Thread: Building on rice field

Planning on building on rice field on land my wife owns. Would fill in the land by almost 2 meters where the house will be. Small house, 7x7 meters. Single story with a concrete roof to be built after a year plus of settling.

The question I have is would it be wise to put in the footings now before filling in the land? That way, I could go two meters deep into undisturbed soil. Also, are driven in pilings required when building on filled in rice field? Have been asking Thai builders and get many different opinions so looking for real experiences. All help appreciated.

Is the surrounding land still used as rice fields ?
If so then you may have to change your foundation type

It is indeed still rice field.

I built a house on a rice field
https://teakdoor.com/construction-in-...ht=surin+build (Surin New build)

Daveboy,

I checked out that other thread and the links. Do you know how deep the holes are that they are putting the column steel into? It looks like they did not do any pounding, but put in a footing with the steel coming out of it.

No piling not sure how deep the holes were but the land infill was there for 6 months or so before building started, It's been built about 5 years now no sign of any movement yet.

Millions of mosquitoes thrive in rice fields. Besides the nuisance of their bites, there exists malaria and dengue fever to possibly contend with. Hmmm....

Fish live in our rice paddies and eat the mosquitoes...hmmmm

I've stayed near flooded rice fields, and I never really noticed the mosquitoes being worse than anywhere else. You would think that would be the case though.

Tango.... Do you live in Mae Taeng north of Chiang Mai? I know that area real well.

Same experience as daveboy. 2 metres land fill tamped down by the delivery trucks and tractor. Waited 12 months before building.

The builders planted the concrete uprights then made concrete filled trenches between the posts. The areas were filled in with rubble and concrete floors poured over top.

No cracks or settling problems in 5 years. Rice fields all round and the insect problem is the same as in town.

Thanks for the informative posts. Appreciate that a lot. It doesn't sound like it is worth putting in deeper foundations now. Just dig the holes after the land has settled. Would be a shame to put in deep foundations and then find you want to change the plan before building! I like the idea of beams (those trenches mentioned in the previous posts) between the uprights as that gives a lot of support and rigidity. Thanks all.