Fixing up a local house

[AlantheBuilder]

look here we added more roof steel and romoved 1 concrete column .

 

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[AlantheBuilder]

 

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[boloa]

I have built a few houses in thailand and that one has a lot going wrong with It,my advice to any Falang building in thailand is to check out the builders work common sense and stay in thailand as long as you can and over see the building and you will minimise the fuck ups

 

Unfortunately it looks like the guy requiring AtB's help has broke a few of the golden rules in building a house here in Thailand . I always find it funny that it's always the Thai Builder ( if you can call the Thais that built that house builders that is ... LOL  )  that get the bad rap, when in most case's like these the westerner in trouble only has himself to blame, They then blame the Thais for their own stupidity. If he had spent a few weeks/Months in the locale he wished to build and had found houses he liked the look of, he then could have ask the owners who built their house for them. Or  use a recommended builder from a reliable source. You only have to look around to see some very nice houses built by local Thai Builders.

Cowboy Builders are not just a phenomenon that happens here in Thailand. Anyone from the UK must have seen the series on CH5 called 'Cowboy Builders' where there have been 100's of shows  with the weekly horror story of some poor family having there savings robbed from them and ending up with a pile of rubble or living on a Building site.

For those that don't live here full time then companies like AtB's are a good option and every house I've seen built by his company have been 1st class ,

But you must remember more often than not your Thai parter is put under a lot of pressure by their family to use other family members to build your house for you ,even if they are not qualified.This can put a strain on your relationship and you must stick to your guns if your not 100% happy ,remember its your money !!

Like Maeko1961 I have had a few houses built here in Thailand .The first in Koh Samui and the one I live in now in Surin. I've lived here in Surin for 12 years now and my 2 Bed Bungalow cost around 800k all in to Build . I guess you could double that price now ( if not more )  with todays current exchange rates, more expensive material and labour costs.

Looking at the pictures that AtB has posted I've have seen local Thais build similar houses for themselves for 400-500k, which may be fine for them but for a westerner a bit more luxury would be required. I'm sure by the time AtB has finished it will meet western owners requirements

[Wolf Cat]

One of the main reasons there is little wood is the termites! 

When I remodeled my house from top to bottom I put in new wooden doors around the house (except the bathrooms), within one year the door in the back of the house to the washing machine/storage area was infested with termites. My Tg's father came over one day, saw the infestation and mixed some unknown-to-me powder with cooking oil, painted it on the door and boom, no more termites.  

[udontony]

When I remodeled my house from top to bottom I put in new wooden doors around the house (except the bathrooms), within one year the door in the back of the house to the washing machine/storage area was infested with termites. My Tg's father came over one day, saw the infestation and mixed some unknown-to-me powder with cooking oil, painted it on the door and boom, no more termites.  

Doors are usually better wood than cupboards etc but yes they do get infested.  We use a Chaindrite product to spray cabinets etc regularily and that works well enough if you remember to do it.  There are woods that the termites will not eat but they are very very expensive and hard to work with.  I treated my wooden decking three times before I laid the boards down and so far that has worked but only four years in for the decking.  Still glad that we have mostly concrete fittings in the house just because of insect damage.

[AlantheBuilder]

When they cement rendard the bathroom 1 wall was 6 cm out at the top took a few coats to level .lol .

Will have more pics in a couple of days .

 

 

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[AlantheBuilder]

Septic drain

 

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[AlantheBuilder]

m

[Capt Hook]

loooks like a nice fun project.....

i love building /designing tropical homes.

first thing i do is OPEN a place up.

i like a big open entertaining kitchen....so many thai or mexican kitchens as little holes in the back.

i like a big BAR and open cooking area...clean up can be in the back....but cooking is now the new entertaining , so keep it open for all to see and experience...

just my thoughts.

have fun with it.

