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

[ootai]

koman

R2D2 is leveled by adjusting the legs so that the bubble on the top is exactly in the middle of the circle, check your post 265 and you will see it looks a little bit off centre to me. As for the tape measure I would guess someone is measuring the distance to the wall at R2D2 and then measuring the distance at the far end of the wall to check if the wall is square.

Now for your gas heater, please be very very careful as there have been many people die because they did not ventilate the bathroom while using these types of devices. Electricity does not burn oxygen but gas does. Please take the time to google this subject and you may be surprised. From memory they were banned in Australia and removed from all public housing.

I too would be interested in learning where I could get my hands on my own R2D2. I have my own level that I set up on a tripod, so that I dom't need a water hose, and R2D2 would complement that to help me set up squares and verticals.

[koman]

koman

R2D2 is leveled by adjusting the legs so that the bubble on the top is exactly in the middle of the circle, check your post 265 and you will see it looks a little bit off centre to me. As for the tape measure I would guess someone is measuring the distance to the wall at R2D2 and then measuring the distance at the far end of the wall to check if the wall is square.

Yes, that all makes perfect sense. Thank you.

Now for your gas heater, please be very very careful as there have been many people die because they did not ventilate the bathroom while using these types of devices. Electricity does not burn oxygen but gas does. Please take the time to google this subject and you may be surprised. From memory they were banned in Australia and removed from all public housing.

Trust me, the bathroom were that thing is installed is very well vented....in fact it would almost qualify as outside....


Australia seems to be one of those places where everything worth doing/having gets banned....even guns, which are an essential accessory to be carried at all times. Only in "public" housing though.....OK for regular rich homeowners to gas themselves then....must have been a Labour government on that one....

I too would be interested in learning where I could get my hands on my own R2D2. I have my own level that I set up on a tripod, so that I dom't need a water hose, and R2D2 would complement that to help me set up squares and verticals.

I will try to find this information for all TD'er who might wish to have a little Bot running around measuring their verticals... even one that needs his legs adjusted occasionally. .

[Lance]

Lance,

Bloody interesting Koman. I'm about to start buiding a house down Klong Yai area which is about 25km north of the Cambodian border town of Hat Lek. It's about 100sqm and so far have had quotes from 900,000bht to 2.8m. What is your house area and cost. Will watch your progress with interest.

[KiCanCummins]

Nice to see someone get a good quality project manager and crew. He also knows his sub trades as attested by the electrical installation, roofing and ceiling jobs.

I have noticed on these building threads that most OP’s will show their plans at the beginning, as some of us that can read a plan and are curious to know your layout and what works for you in all your 250sq meters, could you share a picture or 2 of the plans of your dwelling?

I am sorry that I had not seen your thread earlier as your requirement for a bog, well just does not seem to go the whole 9 yards!! I must admit that putting the missis on the loo was one way to keep her quiet but I think you needed to brush up on your “Bog Oligy”. This requires a study of the dynamics of water flow, er, Hydrology I think they call it. One must observe the way the water flows down from the tank into the bowl and ejects all the matter over the trap and down to the septic system. I have recently replaced a bog in my house in Ontario, Canada with one from Home depot, American Standard | Cadet 3 Dual Flush Toilet | Home Depot Canada
It’s an eco-model and uses very little water to push the muck over the trap. It’s the best I have found especially as they now charge for the amount of water one uses.

Mrs KCC ‘s basic Home Garden Ville 3 bedroom bungalow had the ever non-existent kitchen, which was something I took care of for her. I designed a Farang style kitchen and we scoured a local Farang board here for suitable contractors to take on the job and settled on what we thought was a good guy with references. We had our share of problems with the floor tiles, roofer, Starmark cabinets, ceiling installer, just about every one presented a problem here in the heart of Issan.
I could go on for ever but do not want to hijack your thread.
I am bloody envious of what you have been able to achieve. I think your gold star is Mr Jeeves.

