Let's build a wall

[shunpike]

Excellent thread Loomy...who'd a thunk building a wall could be so captivating??

[Marmite the Dog]

I am happy with the result.

I'm sorry, but I wouldn't be. You'll regret not having the same sized steps when you break your bloody neck one day.

[BKKBILL]

After fifty some days an excellent wall build we end up with steps like this. For shame for shame.

[Loombucket]

You'll regret not having the same sized steps when you break your bloody neck one day.

This is true. The step up from the land is far too high and it needs something at the bottom to even it up. Also, some sort of anti-slip and a railing. I plan to have some sort of path down to the sala by the lake, at some point, so I will attempt to join the bottom step with the path. Failing that, I will knock the whole lot out and do it again myself.

......we end up with steps like this

Yes, it looked a little better when it was finished, but I seem to have lost that photograph.

[Loombucket]

The Electricians are comming!!! I would get excited, or engage my enthusiasm, a little more, but we've been hearing similar tales for ages. Today they do actually put in an apperance and start taking the fittings out of their boxes and putting them together.



The pretty one then goes around and drills holes for all the screws. Here he poses for the crowd, atop the arch.



Later he sits, for ages, and cleans his designer shoes.



The new guy was more annimated than the others. Nice shirt,



....shame about the standard. Are you going to solder that?



We are starting to look a little better buy the end of the day,




....but there was more shouting to come. The men wanted some more money because 'it looked like it was finished'.

After I had done with chuckling, I popped inside to check my face in the mirror, just to see if the words ' Fleece me', had started bleeding out from under the grease paint on my forehead. (No, still safe.) I really wanted to shout and throw things, but settled for something safer. "Tell him he have one week or he take us to court to get money", I intoned, with my cheesiest smile, and politely escorted them off the premises.

[Loombucket]

It's dragging on, so some degree of cleverness was required. We bung the Headman some cash. He invites a personal friend, who just happens to work for the Government, over for lunch and they both pop round to see 'the Farrang House'. We invite Wife and son of Mr.P to stay for the weekend. Wife is Daughter of BIL 2 and will be translating for her supper. Son has sweets, a movie and a Grandmother to keep him amused.

The Electricians arrive, followed by the metal man and his team. LoomB goes around the back way and locks them in. The Government man was pompus and arrogant, ate all my cheesy crackers, wanted 5k to have his photo taken, but well worth the hassle. He was looking forward to a return visit, having a drink or six and watching the lights being turned on. "Tomorrow", they all said.

Meanwhile, the metal crew have unloaded the railings and set up their paintshop in the dining room. They quietly sit and add some gold to the twiddly bits at the tops.



The Cowboys are running amok in the front garden. Finding the link wires,



...digging a trench,




....and regretting the fact that they didn't do it properly before the extra earth came.



Too lazy to dig a proper hole, Mr. P spends a long time with his head pressed against the brickwork, trying to wire the box.



Everyone else is threading wires. Along the front,



...and down the side.



It starts getting dark and the guys are starting to look hagard. Gone are the smiles and joking around. They need to dig a trench up to the house but they have no tools. The Headman helps us out again and furnishes a handfull of jods. By now it's pitch black.



Mr P stays the night but the others get sent home. Everyone is utterly knackered.

[Loombucket]

Here is our cable trench to the house. Not really deep enough, but we are having a path and some sort of plant arch here, eventually.



This is the power box for the waterfall pump and gate driver.



The metal crew turn up first and start laying the railings out. This one was a bit small.



Mr P. has summoned every available man. After some trouble with modern electric appliances, no sharp disk, no tools, broken wire etc, the pretty one (Boysie) starts a racket that awakens every dead thing in a 10Km radius.



This is followed by a less painfull din, from the power chipper.



Boysie digs a larger hole, so that he can get his butt in, but still ends up with his nose against the pillar as he wires up his box.



Meanwhile, round at the front, the metal crew are having great fun. Cutting bits of metal,



...drilling holes,



and trying to fit their stuff into the gaps provided.



Later, there is some welding. Note the full, Isaan style, safety equipment.



A bit of grinding to give the illusion of the required finnish,



A quick trot round with the paint pot and we have some railings, albeit with one panel missing.



