Land development with wall and house...photo thread..first effort.

[Wasp]

You've had many compliments about your thread - and I can only agree with them all . I too am greatly enjoying the story . I want to add something .... you take a fine photo ! Beautifully clear and well framed with no shots that are uninteresting . Great stuff in other words .

On a separate issue would you explain the "greens" ? I don't know what that means when you thank people for a green . But a fine thread . One of the better building threads .


Wasp
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Thank you Mr Wasp.... my photos have improved greatly since the wife allowed me to upgrade from my thousand baht camera...

"Greens" are those little tokens of approval (reds for disapproval) that we TD'ers send each other when we really like or dislike what somebody has posted. We call it "repo" ....or reputation if you like.

If you have three minutes to tell me how to send a green I'll happily send my first to your thread . I don't want really to ask what camera you are using as I relapse into unconsciousness when people talk about F stops and Apertures ..... but it's pretty clear that this is NOT a 1000 Baht piece of Cack ! I'll say again --- a very good thread and you're clearly appreciating that crew you have working for you .


Wasp

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[gusG]

^ Look to the left of your post, just under where your signature is, and you will see a set of scales.

Give it a click.

[bankao dreamer]

Have you emptied every Thai building site of workers who know what they are doing ? Everywhere else must be going to pot.

[koman]

Now that Christmas has come and gone for another year....not that anyone around here noticed except me.....we can once again get on with the photos.

In the last set I showed the rebar cages being placed and the plywood forms being fitted.



When finished we ended up with this maze of plywood covered rebar cages....ready for the concrete pour.....which unfortunately I missed because I had to leave the site for a few hours and these inconsiderate bastards went and filled the forms without me....I should probably fire the lot of them... anybody need a building crew??...



Once the cement has hardened, the knock off the plywood forms and you get these delightful reinforced concrete beams which I am told are very good for building walls on. ....and they have taken the liberty of installing some plumbing underneath...

.

There's another view of the concrete beams...and they have started forming up the vertical steel pillars so they can have a dose of cement too....



...another shot of the process from another angle.....




When the forms have been filled and the cement set....off comes the wooden boxes and you get these nice reinforced pillars. They are wrapped in plastic sheeting to stop the cement from drying out too quickly... can't be too careful with your pillars....they hold up the roof...




...more of the same....different angle.



Over in the fabrication department they are hard at work making up the steel mesh for the floor cement pouring which I actually managed to photograph.....powerful and exiting stuff...don't miss it.



...and in the midst of all this activity, the termite control man shows up with his black hose. This is to be a designated termite free zone..... I don't like termites.




Here's a close up showing the termite control tubing in place.....and a bit of drain pipe too... gotta have drains...



This is what the whole thing looked like with all the wooden forms removed. The pillars of the earth have risen. We will soon be ready for the flooring slabs...concrete pouring and other exiting things.....

[charleyboy]

Nice thread Koman. Could you please explain to me how these termite tubes work.

[koman]

Nice thread Koman. Could you please explain to me how these termite tubes work.

They inject a chemical termite killer into the system under pressure. The tubes distribute the chemical throughout the area and all the little termites go belly up.

The company that installed this system uses a product from Australia which is pretty much odourless and guaranteed not to kill the human occupants of the house......which I thought was an excellent selling point....

[nigelandjan]

Great pics again KM mate, , looks all nice and solid down below mate

[Bettyboo]

This is gonna be a big place; 2 floors, 350 sqM Koman?

Excellent workwomanship again.

[Wasp]

^ Look to the left of your post, just under where your signature is, and you will see a set of scales.

Give it a click.

I still don't get this - but it's not of Life and Death importance . I clicked on the scales . Made a nice comment . And that's it ! I don't see anything has happened . Are those green blocks under the name all part of it ? But as I say - not vastly important and I'm still seeing top notch photos .


Wasp

[koman]

This is gonna be a big place; 2 floors, 350 sqM Koman?

Excellent workwomanship again.

No BB.....1 (one) floor, and 250 m2..... it's not that big....but for two people, a couple of dogs and one supercilious cat....I think it will be quite adequate....

The house we are building is very much like the one we lived in for three years in KK. We spent a great deal of time looking for a house we really liked,,,,,must have looked at hundreds of the bloody things...but none ever inspired us to buy. Then we were shown a nice little one storey place at the end of a quiet soi....quiet; no traffic and a very nice interior layout. We bought it and fixed it up with a few goodies to make it feel like home.

