John's budget build

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ajarnudon
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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » April 29, 2018, 9:41 pm

Been working onsite pretty well continuously for six weeks now, and been too busy building to write. Here is a long overdue update (to the end of March).
A lot of progress has been made, at the expense of a large dent in the bank balance. Over the past several weeks we have averaged 7 workers onsite per day. The priority remains to get the garage/laundry/toilet to lockup stage so we have a secure storage area for tools and materials.
~02.jpg
The inner garage wall going up. The first three courses were backfilled with concrete and reinforced vertically every third core, as well as horizontally in the fourth (cut the webbing out of the tops of the blocks and laid D12 bar across before corefilling). Each core beside a post was reinforced full height in the same manner and reo tied into the post every second course above #4.
~2a.jpg
Garage ceiling going up.
~03.jpg
Fill in place, laundry plumbing and power roughed in.
~04.jpg
Fabricating the reo 9mm mesh for the slab. Can't buy sheets of mesh in Thailand, so you weld up your own - my experience in Udon anyway.
~05.jpg
Start of the 44 sq m X 12 cm (= 5.5 cubes) pour. Reo in place supported by luk bun. 24 steng.
~06.jpg
Told the missus she was daft - whatever she planted wasn't going to grow there :lol: Kept it wet for three days - weather was perfect, never got over 29 degrees.
~07.jpg
One of two 2 cm control joints cut with a diamond saw in the 11 m slab after 36 hours. After four weeks I am very happy with the result. No signs of cracking, and a nicely finished surface - no powder. I am sure that the curing process is aided by having the roof up before the pour - will use this same strategy for the house proper.
Will continue in episode 2.
Cheers, John.



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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » April 29, 2018, 10:01 pm

March 2018 Episode 2.
~08.jpg
Next we had the macro in - dug the holes for the ten central pillars for the house, and installed two sseptic tanks.
~09.jpg
One of the reo cages on luk bun at the bottom of the 1 m X 1 m X 1 m post holes. Minimum of 5 cms clearance from reo all round.
~10.jpg
Rendering the outer garage wall, inside and outside.
~11.jpg
Painting the guttering - suay suay.
~12.jpg
The rear of the garage houses my workshop, as well as the laundry and a toilet. As we had already poured the 40 X 40 cm footing for the rear wall, a toilet with an S-trap wouldn't do. We needed one with a P-trap (no pun intended) with an exit thru the back wall. Only ones we could find were a few 'American Standard' brand (made in Thailand) suites, which are usually used in multi-storey buildings. So we bought a THB 5K version, but when shopping we fell in love with this Chinese made suite (S-trap, one peice, low tank profile, dual-flush, soft close etc.) @ THB 2.4 K and bought it for the upstairs (in our split-level design) ensuite - and it came with a free wash basin! Haven't decided yet on the downstairs main bathroom toilet, but thinking that the Chinese one will win out (haven't poured footings there yet).
~13.jpg
There is a lot to describe in this picture. Firstly, this inner garage wall will have a 7 cm cavity between it and the main house southern wall. The bottom four courses of the house wall will duplicate those of the garage wall , with reinforcement etc. for load-bearing capacity. The breathing holes visible in this wall will be duplicated in the house wall to provide sub-floor ventilation under the pan poon floor in the house upper level (raised 80 cm). Our ladies did most of the block laying, and as these 15 cm blocks are extremely heavy, we pay them a loading of 10% whenever they work with these blocks. But the course the guys on the left are laying was just too heavy for the ladies. This course forms a bond beam (just like course #4, with the webbing cut out of the top of the blocks. However, to stop concrete simply falling thru the cores, we placed 26 blocks on a plastic sheet and filled the cores with 5-6 cms of concrete on the ground in the morning. In the afternoon, it had set enough to lay them in the 17th course, then the 12 mm steel bar was laid across the top, tied into the posts with epoxy and welded to the vertical reinforcing steel, after which the blocks were core filled with concrete. To my mind, this is the simplest, most cost-effective and efficient way to make a bond beam in a masonry wall.
Above this we went down to 9 cm blocks, the second course containing 18 glass blocks, and finally a cut block to fit flush with the house top plate (not in place at time of the picture).

