Thread: Farm House near Nong Bua Lamphu

^^^ I would recommend this (got it at HomePro)

????? ?????????? ???????? 10" HATARI HT-VC25M1(G) | DirectToShop.com by Homepro

Install it in the ceiling of the bedroom... it will suck the air from the room into the attic area... drawing cool air into the room and forcing air to flow out of the attic side vents... I install it in my upper level townhouse stairwell ceiling and it really keeps the upper level from turning into a oven ;-)... Also that white grill comes off and can easily be spray painted brown to match a wood ceiling - or dusky pink if your wife is so inclined ;-)...

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

Blimey , thats gonna be one hot house under that tin roof

Originally Posted by BKKKevin

^^^ I would recommend this (got it at HomePro)

????? ?????????? ???????? 10" HATARI HT-VC25M1(G) | DirectToShop.com by Homepro

Install it in the ceiling of the bedroom... it will suck the air from the room into the attic area... drawing cool air into the room and forcing air to flow out of the attic side vents... I install it in my upper level townhouse stairwell ceiling and it really keeps the upper level from turning into a oven ;-)... Also that white grill comes off and can easily be spray painted brown to match a wood ceiling - or dusky pink if your wife is so inclined ;-)...

Thanks, guys. Remember, only half of the structure is contained. The other half is porch. For the contained section, we will be relying on windows and, initially, a "swamp cooler," later to be replaced by air-con.

Originally Posted by toddaniels

Well, after checking the relative humidity in Nong Bua Lamphu Province, I dunno how effective a 'swamp cooler" is gonna be, but at least it'll move the air..

Just a question, why was that ไม้แดง so expensive? It's a easy to find, sold in almost every lumber yard country wide, for almost any application, decking, ceiling, flooring, railings, stairs, etc...

A quick google of ไม้แดงปูพื้น showed pics of it banded and stacked to the ceilings at most lumber yards in common sizes like 1x4, 1x6 (thinner stuff for ceilings) and available up to 4.5 meters long. The prices didn't seem all that expensive either. Plus it's pre-sized & pre-tongue-&-grooved. It also appears old stock or recycled material is not that hard to come by either. A lot of the places advertised ไม้แดงเก่า.

It's a durable wood although it sure looked like your workers ground a LOT of it into sawdust running it thru the joiner.

No disrespect intended or implied.. Just honest observations...

Yes, quite humid, here. We'll have to see how it goes. Aircon will happen, but probably not this year.

Not sure why it was so expensive. I'm sure we got the going rate, as all our larger purchases are double-checked by the monks of our temple who buy from the same sources.

Maybe it seems like the price was high by the way I worded it. We not only had red wood stacked on the ground, but also yellow and maijic. Total price for the old redwood was approximately 830 USD (27K THB).

By early February 2015, the old red wood floor was completed. I regret not shooting some video of the work, as it once again surprised me how simple but effective Lott and Naht’s approach to the task was.





Thip and I were pretty busy and had been for a while, helping her daughter Kulthida test for, interview for and finally getting her and her husband relocated to Sa Kaeo province upon her pssing of the government tests for accountants. It was not only a big deal for Kulthida and her husband, but also for our Thai-Lao family. Although many Thais want to enter the civil service and see it as a way to financial security, relatively few successfully test their way in. Our village is pretty typical and it is riddled with failed test takers. So, my wife and all of the rest of the family are justly proud.

After the resanded old red wood floor boards were put in, Lott and Naht worked on the eaves, the roof trim and applying chemical to all termite-prone wood in the attic. The chemical work is pretty nasty and I wonder why they hadn’t done it when the wood was on the ground; when it would have been much easier and coverage of the wood more thorough.





The fancy trim transpired the overall look of the structure, as it continues to take on a character of its own.




[Originally posted at THE ISAAN - Life in a Thai-Lao Village]

As far as materials and over-all look of Bann Nah, we have tried to use natural wood (stained, not painted) wherever possible and practical – some of it we’ve even harvested from our other properties.

Exceptions, in chronological order, have been the cement and rebar column footers and posts; the main aluminium roof and lancah noi; smartboard under the eaves; and, lastly, Shera imitation wood exterior walls.

After I returned from my tenth trip to Lao, the push was on to get the exterior walls put up – all of which were drilled and screwed-in, not nailed.

We opted for imitation wood exterior walls for three reasons: price, imperviance to termites and appearance. We had had decent results with the imitation wood put in when we had a new roof put in, in our village home, back in the rainy season of 2013. As with most building supplies, there are grades of quality and cost. We had gone with a brown wood texture pattern imitation wood that was a little more expensive, but also looked a lot like real wood – especially from a distance.

