Thai House Build
What are we doing...?
Did you ever want to build your own house? The idea that from your design, a house emerged. I had such a notion, over 30 years ago. For all the usual reasons, My desire was thwarted by lack of salary, bonus too low, land prices running ahead of my buying power. In fact, I put…
The Idea
Like many, we had dreams of building our own place. The satisfaction of taking an idea, even a design, a dream… and watching as that dream became a reality. A lot of people have ‘build a house’ on their bucket-list. Most of them remain an unfulfilled wish. But for us, after a lot of work,…
Background
They say anyone can build a house… and anyone can…in theory. However, you need steely resolve, tenacity, single-mindedness and of course funds if you are to end up with what you want. We were not rich so that ruled out a lot of locations. Time was not on our side so we could not wait…
Design
The design is our own, but of course there are influences. It had to suit the climate. It had to be, or appear to be older and traditional, i.e. not a modern box. It had to make use of up to date technologies and building practices. Those requirements led to investigating history AND looking at…
Types of land
Property ownership and Leasehold
What do you mean…types of land? Land is land, right? Wrong!In the same way land in the West is classified for differing uses, in Thailand is not essentially classified for use but it is controlled by different types of land ownership Here are some of the land ownership types Sor Kor Nung This is the…
Land Measurements
Property ownership and Leasehold
Thailand uses its own set of measurements of area and here is a table of those areas, with the equivalent metric measurements for comparison: 1 Talang Wah 1 square Wah 4m2 1 Ngan 100 Talang Wah 400m2 1 Rai 4 Ngan 1600m2 1 acre is approximately 2.5 Rai In the picture above, the red outlined…
Why is land ownership restricted to Thai nationals?
Property ownership and Leasehold
One of the things that needs to be considered when building a house in Thailand is the subject of ownership. A foreigner can own a car, a condominium or apartment… a house even. What he cannot own is the land underneath it. That has to be owned by a Thai national or a company. This…The Lease
Property ownership and Leasehold
To maintain control of land that is not yours, you need to get a leasehold arrangement. This is not some informal document (well, it can be but it’s worthless in the eyes of a Thai court if things go wrong) but a formal recognition of the leaseholder actually noted officially on the land documents. The…
Land
As any would-be builder knows, finding and acquiring land is a big part of any self-build project. The perfect location or as near to it as possible, the cost restrictions, the planning restrictions, the availability of services etc. etc. In the West, these considerations can be prohibitive – they certainly were for me, anyway. No…
Raising the land
Thailand has a close association with water– there is a lot of it everywhere. It rains a lot during the monsoon season, a lot of the land is low-lying. It is often said that Bangkok is built over water and certainly you see a lot of it everywhere. Rivers, ditches, flooded land, standing water on…
The Contract – part 1
The contract may seem to be just a formality, just another ‘bit of paper’…but it is in fact a most important document. In it, you lay out how you want the build project to progress. It contains key elements, to clarify what you expect from your builder and in turn the builder has a recognition…
The Contract –part 2
Theft Theft can occur in any country and building sites are a rich source of steal’able materials and equipment. If your builder loses all the roof tiles overnight, what happens? Similarly, if someone ‘borrows’ his power tools or his JCB, again who is responsible. It is vital to clarify this in the contract. HE is…
The people who are important to your build
Your wife (or husband) She’s going to put up with a lot. Your temper tantrums, maybe. Your haggling – because she would not do it. The crazy Farang, in general. The builder’s comments in Thai. Her role in smoothing things over. Her role in managing the build in your absence. Negotiating for those ‘extras’ that…Our Lease Part 1
Property ownership and Leasehold
So…after we had concluded the land purchase, I needed to get a lease in place, which would give me control (well, as much control as Thai law allows) over what we were going to do with the land. I hear some saying ‘oooh – how romantic’’ and I in turn can point to rose-tinted specs…Our Lease Part 2
Property ownership and Leasehold
Appointment 3 was made, solicitor was under no illusions that we would not be leaving without a 30 year lease. We also spoke to the big boss in the area about if there were any shortcuts in the process? A couple of calls later, he told us to go to ‘desk 5′ and speak to…
Our Contract
