Raised house in Nakhon Si Thammarat

[pattayapope]

Build looking good I think you have a good general contractor for the civil work, let's hope plumbing and electrics live up to expectations.

PP

[somsip]

Build looking good I think you have a good general contractor for the civil work, let's hope plumbing and electrics live up to expectations.

Cheers! So far we have continued confidence in the builder as I can't say he's put a foot wrong, and with the architect signing it all off so far, I'm just happy to have gone 3 months with no real problems. Still a long way to go though

[somsip]

Steady progress with the supports and rebar being put into place for the roof beams, and the formwork for these was being done on Friday on our last visit. The front and back stairs are due to be poured at the same time, and though this is due for tomorrow it won't surprise me if there is a bit more preparation work to do, so it may be a little later in the week. It's all fine.

This marks the end of stage 2, so the money for the roof was paid on Friday. We've been to the local SCG Solutions to confirm which tiles we're having (CPAC two-tone brown/sand) and the builder was ordering them when we left. SCG have also helped us to finalise the bathrooms and we've now made decisions about the sinks, toilet, shower and tiles. And in picking the tiles we liked the most, we also ended up with pretty much the most expensive ones in the shop. Oh well. At least the bathrooms aren't huge.

Also, the original plans had very simple bathrooms and we always knew we were going to change them, and therefore didn't look too closely at the measurements. The initial new designs were based on the original designs, and we gave these to the builder as a guildeline for the inlets/outlets. I've measured out the width of the shower in the bathroom and realised it's a bit too small, with the builder agreeing. So instead of 90cm for the sink, 120cm for the toilet and 90cm for the shower, we're going with 90cm for the sink, 90cm for the toilet, and whatever is left for the shower given it'll be 120cm at most, but allowing for building tolerances it'll probably be about 105-115cm. Good enough, but means the toilet outlet hole needs to be moved 15cm. Which doesn't appear to present a problem.

Overall, 3 months in and that's the only thing we've had to backtrack on so far. Pretty good really.

Formwork for roof beams being placed

Back stairs

A different view

Bathroom #1

(bathroom #2 will be a bit more colourful)

[somsip]

Some good progress again since the last update. I keep saying that and wondering when something unexpected is going to cause a problem. But for now, it's going well and I like it that way

The main concrete work has now been completed as the pour for the front and back stairs, and the roof beams, was completed yesterday. We also had a few unexpected loads of bricks delivered and work has started on cladding the main columns (prior to rendering) and building the walls for the downstairs storage room. We're potentially looking at the roofing being started on Tuesday, and as the builder will be using a contractor, this means his team will be able to build and render walls at the same time, so we could see two stages of work being completed over the next 6 weeks or so. Great if it happens as the sooner it's finished the better as far as I'm concerned, but there is no rush so no big deal if something prevents this from happening. I think we're about 2-3 weeks behind schedule right now which is fine for me and led me to expected completion around the end of Jan or early Feb. The builder today has suggested we may be in for the New Year, but there is no rush and it'll happen or it won't.

We had a trip to the window suppliers with the builder mid-week and finalised on luang por wood frames throughout, and mai hom windows throughout. We had played with ideas of alumunium in the kitchen and bathroom, but in the end we're going for wood throughout, which I'm delighted about in terms of appearance, but ask me how I feel after a couple of damp, rainy seasons in there and maybe I will change my mind. But the decision is done and I'm good with it.

We also looked hard at the size of the main windows. These are all 2450mm by 1900mm and the builder suggested these were a bit big and we should consider something smaller, with the standard size being 1500mm high. We discussed this at length, and after nearly settling on a compromise of 1700mm we felt the 1900mm would be less practical if they were being opened often, and that they are rather large, but we have had a thing about having big windows right from our initial thoughts about the house, that the design had them placed nicely in proportion and position relative to the other dimensions of the house, and then we saw a sample window that was a little wider but the same height as ours, and agreed they were not going to feel bigger than we want when construction is finished. But they are big, and we were glad the builder challenged us on this because we came out in agreement and happy with what we are doing.

