Need help in building of new house

Post by **Thailover123** » March 24, 2013, 6:42 pm

Hey everyone!

I would like to have some good advice from you , thank you for your time in advance!
I am now building a new house in wanoniwat, It is in the middle of sakon nakhon and udon thani district.

Well.. Indeed the house is built for my business propose and we have pretty tight budget in building it. We do not know anyone or any contacts for reference but according to her step-dad 100k-150k will be enough. This discussion drag for few weeks and end up her friend was a builder designer and we ask him to design and caculate out the costs for our house building which i mention to him that i want to be cement ground and walls.

what i learnt about soil to build a house,

1: Soil filling to build a certain level ( i paid 300 baht per small soil truck and order 30 of them = 9k thai baht ) And it is not enough and require additional of 10 big truck 400 baht each.
2. Soil is loose and require daily watering , or rain water to harden it, so when we build the house it will have a good base. Or i can hire a truck( i am trying to find the name of truck ) to roll over it and harden it to speed up the progress else i gonna wait 1-2months for soil to harden.

well i have zero knowledge of all these building stuff, therefore i could only rely on her step-dad but i just got a feeling i might get rip-off from thais. well for now i dont care much as long as the whole building doesnt exceed much. The original plan was 150k baht max , but designer gave me a new quote 169k baht excluding his charges and misc . I hope to get it done with less than 200k baht.

Post by **jackspratt** » March 24, 2013, 8:11 pm

Perhaps you could share with us the dimensions of the proposed house, and the number and type of rooms. Then the expected materials, and level of finish.

However, as a general comment, if someone is quoting 169k for a new "house", I would get it committed to writing, sign the contract with the builder at the local Amphur office, and start building asap.

Post by **Tafia** » March 24, 2013, 9:11 pm

Try This site http://www.coolthaihouse.com/forum/

Post by **KHONDAHM** » March 24, 2013, 9:12 pm

Head over to http://www.coolthaihouse.com for the best DIY info (Tafia beat me to it).

Generally speaking, your budget sounds about right for LABOR-only for a no-frills very basic 16m x 12m home (2 BR, living room, kitchen, BR). If you are looking to build a simple single room building with a bathroom (8m x 8m, for example), then LABOR only would be about 75k.

Materials is the wickedest variable. If you go for Thai-village quality (slap it up and hope it doesn't blow away during rainy season), then materials cost is still going to be about 120-150k for the house I described (including poor-quality plumbing and electric, off-the-rack Chinese windows, synthetic sheet roof, doors, paint, consumables, thin steel, foil-backed gypsum ceiling, cheap fixtures, etc.). Poor quality materials for the building I described might run about 80k-100k.

I've a builder who has done an add-on fitness room and is now doing an over-sized 2 car garage and perimeter fence for me now and will do some more work after rainy season. I wish I had him when I built my house, but I recommend him without reservation. I've used several "builders" in the past and know he is the real deal skill-wise. Sketch what you want or print out a picture and he will build exactly that - see something you want changed along the way? No problem. Formal plans are helpful, but he doesn't really need them. His experience is very broad and deep, he's built dozens of high-spec homes and buildings and knows what to do to give you what you want. He may have availability after Songkran.

That said, you might want to wait until after rainy season to build. Building season starts after rainy season and ends (for new starts) in March (now). It sounds like you want a 3-4 week project, but if that ground is not properly compacted and then you put several tons of building on it, you're just begging for problems during/after the first rainy season and beyond.

Also, labor gets scarce because of planting season which starts around May-June.

Cheers!

Post by **Thailover123** » March 24, 2013, 9:33 pm

Thank you all for reply. This is the layout he given me.

basically i just need a simple 1 storey house to place my heavy duty equipment , was planning to use it as a factory.

Post by **Thailover123** » March 24, 2013, 9:38 pm

I understand that it might be a bad timing now to get it build , like u mention that the ground is not properly compacted and labor is hard to get. But if i still wanna to get it done now , what do you suggest to get the ground properly compact ? Can i hire some tractor to get it compact instead? Labor issue i gonna sort it out myself i guess.

Post by **Thailover123** » March 24, 2013, 9:42 pm

jackspratt wrote:Perhaps you could share with us the dimensions of the proposed house, and the number and type of rooms. Then the expected materials, and level of finish.

However, as a general comment, if someone is quoting 169k for a new "house", I would get it committed to writing, sign the contract with the builder at the local Amphur office, and start building asap.

he actually give me a dim of 11x4m .

