Thread: Some alternative construction ideas

Interlocking blocks not only make the wall construction very fast progressing but will eliminate the usual erection of formwork for columns ("sau") and beams as for a Thai house is always made.

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Interlocking blocks not only make the wall construction very fast progressing but will eliminate the usual erection of formwork for columns ("sau") and beams as for a Thai house is always made.

More to the practical point night be trying to find a decent contractor and crew that have experience with these types of blocks.....

Looks like lego house.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

IMO
The problem with specialized material is that they are not widely available and consequently not widely understood also. So scale of markets on both material and labor, compromises cost and results.
Which is why many such novell ideas appear,, only to never being seen again . Regardless of their potential value they fail to reach critical mass .

There's always the "when in doubt do it yourself" method....
Known a few that have gone this route.

^In fact, the usual "cinder cement blocks" 40x20x7 are mostly hand made on a simple machine with a form made by a local hardware craftsman. So, such a man could be persuaded to make that form. And that could be a good sell once the word spread around...

The vinyl flooring nowadays is much nicer on the eye and much better for bedrooms than the ever-shrinking cheap laminates.

Those blocks should be kept at arms length for several reasons. They are not much faster to lay than q-con. The risk of mold is high in Thailand's humid climate and they need exceptionally strong foundations with no risk of subsidence due to the weight.
filling the gaps with cement is time consuming and planing might ask you WTF are they
But how about that grouter? when does the spiderman grouter for walls come out?

Originally Posted by Klondyke

^In fact, the usual "cinder cement blocks" 40x20x7 are mostly hand made on a simple machine with a form made by a local hardware craftsman. So, such a man could be persuaded to make that form. And that could be a good sell once the word spread around...

Used to know a Thai-Chinese gentlemen up in Sawankhalok that, several years ago, attempted to bring a highly innovating quality brick material to the Thai market.
The process was rather simple and straight forward - sand and coarser material, vacant of moisture, brought under extremely high heat and pressure to create a formed block.....becoming more solidified and harder as it cured. Because of the low general overhead, he was able to keep the price per brick quite reasonable - larger than the standard shitty red bricks and smaller the shitty formed cinder blocks.

Superior product in comparison to price and value.
Unfortunately, never caught on - as many are hesitant to stray away from traditional comfort of the usual inferior products that are available today.

Originally Posted by Tanlic

Those blocks should be kept at arms length for several reasons. They are not much faster to lay than q-con. The risk of mold is high in Thailand's humid climate and they need exceptionally strong foundations with no risk of subsidence due to the weight.
filling the gaps with cement is time consuming and planing might ask you WTF are they
But how about that grouter? when does the spiderman grouter for walls come out?

In fact, I hardly see here in Thailand "the risk of mold", affecting the walls that are perhaps 80-90% made by such "cinder blocks". Mostly, they are painted by a water resistant paint, try to demolish such wall.

And the perimeter walls in Thailand? perhaps 100% by the cinder blocks - mostly very poor cement, made in villages on a simple press, rendered or not rendered - standing for a half century...

"Filling the gaps"? The cement and sand is here sooo cheap - even if the mortar made by very "fat" cement comparison with a lime mortar in our old world (still made in Vietnam, unheard in Thailand anything else but cement). And the workmanship is here sooo cheap either...

Mostly they are painted.what utter tosh!!!! sorry for being so blunt but name a city in Issan and I will show you a thousand walls they never saw a coat of paint

It is a massive problem in Thailand that Thais just live with...........go google earth and drop into any long standing street in say Phitsanulok and there are miles of walls covered in mold

I may have missed the cement being put on the cinder blocks, but other than one filled column, there appears to be no cement used to hold the wall together. Just the interlocking thumb.

The ants will have a field day, living in those style walls.

Originally Posted by OhOh

I may have missed the cement being put on the cinder blocks, but other than one filled column, there appears to be no cement used to hold the wall together. Just the interlocking thumb.

The ants will have a field day, living in those style walls.

It seems that you have missed much more. The cinder block is put with its hollow opening downwards on a layer of a thick cement mortar laid on the block underneath. Subsequently, after pushing/pondering the block into the thick mortar layer, the mortar will rise up into the hollow cavities - they are two of them at the 7 cm thickness. Therefore, there is some 2 -3 cm mortar inside the cavities connected with the connecting grouting (ca. 1cm). And the adjacent blocks are connected also by a vertical mortar layer.

And the mortar is very strongly adhering to the porous block mass. When such wall is demolished you cannot clean up the sticking mortar away from the block, even with a sharp axe. Therefore, when such wall is demolished, the block cannot be recycled like it is the case at red bricks with lime mortar. Such case was very common after the war in Europe when piles of bricks from the bombed buildings were cleaned up from the mortar and re-used for the re-built houses again - still standing.

