coolthaihouse.com blog

submitted by Peter M Well it took a while but here is the first batch of pictures for my house. I hope things are going well with the column. My energies late has been devoted to reigniting my biz which took a big downfall after putting so much ENERGY and ATTENTION in my house (located in Bangkok). Definitely, I could write a book of how to get it done in thailand. If you don’t have a contractor and your building from scratch….pay someone to oversee your job. I did it all myself…got obsessed by it and lost many valuable opportunities for my biz. Now I have a great house, my wife and family are EXTREMELY happy about the transition (the neighbours are great, location great, value of the house great). But its been a battle to go back up hill. Only now, almost a 10 months later am I starting to get back on my feet financially. (more…)

Submitted by David S. I am now in a position to update you on the developments since my last report back in October 2005, where we had acquired our land in Naklua (just outside of Pattaya, Thailand) and were trying to get a building permit and bank finance.

Firstly, at City Hall we met one of the planning department officials who said he could arrange to get everything done in three weeks for a sum of 40,000 Baht. (more…)

David S project continued The house is going to be a 2 storey, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house, the enclosed area is 11.0M x11.0M with integral car port/garage.

We are still awaiting the building permit from Pattaya City hall, this has taken 6 weeks so far, however the man keeps saying “nearly ready can have next week”, but which next week is unclear. We have cleared the site, and it is ready for backfilling, but first I need to get a soils report to determine the allowable ground bearing pressure (for foundation design). Do you know of any geological or engineering consultants that could handle such an investigation?.

On the subject of budget, (more…)

From David S

We have finally bought some land in Naklua (Pattaya, Thailand area), approximately 200TW, just off Soi xx in Naklua, After contacting several real estate agents and not finding what we wanted we eventually, or rather my wife asked a few of her friends to see what they could come up with. We went to see 4 pieces of land and decided on the one we have bought. It is slightly on a slope and will need some infill before building, and also three large trees will have to be removed. (more…)

Here is a very unique design of a farang house built to conserve cash. The idea is eventually there will be roll-up doors (like the type used on shop houses) where you see the openings. Therefore the house will be ‘open air’. The house is built of red brick, poured foundation columns and synthetic roof sheeting. (more…)

Steve had been kind enough to share some of his building experiences with us at the forum, here steve’s forum post. Sounds like an interesting project, a 150 square meter bungalow with a finished cost of under 1m baht. Steve was good enough to forward some shots of the development process which I’ve included on the following page.

The project budget is as follows:

The cost breakdown was roughly as follows:- Concrete Construction 205,000 Roof 180,000 Brick walls and plastering 100,000 Ceilings 56,000 Doors and Windows 120,000 Other works eg electrics Light fittings Plumbing Tiling Painting 150,000 Curtains and fittings 42,000 All other expenses including living expenses took the total up to just under 1,000,000 bht As you can see from the pictures the bungalow is brick built I have a full specification right down to the size of the concrete reinforcing rods. (more…)

Recently had a chance to stop by my friends Mr. Cruzing and Cruzing’s to catch up on progress of their Spanish Style Villa, which is nearing completion. I thought I’d record notes of interesting aspects of the project. They have been gracious enough to have several coolthaihouse readers stop by and take a look.

Read on for discussions about insulation types, stucco paintless surfaces, trusses with a true level surface and other aspects of the project…..

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from ThomasJust thought I’d share a project of a type that you dont see often on your site which seems to me limited almost entirely to inland homes either around Pattaya or in the North.

While the structure is essentially a very basic thai style shophouse construction the house design and finishing will be Tropical Modern, terrazzo, wood window frames and doors, brushed nickel fittings, painted steel railings on patios etc. the house will be built on no more than a 3-4 colour/3-4material pallette.

The house is being constructed with a canopied roof terrace to provide partial shade throughout the day. To provide insulation, the terrace part of the roof will be covered with concrete pavers separated by a bed of loose gravel to act as “grout” between the the paving blocks. (more…)

from Peter M Small but important little question. When you arrange to buy all the materials and just pay for labor, what happens when you get handed bills for new drill bits and so forth? Isn’t that an expense a contractor would assume? (more…)

latest from Peter M (see link about his project following) My wife and I are planning to do a modern floor on ground level which would imply simply having bare concrete with a urethane layer. You see this often now in trendy urban cafes.

My questions are do you think there is a way to add color to the concrete floor either during the mix or after?

Second, to do a basic concrete floor pour (over an existing foundation) any idea how much would be the cost (85 sqm. approx). (more…)

Here is a progress shot of the very stylish and modern California Spanish Style Villa being constructed near the Pattaya area by Cruzing and Mr. Cruzing. I first reported on the house here California Spanish Style House. The project is on track and moving rapidly to completion.

