Thread: Chris's Villa Build in Phnom Penh Cambodia

^I'm in the semi-rural Philippines, about 90 minutes south of Manila. Labor here is dirt cheap. My biggest problem was that several huge projects in China were buying up all available steel bar, everywhere, as well as cement, and prices just kept going up and up. Of course, just about the time I got past the cement and rebar stage, the projects in China concluded and the prices of stuff I didn't need any more dropped. Also, I get paid in dollars, and the exchange rate was going up and down like a roller coaster during the nine months we were building. Had a 37-man crew on it, six to seven days a week, about ten hours a day. Hard-working, great bunch of guys, many of whom still drop by for a drink every few weeks.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

cost me about 250,000

is that Baht, Dong , Remimbi or peanuts?

^ That's US$.

Okay looks like lots of people are interested in this, so I think I'll give you all a quick run through on how construction works here for comparison.

The first big difference is the role of the contractor, from what I've read on here the usual way to build in Thailand is for a building firm to take the plans and give you a price for a finished house.

Here the usual practice if for the contractor to give you a price for the labour excluding the roof, steel work (doors, gates etc), wood work, plumbing & electrical. You then source all of the materials yourself and hire separate sub-contractors for the other parts.

If you're lazy to source the contractors yourself or have built a trusting relationship with the main contractor, the contractor can usually source sub-contractors for you.

Sourcing materials isn't nearly as hard as it sounds, you make a relationship with one of the numerous local family owned material supply shops and then when you need something, you phone them and they deliver it to the site, you then go and settle up the account every few days or at the end of the week. These shops have 90% of what you need and you only really need to go elsewhere for specialised finishings or uncommon plumbing/electrical parts.

The next big difference seems to be labour, we average about 20 people on site at a time, the most I've counted is 30. Here nearly all construction happens in the dry season, the reasons for this are two fold, the first is that it's easier building during this time of year, the second reason is that most of the rice paddy in Cambodia produces only one harvest per year in wet season, this means that huge amount of labour comes online every dry season when there's nothing left to do on the farms.

The contractors want to complete as many projects as they can during the dry season so will literally put as many labourers on site as possible. The unskilled labourers are rarely from the local area, they come to the urban centers during the dry season in crews and live on site during the construction.

My wife runs the project day to day and I just show up a few times a week to check on progress and check everything with my spirit level ;-)

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

^ That's US$.

Have you got any pics on this site, would love to see?

One of the guys I work with lives and works remote from Bohol with his wife, I try to make some kind of business excuse to get out there about once a year. I bet you can get yourself some serious house for $250k there.

Interesting build. Good luck with it.

^^^That is precisely how mine worked. It would have cost me 30% more if I had just contracted it out. My wife handled payroll, all purchases of material, and was on site all day, every day. I wore out two lawn chairs and a beer cooler or two 'supervising'.

^^^Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures on this site. At least one poster, Aging One, has seen pictures of the finished house. I just haven't gotten around to working out how to post pictures on TD yet (it's only been about two years). Yep, you can get a lot of house for that money. I have lived here for 14 years, and don't ever plan on going anywhere, so I just decided that this was what IRA's were for. The family is now all set if something happens to me, and all I have to work out now is college tuition abroad for the twins, which will probably keep me broke for a few years or more.

Its a beautiful place, I am looking at the photos in facebook now. I was trying to find a way to post a few but I am not technically sufficient enough.

I am happy to have 40% of what Davis has.

^AO: I hope to finally get some pictures of the inside of the house up in the next week. Finally. My Mom is sending me threatening e-mails as I have been promising them for over a year. I'll send you a PM when they're up.

Sorry Davis, couldn't reply to the PM as I don't have enough posts. I'm only a couple off and will send my facebook details then.

^No need. Just sent you another PM.

^I really haven't given it an honest effort. I am dumb about computers, and technology in general. It's a generational thing. I also can't program a VCR and have the most basic cell phone possible that sends and receives. It's not that I can't do it - it's just that I really don't care.

^

The process one must go through to post photos is a farking dogs breakfast.

Because I've posted hundreds I'm down with it but if I don't throw up a picture thread every now and then I really have to think about it again.