It also led us to look at the kitchen windows. I'd picked up there was very little space between the sink and the window for a splashback of tiles on the 3d plan, had mentioned this, then forgot all about it. A trip back to Home Pro today confirmed that the floor unit tops are at 900mm...and the windows are planned to be at 850mm. Simple solution is for the windows to be shorter by 150mm so the top is still level with the back door, but that they don't obstruct the counter or units. Once again, I wonder how many other things are in this design that we've not realised yet, and just hope we catch them before we're redoing completed work to correct the problem.

Once again, very excited about progress and looking forward to seeing what happens over the next couple of weeks!

2800mm x 1900mm window in a 4500mm wall

Front steps

Cladded columns and some rendering done on the ceiling beams

Partially completed storage room

Main structure is mostly finished

[somsip]

Rain stopped play a bit this week, so the roofing didn't get started as planned. The forecast is better for this week and we'll be seeing the builder tomorrow to see what he's decided.

Some work has been done though, with the rendering of the columns and beams on the ground floor mostly completed, and the plasterer is doing a nice job. If the outside walls are as good as this, I'll have no complaints. Also, the formwork around the roof beams has come down, but the supports are still up which was the case when the first floor beams were curing too. Seems fair.

And, the bank have declined us for the mortgage. It's not a particular concern as since we'd applied for it I'd been bothered about having to step back into that level of bureaucracy (having worked in retail banking for a loooong time myself), and also that we would have this debt we didn't really need to take on for 3 years after the house was finished. So we just bring some savings over from the UK, finish the build with a bit less in the bank, and have to wait a bit longer until the garden gets sorted. It's not the end of the world by any means.

We've also been to see a local aircon supplier and got some provisional quotes which seem to agree with what I had in mind. She's recommending 9k BTU for the office and 13k BTU for the bedrooms. Then either 2 more 13k BTU units for the living area and dining room, or a big 24k-odd BTU unit if we just have one. We decided a single one would be cold at one end, and less than efficient at the other (4m x 9m), so I think having 2 units works here. The Saijo Denki Intelligent Inverter units were recommended which would come in at about 90k and extra for any foibles on installation. If we went up to Mitsubishi Mr Slim is would be about 125k, which is the rough figure I was expecting. Daikin units were in-between price. We need to read up some reviews on everything and compare running costs rather than just installation costs, and then get another quote from elsewhere. Good first step though.

I'm hoping for some exciting progress this week after a lull last week

External view of downstairs rendering

Rendering on ground floor columns and beams

[pipoz]

Rain stopped play a bit this week, so the roofing didn't get started as planned. The forecast is better for this week and we'll be seeing the builder tomorrow to see what he's decided.

We've also been to see a local aircon supplier and got some provisional quotes which seem to agree with what I had in mind. She's recommending 9k BTU for the office and 13k BTU for the bedrooms. Then either 2 more 13k BTU units for the living area and dining room, or a big 24k-odd BTU unit if we just have one. We decided a single one would be cold at one end, and less than efficient at the other (4m x 9m), so I think having 2 units works here. The Saijo Denki Intelligent Inverter units were recommended which would come in at about 90k and extra for any foibles on installation. If we went up to Mitsubishi Mr Slim is would be about 125k, which is the rough figure I was expecting. Daikin units were in-between price. We need to read up some reviews on everything and compare running costs rather than just installation costs, and then get another quote from elsewhere. Good first step though.

Just on your AC's, I went for INVERTERS, for three of my Rooms as follows,
MIT MSY-GK13VA 12103.73BTU Super Inverter TB 25,500 per Unit x 3 No
MIT MSY-GK09VA 8656.93 BTU Super Inverter TB 21,500 per Unit x 1No

The above all up cost was a Total was, TB 100,500, (for the 4 No Units) as I paid him an extra TB 2,500, to put all the Outside Units at ground level. This was for the three Rooms.

