Thread: Building.... a "Teak House"in 20 days!

THE BACKGROUND: We returned to the North East on December 17th 2011......for a months holiday (Ha..Ha)....intending to have 2 metres (6 feet or so) of fill dumped and levelled on our land, to compact during the wet season and be ready for large house construction in November 2012 then have a holiday!. On the way to Sawang Daen Din we saw some "very Thai style"small wooden two story Teak houses under construction in a factory by highway 22. The construction company has built an average of one house per week for the last two years! We loved what we saw, and when we got the price for what we wanted, and were guaranteed completion on our slab in 20 days from deposit....we instantly made a momentous decision! To build the visitor's "Dolls House" The houses are made from 100% re-cycled Teak, with the company buying and demolishing old farm houses, removing all nails and bolts, then running the timbers through their saw mill to as new condition, except for a few indents and interesting marks on the main teak beams. We paid our deposit on December 22nd, and they delivered and completed the house by the 16th January!!On time...for the agreed price..... and I must say they are the most well organised builders I have ever worked with anywhere, with excellent planning and everything

Good start RR, looking forward to the pics.

have a look at the tutorial for posting pics here, in the newbies section

You will find it more difficult to put pics up here than the purchasing and building of your house rodger
When you get the pic up tell us the house costs please.

Delete "normal_" from the picture location url and you get it full size

You may note we are surrounded by "Gum Trees" 50 year old ones on the Golf Driving Range across the road and 3 year old blue gum growing everywhere ...as a good cash crop that's easier than growing rice!..(renewable rescource used for all sorts of temporary construction and chipped for hardwood pulp!)

Originally Posted by Thetyim

Delete "normal_" from the picture location url and you get it full size

maybe resize to 800 pixels first!

We will finish up with 4.5 meter X 4 metre upstairs bedroom with high arched teak ceiling, (about 3.2 meters) and teak polished floor, (very nicely done and finished by the builders!) The upstairs bedroom will have an ensuite bathroom with hot shower with sliding glass Doors (Quadrant with FG base) a hand basin, and "American Standard toilet suite, floor tiles over cement slab sheet on the bathroom floor, and either tiles or fibreglass sheet wall lining. (to be completed next trip back to the farm!) The downstairs room is approximately 7 meters long 4 meters wide with a somewhat low 2 .2 meter ceiling ( will try for longer posts if we build another!)with exposed stained beams.( stained and varnished very nicely by the Teak wood builder!) The floor will be tiled as will the downstairs bathroom. The downstairs bathroom will be tiled floor to ceiling. It also has a Quadrant Glass shower and HWS, Hand basin on the outside wall of the bathroom (by choice) and American Standard Toilet suite.(now commissioned but tiling not yet completed.
Otherwise a large capacity fibreglass Septic tank installed away from the house feeding to a large conventional Thai 4 section round concrete drain sump surrounded by gravel and slotted drainage . I have installed a 70 amp underground power service, with earth leakage circuit breakers to Western standards, a down hole bore pump, ..a water storage tank....followed by a filter system and automatic pressure pump, feeding garden taps and house services. The pumps and all services are either underground, in concrete or locked up!! To keep cost low I purchased all materials except the Teak wooden section (everything haggled over to (often to the stage of embarrassment) by my very tough wife! All plumbing fixtures toilets, showers basins pumps etcetera were purchased from the incredible variety of goods available at the monster Home MAker stores in Udon Thani.
THE COSTS: Roughly with all materials except the airconditioners (still to come and be installed, and upstairs wall lining, and light fittings) about $22,000 USD total all up (which my Thai wife say's is way to expensive!!!!...).but hey you must be there for every phase of work, and have lots of building experience (as I have) or you will not get anything like what you plan.... and it will cost lots more ...and probably fall down around your ears in 12 months or so...If you want "quick" it must cost a bit more. And we were really lucky that no direct family nmembers wanted to work for us...that was a big saving..expect to buy some Leo at the end of long hot days!

In Australia it would have cost $22,000 for plans and local governement application charges...and after 3 months we would still be waiting for "planning approval" not ready to move in!!!!
Even here there were lots of compromises for me..diffent ways of doing things...but the builder who dug the foundations and poured them and did much of the work under my supervision..paid me the compliment of saying..."you are the builder I am the apprentice and have learnt a lot!!! " I must praise the "Teak House Building Company" they were the best most organised builders I have ever worked with anywhere..They were on time on budget, did good workmanship, and finished the wood section beyond our best expectations. The wooden structure ....which is all they build, (eg, no electrics,foundations, slab, plumbing or services) cost erected on our slab about $9,000 USD, and in my opinion was excellent value for money. I would comment that these Teak houses are a bit flimsy for the extreme wet season weather (storms etc) which is the reason we chose to brick the under-story and greatly stiffen and strengthen the structure.,,,SO no Holiday....just work from daylight to after dark ...but now we have accomodation for Songkran!!

Originally Posted by Roger Ramjet

THE COSTS: Roughly with all materials except the airconditioners (still to come and be installed, and upstairs wall lining, and light fittings) about $22,000 USD total all up (which my Thai wife say's is way to expensive!!!!...)

The wife is right. That's 200,000THB pad.

Roger, your place looks great. Where exactly is that factory located?

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

I think Marmite is being a tad harsh

Only had 3 years of research into local building methods and costs before we started on our place.

^ but you're a bottom end kinda guy; this Aussie fellow is paying top-dollar for top-end stuff. Not really like-for-like, mate. Similar-for-similar...