New Home Build "LET THE HEADACHES BEGIN"

[Stantheman]

Hang in there Baht Man, you can only go so bald. Fortunately for my house rebuild the wife is on site 99% of the time, has the design specs and is not afraid to tell the "Forman" something is wrong. If she is not sure the man who did the design will come out and check the work. As for security it is her and one dog, but she has a well armed neighbor (Local policeman) across the road who will come if called.

[Baht Man]

Hang in there Baht Man, you can only go so bald. Fortunately for my house rebuild the wife is on site 99% of the time, has the design specs and is not afraid to tell the "Forman" something is wrong.

Well, I'm fortunate enough (or is it curse) to be there everyday to bare witness to the insanity.
The drain line for the outdoor sink was placed 12" off or so from where it should have been and would have interferred with the door to the toilet. "No problems, Only Solutions" as I was told as a lad.
Maybe they were told the same as youngsters........no problem.... just put the door on another wall, inside the house at the dining area. Problem solved. [-o<

[maaka]

yup, hang in there Matey..
my lady friends building team, have a good boss who used to build homes in BKK, and he works with his team everyday, and his men tend to only drink in the weekends, and not on the job, or they take afew days off for such occassions..which seems to workout ok..better to say, hey look if you want to party take 3 days off, then come back when you are ready to work..this way they have to decide if they want to loose the wages and party, or work, and a beer shout by the owner once or twice during the job seems to keep them happy..its not only farang home owners that have to weave there way thru this..

[maaka]

oh, and your house is looking good too, now it is taking shape..

[Baht Man]

Day 93.
Stress level 7

The wall folks showed up as promised. A husband and wife team with a teen son in tow as their assistant. Off to work they went. Work started promptly with another worker the second day then a third and fourth. The daughter was in the group now to assist the son and I think the intention was a calculated tactical maneuver to keep me diverted in my QC tasks. Straight from the paddies, naïve yet inquisitive, their plan worked and I settled down.

Better than ingesting a V or two.

Exterior walls are double block with a dead air space in the middle and some stuffed with insulation, depending on it's orientation.
The main living area is in the center of the house with bedrooms on either side and kitchen in the back.
The walls that make up this room have were built the same way but, I replaced the air space with foil backed R-17 insulation. More in the name of enhancing acoustics than the insulation benefits, as I have visions of a quasi-home theater setting.

They’ve been on the walls for almost 3 weeks and getting’ er done. A few minor corrections, like door and window re-relocating.
It seems that the breakdown in communication was between the builder and the workers on the walls, as it was nonexistent.

The workers were referring to an old plan that has since been revised numerous times. They acted as it was the norm and no one offered any negative comment, except the ol’ lady; wife of the leader and mother of a daughter that kept me dizzy.

The builder was here showing what walls to tear out and when the ol’ lady started grumbling, He took charge and told her to shut her mouth or he wasn’t going to pay her. She did.
They’ve been here since day 93, now day 103, and pressing on.

[KHONDAHM]

I've also got the foil behind the tiles, but honestly, I think that was a waste. It rips easily when installed and I am of the opinion airflow is what really matters. Everything else is just extra. The foil backed gypsum is more protection against leaks than insulation. With your steep pitch, airflow should be really good.

Is your space below the gypsum air conditioned or not?

Yes. The gypsum is foil-backed throughout the house. Hence, I think putting it directly behind the tiles was a waste. Lots of tears and half-ass patches. Gaps galore, too. We also have R-20-something insulation above the foil-backed gypsum throughout.

[KHONDAHM]

My highest ceiling is @3.5 m and feels very roomy and free. The cool zone is everything below the top meter, or higher if you have a ceiling vent.

What are you talking about when you say "ceiling vent"?
I was thinking about this also at 5.5m the heat will be up there, no place to go.

By ceiling vent, I mean the standard fair louvered square or circle type which either pipes to the attic or to the roof vent. We don't have that because we have central air, but some people do that if the primary cooling is natural air flow and fans; or if you have A/C and put ceiling vents piping from the first floor to the second.

