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  1. #51
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    DrAndy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by genghis61
    half of it I want strong enough to support a vehicle, other half to be closed in as workshop/study/hideaway. My suggestion was 100mm/4" for car area, 50mm/2" for the room, of course Mr Builder said this was 'too much'.
    just do the whole lot at 4", with good steel inside

  2. #52
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    Cool

    1,2,3 above thanks for responding.

    been very helpful in making my list of 'musts'. Going to see another builder today - visited a place he is working on yesterday but he was away. I'll take some pics - place he is working on is similar age, they are re-framing the external walls with steel looks about 100 x 40mm. That's another story.

    Will go for 100mm reinforced the whole area; given it's not a huge area the expense will be minimal. Q: when I had a driveway concreted in NZ they laid polythene down first - haven't seen this here? necessary/recommended?

    Soil compaction - is will be a job to dig it level, solid dry clay that has been walked on 40-odd years.

    While water run off 'should' not be a problem, there's always those one in a hundred year floods that happen twice a year. So will bear that in mind; my drainage plan for the greater house area will I hope be adequate for all but something that sees Noah floating past collecting a pair of red ants.

    It's slow going isn't it? Spent hours getting a set of three shutters working properly, nice joinery with dowels, I'll be quicker on the next three.

  3. #53
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    Quote Originally Posted by genghis61 View Post

    While water run off 'should' not be a problem, there's always those one in a hundred year floods that happen twice a year.
    My time does fly up your way.

    Think you have made the right decision to pour everything the same depth.

  4. #54
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    old house

    I am doing the same here in Phitsanulok Province, about 80% completed. very similar to the photos posted here. Full cement lower 30 yrs old with Teak upper somewhere around 100. PM me with email address and can send some photos. Being I am new here I cannot post pictures.

  5. #55
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    Cool

    had a few delays, went away on holiday to Chanthaburoi/Trat. Before we went got involved in clearing the section and cleverly managed to get a couple of punctures! Piercings I didn't need, both ankles from i think bamboo that have since got infected. Antibiotics now after all my self-treatment failed.

    Anyway - concrete finished, walling-off about 1/3 as a room for I'm not sure what, having the open area tiled today. Area looks bigger without all the clutter, which will no doubt creep back. Also added a 3m 'lean-to' the length of the house. More storage.

    Gf's b-in-law been v helpful, felled a tree, and used portable sawmill for all the timber for lean-to and a lot to spare for future use. Her brother has a business building bamboo salas to order through a Bkk outlet and knocked me up a big ladder charged me a whole 250 baht, 50 was for the materials. Can't complain.

    pics to come later

  6. #56
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    Looks and sounds good so far - keep the updates and pics coming!
    A question for you, is the kitchen on the upper level? Also, what is your water supply - tanks or piped in?

  7. #57
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    Cool cooking, water and snakes

    Quote Originally Posted by Dilbert View Post
    Looks and sounds good so far - keep the updates and pics coming!
    A question for you, is the kitchen on the upper level? Also, what is your water supply - tanks or piped in?
    Hi. I'll call it 'cooking area' there is no western kitchen and that is a definite 'stage x' after other areas are complete. We have piped water used for laundry, shower, toilet, and four rainwater tanks for drinking/cooking.

    Just lit three of my bonfires gf's b-in-law waited and sure enough one decent size snake 1.82m appeared (will be eaten later). I wish they had told me earlier re snakes in area I'm clearing, this is fourth one killed and have seen one more . . . and every one has been a different type.


  8. #58
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    Cool

    Some photos

    House from the road - previously totally obscured, this is the snakepit/area I'm gradually clearing, slow work I cut/stack/burn as my scorched earth policy. That's an old toilet/washroom, still in use, plumbed etc I'll just paint it rather than knock it over. New toilet/shower block other side of house.


    Yes it looks like a building site - tiling and blocklaying underway. That little balcony is 'mine'. Want a chair, fold out table for laptop. Mine.
    When my ankle recovers I'll be onto that guttering and paint the bargeboards



    Husband and wife team, she does the blocklaying, him the tiling, while a young guy mixes the mortar


    At times I despair at timeframes but just have to live with it. The windows and door for my downstairs room are being made from a tree on the property. The tree doesn't know this yet. As far as I know we will not be making our own glass. But nothing would surprise me.