ROOM SIZE & VOLUME: I used
MAIN BEDROOM: Two x MIT MSY-GK13VA 12103.73 BTU Super Inverter in my Main Bedroom which is about 40m2 or 126m3
BEDROOM 3: One MIT MSY-GK09VA 8656.93 BTU INVERTER in my Bedroom 3 which is 13.7m2 or 41.8 m3
BEDROOM 2: One MIT MSY-GK13VA 12103.73BTU INVERTER in my Bedroom 2 which is 17.4m2 or 53.2 m3

These sized Mitsubishi Inverters Models, cope very well and manage to keep the rooms cool at all times, without any problem, even with doors open. And they are super quiet

I will deal with my central Living Area later this year. The central Living Area is 39.5 m3 or 125m3 (much the same as my Main Bedroom) but I will upsize the BTU and go for a Mitsubishi Ceiling Cassette Model PL-4BAKL of 36,000 BTU Model. This is upsized from my Main Bedroom total of 24,000 BTU, only because I have two large glazed door areas, one at each end, which may attract some heat gain and most likely will get opened and shut quite often. The Mitsubishi Ceiling Cassette Model PL-4BAKL of 36,000 BTU will cost around TB 44,000 installed.

PS: I posted under "Cooling Systems - Best Air Conditioner Brand for Reliability"

THAI's SIZING AC's: What I found when the Thai Company first sized mine, was they didn't look at the room Volume (i.e. consider ceiling heights) and only looked at floor size m2, and didn't even consider how many windows or m2 or glass you had and or any other aspect. Yet they still proposed Oversized Units for my Room sizes. The Thai's proposed a,

MIT MSY-GK13VA 12,103.73 BTU INVERTER Model for my Bedroom 3 of 13.7m2 or 41.8 m3 Room - and I used a MIT MSY-GK09VA 8656.93 BTU INVERTER
MIT MSY-GK15VA 14,330.40 BTU INVERTER Model for my Bedroom 2 of 17.4m2 or 53.2 m3 Room - and I used a MIT MSY-GK13VA 12103.73BTU INVERTER
Two MSY-GK15VA 14,330.40 BTU INVERTER Model-Units, that is 48,660 BTU for my Main Bedroom of 40m2 or 126m3 - and I used two MIT MSY-GK13VA 12103.73 BTU INVERTERS (24,000 BTU)

They were way oversized for my Main Bedroom area. I also went for two units in my Main Bedroom (one at either end), as per attached photo

Hope this helps

pipoz

[somsip]

ROOM SIZE & VOLUME: I used
MAIN BEDROOM: Two x MIT MSY-GK13VA 12103.73 BTU Super Inverter in my Main Bedroom which is about 40m2 or 126m3
BEDROOM 3: One MIT MSY-GK09VA 8656.93 BTU INVERTER in my Bedroom 3 which is 13.7m2 or 41.8 m3
BEDROOM 2: One MIT MSY-GK13VA 12103.73BTU INVERTER in my Bedroom 2 which is 17.4m2 or 53.2 m3

These sized Mitsubishi Inverters Models, cope very well and manage to keep the rooms cool at all times, without any problem, even with doors open. And they are super quiet

That's really helpful - thanks very much

It looks like my recommendations are the same as the BTU ratings you decided on yourself, for very similar sized rooms and similar ceiling heights (about 3-and-a-bit metres). Though the inverters for the Seijo Denki are maybe different sizes than the Mitsu one's you've gone with, so we were quoted for a 13k BTU rather than a 12.1K BTU as an example.

That said...we've not found any resounding recommendations for Saijo Denki, and most reviews say are that they're okay, but not great. It seems like the commission on sales might be the main factor in why these get recommended so much. The more promising reviews seem to be for Daikin or Mitsu so for the sake of 20k baht extra we won't be settling for Saijo Denki.

We've got brochures for the Mr Slim Econo Air which are different to the model numbers you quote, so I'll be getting my wife to do some research on everything to dig a bit more. But certainly a very helpful recommendation from you, so thanks again


Mark...

