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

Apr 12, 2017
I have sacked the local crew (from a village 5 kms away) working on site; they will not be allowed back. They worked liked Trojans while the builder was on site then stopped for smoke breaks and a chat as soon as he left. I had told them at least 10 times that all reo under the ground must have a min 5 cms of concrete cover - still they place it on the ground or touching the trench sides. I am sick of having to call them back to correct their sloppy work. When the builder was there I explained what I needed done; he passed it on to the foreman who acknowledged it - and promptly ignored it. I called a meeting with the builder yesterday morning, and expressed my many concerns about sloppy work, subervisiness, lies and damned lies. And one of them stole my hammer! For different reasons, the builder agreed - @ 400 baht/head/day they did very little, and he knows they are very lazy and deceitful. So today we have hung the cue in the rack, and he had one of his foremen from Udon come up and inspect the site with him. His crew will take over after Songkran. There was no chance that I would have allowed the first crew to do anything on site when I was not there. I am hopeful that the Udon crew will prove more reliable and follow instructions - if this is the case, then the builder and I can sit down and agree on limited progress in my absence with pictures before I consent to progress.

Took the shuttering off the first section of the footing pour today (after 2 two days) and it looks good. A couple of superficial cracks in the top that aren't a concern (from 38 degree pouring heat) but the builder and I are both sure that this isn't a problem, and we are watering it three times a day. Particularly as the the first three courses of 14 cm wide blocks will be core filled with concrete and reinforced both vertically @ 60 cm ccs, and horizontally in the third course.

Barney wrote:Did they not offer the company waterproof additive mix at the batch plant?

I really doubt that any other locals would have used waterproofing additive; maybe the highways dept. when they put a couple of small bridges in last year. I just bought the Lanko 322 at Thai Watsadu and fronted up at the batch plant with it. I did the first batch showing the quantities I wanted, and left it and a measuring jug with them. They managed it all OK after that. The plant owner couldn't have been more accommodating.

Nice to be able to find a plant so close and good price... Glad to hear about your hard line on the 5 cm minimum rebar coverage. IT's sad to see corrosion seeping up the rebar. do they have to corrosion resistant coated rebar available over there?
You sound anal for quality like me... and I cant stand insubordination. especially if your willing to pay for quality and there is no reason not to follow your specs. IF enough people refuse sub par work it will improve things. Would it have been a better idea to have the garage separate from the wall maybe offset a couple feet? My thought is to just minimize the length and ground stresses on the garage wall footing. How hard is it to get crews to use vibrators over there? Even over here you have to watch close if using a small pumper.. he will try to tell the truck driver to add water.

Hi Randall and thanks for your input. I haven't heard of the corrosion resistant rebar, but the route I have taken is to waterproof the concrete with Lanko 322. As concrete cures it leaves small capilliaries where the water that hydrated the lime once was - the additive creates a chemical reaction that fills the capilliaries, denying access to the rebar. It is important where there is a situation like mine where the footing is below the water table, and also for bathroom floors etc.
A couple of posts further down the track you will see pics that show the garage/retaining wall pillars more graphically. I put down huge foundations and footings for the retaining wall, and couldn't see any need to duplicate it for the garage wall. I have taken a different approach on the opposite (RHS, northern) wall. On this side the wall will be only 60-80cm high, with fill battered towards the house in the front, and terraced for garden beds in the rear. Because there is so little retention/hydrostatic pressure with this wall, foundations/footings will be minimal as compared to the LHS/southern wall.
The builder has a vibrator which is left on site and it is used judiciously. My experience is that there has to be a balanced approach to vibrating concrete. Too little leaves voids, while too much will see the aggregate sink to the bottom, leaving the sand and cement separated on top. We had absolutely no added water for the footings but I supervised adding a small amount of water on site to pour columns because it was necessary. If you don't have a mix that flows for the columns, you end up with a situation where a lot of vibrating is needed, resulting in separation of ingredients as described above.