  9. #59
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    Nice start.

  10. #60
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    Looking good soo far.. I did the same thing to wifes grandmothers house years back and stayed there about 6 months.. really had time to think about what looks good what feels good and what doesn't.. those wood houses get sooo hot in the summer.. I have realized many of the old thai teak homes here are very beautiful but uncomfortable as thai's don't mind mozzies or other bugs for that matter, or the heat..but I'm glad i have learned things the easy way by renting and doing small projects using local workers..to get a feel for how they do things around here. good luck..

  11. #61
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    Cool

    cheers yes I've experienced how hot they can get, sometimes the floor is like walking on fire . . . I've been concerned about electrical gear in our room, camera, laptop etc sometimes I go to get the camera and it is seriously hot.
    We'll likely move into the room downstairs when it's finished, 6m x 3m and sure to be a lot cooler.
    I'm a semi-passive observer, responsible for painting, scrub cutting and bonfires, offer advice occasionally but as I'm not doing the paying I am often ignored.
    It's the lack of forward thinking that gets to me, like why we have no electrician arranged before the room is fully lined/plastered, why wasn't I told the tiler was coming when I would have had time to second-coat the pillars without the need for masking the floor area . . . every day brings a surprise.
    Been to Aranyaprathet today, a day off for me, pleased with how much work the tiler and blocklaying wife got done.

  12. #62
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    Cool some pics today

    apart from all the uilding there is other work going on downstairs, 2 looms operating every day. Painstaking work thread by thread, beautiful material that gets sold for 200 baht/meter. Considering the time involved it is slave labour, I've been buying some to send to a dressmaker friend overseas.


    back to the house, work continues on the ground floor, one room approx 6x3m the rest to be open space


    and on the other side of the house, the 9x3m lean-to; it will have a proper raised wooden floor and the two looms will be sited there



    the tiling and plastering is just about done, will finish tomorrow, apart from grouting. This is the room we've built . . .


    and this the open 'living area'. Still a lot of work, but getting there.


    some readers will appreciate the value of this. The woodpile.
    This timber was cut same time house was built early 1970s, been nicely stored underneath. All local hardwood, same as house was built from. There are some big slabs too, today pulled one out (with help) 1.8m long, .8m wide and 40mm thick. Sent off on the tractor trailer to be trimmed to make a desktop 1.6x .6, and matching chair. Saw the guy's work and very impressed, happy with his fee of 1700 baht to make. Pics in a week! Also a slice of trunk he's making a table from, a full 125mm thick.

  13. #63
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    all quiet. No builder and team yesterday, no tilers . . . would be nice if they had told us, but some young guy is joining up with the monks on Friday, so Tues-Thurs is a big party for them. Didn't expect them Friday anyway as it's a Buddha holiday. But just maybe on Monday someone could have said . . . see you Saturday. Or moved all the cement undercover rather than me in the rain last night.

    Today i've been pulling nails; dozens of them from the downstairs piles and beams - 2". 3", 4", big screws hammered in, roofing nails, even some pop-rivets. All for 'that will be handy to hang something on one day'. Bloody hell some are hard to remove, the 4" ones into a hardwood pile it was close what gave first, the nail or the hammer handle.

    Watching with interest today as truck after truck of clay was delivered across/diagonal about 150m, building up a site for a house by between 1-1.2m. No compaction apart from the weight of the truck and tractor levelling it out. Understand foundation work starts Monday; at least the holes will be easy to dig. Heading into wet season the place may well slide away.

    I shouldn't be so sensitive but a little pissed off today when the local shop owners' daughter - 4 - thinking it was funny yelled 'farang ass-a-lo' several times. So I am the f a55hole. Can only have come from parents. Nice to know I have their respect!

  14. #64
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    Nice wood ya got there, Not too sure about the tile though looks like casino carpet, as far as the local shop goes, now you know not to shop there....There are times i wonder if i really want to learn thai not sure i want to hear what the locals say about me....

  15. #65
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    Looks like a good selection of timber, will be interesting to see the finished table and chair.