We really like it. It was a really nice house, and a nice place to live, but over the three years we lived there, some of the neighbours changed from really nice to barely tolerable and they starting building all kinds of big farang type houses around the place and shut out our views.....so we sold it and moved out of town. It was very easy to sell and we had numerous offers before accepting one from a couple of very nice Thai teachers...who could actually come up with the money..

Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel or make a better mouse trap, we decided to just build a very similar house, only quite a bit bigger and built to a higher standard. (the KK house was 100 m2...the new one is 250 m2) It only has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms....but all the rooms are nice and spacious and the place has been designed to have lots of light and cross ventilation....as well as a big south facing roof area, which will accommodate a bunch of solar panels later on.

My project manager did all the design work and made a few very sensible modifications. We had to change the roof quite a bit because of the much larger living area and the addition of a couple of good sized porches....

I've owned and lived in a good many houses over the years. (in several different countries) You get to know what works for you and what does not. I'm well past the experimental stage now....and am quite happy to build something which is well proven and totally suitable for my circumstances and budget, instead of just trying to have the biggest and most pretentious building in the region. I looked at so many big farang houses that had absolutely no appeal whatsoever....just big cavernous, soulless monstrosities that required a lot of cleaning and maintenance without providing any ambiance or comforts. Everyone of course has their own tastes and I suppose for some people these places are just the ticket....but not for us.

Next, I'll be posting pics of the big floor building event complete with lots of wet gooey cement photo's......

[koman]

^ Look to the left of your post, just under where your signature is, and you will see a set of scales.

Give it a click.

I still don't get this - but it's not of Life and Death importance . I clicked on the scales . Made a nice comment . And that's it ! I don't see anything has happened . Are those green blocks under the name all part of it ? But as I say - not vastly important and I'm still seeing top notch photos .


Wasp

Thank you Wasp, much appreciated....your green came through just fine. You are now a graduate of the TD school of greening...

[Marmite the Dog]

I've owned and lived in a good many houses over the years. (in several different countries) You get to know what works for you and what does not. I'm well past the experimental stage now....and am quite happy to build something which is well proven and totally suitable for my circumstances and budget, instead of just trying to have the biggest and most pretentious building in the region. I looked at so many big farang houses that had absolutely no appeal whatsoever....just big cavernous, soulless monstrosities that required a lot of cleaning and maintenance without providing any ambiance or comforts. Everyone of course has their own tastes and I suppose for some people these places are just the ticket....but not for us.

Well said.

before accepting one from a couple of very nice Thai teachers...who could actually come up with the money..

Thai banks will loan those bottom feeders anything.

[koman]

I'm having troubles uploading to Photobucket today....nearly all the photos failed.. so I will just go with what I've got and try to post the promised wet cement photos later.

The wooden forms are all removed and the footing walls are not ready to receive a load of big preformed slabs....these will from the foundation for the floors

.

So here come the slabs. They have been manufactured at a local plant to the measurments and specs provided by "Jeeves" my designer, engineer, project manager. He tells me that they are designed to handle up to 450 Kgs per m2....




There they go...the first load is in the air.......



Under the watchful eye of the delivery supervisor the slabs are lowered carefully down between the pillars. Judging by the assembled crowd, this is a popular event. We can only hope those chains don't break, otherwise we may have a flat Thai or two....



The slabs are manhandled into position as they come down. They have to be made to measure because obviously all houses are not the same size....as the more astute TD readers will know....



Down they go...and thankfully they fit. These slabs will have a thick layer of readymix cement poured over them later on. The combination will make a floor capable of handling a bulldozer or in necessary a couple of Challenger tanks....which will be part of our defence system...as recommended by Bettyboo.....



With all the slabs in place, we can now start laying the steel mesh over which the layer of readymix concrete will be poured.



Here is the steel mesh in position over a different kind of base. This is hard packed sand over gravel...which is used in porch areas or areas where the loading in minimal and therefore has less robust foundations underneath.

You can see the little concrete spacers they make up to keep the mesh clear of the base. The mesh is supposed to end up inside the concrete layer...not stuck to the bottom..