KCC

[koman]

Lance,

Bloody interesting Koman. I'm about to start buiding a house down Klong Yai area which is about 25km north of the Cambodian border town of Hat Lek. It's about 100sqm and so far have had quotes from 900,000bht to 2.8m. What is your house area and cost. Will watch your progress with interest.

Well, what a surprise....quotes from fair and reasonable to the ridiculous....

2.8 million for a 100 m2 house?? That would be 28000 Thb per m2...

The guy who told you 900,000 Thb is a lot closer to the mark. Now having said that, it depends a great deal on the design itself, and the materials you use, and what kind of embellishments you need to make it feel like home. There is a great many things you can spend money on that will not give you a better house; just a more expensive one.

I had quotes from a variety of builders, ranging from around 2.8 to 4.0 million.....and now that we are far enough along to really know where it's going, I can say with confidence that the completed house will come in at about 2.3 million. That's 9200 Thb per m2.....exactly what my project manager/designer had told me at the start, and also what I had estimated myself....albeit with limited knowledge and experience.

He was the first builder who proved himself by showing me some of his work/projects and he was the first one who told me that my estimates were quite accurate and that it could be done without cutting corners or substituting anything for cheap stuff. Clearly there are a lot of BS artists out there in the construction business.


What I found was that a great many of these builders really don't know how to spec out and estimate costs accurately.....and many of them just gouge the shit out of people...and especially those people who have not prepared themselves with a good amount of knowledge already.

The first thing you need after you have chosen your design, is to have a complete quantity survey of all the materials needed to construct the house. This is really the only way to come up with an accurate estimate. Once you have that, the next thing is an assessment of the labour costs. .....and it's worth mentioning that the village idiot builders will want to charge the same rates as the well seasoned and experienced ones. For some reason they think they are worth the same pay rates. Even building a simple perimeter wall brought in quotes from 500 Thb per meter to 2000 Thb per meter (these are labour costs only) so it's pretty much the same with everything you try to do here.

We also have to be clear about what is included and what is not. These quotes did not include kitchen cabinets, air-conditioning, water tank/pump, and a few other things.....but as it turns out I'm now getting the kitchen cabinets thrown in with the deal because we are well below the estimated costs with about 75% of the build completed.....and they are not cheap shit....over 100K's worth.

There were a few changes made along the way, but so far not additional costs have been incurred.

My A/C is just starting to be installed today.....again it required a great deal of research and running around to find an honest and competent supplier/installer. It's going to be a 125K bill, but we are getting top of the line stuff supplied by a real A/C tech with lots of experience.

Once we are all kitted out with A/C...a modern and beautiful kitchen with built in convection oven, microwave grill, RO water filter, granite counters, and Cotto tiles walls.....plus the water tank and pump etc.....we will probably have spent around 2.5 million......which averaged out would be exactly 10,000 per m2.

I was assured by builders, forum experts, and miscellaneous farangs who claim to know about these things, that it was impossible to build the house I wanted for this amount of money. Being told that something is impossible has always been a great motivator for me......my Mother always told me that things were impossible so she could get me to do the things she wanted me to do....

.....and somebody wants 28,000 per m2 from you......do you happen to own a firearm? ....

[koman]

Nice to see someone get a good quality project manager and crew. He also knows his sub trades as attested by the electrical installation, roofing and ceiling jobs.

I have noticed on these building threads that most OP’s will show their plans at the beginning, as some of us that can read a plan and are curious to know your layout and what works for you in all your 250sq meters, could you share a picture or 2 of the plans of your dwelling?

I am sorry that I had not seen your thread earlier as your requirement for a bog, well just does not seem to go the whole 9 yards!! I must admit that putting the missis on the loo was one way to keep her quiet but I think you needed to brush up on your “Bog Oligy”. This requires a study of the dynamics of water flow, er, Hydrology I think they call it. One must observe the way the water flows down from the tank into the bowl and ejects all the matter over the trap and down to the septic system. I have recently replaced a bog in my house in Ontario, Canada with one from Home depot, American Standard | Cadet 3 Dual Flush Toilet | Home Depot Canada
It’s an eco-model and uses very little water to push the muck over the trap. It’s the best I have found especially as they now charge for the amount of water one uses.