Previously, I went into some detail on the sort of clauses one should include in the contract to build the house. (See The Contract part 1 and part 2) Here is what we did with the contract for OUR build. After the selection process, we had already chosen the builder (see choosing the builder), so…
Our Land
Previously I told about our initial ideas and locations, but they came to nothing. That meant another think about where we were going to actually build the house! We had the ideas, we had the plans we had the will (and the money!)…just need terra firma to plant to all on! One way of locating…
Choosing our builder
Once we had got the house idea firmed up, with my concept and sketches and floorplans being turned into CAD plans an elevations, it was time to start finding the builder. We were not looking for any relative to do it. In my experience a family link can compromise what you want and family loyalties,…
Clearing the ground
Once the plans had been approved and the builder engaged, it was time for land preparation on site. The builder brought his team over to begin cutting back the new growth on the raised land. Literally, hand cutting (no machines) until the plot was cleaned up. Once the building work commenced, the foot fall and…
Marking out
The start of any build needs the agreed plans, in particular the building ‘footprint’ to be accurately marked on the plot as this will show where to dig the piles, place the plinth beam, and lay in the services. K.Pot himself was on site to ensure the mark-out was accurate. Because the house is large,…
Boring the p….. Accommodation
After the ground clearance and marking out, described in the previous post, the next task was…. no not pile boring. The workers would be living on site throughout the build so they needed accommodation. Enter the travelling site camp accommodation for 15 people, lovingly referred to as the ‘Chonburi Hilton’. Now that the building footprint…
Pile Cage construction
We knew we needed piles, so the build team set about constructing the pile cages to put into the bored holes. With those bored holes being round, the obvious cage was cylindrical. K.pot used spiral steel at the correct diameter then tied the vertical rebar to that spiral to form a metal tube shaped cage…
Pile boring and capping
Piling Now, at last…the real work could start! The camp was in use and the team was on site. The ground cleared and the footprint marked out. So now…piling! Some builds in Thailand need minimal foundations. Basic footing, ‘spot’ piles, or…nothing depending on the size and construction of the build. Some provinces and areas seem…
Buddhist Blessing number 1
With the piles placed and the pile cap cages ready to be concreted in, we had the first Buddhist blessing on the site. A monk came from the local temple, and gave the blessing for good luck. The day was pre-determined when PJ had gone to consult at the temple earlier in the year. During…
Attaching the vertical column steel rebar
Once the pile caps were finished, next job was to attach all the vertical rebar steel to the pile cap. This was to prepare the ground floor columns for shuttering and concreting once the plinth beam had been cast. After a lot of time, all the rebar was placed and the construction site took on…
Placing the plinth beam rebar
Next job was to prepare the beam that would connect all those concreted piles together. As most of you know, all the strength in the type of build we are doing here comes in the re-enforced Concrete frame – from the piles, footings, plinth and ring beams and the connecting columns – this frame is…
Plinth beam Shuttering and casting
Once all the connecting rebar was placed between the columns it was time to start concreting the connecting beams. Shuttering Wooden formers were placed under and at each side of the rebar cage, and secured with purpose-build clamps. The shutter was then checked for alignment and integrity – we did not want any concrete leaking…The equipment we use to produce this blog
Not everyone realises the time and effort, plus the equipment requirement needed, to produce blog content! We have had a few requests to know what cameras, software, etc. we use to produce this blog, so here goes… Still images All photos were shot using a Canon 5D DSLR, a Canon 7D DSLR, a Canon PowerShot,…
How we are paying for TD Towers
Of course, when you set out to construct anything, anywhere…sooner or later you have to think about money. The finances. How it’s all going to be paid for. You may be lucky, and rich. Perhaps you were left some money by a distant relative, or you had a winning streak at the bookies. Or perhaps…Managing a project remotely
First of all…. if you can avoid this…do so! Trying to oversee the build without actually going to site can let smaller issues go unresolved. You do not develop the rapport with the build team. You don’t get a ‘feel’ for the house as it takes shape. Being on hand is always better if possible,…
Striking the ring beam shutter