More soon with an April update.
Cheers, John

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » May 15, 2018, 8:12 am

Hi again. Here is an update on what we did in April, either side of Songkran.
Episode 1.
20180401_113511.jpg
Firstly, we moved the distribution box from the temporary pole setup to its home inside the garage. It was getting a bit crowded inside the box, so we moved the mains switch to a separate box which also houses a solid brass bar for all the earths to link to the main earth - the latter is a 1 1/2 metre copper stake driven into the absorption trench of the first septic (don't know why the forum doesn't like the word 'septi#'- changes the word to hash symbols) effluent tank, ensuring moist ground and a good earth return path to the pole MEN at the front of our land. Moving the mains switch to the separate box also provided room on the DIN mounting bar for another 32 amp breaker, so we now have 4 x 32 amp, 1 x 20 amp and 1 x 16 amp circuits.
20180401_113617.jpg
Three double GPOs in the workshop area, and lights going in.
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Laundry and toilet (left) area at the rear (western end) of the garage. The window is a 120 x 60 cm casement window mounted horizotally rather than vertically. This is the size window I wanted, and the only option without a substantial lead time. I used 7.5 cm steel angle as lintels for the 9 cm masonry blocks here. Water inlet and power for washing machine to the left of the laundry tub. This tub, a H'a'fele sink unit, has proved very disappointing. Twice the price of comparable units we saw later, it continualy has small rust spots coming up on the 'supposedly' stainles surface. They come off with a bit of rubbing, but is not what I expect for the money I paid. Needless to say, no other H'a'fele product will find its way into our home.
20180411_165241.jpg
The 15 x 15 cm x 6 metre central steel columns in place. So glad I went down this path - straight and true (unlike the concrete posts on the outside), easy to align, and easy welding. Lengths of 12 mm bar welded on provided supports all over the place, and were easily ground off after. Concrete posts don't provide this option.
20180418_103416.jpg
This is the proper way to do a septik tank. The inlet (right) is of course set higher than the outflow. With this design, a crust forms over the top of the effluent water which isn't disturbed by water flow either in or out.
20180411_165414.jpg
Grey water from the laundry tub joins the slotted pipe in the absorption trench after the septik tank (doesn't go thru it). This flows down to where our garden will be.
More soon. Cheers, John

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Re: John's budget build

Post by bluejets » May 15, 2018, 6:01 pm

Bit of a tip for future reference.
With your circuits, instead of using 1 safety switch on everything, much better to use individual combination safety switch/ circuit breaker on each circuit. Cost is about the same for combo's and the safety switch shown in your photo can be replaced by a cheaper circuit breaker.( say 60Amp...depends on mains size)
Outcome is if a fault arises on one circuit it is much easier for you to track down AND you do not loose power to everything in on hit.
The combination units come in single pole so no worries about needing extra space on the board.
They also show a different colour tag when tripped to show whether the fault is an overload or an earth leakage fault.

# note that the earth stake is not a fault return to the pole via the ground as you stated above.
What it does is pegs the neutral at ground level so the supply does not float above earth in an MEN system.
Earth cabling within the building does indeed carry any fault current but only as far as the MEN point, then the fault current is carried by the neutral return to the transformer.

Cheers Jorgo ( electrical contractor)

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Barney
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Re: John's budget build

Post by Barney » May 15, 2018, 6:36 pm

Well done John.
All looking good and coming together. I’m sure you and the missus are happy, as I was with my build, when you start to see some real progress other than concrete drying.
Jorgo has some good advice for all on the individual circuit earth leakage and MEN system.
At least you have protection in place and made it safe.
Keep up the good work.


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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » May 16, 2018, 12:11 am

Hi Jorgo
Thanks for your contribution.
'Outcome is if a fault arises on one circuit it is much easier for you to track down AND you do not loose power to everything in one hit.'
I was not aware of the combo DIN units, and they sound like a good idea. However, It's not that difficult to locate the source of a fault - just switch off all six breakers, reset the RCD then switch on each breaker in turn until the RCD or overload breaker trips again. My mains isolation switch is in the separate box in the left of the picture.