Here's an example of a double wall by cinder blocks, with cavity some 4 cm in-between, total wall thickness 20cm after rendering, thermally well insulating, no columns ("sau"), only few embedded vertical and horizontal steel wires, easy and quick to erect.

Come and try to "tear down the wall..."

That is one expensive wall with zero advantage. 162 baht psm for block? you can buy grade b q-con for 125 baht psm and lay it in 1/4 of the time

Originally Posted by Klondyke

It seems that you have missed much more.

It seems that you have missed that he was talking about the interlocking blocks in the video ..."Just the interlocking thumb."
​NOT the usual Thai blocks !

Originally Posted by Tanlic

That is one expensive wall with zero advantage. 162 baht psm for block? you can buy grade b q-con for 125 baht psm and lay it in 1/4 of the time

Where did you get the figures from?

Originally Posted by mikenot

It seems that you have missed that he was talking about the interlocking blocks in the video ..."Just the interlocking thumb."
​NOT the usual Thai blocks !

Perhaps you should read again, he was refering to "cinder blocks":

I may have missed the cement being put on the cinder blocks, but other than one filled column, there appears to be no cement used to hold the wall together. Just the interlocking thumb.

The cinder blocks have on their sides an interlocking thumb...

Firstly, the cinder blocks are not over 5 Baht, somewhere 4.50.
Secondly, the other blocks, whatever their brand name is, are hardly available for 14 Baht, but anything is possible in Thailand.

And the cement/sand is sooo cheep here and the workmanship either. Whether the fine adhesive not so cheap material for the q-con will be so sparsely used, that's the question.

There are different thicknesses of the q-con. Whether the thinner ones (that obviously can be bought somewhere for 16 Baht) have the same thermal insulation value as the 20 cm double cinder block wall where the inner blocks do not get the heat transferred from the outer clading?

Moreover what's more substantial is that with the double cinder blocks the columns/beams structure can be omitted, what brings not only huge saving of the material (wood formwork, reinforcement bars, concrete) and of the workmanship but a large difference in the erection time - at least 3 months.

I just checked they are now 11.5 baht plus vat grade A have dropped to 14 baht plus vat and you messed up didn't ya?

Originally Posted by mikenot

I refer you to post #20.

"Interlock" (from the Oxford Dictionary : (of two or more things) engage with each other by overlapping or by the fitting together of projections and recesses.

I've never seen one of the normal cinder/concrete Thai blocks that you are so fond of with an interlocking thumb. They may have a little "spacer" sticking out, but not interlocking.
So I thought it was quite obvious he was referring to the blocks in the video.

As for the cost of your beloved cinder blocks, that varies with location and quality. I've seen them for 5 baht each, and for 7.5 baht. I'm guessing that the price variance comes down to whether they are made in somebody's village backyard with no quality control and just a whiff of cement, or in a factory with quality control and a fixed 'recipe' for the amount of cement in them.
You get what you pay for .....

according to my spreadsheet, 100sq.m. of wall using 75mm AAC at 17 baht/piece + AAC adhesive should cost around 15245฿ + labour.
Using the thicker 100mm blocks would increase the cost to 22075 baht.
A single wall of cinder blocks at 6 baht each ( a mid-range price) would cost around 11,500 but again you get what you pay for, and to get a comparable comfort level you would need a cavity wall, doubling that price to 23,000฿ + labour.

I understand people's reluctance to use AAC block ,we all don't like to leave our comfort level and like to stay with the familiar.

We were planning to use the 125 AAC block in our build, when the time for the blocks came our builder said that we will have wait for a couple of weeks because they were not available and had to be ordered. I suggested that we use a double 75 AAC cavity wall which should cost the same and they were readily available . And that's what we did

Or builder now uses AAC at all his jobs.
AAC block is so easy to work , that the small additional cost of AAC over cinder block is compensated by lower labor cost and ease of construction. plus you get a superior constructed quality material, lower weight, higher thermal and sound insulation.

onnestockhome is where you will get the cheapest prices if buying a lot............b grade vary day to day but 14 baht plus vat is steady for grade a.

Now look at Buckaroo :0) sorry Klondyke but that's what I call a house

My own preference is for the outer wall to be 75 areated but cinderlock filled with cement or red bricks for the inside wall for toilets and the kitchen where water is used plus you get a very strong fixing.

I use metal framing and gyproc/drywall to form the inner walls of the cavity witha vapour barrier (not really needed but make sure metal doesn't touch the outer walls) then in hallways I will hide the columns with double gyproc walls. making sure bedrooms are not back to back.

For me it's all about a good smooth internal finish and keeping the place cool.yep irt can be costly but id someone wants to build on a slab with precast 10 x 0 columns cinder blocks and a tin roof and call it a villa go for it..to each his own