Thread: A beginners Build in Thailand

Driveway concrete contractor's "Mobil Mix Truck," in operation. About 2 cu. meters per mix. Look at that truck! Looks like its been through two world wars and back again. This contractor was from Chiang Rai and usually does massive laydown pads for rice brokers and other commercial projects. The wife and I saw him doing one locally and we contacted him and he agreed to come do our bit of work.

We're starting to get busy. Contractors trucks fill the driveway now. I'm skipping ahead a bit, but I think this is good filler stuff. As you can see the distance from the main house to the road in front. This will be paved up to the house and then over to the car park. Rain has come again.

Second driveway pour complete.

Pour out from Mobil Mix Truck. Nice way to do this work if you've got lots of help in a restricted area. Took a total of three days to complete.

Finished up to main road. This is good stuff. You can actually measure the progress.

Floating the surface finish. This is the view from the roadway to the house. Note the section left unpoured. There is two construction joints at both cold joints in this location. This allows for expansion and contraction of other two sections. Total additional cost to me as this was not part of the original house build contract and the GC for the house build had nothing to do with this aspect, was 115,000 baht all in.

This incident happened right in front of us when we were finishing off the driveway. The tractor was hauling a rice combine on the trailer and couldn't break to slow down as the load was to great for the tractor and the load got away from him, jack knifed the trailer and overturned the tractor. Tractor caught on fire for a while and burnt up the engine components. Driver got safely out.

Combine was off loaded from the trailer and moved away from accident. You can see the steepness of the road.

As you can see, a pretty substantial load for a common farm tractor. I bet he won't do that again!

Driver attaching a cable to up right the tractor. the fat one is the owner. Bet you couldn't guess that.

All poured out and only finishing to go and tomorrow remove forms. Well done!

Tractor up-righted by the combine and all is well in Ban Doi once more. Another afternoons entertainment provided by the foreigners build. Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring?

Originally Posted by ltnt

I bet he won't do that again!

555 I wouldn't like to bet against it , when it comes to the cost of moving it properly on a lorry low loader .

Great pics BTW enjoying it all keep em coming


Will you eventually be having this plot all fenced in with gates ?

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

Will you eventually be having this plot all fenced in with gates ?

For now its as fenced in as its going to get Nig'l, but the gate aspect will be forthcoming...I wouldn't bet on it either...

Originally Posted by ltnt

What I will say is that almost every night the structural steel in the roof beams creaks or bongs due to expansion and contraction due to temperature changes. I never figured on that one.

Do aluminium sheets expand and contract like that ?

Wondering for my own purposes.


Wasp

Originally Posted by Wasp

Do aluminium sheets expand and contract like that ?

Yes. Did you use them in a roofing application? My car park has rolled aluminum sheets and they bang away almost all day long.

Well CRP rings in place. this becomes a pretty elaborate install later on as pump and house cover are added.

Typical lattice work for hanging sheet rock or ceiling tiles.

Lattice work for sheet rock. Looking up you see the main roof truss and tiles from underside in place. This is the Living Room ceiling. Pretty Typical of all this type of work.

Partially completed ceiling panels for exterior veranda. Same type of lattice work just dimensionally tighter. This was my very best contractor. He also did my windows and doors.

This is beyond what was called for. He put this molding/flashing around every contact point between the ceilings and the walls. then spread silicone sealer on every joint even the cracks between ceiling panels. We almost shed tears on the end of the job for him and his crew.

Pre-manufactured vents in ceiling panels. These are the transition from the sealed exterior panels under the eves all the way around the house.

Finished veranda ceiling. See the pre-run electrical for lights? Floor tile in place as well. Look at the size of the windows and doors. Also take note of the height above the ground. As well take care there's no handrails...yet. A lot to see in this picture so take your time. Exterior electrical wire for switches. I did not want to cut out my red brick for conduit and the patch it. I also wanted easy access to the wire should I need to trouble shoot in the future.

Ornamental molding around the columns. Note the columns are full of concrete to the brim. Did the exterior windows as well. ou can see the white primer coat on the column. Still lots of bricks left.

Kitchen counter and work area being formed and poured. Note look at the windows to be.