As some of you may be aware, Da and I had a short break back in Oz in the second half of April, first stop Sydney, then down to Melbourne to spend some time witth my sons and their families - loved seeing my grandkids again, and my 2 yo grandaughter for the first time. Cheapest flights to Sydney were with Jetstar ex Phuket, so we had a four day hol there before heading to Sydney. I am the old geezer wearing the mortar board. So chuffed that one of my best mates of 25 years (a General Manger at Sydney Airport) and his partner took time out of their busy schedule to spend the day (and night) with us. Back to the build:
Thought that with the simple instructions I left, they would be able to proceed with three courses of blockwork on the wall while I was in Oz. But no - here is the pic that the builder sent me to show the progress. Where are the vertical starter bars? Where are the weep holes in the bottom course? No mortar between blocks, just the keyway plugged. Blocks stacked, not offset - WTF?? STOP. Don't do any more - wait till I get back. There are always work arounds, so this is how we addressed these issues. We inserted the starter bars as we core filled the blocks (which I had wanted course by course). We cut holes in blocks in the bottom course to accommodate 80mm drain pipes thru the wall, supplemented by a slotted longitudinal pipe draining out into the paddy field. As the blocks are reinforced both vertically and horizontally, and core filled with concrete, the stacked blocks will be OK. In contrast, this is what I asked for (and got in the back wall, after I returned). A couple of pics of pouring the 40 x 40 cm garage columns. And finally, the garage wall columns wrapped in plastic film. One of the locals came over and, seeing the size of the columns, asked (tongue in cheek I'm sure) if we were building a temple. 555
OK, now you have it completely up to date - the rain gods have intervened again with an early wet season - I am not sure when we we can move forward again.

I should say that, despite a couple of times when I have had needed to call a halt, I am very happy with the progress we have made (albeit subdued by the early wet season). Geng has proven to be someone who is flexible and easy to work with, as I and anyone else building in the LoS needs to be. The crew are able to follow instructions as long as you can demonstrate it to them. Spoken communication doesn't cut it because of the language barrier. But pictures and hands-on demonstrations work wonders.

Randall wrote:Would it have been a better idea to have the garage separate from the wall maybe offset a couple feet? My thought is to just minimize the length and ground stresses on the garage wall footing.

Maybe a bit more explanation is in order to pre-empt other concerns. The garage will have no windows in the south wall - some glass blocks for light only. The nearest house on that side is 100 metres away separated by jungle. And between our land and their's is a 4 metre wide strip which connects the rice paddies at the rear with the soi at the front. However, a steel straining cable on the electricity pole at the front limits access to just buffalo and small tilling machines. I don't have to worry about neighbours.

We've made a good deal of progress in the last couple of weeks with a bit of dry weather. The south and west (back) walls are 90 % complete, and foundations/footing for the north wall have been poured. Formwork in place for the pouring of posts in the north wall tomorrow.

Might have to get the pH of the pool checked. It's looking a bit murky after all the rain

I thought it was the septic

Whatever, but I am looking forward to retirement breakfasts and morning coffee with serenity and the greenery of the rice paddies.

Well the strutural part of the wall build is now complete, with only a few cosmetic issues to be corrected (mortar over some exposed aggregate on some columns), minor rehabilitation of the adjoining farmers land and rubbish removal. The final stage is the drainage (slotted PVC pipe enclosed in aggregate, draining through the walls into the paddy fields). I settled up with the builder on Saturday for the completed work, retaining a final payment until the drainage is complete, rubbish removed from site, and the neighbour satisfied with rehabilitation. I need to personally supervise the drainage, and tentatively this last stage will happen in two weeks time.
A long time getting there, and lots of hiccups, but I am happy with the results achieved to date. A fair way over the original budget, but mostly from choices I made as we went along.

The reo in the second column from the right is too short. The concrete will have to be chipped away to expose the reo and short bars welded on. Then the columns will have additional concrete placed to top-of-wall height before the 150 mm C section beams are welded to the reo on top.
This 11 metre wall is right on the boundary so there are no windows, but 64 glass blocks providing natural light. A lot of care needed during the rendering to keep the glass clean.