CH

[AlantheBuilder]

loooks like a nice fun project.....

i love building /designing tropical homes.

first thing i do is OPEN a place up.

i like a big open entertaining kitchen....so many thai or mexican kitchens as little holes in the back.

i like a big BAR and open cooking area...clean up can be in the back....but cooking is now the new entertaining , so keep it open for all to see and experience...

just my thoughts.

have fun with it.

CH

Yes they have an opening and we are making double swing doors to connect the living area to the kitchen .

 

 

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[felix the cat]

Looks like it's coming along nicely.

 

Is the owner going to have a driveway put in? I can't see that he has one.  

[AlantheBuilder]

Looks like it's coming along nicely. [emoji106]6:

 

Is the owner going to have a driveway put in? I can't see that he has one.

I was thinking that myself , but they don't have a car .

Let's see if they ask .

 

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[AlantheBuilder]

p

[slashlarue]

This is a house a few local builders have been working on , the English gent has totally had enough of the situation so has called us in to sort out .We will add a roofed front sitting area and make good to the house and add trimmings.i will add pics as we go .

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What does a house like that go for?

[AlantheBuilder]

No idea what it could be sold for

 

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[slashlarue]

No idea what it could be sold for

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To construct?

[AlantheBuilder]

We are only fixing and extending the place not sure what he paid the local guys .

If you are looking for house prices if you go to my website www.alanthebuilder.com

Under galary or planing and drop me a line that might be better for ideas , we don't really build this type of house really .

 

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[udontony]

Love the internal doorway in post 39, it takes some real skill to make such a bad job of anything!  Bet they thought that they could just render over it and nobody would notice.   A while ago we had a team of so called builders make a work sala for us, just four concrete posts and a decent roof with a concrete floor.  They leveled the ground ( well sort of ),pinched some of my decent wood for shuttering and then did not come back for a week.  They put in concrete foundations for the four posts and had them level.  Went to builders merchants and bought the only two posts they had the right length, concreted them in and then went to another builders yard for the other two posts.  They were concreted in and the roof was being welded on before they realised that the concrete posts were of a different length!  So they welded the roof onto the top of the steel reinforcing bars that stick out from the top of the post.   When they put the tile roof on they managed to crack three of the ridge tiles but just rubbed in some dirt to make it more difficult to see which washed out with the first shower.   The concrete floor edges are all curved because they did not use enough pins to contain the shuttering and the floor is no where near level.

 

After saying all that we also did make a large shade area next to the house a few years ago and the builders that did that job made a first class job of it.  Tried to get them to build the work sala for me but they are busy for the next two years, easy to see why they are busy when they do such good work!

[slashlarue]

We are only fixing and extending the place not sure what he paid the local guys .

If you are looking for house prices if you go to my website www.alanthebuilder.com

Under galary or planing and drop me a line that might be better for ideas , we don't really build this type of house really .

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From what I have seen on the site and links you are on the "higher end" of home building. Just looking at the moment, but will start off basic (retire in 10 yrs) and add on as the years pass to retirement.

[Skalliwag]

Sometimes ya just have to pay.

Good job Alan.

[wtfname]

Probably end up paying a lot more for it than if he'd paid Alan in the first place and for a house which will be worth a lot less.

 

It looks a real Thai type shambles round and about.

[udontony]

A expat friend in the village would not pay the builder who built our house, said he was too expensive so he hired a cheaper one.  He has already had to fork out much more than the difference in cost between the builders in repairs.

[Garzan]

A expat friend in the village would not pay the builder who built our house, said he was too expensive so he hired a cheaper one.  He has already had to fork out much more than the difference in cost between the builders in repairs.

 

Exactly. It may be more expensive in the short term, but will be more than worthwhile in the long term. Better to pay for it done correctly the first time, than to keep paying to have it redone. :-)

[AlantheBuilder]

More pics 

[felix the cat]

Very nice work...it's starting to take shape. Though i still reckon the owner should put in a driveway of some sort 555