The construction of Ms. Buad hai's house

[Dougal]

The weight is cantilevered out from the bottom hinge, the majority of the weight is then trying to rotate the weight out & down from the top hinge using the bottom most hinge as pivot point, the force on the bottom hinge is in & down. Heavy doors will attempt to pull the hinge free of the jamb and if the attachment is strong enough may deform the upper hinge. Ultimately the top hinge assembly could fail or at least make the door difficult to open/close or the latch mechanism to be misaligned.

I agree but there is also an inner rotation at the bottom pivoted around the top hinge. The big difference of course is that at the top the rotation is pulling the door away from the jamb and at the bottom it is pushing it into it. The distortion effect on the two hinge pieces should be equal but the screws on the bottom hinge plate are almost unneccesary.

Older Thai houses used to use doors that bi-folded upon themselves to open the entire front of the house. The outward stresses on the top hinges must have been considerably greater than on a more conventional 200*80 door and 4 or more hinges would have been essential - and I'm sure that hinges with bearings where far less common then than now.

For a normal door I expect that two hinges would be adequate but I suspect that there is an element of 'it's always been done this way and so why change'. Anyway labour is cheap and hinges aren't exactly costing the earth so I'm fitting four hinges too.

[friscofrankie]

I deleted a paragraph where I mentioned that newer methods and materials probably preclude teh need for the additional hinge, but this being where we are, the comment would have little or no bearing in any discussion with a thai contractor

[Anonymous Coward]

the comment would have little or no bearing in any discussion with a thai contractor

But, could you convince Dougal?

[friscofrankie]

For a normal door I expect that two hinges would be adequate but I suspect that there is an element of 'it's always been done this way and so why change'. Anyway labour is cheap and hinges aren't exactly costing the earth so I'm fitting four hinges too

Doubtful.
He'll be dealing with a Thai contractor I imagine. The weakest point is usually the attachment (Wood Screws?) and the extra hinge will help 'specially if they use something like 1/2" #8 screws, or smaller.

[Dougal]

but this being where we are, the comment would have little or no bearing in any discussion with a thai contractor

Absolutely! The potential benefits obtained against the costs measured in terms of my sanity simply don't make it worthwhile.

[Anonymous Coward]

The potential benefits obtained against the costs measured in terms of my sanity simply don't make it worthwhile.

The voice of a man with experience....

[Anonymous Coward]

Not much going on during the holiday weekend. When I went by today there were about a dozen workers plus the architect at the house with the cave-like kitchen. Work on this house has been accelerated lately and we figure they've paid to have it done quickly. Odd thing is, there's no power or water yet, so what's the use paying tea money to get the house done when you can't realistically occupy it?

Anyway, landscaping the entrance seems to be done and looks OK if you like Thai-style formal gardens. Frankly, I don't, and you won't see this sort of stuff in our yard:



A couple of the coconut palms in the background (behind the guard shack) blew down in the severe storm we had on Saturday. Back up today though.

[Spin]

and the extra hinge will help 'specially if they use something like 1/2" #8 screws, or smaller.

Well, that depends if said screws are driven in by rotation of the clockwise direction or driven in by the linear direction with a fokin big hammer!

[Anonymous Coward]

The money to pay for this house has been in a US bank account jointly owned by Ms. AC and me. Since my bank doesn't do foreign wire transfers we decided to have them send a check. We'd done this before and it worked well.... Bangkok Bank says it takes up to 45 days. Last time it took us about 20. This is fine. We won't actually need it until the end of March.

Interesting development: Based on my online bank statement the check cleared on February 27th. The money was withdrawn from my account on that date showing that the check was paid. I got an online copy of the check showing it was paid to Bangkok Bank. But, Bangkok Bank still hasn't put the money in the local account.

Ms. AC called them today and asked why not. They tried to explain that the money really hadn't been taken out of our US account. What BS. Bangkok Bank has the money, has full use of it, but still hasn't credited our account with it.

Is this sort of rip-off standard practice? I guess we'll march in there with the proof they have the money and see what the local bank manager has to say.

[breezer1]

ALL banks like to hold onto money they can put it on the overnite market and gain interest for the bank ,the bank managers only doing his job .

[El Gibbon]

Bangkok Bank is notorious for this. Many many times I've heard the same story.

I was going to Direct Deposit a monthly check into Bangkok Bank, but, was told that the money would NOT be available until it "cleared"... Flock them a Direct Deposit i.e. money into an account requires no clearing.

Bunch of bastards..... they get the free use of the money for x days on the international Money Market without having to spend a dime.

Sadly BB is the only Thai bank that has a direct deposit facility from the US....

Flock em I'll continue to use my CC.

One of these days the banking system in Thailand will get upgraded. But, only when a major international player forces the issue. One bright note is G E Finance taking a major position (40+%?) in Bank of Authaya. Maybe this will force the issue.

Until then we are stuck with substandard banking...

Oh, yeah one other caveat was that I can only open the DD account in the Bangkok main office. They would issue a "check card" but then I would pay a "fee" if I took money from any other branch... flockers!

