Housing Projects

dont tell me youve bought one lee !!!!!!

A friend and I visited the site a few months ago and were told about half of the sites have been sold. My friend knows of at least one foreigner who has bought a home there. The home we toured during our visit was only about 50% complete when we toured, but we noticed only 2 wires hanging out the wall outlets. When we inquired about the lack of ground wires, the girl told us the estate didn't have to comply with that requirement. Something to do with them getting approval for the estate before the 3-wire requirement was made mandatory. Don't know if they've since installed ground wires, but if not, that'd be a serious deficiency in my book.

Thats shocking .

The Thai's will buy there for the 'prestige' value. A foreigner will buy there because he hasn't done his homework and doesn't understand the shoddy Thai building practices (no ground wires, red brick walls, ) who knows what else is skimped on? The foreigner will simply look at the 'surface' features and will perceive quality when the opposite is probably true.

Nice tiles, tubs, and furniture don't make a quality-built house.

10 million + lol ........ danger, danger Will Robinson......

I HAVE NOT LOOKED AT THE PRICES AROUND, BUT I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT FOR 10 MIL, YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO BUY A BEACH FRONT PROPERTY, IN PLACES SUCH AS HUA HIN &CHA AM!

RALPHCUSENS wrote:I HAVE NOT LOOKED AT THE PRICES AROUND, BUT I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT FOR 10 MIL, YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO BUY A BEACH FRONT PROPERTY, IN PLACES SUCH AS HUA HIN &CHA AM!

Absolutely.......a beach front villa with its own swimming pool.You could sit out and relax with a few ice cold Beer Changs,listening to the sound of the ocean and dream of Peter Crouch firing Pompey to the top of the Premiership !

Well maybe the beach front villa and swimming pool could become a reality,eh !

Zidane

Hi,
You may see three pin sockets in the houses but that does not mean a earth is installed. I found this the hard way when i pluged in a meter NO earth so be warned. I bought a new three bedroom single story inside the ring road for 1,000,000B and this includes land transfer fees hot water in the two bathrooms and a/c in main bedroom I could of bought ten of these for that price 10MB you are talking about over 150 thousand GBPs. which to me is out of my limit. I hope this price includes Furn. etc.
Cheers Doug.

lee wrote:
if you want a quality 2 storey 4 bedroom house in the city, with climate control througout, leather panel walls, walk through wardrobes, crystal chandeliers, teak and granite floors to list but a few features

You are putting up a good battle Lee..
Add some leopard print bedsheets and a mini-bar i am sure Del-Boy would love it...Mange-Tout...come to think of it i would love it. lol

Don't know why so many knock them, if you brought one and wasn't happy with it after moving in i could understand..but most probably no one on here has one or thinking of even buying one by the sounds of it..if they are over priced or in the wrong location too small surely they won't sell anymore...but seeing as some have been sold they must of done something right.

I positively know of 1 person (farang) who has purchased one of their homes.

I visited this project in its early stages and spoke with the builder (engineer). I asked him specifically why he was only running 2 wire electrical (no ground/earth). He told me that it was unnecessary other than with the hot water heater. I pointed out to him that EGAT (electric co.) which was located right across the street from this project has a very large display board detailing why a grounded system was necessary and how to do it as well. He was not interested in discussing the subject further so I dropped it. I personally don't put much faith in an "eduacted" engineer who fails to grasp the importance of a grounded (earthed) electrical system. I also asked him why he was building with brick without any insulation other than what was going under the roof tiles. As best I can recall he also ignored this issue as well.

On the positive side he is using galvanized steel electrical conduit along with steel junction, outlet and switch boxes. I haven't seen anything similar in the years that I have been in Udon Thani. I believe he is also using upgraded plastic water lines which are much stronger than the typical blue PVC pipe here in Thailand. The line is green in color and is heat welded at the joints as opposed to being glued. This same pipe is available at Home Mart, and I believe Home Pro. Home Mart will loan you the heat joining machinery free of charge when you purchase the pipe from them. It is also my understanding that the interior appointments are all top of the line to include Italian marble flooring.

Unfortunately the above negative points, the cost 10 million Baht and up, the exterior monthly maintenance fees and the lack of any breathable room between the houses would dissuade me from buying at this location despite the pluses of being "downtown" and those I mentioned above.

fdimike wrote: (no ground/earth). He told me that it was unnecessary other than with the hot water heater.