So, after the shutters were placed, the concrete poured and then left to harden, the next stage was removing those shutters. It is crucial to leave the shutters on while the concrete goes off, or hardens. As stated before, concrete hardening is a chemical process, not a ‘drying out’ – the longer, within reason, you…
First floor column shuttering and pouring
Once the ring beam ‘foundations’ were finished it was time to turn to the uprights – those RC columns that would hold up the first floor (and the rest of the house) Thai building methods use the tried and tested RC frame for construction. A linked re-enforced concrete network formed the frame of the building,…
Chairs
Had a couple of questions about chairs. As in…’’what are they?!’’ No…it’s not the type we recline on at the end of the day, when the house is long finished and the day’s work is done, with a sundowner. Not the type you pull up at the table for your breakfast. Not even those portable…
Termites
They live in colonies of…millions. They love to eat wood. Your building’s wood. Your wood. They are everywhere. You will never eradicate termites. It’s a sort of never-ending game where, for a time you are on top and they ‘seem’ to have disappeared, then one day you see little lines of 6-legged insects striding purposefully…
Ground-floor pipework: water in – waste out
Around about this time, we needed to think about the plumbing lines – water in, and waste water out. In our build, this was further complicated by splitting the grey and black waste water, so that the septic tanks did not fill up every time we took showers or a bath! Again… this is planning…
Septic tank arrangements
If the house cannot be connected to any main drains, for waste water or sewage, then you need to have tankage for the sewer outflow – the so-called black water. The other water that from the sinks, showers and bath, from the washing machine and the dishwasher can more easily be dealt with either being…
Glossary 1
Cast – As in ‘We cast the concrete’. The process of pouring and distributing the wet concrete into its final place. Chair -A small, concrete disc with wires set inside. Used to keep the steel rebar within the concrete being poured, so that no metal is exposed to air or water. Rebar – Metal rods…
Glossary 2
Curing – The chemical process of the hardening of concrete. The evolution of wet concrete to green concrete to hard concrete is known as curing. Concrete does not go hard simply by ‘drying out’ and in fact it is a chemical process where the cement interacts with the sand and aggregate. Within reason, the longer…
Casting the ground floor slab
Now the plinth beams were cast and had gone off, preparations were made to cast the ground floor slab. This involved bringing the ground level up to the edge of all the ground floor beams and then casting the concrete which would form the ground floor. In between that process, the ground floor plumbing would…Building a house: UK .v. Thailand - Part 1
So, how different is it, really? C’mon… you want to build a house. You have, or can get, land. Should be straightforward, right? Well…let’s see. One of the countries IS fairly straightforward, but which one? United Kingdom Thailand Land Finding land for building is difficult. The UK is crowded. There is high demand for…Construction of the 1st floor ring beam
Rebar and shuttering With the ground floor slab now completed, and the first floor columns cast, the team turned their attention to constructing the shuttering for the first floor ring beam. This involved creating a beam base (simple a flat sheet, which would ultimately have secured sides to form a shutter around the rebar rods),…
AAC Blocks
AAC Blocks … Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Blocks. AAC Blocks Why did we go for this type of block instead of the more traditional standard concrete block? The standard concrete block would have been cheaper, making a big saving, on the face of it, for the project walling costs. The construction process is basically the same,…
Construction of the 1st-floor ring beam
Concreting Yes! It’s concrete time, again… With the steel and shuttering all in place and checked, K.Pot ordered the delivery of sufficient concrete to pour the entire ring beam in one go. It would have been too much to try and mix this quantity on-site, so mixer trucks were organised to deliver the wet concrete…
First Floor Planks
With the first-floor ring beam now cast, the next stage is the placing of the floor planks. As before, K.Pot checked the ring beam was solid and ready, then re-checked the spans between the beams. This was to ensure the right length planks were purchased. As mentioned before, it is not only the length calculation…
The Thinking Behind The Sala
General Construction Uncategorised
One of the aims of this construction was to include traditional features in the build – roof style, overhang, window proportions and wood panelling detail. A particular and central feature of traditional Thai Lanna and Ayutthaya houses is the Sala. The Sala was an important part of the traditional Thai house – it was the…
What are we doing...?