[somsip]

A couple of weeks of not much progress because of roofing problems. This mainly came down to difficulties in sourcing the metalwork to the spec given by the architect (150x80 section) and the builder spent a few days trying to find something that just wasn't available. So we agreed to go back to the architect with a couple of solutions and he's agreed that 2 sections of 150x50 can be welded together and that will suffice. Then there was a few more days delay due to suppliers not delivering when they said they would, but we now have 3 days work done on the roof.

That should have really happened about 2.5 weeks ago, so it's cost us some time, but there have been people on site working on the walls so it's not been completely dead time. And after about 8 days on that, we've got about 70% of the walls completed. We've had a couple of very slight hiccups in that the wall between the main bedroom and the en-suite bathroom was wrongly positioned and had to be taken down (only about 2.5 metres so no big deal), and we need to put a double wall in the kitchen so that we're attaching the cabinets to a flat wall and not having to cut them up to fit around protuding columns.

I'm unsure about how some of the columns will appear once the walls are all finished. There's one in the en-suite bathroom that creates a 10cm by 15cm recess in a corner that might get bricked up too, but a decision on that sort of thing can be made once the walls are completed and ready for rendering. Which could be this week.

The work downstairs has continued, and the storage room is now completed with the inside walls being rendered today, and other bits of rendering here and there getting completed.

All in all, it would have been more satisfying to see some progress everyday rather than a very slow week after the rainy week, but it is how it is and we should see some fairly consistent progress for the rest of the month. It'll all work out in the end

Main living area

Walls in progress

Initial roofing work

Roof from the back

[pipoz]

That's really helpful - thanks very much

It looks like my recommendations are the same as the BTU ratings you decided on yourself, for very similar sized rooms and similar ceiling heights (about 3-and-a-bit metres). Though the inverters for the Seijo Denki are maybe different sizes than the Mitsu one's you've gone with, so we were quoted for a 13k BTU rather than a 12.1K BTU as an example.

That said...we've not found any resounding recommendations for Saijo Denki, and most reviews say are that they're okay, but not great. It seems like the commission on sales might be the main factor in why these get recommended so much. The more promising reviews seem to be for Daikin or Mitsu so for the sake of 20k baht extra we won't be settling for Saijo Denki.

We've got brochures for the Mr Slim Econo Air which are different to the model numbers you quote, so I'll be getting my wife to do some research on everything to dig a bit more. But certainly a very helpful recommendation from you, so thanks again
Mark...[/quote]

There is nothing wrong with Mr Slim Econo, they are a very good unit and I was about to use them at the start. I only switched to Inverters because they are cheaper to run long term, if you are planning on running the AC a lot, which we will in the Bedrooms.

In the next stage where the AC will be run off an on for shorter periods, I will probably go back to Mr Slim Econo's

Below are some ECONO Mr SLIM models and prices and associated room areas, that I looked at in HOME - PRO in February 2015, so prices should be about the same today

1 x MS-GK09VA 9206BTU TB 17,300 (Installed) for Bedroom 13.7 m2 / Volume 41.8 m3
1 x MS-GK13VA 124306BTU TB 20,300 (Installed) for Bedroom 17.4 m2 / Volume 53.2 m3
2 x MS-GK13VA 124306BTU TB 20,300 each (Installed) for M Bedroom 40 m2 / Volume 126 m3

For the Mitsubishi range, you will see that the ECONO MR SLIM'S are about 80% of the Price of the INVERTERS for like size BTU Models

Hope this helps and there is nothing wrong with using ECONO Mr SLIM

pipoz

[pipoz]

Hi Somsip

Also attached are two quotations that I got a few months back in March, one for Samsung Units (some Non-Inverter units and Inverter units) and the other for Mitsubishi Units (ECONO's and Inverters). Hope this helps

Personally I would opt either for Mitsubishi or Samsung, for reliability

pipoz

[pipoz]

Hi

Can I ask,

What is your under floor clearance height, from the underside of your concrete floor beam to the ground level?

What are the dimensions of your columns from ground level to underside of your concrete floor beam ? 30cm x 30cm?

