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.

ajarnudon wrote: ↑

July 3, 2017, 9:11 am

20170702_151909.jpg
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.

Drill and epoxy starter bars in place, chip and hack you will rattle your blockwork loose down the length of the column, if you want to weld rebar make sure it is in that particular rebar spec, most you can't weld as it weakens it to much.

Thanks for the heads up on the drill and epoxy Fatbob. No problem with welding the reo though if we drill and epoxy - we are only talking about 15 cms of reo protruding from the tops of the columns. The beam will rest on the top of the concrete column (ie compression taken on the concrete, weld only to resist lateral force).

For cost and time savings I am going with steel beams (cold formed C section) rather than concrete for the top plates. After finding out that these are available only to max 6m lengths (rafters were longer), I have been forced to modify my plans. I have cut 40 cms from the central hallway, bringing it down from 2.4m to 2.0m, and compensating by extending the length by 0.8m - a slight increase in floor area overall.
Before I finalise the changes, can anyone advise regarding standard lengths of colorbond roofing sheets available here? I am looking for 6m for the main part of the house, and 3.6m or 4.0 for the carport and garage respectively. Do local stockists/agents have similar lengths? Thanks in advance.

ajarnudon wrote: ↑

August 16, 2017, 7:45 pm

For cost and time savings I am going with steel beams (cold formed C section) rather than concrete for the top plates. After finding out that these are available only to max 6m lengths (rafters were longer), I have been forced to modify my plans. I have cut 40 cms from the central hallway, bringing it down from 2.4m to 2.0m, and compensating by extending the length by 0.8m - a slight increase in floor area overall.
Before I finalise the changes, can anyone advise regarding standard lengths of colorbond roofing sheets available here? I am looking for 6m for the main part of the house, and 3.6m or 4.0 for the carport and garage respectively. Do local stockists/agents have similar lengths? Thanks in advance.

There are no standard lengths if you buy from Ban Hat where the local profiles are produced. They will produce any length you want. The only difficulty would be transportation for really long sections.

I used 16 x 7 meter lengths in my roof

And as far as the lengths of C section longer lengths are easily welded together, welding is a skill that the Thais do very well at. The trusses in our build are 18 metres and no steel used was over 6 meters

My back shed roof is a total of 9 mtrs wide so the longer length in the photo about 7mtr. No joins. The capping may come in set length. You can buy what you want. Just used box steel for the beam and truss. All welded on site.
Good luck with the roof.


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Great info - thanks Barney and STWW

I want to seal the inside of the block retaining wall before I backfill it, so that paint doesn't peel off the outside. Do I need a bitumen product like Flintcote (probably an expensive option) or is there a cheaper way?
What have others done, and did it work out OK?

Best way is to bitumen seal, then cover in plastic and then A/C sheet to protect the two waterproof surfaces. That is how I have done it on other projects.

A cheaper version of Flintcote is DrFixit

Thanks for the valuable input guys. I have decided to go with the Flintkote and estimate 8 or 9 18L pails - somewhere around THB 11,000. First coat primer, 50/50 with water. Second and third coats 100%, one applied horizontally and one vertically as per Shell's instructions. I already have the plastic sheeting, and that will go up before the backfill. Against my instructions, the crew rendered both sides of the wall - so I am think we will have a very watertight structure. Maybe with the inside render, the Flintkote is overkill, but the last thing I want is flaking paint on the outside. Relatively cheap insurance.