Thread: What mistakes have you made?

Having had two new houses constructed here in Thailand in the last four years, I am very conscious of some mistakes and omissions that I made.

What is the biggest mistake or omission that you made in the construction of your own home?

Letting the wife design it and building a large house in the village. should have gone the other way large house in the city, small house in the village.

design and constructions mistakes are inevitable, just be thankful there are no large ones. U have a nice place A.Boozer.

I should have made the driveway a bit smaller to add a couple of meters to the backyard.

Still, having a large driveway has kept the wife from crashing into the house (so far).

Originally Posted by Bung

I also made my workshop too small.

It doesnt matter how big you build it, it will always be to small.

Originally Posted by Rigger

Originally Posted by Bung

I also made my workshop too small.

It doesnt matter how big you build it, it will always be to small.

how true. the work shop has gotta be huge to fit all those big boy toys into it.... lol.

Originally Posted by Rigger

Letting the wife design it and building a large house in the village. should have gone the other way large house in the city, small house in the village.

Oh dear.....allowing the wife to quip her design.

These are all very good responses and over the last two years I have absorbed others thoughts and will be starting my build this year. I do not have a huge budget and hope to come in somewhere around 1.8M. This is my plan and I would appreciate any input where I might be going wrong:

1. I have pictures of the house I would like to build with very basic plans to show dimensions, but no plumbing or electric. I will be building in a village environment and am not required to submit plans to anyone.

2. I plan to have total control of the build and design and have only given the wife lattitude with the plot preparation in regard to fill dirt. This will be completed this month and allowed to weather a rainy season to compress.

3. I will be starting the foundation next January and hope to have the pillars and roof in place prior to my last trip back to the US to finish work and officially retire. I will be present during this phase since it is an important one. I will purchase all materials and negotiate a contract for labor only.

4. The plan is to have a metal roof through BlueScope Steel since I like their product and do not want the upkeep of broken tiles.

5. Once the posts are up, I will enlist my brother-in-law to do the masonary work and some of his work can be seen on my thread, "Building the Monolith Gate and Fence." He is an acceptable mason and has been doing it since he was 16 which is about 30 years. He also did all the extensions to my wife's parents house with good results.

6. The house plan is a two story plan with a lot of open deck space on the second floor.

7. All other work will be subcontracted out with reputable craftsmen with the hope things wind up close to spec.

I know there are many other things to think about, but was wondering what everyone thought since this is a thread about making BIG mistakes. I have barely started but am sure once it is finished, I might be able to add to this topic (hopefully not, but I am a realist).

Another thing to bear in mind, make sure you get all the fill in you need and have the block landscaped to your needs before building as it can be a bugger getting heavy machinery around the back of your house sometimes. Best is to do it a year in advance and let it settle over a wet season and add more if needed.

Also be careful about builders throwing rubble and building materials under your fill as it can be a bastard digging through it if you want to plant a tree or somethong later.

Talking of trees, I see plenty of people building on a barren block then plant a couple of saplings and say "look at my trees!" Stuff that, waiting 10-15 years before you get any shade from it, go and buy some mature trees - they are available everywhere - and get good shade from them in 2 years.

Bung, all good recommendations and I will keep them in mind. I am lucky to have a corner plot where I can have two separate accesses to the house, which I intend to do. This will give access to the back of the lot in case I want a tractor to do some work, or any other large equipment.
Your other thoughts are also valid and I will be investing in some "mature" trees for shade. I am lucky that across the road is a huge tree that spreads afternoon shade on the entire building area, but I still intend to supplement that.
Thanks

as our house was built on 2plots and the last we were in the uk when they laid the turf,they dumped all the fucking rubbish from the other 40 underneath so it takes hours to plant anything and then you are lucky if it grows.

Major mistakes. Workshop too small but no matter how big, reckon I would fill it up over time. Putting approx 1m high landfill around large trees I wanted to preserve was a big mistake. 3 beautiful large trees died within 2 years.

Good things about sheds is getting your space organised. I had some shelving made out of square steel tube and plywood right down one wall, worked a treat and cheap. great for putting all your crap on. I also use a couple of plastic boxes and organise different types of things into them you collect like electrical in one plumbing in another and they're all up on the shelves. I resisted labeling them. Buy an old ammo box for tools from the gypsy army surplus vendors you see springing up around the place. Hang stuff from the ceiling (i hang my brush cutter through two wooden loops). Buy an old fridge to keep your beers in so your mrs doesn't yell at you for coming in the house dirty. Have a decent sink set up and partition off a piss trough while you are at it (Stuff it, just plumb it into the sink drain!)

biggest mistake...........deciding to have a house build

Originally Posted by escaped

biggest mistake...........deciding to have a house build

Do tell more!

Getting a second opinion on the plumbing designs *after* construction had already begun.

the problem is you your disigne mistakes only come to light on completion,
had a bath installed in an enlarged bathroom,i even took bottles of bubble bath from the uk, never used it, and never will , snow boots would have been of more use.

^ Indeed. Baths are shit here.

Originally Posted by Rigger

Originally Posted by Bung

I also made my workshop too small.

It doesnt matter how big you build it, it will always be to small.

that is why mine is under the rice barn, open to the air, so I can expand when I need to

Originally Posted by Bung

Buy an old fridge to keep your beers in so your mrs doesn't yell at you for coming in the house dirty

bloody hell, hasn't she been trained?

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

Indeed. Baths are shit here.

Even if I had a bath I wouldn't shit in it

Originally Posted by a. boozer

Originally Posted by escaped

biggest mistake...........deciding to have a house build

Do tell more!

OK I give you one example but there are hundreds,if not thousands,similar to this and the house is yet 70 % completed.

The road side of my perimeter wall has 10 decorative collumns which have an equal space between them of course.In the middle between each collumn there is a lamp mounted for which the tubes and cables have been installed already.
I did the measuring myself,so I put a line as a mark as where the middle of each collumn should be.I also wrote down a number from 1 to 10 close to each mark .Next day I come back and all the collumns have been built already.
I see straight away that the tubes of the lights are not in the middle between 2 collumns.
So after asking I found out that they used the number instead of the line as the mark for the center position of the collumn.