Foil-backed gypsum is mandatory, of course, and some R19 or better insulation on top works great.

Don't you think that's a bit redundant? Foil backed gypsum with insul. on top?
Why not plain gypsum with foil backed insulation?
quote]

Nope. You absolutely want foil-backed gypsum. Use regular only for covering smart block walls, but if you are going with red brick walls, the foil-backed gypsum would be your vapor barrier as well as a heat barrier. Very critical.

edit: Is rolled insulation redundant? If installed correctly, it is additive.

[Baht Man]

Day 123 to 126

3/20 Sparky showed up today to do a rough sketch and get an idea of the job ahead.
Another group set up house in their "resort" getting ready to start the rendering.
Things are at least looking better than a few weeks ago.

Renderers set up house in their "resort". Laundry ond cooking on site.
Up at dawn squaring up the openings and doing a good job at setting their thickness markers. They're not to happy that the walls are out of plumb up to 2" in some places.

The boss was here all day making the scaffolding so they can work on the upper fixed glass on the front wall.

The brickers are wrapping things up here and as soon as I stop changing/adding things they'll be off. They're not to happy that the boss has someone else to do the rendering as they wanted to get that money as well. They've been driving up from Kumpawamp everday and complain that they're not making money at 700 Baht per sq meter.
The roofs being finished slow, but steady. I'll get 2-4 folks showing up daily to trim all the tiles for the valleys, edges, and ridges, the hardest part of the roof for sure. They're happy, and as long as it's moving forward, I'm happy as well.
Additional tiles have been ordered and they're off on a break somewhere till they arrive.

Day 127 today.

50% of the cement kitchen has been laid out, minor changes to be made. I'm adding another 2m or so of counter, for additional storage.

Sparky's done a lot. Setting locations for switches and outlets. as I add more and more.
Grinding the grooves and pulling wires to the boxes.
Rendering has beed started in one of the bedrooms. The 3 of them did a large 2 story house near here by themselves. Block and rendering took them 3 months. Slow and steady.
All is going well so far.

Back soon.

[Baht Man]

My highest ceiling is @3.5 m and feels very roomy and free. The cool zone is everything below the top meter, or higher if you have a ceiling vent.

What are you talking about when you say "ceiling vent"?
I was thinking about this also at 5.5m the heat will be up there, no place to go.

By ceiling vent, I mean the standard fair louvered square or circle type which either pipes to the attic or to the roof vent. We don't have that because we have central air, but some people do that if the primary cooling is natural air flow and fans; or if you have A/C and put ceiling vents piping from the first floor to the second.

Foil-backed gypsum is mandatory, of course, and some R19 or better insulation on top works great.

Don't you think that's a bit redundant? Foil backed gypsum with insul. on top?
Why not plain gypsum with foil backed insulation?
quote]

Nope. You absolutely want foil-backed gypsum. Use regular only for covering smart block walls, but if you are going with red brick walls, the foil-backed gypsum would be your vapor barrier as well as a heat barrier. Very critical.

edit: Is rolled insulation redundant? If installed correctly, it is additive.

Gotcha.
I've been concerned about the heat at 7.5m and "to vent or not to vent". Makes sense to me and someone else suggested that as well.

Understood about the foil backed board and insul. on top of that. The cost is minimal and won't hurt.
Happy about the vent idea as well.
Similiar to gable vents.
I've got twin turbo's and they'll help draw the hot air out at the max. height.

Cheers

[KHONDAHM]

Your place is REALLY looking good! I see hints of landscaping here and there, too. It should be very, very nice.

Something I recall regarding windows: The majority of your heat gain is going to be through the windows. The single-pane variety sold here really sucks. During my build, I compensated by bringing the overhangs out far enough to keep the windows shaded from 1000 onward. After we moved in, I discovered the 45x90 unshaded west-facing kitchen window was pulling LOTS of heat and hard-driving rain also made it's way inside after flooding the slide channels;and so I had to install one of those clear fiber overhangs sold at Global House.

