Thread: Aussie Style House Build

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

A bit of advice on the contract. don't impose fines if they dont finish by a specific day

Hi Buckaroo, not going to push to get the job finished. I'm sure Kittisak will be pushing them hard enough any way and by the way he was talking yesterday, they get paid once works are completed so it may even be the other way around - need to slow them down to make sure they do the job properly

BTW, if any one is interested Kittisak work out of Tha Tum about 55 klm North of Surin. They work pretty much all over Surin province. Please don't think this is a plug for them, only post this as some readers may be wondering who we selected to do the build.

Originally Posted by peciacake

we can access the pipe-within-a-pipe.

I did that to bring the village water across the lane, put the plastic pipe inside a metal pipe. The locals thought I was a bit strange, spending money unnecessarily. When I watch big dirt trucks thundering up and down I wonder why their single core plastic pipes don't get broken.

The pipe-in-a-pipe ide is great for straight runs. You have to think about where your P-bends will be and you might want to think about some of that expanding foam or something to seal the ends of the larger pipes, to keep the wildlife out.

Originally Posted by Shutree

something to seal the ends of the larger pipes, to keep the wildlife out.

Was only thinking about that while I was out riding this morning. Will make small service pits with metal mesh grates against the wall outside the kitchen and bathrooms

Haven't got much to report on regarding the build, but the following may be of interest as a cure for those who suffer from insomnia. This is sure to cure it. It's from the chronicles of village life in Ayong (copied from another email to my mate who has trouble sleeping)

The Water Buffalo Wars.


The background to this is the power of the village chief and the arbitrary ways he exercises it.


About 10 families use the town reservoir / water supply for their water buffalo to soak and cool off in. The chief's family being one of them: he is directly related to a number of the other families.
All up they have over 50 buffalo using the dam on a daily basis. This is out of a village with a population of approx. 1,300 residents and close to 200 buffalo.
Non-buffalo owning residents have been agitating for years for a fence around the dam to eliminate the risk of disease through contamination. No one likes showering in water contaminated by buffalo shit.
Finally the Obotor agreed to a fence around the dam. Construction commenced two weeks ago - it affects us in that the Eastern border of our land runs along the edge of the reservoir. Approximately 20 mature trees were dug out of our land to make way for the fence. But, we said to each other, at least we'll not have to put up with contaminated water.
Then the fun started. The chief made a short announcement over the village PA system that only serves one side of the village. And it was announced at 6:30 am the day before the meeting. More than half Ayong's residents didn't even hear the announcement.
Not surprisingly, the ten buffalo-owning families (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and adult children) turned up plus five other residents. The chief was totally complicit in orchestrating the way the meeting unfolded. He planned it very well.
The other five attendees were Yuri and her adult son, along with her aunt (she also owns buffalo but doesn't use the reservoir), the head of the Obotor and his assistant (who happens to be Yuri's uncle).
After much shouting and a lot of accusations towards the Obotor, whose only support there was Yuri's uncle, a plan was proposed to section off 20% of the dam using a bund wall.
It will involve a large civil engineering project that will soak up all the available funds from the Amphur for the next 12 months. Too bad if the surrounding villages have priorities of their own.
So we have a dam that will lose 20% of its capacity because 10 families want to have access to what they believe is their right for 50 buffalo to cool off. The rest of the village buffalo owners can make there own arrangements / please themselves.
As a footnote, one of the families whose property borders the dam has made good their threat to ensure their buffalo continue having access. The new fence bordering their property has had three posts mysteriously knocked down the day after they were concreted in place.
So the chief, who represents the whole village's interests, has put those to one side in preference to those of he and his relatives who own buffalo.
Meanwhile the rest of us continue to bath in buffalo shit contaminated water... Ah village life, so much drama, so much intrigue...

Originally Posted by peciacake

G'day Ootai (You wouldn't be a Kiwi by chance would you?)

