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Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 22, 2011, 12:27 pm
by Francis-udon
I'm about to have a house built, however before they make a start I would like to make sure I have all things covered. I'm not a builder and I'm new to all this, the list below is what I've picked up on the net so far.

If you've built a house in Thailand and have a few tips/advice or have spotted something I could add to my list I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

1. Prepare ground against termites
2. Damp proof course barrier under house
3. Earthed plug sockets
4. cable for TV fitted into power sockets in all rooms
5. cables fitted into walls
6. telephone sockets fitted
7. Super blocks on exterior walls to keep the heat out or double thickness brick/cement wall with insulation barrier
8. Good ventilation in roof
9. light colour roof tiles to avoid soaking up the heat
10. Thick foil coated insulation under roof tiles and fiberglass rolls above the ceilings
11. light exterior paint
12. balconies around house for extra shade
12. trees with bushy foliage planted around house

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 22, 2011, 2:30 pm
by eagle
I would change telephone socket to net sockets, but it is more personal decision and need. We would never use a land line for phone, because mobile is ok. IP phone fits also to the net socket.

I have not yet finally decided how our house will be build and one possibility is to have it rised up as typical thai houses are. Anyway there must be good drains to keep water going somewhere else than under the house. It will be an easy task, because land is much lower at the other end of our land.

Most importand is to have bedrooms located on east or north side and have natural ventilation through the house. It should keep those not so warm. In fact I have experienced north wing bedroom without any ventilation (only one door to livingroom) and it was hotter than sauna. One wall was direct to west and room was very hot. For me north means north, not combined north and west.

If you have thai wife, you must have thai kitchen or western kitchen must be big enough to allow all friend to take help your wife to prepare food (still you need outside kitchen). Life will be much easier and comfortable, if women do have a good place where they can chat and make food.

Bedroom should be as name says -room for beds. Big master bedroom sounds good, looks good and can make friends faces green, but when paying aircon bills for extra cubics, your own face turns white.

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 22, 2011, 4:35 pm
by ajsp9
What a sensible post from Eagle, totally agree with the above

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 22, 2011, 6:57 pm
by Francis-udon
eagle wrote:I would change telephone socket to net sockets
Good idea I never thought of that.
eagle wrote:Most importand is to have bedrooms located on east or north side and have natural ventilation through the house
Ours will be N/E so that's good to know
eagle wrote:still you need outside kitchen
I thought about that. We plan having both indoor and out door for Thai cooking, bbq's and parties.

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 22, 2011, 7:21 pm
by eagle
Francis-udon wrote:
eagle wrote:still you need outside kitchen
I thought about that. We plan having both indoor and out door for Thai cooking, bbq's and parties.
Just one comment from my wife. She denies to have open indoor kitchen combined to living room. I fully agree her. Sometimes smoke, smell and sound are rised too high level. Chili and some Isaan dishes would be better to make using closed doors. :-k I really like chili, but preparing food can be hard to stand.

Open indoor kitchen seems to be some kind of trend, but it is not best in Thailand.

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 24, 2011, 7:37 pm
by stoneman
During the entire building process make sure that the end of every PVC pipe is closed...I have redone several pipes because there was rendering plaster in the pipe...Also make sure that they use the heaviest grade PVC for anything that you can not readily access...Also pressure test all lines...

Also if possible a separate outside Thai kitchen is the best...

Stoneman

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 24, 2011, 9:57 pm
by Prenders88
Safety cut fusebox, and mains isolater.
Alarm system, have a look at the systems in Amorn on the ground floor of Big C.
Daikin A/C units.
Security grilles on all the windows and outside doors.
Wireless smoke detector in kitchen.
Two bathrooms.
Double glazed, UPVC windows, will help block out the noise from ar$ehole neighbours.

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 26, 2011, 5:08 am
by siddiq
A great post. This is from my personal experience of building a 4 bedroom bungalow in town. It's project managed based and may be OTT but it means you have some control over the process:

Write a mission statement with your requirements.

Ask around the local area to see what developments are going on, e.g. road building, new estates, etc.

Think about what time of year you'll be building (the dry season?).

Write a project plan with rough time scales.

Consider staying on the site to oversee the build yourself or get your wife to do it.

Get three quotes from separate builders/architects, check out their own houses, very often they've built their own.

Agree a price and a building time scale. We included a payback clause should the builder go vastly over schedule but it's useful to remember that he may cut corners to hit deadlines.

We paid the builder in 5 stages, this was agreed in the contract and subject to what was completed in the build.

Get your plans. Rework with the architect as required. Think foundations, think electrical safety, think water waste (grey and black) and think about guttering (I forgot!).

List all the risks associated with building and work out a plan should those risks arise.

Keep an issues log.

Keep a build diary.

Make the builder and architect work to a contract so engage the services of a lawyer.

Check of understanding with all your stakeholders. Does everyone understand what's required of them?

Submit your plans and make sure you get permission to build from the appropriate people at the Tessa Ban (or whoever does that job since it was burned down).

Ensure your builders work to the plans, no changes because they think it might look better.

Health and safety, think about keeping kids off the building site. Make sure that the contract stipulates that you're not responsible for any on site accidents (it should be down to the builder).

Do your financial homework properly, keep a reserve in case unforeseen problems arise (I kept back 20% of the overall cost).

Run a lessons learned exercise afterwards should you decide you want to build something else at a later date.

A good book is 'How to buy land and build in Thailand' by Philip Bryce ISBN 1-887521-71-2.

Very often, your labourers are girls or families and they live just by the building site in shelters, please look after them.

Good luck.

