mmmm...IP2....

Looks great.
I am studying concreting now as the in=laws want to concrete a slab for the carport.
they said thy didn't need steel or plastic.
I read up and googled concreting for a few hours and then went and sourced plastic for waterproofing under the slab (3.8M x 6.6M) and steel mesh.
But I don't know about specifying concrete yet. I am searching for info now.
I am in Namsom.

Hi. Sorry I have been absent as work has taken over my life for a while. Steel is a must, and plastic depending on circumstance. If you are pouring onto sand fill, then plastic is needed to retain water for the curing process of the concrete. If you are pouring onto compacted clay, then a few days of pre-watering will probably suffice to retain the moisture content of the concrete. The other, and most important, consideration for plastic sheeting is for dampproof coursing of walls. For an external carport I wouldn't be too concerned with plastic under the slab if loss of moisture during slab curing wasn't a major issue. What you are going to park in the carport needs to be taken into account in respect of mesh guage and concrete thickness. I would suggest 100mm for lightweight loads, going up to 125mm for medium loads, and 150 mm for 3+ tonne trucks. Above ground slabs shouldn't need any real spec criteria (as distinct from foundations below a water table for example) and 20/25 MPA medium slump concrete should do fine.
You may already have completed your job by now - plse give us an update in due course.

ps.. THere is a dedicated concrete forum on coolthaihouse.com which might give you answers to a lot of your questions.

ajarnudon wrote:Hi. Sorry I have been absent as work has taken over my life for a while. Steel is a must, and plastic depending on circumstance. If you are pouring onto sand fill, then plastic is needed to retain water for the curing process of the concrete. If you are pouring onto compacted clay, then a few days of pre-watering will probably suffice to retain the moisture content of the concrete. The other, and most important, consideration for plastic sheeting is for dampproof coursing of walls. For an external carport I wouldn't be too concerned with plastic under the slab if loss of moisture during slab curing wasn't a major issue. What you are going to park in the carport needs to be taken into account in respect of mesh guage and concrete thickness. I would suggest 100mm for lightweight loads, going up to 125mm for medium loads, and 150 mm for 3+ tonne trucks. Above ground slabs shouldn't need any real spec criteria (as distinct from foundations below a water table for example) and 20/25 MPA medium slump concrete should do fine.
You may already have completed your job by now - plse give us an update in due course.

Might be advisable to look up the required mesh size for given loads as well.

That chicken wire most use is next to useless. Having 20 or 25mpa won't matter a cuss if the reo is inadequate.

What ever happened to the build ajarnudon?

Hope the budget build is on track?????

I believe he is currently enjoying a cooler climate in Aus at the minute.

From what he said to me this is a very low key start at the task.
Until he finally retires & can have a daily 'hands on' management of the build he does not expect too much progression..

BobHelm wrote:I believe he is currently enjoying a cooler climate in Aus at the minute.
From what he said to me this is a very low key start at the task.
Until he finally retires & can have a daily 'hands on' management of the build he does not expect too much progression..

Hi Barney and Bob
Sorry that I have been incommunicado for a while - and you are spot on Bob. I have just arrived back in the LoS and work is progressing now, but will come to a halt again next Thursday when I leave to go back to work in BKK. I will catch up on a lot of posting, pics etc then when I have evenings with nothing to do. One more year of work before I become a fulltime project manager.

Have you considered concrete piles for the house foundations
My house has 7 metre long ones rammed in
Like you near the paddy fields and the water table very high

ajarnudon wrote:I came back again last weekend and put a lockable tap onto the blue pipe and was pleasantly surprised by the strong flow from the town supply thru the 3/4" pipe. This will probably mean that I can save on power costs by bypassing the tank and pump except in case of need. I had been scratching my head about waterproofing the temporary power distribution setup but inspiration arrived on time. Had a chat with the missus and she she sourced the perfect solution - a heavy duty, button-up poncho. Installed it as well as a fluoro light - so we now have flowing water, light and power. All ready for the first evening barbie in about 10 days. Plan to invite all residents in the deadend soi (five houses in 200 something metres) as well as a few rellies - lots of local eyes with phones are always a bonus.

20170114_164127.jpg

You should always decant city water into your own water tank. There will be times when the city supply is dry and the tank allows grit to settle. It's also a legal requirement, even though it'll never be enforced.

Sent from my R2D2 using my trusty C3P0 manservant

Thanks for the heads up MTD. Don't intend drinking it, but I'll see how things pan out. Maybe an automatic bypass when the tank is full, with manual shunts. Probably less than 5% of villagers have a tank/pump setup on the town supply. The many that do have a tank/pump are using bore water.

noosard wrote:Have you considered concrete piles for the house foundations
My house has 7 metre long ones rammed in
Like you near the paddy fields and the water table very high

Hi Noosard
At the moment we are still on stage one, which is the retaining wall and garage. It will be a while before we progress to the house proper, but I am not anticipating problems there due to the depth and age of the fill. The original fill was put in place 15 years ago, and I topped it up about 3 years ago. When the time comes, I will get the wife's uncle to dig a test hole with his tractor-mounted auger. This will give us a definitive view of what the load bearing capacity is one metre below the fill surface. By way of explanation, we removed the fill along the line of the retaining wall, so it is being built on the natural ground level.

If built on a properly designed floating slab, no piles required.