Unfortunately that's it for this session. I had tried to upload some really good photos but they failed several times and my connection is working at glacial speed....

[koman]

My speed has soared tenfold, so here goes with a few more photos of the flooring mesh and stuff.....



Here you can see the two different types of flooring base over which we will pour the readymix....



...another view of the same thing...two floor levels with totally different bases....one of concrete slab, and the other of compacted sand over crushed rock.



...and there's the crushing guy himself. This machine is very heavy and vibrates a high speed causing the sand to compact down very hard and ready for a good dose of cement. I have no idea what operating this thing would do to your nervous system over time.. but it does a great nob of packing down sand or dirt...



Meanwhile, the rice harvest goes on without any regard whatsoever for my building efforts....



...a village elder enjoys his early morning smoke by his roadside fire....




...and my wife carries on with her plant watering no matter what....this type of.house building is for farangs...

[Wasp]

Must disagree with one little thing , Koman . I think 250m2 is VAST !!! I like it a lot and I would like it for myself too . But it's simply huge ! A friend in Pattaya has a house I thought was a lovely size ..... spacious and giving you a chance to breathe without walking into someone . Terrific - and it's 144 m2 . So I do think 250 is enormous . But enviable too .


Wasp

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[Bettyboo]

Amazing pics again, quite a team - researching and getting hold of your building manager has really paid off.

Great attention to detail in these foundations which bodes very well for the rest of the build. I'm presuming the cost per sqM is on the high side... I think mine's gonna be about 9,000 baht per sqM (maybe less if you're just talking about the basic structure without fittings, etc), Marmite is doing even better than that, but I'm presuming your build is quite a bit more expensive, and well worth it.

[Wasp]

koman ..... I really am enjoying looking at your build but did I miss something somewhere ? I'll try to attach a photo of what I mean .

No success with the photo ! I'll have to play around . Anyway it's a photo of the concrete bases of your walls . Everything that you are doing looks immensely strong BUT the bases of your internal walls look as though they are sitting on some loosely piled up sand with a half inch spread of cement on top which is only there in order to scour in lines .

I must have misunderstood something there ?

Wasp

[Marmite the Dog]

No success with the photo ! I'll have to play around . Anyway it's a photo of the concrete bases of your walls . Everything that you are doing looks immensely strong BUT the bases of your internal walls look as though they are sitting on some loosely piled up sand with a half inch spread of cement on top which is only there in order to scour in lines .

Looks more like 15 - 20cm of concrete, which is more than enough for its intended purpose.

[Wasp]

[QUOTE=Marmite the Dog;2650857]

No success with the photo ! I'll have to play around . Anyway it's a photo of the concrete bases of your walls . Everything that you are doing looks immensely strong BUT the bases of your internal walls look as though they are sitting on some loosely piled up sand with a half inch spread of cement on top which is only there in order to scour in lines .

Looks more like 15 - 20cm of concrete, which is more than enough for its intended purpose.[/QUOTE]

Clearly that's the small item I missed ! Wasp

[koman]

koman ..... I really am enjoying looking at your build but did I miss something somewhere ? I'll try to attach a photo of what I mean .

No success with the photo ! I'll have to play around . Anyway it's a photo of the concrete bases of your walls . Everything that you are doing looks immensely strong BUT the bases of your internal walls look as though they are sitting on some loosely piled up sand with a half inch spread of cement on top which is only there in order to scour in lines .

I must have misunderstood something there ?

Wasp

All the bases are sitting on a ridge of dirt and sand....and in fact are mostly not sitting on anything now... because they are huge reinforced beams which are then connected to the vertical pillars. They don't need any support from below any more than the structural girders on the 80th floor of an office tower need support from below.... they are supported by the vertical columns. Also the walls will be built with lightweight Q-con aerated block, so there is very little load on those bases.

Any wall that bears a significant loading has been heavily reinforced as shown in some of the pics I posted.

The vertical pillars carry virtually all of the loads...and they are mounted on 1 m3 blocks which are built on top of pylons driven 5-7 meters down to bedrock.

Not sure if I'm explaining it very well.....

[koman]

Amazing pics again, quite a team - researching and getting hold of your building manager has really paid off.

