)Finally decided to put my building story here. It will be a before, during and after story. Be fun to see how it turned out in the end and reading this first post. Now I am in the before stage. I have built one teng-wood house, a swimming pool and halfway through a second tengwood. I don’t really have a story to tell with these builds. However have some pics and I will try to create an album on the forum for them. Any questions are of course welcome.
Here are the prerequisites and plans
After a long idle period without proper funds and with different ideas storming in my head, this summer, on 3 Rai we own, I intend to start building 4 identical apartments, 56 sq.m. with verandas, 32 sq.m., in one two-storey building. If things turn out good, build 8 more in one building later. I will design the house(s) as it seems now.
Purpose
To long term let the apartments to senior, now bored, farangs and to provide them services with a twist while staying. Could contribute to making me and my family survive in Thailand. I believe so. Would be fun also. We will see.
Building philosophy
Limited budget means optimization but not to compromise structural issues and appearance. No over-dimensioning. Yet no deliberate under-dimensioning or cheats, we will be maintaining the buildings and want our tenants to be happy. I am a true amateur and will have to trust my final plans. Surely the most important thing will be the basic quality of the work; concrete mix, vibration and curing, welds, leveling etc. To a great extent I will have to trust CPAC and my builder with this but will be on site full days to check what I can. For electrics and plumbing I will do the lion part myself and I trust myself here although being a CTH trained amateur.
My intended builder,
is a friend and neighbor who built our own thai-style house 13 years ago (before my time) and recently extended it. He will build what I ask him to, with acceptable quality I think, but will have few ideas of his own. He is used to building thai houses for thais, also some big structures, which all seem a bit under-dimensioned but, as with most thai houses, yet none has fallen down (in our parts anyway …)
Material
I will normally get all material. However I will let my builder buy some if this benefits the build. He always gives me the original unaltered receipts and sometimes beats my prices although I now know when someone is trying to overcharge me.
Tools
My builder has most tools. However I intend to invest in a tombola for smaller concrete works and rendering, an optical leveling instrument (about 250 euros), a compactor (global house) and a vibrator as suggested in a recent very interesting post, thank you 3d. I have some machines; table saw, drills etc. that I will avail since their stuff is a bit junky. I don’t care if they get expired at the end of the build.
Basic initial building idea
- 30x30 cm pillars spaced 4 and 3 meters, 12 mm rebar
- Pillar footings 80x80x20 cm 1 meter down, 12 mm rebar
- ground beams 60x30 cm 10 cm below ground, 12 and 16 mm rebar
- use breezeblocks for pillar’s and ground beam interior formwork
- double 7,5 cm breeze block exterior and apt. separating walls, 3 cm rendering, 6 cm spacing for plumbing and electrics. No insulation.
- 7,5 or 10 cm breeze block interior walls, 3 cm rendering.
- 30x30 cm concrete ring beam, rebar 12 mm
- poured ground floor slab, 8 cm, rebar 6mm mesh (3 cm concrete for tiles, thai style)
- first floor 5 cm pre stressed floor slabs with 4 cm slab, rebar 6 mm mesh
- smartboard 1st floor ceiling with a similar suspension system as the common square fiber enforced 60x60 gypsum sheets
- metal roof structure, full gables, material dimensions and design not yet decided
- lightweight composite, asbestos-free composite 120x50 roof sheets, brown, green or red
- foil insulation, possibly also glass or styrofoam above ceiling.
- Big soffit vents and forced, thermostat controlled ventilation fans.
So far so good I guess. I have a lot of spare time at the moment, probably more then many of you out there. Anyway I plan to post my questions in the relevant sections and hopefully get your most valued advice, views and other input. I know there is a load of info already on the forum but sometimes it only answers your questions partly not having the whole picture. If answers would be something like; if I would have to build this sh-t, I would do this,that…. it would be perfect !
Jeez, what a long post. Are you there? Havnt even started to build yet. Promise to improve on this. Three pics below. Background is a pic from the actual plot.
Stay cool
MangoPin
- Front, concrete roof columns version
- Front, concrete roof columns version
- Front, concrete roof columns version
