John's budget build

[ajarnudon]

A bit late, but a couple of pics from the 10 days I had on site over Xmas-New Year.

Seems we forgot to run an earth for the main BR air con. No probs, there are ten 15 x 15 cm steel posts all one metre into the ground, all connected via the roof structure, and they are also connected by a 4 sq mm earth cable to the main copper earth stake in the septic absorption trench.

Got a lot more plumbing done, and put in a couple of external taps, which brought the water source a lot closer to the tubs where they are mixing the mortar.

Now have a working light in the downstairs bedroom. Temporarily hooked it up to the power outlet supply box (the lighting box isn't functional yet).

The foreman's son is playing with the barrow in the sandpit. All of the upper level slabs heve been poured; this ground level area is the last under-roof concrete pour. Ordered another two cubes of sand for the morning. This concrete pour was 4 cubes; if I left it like they had it, it would have been 6 cubes. After the extra fill was spread, plastic sheeting was laid and reo welded in situ and raised with luk bun. To the left is the main bathroom, further left (out of shot) is an indoor garden, pond and waterfall that is integrated with the bathroom. Top of shot is the kitchen/dining area. I have been very lazy with the photography - we are really a lot more advanced than this. I will do some catching up when I am back on site next weekend. Now, completely off-topic, but I will throw it in anyway.

My best mate in BKK is from Uganda. He recently brought this back for me - Ugandan gin with coconut flavour. Superb.

[ajarnudon]

Back in BKK again after spending five days working onsite.With five workers, we got a lot done. Just backtracking a little, we poured the lower level floor a few weeks back - kitchen/dining, main bathroom/indoor garden/water feature. This is the last slab until we add a front patio down the track a little.
This time we completed the main bathroom walls and rendered them. On the upper level, the main bedroom/ensuite/walk-in robe walls are 60% complete.

These pics show work on the BR1 door jamb, ties spot welded to the 15 x 15 cm steel column every second block before a 12 mm deformed bar is placed inside and backfilled with mortar. Also framed up two large windows with AAC block bridging the wall cavity.

We have also undercoated around 40% of the internal walls. The downstairs 2BR has been colour coated and the door hung.

Installed the last of the inside roof insulation (3 inch microfiber), and I have to say that it seems very effective.

[ajarnudon]

Forgot to put this one in. On the left is a robe with sliding doors, and on the right a cupboard with a hinged door and shelves for clothes, towels, sheets etc. Shelves will be varnished ply.

[ajarnudon]

Back in Udon on the building site for seven weeks, the first of which has just finished. The rear wall is now 100% complete and 60% rendered, and the north wall 80% complete. Here are some photo updates. In the southwest corner, where the sun will come from during the late afternoon for around eight months of the year, I have opted to go with a double AAC cavity wall above sill height for superior insulation. The white panel above the sliding glass door opening on the left, is also double AAC block, but without a cavity. The window opening is 220 x 110 cm looking out across the rear deck, and has a 5 m wide deck roof shading it.

The completed window opening in the rear cavity wall.

The window openings in the north wall being framed up - the main bedroom on the right and the ensuite bathroom on the left

The lintels for the external wall are made of two 50 x 50 mm steel angles welded together, and the next picture shows 12 mm vertical bar being welded between the lintel and the main roof beam as reinforcement.

Next, two panels of glass blocks which will provide natural light for the main bathroom and indoor garden. They are topped with a steel lintel, and 20 cm long steel stubs (12 mm) were welded vertically between each block above to positively locate the blocks, and then the rods mortared in. These blocks have the tops of the webbing cut out and a 12 mm horizontal bar will be welded to the top of each stub and the blocks backfilled with concrete - forming a solid concrete beam at lintel height.

Meanwhile, work on the internal walls of the main bedroom continues. The next picture shows the timber formwork going in place to pour the reinforced concrete arch between the bedroom and the walkin robe. Glass blocks in the rear wall of the robe borrow light from front of house, to be supplemented by LED lights switched by a PIR motion sensor.

And finally, a look at the storage loft above the WIR.

[ajarnudon]

And in the meantime, the missus has been quitely going about putting things together for the new house. Today one of her best friends left Udon with her husband and newborn baby to start a new life in Norway. We are storing quite a lot of stuff for them, but have benefitted by buying this two peice leather lounge suite, glass coffee table, and the table and two chairs - at the bargain price of 6,000 baht (roughly AUD 270). Thank you Mario and Fon.