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 26, 2011, 7:09 am
by Galee
Everything you need to know is on here.

http://www.coolthaihouse.com/forum/

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 26, 2011, 2:40 pm
by FrazeeDK
don't forget a general contract to a specificed price may mean your general contractor will purchase "builder quality" or the cheapest items available. Remember, he's not your buddy, he's a GC trying to make the best profit possible.

although it entails traveling about to various stores, it's going to be YOUR house and you should be deeply involved with ensuring you get what you know is satisfactory to you!!

plan out:

- quality and color of floor/wall/bathroom tiles (I've seen some atrociously pink tiling in homes that probably was from cheap sales of items no one would buy)
- what quality of applicances you desire.
- bathroom toilet/fixtures.
- water storage tanks/demand water pumps.
- type of water heater(s)
- air conditioning equipment and prewiring rooms for installation.
- quality/exact model of ceiling fans.
- quality/exact type of lighting fixtures.
- working with non-primary contractors for:
granite countertops.
cabinets.
wood accessories; doors, crown moldings, wall moldings.
storage closets.

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 26, 2011, 2:41 pm
by FrazeeDK
oh, and remember most Thai General Contractors will gladly modify a contract in the midst of construction but with the price increased for every modification.

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 27, 2011, 10:07 am
by Mudshark
Gary - fabulous site. Eve's father and his partner are house builders and from what I have seen, very good ones. A lot of what I see on this web page rings true to what I saw in Eve's father's products.

Their family recently rebuilt the family house and i have to admit, they work hard, work efficiently and seem to have a lot of fun while they're doing it. Not a bad formula for housebuilding.

GT

Re: Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: February 27, 2011, 11:06 am
by Francis-udon
Thanks for the useful replies everyone.

I'm thinking of buying all the materials myself so I can keep an eye on what's ordered. Also I will be in Udon so I can check the progress regularly.

Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: June 8, 2012, 8:14 am
by kopkei
first a note about insulation of a home , to me insulation is only good if you stay in a country with different seasons en different temperature , in thailand where it is always warm ( hot ) it has no use unless you always stay inside your home with all windows and doors closed and the aircon on...as i like to air the home and always open all windows , so air but also hot air will come in and thanks to the insulation the hot air also be kept good in the home...
btw , our home now has all the insulation mentioned by peter and is same bloody hot....
we are going to build a new home in udon , and the most important is using the white center blocks, and concrete slabs
(betonwelfsels , peter) as ceiling, not the gypsum board garbage...
using these slabs will make the home a lot cooler...and you can at least access the roof easy ( not have to jump from 1 border of the wall to the other)in case you need to fix anything there.. we are going to build i L shape,
( only 4m wide ,remember big rooms , big aircon , big bills..., and we spend the most time outside not inside the home) with only 1 window on the outside walls,( i do not want to look at my neighbors wall)these walls will be tiled completely so i do not have to paint every 3 years ...and all big windows inside the L ....on the inside the roof will also extend 4m , so we will have an extended terrace outside being able to walk and sit outside , ( next to the pool ) no matter what weather...( so small home ,big roof) and the home windows will not heat up from the sun....also the european kitchen will be outside next to the terrace , as my wife is able to cook her thai food european style ( clean ) and i do not worry about some thai smells as i eat almost all thai food..,so i am planning not to use any aircon unless really necessary ,( but they will be installed ) another tip i can give is , we will be using 3 inch water pipes ( outside) for all the drainage water and 1 inch water pipes...with a valve between each individual waterline , so easy to check in case you have a problem...
i have a local builder ( i already know him 10 years) whom will build the home 98m2 ( and garage 32m2 ) for 750.000,all in basic finishing , but i will choose just as peter says for the second option pay for labor only
( 260.000 baht ) and buy material my self so i am sure of what i have ,and believe me it will be cheaper...
( btw home is ready in 2 months), also wall around the home will cost 500 baht/meter (2 meter high) labor only ..
same system...so many things to look when you are building...so i can go on a lot longer , but i will spare you guys this
i hope this info helps a little... ;)

Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: June 8, 2012, 9:27 am
by Prenders88
When the build is finished, make sure the wifes freeloader family don't move in.

Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: June 8, 2012, 10:11 am
by parrot
We learned early on that insulation in the roof/ceiling, overhangs on the porch, and tree shade don't matter much if your windows are wide open and it's 95 degrees outside. We open the windows at night, close them at first sight of the sun, and use air conditioners as necessary to remove humidity and cool. It works well for us.

Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: June 8, 2012, 10:12 am
by maxeboy
What is the best way to avoid that?
Kind regards from maxeboy

Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: June 22, 2012, 10:04 am
by parrot
There's an interesting piece in today's BP concerning the woes of building your own home. Pretty much every expat we know who has built their own home had a fair (to great) amount of problems with the building process. A Thai friend of ours who lived in Seattle for 30+ years came over a few years back to build his own home. I followed the process with interest, thinking I might learn a few tricks of how a Thai deals with building problems here. To my surprise, my friend went through 3 different contractors and suffered more problems than most anyone else we know. He finally finished his home, but after much pain and agony in dealing with shoddy construction.
The author's bottom line in dealing with Thai construction is: either buy a ready-built home or build it yourself (as in 'build it YOURSELF).
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... oundations

Important Things To Remember When Building A House

Posted: June 22, 2012, 12:00 pm
by akwoodworker
Insulation will help with aircon, building in a heat sink works well too. I have designed my house and it will be insulated well, have a heat sink and big overhang to keep the sun out. I will look for the book on heatsink design. it is a book that a man wrote after the patent expired on his designs