'# note that the earth stake is not a fault return to the pole via the ground as you stated above.
What it does is pegs the neutral at ground level so the supply does not float above earth in an MEN system.'

Earthing systems are not absolute in terms of electrical values - they are comprised of voltage dividing circuits, which vary with the resistance between the earthing point and the pole MEN point (and particularly with ground moisture content). This varies at different times of the year, but a moist earth rod is usually consindered a favourable situation. It is perhaps 40 years since I retrofitted a couple of ELCBs to existing houses, but I had to disconnect the earth from the neutral link. By the way, the electrical connections in my build have all been done by a qualified and very experienced Western electrician.

Cheers, John

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Re: John's budget build

Post by bluejets » May 16, 2018, 6:11 pm

ajarnudon wrote:
May 16, 2018, 12:11 am

However, It's not that difficult to locate the source of a fault - just switch off all six breakers, reset the RCD then switch on each breaker in turn until the RCD or overload breaker trips again.
In your present arrangement, unless you isolate the circuit completely ( neutrals included) the elcb will trip on any and all circuit breakers as they are closed. So you are back to square 1 I'm afraid to say.

Cheers Jorgo

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Re: John's budget build

Post by bluejets » May 16, 2018, 6:31 pm

ajarnudon wrote:
May 16, 2018, 12:11 am

Earthing systems are not absolute in terms of electrical values -
They are when the appropriate earth loop impedence test is applied.

Cheers Jorgo

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » May 18, 2018, 10:36 pm

Hi again Jorgo
Maybe we should just agree to disagree - the chance of a sub-100 Ohm leak from the neutral is infinitesimal. Nearly all faults that trip RCDs are because of faults in the active downside of the RCD. In any case, I will not continue this conversation in the forum. I will send you a PM with text on the subject from an expert in the field (my son) - whilst he agrees that it is theoretically possibble for the situation you describe to occur, it is highly unlikely.
Again, while I don't want to go further down this track on the forum, I welcome the input you have provided and hope that you will contribute further on other topics. Even though we disagree in this point, our discussions will provide input for others to do further research.
Kind regards, John

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » May 19, 2018, 3:48 pm

April - Episode 2.

Everyone had five days off for Songkran, but we hit the ground running straight afterwards.
20180428_151704.jpg
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Workbench and enclosure - the two lengths of 8" x 2" hardwood for the benchtop came in at 1,000 baht, and the vice that I had bought two years earlier finally found a home.
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Recessing the tops of the pillars to accommodate the central steel beams.
20180423222608.jpg
These 16.4 metre beams were fabricated on the ground from 3.2 mm C-section, and were enormously heavy. Four of us (that's me in the white shirt on the far end) struggled to carry them into position. I was totally incredulous when they started the lift - the three guys on the poles were deadlifting the beam on ropes while people on the ground pushed them up with hardwood poles. The lack of even the most rudimentary mechanical assistance astounded me. After what seemed an eternity (grunting and groaning interspersed with rest breaks), the beams were safely at rest in the poletop recesses. The workers would have been in no condition to raise the second beam that afternoon, so I set them on other tasks while I sourced what would be needed - longer ropes, 9 medium-small pulleys and some shackles.
20180424_160702.jpg
Next day, three people, one at the base of each pole, hoisted the second beam effortlessly with the 3:1 mechanical advantage - the guys at the top only had to position and align the beam. All over in minutes, and a minimum of effort. I think these guys are still scratching their heads.