Post by JR » March 24, 2013, 10:04 pm

Are you looking to make a raft foundation? With concrete beams lying directly on the new soil you put there? No footings or pilings? It depends on what is under your soil but if there is nothing harder than soil, you may be building in a lot problems like cracked walls and floors.

Post by **Thailover123** » March 24, 2013, 10:10 pm

i do not understand what is raft foundation. But i would take up any good advice you could give me as i want it to built up asap instead of waiting for 1 year for the soil to be compact.

Post by **Thailover123** » March 24, 2013, 10:16 pm

KHONDAHM wrote:Head over to http://www.coolthaihouse.com for the best DIY info (Tafia beat me to it).

Generally speaking, your budget sounds about right for LABOR-only for a no-frills very basic 16m x 12m home (2 BR, living room, kitchen, BR). If you are looking to build a simple single room building with a bathroom (8m x 8m, for example), then LABOR only would be about 75k.

Materials is the wickedest variable. If you go for Thai-village quality (slap it up and hope it doesn't blow away during rainy season), then materials cost is still going to be about 120-150k for the house I described (including poor-quality plumbing and electric, off-the-rack Chinese windows, synthetic sheet roof, doors, paint, consumables, thin steel, foil-backed gypsum ceiling, cheap fixtures, etc.). Poor quality materials for the building I described might run about 80k-100k.

I've a builder who has done an add-on fitness room and is now doing an over-sized 2 car garage and perimeter fence for me now and will do some more work after rainy season. I wish I had him when I built my house, but I recommend him without reservation. I've used several "builders" in the past and know he is the real deal skill-wise. Sketch what you want or print out a picture and he will build exactly that - see something you want changed along the way? No problem. Formal plans are helpful, but he doesn't really need them. His experience is very broad and deep, he's built dozens of high-spec homes and buildings and knows what to do to give you what you want. He may have availability after Songkran.

That said, you might want to wait until after rainy season to build. Building season starts after rainy season and ends (for new starts) in March (now). It sounds like you want a 3-4 week project, but if that ground is not properly compacted and then you put several tons of building on it, you're just begging for problems during/after the first rainy season and beyond.

Also, labor gets scarce because of planting season which starts around May-June.

Cheers!

You are right! im looking at 4 weeks to get the house up and running! And thanks for your guide! I think this will be my temporary setup , i expect the material is cheap and lowly type but i will upgrade in later part. maybe to built another house beside it and shift my machines over in the future. But now i just need a roof over my head for my business to start kicking. $\:D/$

Post by **maaka** » March 25, 2013, 1:40 am

I dont know about you guys, but I wouldnt build on compacted fill for at least two years..that used to be the old rule of thumb to give the ground time to stablize, but each to his own.

4m is not very wide either.. my forest house is 12x 7m..

what will you do with the building if you retire from business, can you design it in such a way, that at such time it can be converted into a house..?? 4m is not wide enough for a house..

Post by **fatbob** » March 25, 2013, 6:51 am

If you want to build on the land immediately then you must compact the fill in 300mm layers.

Post by **KHONDAHM** » March 25, 2013, 7:52 am

The other option you have would be to dig through the fill and at least another .50m into the "old ground".

Then, you would need to essentially build as if on stilts - meaning your floor beams would have to support all the weight and you would have to lay prefab concrete floor across it. At 4m width and 11m length, that would be doable with about 20 or so prefab concrete floor "strips" [I can't recall the proper name at the moment]. You'll want to add extra columns along the length to support the weight of the floor, whatever equipment you put on it, AND the ceiling if you build it "Thai-style"; and go with a fiber roof.

Your design looks doable on close to or slightly over 200k all-in if you skip the ceiling and just seal it with chicken wire so birds don't fly in. Expect a lot of mosquitoes in there, though. It's going to stay damp during rainy season.

You'll also want to put an air inlet at the top at the end and 2 hot air vents at the pinnacle of the roof over each room or you'll bake in there.

Cheers!

Post by **kopkei** » March 25, 2013, 9:02 am

i am going to build a enclosed garage ( no carport),8 x 4 M , with cpac moniere roof tiles and a foundation of 20 cm re-enforced concrete , estimate of the cost not more than 60.000 baht...including labor

Post by **fatbob** » March 25, 2013, 9:13 am

kopkei wrote: by kopkei » March 25, 2013, 9:02 am

i am going to build a enclosed garage ( no carport),8 x 4 M , with cpac moniere roof tiles and a foundation of 20 cm re-enforced concrete , estimate of the cost not more than 60.000 baht...including labor

I very much doubt those numbers but good luck. Concrete slab, columns, roof beams; steel rebar, steel C purlins and battens and then roof tiles, shera fascia boards......

