Thread: Chris's Villa Build in Phnom Penh Cambodia

Originally Posted by Thetyim

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

I'll tell the brick layers that tomorrow it will likely make their day!

The architect has designed the brickwork in such a way that none of the columns will be visible from inside or outside after rendering. They double brick the exterior wall and then also a few walls where needed on the interior to avoid seeing the columns in the corners of rooms. This pretty much standard for villas and none low cost housing here.

Originally Posted by ChrisInCambo

They double brick the exterior wall

Good. Now I understand your previous comment about losing the window sill with interior window security bars

I notice that you build double brick walls but leave no air space between the bricks.Is there a reason for.

Originally Posted by escaped

I notice that you build double brick walls but leave no air space between the bricks.Is there a reason for.

No not really. The double brick walls are mainly for aesthetic purposes, although they will also have some noise reduction and thermal mass benefits I think.

The bottom floor is open plan so I'm not planning on air-conditioning that space, for this reason I've tended to think more about passive cooling rather than insulation in the design. We'll have to wait and see how it works out.

Originally Posted by ChrisInCambo

No not really. The double brick walls are mainly for aesthetic purposes, although they will also have some noise reduction and thermal mass benefits I think.

I had them do my house in Thailand this way, they thought I was insane! seems they have better standards in Cambo, not hard to believe.
Good thread looking forward to seeing progress..

It's nice when you hit that point when you can actually get a real feel for room size and layout. I have a hard time conceptualizing off of blueprints and clearly remember the day when we hit the point where I looked at the house structure and went, "Ah-ha".

The bricks look great. I can't remember seeing a house being built here in the Philippines with brick, rather than cinder block (hollow block). Wonder why? In fact, I can't even remember seeing brick used for decorative purposes - usually it's stone.

Coming along very nicely.

Originally Posted by ChrisInCambo

We've decided to go with UPVC casement windows

Originally Posted by ChrisInCambo

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.

Hi Bong!
I think PVC is the right decision too

I was in PP a few weeks ago and noticed the general lack of security grills on windows both in the CBD and suburbs - for me, this is always a good indicator of how safe a city is.

Plenty of room in the garage to park one of those huge Yank utes/ pick ups that were as common as late model Range Rovers on the streets?? :-)
PP must have the highest ratio of luxury cars per capita of any capital city I've visited

Double brick / hollow core is common in Australia but with the PP climate, it might retain too much of the the day time heat and increase your aircon / power bills ???

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

It's nice when you hit that point when you can actually get a real feel for room size and layout. I have a hard time conceptualizing off of blueprints and clearly remember the day when we hit the point where I looked at the house structure and went, "Ah-ha".

What I hate is that freshly constructed rooms with just the brickwork look so small, I always have a little panic when I first see them and think I've gone too small. It's not until there's some furniture in there to put it all into perspective that I relax again.

Originally Posted by Khun Custard

Double brick / hollow core is common in Australia but with the PP climate, it might retain too much of the the day time heat and increase your aircon / power bills ???

Yep I'm not 100% on this, the reading I had done suggested that the thermal mass concepts needs at least a 6'c swing in order to work, Cambodia apparently has 10'c so it should work, but not as well as places that get a 15-20 shift between night and day.

^^I did exactly the same thing. When I looked at the master bedroom walk-in closet, I thought it was way too small for what I knew she wanted to put in there. She told me to chill and gave me a bottle opener. Of course, she was right, and there was room to spare, but it sure didn't look it.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

I am dumb about computers, and technology in general. It's a generational thing.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

It's not that I can't do it - it's just that I really don't care

make your mind up

in reality, you are scared of new technology, so use various excuses to avoid getting involved

it really is simple, same as driving a car or using a sewing machine

^Thanks, Doc. Your insights into the human psyche are always interesting, if generally unsolicited.

as to uploading since no one else wants to explain,

go to, Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket and u dont need register but if u do then the pics stay there AND ITS FREE.

upload ur pics and then it will give u a url , Its called the direct link.
Copy it and then go to the bar above here and find the insert image and paste the direct image url u get from Photo bucket and ur done.

Has anyone had experience or has information on the average per square metre cost for renovating existing structures in Bangkok?

You have a beautiful family. Your children are so cute I had to show my wife. I am also curious where your wife and you are from originally? You mentioned past building endeavors. Is building and selling real estate your livelihood?

Very much looking forward to seeing this come to fruition, looks like a great place.

Very nice looking house you're building. Keep the pictures and updates coming, TD has some great building threads.

Shiloh Jim

Originally Posted by Phuketrichard

I built a house here in Phuket in 2001 and it was less than 3 mil but i would imagine labor costs are less there than here? my place was 220 sqm /two floors/4 bedrooms/3 baths/teak floors on second floor and tile downstairs/ teak staricase/ big western kitchen and a full wrap around balcony on 2 rai.

It sounds like a similar sized house, wood is where the prices can really get high here now they've cut most of theirs down. I'm just going for internal doors, skirting boards and covering for the stairs. Going all out with the tropical hard woods could have easily added $30,000 if I went for solid stairs, floors and lower walls.

My tip for wood here is to go for Dong Chaim rather Baing, it has a nicer grain IMHO and is half the price. (Sorry don't know what those woods are called in English)

Originally Posted by Phuketrichard

Curious what was the price of land there? My partner and i (Roni, who has the only sailboat charter in Shianoukville) have been lookng at land on Ko Rong and will be building bungalowes there in a year or two.