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » May 23, 2018, 7:12 pm

May 2018. Episode 1.
My main priority was to have the roof on before I went back to work in mid-May, but I took a detour and worked on the footings first. They were formed up with the small (6 cm wide) concrete blocks, and I wanted to get them in while the blocklayers were still onsite - before they went off to another job, or got caught up in agricultural activities. The blocks were laid two high (40 cms), and the footings were made 35 cms wide where there will be a live load (wall support), and 30 cms wide for dead loads (no wall, pan puen and topping support only). All footings were reinforced with four lengths of 12 mm deformed bar. The were poured over two days - we got about 60% poured the first day, had to place some more reo next morning, and booked the truck for 1 pm the second day. We were pouring the last two lineal metres when the heavens opened up. We were all drenched and running around finding pieces of sheeting, black plastic etc to cover the fresh concrete. Next day we hand mixed some concrete to finish the last couple of metres.
20180506_160036.jpg
The dimpling in the concrete from the heavy rain before we got it covered is clearly seen in the picture above. This isn't an issue for the footings, but I would have been spitting chips if it had been a slab. Another good reason (apart from better curing) to pour slabs after the roof goes on. At this point we said goodbye to the blocklayers temporarily - I didn't want them laying blocks with people working overhead in case something got dropped.
20180501_094710.jpg
Two 7 metre long bamboo poles we harvested from a stand on my brother-in-law's block.
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These were supported by steel welded to the central columns one metre below the tops of the poles, and flexing of the bamboo eliminated by rope supports tied to the central beams - a design similar to a suspension bridge. This arrangement is to allow a large platform for the welders to work on when welding the 4 x 2 box section rafters and chords in place.
20180501_164718.jpg
One of two plywood platforms on steel frames. These had already seen use on top of the blue scaffolds for the blocklayers. We welded another two lugs to each end of the platforms, giving a neat fit eliminating any movement on the bamboo rails.
20180501_164743.jpg
The 6 metre ladder we fabricated, with two 12 mm deformed rebar hooks welded at the top to fit over the top central beams.

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » May 23, 2018, 7:29 pm

May 2018. Episode 2.
20180506_110244.jpg
Using the new ladder. It actually proved to be too long, so the two bottom rungs were cut off.
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The two platforms in place. Here the guys are covering them with plastic held in place with elastic (occy) straps before they go home, to protect the ply from possible overnight rain.
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Rafters and battens all welded in place. Here one of the guys is painting over the welds.
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The first sheets go on - it feels very cool underneath. This picture shows the unfinished roof frame at the rear. This section, over an open 10.4 x 4 metre rear deck, is a Dutch gable (a part gable on top of a hip roof). Being a little complex, I elected to come back to it later.
20180513_125531.jpg
Trimming roof sheets at the front. The floor plan cuts away at 45 degrees from the outer walls, while at the same time wall height increases. This, I am hoping, will make an aesthetically-pleasing design feature when the walls are up.
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Roof sheeting and ridge capping in place. A couple of friends and the workers helped us celebrate - lots of food and drink. I am now back in Bangkok, but hope to link up with my team again soon on a weekend to finish off the rear roof.

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Re: John's budget build

Post by bluejets » May 24, 2018, 6:40 am

Cross bracings on the main support structure not required?

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » June 2, 2018, 12:33 pm

Not with this lightweight roof. However, there will be lateral bracing in every wall with C purlins welded in place as lintels, and lateral cross-bracing at roof-level in gable ends.
Cheers
John

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » June 10, 2018, 12:07 pm

Update.
Starting on rear roof framework.jpg
Starting on the rear roof frame.
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Hip junction.
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Dutch gable. Rafters 1.2 m apart, purlins at 70 cm centres.
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All walls are reinforced vertically every third core up to the fourth course (80 cms). In the fourth course, the webbing is cut out of the tops of the 14 cm wide blocks, and a lateral steel bar welded to the vertical bars. All cores are backfilled with concrete to this height. Beyond this level, only the cores adjacent to the posts are reinforced and backfilled, and the reo tied into the post every fourth course.

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Barney
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Re: John's budget build

Post by Barney » June 10, 2018, 2:26 pm

John

Reminds me when I owned a concrete agitator truck for a few years in Cairns Qld many years ago. Majority of homes especially builder spec homes were all blocks and we would deliver the wet mix to fill the walls of the house. Same as you have, knocked out block sections so the mix would flow, reo to the roof and tied in. In Cairns all homes had to be cyclone proof so the walls were eventually tied into the roof. Our concrete mix for this was called piss and pebbles, real wet so it would flow. Only 20mpa or less and only had 7 mm rock though, not the usual 10mm and 20mm. Always had a pump.
Looking good mate.