No doubt people have problems sussing it out and I recon this forum misses out on many a good picture thread because punters just cant get there head around it.

Even reading the posting instructions can be daunting to a newbie.

Farking hell, there's got to be an easier process EH?

Someone said you can do it via Picassa or some similar site ,,,,,fook me I even done all that and still ended up with a load of syntex

Chris, what you are describing is pretty much how I am planning to do it the beginnig of next year. Here in Thailand, you can either hire a builder or contract with subs to get things done. If you have spent any time on this site, you will see that there are some ugly stories about builders that are hired to do the entire package. There are some good stories as well like Dr. Andy or Old Monkey but I have chosen your route due to decreased cost and better control of things. I have already spoken to a couple of builders with the same idea of having them build the footings, foundation and possibly the roof. After that, it will depend on their skill level and the final product whether I continue with them or move on to other subcontrators. My budget is much less than yours and there are ways to decrease the costs here that I am considering and it should cost a bit less than what you are looking at. Try to use cost per square meter and then take a look at some of the threads on this site and that should give you a reference point.
Good luck to you and I look forward to following your progress.

Keep them coming Chris you have another fan of building threads here!

Nice looking place and cute kids too!

Hey Chris, we all love a good building thread I'm looking forward to watching this one all the way to the end.

Originally Posted by terry57

No doubt people have problems sussing it out and I recon this forum misses out on many a good picture thread because punters just cant get there head around it.

No shit, I build my own websites, newsletters and other business stuff but can't get my head around posting pictures here.

Great pics mate...good luck with the build....Welcome to TD!

Bong, nice post!
PP is a great place
Wood, Aluminium or PVC window and door frames?

Originally Posted by Khun Custard

Bong, nice post!
PP is a great place
Wood, Aluminium or PVC window and door frames?

We've decided to go with UPVC casement windows, they were only 20% more expensive than the high quality aluminium alternatives. I'm not a big fan of wood windows, I've had them in previous places and although they look nice they aren't very functional and warp with time.

Although statistically speaking Phnom Penh is quite safe, there was a time not so long ago when it wasn't, as a result all houses have bars on the windows and no one (me included) wants to be the first one to remove them as the house with the least security will always be a target. Like the house with no alarm back home.

This adds another dynamic to the window decision, if you have outward opening casement windows, then you need to place the bars on the inside, if you want them on the outside then you need sliders. This is something I've thought long and hard about and have had various configurations in other houses, none being perfect. Put them outside and the house can look like a prison, put them on the inside and you loose your windowsill and can also be an eyesore unless you fork out for some kind of ornate iron or steel designs.

I've decided to put them on the inside and go for some ornate steel bars which are a little pricey at $48 per m2, but look more like a feature than a security measure.

While we're on the subject, one of the great things about Cambodia is that you can lots of things fabricated to order for an extremely reasonable price.

You can get very high quality steel doors fabricated to order for only $84m2, this example is iron, but you get the idea:

They look a tidy set of doors Chris ,, should prove fairly monkey proof .

Had a chuckle to myself as I have just fitted 8 internal doors in our bungalow , there as light as feathers compared to them buggers !

Popped out to the site this evening to check on progress having not been there for a week.

Some good progress, the first floor walls are being bricked in and the wood used to hold up the formwork whilst they poured the first floor pad has been removed. This gives me my first opportunity to get a real feel for the room layouts and sizes and have to say I'm happy, everything is just how I imagined it would be.

Here are some pics, the site was an absolute mess today with the wood that was used for the formwork still laying around and piles of bricks in position for the brick layers. Not that I care, I don't have to work there.

Here are some pics -

Starting to take shape:


The wood used to hold up the formwork for the first floor pad has nearly all been taken down:



Septic tanks ready to go in, went for a 1600 aerated and a 1200 non-aerated at the recommendation of a plumber mate of mine. A lot cheaper than a 2500 or 3000 aerated option but will have the same throughput her reckons.



Here you can see terrace, this wall was deliberately left with few windows as it's west facing so will catch the afternoon sun.



Like I said, not a very tidy looking site at the moment. All of the exterior walls are being double bricked (20cm):

Interesting brickwork.
When rendered the walls will be the same thickness as the columns.
Much better then the standard brickwork in Thailand