We paid $112m2 where we are, but paid a bit of premium for being on a sub-division where other villas are being build. Other plots in the same area can be had for $80, but as there's no zoning here, you could end up with a steel mill next door in a few years. The prices inside the city limits are insane at the moment ranging from $500-2000m2! I think the smart money is to buy on the outskirts, the prices are still relatively cheap and as Phnom Penh's population grows the well healed of Phnom Penh will follow every other developed city on earth and move to the greener edges. The great thing with Phnom Penh is it's a small, compact city, where we are it's semi-rural and only 4km as the birds fly to the Independence Monument (center of the city), I can drive there in 9 minutes at night and 20 during rush hour!

You can check out the location here on Google Maps:

New House - Google Maps

I think south of the city is the way to go for the future, now they've built the new bridge next to the old one across the Bassac river and put the flyover where route 1 goes under Norodom there are never any traffic problems here, you can just swing straight onto Norodom and you're in the center in minutes. The traffic will be even lighter in a year or so when they've completed a third bridge across the river south of Ta K'moa that will link the ring road to route 1.

There's a second bridge coming soon next to the current Japanese bridge across the Tonle Sap, that could possibly make the area north of the city look more attractive, but it is always going to be a pain getting south of Central Market and there's not a lot they can do about that as it's extremely built up and populated. I've got to go to work everyday so have to factor travel time into my quality of life equation. If you don't need to travel during peak times, it opens up a lot of options.

Originally Posted by Phuketrichard

Anyway keep the photos coming and would love to meet up when i return. Nice to see some barnags building there as when i was there the only people I knew rented those shity apts in town ( you know, 4 m x 15 m with the bedroom in the middle) I love the outskirts of PP especailly heading north.

Tell me about it, everyone seems to be fixated on living in that noisy & over populated central zone of Phnom Penh inside Moa Tse Toung Blvd, go another 5km south or southwest and you're in leafy streets where you can hear the birds sing and your neighbours aren't living right on top of you.

Give me a shout next time you're in town, you can come check out what we've done.

Originally Posted by Phuketrichard

Is ur wife from PP ? whats the neihborhood like? will u be the only barang?

Yep my wife's from Phnom Penh. There are a couple of other foreigners in the neighbourhood that I've spotted, I haven't had chance to introduce myself yet though.

Originally Posted by ota

You have a beautiful family. Your children are so cute I had to show my wife. I am also curious where your wife and you are from originally? You mentioned past building endeavors. Is building and selling real estate your livelihood?

Thanks, I think they've got their mum to thank for that ;-) I'm English and my wife is Khmer.

No we don't buy and sell for our livelihood, I'm a software engineer and a partner in a couple of software companies that operate out of Phnom Penh. We've got construction experience here as during the property boom here a few years ago we (royal we, mainly my wife) went through a run of buying run down apartments, gutting them, then renovating and flipping them for some very healthy margins. We've also built one other smaller house here previously.

We paid $112m2 where we are, but paid a bit of premium for being on a sub-division where other villas are being build

Ok 1 rai here in thailand is 1,600 m2 so u paid over $179,200 for a rai. or about 5,430,000 baht. thats the going price here in Phuket but wouldn't get ya shit if u wanted a view of the water!!

Would love to stop by for a look but have another few months here than back to the states for a year than will be moving to Cambodia. by then i expect u will e finished .

Seems sofware is good $$ where ever u are. Glad u found your spot and the family to make life good.

The pricing is quite funny here and I think there are some real opportunities for profit if you can see the future with the aid of your crystal ball. The shift in prices changes so dramatically as you move out of the city. For example the center of the city non-commercial land is changing hands for $1200 m2, you move out about 1-2 km and it drops $600, go 3-4km then it-s about $350, go 4-5 km and it drops below $100.

A ten fold decrease over a distance of 4-5km, that is simply insane. I could understand this difference 5-10 years ago when those areas didn't have paved roads and weren't on the electricity grid or weren't perceived to be safe, but now they have all of the above plus the benefit of not being densely populated, but the market hasn't yet caught up.

You are already seeing the first movers now, and there are some very nice villas popping up. Coming from the west we all know how this story plays out. Country modernises -> population moves to urban centers -> urban centers become overcrowded with all of the other problems that brings -> the well off move to the suburbs. Cambodia hasn't yet got to part three of this journey but you can see it coming. If I had a pile of spare cash I would be buying 500-1000m2 plots all over the area where I am and sitting on them for a few years.

Okay just popped to the site at lunch time, spent a little more time taking pictures than usual now there's some interest.

Here are some views from different sides of the house:

Right Side:


Back:




Front:




Here are some of the neighbours places, as you can see I'm going to have the smallest house on the block. Apparently the guy who owns the block between my place and the second house you see in the pics below is going to start construction shortly:










They're using 60mm HDPE pipe to run the mains power from the street into the house, unlike PVC Gordon the gardener is going to have a hard job getting his fork through that:



Also using 40mm HDPE pipe to run the mains water into the house:

I guess they're going to bring pneumatic drill to reclaim their mixer at the end of the build:



Here are some general shots form around the site: