Thread: Building a house in Nakhom Pathom

good luck with all that

I hope it all works out well

OK, we spent some time yesterday looking at granite floor options. The standard for the house is wood laminate flooring, but the feel of cold stone on your feet is very nice in the tropics. The house company uses one place to supply all the sanitary ware, fittings and floor tiles. And their prices are much higher. Plus, with the tile, there will a visible seam. We went to another place that sells granite flooring, and the seams are much narrower with the granite. We both like that.

So, this is the granite floor we chose:




Whlie there I saw this and told my wife that we had to have it in the front entrance. You will also be able to see it when looking down from upstairs. It's a little bigger than a square meter (120 x 120 cm). We will also use a black trim piece around it as a transition from the granite:




The new work crew is much cleaner, constantly sweeping up the bits of concrete dust, etc. I like that, alot !!

As the house looked Saturday. A lot of interior walls going up now:




The upstairs wall, looking down onto the ground floor, is finally taking shape:



And from the other end:


I went out into the adjoining rice paddy to get this shot. My office will be in the lower left corner, the kitchen to the lower right (east). A bedroom is the upper right corner. Master Bath is upper left corner. The large window faces out from the dressing area. The central area (both upstairs & downstairs) will be a family rooms with a little balcony. You will also notice the house sits about 1 meter abover everything else. I don't anticipate having any flooding problems:


A shot, from that upper bedroom in the southeast corner, showing the south wall, yes that is a banana tree bearing fruit back there:



And the downstairs utility closet/ storeroom is taking shape. Breaker panel will go in the opening on the right. The standard is 15 Amp, I've asked them to make it 30 Amp and to add a Safe-T-Cut.

Good to see your back on track Steve , lets hope this crew keep up the good work

Looking good.

Any progress\updates Steve?

Originally Posted by UdonThani Pete

Any progress\updates Steve?

Actually yes, my wife e-mailed me some pics over night.

At this time, I'm not willing to recommend PD House for Westerners wanting to biuld a house in Thailand. Their communication is very poor, almost non-existant. While they have been willing to meet us at the site, when requested, I question how much actual oversite they provide. We have caught 2 major mistakes by the concrete block workers. One was where they forgot a door in the kitchen and the other was they never allowed for the windows in the maid (Mother-in-law for us) room. If PD HOuse was regularly supervising the house construction, they would have caught those problems.

A revised electrical plan was promised to me by the end of August, but it has not been supplied.

There's more, but I don't want to raise my blood pressure right now. I was really pleased with their initial work, but it seems everything is going downhill. I just want them to finish the house and leave. I ahev asked for the contact information of the head of their Nakhom Pathom office, which they seemed to ignore so far.

I will say, the second group of concrete block workers are keeping the site cleaner and it looks like their concrete block laying is better quality as well.

I'll get the pics posted after I put them on photobucket.

OK, here are some pics that the wife took with her iPad. She doesn't have the same eye and attention to detail so they are a little more general.

Front of the house:



The master bath as seen from the dressing area of the MBR:



The stairs with the concrete block finally in position. Finally, I can go upstairs without feeling I'm goign to fall out !
Although my wife says there's a problem. I think what she's telling me is that the window in the stairwell should be located a little lower, so maybe 2 rows of concrete blocks need to be removed:



The main entrance on ground floor. Stairs are off to the left:



Another view of the stairwell:



Bedroom 3, which we intend to make my youngest daughter's bedroom:



I thnk this is the "Buddha room":


Upstairs family room:



View of the master bedroom looking out west onto our adjoing property, where I will add soem more fill and put a "man-cave" out there. I want to practice slow cooking/smoked ribs. etc plus try making some beer. That property is also where I want to build a solar/wind power set-up to try and run at least one a/c in the house. We've got plenty of room, sun and often get a nice breeze out there.

Originally Posted by nigelandjan

Fantastic Steve ! its a huge project for sure.

Praise and thanks to your wifes iPad pics , I very much like your idea of a man room , somewhere to get away from the milling crowds ,, you'll need a good lock on that door to keep em out Certainly a 100% in our Thai home when we build / buy one albeit a much smaller one on our budget , but never the less it will be there .

Hope your through the storm now mate and cruising to the finish line with your new crew

Well Niogel,
When you get ready to build, DO NOT use PD House ! I'm really disappointed in the communication, delays, excuses and some questionable issues at the house. At this time I cannot recommend them. If things improve, communication picks up and issues are fixed to my satisfaction, then I will reconsider.

Hell, I can't even log into the website anymore to check construction. When I ask for a new password, it tells me to contact the office staff. And then they say to contact the webmaster (with no contact details provided, of course).
Grrrrrr.....

Nicee place mate how long until your finished ?

Originally Posted by bobo746

Nicee place mate how long until your finished ?

Thanks.

Right now, March or April of next year. Although that could change depending upon how they resolve some ongoing concerns that I have with the amount of cement used on each concrete block. In some places in the house, you can see daylight through the gaps. This is in direct contrast with what they say on their website regaring installation of lightweight concrete blocks. I want these fixed, not just smooth coated over. So this will be a battle coming up with PD House and it could delay when finished.

A mate has just built a town house in phuket,when he got it inspected there was more the 70 faults.Needless to say he wasn't happy.