Well that's the last piece of advice you'll get from me after that insult!
What in the world makes you think I'm a Kiwi? Apart from the fact that I might appear to be dimwitted.

Originally Posted by ootai

Well that's the last piece of advice you'll get from me after that insult!

G'day Ootai,
Gee, there's some sensitive little petals on this forum. Sorry if I offended. Nothing wrong with Kiwi's mate. They can hold their own anywhere, so no need to put them down.
I worked with plenty of them back in Oz and there were a number of Ootais in the team. One of them, big Ian Ootai is married to one of the best opera singers to come out of NZ after Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Originally Posted by peciacake

Non-buffalo owning residents have been agitating for years for a fence around the dam to eliminate the risk of disease through contamination

I would think some buff shit and piss are the least of their concerns. Many reservoirs feeding drinking supplies in Thailand get contaminated with crop field run off which contains paraquat and glyphosate and other goodies, also getting further concentrated as water levels reduce during the dry season. Of course since the ban on these goodies this doesn't occur any more

Are you planning a well as part of your build?

Originally Posted by peciacake

G'day Ootai,
Gee, there's some sensitive little petals on this forum. Sorry if I offended. Nothing wrong with Kiwi's mate. They can hold their own anywhere, so no need to put them down.
I worked with plenty of them back in Oz and there were a number of Ootais in the team. One of them, big Ian Ootai is married to one of the best opera singers to come out of NZ after Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

Fuk me I think I preferred being called a Kiwi when comparing it to "sensitive little petal".

Mate I am an Aussie but better than you or Saint Willy because I come from the West.

Anyway the name Ootai was my wife's father's name. When we lived in Ausrtralia we had a business and we called our company Ootai Pty Ltd.
I reckon the father is held in high regard here by Thai's so I would be very interested in how you handled the FIL making a mess of your levels. Your wife wouldn't have been able to tell him it was his fault.
When you say he messed up the levels exactly what did he do?

Originally Posted by malmomike77

Are you planning a well as part of your build?

Yes we are Mike. The original well for the entire village is on our land - we know the approximate location.

We also have pumped water direct from the reservoir. Water quality tests confirm high calcium carbonate & iron. No other concentrations of any nasties apart from a high bacterial content.

^ given your plot size and the bickering it can only be a good idea to secure your own water resource.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

^ given your plot size and the bickering it can only be a good idea to secure your own water resource.

And about five 2000l holding tanks tucked away nicely in the shade by your shop.

Originally Posted by ootai

Mate I am an Aussie but better than you or Saint Willy because I come from the West.

A sandgroper! Well, well, well. There you go. SW and I are mere East Coast blow-ins compared to you Ootai - Western royalty. Legends in your own sand pit.

Yuri's father in-law has a reputation in the village for his weird ways. Don't get me wrong, he's worked hard and made a good living. BUT, he has his own peculiar way of doing things. It would be fair to say if I'd know then what I know now we would have taken a different path.

Regarding raising the levels of the land, he took charge of getting it level after over 180 loads of soil had been delivered. He's got a friend with a tractor and between the two of them they started spreading the soil - the father in-law directing, the tractor driver doing what ever he felt like. It took me less than 5 minutes to realise the tractor driver had NFI. Turns out he owns a tractor but is actually a taxi driver. Absolutely useless is being kind. Between him and the father in-law the soil was spread far and wide. After an hour I pulled the plug, waving the tractor driver away. By that time the FIL was dozing off under a mango tree. We were left with a pseudo motocross track with banks, bumps, ditches and jumps. Word got around pretty quick and next minute there's a bunch of kids with their BMX bikes ready to give it a try. Yuri's son was dispatched to break the bad news to the kids, "No, the crazy farang is not building a BMX track."

Fortunately the guy who owned the soil delivery trucks also had a tractor and offered to fix the mess. His driver was a learner, and had his own way too. By this stage I'm thinking here we go again. But he did understand the basics and was able to get the elevations and falls right so we ended up with a well-draining block. We were given a fixed price so I wasn't worried about how long it took. Just worried about the end result. It was an expensive exercise.