From the previous article there were some questions on the method being used to build the house without foundation columns. The wall in this case is extremely strong, as the larger higher quality cinderblocks are used, and filled with concrete over rebar strands. As far as the foundation, large cement pads were poured about 4 meters apart. Then and heavy concrete footing was poured, supported on the large concrete pads. The size, dimension, exact placement of the pads and footing is all exactly laid out in the plans, done by the architect owner/builder himself, Mr. Cruzing. (more…)

This is the final update on the budget Thai construction house. If you remember from the previous article low cost Thai construction the house is about 130 square meters, includes a kitchen area, bathroom, patio, laundry room and rear sitting area. Read on to get the final budget figure for this house.

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from James B I’m enjoying this site tremendously, especially since I have for the past year been working on the drawings for my own house which I intend to build on a plot of land my wife and I have already bought in the north of Thailand. I should add that I am an engineer and have had direct experience supervising Thai construction workers on quite complex projects.

I thought I might share some of the ideas I have and that I am encorporating into the drawings. My base design follows that of the Tiptus House, (more…)

Just back from a viewing of a rather unique construction project in progress, that of Cruzing & Mr. Cruzing. They are building a California Spanish style villa. Mr. Cruzing, a Thai national and his American wife, lived many years in the states where Mr. Cruzing worked as an architect. Cruzing comments that We are building as close to U.S. standards as possible; but you know how that goes, sometimes you can find what you need and sometimes you can’t. (more…)

This is a update of the low cost construction effort going on around the corner, being done by a Thai family. The house is about 130 square meters. The construction is preformed foundation posts (which isn’t ideal) and roof sheets. So far the owner is into the project 250,000 and the eventual finished cost will be about 400,000 baht. (more…)

The recent auction of luxury villas close to Jomtien was a first for the Pattaya area. A particularly bold move by the developer, a world class auction company was brought in to auction off the 4 finished and 17 unfinished units. 13 of the units were auction off with no minimum and no reserve bid — called an ‘absolute’ auction. This is a common way of marketing luxury high end properties in Australia and other areas of the world. (more…)

I have to give it to the developer of this Jomtien (just outside Pattaya) housing estate of about 20 homes. What a great idea, sell the houses at a no reserve auction. Of the twenty estates to be auctioned off on the 19th of December, 13 will be sold to the highest bidder with no reserve. Sure there may be a couple of shills sprinkled in the crowd to prevent these multi million dollar estates from being sold for next to nothing (in case there is a bad turn out), but I’m sure there will be a crowd and the price will be determined by active bidders and not shills. (more…)

An update on the Thai house being built for a minimum budget which I noted last week here thai house project. The amount spent so far is 150,000 baht, the finished house cost will be above 300,000 baht for 100 + sq meters.

In my land quest I stumbled across a very attractive housing development. I haven’t been following the development so I can’t attest to the overall construction quality, but thought it was worth a mention since the units are fairly inexpensive and very attractive. (more…)

Around the corner from the cool thai house a regular Thai house is going up. It is very inexpensive and, for the price, very durable long lasting construction. Normally not up to expat standards, you might consider this technique for an outbuilding, storage building or other application. (more…)

I posted earlier about a nicely designed small apartment complex being built in East Pattaya. The expat builder is a friend of mine. On a small ¾ rai plot there are two apt buildings, a small house area, all surrounding a 8 meter pool. The builder recently had a bit of a surprise with respect to electricity.

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I just got a note from Phil over at ajarn.com that his house is officially complete. Early on in the project he was worried about one day maybe needing to hunt down and strangle the contractor — but in the end it all turned out picture perfect. Goes to show, better to be worried early on and stay on top of things than to fall into the lull of ‘mai pen rai’ being repeated over and over again like a mantra. There are other important details in his write-up, such as who the builder was. Check out the construction process and the finished house…..construction story and finished house

When I worked in the middle east, we expats were billeted in a development called a Garden Court. I enclose some piccies showing the concept The essence was as follows

High security, an enclosed court only available to residents Good communal facilities, yet sufficient private space Own enclosed courtyard with gate to communal areas. (more…)

Ian was in for the experience of a life time. Looking around he and his Thai partner found the ‘real deal’, a fisherman’s house for sale for the paltry sum of 850,000 baht. How do you know if you’ve made a good deal when buying a house or land? When somebody offers you a profit of 50% on the very next day! Now the serious work of renovations began, Thai style. (more…)

Basics

What follows is a brief review of what I consider ‘a neat little building project’. The developer is an acquaintance and I was delighted to go see what he was up too. (Note: this isn’t a promotional write-up, as 14 of the 16 units were sold when I looked about a month ago with no advertising as such and the developer didn’t request I post this information). The point of the article is this: how refreshing it is to see a lower cost development which is well laid out and has kind of a community feel to it. It is also intended for any would be developers, as an idea to emulate, since this project has met with overwhelming success. (more…)