Just something to think about. The rain making its way inside after flooding the slide channels was the real shocker. I didn't see that coming as the sliding windows looked to be just fine. Plenty of caulking. Ditto for the patio doors. I ended up having to drill drainage holes on the outside frame slider. I also found rain made its way into the fixed windows where the glass meets frame. Clear silicone fixed that, but that was also a shocker.

[KHONDAHM]

With your steep roof pitch, all you need are ridge vents (4 or so on the main section and fewer on other sections) at the apex and a gable on the eastern-most side. Nature will do the rest. Turbines will certainly be spinning like crazy with so much heat coming out. I wonder about noise long-term as they wear and the friction when the wind gusts. That roof will be quite the echo chamber.

Lots of space there in that roof. My vote is still for some kind of storage.

We've got those tiny birds living in our roof edges. All they need is a 2-3 cm gap to get inside. Amazing how they managed. The insulation rolls keeps them at the fringes and not actually inside the roof proper, but something to think about with all that space. Ditto for bats.

You'll also want to have a way to get up there and lay poison for the roof rats. They will make it. I planned for it and they still made it inside. Just one or two over the past 4 years. Dealt with them, though. I heard them when they killed and ate a bird. Spread some poison and no more scurrying.

[KHONDAHM]

Oops! Missed the part where you already installed the turbines. They look great! Didn't even notice them when I first glanced at the pics.

I've got a solar roof vent sitting in the garage. My guys couldn't figure how to make a base for it.

[Baht Man]

Things have been moving along pretty good here finally. I'm not going to count the days anymore but the build started 11/23 with the contract saying 150 days, but maybe he's not that far off. Had he'd not been building a number of other houses and workers been on site more, maybe it would have been finished by now. mai pen rai

After Songkran and between the rains I've been kept busy on site keeping an eye on things.
The roof was finally finished and just in time for me to look for leaks.

There are a few in the guttering. Easy to spot as the soffit is not installed yet. He'll get them re-soldered than add some Flintkote inside and out. I offered to buy it but the next day it was on site.......

The 2-4" downspouts on the front section were ran down the wall and merged into one and concealed bedind another brick wall.

I was concerned that a single 4" line would not carry all the rain from such a large area as there was quite a wet area at the end of the run and I thought they filled and overflowed so some of the bricks were removed, to be left open until the next rain for inspection. During the rins the rains yesterday I got up there and the flow was good enough not to fill the gutters. Turned out it was just a sizable leak at the end cap joint
Originally they were to run out from in front to the low land 15m away but I decided to change the direction and run them thru the carpark to the back

The line will be bricked and rendered to hide them. Now all the water from all the roof areas will run into the back pond


The only other obvious leak was at one of the roof vents (turbines).
I pointed it out to the builder and drew him up plans to make pans with a drain line to hang under the vents and move the rain to the exterior. Only 1 had a slight drip but better safe now than sorry later. Pan them both.
Meanwhile the ceiling folks arrived to set the framing for the drywall. I pointed out to the builder a few days later that he never installed the pans and so he had to have some of the framing removed to get them into position to install later. Guess he forgot as the were in another room........... Not sure how someone will get thru the ceiling framing for the install but I'm sure he'll figure it out.

Back soon.....

[maaka]

Thanks Mate for the update as I am interested to see how your build in advancing..

[Baht Man]

2-1000L septic tanks have been on the site for a few weeks now and finally installed. In order to get the slope due to the lines coming out from under the beams they were set pretty deep below grade. When I commented to the builder about clean out, is pat answer is always "no problem"

Turns out, as usual, I was concerned over something he always has a solution for. Cover was raised up on a cement/block ring and relocated at grade.

The plumber had some re-working to do, as usual with most of the trades, but they jst seem to shrug it off. Even after the builder drew the hot/cold layout on the wall, they found a way to get it wrong.

He installed the 70L boiler good enough, but without a union on the hot side. Ok, back to the store for some more parts.