E. G.

[Marmite the Dog]

Until then we are stuck with substandard banking...

Still better than UK banking. Even a cash deposit takes days to clear. It's all Dougal's fault btw...

[friscofrankie]

One bright note is G E Finance taking a major position (40+%?) in Bank of Authaya. Maybe this will force the issue.

C'mon man do you really think it's the banks stellar performance and NOT banking regulations that dictate the timeliness of transactions?

I can see it all now; Banker gets money, thinks, " Hmmm, I could take this money and use it, along with thousands of other transactions with generous (or none) time limits on them, to pad out our lucrative speculation in the international money market for a week or three without any interest costs whatsoever. Hell there may even some additional costs I can tack on while I'm at it!"

"NAH, I'm a nice guy. I wouldn't take advantage of my customers that way, here let's put in his account right away and do it for free since he is allowing us to use his money."

[DrAndy]

^ The explanation of the weight on the hinge is not something which is logical to me.
The weight of a door will be split evenly on all of its hinges.

Same here....

The weight is cantilevered out from the bottom hinge, the majority of the weight is then trying to rotate the weight out & down from the top hinge using the bottom most hinge as pivot point, the force on the bottom hinge is in & down. Heavy doors will attempt to pull the hinge free of the jamb and if the attachment is strong enough may deform the upper hinge.

Ultimately the top hinge assembly could fail or at least make the door difficult to open/close or the latch mechanism to be misaligned. I have this problem where I live now I have a solid teak & rosewood door hung without doubled hinges.

I knew you would not be able to resist that one FF

[ceburat]

Will you have a/c? If so will it be solar?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is how they finished up (mostly) the moo baan entrance.


These supports are what the dry wall (gypsum board) for the ceiling will be fastened to.


View from the back.


I was surprised to see they actually use conduit, flex and metal junction boxes.


As of March 19th the roof was almost done....

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's how the front porch looks with the door and windows installed.


As of March 30th the roof was still "amost done".


This is the side yard will the pond will go. We told them no jalousie windows but they put this one in anyway. Note the guy on the roof finally finishing it.


We'll put some fruit trees in this side yard. Note the massive house going in behind us.


This is the view our neighbor has of our back yard from their master bedroom.


This is their view of our side yard. Don't be fooled by the soil. The dumped a bunch of construction garbage, spread it out and then put a thin layer of topsoil on top. Ms. AC is determined to get them to remove the junk. Good luck.


They started the ceiling on April 2nd.

We had a look at the lighting fixtures they planned to instal. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. So, we decided to buy our own. I went to Home Pro and out of the hundreds of fixtures they have on display there was not a one I'd put in my own house. Ditto for Home Mart. We went to an interesting shop in downtown Korat this morning and bought nine fixtures that I actually like. Some are actually made out of real wood and glass. The total price for all nine? About 6K baht.

[William]

^it's looking nice mate. Is Mrs. AC happy with things?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks William.

I think both of us are pretty happy with the place. It gets about 7 or 8 out of 10. Where we're both unhappy is with the specific instructions they've ignored:

- No glass brick in the bedroom, put it in the bathrooms instead
- Put some vents in the roof peaks
- No color or shiny finish on the wood
- No glass jalousie windows
- Add some extra outdoor electrical outlets
- Don't use as soil the construction debris you've dumped there

None of it is major; just irritating. I believe Ms. AC is starting to feel a bit of lost face. I'm still waiting to see if it's graeng jai all the way or a Chinese firecracker blowup.

[ChiangMai noon]

- Don't use as soil the construction debris you've dumped there

that's a big one.
took months of complaining for us to get some proper stuff thrown down.

[William]

^you guys are lucky - I had truck my own stuff in

ps - and I probably shouldn't say this: but it looks like it has plenty of room for a little one to crawl around in .

[blackgang]

Looks very nice A/C, but I know how hard it is to get done what you asked for, I even stood right there all day and watched and made em do it right, but if you go to pee then it will be screwed.
I did get them to put peak vents in my roof and I hade up some of those turbo vent things to fit on and it works swell, will take some pics someday if I get off my ass and do it.
But you do have a house to be proud of as far as I can see.

[Marmite the Dog]

I was talking to a friend over the weekend who has just built a lovely house. He said that he had to physically restrain the 'builders' from fucking up most of the time.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished piccies of the house.

[jumbo]

It house is looking fine AC how long before you move in. My wife and I are at about the same stage that you are. My return in two weeks will see the doors and windows fitted and tileing started. I could not help notice one of the pics with plastic bags on the ground, why are some people so untidy, we have been on the plot picking up rubbish every day and workers will follow behind dropping food containers and plastic bags, it make me want to screem.

[dickie]

I was talking to a friend over the weekend who has just built a lovely house. He said that he had to physically restrain the 'builders' from fucking up most of the time.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished piccies of the house.

Totally agree Marmite, that why I try to offer my service, but as usual most people want me to work for nothing, dream on!!!

Builders Thai or Farang need to be kept an eye on a regular basis, otherwise a disaster is waiting to happen?

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