The FIL and I have had a circumspect relationship ever since.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

given your plot size and the bickering it can only be a good idea to secure your own water resource

Yep, water security sits right at the top of the priority list. It will only become more critical as the effects of climate change become worse.
Town water as the primary source then rainwater harvesting off the roof of the house into 4 X 2,000 litre tanks and finally pumped water direct from the reservoir and a well. All run through primary and secondary filtration (activated carbon, resin and three particulate filters).

We use similar set up Greg. In fact city water here has been so reliable we do not use our wells anymore. We have two 2000L tanks on property. City water goes through active resin filters and at the kitchen they go through your standard water purification including UV for the main tank. The other holding tank is for property watering. We have the lines still at the wells but pumps have been pulled.

Originally Posted by ootai

Mate I am an Aussie but better than you or Saint Willy because I come from the West

Oii!!

Originally Posted by peciacake

Yep, water security sits right at the top of the priority list. It will only become more critical as the effects of climate change become worse.
Town water as the primary source then rainwater harvesting off the roof of the house into 4 X 2,000 litre tanks and finally pumped water direct from the reservoir and a well. All run through primary and secondary filtration (activated carbon, resin and three particulate filters).

peciacake
I thought you were/are an Aussie, if you are then don't call a bore a well leave that to the ignorant Yanks.
If you are going to drill a bore then make sure you go as deep as you can which will depend on the type of pump you plan to use.
At our place we have 3 bores, the first at the old house was only 6m-8m deep and went dry a couple of years ago along with many of the bores in the village.
The villagers blamed it on the guy who set up a water bottling factory and was pumping water non stop. I am sure that had a bad effect but we also had the driest 2 years I can remember in the last 20 years I have been coming here.

At our current house the bore is 35m deep and hasn't gone dry (yet). We use a Lucky Star suction pump on top of the hole. It pumps 6L to 8L a minute to a 2000L holding tank. We then use that water in the house with another pressure pump set up at the tank. My missus is a tight arse and doesn't like spending money, which is normally a good thing, but in this case she wouldn't spend the money to put in a filtration system. As a consequence we get a residue on our glass shower screens that we just can't shift. Once I even used strong H2SO4 acid and it didn't move it. She still won't spend the money, probably 50,000B, to put in filters.

The third bore was drilled with the plane to use the water for irrigation and it was drilled to 65m. In that hole we use a submersible pump down in the hole and it pumps about 60L a minute to 6 BCM's. we have another pressure pump on one outlet to send water to the garden and when we were irrigating we used a Honda petrol pump (200L per minute) on another outlet.

The point of my ramblings is make sure you go deeper than most other people in the village and get a filtration system in place.

P.S. We also have 2 x 2000L rain water tanks to collect water off the roof.

^ drill the bore at the end of the dry season

Originally Posted by ootai

ignorant Yanks.

Originally Posted by ootai

drill a bore

Funny guy that ootai character...

You bore a hole. You drill metal and wood and if you bore a hole to water, its called a well. Man on man. Them outback uneducated aussie characters.....

Originally Posted by JPPR2

Funny guy that ootai character...

You bore a hole. You drill metal and wood and if you bore a hole to water, its called a well. Man on man. Them outback uneducated aussie characters.....

A well is a much wider hole which you can drop a bucket down



Them prairie uneducated septic characters.....

Well Hotdang. Thank God we live on different continents. Nobody would ever get any work done because of terminology. However I think I will stick with us ignant yanks for a host of reasons you Ut drivers you....

Originally Posted by JPPR2

Well Hotdang. Thank God we live on different continents. Nobody would ever get any work done because of terminology. However I think I will stick with us ignant yanks for a host of reasons you Ut drivers you....

Us yanks need a proper education. Now pay attention. These are not oil wells. They are oil bores.

Is TD suffering from an outbreak of Cyrillistis