Mrs KCC ‘s basic Home Garden Ville 3 bedroom bungalow had the ever non-existent kitchen, which was something I took care of for her. I designed a Farang style kitchen and we scoured a local Farang board here for suitable contractors to take on the job and settled on what we thought was a good guy with references. We had our share of problems with the floor tiles, roofer, Starmark cabinets, ceiling installer, just about every one presented a problem here in the heart of Issan.
I could go on for ever but do not want to hijack your thread.
I am bloody envious of what you have been able to achieve. I think your gold star is Mr Jeeves.

KCC

I will indeed post a plan once I figure out how to do it.....it's a big document which will not fit into my cheap scanner......all in good time,

Thank you for your scientific assessment of toilets.... Too bad you were not here to advise me before we invested so heavily in China's finest. If they don't work we still have a sqatter unit out back in the original outhouse we build for the wall construction crew way back in August. It's an Econo unit too....you just dump a few liters of water into it from a pink plastic pan.....

Kitchens and bathrooms are definitely the big challenges here. The rural Thai's really are not well prepared for the demands of us spoiled farangs.....and in most cases just can't seen the need for either..

Thanks for your input....

[importford]

interesting thread,
I learned a lot from this
thanks koman

[g phelo]

Koman I have spent the best part of the afternoon reading and seeing all your posts.
You have the makings of a wonderful home.
I am a retired electrician and have seen your pics of your electrical wiring. Is there some way that I can contact you to discuss some observations with you. I do not think it would be appropriate to discuss my observations on the forum.

[koman]

Koman I have spent the best part of the afternoon reading and seeing all your posts.
You have the makings of a wonderful home.
I am a retired electrician and have seen your pics of your electrical wiring. Is there some way that I can contact you to discuss some observations with you. I do not think it would be appropriate to discuss my observations on the forum.

It's quite all right to make your observations on this thread.....that's what it's for. The more input the better, but if you're going to tell me this is now how they do it in Cardiff.....I already know that....

[g phelo]

I am sorry For legal reasons I cannot go public in Thailand. I love this country and wish to continue living here. I am under threat for exposing a contractor who was on the path to killing somone sooner rather than later. I am willing to give you my phone No if you wish.

[koman]

I am sorry For legal reasons I cannot go public in Thailand. I love this country and wish to continue living here. I am under threat for exposing a contractor who was on the path to killing somone sooner rather than later. I am willing to give you my phone No if you wish.

?????....but I'm giving you permission to make whatever observations you like on this thread. I have no problems whatsoever with the electrical work, but if you think there is something wrong then please say so. I would take it up with my project manager if I though it was of concern.

[koman]

For those who were interested in R2D2.... This unit is made by an outfit called Woodwell Tools. It's made in China...surprise... It's called a WT435...and if you Google that you can find it.

It cost 4200 Thb....and the guy got it from a shop in Chumphae... called Yam Seng....or something like that. Sorry, that's the best I've been able to come up with so far.

[gusG]

I will indeed post a plan once I figure out how to do it.....it's a big document which will not fit into my cheap scanner......all in good time,

Maybe you can take a photo of it and then upload it, if you really want to.

[Koetjeka]

Made a mistake, wrong reply....

[koman]

We go from one extreme to the other at times. Yesterday nobody was working, today everybody showed up and the place was just buzzing....so much so that it was hard to decide what to photograph. The result is a bit of a mixed bag but here goes....



My intrepid ceiling installer....recently admonished for driving nails into the new walls....but making up for his sins by being a really great steady worker and doing a good job all round.



Here's his lovely wife preparing a roll of insulation. She has warmed up a bit and actually tried to smile for me today when I offered to photograph her and put her on the front cover of a fashion magazine.... she did not quite manage a smile but some lines did appear around the corners of her mouth...



There goes the first roll of the day......there are many more to come.



The missus does pitch in to help when the going gets tough.....she's really not all bad at all.....



The two of them managed to cover a good sized area in a couple of hours...