Post by **harmonyudon** » March 25, 2013, 9:15 am

kopkei wrote:i am going to build a enclosed garage ( no carport),8 x 4 M , with cpac moniere roof tiles and a foundation of 20 cm re-enforced concrete , estimate of the cost not more than 60.000 baht...including labor

A very good deal. In theory a bit more bahts for a toilet/bahtroom, windows, tyles etc.. You have a small resort bungalow, let's say total 100.000bht. Possible or not?

Post by **Galee** » March 25, 2013, 10:16 am

Referring to the OP. If it was me I would provide the 8 pillars deep enough to go into the base soil by at least 1metre. I'd then provide a ring beam about 20cm high at ground level between all pillars. Then in-fill and compact. Provide re-enforcing steel mesh on top and then have 3 separate concrete pours for each part of the building.

Post by **KHONDAHM** » March 25, 2013, 11:25 am

kopkei wrote:i am going to build a enclosed garage ( no carport),8 x 4 M , with cpac moniere roof tiles and a foundation of 20 cm re-enforced concrete , estimate of the cost not more than 60.000 baht...including labor

Good luck with that. My garage is 8 x 6.5, CPAC Moniere, and 10 cm floor (compacted 2 years with large gravel already). My planned cost was 35k labor; but I made some arbitrary changes, so labor will be 45k including "satisfied customer" bonus. Materials are normal cinder blocks, 50 glass blocks, and American quality steel beams (mostly 2.8-3.0 mm, and a few 1.6-2.0mm where tensile strength is not really needed) and expert roof framing.

I haven't really been keeping track because I've also been buying perimeter wall materials too, but I think I am at about 140k materials cost just for the garage. Had I gone economy and went with all 2.0mm steel, I would have saved maybe 5k - not all that much versus the peace of mind that it ain't nevah goin' anywhere short of a direct hit by a CAT 4 or 5 twister.

Monier was 16k + ~600 blocks for 2.5k + glass blocks for 2.5k + 7 prefab columns for 3.5k + smart board for 3.0k (?) + sand/cement/gravel for 5.0k (?) + consumables for 3.0 k (?) + steel for 26k (?) + steel rollup door with remote installed for 60k (?) + electric supplies/fixtures and labor for 10k + paint (2 coats primer and 2 coats finish) for 6k + sundries (M-150's, occasional lunch and snacks, gofer fuel) for 3k.

Perimeter soffit sealed against birds and no interior ceiling as I may do spray foam later. Not including the foam, I think I'm at about ~185k-ish all-in. Materials costs are waaaaay up verses 2010 when I built the house.

Cheers!

Post by **maaka** » March 25, 2013, 2:04 pm

KD.

I would go 4.0kva ( 3300 watts ) generator or bigger, as you might want to run a freezer, or auto washer if the national grid goes down for any length of time..
if it has a built in inverter, go Pure Sinewave to protect sensitive electronics
if it has a built in battery charger, all the better
make sure the room its is running in has ventilation, or the genny will overheat from sucking in its own exhaust

I dont really like to suggest a model to buy in case it goes pear shaped on you, but I have a 5.0kva Honda, pull start, petrol...not ideal as petrol where I am has gone thru the roof..I bought it in 1996 and had the bushes done once..it has run a small construction crew, when their genny packed up. it will power my washing machine, vaccum cleaner, tv, so I am happy, but it sucks the petrol..

Toolmax is a new digital brand inverter /generator ( Canadian/ China ) which has a 4.0kva and all of the above, and you can get them in BKK..

those Indian Lister's with the big fly wheel are aok too.

The natural gas powered generators sound interesting, and a member was asking about them afew weeks back on UM..I think they are alot quieter, which you want in a generator, because if you live out in the wops and it night time, the last thing you want is a noisy genny thudding away...

Post by **kopkei** » March 25, 2013, 8:42 pm

well without meaning to offend anyone , only thing i can conclude is that not many people are aware of the real building material prices and also labor fees , only thing i can say here is that you never must compare prices with your home country , but only within thailand ....45.000 baht labor to build only a garage ? i am sure they will be satisfied....not say no more