  16. #66
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    Quote Originally Posted by genghis61
    cheers yes I've experienced how hot they can get, sometimes the floor is like walking on fire . . . I've been concerned about electrical gear in our room, camera, laptop etc sometimes I go to get the camera and it is seriously hot.
    if you insulate the roof, it makes a lot of difference, also create some airflow in the upper parts so that any hot air can escape

    in the hot season, the inside will be hot whatever you do, so a big fan helps

    or a small aircon in the downstairs room for an escape area

    Quote Originally Posted by justincase 13
    Not too sure about the tile though looks like casino carpet,
    just waiting for ther fruit machines and roulette wheels
    I have reported your post

  17. #67
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    Cool

    I've never been in a casino so I'll take your word on that, to me they looked like a church (not been to many of those) but 'she who pays' made that decision, they were not on my top 10 list. The colour of paint for the exterior downstairs and bathroom/ laundry block, and for interior of the new downstairs room are fortunately my choice. Need to look at a few places, I know what does 'not' go with the dark wood there are enough examples around. Very light/bland best i guess.

    Aircon, thinking about it for downstairs, room if 6.5x 3m not a huge volume, there is a thread here on TD wih the measurements/calcs for BTU requiremenst I'll look at that, but unsure if needed down there I'm not too bothered with the heat.

    Builders haven't reappeared, they worked last Sat/Sun but not this weekend. Monday maybe. I'm almost finished clearing the adjoining section which was v overgrown, ugly to look at, planting eucalyptus there on Monday, either that or it'll just become overgrown again. There has been many a BBQ'd red ant on my bonfires and the snakes have had to move out
    or get the machete (four)

    Be a day's job but I'll go through all the wood, note exactly what's there, record it all and re-stack in a more orderly way for future. There are a lot of floorboards from when house was built, ranging from 12-almost 20" across and 12-18ft long, will use some to put a raised foor into the lean-to extension. The stack is actually growing as her b-in-law put some trees through a portable mill a fortnight ago and the surplus is now here.
    Last edited by genghis61; 29-05-2010 at 03:59 PM. Reason: typoo

  18. #68
    Thailand Expat prawnograph's Avatar
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    Used to enjoy reading and contributing to the building threads
    And some very helpful tips at the time, Norton the sole survivor from this thread

    This from the archives from our year in Sa Kaeo, pity all the photos in the old threads are gone, but here's a refresher of the house in 2010

    9x3m room blocked in downstairs and all the area under house tiled, approx June 2010


    No date on this, maybe early 2011 as we moved to Chanthaburi April that year


    G61 reborn at a later date
    I'm Spartacus
    No, I'm Spartacus
    Last edited by prawnograph; 20-01-2022 at 02:58 PM.

  19. #69
    Thailand Expat prawnograph's Avatar
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    Why now?
    Twelve years on and my carpentry and painting have survived well, payoff for doing it properly and ignoring the local 'experts'

    But time moves on, the m-in-l getting on and they're building her a small single level house on the adjoining section.

    Old one still looking good. Has required minimal attention to the exterior after all my hard work 10+ years ago.

    Once it's completed the wooden house to be carefully dismantled, de-nailed and the timber sold for furniture making.

    Making a start


    We thankfully have no input whatsoever (advice or baht) into this new construction which will be an all-Thai affair, keep right out of that one. Though I'm interested in just what the wood sells for, the floor planks are 40mm thick and in most cases full width of the house, 9m, and up to 600m wide.



    Though I might suggest the concrete block downstairs room is retained, put a roof on when top floor removed, handy weathertight storage or playroom for the grandkids
    Last edited by prawnograph; 20-01-2022 at 03:26 PM.

  20. #70
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    Should be fun Prawn, looks like a hand mix concrete job

  21. #71
    Thailand Expat prawnograph's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by malmomike77 View Post
    Should be fun Prawn, looks like a hand mix concrete job
    Ms P likes to say 'made in Thailand' and falls about laughing.

    Though this build should be reasonable quality under supervision of her brother in law.

  22. #72
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    Quote Originally Posted by malmomike77 View Post
    looks like a hand mix concrete job
    Of course hand mix. Then you can add extra water so it is easier to work.

  23. #73
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    ^ and doing little bits at a time always guarantees a consistent pour

    Prawn is it going to have a block work retainer and then infilled and pre-made slabs or is she going full slab?

  24. #74
    Thailand Expat prawnograph's Avatar
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    Optimistically, there is a slim chance they know what they're doing.
    These pics received on Tuesday.








  25. #75
    Thailand Expat prawnograph's Avatar
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    A week later and here's where it's at





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