Round the back, the template doesn't quite fit the arch but I suspect that it never will. It's going to be a wait and see thing.



Back at the side of the house, the Cowboys have got most of the wiring under control. This bladdy mess will be the junction box.



.....it took them ages.



This was a job for me to finish, as I didn't fancy the tripping hazard that they were making. I actually had to bodily stop them from tipping the left overs onto the flower bed.



It got dark and they all moved inside. A? came and sat, quietly, in the kitchen and waited for the money.

Switch on time!!!



Everything worked. I was amazed. We gave them all some rice, a beer and then threw them out. I recovered all the bits of cable, fittings and stuff from their pick-up, whilst they were eating. A? shook my hand, smiled and deposited a large bag of 'herbal bedroom preparation' on my sun chair.

It's going to be a cracking week-end.

[DrAndy]

I recovered all the bits of cable, fittings and stuff from their pick-up, whilst they were eating

neatly done

[davearn]

Great thread LoomB. Amazing how captivating a wall can be !

Cheers mate.

[Archer]

Hi Lom
Great pictures and great thread. I just have one thing to mention:

How many days was this wall building projected to last? (ie how many days are you behind schedule?)

The job was supposed to take fourty days. That included all the walls to 'being painted' standard, steps down to the rear archway and a runner beam for the gate. We have, so far, lost four full days, due to 'other work' and one whole and two half days due to rain. Not the end of the world and about the same as we lost during the start of the house build.

Are the wall finished after Day Seventy Six or will the (never ending) story continue. I am amazed that they can be so far behind. But TiT.

I'm not sure that I will show this thread to Mrs. Archer because I'm sure she would want a wall like this around our land.

Cheers
/Archer

[BKKBILL]

Loomb that’s a lot of work considering the sparkies wanted payment for a completed job days ago and that fence piece seems to be short only on one end.
As expected a great thread.

[Loombucket]

Are the wall finished after Day Seventy Six or will the (never ending) story continue. I am amazed that they can be so far behind. But TiT.

Um...yes, it was later explained to me that the original estimate of 'how many days', actually meant 'working days'. That is, days that the men worked. It didn't take into account rain, or days that the guys were busy on another job, or sulking because there was a miss-understanding of where the money was coming from. It is always a little difficult, when dealing with another culture, understanding exactly what part of the subject, they really understand.

Thanks for all the kind words, we are nearly there!

[Loombucket]

We are having an issue with the metal man. His railings are a bit wobbly. They can't actually fall out, but they are not rock solid either. His comment of 'this or nothing', was less than encouraging but I reckoned that he could do better if he expected to get paid.

We managed to find a local man to do the khaan (beam) for the runner for the gate. He wanted a little advice from the metal man, to ensure that the runner was in the right place. Metal man and Khaan man duly arrived, traded pencil marks and we were set. Headman then arrived (our previous bung still held good and he was round in a flash, with no mention of any more today). Metal man duly grovelled, promised and pushed off.



Time to get started. Everyone, it seemed, had had a go at the remaining metalwork. There was barely enough to finish the job, but by scouring the garden for all the old 'pillar rodding' pieces, we managed a complicated patchwork assembly that was a passable imitation of the real thing. Here we are leveling and tieing-in.



Stones were getting short, so we had to borrow some from the drive.



Right at the last minute, the drain sections arrived, and were incorporated into the project. This required a little more patchwork, but was undertaken without complaint.



Here is Khun Torn in action, with his better half at the mixing tank. The two lengths of timber were borrowed from the farm over the road.



They were soon joined by Torn junior so that Dad could concentrate on keeping a wet edge.



Here's the front view with both drains in place. They will look ok when they are painted in.



Khun Torn and familly did a pretty good job. They were done and dusted after about six hours, cleaned up behind them and refused beer and bonus. My job was simply to keep the traffic away untill it had gone off.

BIL 1: Move the stuff from the drive, I want to drive in!

LoomB: No, the cement is still wet.

BIL 1: I don't care!

LoomB: I know, that's why I'm not moving the stuff! etc etc.

[S Landreth]

BIL 1: Move the stuff from the drive, I want to drive in!

