Its going well, but not perfectly. The Engineer thus far has been excellent (I will not as yet recommend and tempt fate) and has rectified immediately any problems found. He laughs a bit as he is not used to having a Civil Engineer (my brother in law) looking over his shoulder!!
However it does reinforce the oft given advice that they must be checked regularly. Minor problems thus far have included:
- concrete pours not completed in one go on beams, because they have run out of concrete. They wanted to finish it the next day. They did remove and do it all again when it was pointed out
- Not wrapping the concrete in plastic to allow a slow dry. Fixed within 1 hour when spotted
- Not tying in ALL the uprights both top and (3 missing) bottom. This actually is a minor issue given that they have driven piles some 6m plus into the ground and drilled and pressure concreted them into bedrock, but its on the plan...sooooooo
Its not the Engineer (his responsibility though) or necessarily the contracted builder, he cannot be there all the time, but and this is the point, these things would not cause problems until maybe 5 years down the line, and then where are you when the walls start cracking.
I took a look at some construction in one of the well known "villages" around Udon, and spotted all the same issues and others. Example: putting rubberised water supply pipe under a floor prior to laying the concrete floor. Zero access when (not if) that becomes a problem, unless you want to dig up your tiled lounge area.
However, on the upside.....they have made a cock up about which I am keeping very quiet until its too late to go back. It looks like I might have a somewhat larger house than I am paying for!!!!! They are building a second floor over a rear 6*5 metre covered patio area and that is not on the plan!. Looks like it might be a 4 bedroom house soon!
Already planned are the shocked looks and how are you going to fix this questions.
I do not mean to paint a black picture, its generally going very well. I would just hate to be an absentee ( me, partially) potential house owner without somebody local you can absolutely trust and that they respect.
John
that they brick it up as well.