Meanwhile the Air Conditioning installers arrived. Here they are starting to prepare the mounts for a big ceiling outlet. They installed all the tubes and stuff. The 36000 Btu unit will take a while to deliver. Nobody around here has anything like that in stock.



There they are working up in the beams. That black bars the young fellow has his hand on is one of the mounting brackets for the AC outlet....it weighs about 48 kilos so not the kind of thing you just tack on to the ceiling boards.



Outside they installed the connections to the compressor unit.... all we need now is the bloody compressor to connect to all this nice stuff.



Installing the drain pipe for the water produced by the AC when is sucks the excess humidity out of the air so I don't have to sit around dripping with sweat in the hot season.



Today we introduced the tile guy to R2D2.....he was so pleased with himself because R2D2 gave him an A+ for his work....



Outside, a big 70HP Kubota is preparing the ground for the driveway and generally clearing up the bumps and hollows caused by all the delivery trucks and that sort of thing.



Out back this fellow is demonstrating the wonders of Q-Con block by cutting very neat strips off with a handsaw.



The water tank has found a home...and the pipes have been laid all the way from the municipal supply...things are moving along.



The driveway builders are at work setting up the framing. We almost had a disaster when they decided to lay the driveway out without me or the project manager being there. They made the fucking thing straight.... I arrived and went apeshit.... only those unfortunate souls condemned to life at the very bottom of the social order have straight driveways. A driveway needs to have a kind of serpentine look about it. I did what Bertie Wooster would have done....I called Jeeves, who arrived in short order and set matter right. We will now have a proper curved driveway. Another Isaan moment.....



View of the budding driveway taken from inside the living room. You can appreciate how terrible a straight driveway would have been when seen from this vantage point.......oh and yes, that's a tent.....we are also a camp ground after 6pm....



It's looking a bit more like a house now. The front gable is in and you can see the big triangular air vents....it should look a bit better with a lick of paint.... but we will get around to that later.

[Bettyboo]

This is a classy build, I'm liking it a lot. Per sq metre gonna be a bit pricey though...

[KiCanCummins]

I like the outside, and Ur right a curved driveway looks better, but watch the Thai drivers, they will drive in a straight line across ur grass. BIG curbing needed about 6 to 8 inches high to stop that, lol.

About your water supply, are you putting a pump in the circuit?
Also don't just connect up the supply straight to the tank tee thru to have a by pass and a check valve especially if you put in a pump. If the power goes out you still have water pressure from the city, if the water pressure goes from the city a pump will take over (until the tank runs dry). All automatically, if done right.

In the village here in the morning the pressure is almost nothing, people taking showers, but lots of old ladies watering the garden mostly!!!!

KCC

[Koetjeka]

I like this style very very much, the "fat" columns in combination with the modern looking roof does the job!

What are those 2 dark triangles in the wall above the, what seems to be, veranda?

Is it easy to cut those Q-con blocks with a handsaw? Doesn't it crumble when you try to cut the blocks?

[stevefarang]

^^^^

If you look back, koman did say "The front gable is in and you can see the big triangular air vents."

Q-con is real easy to cut and shape by hand. I watched them at my build just saw into it with no problem. I don't know for sure, but it might crumble if you try to cut a really thin strip.

Koman, your house looks great !

Steve

[koman]

This is a classy build, I'm liking it a lot. Per sq metre gonna be a bit pricey though...

You are not exercising your usual diligence BB....try reading post number 280....and tell me if you still think it's "pricey"....

[koman]

About your water supply, are you putting a pump in the circuit?
Also don't just connect up the supply straight to the tank tee thru to have a by pass and a check valve especially if you put in a pump. If the power goes out you still have water pressure from the city, if the water pressure goes from the city a pump will take over (until the tank runs dry). All automatically, if done right.

Yes there will be a pump in the circuit. A 200W Hitachi.....neutral colour...unlike Bettyboo who insists on yellow (he may be a Sutrep supporter) .... and a modest 200W, unlike our American posters who have pumps powerful enough to blow their nuts off with the rectal flushing hose....and yes the piping will be able to pass the tank and still provide city pressure if the pump is out. Actually I'm going to get a generator to deal with power outages...which are not uncommon around here.

