with your build hope to see your photos on TD

    HB - thanks for the info. Now considering not using teak for the walls as it will blow our budget.

    cimboc - thanks

  17. #17
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    Looking forward to seeing more posts on your house, hope I can steal some ideas from your experience

  18. #18
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    The roof goes on.





    When we went to buy the tiles for the roof I also picked up some insulating foil to go under the tiles. It was my understanding that it went directly under the tiles so therefore would have thought you would put this down before putting the tiles on top. I asked the BIL about this and he said don't worry it goes on later I don't think it does.

  19. #19
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    I just love those timber houses and admire anyone who is willing to build and take cares of one. We stayed in one as guests for a few nights and from that experience I would say that a major consideration is shrinkage of the cladding.

    There are some beautiful examples in the village, owned by policemen and a BKK businessman. Speaking for myself, I'm happy to admire their achievements and keep to concrete for my own place.

    Enjoy your project, Ciaphas.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ciaphas
    he said don't worry it goes on later I don't think it does.
    I think you're right. Be sure to get some pics of how they end up doing it.

    Nice thread. Keep it coming.

    I built a wood house on Saipan back in 1980 and it's still going strong....

  21. #21

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ciaphas
    don't worry it goes on later I don't think it does.
    Never seen it going on later although personally I think it would be better if it did, ie under the steel beams, but would be too much work and when time came to replace the roof tiles it would be a pig of a job

  22. #22
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    AND IT ALL GOES HORRIBLY WRONG!

    After continually talking to the wife telling her that what her brother was doing was wrong even showing her the side of the insulation roll that clearly demonstrates where you put the insulation. She went to talk to her brother about it, when a huge row kicked off. The BIL walked off for his daughter to turn up and gob off to the wife followed thirty minutes later by his wife. The wife told both of them to sling their hooks. I would like to have got photos for you of this new exciting development but I have learnt when the family row keep well out of it. So I watched from the sidelines as it all went on waiting for the wife to fill me in.

    What transpired is that the BIL had said if we wanted to have the insulation under the tiles in would cost us another 20k. My wife refused to pay telling him that we asked for it to be done before the tiles went on so it's not our fault. The niece and his wife turned up to tell the wife that we aren't paying him enough again the wife told them she wasn't interested in what they had to say.

    Later in the day the BIL returned and told us he would continue the build at the same price only to be dragged away by his wife one hour later. We had paid the BIL 35k in advance for the build so I spoke to the wife and told her I wanted half of the money we had paid him back (which was probably to generous if you ask me).

    More rows between the wife and BIL's wife and daughter. The wife managed to get 15k back which is better than nothing I suppose.

    So now the project is on hold while we try to find another builder.

  23. #23
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    More Volts Igor's Avatar
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    Sorry to hear it's all gone pear-shaped.

    We are avoiding using family members as contractors although my step-son will be our project manager, he lives next to the site and operates a restaurant so he's available to keep an eye on the bods when we're not there.

    Hope you get a new man soon and the BiL doesn't torch your house for making him lose face (and 15k)

    This forum has some of the best building threads going, keep it up

  24. #24
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    Found New Builder.

    So after the loss of the BIL on the build we searched around and found a new builder who would complete the job for 65k. By this point I was getting pissed off with the way things were going so quite happy we found him and he seems competent. When the new builder looked around the job so far he informed us that there was not enough support in the roof for the weight of the tiles so for two days they have been adding more steel supports. So that's another lesson learnt in the construction of my house, DO NOT let family build your house, I thought I was doing the BIL a favour and being nice by letting him build the house. Never again! After all the grief and family rows I can say with confidence it's not worth it.

    And so the build continues....











    The floor now taking shape care of the new builders...
    (sorry for the photos wife took them I think she was trying to be artistic)

  25. #25
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    It'll work out fine.

    Yes, never employ a family member. A SIL just about wrecked our business when she was left to take care of it. I bit my lip hard and left Mrs M with a few alternatives for solving the problem. I was surprised that she said after a couple of days that she had sacked her sister! I counted myself lucky not to have to force the issue.

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