Building in Petchabun

[mikecwm]

Retirement is now only 18 months away. We have 28 rai near Nong Phai in Petchabun province and wanted a future Guest Cottage on the land that we can live in while we build the workshop and main house soon after retiring.
We ordered a pre-built wood cabin from a company on the east side of Route 21 near Si Thep. (They appear not to have a company name or web site, but my wife has their phone number if anyone is interested).
We had a 3 week vacation in December and had my wife's uncle (a building foreman) organise a work crew to put in a concrete slab for us soon after we arrived.
Not the cheapest way of getting it - but definitely the quickest considering we only had 3 weeks.
We also negotiated for them to build us a toilet / shower building with septic tank.
We wanted an outside one so any workers we have on the land when we start growing fruit and nut trees in the future will have somewhere to relieve the pressure.
The future water catchment basin, (in the sense that we only have a wet season stream out of the forest above us - and it has yet to hold water), and the road, were put in a year ago.
We managed everything in just under the 3 weeks except getting the cabin wired up.
Hopefully my wife can get that organised on a December trip this year.
Looks like I can only add 7 photos at a time, so more to follow after this gets posted.

[mikecwm]

Some more of me photos - as Pam Ayres might have said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5P5BM23uUU

[mikecwm]

I've been working with Google Sketch-up on some plans and finally came up with a cross between an Australian farm house with a more typical Thai stye roof.
No doubt there will be more changes before construction begins, but I do like the idea of a 2 meter deck all round allowing the roof to keep the sun off the walls for all but the lowest - and coolest angles. The front deck I want 6 meters deep which will give plenty of room for sitting / playing in the shade.
Just a main bedroom with a combination office / extra guest bedroom. With the wood guest cabin and a possible extra bedroom in a corner of the large workshop I want to build I think we'll be fine when all the relatives turn up.

The large roof trusses I plan on cutting and welding up in the workshop before the main house gets to the point of needing them.
Being a self confessed toolaholic (careers in engineering, construction/cabinet work and now electronics) I need plenty of tools - and lots of space to use them.
Photo of a PDF attached- had problems with my Sketch-up to print to pdf being too large and not able to reduce it.

[gippy]

That's a nice looking hut! The one on our rubber plantation is a little more rustic to say the least, I will build a new one some day.

[Mike Judd]

When you start collecting some tools, you will have to look around for Peg Board. ? can't seem to find any myself, can't stand to see my tools scattered all over the bench as at present when I visit. So I brought over a small piece to put over a larger sheet of ply as a template , then proceed drilling all the holes. I brought over a bag of various hangers for the tools. The next step will be to train them to use it. Thai workers don't seem to be the tidiest of people. I said "Hey stop" the other day, let's have all this stripped formwork Denailed.! I can go along with the bare feet or Flip flops, but not all the timber lying around with rusty nails waiting to be trod on. Had enough of them myself in the old days.

[schuimpge]

Why not use the white or black plasticized metal fencing material that you see everywhere in market stalls?
They got hangers for it, available everywhere, in various sizes. Common size is 120x80 cm and they cost you about 100 - 120 Baht each.
Any wood board will only attract termites and other critters.

[mikecwm]

That's a nice looking hut! The one on our rubber plantation is a little more rustic to say the least, I will build a new one some day.

Yes, it's a beautiful wood cabin. Nice workmanship with obvious care for detail. Not the cheapest available, but 20 years down the road we will have forgotten the extra it cost - and still enjoy the beauty.
They re-machine wood from old farmhouses, so some Teak, the rest other hardwoods. If it already lasted a hundred years then we should get a few more out of the wood.

[mikecwm]

Retirement arrived eventually and we moved into the wood cabin Nov '15.
Soon found a local builder with a crew to build the workshop - now complete.
It also has a 4m by 4m room inside with windows that works well as an office and once we put air-con in it - as a spare bedroom.
They made such a good job of it they're now working on the house foundations.

Photos first of the workshop.