[pipoz4444]

Good progress John.

Whats you planned date for moving in

pipoz4444

[ajarnudon]

Hi Pipoz
Hoping to have the external windows and doors in, and the ceiling up by the first week in May. Probably move some furniture in during July. However, I will be commuting to/from BKK for perhaps another 18 months, so will still have furniture in both BKK and Udon until that time. For instance, I have two full size fridges - maybe I will bring the one from BKK to the new house, and buy a small 2nd hand one for the BKK appt. A lot of juggling to happen I think. Probably have the house completed by November, although there will still be lots to do - landscaping and the like. I am in Udon until 6 May - could catch up for a lemonade if you will be around.

[pipoz4444]

Hi Pipoz
Hoping to have the external windows and doors in, and the ceiling up by the first week in May. Probably move some furniture in during July. However, I will be commuting to/from BKK for perhaps another 18 months, so will still have furniture in both BKK and Udon until that time. For instance, I have two full size fridges - maybe I will bring the one from BKK to the new house, and buy a small 2nd hand one for the BKK appt. A lot of juggling to happen I think. Probably have the house completed by November, although there will still be lots to do - landscaping and the like. I am in Udon until 6 May - could catch up for a lemonade if you will be around.

Good luck with the move in May

Re. The Landscaping can take years, if you are anything like me and do it at a slower than slow pace, from a distance. At my rate I have another 9 to 12 month, of slow planting and paving. Still not in a hurry, as I need to have something to do in the not to distant future.

Unfortunately, I wont be back in Udon in May this year.

Sometime in May, I will be "Pulling the Pin" on working in this Desert and once I do, I then have to work a two & half months Notice Period without taking holidays. So then I am stuck here, until about end July, before I can leave for good. So probably wont see you until August if that is OK

Regards

pipoz4444

[ajarnudon]

Well, as in the adage, the best laid plans of mice and men are apt to go awry. And so it was that my plans for moving in at an early date were turned on their head.The last wall to be finished was at the front of the house, and the front patio was going to happen some time in the future. As the wall got higher and higher, I came to the realisation that I would have to call a halt to the wall construction. The wall covers the main structural steel posts to which the frame work for the patio roof would be welded.
Back to basics again, and the next step was to get in a mini excavator to dig four 1m x 1m x 1m holes for the footings of the patio framework.

While he was there, I got him to dig a 40 cm x 30 cm trench connecting the holes for a strip footing for the front wall. Then manufactured four 90 cm square footing cages from 12mm deformed bar and welded two vertical reo starter bars to each, and entombed them in 25 cm of concrete. The roadfront pillars for the patio were to be of reinforced concrete, and we cut up some blocks to use as formwork.

Each course is made up of two 14 cm wide blocks (each with one side cut out) and one 9 cm block with part of the centre cut out; each course is laid 90 degrees to the previous one, over the reo starter bars and backfilled with concrete course by course.

The position of this column was dictated by underground services (water, power and comms), as well as the front road alignment.

Next, the roof beams supported by the front concrete pillars and welded to the main steel house posts, 100 x 50 box steel rafters, steel roof purlins then the roof sheeting. Some structural steel underneath to take the ceiling purlins which will take the gyprock ceiling. Finally, enclosed the roof section at the front with lapped sheraboard and topped with steel flashing from the roof.
So, the front patio which was to be built sometime down the track has happened sooner rather than later.

[ajarnudon]

[ajarnudon]

With all the walls completed and rendered, it was time to talk about windows and external doors. All up these will amount to approximately 24 sq. m. Finally settled on STA Aluminium in Adulyadet Road https://www.google.co.th/maps/place/Sin ... 0347?hl=en
who came on site, measured up and quoted to manufacture and install three large double sliding doors and four large windows. Went with powder coated aluminium which served me well for more than 17 years not far from the sea in Australia. The standard frames use 1.2 mm aluminium channel which is the same as off-the-shelf windows and doors sold in the likes of Do Home and Thai Watsadu. This gauge channel flexes easily in the hands, and I opted for the rigid 1.5 mm channel which seems to be of the same quality I had in Australia. All of the doors and windows are to be screened; window screens are to have two centre horizontal bars for rigidity, and doors screens four.
After some horse trading, a price of THB 72,000 was agreed on, and I paid a 50% deposit with an installation date around four weeks out. My priority now was to get the external walls painted inside and out, to avoid getting paint splashed on the about-to-be-installed windows, doors and frames. A couple of wall surfaces had some fine spider cracks in the render, notably in the AAC walls but not in the masonry walls. I was cognisant of allowing a minimum of four weeks for the render to completely dry and any cracks to appear before painting. If a crack was 1 mm wide, we filled it with acrylic putty before painting.