LoomB: No, the cement is still wet.

BIL 1: I don't care!

LoomB: I know, that's why I'm not moving the stuff! etc etc.

good for you

it's looking great

[helge]

Its been interessting to follow your thread.
One comment: Your raillings seems to be rested on the beam.
Would that give you problems with rust when you have the wall painted ? Discolored ?

[Loombucket]

....Your raillings seems to be rested on the beam.

Actually, they are welded to little pegs that were drilled/hammered/sunk into the masonary. Unfortunately, the pegs were not the same size as the holes. This is what caused them to wobble a bit. Later, they were retro fitted with proper expanding fittings and that cured that problem.

Would that give you problems with rust when you have the wall painted ?

I hope not. Everything metal was painted to within an inch of it's life, but one can never be sure.

[DrAndy]

lucky it is "just" a wall

although a super-wall

[slackula]

although a super-wall

And its construction has garnered 4,450 views so far!

Pretty impressive for a thread about a garden wall, hopefully Loombucket is going to build something else soon, I miss getting my fix of the daily updates.

[Loombucket]

hopefully Loombucket is going to build something else soon,

Thanks! The garden thread has gotten a bit left by the wayside, so I will be updating that. I was thinking of doing 'my home town' or 'something with Monks'. Not sure yet. Perhaps ' The Boy Scouts Guide to Pattaya' might go down well, although I haven't made it there yet.

[Loombucket]

The Metal men return to have another stab at fitting the missing panel.



This time it fits and the assistant is left to retro-fit the expanding fixings, whilst the Boss goes off to fetch the gate. After a while, he gets bored and starts adding the top to the bottom runner. It's an O section, to stop the gate from escaping.



I missed the unloading, but here it is being propped up by two handy extras. They stood for ages, while Metal man fiddled about, making bits he should have made in his workshop. The guy in red was desperately seeking a smoke.



A couple of hours later, it was safe to let go and the extras were rushed back to the safety of the workshop. Possibly to get a decent upper arm massage. The guy in the red added some twiddly bits,



....some lower supports,



.....and then carefully cleaned up and painted.



Later, when the Boss was still away, he very kindly repaired the field gate, that had been broken since the night of the party, nearly a year ago.



He even added a plate from the spares box. It looks a little out because the pillar was hit so hard it moved a bit.



My first thought was that the wheels were woefully inadequate, but in fact, they only needed a good oiling to get things moving.

[helge]

Hey Loom.
Did you consider having a gate with remote- control ?
If you had any thoughts or plan, I would be all ears, as I am somewhat tired of walking to the road closing the gate.

You know, you pad a dog, and he moves in with you
Actually have two dogs in the neigborhood, who opens the gate with their "snauz". And the crazy farang carries them out.
Record: Same dog 6 times 1 day. Bor sanook

[Loombucket]

Last Day!

Mr. Metal is so tight for money, he actually comes around with the garden gate. It's not actually finnished, but he build the rest of it in situ. He was in no mood to speak though.



That's Mrs. Metal in her guise as a miserable, don't mess with me, partner.



Later, as Metal man tries to make a Faberge egg out of a Buffalow's scrotum, partner and son have a go with the paint pot.



Handles, that we had seen over two months ago, were fitted and painted,



....and here is the garden gate in all it's glory. It's not fantastic, but it was his nineth attempt. It would have been cheaper for him to admit that he couldn't do it. But that would have been a serious face thing. Again, you won't find another like it.



Last, but not least, Lek from the village, added the extra gold flourishes to the handles,



....as the Metals had had enough of fallangs and their strange ways.




Now all we need is a decent coat of paint, or five. For reasons that we won't go into here, I don't have any pictures of the painted wall. When I do get some, I will bung them on the end.

Now, dear reader, our tale is done. I will leave you with a random sunset and post the breakdown in a few days. That's the cost breakdown, not the mental one. Cheers.

[hillbilly]

Great job. And your right, I have never seen an doorway arch like yours!

[BKKBILL]

I concur. Great job. Thanks for a very enjoyable story of a fence build. Now let get going on the garden.

[DrAndy]

bloody hell, 85 days and 150 posts, innumerable pics and an exhausted bloke

well done, what a wall