Did you ever want to build your own house? The idea that from your design, a house emerged. I had such a notion, over 30 years ago. For all the usual reasons, My desire was thwarted by lack of salary, bonus too low, land prices running ahead of my buying power. In fact, I put…
The Idea
Like many, we had dreams of building our own place. The satisfaction of taking an idea, even a design, a dream… and watching as that dream became a reality. A lot of people have ‘build a house’ on their bucket-list. Most of them remain an unfulfilled wish. But for us, after a lot of work,…
Background
They say anyone can build a house… and anyone can…in theory. However, you need steely resolve, tenacity, single-mindedness and of course funds if you are to end up with what you want. We were not rich so that ruled out a lot of locations. Time was not on our side so we could not wait…
Design
The design is our own, but of course there are influences. It had to suit the climate. It had to be, or appear to be older and traditional, i.e. not a modern box. It had to make use of up to date technologies and building practices. Those requirements led to investigating history AND looking at…
Types of land
Property ownership and Leasehold
What do you mean…types of land? Land is land, right? Wrong!In the same way land in the West is classified for differing uses, in Thailand is not essentially classified for use but it is controlled by different types of land ownership Here are some of the land ownership types Sor Kor Nung This is the…
Land Measurements
Property ownership and Leasehold
Thailand uses its own set of measurements of area and here is a table of those areas, with the equivalent metric measurements for comparison: 1 Talang Wah 1 square Wah 4m2 1 Ngan 100 Talang Wah 400m2 1 Rai 4 Ngan 1600m2 1 acre is approximately 2.5 Rai In the picture above, the red outlined…
Why is land ownership restricted to Thai nationals?
Property ownership and Leasehold
One of the things that needs to be considered when building a house in Thailand is the subject of ownership. A foreigner can own a car, a condominium or apartment… a house even. What he cannot own is the land underneath it. That has to be owned by a Thai national or a company. This…
The Lease
Property ownership and Leasehold
To maintain control of land that is not yours, you need to get a leasehold arrangement. This is not some informal document (well, it can be but it’s worthless in the eyes of a Thai court if things go wrong) but a formal recognition of the leaseholder actually noted officially on the land documents. The…
Land
As any would-be builder knows, finding and acquiring land is a big part of any self-build project. The perfect location or as near to it as possible, the cost restrictions, the planning restrictions, the availability of services etc. etc. In the West, these considerations can be prohibitive – they certainly were for me, anyway. No…
Raising the land
Thailand has a close association with water– there is a lot of it everywhere. It rains a lot during the monsoon season, a lot of the land is low-lying. It is often said that Bangkok is built over water and certainly you see a lot of it everywhere. Rivers, ditches, flooded land, standing water on…
The Contract – part 1
The contract may seem to be just a formality, just another ‘bit of paper’…but it is in fact a most important document. In it, you lay out how you want the build project to progress. It contains key elements, to clarify what you expect from your builder and in turn the builder has a recognition…
The Contract –part 2
Theft Theft can occur in any country and building sites are a rich source of steal’able materials and equipment. If your builder loses all the roof tiles overnight, what happens? Similarly, if someone ‘borrows’ his power tools or his JCB, again who is responsible. It is vital to clarify this in the contract. HE is…
The people who are important to your build
Your wife (or husband) She’s going to put up with a lot. Your temper tantrums, maybe. Your haggling – because she would not do it. The crazy Farang, in general. The builder’s comments in Thai. Her role in smoothing things over. Her role in managing the build in your absence. Negotiating for those ‘extras’ that…
Our Lease Part 1
Property ownership and Leasehold
So…after we had concluded the land purchase, I needed to get a lease in place, which would give me control (well, as much control as Thai law allows) over what we were going to do with the land. I hear some saying ‘oooh – how romantic’’ and I in turn can point to rose-tinted specs…
Our Lease Part 2
Property ownership and Leasehold
Appointment 3 was made, solicitor was under no illusions that we would not be leaving without a 30 year lease. We also spoke to the big boss in the area about if there were any shortcuts in the process? A couple of calls later, he told us to go to ‘desk 5′ and speak to…
Our Contract