Washing machine, LCD or Plasma TV, computer monitor...even my new rice cooker (made in Thailand) has it....

fdimike wrote:I positively know of 1 person (farang) who has purchased one of their homes.

I visited this project in its early stages and spoke with the builder (engineer). I asked him specifically why he was only running 2 wire electrical (no ground/earth). He told me that it was unnecessary other than with the hot water heater. I pointed out to him that EGAT (electric co.) which was located right across the street from this project has a very large display board detailing why a grounded system was necessary and how to do it as well. He was not interested in discussing the subject further so I dropped it. I personally don't put much faith in an "eduacted" engineer who fails to grasp the importance of a grounded (earthed) electrical system. I also asked him why he was building with brick without any insulation other than what was going under the roof tiles. As best I can recall he also ignored this issue as well.

On the positive side he is using galvanized steel electrical conduit along with steel junction, outlet and switch boxes. I haven't seen anything similar in the years that I have been in Udon Thani. I believe he is also using upgraded plastic water lines which are much stronger than the typical blue PVC pipe here in Thailand. The line is green in color and is heat welded at the joints as opposed to being glued. This same pipe is available at Home Mart, and I believe Home Pro. Home Mart will loan you the heat joining machinery free of charge when you purchase the pipe from them. It is also my understanding that the interior appointments are all top of the line to include Italian marble flooring.

Unfortunately the above negative points, the cost 10 million Baht and up, the exterior monthly maintenance fees and the lack of any breathable room between the houses would dissuade me from buying at this location despite the pluses of being "downtown" and those I mentioned above.

Metal fittings and no Earth/ ground / Pvc would have been better with no ground, Ground is needed for Hot water, and any metal fittings, light covers like Fluors.

Here in oZ all outlets GPO general power outlet, have 3 pins , 1 ground, and most appliances have 3 pins, even if double insulated, like a fully plastic kettle, the advantage is if you accidently cut the power cord you have a chance of the RCD tripping out, because the ground wire in the cord will disperse the current, if you have a 2 wire cord nearly everything in Thailand, get a pair of sissors and cut the cord, if you are standing in a pair of shoes or on ceramic tiles, chances are you will get a shock,

So the point is if they dont make by law that all appliances have 3 wires then putting 3 pins in the outlet wont make any difference, hence dont need ground in GPO in Thai.

another way to look at it is +- or Active & Neutral, so you got 2 wires that come out of the socket / GPO to the appliance, now strip the wires back to expose them, now you have 2 bare copper wires, the home is fitted with RCD, put the plug into the socket, now the wires are alive, would you touch them, put 1 wire the black wire in the left hand, and hold tight, and put the other wire in the right hand, Q will the RCD stop you from getting a shock,
if you are well grounded, standing on the earth ground outside in bare feet, maybe a quick tingle, if in side on tiles carpet not a good ground, SO you will FRY

Now add the earth wire ground wire to the equation, you have a 3 pin system in your home outlett, you have 3 wires going to the appliance, strip the 3 wires back aghain 1 in left hand 1 in right hand and now we have ground wire, put that up you backside to hold it in place, now turn the F U C K E N power on, 5 - 30 msec later the RCD will trip out

Not a good way to test the system but the system works, running power across the heart might cause some problem, But in general if you grab the 3 bare wire system in one hand the RCD will trip out will little shock to you. If you grab a 2 wire system unless you have some ground loss from you, the RCD will think you are just another appliance using power

SO if all thai has only 2 wire system on appliance cords then adding earth to the outlet is useless, May be they will change in the future, so for little extra cost put the 3 wire system in place for when they start putting ground wire on all appliances.

For my Stainless fridge to work with the ground system , I will need to have a ground wire connected to the fridge, and the to the ground in the Outlet, at the moment it has only 2 wires, so to increase safety wire up the fridge to ground, but then the fridge is usually the problem tripping out the RCD when the motor starts up, some dont wire up the fridge circut on the RCD,

Any Aussie Elect out there to comfirm if the fridge can be left off the RCD circuit in Oz or is it compulsary to put all circuts on thr RCD, I think all circuts need to be protected in OZ

And that was a good day Sunday

With 1 Flick of the Switch , my vote goes with Aussie Boy on this , a Master builder.