Great attention to detail in these foundations which bodes very well for the rest of the build. I'm presuming the cost per sqM is on the high side... I think mine's gonna be about 9,000 baht per sqM (maybe less if you're just talking about the basic structure without fittings, etc), Marmite is doing even better than that, but I'm presuming your build is quite a bit more expensive, and well worth it.

I don't want to get into costs just yet....because we are still a long way from completion and there is plenty of things I have in mind, which could cause cost overruns, but I think you will be quite shocked when I reveal just how little this house is costing to build. It's under half of what some so called builders quoted me, including a farang outfit who told me to go find a budget builder closer to home when I questioned their 25k per m2 estimate.....

As I stated previously, I spend a great deal of time preparing for this build...and especially in finding my designer/builder....who in turn has provided a very good building team, and seems to have good sources for everything. I would never attempt this on my own and quite honestly would not advise anyone else to do so either. Every expat build that I have had any association with, has been a litany of minor disasters, cost overruns and a generally unsatisfactory outcome.

We are not compromising on anything quality wise...and at the moment we are still below budget..... probably because I held the line on toilet bowls...

[terry57]

Another big gaff going up, amazes me what some of you guys build here in Thailand.

Great stuff.

[Wasp]

koman ..... I really am enjoying looking at your build but did I miss something somewhere ? I'll try to attach a photo of what I mean .

No success with the photo ! I'll have to play around . Anyway it's a photo of the concrete bases of your walls . Everything that you are doing looks immensely strong BUT the bases of your internal walls look as though they are sitting on some loosely piled up sand with a half inch spread of cement on top which is only there in order to scour in lines .

I must have misunderstood something there ?

Wasp

All the bases are sitting on a ridge of dirt and sand....and in fact are mostly not sitting on anything now... because they are huge reinforced beams which are then connected to the vertical pillars. They don't need any support from below any more than the structural girders on the 80th floor of an office tower need support from below.... they are supported by the vertical columns. Also the walls will be built with lightweight Q-con aerated block, so there is very little load on those bases.

Any wall that bears a significant loading has been heavily reinforced as shown in some of the pics I posted.

The vertical pillars carry virtually all of the loads...and they are mounted on 1 m3 blocks which are built on top of pylons driven 5-7 meters down to bedrock.

Not sure if I'm explaining it very well.....

_________________________


Actually you've explained it very well . As soon as you compared it with a crossbeam on the 80th Floor I understood . Of course that needs no support in the centre .... the load being borne by the verticals . Thank you .


Wasp

[koman]

Now that

[koman]

Now that the slabs are all in place; the sand has been fully compacted and the steel mesh laid...we need to water all the surfaces in readiness for the big load of cement that has been reported to have been dispatched.



Watering down the back porch floor.....



...and the side porch. This girl has no power of speech, but she can communicate in the most amazing way. She literally draws pictures in the air with her hands and arms.. and most of the time she is quite easy to understand......she's a real trooper and a great worker.



...and right on cue...the Mother of all cement trucks is backing up the driveway....



....it backs up to the prepared area......under the stern directions of the foremans wife....a formidable woman not to be ignored...even by cement truck drivers....



A steady stream of readymix is poured over the prepared flooring.....



Frantic activity all around...many hands are needed to spread the cement and keep up with the flow.....but we have many hands and the job gets done....



Once the cement has been spread, it needs to be smoothed out nicely. The foreman is really good at this... and works at amazing speed.....maybe that's why he made it into the management ranks...



The cement is scored or roughed before it has hardened too much.....this is to provide a good grip for when they place the tiles over it later on.



another view.....you can get an idea of the size and thickness of the beams and cement flooring here. Someone (Marmite I think) commented on 15-20 cms.....actually the beams are 15cm thick and 60 cms deep..!! The cement pour is about 5 cms deep over slabs which are 3 cms thick.

You can also see how the beams here are not actually resting on anything, but are fully supported by the vertical columns.



Once the floor pouring is finished and scored, it needs to be kept wet for a day or two. Here the foreman is keeping an eye on the curing process.

You can also see how the vertical columns are all tied in with the beams and cement flooring. The whole thing is now one big load of reinforced concrete....




High above the maddening crowd and all that cement business, one of my ace welders is starting to prepare the top of the columns for the roof support beams.

The rebar sticking out at the top will be shortened and welded to large steel plates, which will then be used as the base to which the roof beams will be welded......lot's of good photos of that coming up in another session.....