We have fairly good pressure from the system most of the time, but like you say in the mornings it can become a trickle. This seems to be common because we had the same thing in KK city and Hua Hin when we lived there a few years ago.

[Wasp]

Now I don't want Marmite answering me here ..... I just want nice calm koman as I hesitate even to ask the question .

I keep seeing people putting that silvered insulation into the ceiling and I keep on wondering why ?

In my simplistic terms ..... heat rises and you want cool . Surely the insulation stops the heat rising into the roof space and makes it more expensive for your a/c to bring the living area down to an acceptable temp ?

Again in my own simple terms - in the UK the insulation is there to keep heat from escaping .
Surely it's the same there - where you would quite like the heat to escape ?

.........Wasp

............

[koman]

A smaller than usual crop of photos today. Lots of jobs underway but not much that would cause excitement.



The driveway preparation is moving along. This guy is using a compacting machine to prepare the loose surface soil.



His assistant follows him around dumping water on the ground.....this keeps the dust clouds from blocking out the sunlight....and helps to compact the soil of course.



It's beginning to take on the appearance of a driveway... but we still have a way to go.



You can see the future curves a bit better from this angle.....a driveway without curves is just not worth the effort.....may as well just drive over the mud and grass....as most people here do anyway. We plan to be real trend setters around here.....




Looking from the other end....



In a previous post I had mentioned the possibility of the ceiling guy being Welsh.....but I have to revise that. He is clearly Al Shabab and probably has several hostages stashed away somewhere waiting for the ransom money.



The tile guy has moved to the kitchen and is now starting to prepare for the construction of counters. Here he is inserting the anchor bars for what will be a cabinet to accommodate a built in oven and grill.



This colourful art display is a portion of the electrical wires which will terminate at the main panel. Looks like something Picasso would have sold for a few million.



This is the South side of the house taken from the SE at around 11am or so.... We designed the roof to come down quite low on that portion of the wall which will be in the sun all day. You can see the shade on the wall which covers about half the window area. It limits the area of wall exposed to the sun....and it seems to be working very well.

That section of roof is well placed for the installation of solar panels and that is what I plan to do once I recover from the financial shocks of all this other stuff. Solar panels will keep the sun off the roof and of course generate some power to at least light a few 25 watt bulbs or something really green and planet saving....

[koman]

Now I don't want Marmite answering me here ..... I just want nice calm koman as I hesitate even to ask the question .

I keep seeing people putting that silvered insulation into the ceiling and I keep on wondering why ?

In my simplistic terms ..... heat rises and you want cool . Surely the insulation stops the heat rising into the roof space and makes it more expensive for your a/c to bring the living area down to an acceptable temp ?

Again in my own simple terms - in the UK the insulation is there to keep heat from escaping .
Surely it's the same there - where you would quite like the heat to escape ?

.........Wasp

............

Now Wasp.... are you sitting comfortably....then we'll begin.....

In the UK....it's mostly fucking freezing outside so naturally one would want to keep whatever bit of heat a few lumps of coal can provide...inside. Heat from outside is not a serious problem in that part of the world.....OK maybe for a few days at the height of summer..... say July 1st to July 5th in a good year....

In Thailand it's blazing hot outside for a good part of the year.....this excessive heat will penetrate your roof, because it comes from that big ball of fire in the sky....and this .makes for an excellent venue for the baking of bread if you do not place a barrier to reflect the heat back up to where it can be vented out of your attic space.

This is way we place all that reflective stuff filled with fiberglass insulation material between our ceiling and the roof.

Marmite may have his own way of explaining this although I suspect it may contain a lot of metal roof promotion....and scathing comments about me cement tiles......

[Wasp]

You see why I didn't want to ask !

You can be as sarcastic as Marm !

I'm surprised at you kome .

I was even complimentary about your R2D2 .... and that's a sentence you won't see many times in your life .


W