Originally Posted by bobo746

A mate has just built a town house in phuket,when he got it inspected there was more the 70 faults.Needless to say he wasn't happy.

Wow !!

Was it a PD House job ?

I didn't know they had house inspectors (legitimate ones) in Thailand.

This is a real pain in the ass that nobody needs, especially after all the Bht you've obviously shelled out.

I was hoping PD would come through for you. I hoped to use their services after hearing that NDK is not exactly up to snuff on their work either.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by MrG

This is a real pain in the ass that nobody needs, especially after all the Bht you've obviously shelled out.

I was hoping PD would come through for you. I hoped to use their services after hearing that NDK is not exactly up to snuff on their work either.

Good luck.

Thanks.

Yeah, I'm disappointed in them too. They've dropped the ball on me. I'm trying to get in touch with the local office manager, who supposedly is eager for Westerners to buy from PD House, but they have yet to give me his e-mail address.

I know building a house can be stressful but this is driving me nuts !! Especially since only person seems to speak english in the whole damn company !!

I have never heard of one, but I did catch this on the thread about a house build in Nakorn Pratom. By bobo 76 I think A mate has just built a town house in phuket,when he got it inspected there was more the 70 faults.Needless to say he wasn't happy.

Thanx for the update regarding the build quality Steve, when you catch up with the said office manager, tell him he has already lost another customer, me.

Nice house mate. I just got back from Nakhom Pathom last week ;-). I love it there. It's like a second home these days...

Thanks for the update Steve, I can imagine how frustrating this is for you, as a possible suggestion that worked very well for me, I employed one man (Thai) who was my eyes, ears and rep on site if he had not had been there there would have been many big mistakes made, in one instance he got them to knock one complete wall down that they had built when he could not be on site and re-build properly, I made this very clear to the builders that what he says goes.
This I did because I came not to trust the builder at a very early stage lies and more lies, like yours it was supposed to be supervised by them (the engineer) but I found him absolutely useless as children could put block work up better then they were doing and the engineer could not see it.
These builders do not employ building people, they just go out to market for the cheapest so continuity is non existinant and you get people who have not got a clue in what they are doing or learning as your expense.
Try to keep positive Steve as you will get there in the end.
Pete

There didn't seem to be much of a reflective barrier under the roof tiles. Hard to see from the photos, so I hope I'm wrong.

Originally Posted by Marmite the Dog

There didn't seem to be much of a reflective barrier under the roof tiles. Hard to see from the photos, so I hope I'm wrong.

No there isn't. But there will be 6" of fiberglass insulation placed up there. The standard is 3". It looks like the backing has a reflective surface also.

Originally Posted by Mozzbie47

when you catch up with the said office manager, tell him he has already lost another customer, me.

Right. And you can add me to the list when you talk to him.

Originally Posted by Mozzbie47

Thanx for the update regarding the build quality Steve, when you catch up with the said office manager, tell him he has already lost another customer, me.

Sorry Mozz, I missed this. I'll be sure to let them know they've lost two Western prospects (you and MrG). I'm still waiting for a reply on the Office Manager e-mail info. I bet they never give it to me, which won't bode well, becasue if I have to dig it out, what follows won't be pretty.

I'm just looking forward to getting it done and chasing them off the property ! What started out really good has gone sour very fast.

OK, the wife sent me some more pics that she took with her iPad. Some interesting progress.

A view looking down, from the stairs, to where the western style kitchen will be.



Then looking at the kitchen area from the ground floor. We haven't really talked about the kitchen design. I may wait until after the house is done to do any real work there. We're going to have a Thai-style kitchen just outside, so the emphasis will be on that getting finished first.



I've noticed they've started some electrical work, which is interesting. I gave PD House the marked up electrical plans in early August and was promised a revised set to review and approve by the end of August. Needless to say, I've not received them. So I'm asking PD House, today, why they are doing electrical work when I have not reviewed and approved the final set ? I told them today that i'm not going to pay for any changes made, since I neevr approved whatever drawings they are working from.

Looking east from the master bedroom. To the immediate right is an upstairs family room. The first enclosed room on the right is the "Buddha room". There are 2 bedrooms at the end, one on the left and one on the right. Bathroom is straight ahead.



Looking at the ground floor mother in law's room (originally maid's room) and what will be a breezeway side entrance from the car park. You also see one of the bedrooms upstairs as well.



An overall view of the house from the northwest. My office will be on the ground floor on the right, in the back. It will be a nice space to work in.



Looking at the entrance. You can see the family room on the ground floor and upstairs. I really want to buy the lot behind the house and get rid of the rice paddy. Maybe sometime down the line, after everything else is paid off.



Ground floor, famliy room looking west. More electrical work going on.



Upstairs, from the steps looking west towards the family room and the master bedrrom entrance. You also see the "Buddha Room" doorway on the left.
I'm starting to wonder what is the function of the rebar sticking out and angled upwards? I would have thought it would have tied into the curved concrete block wall they've built.

That's all for now. My feelings have not changed for PD House. I cannot recommend them to a Westerner wanting to build a house in Thailand. Their customer service is pathetically bad.

All the best Steve thanks of rthe update and thanks to your wifes iPad efforts