We followed the same approach with our country home, picking a higher grade of Shera imitation wood; this time choosing more of a walnut color that is seldom seen in these parts – probably because it doesn’t look “new”. It flows well with the building posts and other woods used in the construction of our “cabin on stilts”; maintaining a certain look I have wanted to maintain – that is, an overall “light” natural color to the structure.

[Originally posted at THE ISAAN - Life in a Thai-Lao Village

Shera imitation wood planks are fibre cement composites of natural fibres, bonded in a silicate structure. The sidings are autoclaved wood-grain.

I discovered – quite by chance – that there are packs of the autoclaved wood-grain patterns that, if you have all the packs in your color/style, you can apply so that the simulated grain seems to transition from one plank to another, without a break in the design. I don’t think most builders in the Isaan know this. I tried to find special markings for each wrapped pack of planks, designating them, but could not find anything. Of course, I can’t read Thai, so that is probably why. But, I was looking for numbers more than anything, which would have been the easiest way to designate one type of pack from another.

The only reason I found out about this was because, after I explicity showed our workers how it was not good to put the same packet design next to each other, or ontop or below each other (because it would be too repetitive), they inadvertently put two planks close together that were from two different packs, which which were designed to go with each other perfectly.



The standard application, of course, was to apply the pieces randomly and this is how our workers did it.



(Eastside finished, 'cept for the windows)


If I had had the time and inclination and it was that important to me, I would have sat with them for the two weeks they took to put up the outside walls, but random was OK for me and easiest for them.



[Originally posted at: THE ISAAN - Life in a Thai-Lao Village]

Excellent build. Plumb-bob, haven't seen one of those for while now ! I like the idea of Shera-wood. I will be going for total insulation when we build ! Does seem to be rather high off the ground ? well done, thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by Dead Metal

Excellent build. Plumb-bob, haven't seen one of those for while now ! I like the idea of Shera-wood. I will be going for total insulation when we build ! Does seem to be rather high off the ground ? well done, thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your appreciations, DM... It appears high off the ground because in the photos, the horizontal cement supports are not laid in, yet. These will be concrete and rebar to add further support to the structure in high winds.

Are you planning any sort of treatment for the outside and inside corners where the planks meet?

Originally Posted by runker

Are you planning any sort of treatment for the outside and inside corners where the planks meet?

Absolutely. The corners will be covered over probably with what they call "mawp", here. Basically wood strips, same as you can see on the strips that are immediately adjacent to the fancy trim, underneath the eaves.

Originally Posted by LEGENDARY

Originally Posted by runker

Are you planning any sort of treatment for the outside and inside corners where the planks meet?

Absolutely. The corners will be covered over probably with what they call "mawp", here. Basically wood strips, same as you can see on the strips that are immediately adjacent to the fancy trim, underneath the eaves.

runker, I've been thinking about this some more since you asked the question. To tell you the truth, my mind is not made up about it. The ridges caused by the lapped imitation wood cause a bit of a problem.

I'll keep my mind open to options and we'll see what happens!

You might go to a big tile outlet like Sukapan and check out the plastic corner moldings they sell... They have many colors and the
Anger ones might do the trick on the outside

Originally Posted by LEGENDARY

Thank you for your appreciations, DM... It appears high off the ground because in the photos, the horizontal cement supports are not laid in, yet. These will be concrete and rebar to add further support to the structure in high winds

...yes, makes sense now, thanks.

Originally Posted by BKKKevin

You might go to a big tile outlet like Sukapan and check out the plastic corner moldings they sell... They have many colors and the
Anger ones might do the trick on the outside

I was actually thinking that a plastic or sun-tolerant rubber stripping would work best. Did not know about plastic corner moldings, so I'll definitely check it out. Thanks much!

Thanks for sharing your experience with us and I hope you and your wife have many happy years in your new home.

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

Thanks for sharing your experience with us and I hope you and your wife have many happy years in your new home.

Sometimes, I get the impression I'm just building it for family... you know how Thai families go... but, hopefully I have another 20 or so in me, we continue to have memorable moments there and it will be my final resting place.

I grew up in New England and the North Shore of Long Island, New York. Nearly every wooden surface was painted. Only exceptions were the school’s gymnasium floor and our elementary school desks which, when I got to junior and senior high, were replaced with metal.

The first new church my father helped design and oversaw the building of had a lot of stained wood in it and I think this is my first memory of how beautiful wood gain is and what a shame it is to point over it, most of the time.

As I grew older and was exposed to many more and different buildings, my appreciation for stained wood only grew. So, it is only logical that given the chance to design my own home, I lay strong emphasis on being able to view natural wood grain. At Bann Nah, there is not a painted surface on the building except for the smartboard under the eaves.




It does not come easily, however. I have stained most every surface at our country home, so far. The ceiling and inside wall teak alone have taken months to do – you know, not an 8-hour/day job, but several hours most days.

The time it has taken me to stain could have been cut in half, but my wife talked me into a gloss coat when I would have preferred a flat – or matte – coat. She wanted glossy because all Thais feel that if something is shiny, it looks new.

In my mind, a non-glossy coat for inside teak walls and ceiling is better because the surface shine (actually, the lack thereof) looks uniform. To get a uniform shine with a glossy coat, where some sections of the wood soak the stain in differently, requires you to brush the stain in twice, in two separate sessions; sometimes more.

The Thai tendency to highly value “shiny” got me one day at Bann Nah.

Our workers had completed putting up the outside imitation wood planks and, I guess, were excited about that. I had visited the job site in the morning, just as they were finishing up. It was looking good! When I returned in the late afternoon, Lott and Naht proudly pointed to their finished, “shiny” job. They had polyurethaned the imitation wood to make it look more “new.”

I looked sideways at them and, while Thip translated, I asked if they’d ever done this before?

Oh, sure, many hi-so homes in Bangkok that they had worked on (and probably never saw again).

I told them that the polyurethane was made as a protectorant for wood, not fiber cement (which is what the Shera wood planks mostly consist of).

They assured me that this way, the “new” look of the Shera would last longer and protect it from the sun.

What if it starts peeling? I asked them.

Oh, it won’t peel, they said.

I immediately thought about Bann Nah’s wooden posts; how they had been polyurethaned before they had had a chance to dry and already the polyurethane was peeling off; and that’s with a protectorant designed to work for wood.

OK, I said with a laugh. If it starts peeling, I know where you guys live.

Oh, it won’t peel, they assured me again.

Thankfully, our workers had applied the polyurethane on the eastside of the building, facing the klong, which is the least visible side of the structure.



(east wall on right)


Later, I reminded myself that this is yet another example of why I couldn’t leave, this year, for my trip back to the USA to visit family:

You gotta watch these guys!

[Originally posted at: THE ISAAN - Life in a Thai-Lao Village]

When I got back from my 11th trip to Lao, in early June 2015, I discovered that Thip was busy employing some of our family members in the making of an outdoor Thai kitchen at Bann Nah. They all joked about how they were doing this while I was away so I couldn’t shoot the idea down, ahead of time. Although it was a joke, like a smile, I could interpret what I heard in a number of ways. I think there was some truth to that joke.





Anyway, I thought it was a good idea, actually. Soon, the family will be spending large portions of the day at 9 Rai, at the beginning of the rice planting season, and will need to have a place to prepare food, protected from the rain and sun.

While three or four family members helped Thip put the kitchen together, our workers Lott and Naht had finished the interior wall and ceiling supports and were ready to nail-gun in the tongue and groove teak slats I had stained twice, glossy.

I showed Sam Lott and Sam Naht how I basically wanted the pieces to go. There is a technique to laying in teak slats which I do not profess to know, but which probably builds on the fact that there is both light and dark areas to teak. In my mind, the goal is ideally to have transitions from light to dark go more or less seamlessly. That is, for instance, a slat with a dark center and light edges matched next to another slat that is more or less light or also has light edges. When nailing one slat next to another on the non-grooved edge, you want to ideally match the design of the board you’re up against. Another important consideration is: you don’t want too much repetition of the same kind of board in one spot. You want to spread the light and dark wood out more or less evenly.



(spot the gap gay [tokay] who's already moved in)

Work like this requires a good eye for design which, in my experience, most people do not have. So, I worked with the guys when they first started working on the ceiling, to make sure they had understood what I wanted. They caught on quickly and did a pretty good job.



[originally posted at: THE ISAAN - Life in a Thai-Lao Village]

Originally Posted by LEGENDARY

She wanted glossy

glossy is easier to clean

Originally Posted by baldrick

Originally Posted by LEGENDARY

She wanted glossy

glossy is easier to clean

True... I'll get used to it.

It must have been a Sunday, because our workers were away and it wasn’t during one of their frequent and usually long work stoppages. I was just hanging out at the construction site, doing what I do. I clean-up and transport water in and trash out; water the plants; but mostly just lie around in one of the hammocks and day dream or write. Increasingly, I find myself at Bann Nah. Thip’s spending more time there, too.

