Updated 6 July 2016:
I have just published a 750 page eBook that follows the challenges, frustrations and successes of building a house in Thailand from the very start of us buying the land through to moving in and beyond. You will be part of our building team for every day of construction and I will share many do’s and don’ts all designed to save you time, money, sleepless nights or all three. This book is a must have as part of your research on the subject of building in Thailand and you can find it HERE.
27 December – 2 January 2014, a short working week as the workers headed off to celebrate New Year on Tuesday and are not due back until the 3rd. However there was some progress made that makes this week worth a post.
Day 56 Saturday, I wrote in my post for Week 8 HERE, that the AAC blocks had turned up finally on the Friday and we had collected some mortar from Thai Watsadu so the team could get started first thing Saturday. Well this happened and when we arrived that morning the wall building was underway.
The wall of what will be Peng’s bedroom going up.
These blocks are great to watch being put in place as they are a quick method of building and for the people doing the work, lightweight to use. They are being cemented into place with a thin mortar base rather than the glue type option used in some cases you will read about on building forums. Better or worse I can’t say.
The outside of that same wall.
The rear ensuite wall started.
With the first fix of electrical linked in with the walls going up we headed off on what is now a very familiar route to Global House at Nong Bua Lamphu to buy conduit, junction boxes and that flexible silver tubing stuff that i think goes in the ceiling.
Some of the electrical supplies mixed in with leftover plumbing pipes waiting for installation.
We also purchased 32 ceiling downlights as an alternative to the handful of fluorescence tube mood lighting thoughtfully included by the draughtsman to light the place.
Gaun continued to chase Thai Watsadu to get the rest of our AAC blocks delivered as the wall crew seem to be getting through about 400 blocks a day, which only gives us a couple days supply based on the one delivery we have received so far. Building here is SO much easier with an active Thai partner. I have said it before but doing a build on your own without any Thai language would be such a pain and the guys that do it successfully are heros in my book.
Day 57 Sunday, Ming’s two permanent guys turned up after a day off fishing, which gave us a full team of six plus Ming. Good progress was made and the rear of the house started to take shape.
Our bedroom wall with the space for the double glazed sliding door starting to take shape. Kitchen the next wall down.
From the reverse angle looking to the rear of the house.
From our bedroom sliding door looking across the house.
Peng’s first wall of blocks almost finished.
Gaun and I made another of our daily trips to Global House and bought the fuse box, 14 fuse spaces, plus door frames and two vanities. We are lucky in being able to borrow my brother-in-laws pickup for these trips otherwise we’d have to have larger items delivered. 25,700 THB out of the bank account.
In the afternoon another load of 800 AAC blocks turned up this time delivered by Thai Watsadu’s own truck, not the contractor that hasn’t been showing up.
More supplies to keep us going. 1,200 blocks in this delivery plus some mortar.
Day 58 Monday, a big one because we were to collect the Colorbond roofing from the other side of Khon Kaen a one a half hour’s drive, something I have been looking forward to doing. Ming and his son provided the transport as Bluescope wanted 5,000THB to deliver, which in a Thai sense seemed a bit excessive and also I preferred to give money to Ming.
I have to say that as a customer dealing with Bluescope it is a pretty ordinary experience. I wrote before that I don’t think they do much business with small time jobs like mine and they just aren’t set up to deal with retail customers. We turned up a bit after 2.00 pm and the truck was backed into their loading area, we sat in the waiting area and waited and waited.
This ten minutes operation took over an hour to complete. Ming’s truck ready for loading, our order was sitting on the ground immediately behind the truck but no action.
No sign of the sales manager or anyone else. The place is plastered with signs and slogans all about worker safety but I didn’t see one that mentioned customer service. At 3.00 pm a siren sounded and the workforce, such as it is, all headed outside for a smoke. At 3.15 the siren went again and the half-dozen guys trooped back in again. This time the hoists were fired up and 10 minutes later the loading was complete and we were ready to be signed out. I can only think that no work was done before 3.00 pm in case it interfered with the tea break!
Now an hour’s wait is no big deal, especially in a Thai environment, but I had expected a more satisfying customer experience from a company from my home country. I would have had much better service from the local Thai roofing place.
My whinging session over I would still buy Colorbond having now seen it back on site. It is a heavy duty product with a great deep finish to the paintwork and I love the slightly off-white colour. The workers have already commented at how much harder it is to cut to shape that the Thai equivalent.
Colorbond safely offloaded at the build with guard dog.
We parted company from Ming’s truck to head into Khon Kaen to browse HomePro, an up-market home decorating store, less straight building product oriented than say Global House. They were having an end of year sale, which brought their prices down to the same as everyone else. It was also an opportunity to call into Central Plaza the huge farang friendly shopping mall for a much needed steak! We ended up at an eating place called Santa Fe and had a very good Aussie T bone with chips and salad for 250 THB. I love Thai food but the urge to have a decent beef steak becomes irresistible from time to time.