Previously, I went into some detail on the sort of clauses one should include in the contract to build the house. (See The Contract part 1 and part 2) Here is what we did with the contract for OUR build. After the selection process, we had already chosen the builder (see choosing the builder), so…
Our Land
Previously I told about our initial ideas and locations, but they came to nothing. That meant another think about where we were going to actually build the house! We had the ideas, we had the plans we had the will (and the money!)…just need terra firma to plant to all on! One way of locating…
Choosing our builder
Once we had got the house idea firmed up, with my concept and sketches and floorplans being turned into CAD plans an elevations, it was time to start finding the builder. We were not looking for any relative to do it. In my experience a family link can compromise what you want and family loyalties,…
Clearing the ground
Once the plans had been approved and the builder engaged, it was time for land preparation on site. The builder brought his team over to begin cutting back the new growth on the raised land. Literally, hand cutting (no machines) until the plot was cleaned up. Once the building work commenced, the foot fall and…
Marking out
The start of any build needs the agreed plans, in particular the building ‘footprint’ to be accurately marked on the plot as this will show where to dig the piles, place the plinth beam, and lay in the services. K.Pot himself was on site to ensure the mark-out was accurate. Because the house is large,…
Boring the p….. Accommodation
After the ground clearance and marking out, described in the previous post, the next task was…. no not pile boring. The workers would be living on site throughout the build so they needed accommodation. Enter the travelling site camp accommodation for 15 people, lovingly referred to as the ‘Chonburi Hilton’. Now that the building footprint…
Pile Cage construction
We knew we needed piles, so the build team set about constructing the pile cages to put into the bored holes. With those bored holes being round, the obvious cage was cylindrical. K.pot used spiral steel at the correct diameter then tied the vertical rebar to that spiral to form a metal tube shaped cage…
Pile boring and capping
Piling Now, at last…the real work could start! The camp was in use and the team was on site. The ground cleared and the footprint marked out. So now…piling! Some builds in Thailand need minimal foundations. Basic footing, ‘spot’ piles, or…nothing depending on the size and construction of the build. Some provinces and areas seem…
Buddhist Blessing number 1
With the piles placed and the pile cap cages ready to be concreted in, we had the first Buddhist blessing on the site. A monk came from the local temple, and gave the blessing for good luck. The day was pre-determined when PJ had gone to consult at the temple earlier in the year. During…
Attaching the vertical column steel rebar
Once the pile caps were finished, next job was to attach all the vertical rebar steel to the pile cap. This was to prepare the ground floor columns for shuttering and concreting once the plinth beam had been cast. After a lot of time, all the rebar was placed and the construction site took on…
Placing the plinth beam rebar
Next job was to prepare the beam that would connect all those concreted piles together. As most of you know, all the strength in the type of build we are doing here comes in the re-enforced Concrete frame – from the piles, footings, plinth and ring beams and the connecting columns – this frame is…
Plinth beam Shuttering and casting
Once all the connecting rebar was placed between the columns it was time to start concreting the connecting beams. Shuttering Wooden formers were placed under and at each side of the rebar cage, and secured with purpose-build clamps. The shutter was then checked for alignment and integrity – we did not want any concrete leaking…
The equipment we use to produce this blog
Not everyone realises the time and effort, plus the equipment requirement needed, to produce blog content! We have had a few requests to know what cameras, software, etc. we use to produce this blog, so here goes… Still images All photos were shot using a Canon 5D DSLR, a Canon 7D DSLR, a Canon PowerShot,…
How we are paying for TD Towers
Of course, when you set out to construct anything, anywhere…sooner or later you have to think about money. The finances. How it’s all going to be paid for. You may be lucky, and rich. Perhaps you were left some money by a distant relative, or you had a winning streak at the bookies. Or perhaps…
Managing a project remotely
First of all…. if you can avoid this…do so! Trying to oversee the build without actually going to site can let smaller issues go unresolved. You do not develop the rapport with the build team. You don’t get a ‘feel’ for the house as it takes shape. Being on hand is always better if possible,…
Striking the ring beam shutter