The builder wanted me to let him drop the ceiling, his style, over the dining area. OK, well he's had some pretty good ideas in the past and the pics he showed me of one he'd done in the past looked quite nice, so I gave him the go ahead.
Unfortunatly, as usual, the correct infprmation was never passed onto the subs and I walked in on what looked like, well... I'm not sure,but it had to go. I wasn't put in any particular location or centered over anything and the scale just didn't fit the size of the space.

They were very happy and agreed that something simplier would look better and take half the time. We were all happy with the end result and with this drop it would be alot easier to install the downlights.

[kopkei]

well all those fancy ceilings look nice but in reality they are dust-spiderweb keepers and not really practical at all...
we've had them in our former home too...
looks like you have the same septics as we have put in , they were also to low and solved it same by making a waterproof manhole , sticking 5cm above the ground level preventing from rainwater poring in the manhole and the septic whom lid is not really watertight...so i think in your case they are still to low....
as of of the installation of the boiler , my god ...
this how i did it myself ...connected the boiler to a timer heating up the water once a day in morning , the water stays hot enough all day , no need in warming up all day costing only more electricity...

and waterconnections with the over fow of the pressure valve directed outside ( her always water comes out after heating) ....

how are you gpoing to remove (tiling the wall ) or fix anything when connected as it is now?
as info ....

[Baht Man]

well all those fancy ceilings look nice but in reality they are dust-spiderweb keepers and not really practical at all...
we've had them in our former home too...

Interestingly enouugh, there are a number of ways to keep spiderwebs off high ceilings,
one of which is currently being sold at most intersections around town.
It's called a broom.

Have a look sometime, if you get out.


And who says I'm pratical anyways?

[maaka]

Touche...haha

[Baht Man]

I've been keepin' busy the last few weeks. Back and forth to town lookin' for material to keep the guys workin'.
Up until this time it's been making sure things were done the ways they were supposed to be, elec. and plmbing in the right places, and a lot of QC.
Another plug relocate

Prior, I've been trying to get the builder to keep on track and get the workers here, more than one trade at a time and it's been a bit stressful. I'm pretty anal when it come to doing things right but realize I was to forward thinking and not focusing on matters concerning the present. Often times I've found that all my worrying, in the end, was needless.
I've built before and have a lot of constrction knowledge, but hadn't a clue what to expect here or what was coming next. Tiling the floor prior to paint?

The tile group (Man and wife) arrived and "tile time" was here before I knew it. 4-5 days each on the 3 bathrooms and small outdoor kitchen kept me runnin'. All the shops know me by now with the "buy more than I need and return habit" I have. They've been patient and give me the cash back vs the store credit =D>


Their work is flawless and I just let them go and do what they do best but I need to stay ahead of them and keep material here or they'll run off to another build.

The last soffit was completed for the downlights and all the drywall was completed.

LR soffit.jpg (26.64 KiB) Viewed 1158 times

After the gypsum was done it was time to get the paint colors. Now, I'm not an interior decorator by any stretch of the imagination and no Y chromesone blood runs thru my veins. I had an idea of the color scheme, just keep everything neutral. The Ms. was no help... "I've only stayed in houses that were white".

So it was off to to town to get some color samples. I had 4-5 small containers mixed up and put them on the wall. Of course nothing seemed right. (my anal processes were working overtime).
Hell, "just paint it this color and if I don't like it, I'll re-paint later". Lets just get er' done. Other than the vaulted ceilings and walls it should not be a problem. So it went.

The painters were quick and did a good job. They didn't want to keep going back and forth for obvious reasons and this was their 3rd. trip.
Green for the office, blue for the second bedroom and Jeed came to me with a color for the master. I'm not a fan of bright colors but let it pass. As it turned out the green was very dark as was the blue (my choices)so the painter lightened it up a bit. Should have listened to him in the first place.

I'm not all that excited about the color here, but I'll have plenty of time on my hands and can work a paint brush well enouugh. Although the painter did offer up a re-do if I wanted it.

Back soon.

[Aardvark]

I prefer the Orange to the Green ... Bright is more friendly imo ...