As with most Isaan storms, you get an idea of what’s coming ahead of time. Air movement picks up and the skies go gray; bombs explode far off in the distance – kind of in that order. Later, you’ll see the lightning off toward the horizon and a bit later hear the thunder. Soon afterwards, the winds pick up even more and then the rain is upon you.

While the storm was coming in, Naht drove the temple tuk-tuk to the pad to retrieve some of the wat’s scaffolding that we had borrowed in order to screw-in the outside walls. I thought it was poor timing and was surprised he was even attempting it, actually, because it was clear that we were gonna get dumped on. He was down on the ground when the storm rolled in. I had already gone upstairs because I knew this would be my best shelter and that I would need it.

The hard wind drove the rain in at what I estimated was around a 40-degree angle. I huddled in the most sheltered corner of our new home’s interior while Naht first huddled next to the samlor and then, finding little protection there, moved to the lee side of one of our cement posts. I don’t know why he didn’t come upstairs, but given the strength of the wind and angle, I’m afraid he thought the house might come down.

To tell you the truth, it soon became a consideration of mine, too. I don’t know what the wind speed was, but it was the strongest wind I’d ever been in and the side angle is what made it doubly worse. The structure upstairs was definitely swaying; how critically, I don’t know, but I began to assess what wall support would hold me best, in the event the ship went down.

Then, the wind shifted directions and I had to find another corner to shield myself and a different wall support to hold on to if worse came to worst. The shift in the wind may have meant that the storm was overhead or passing by.

As with most storms in Northeastern Thailand during the East Asian Monsoon Season, this one didn’t last long; an hour or two, at most. There are some storms that come in and can last all night, but these are generally not strong, just prolonged.

At any rate, this second storm convinced us that we shouldn’t wait to put in the horizontal ground supports for the cement posts. These had originally been planned for after the wood portion of the construction was over. To be safe, we had to further support the cement posts as soon as possible.

So, Lott and Naht interrupted their work on the interior ceiling and walls to do some ground level work with cement, sand, gravel and rebar.








[Originally posted at: THE ISAAN - Life in a Thai-Lao Village]

I’ve written about how strong our farm house structure is. That storm that blew in when Naht and I were at the building site shook our confidence a little. Consequently, Lott and Naht shifted from nail-gunningthe interior walls and ceiling to buiding horizontal ground support for the structure’s cement posts – the posts the structure actually sits upon.

This had been planned all along to do. But, when we had started the project back in November 2013, we had no idea that we’d still be building it on through the Monsoon Season in 2015. Given the length of time the building of the building had already taken (about a year, so far), it no longer made sense to wait until all the wood work was finished before we put in the horizontal support.










[ Originally posted at: THE ISAAN - Life in a Thai-Lao Village ]

Well Drilled… no, I’m not referring to the time I tried to keep up with my wife’s brothers, drinking on New Year’s Eve 2013. And, no, I’m not going over the Rescue Party once again. I’m writing about tapping into the aquifer under 9 Rai.

Sometimes, you gotta grab your opportunities when they present themselves. How many times have I said that before and not? Well, there are times when you just can’t and it’s usually because you don’t have the money or feel that you can’t part with what you have.

Well, this time I followed through on our opportunity. I really didn’t have the funds, but “found” some, anyway.

The temple was going to have a well drilled on the land Lungtah Mai donated for the construction of the chedi, next to the land we had donated. In addition, also next to our 9 Rai rice farmland, our neighbor Lungtah Mai’s daughter was going to have a well drilled on her land. So, we got in the queue with them, as “family members.”

It was part of a Thai government program that cost a third of what it would have if we had used a private driller. That was a big plus, along with the fact we could get it done rather soon. Usually when you get in such queue’s it can take weeks before it actually happens.



Drilling a well on the Bann Nah pad was another one of those things that we had planned to do after the wood portion of our “cabin on stilts” was completed. But, here was the opportunity, now, so we took it. This turned out to be a very good move for many reasons. First, there was the baht savings and quickness of time to get it done. Second, this rainy season had started off as the driest in 10-to-30 years (depending on information source). Having a well would give us more security for the 9 Rai rice harvest should the rains not kick in. Third and lastly, with running water at Bann Nah, it just made being out there so much easier. I had been porting water between the village and Bann Nah several times a week. The distance was only about a mile, or 15 minutes by tuk-tuk, but having a drilled well alleviated me of work more effectively done by local pumping.

(below: some videos of the first stages of drilling)





[ Originally posted at: THE ISAAN - Life in a Thai-Lao Village ]