Day 60 Tuesday, the last day of work before the team pack up for New Year. In our absence on Monday the Thai Watsadu guys lived up to their word and delivered the remaining blocks, a total of 3,860 and the final 20 bags of mortar. Having had a week of workers and no building materials I was now going to be in the situation of having all the building supplies but no workers 🙁
All the blocks now delivered. Gaun on top counting to make sure we had a complete order.
It is impossible to deliver these fragile blocks without some damage. I have yet to see any of the companies supplying AAC blocks provide any form of protection. A heavy duty cardboard edging to the top layer would save many chipped blocks.
By the end of the day we had some window spaces to look through and the second layer of blocks had been built for Peng’s bedroom wall.
Progress with the walls and Colorbond ready for the roof next week.
From the front looking to the bedrooms and ensuites at the back. The lounge room wall started on the immediate right.
Looking more like a house.
Each row of AAC blocks has a steel reinforcing rod inserted at each end of the row. Here the block has been cut to allow the rebar to be inserted and then it’s drilled into the column.
Every third row has a full length piece of rebar channeled into the blocks and then drilled into the columns at each end.
Peng’s now almost double block bedroom wall with first fix electrical fitted, power points on either side of the bed.
Double block wall detail in our bedroom window space. My computer room window off the bedroom at the back. Ensuite on the left.
With the wall building going along pretty well without my supervision 🙂 we decided to head to HomePro in Udon Thani, a bit over one hour’s drive, and pick up a Samsung fridge that was on special and also a Stiebel Eltron 80 litre storage hot water system as part of my strategy of ending up with a decent shower in the new house. We also called into Global House to pick up 6 of the required 10 external wall lights walking away with their entire stock.
The fridge came with a 4,000 THB discount plus 560 THB or A$20.00 delivery. It has a cold water dispensing system on the front and an automatic ice making machine inside, both which seem to make sense in this climate.
The working day over our building team got stuck into the Thai whisky and beer before taking off for three days holiday of doing more of the same.
Week 10 is full of progress as work recommences on Saturday 3 January and I will have some real progress to report at the end of next week so look out for that.
Costs for Week 9
A PDF file of the expenses to date can be found here: Full-costs-Week-9
Thanks for reading.
Hi Tony,
A couple of questions:
Will you be using a cavity wall on all perimeter walls?
The colour of the colorbond, is it closer to the Australian equivalent Surfmist or Shale Grey?
Regards
Chris
Yes I will Chris. Even the wall between the two bedrooms will be double. With a teenager in the house……..
As you know I am going the double block route more for noise with the added benefit of improved insulation. Isaan is a noisy place. I think that just for heat exclusion a single layer with a white roof and decent overhang would work just fine.
The Colorbond colour is more like Surfmist but less grey. It is a white version of Classic Cream. You can find it in this brouchure HERE
I am very pleased with it. I was worried it would stand out like a white elephant but during the day it picks up the sky colour and blends in. The temperature difference between outside and under the roof is dramatic. I will take readings today and post them with this week’s update.
It looks like all is going well Tony. Congratulations.
Did you consider a solar water heater? I will be using one. The initial cost is higher but free solar hot water forever is appealing.
Will you be using PPR pipe for the hot water. After reading CTH I’ve decided its worth the extra expense for inside the house.
It’s funny how I keep doing the “worth the extra expense” thing since they all seem so trivial compared to the total cost. But I am beginning to realize how,in aggregate, they can drive the cost up significantly. So trying to save in othe areas.
You seem to have very competent people and a good plan so I hope it all goes as smoothly as it seems to have so far.
I’ll be watching with great interest.
Chris.
Chris. You know it never occurred to me to look at that option. I have only seen the need for hot water as being critical during these cooler months with a much toned down requirement in the long hot period so the financial benefits didn’t register with me in the way it might have back in Canberra. I have even seen comments from some people on the use of water chillers to get the tank water cool enough to use in a shower! It will be interesting to hear how solar works out for you.
I will be using this product rather than PPR: http://www.pimatec.com/download/multipipe_eng.pdf. It has a push fitting arrangement, while Global House PPR only has the welding option. It costs 87 THB a metre and the fittings are all well under 100 THB each. I only have a 13 metre run across the two bathrooms at the back of the house so it is a very cheap exercise for me. Available from Thai Watsadu in Nong Bua Lamphu anyway.
Yes, it’s easy to lose touch with the original budget. I thought we had enough insulation to go under the Colorbond but with overlap not so. Two trips to Global House plus some extra screws and it’s another 5,000 THB. Not a big thing in itself but added to all the other surprises it adds up doesn’t it.
I seem to have a good team although we are getting into the more detailed things now so I will reserve judgement. The roof has gone up the last couple of days and the place is starting to look more like a house.
Cheers Chris.
Tony