How did is all get started? Let me reflect. Ms Dozer has always been good with construction. Her father is a building foreman and she had been around construction before. During the coolthaihouse project itself, she was good at pointing out and noticing what other builders were doing. Corner cutting, bad sequence, wrong materials, inexperienced workman. She would say 'look at that', at point something out. And normally she was right. Then an aquantance was doing some small house builds and the Ms. said, 'I'd like to do that'. And that formed the Ms. Dozer construction and rennovations business. It has been small and specific builds for friends up until about now when the Ms. is building some spec homes, so she has been bugging me to post and document the on-going project here.
OK, maybe it is still a wonderful place, but things can get frustrating at times. Anyway, from the stories with my friends to my own personal experience the saying that fits is 'If I only knew then what I know now!'.
Now don't get me wrong. Even with all of the possible hassles, Thailand is still a great place to build a house. First off there is cheap skilled labor, materials are plentiful and not too expensive and land is also not expensive by European standards. Secondly, in and around Pattaya, Thailand there is a building boom. If your house turns out well, you have a nice investment on your hands that can be sold for up to twice the money invested.
continued.........
However attractive the prospect of building is, one thing is for certain.... info is hard to come by. For example, what are the various types of water sources, what should I know about how perimeter walls are built, construction materials types, things to be on the lookout for and on and on and on. This site is basically a posting of information that I wish I had known before I got started. And it is by no means complete - so please by all means comment and correct information which I have posted and if you have knowledge of a particular area of house construction in Thailand please write it up. I will post your information on this site. Info from experts is greatly appreciated also.
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This site was last updated 10/02/05