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » June 10, 2018, 10:20 pm

Takes me back too Barney. I worked in Cairns during the eighties as the manager of a finance company specialising in equipment finance. My biggest customer was Ray and Denis Catelan's Trumix operation, which had ten batch plants across FNQ - think they eventually sold out to the Readymix group. I am older than you, so I think the timeframes are a little different. In business circles, the eighties was a party that lasted ten years - if you couldn't make hay then, you weren't even trying. I lived at Holloway's Beach initially, then at Bayview Heights later. Tony Price was another customer - I am sure you know his Bayview Gardens development project (amongst others) very well. Those were days (in Cairns) when millionaires rubbed shoulders with people like me in the pub after work, and I learned so much from them. Tony, the property developer (who had made his initial fortune selling tinnies and motors to croc hunters), specialised in buying up cane farms and getting them rezoned to residential. He drove home to me his philosophy - always leave enough in the deal for your buyer (spec builders) to make a good profit. He did, and had them lining up to buy another, and another).

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » August 15, 2018, 12:46 pm

I'm working in BKK again, but manage to get back on site every second weekend to get some more done. The internal walls 80 cm high will support the pan puen for the raised concrete floor for the living room, main bedroom and the rear deck. Originally this was to be the case for the second bedroom as well, but here I changed my mind. Looking ahead, there may come a time when stairs become an obstacle, so I knocked a hole in the wall here to make a doorway.
BR 2.jpg
I apologise for the poor quality of the pics - they were lifted from my wife's video footage.
We got a lot of materials in, including three pallets of AAC blocks. These will be used as the inner skin for the two bedrooms and the living room - the air-con rooms.
Composite 1.jpg
Last weekend we did some concreting for the 2nd BR floor, and the first section of the driveway in front of the garage. We welded up reo mesh in situ for both, at 20 cm centres for the BR, and 15 cm centres for the driveway. The site was levelled using sand, covered with plastic, then the mesh supported with luk bun. Also concreted an internal wall footing, and a landing at the back doorway of the garage/workshop/laundry.
Got some plumbing and electrical wiring in as well.
Bathroom plumbing.jpg
Wiring.jpg

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » September 24, 2018, 4:56 pm

More of the same recently. More blockwork, electrical and plumbing. Making good progess on the internal walls of the 2nd bedroom. Last weekend we completed the subfloor plumbing for the main bedroom ensuite. Just ordered 360 metres of 3" eucalyptus poles that will go in to support the upper level pan puen concrete planks).

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Re: John's budget build

Post by ajarnudon » September 25, 2018, 9:14 pm

Some pictures to go with yesterday's post.
2 BR doorway.jpg
The doorway we cut into the 2nd bedroom wall, so it became a downstairs bedroom.
IMG_20180915_165449_resized_20180925_081645133.jpg
The inner AAC skin of the cavity wall going up next to the concrete block garage. Bought a cupboard door and installed it (about head height) in the AAC wall (top left in the picture). This will give the leccie access to the rear of the distribution boards in the garage to run more circuits (as well as access for any maintenance or additions later), and allow us to proceed laying more AAC blocks in his absence.
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This room doesn't have any external walls, so natural light will come from this horizontally mounted casement window and a lot of glass blocks borrowing light from other rooms. The window is above a bench/desk which runs the length of the wall (inside) at seated head height, and has a view of the kitchen/dining area and beyond to the front yard. A 2.1m reinforced AAC lintel can be seen above the 1.2m window.
Plumbing.jpg
The sub-floor plumbing for the upper level main bedroom ensuite is in place, so we are ready to go for the pan puen. The guy in the pink shirt (my foreman) is laying the last block in the sub-floor support for the above floor walls - I am not relying on a 12.5 cm reinforced concrete floor to support internal walls. The gap in the sub-floor wall to his left is one of several, which have steel lintels above, providing crawl space for future maintenance. These will have light fittings installed - only too late did I think about glass blocks to illuminate these sub-floor areas.
What I love about this last picture is the view of the paddy fields in the background, but it will be so much better from the 4 m wide, full length rear deck at the upper level. A dead end lane in front (no traffic, only one house 100 m beyond us), and the tranquility of the view to the rear, I think will be priceless.

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