What are the dimensions of your concrete floor beams in the picture ? 40cm Deep x 25cm Wide or 45cm Deep x 30cm

pipoz

[somsip]

Over the last few weeks we had some issues with the roof beams. The thread is http://www.coolthaihouse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=5011 so I won't reproduce it here. As of right now, the roof beams are almost finished, with some final work and tidying to be done before the architect reinspects the work. We have a 1 week ordering time for the tiles, so we should see them going up in the next 10-14 days, and we have an estimate for the roof to be completed by the end of August, which is 1 month over.

However, during this the work on the walls progressed nicely, and we now have all windows and door frames in, except for the sliding balcony doors, and the sliding kitchen windows. The plan was always for this to be happening while the roof was going up, but the end result is that stage 4 (essentially, the walls) has been completed before stage 3 (essentially, the roof). So we're back on track with work done and payments made, which is all good.

The outside rendering has also been started and it looks like it will take about 10 days with how it's going. The electric sockets/switches have been placed, with the conduit going in over the next few days. The main issue that we have will be that the final wiring cannot be done whilst there is the chance of rain getting in. So if there is another delay on the roof due to bad weather, it will cause a delay on all work at some point. But there is just a couple of days of welding to go, and then it shouldn't matter if it's a bit wet as the tiles can still be done, whereas the welding had to stop completely.

We've had a full review of costs so far, and we're only looking at over-budget on the BoQ of 50k baht on the windows. That said, we have taken on some additional costs because of work requested that was not in the BoQ. To date this includes the borehole and pump, and the termite-protection system - a grand total of 41k baht. However, the electric is not connected and cables will need to be run down to the house with maybe 3 lampposts required, at a rough guess of 50k each and a proper quote this week. We're also having a water pressure tank (not gravity) which will be another 35k (rough), and have higher standards on the bathroom fittings than the original spec which will put costs up by about 60k. In all, we're expecting to be about 10% over budget, which is what I'd allowed for anyway, and it won't be too surprising if that creeps up higher if we decide on other non-BoQ items. To go 20% over would be okay, but much more than that will get a bit worrying. So for now, it's fine as it is.

Overall, it's good to feel we're back on track and seeing daily progress again

Front view with roof beams nearly complete

Rendering in progress

Electrics preparatory work

[somsip]

Personally I would opt either for Mitsubishi or Samsung, for reliability

I'll have a good look at those, and we have decided on the Mitsubishi based on advice here and reviews elsewhere. We've got a second source for a quote and will be seeing them tomorrow, as well as getting a comparison for the Mitsubishis from the first place who pushed the Saijo Denki.

I'll do the measuring thing and reply to that when I remember - I keep forgetting...

[somsip]

Back on track now as both the architect and ourselves have approved the roof beams, and although some bits won't win any prizes for welding, it looks significantly better than it did when it was first started.

The tiles have gone up very quickly, with 75% of the roof being done in about 3 days. The builder said progress would slow down once the tiles needing cutting for the fiddly bits, and that's happened with the last couple of days seeing the front and bedroom sides being finalised. So maybe another week on this, at which point we should be mostly water-tight. Then there's the gable ends and fascia boards to finish it all off. So it's finally up and it's looking very nice.

Rendering and plastering have progressed nicely, and as of this morning the outside rendering is completed, and there's just the bathrooms and kitchen outstanding for plastering which will be waiting for the plumbing to be done which is the next main stage. And we've made a call on the aircon and the engineer came and we've agreed positioning and BTU requirements for each unit. It's come out pretty much as expected, so that was straightforward.

The only bad thing that has happened is that we have had an accident on site. From what one of the builders told us, one of the female workers was walking under the roof eaves when a piece of tile was allowed to slip down the roof and this hit her on the head. She's ended up with a few stiches and a few days off work. We haven't been able to get the full story from the builder yet, but just want to make sure she is okay.

Front view

Bedroom side

Bedroom and back

Kitchen (rendering was completed after this was taken)

Kitchen side

[pipoz]

Looking good

pipoz