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

Ok, I'm stupid...what do you mean by "rendering", is it putting the top coat of plaster/concrete on the walls?

^ usually yes

Originally Posted by Topper

Ok, I'm stupid...what do you mean by "rendering", is it putting the top coat of plaster/concrete on the walls?

rendering = plastering. Applying either a sand and cement mix over brick walls, or using a special pre-made mix for AAC blocks as we have.
Such as this stuff:


I think the americans call it "stucco" ?

^I think stucco refers to a certain type of finish, from what I understand how it's done here in PH. You can choose not to paint over a stucco-finish wall. (from what I've seen in projects here)

Rendering = plastering = "palitada" in Tagalog (for Topper)

From what I've seen here in PH, after the wall has been made using CHB, they render it using a cement-sand mixture. Then if not skimping on money, they apply a skim coat before painting with primer. (If low budget, sometimes they skip the skim coat.) They apply 2 coats of primer then the top coat.

@mike - I hear you re: choosing tiles & whatnot. I've been to a Wilcon Depot (large depot here) and there are so many tiles, paints, bathroom fixtures etc to choose from! I wasn't doing a house build then but the depot was near an office that I visited, so I made the detour. I've taken pics of the tiles & paints that I fancied. Lol.

Thanks for the updates!

Originally Posted by mikenot

Never again will I subject myself to that trauma.

I'm hearing you Mike. Loud and clear. Compared with the rest of the fit-out, tile selection stands alone as an item that still causes my blood pressure to rise. Never again.
At least 10 trips to Do Home, Home Pro, Global House and various tile stores in and around Surin, including a trip to Prassat.
Then there was getting stock from other stores as Do Home Surin didn't have enough in stock for the tiles we selected. Luckily they were able to scrape together enough to fill our order.
All in all very energy draining. Fortunately we had a master tiler. He and his wife are an excellent team, and made up for all the hassle in selecting the various tile combinations.
We ended up with a great result; the best part of the build.

I like your stove and range hood selection using your experience. Wish I had a similar level of knowledge. SWMBO took charge of ours, so I'm not sure what our range hood will be like once it starts getting used.
We opted for an induction stove rather than gas. Still not sure whether it will prove to be a success as it hasn't been used yet, 8 months on....

Great updates!

Progress report for the last week or so :

The people doing the decorative mouldings have been irregular visitors. As mentioned before they turned up a week ago while the regular crew was pouring the concrete apron around the house, took the next day off before returning for a bit more work and then disappearing again. 2 days ago they got about 2 thirds of their work done then told the wife they needed an advance of 10,000 baht to buy supplies. This is one of the "extras" not included in the builder's price. After sending them the money we have not seen them again, causing the wife a bit of worry. so she talked to the builder who said they are reliable, and are regular sub-contractors for him, don't fret...we will see.
The ceilings are under way, all the hangers and framework for the house ceiling has been completed but we haven't seen them for a couple of days either. Still got the verandahs and outbuilding to do though.

All the electrical wiring in the house is in place I think as we have not seen the sparky for a couple of days either.
Do they have some secret method of knowing what wire leads where, or will it be trial and error when it comes to connecting circuit breakers and switches ?

But looking at that more closely I can see a couple of unused conduits so perhaps he has not finished yet?

The tiles have been delivered and one of the crew told the wife tiling would start on Monday (yesterday) but no, nothing happening there. I guess they cannot start on the floor tiles until all the scaffolding is gone from inside, which means we are being delayed by missing workers. He has another job not far from our rental house so we see all the workers coming and going to that job ! There is a 180 day deadline for completion in the contract, and we are up to almost 4 months now. I think tiling and painting is going to take up a lot of the remaining 2 months or so so Khun Ae had better get his workers organised. Personally I am not that worried if it goes over schedule as we have a roof over our heads now, and I would rather have a good job done than a rushed one. The wife is not so forgiving though, and she had quite a "discussion" with the builder this afternoon when we were out at the site.
"Why only 2 people painting the cladding and many people at other job?"
"Look at all these chips in the walls " (where people have knocked scaffolding and ladders against the walls)
The "bua people" have vanished
"The drains are full of sand and rubbish" (because nobody put the lids over the inspection holes)
Blah, blah, blah.....
She was not a happy camper.
I'm expecting a larger work crew tomorrow