True bluejets but this is thailand those piles are strong

many times they advice to use the drilled piles , mostly it is because of the serious extra cash this delivers ,not because it is really needed...we also have build a home on rice field ground before , the normal way , no problems what so ever , including the pool (where they also tend to advice to use needlessly drilled piles ) ,(we also build the daughters home on a floating plate , with no pillars at all (like abroad), also no problems, many builders here seem to overdo many things , spending a lot money they could use for other things , but as the saying go's ..
as long as you are happy and stay happy ? ...good luck to all builders ...

Barney wrote:What ever happened to the build ajarnudon?
Hope the budget build is on track?????

OK, here is a serialised version of what has taken place ...
I have commissioned a builder from Udon (known as Geng to me, but Kang to some others) to undertake stage one, being the retaining wall and garage. It turns out that he knows our village (Ban Thueam) well, as he built the new police station about nine months ago.
Wall concept diagram Sorry, wrong picture You will need to click on the image to see the detail

Good one arjanudon,
I've been on that wall, not sure what footing they used?
What ever the design it worked.

Good luck with the wall, I will do something similar on my front fence as the missus wants a fancy insert.
Do you have a patent on it?

As for piling. Each place is different and as you say once you see the soil when you dig it will give a better perspective on whats down there.
I piled here because it was the method I used in building 2 homes in Vietnam, again is was a case by case study and I looked at the surrounding neighbours homes inside and out, who all did not pile due to cost or Vietnamese stubborness, but all the houses had cracks in walls and slabs.
I did it to be safer than sorry.

You could have the grand dad use that auger to make some small pile holes a meter or 2 deep. Put in some round bar reo steel and fill your self while joining in to your slab.
No need to go 6 mtrs with precast piles.

Good luck mate,

Squaring up the footing for the gate column next to the soi Much of the wall footing will be below the water table for at least half the year, so the concrete has to be waterproofed - Lanko 322. Reo for one of the 40 x 40 cm columns The guys are wiring up the columns to the reo cages in the bottom of the holes. The higher columns (4.6m from the base) will be part of the outer wall of the garage.
I was interested to see what would happen when they put the reo cages in the bottom of the holes. I hadn't seen anyone making up luk bun, the small mortar chairs they pour ahead of time to support the steel. As I suspected, they just dropped the cages straight onto the bottom of the hole. You can't do that! While they poured a shallow bed of concrete in the bottom of the holes a couple of days ago, the next pour will not be contiguous and certainly water will find its way betwen the two. More important than usual as the footings will be below the water table for at least half the year. Luckily I had foreseen what might happen, and stopped off to buy a diamond concrete cutting wheel on the way to the site. I went to the local BS shop and bought 20 small blocks and cut them up into chairs for them to use.
Before I left I inspected the first five holes in which the reo columns had been wired to the cages. The first one, closest to the soi, has an oversize hole and it is fine. The rest however were not. The holes are either 1m square or 80cm square, for the 40x40 or 20x20 columns. And that's just the size they made the cages (no concrete cover around the outside of the steel again). Sorry boys, you'll have to pull those out and make the holes wider - all reo under or in contact with the ground must have a minimum of 50mm concrete cover. I will end up with larger footings (a bonus).

Back in November last year, I visited Cpac at Ban Lueam (Udon Thani) and was quoted 2150 THB/cube for 180 steng concrete delivered on site at the village. When we returned to firm up an order in April, they said 2700 THB (including 35 kms transport which in reality is less than 25 kms). I didn't say a word - just turned on my heels and walked out. A couple of phone calls and and we were soon in business again. The wife's sister built a small house in the village last year and the concrete used has stood up well with no obvious cracking. It turns out that the local building supply company recently built a new batch plant just two kms from our land. Called the owner (whose mini excavator we hired previously) and he quoted us 1750 THB delivered on site (extra 200 THB for 240 steng for the footings). When we had a meeting at the batch plant, my wife negotiated a 'family friend's' 50 baht/cube discount if we paid within 24 hours. I had already become the building supply firm's only credit customer with a 25,000 baht/7 day account. Bye bye Cpac.

April 6, 2017
Poured six cubes into the reinforced footings for 17 of the wall columns. Da and I took the Lanko 322 to the batch plant and measured it into the Steng 240 mix. The first three holes were not directly accessible to the concrete truck, so it was into the tub then buckets. It was hard work because of the stiff mix, but with nine wotkers on site, they handled it well. The other 14 holes were easy, and were poured direct from the truck, using a sheet of old roofing iron as a chute extension. The foreman vibrated each hole poured. Having watched the batch being mixed and being satisfied that it was a good stiff mix, my slump cone remains a virgin. Pouring the first hole. It was such a relief to get those holes poured and feel that something concrete had been achieved (pardon the pun), rather than just having holes filling up with water. Job finished by midday, and the workers appreciated the carton of beer I put on for them.

Good price John, will be good savings when you have to pour the rest of the house.
I just had 6.5 cu mtr for the dog house and was 2100 per cu meter. Not worth the missus chasing a cheaper price for only 1 load. If I was building again with 50 or 60 cu mtr the discount would have been asked for.
Not being afraid to ask for a chop in price on everything will lead to good saving later on all materials.
Did they not offer the company waterproof additive mix at the batch plant?
Our underground room and pool floor and walls were pre-mixed.
It is good to see things happen, makes the day worth while wit progress happening.
Good luck