So, after the shutters were placed, the concrete poured and then left to harden, the next stage was removing those shutters. It is crucial to leave the shutters on while the concrete goes off, or hardens. As stated before, concrete hardening is a chemical process, not a ‘drying out’ – the longer, within reason, you…
First floor column shuttering and pouring
Once the ring beam ‘foundations’ were finished it was time to turn to the uprights – those RC columns that would hold up the first floor (and the rest of the house) Thai building methods use the tried and tested RC frame for construction. A linked re-enforced concrete network formed the frame of the building,…
Chairs
Had a couple of questions about chairs. As in…’’what are they?!’’ No…it’s not the type we recline on at the end of the day, when the house is long finished and the day’s work is done, with a sundowner. Not the type you pull up at the table for your breakfast. Not even those portable…
Termites
They live in colonies of…millions. They love to eat wood. Your building’s wood. Your wood. They are everywhere. You will never eradicate termites. It’s a sort of never-ending game where, for a time you are on top and they ‘seem’ to have disappeared, then one day you see little lines of 6-legged insects striding purposefully…
Ground-floor pipework: water in – waste out
Around about this time, we needed to think about the plumbing lines – water in, and waste water out. In our build, this was further complicated by splitting the grey and black waste water, so that the septic tanks did not fill up every time we took showers or a bath! Again… this is planning…
Septic tank arrangements
If the house cannot be connected to any main drains, for waste water or sewage, then you need to have tankage for the sewer outflow – the so-called black water. The other water that from the sinks, showers and bath, from the washing machine and the dishwasher can more easily be dealt with either being…
Glossary 1
Cast – As in ‘We cast the concrete’. The process of pouring and distributing the wet concrete into its final place. Chair -A small, concrete disc with wires set inside. Used to keep the steel rebar within the concrete being poured, so that no metal is exposed to air or water. Rebar – Metal rods…
Glossary 2
Curing – The chemical process of the hardening of concrete. The evolution of wet concrete to green concrete to hard concrete is known as curing. Concrete does not go hard simply by ‘drying out’ and in fact it is a chemical process where the cement interacts with the sand and aggregate. Within reason, the longer…
Casting the ground floor slab
Now the plinth beams were cast and had gone off, preparations were made to cast the ground floor slab. This involved bringing the ground level up to the edge of all the ground floor beams and then casting the concrete which would form the ground floor. In between that process, the ground floor plumbing would…
Building a house: UK .v. Thailand - Part 1
So, how different is it, really? C’mon… you want to build a house. You have, or can get, land. Should be straightforward, right? Well…let’s see. One of the countries IS fairly straightforward, but which one? United Kingdom Thailand Land Finding land for building is difficult. The UK is crowded. There is high demand for…
Construction of the 1st floor ring beam
Rebar and shuttering With the ground floor slab now completed, and the first floor columns cast, the team turned their attention to constructing the shuttering for the first floor ring beam. This involved creating a beam base (simple a flat sheet, which would ultimately have secured sides to form a shutter around the rebar rods),…
AAC Blocks
AAC Blocks … Autoclaved Aerated Concrete Blocks. AAC Blocks Why did we go for this type of block instead of the more traditional standard concrete block? The standard concrete block would have been cheaper, making a big saving, on the face of it, for the project walling costs. The construction process is basically the same,…
Construction of the 1st-floor ring beam
Concreting Yes! It’s concrete time, again… With the steel and shuttering all in place and checked, K.Pot ordered the delivery of sufficient concrete to pour the entire ring beam in one go. It would have been too much to try and mix this quantity on-site, so mixer trucks were organised to deliver the wet concrete…
First Floor Planks
With the first-floor ring beam now cast, the next stage is the placing of the floor planks. As before, K.Pot checked the ring beam was solid and ready, then re-checked the spans between the beams. This was to ensure the right length planks were purchased. As mentioned before, it is not only the length calculation…
The Thinking Behind The Sala
General Construction Uncategorised
One of the aims of this construction was to include traditional features in the build – roof style, overhang, window proportions and wood panelling detail. A particular and central feature of traditional Thai Lanna and Ayutthaya houses is the Sala. The Sala was an important part of the traditional Thai house – it was the…