We did have an architect / builder do the plans for us, but his cost was more than double what we eventually had it built for. It has a toilet / shower room on the far side. Our builder gives us a quote for labour only and we buy materials. That way we can relax while he gets on building, and not have to worry how hard he and his crew work. They do tend to work 7 days a week anyway. Only the Beatles managed more than that.
The large covered area at the front allows vehicles to be driven inside from the driveway, plus space for a possible trailer sail-boat once finances settle down.

[mikecwm]

The house so far.
Once more we tried to get the Petchabun architect / builder to draw up plans from sketches I had made on Google Sketchup.
He gave us a quote which was beyond our budget, so then started sending us changes to the roof line / outside veranda to try and get the price down so we would choose him to build it.
In the end we gave him the sack and I completed enough drawings of foundations, concrete beams and roof trusses for the builder we were already using to go ahead. Again I expect the total price to be about 1/2 that of the architect - approx 2 million Baht, which we can afford.
We've ordered 15 cm Q-Con blocks for all walls which can be stored in the workshop until needed. Certainly not the biggest single expense - that will be concrete or possibly roofing steel - or maybe even the wicker patio set my wife's got her eye on in Global House.

The backhoe arrives and starts digging for the 40 concrete posts which will lift the house 1.2m above the ground. 1.2m at the front at least. A slight slope on the pad reduces height above the ground at the rear to about .4m above ground. The concrete beams and precast planks will lift it all another 0.5m.
We should have quite the view from the big front deck when it's all finished.

Placating the spirits we might have disturbed when choosing this spot to build on.

Holes dug and footing pad steel in place. Now we start to pour the first of the 25 cu metres for the concrete tubes to be placed on.
Rings in the foreground for the septic tanks.

At the rear corners the posts are only 2 metres apart, so a larger hole was dug to take 4 posts.

The last of the footing pads being covered with ready mix and the first holes poured back-filled to allow the ready mix truck to get at the more awkward holes. I guess a concrete pumper truck, which could have poured all the holes on the first day is a luxury in this part of the world.

[Sometimewoodworker]

The last of the footing pads being covered with ready mix and the first holes poured back-filled to allow the ready mix truck to get at the more awkward holes. I guess a concrete pumper truck, which could have poured all the holes on the first day is a luxury in this part of the world.

Well no they are not, but if you have a contract price it is unlikely that your builder is going to spend the money to hire one. Thai labor is much cheaper than in western countries so the cost benefit often isn't there.

For the foundations it would probably have been a crane with concrete bucket at 6,000 baht for a half day.

You can see both in use in our build

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4890&start=60#wrap

[Max&Bee-in-CM]

Seeing all those saos and 4-hun rebar makes me itchy to build again...
Looking good btw - but 23 rai!! wow!! what are you going to do with all that land?

[mikecwm]

Seeing all those saos and 4-hun rebar makes me itchy to build again...
Looking good btw - but 23 rai!! wow!! what are you going to do with all that land?

Having followed you through your building story I think your itch to build again already is probably not too strong. Thanks for all the effort you put into your write-ups Max.
28 rai actually, and my wife's angling to buy another adjacent 2 rai of rice land which is only accessible from our land anyway.
The land was a parcel, with 2/3 of it having full papers. I think average price per rai worked out to be 30,000 Baht.
(And it would have helped that I was in Canada when my wife found the land - not a Farang in sight).
Probably the last cheap land in Thailand.
Some of it we'll lease out, but we want to try growing fig trees. Plus other fruit trees.
We're not planning on needing an income from it, though a few Baht without too many headaches wouldn't be sneezed at.

[mikecwm]

The last of the footing pads being covered with ready mix and the first holes poured back-filled to allow the ready mix truck to get at the more awkward holes. I guess a concrete pumper truck, which could have poured all the holes on the first day is a luxury in this part of the world.

Well no they are not, but if you have a contract price it is unlikely that your builder is going to spend the money to hire one. Thai labor is much cheaper than in western countries so the cost benefit often isn't there.

For the foundations it would probably have been a crane with concrete bucket at 6,000 baht for a half day.

You can see both in use in our build

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4890&start=60#wrap

Very professional looking form-work and pour you've got there. Reminds me of my 20 years in construction in Canada - which is probably why I thought of a pumper truck as a good idea. I take your point about the builder not wanting that extra expense.