Thread: A "not so Grand Design" in Ubon Ratchathani

Originally Posted by Norton

My house is red brick mainly because when I built it 20 years ago AAC was very expensive and couldn't be found in Roi Et. Frankly, I have no problem with heat insulation but having trees shading the walls all around likely the reason. Sound no prob either. I live in a very quiet village.

Living the dream then, I can only hope and prey I will be able to live out my retirement in peace and quiet!

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

Living the dream then, I can only hope and prey I will be able to live out my retirement in peace and quiet!

Here you go. If you are so inclined, build a clone.


House Build In Isaan

Finally they have fixed the wonky column ! The builder wanted to leave the job until after the infilling of the slab and compacting had been done, for some reason best known to him. That was more or less finished yesterday and 5 of the crew were on site today armed with a jackhammer, chisels, angle grinder, shuttering and rebar. First they cut the old column completely in half and let it fall, then again at approx 90cm above ground, then began to remove the concrete from the rest. A bit of jackhammering, some chiselling, more jack hammer, more chisel until they ended up with a pyramid about 15cm high sitting on the base, between the old rebar. They removed the old casing and cleaned up the rebar, then tied new sections of DB12 inside the old, overlapping by about 70cm. Slid down new casings and tied them on.
The boss had bought some "Concrete Repair Additive"...that was the only English on the packet so no other info but he assures us it was the good stuff. No sympathy for him when he said it was " peng maak" (expensive)...his guys should have done the job properly the first time. Anyway, they put up 3 sides of the shuttering, made up a slurry of this stuff and painted it on to the old concrete, put on the other shuttering and straightened it up..checking and double checking it was plumb. They mixed a bit more of the additive to the first few buckets of concrete and poured them in, then normal concrete while one of the women kept an eye on the plumb bob.
Double checked everything again when the shuttering was full ...still plumb this time !
The shuttering will be coming off on Monday I guess, so I will have my spirit level in the car then.

I forgot TD doesn't like portrait pics , so you will have to tilt your head and/or your screen...sorry.

Looks a lot better !:

Looks straight enough, hopefully problem solved!

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

Thanks very much Norton, all of these threads really are a massive help in understanding just how it's done and what the best way to do things is. Beautiful house, I hope it has been a joy for you and your wife to live in thus far! I will definitely be including a utility room and I am a massive fan of the glass bricks!

We are extremely happy with the house. Nothing of importance has popped up since it was built. I will add a few pics to thread to update.

Originally Posted by mikenot

Finally they have fixed the wonky column

They have. Looks much better.

3 of the guys turned up today (Sunday) which is usually their day off and removed the shuttering, and wrapped the concrete in plastic. Looks ok, and it is plumb !

(which is better than my camera work was !)

What is the reason for wrapping the concrete in plastic?

As level as you can get on teakdoor

So today is one month from the "first pole ceremony" on Day 1, and this is what has happened :

Kenny from ParadiseNThailand on Youtube started on the same day as us but in his last video his roof was well under way, we have not even got the slab poured. I know it's not a race but I do hope we are in before the rains start as last year the roof on our rental started leaking right over our bed ! If you just count the number of columns this place looks big, but really most of the sao are for the outbuilding, or holding up the front and side verandah roof. I think I said before that I was expecting precast posts there but the engineer had other ideas. I think we will be ok if there is an earthquake.
Now that the dirt infill has been laid we can walk around easier, and the wife has been thinking....this room too big, this one too small, this room should have been over there.
Tirac, you have had the plans for ages, I built you a plywood model, we marked it out with spray paint so you could walk through it, and NOW you want it different ?

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

What is the reason for wrapping the concrete in plastic?

It keeps the moisture in so it takes longer to cure, if the water evaporates too quick you may get cracks and a weaker structure. Slow is good !

Originally Posted by mikenot

Looks ok, and it is plumb

Keep that level handy, particularly when the door frames go in. It saves a lot of grief if they see you walking around with it tucked under your arm.
The more time you spend on site the better the build quality in my experience.
Get to know the "Chang" as he is key to driving the quality.
The closer you work with him the more he will drive the team to make sure you get a quality build.

Originally Posted by mikenot

It keeps the moisture in so it takes longer to cure, if the water evaporates too quick you may get cracks and a weaker structure. Slow is good !

Ta Mike

Well, we now have a concrete slab laid. Yesterday they poured the carport, front and side verandahs, today was two and a half truck loads of concrete for the house and outbuilding. Mind you, a fair bit of that leaked out under the forms ...more concrete dregs scattered around the site. The boss himself did the plumbing in preparation for the slab pour, so he has no excuses if anything leaks. I'm still a bit mystified by the positioning of a couple of the pipes, they seem too close to the wall line, in fact inside the wall line. Something got lost in translation when the wife tried to pass on his explanation so we shall see. I was happy to see that he plugged all the piping so no concrete could find it's way inside, one guy I knew ended up with a drain half blocked with splashed concrete.
We kept the crew well supplied with a pack of M150, Red Bull, Sponsor and fanta for the day, and they deserved it. I wouldn't be pushing concrete around in weather like this !
The boss gets to work under an umbrella :

That's no place to leave your tools when you have a break :

No, not a bunch of sundials ...the finished slab this evening:

They are trusting with their (boss's) tools come knock off time, there is always something laying around.

This crew has just about finished here, only have to take off the formwork and (hopefully) clean up the site a bit. If I've understood things right the roofing crew should be next but they are delayed on another job in Nakhon Phanom province ...another farang job, anybody we know ?

Coming along. Did they regularly wet the slab for a few days whilst it cures?

Originally Posted by mikenot

the positioning of a couple of the pipes, they seem too close to the wall line, in fact inside the wall

One thing you must check is both the water tap pipe position and the drain pipe position. We almost ended up with the shower drain in the corner of the shower stall rather than in the middle where the drawing indicated.
Speaking with other expats this isn't uncommon. We also ended up with the water tap for the washing machine in the floor rather than the wall. Luckily it wasn't the problem it could have been.

Congrats on the slab pour, mikenot. Keep the pics going. Cheers.

Originally Posted by mikenot

or my wheelchair in the distant future

Might want to consider installing a bench seat in the shower as part of planning for the future.
Ours certainly makes a difference after a long day in the garden.

^ I've seen seats in the shower which are attached to the wall & can be folded down. I think they're a great idea if you intend to "age in place" or have leg/ knee problems. Also, might want to install a grab bar near the throne.

@mikenot - keep the updates coming!

Coming a long nicely and there is definitely satisfaction gained by doing a little bit yourself. If I had the opportunity to work on a Thai house build or two, I would and would then like to try and build my own house with a few workers. Lets see what the future holds. Glad to see it coming along bit by bit!

Love this thread.. thanks so much for sharing. Your house look fooking huge (compared to our shack) and gives me anxiety just looking at the photos and reading the thread. Sounds like you have this shit dialed in and its going to be amazing. Looking forward to following this.

question: how did you choose architect?

Originally Posted by katie23

I've seen seats in the shower which are attached to the wall & can be folded down

Our's is a built-in bench. Plus added some shelves.

Originally Posted by katie23

^ I've seen seats in the shower which are attached to the wall & can be folded down. I think they're a great idea if you intend to "age in place" or have leg/ knee problems. Also, might want to install a grab bar near the throne.

I saw those, I think it was on one of the Thai hardware chain websites but I'll be damned if I can find it again. I originally suggested a bench seat in the shower but the wife said "no, can just use a plastic chair'. She's got no sense of style, probably why she married me.