I opted for Nippon Paint’s Flexiseal Elastomeric Acrylic Primer. According to the manufacturer, this product successfully spans cracks of up to 1.5 mm. All walls, external and internal, have received two coats of this sealer. All external walls have now been colour coated (two coats) inside and out with Jotun matt acrylic - exterior a pale yellow and interior a light grey.

[Barney]

John

I hear there's been some sprinkling of rain in UT of late, has this affected progress?
Having the building covered and partially sealed does allow things to progress inside.
Are your windows to be fitted soon. What type and makeup of the windows did you go for?

[ajarnudon]

Hi Barney
From my previous post:
"...windows and external doors. All up these will amount to approximately 24 sq. m. Finally settled on STA Aluminium in Adulyadet Road https://www.google.co.th/maps/place/Sin ... 0347?hl=en
who came on site, measured up and quoted to manufacture and install three large double sliding doors and four large windows. Went with powder coated aluminium which served me well for more than 17 years not far from the sea in Australia. The standard frames use 1.2 mm aluminium channel which is the same as off-the-shelf windows and doors sold in the likes of Do Home and Thai Watsadu. This gauge channel flexes easily in the hands, and I opted for the rigid 1.5 mm channel which seems to be of the same quality I had in Australia. All of the doors and windows are to be screened; window screens are to have two centre horizontal bars for rigidity, and doors screens four.
After some horse trading, a price of THB 72,000 was agreed on, and I paid a 50% deposit with an installation date around four weeks out."
Hopefully the installation is finished now and I will get some pictures to post this weekend.

[ajarnudon]

All of the external windows and doors have now been installed, and I am generally very pleased with the result. Just two minor hiccups which the manufacturer is now addressing. The screen for one of the sliding doors is being redone, and there is an issue with the window in the main bedroom. The specification was for a single fixed pane in the centre and two sliding panes at the edges. This allows two-thirds of the area to be opened, however they made it with two-track channel instead of three - meaning that you could only have one pane open at a time. They have ordered some three-track channel from Bangkok, and we have been told that it should arrive in a few days.

One of the two sliding doors front of house.

Front window between kitchen and patio - there will be a servery in front of the sill on the patio side.

The problematic bedroom window.

Window in main BR ensuite.

Living room window and sliding door giving access to the rear deck.

A sky of blue, a sea of green - where's the yellow submarine? The view from the rear deck.

[ajarnudon]

Catch up pic: Yet to be rendered wall of the front patio and gable end Sheraboard covering and flashing.

I was back on site last weekend, and the major achievement was the absorption trench for the septic system serving the two inside bathrooms (we put in the first septic system about two years ago for the outside toilet at the rear of the garage/laundry - this was a necessary facility given the foreseen very long construction period). This was hard manual work for the three men digging the 11 metre x 60-70 cm deep x 35 cm wide trench. Some of the fill was like concrete.

A secondary trench was dug almost at right angles to the absorption trench to connect the shower and washbasin wastes after the the septic tank (i.e. into the exit pipe from the tank, not before it).The 10 cm exit pipe had two rows of 2.5 cm x 30 cm slots (with 10 cm gaps between slots) cut at 135 and 215 degrees from the vertical (give or take). Each length of pipe was then wrapped in multiple layers of shade cloth before being placed and joined on a prepared bed of sand (at the bottom) and aggregate.

[ajarnudon]

Had a bit of rain during the week

That's looking up the soi past my house towards the highway.

[ajarnudon]

Last weekend we poured the slab for the front patio (2.5 cubes). Thai workers keep scratching their heads that I don't have overs or unders.

Pics of the main bedroom ensuite and main bathroom, surfaces covered with Shell Flintcote bituminous emulsion prior to tiling.

[ajarnudon]

This little beauty is about to be installed in the gable end ceiling void front of house. This 8" blower extracts more than 20 cubic metres of air per minute. It will be coupled with a special thermocouple digital switch that I imported after countless hours searcing the web. The switch has multiple functions, but in my application it will compare the temperature difference between two sensors mounted clear of the internal and external walls (high up and shaded). Settings will be obtained experimentally, but I will start with a 3 degree C differential. That is to say that when the outside temperaure is 3 degrees below the temperature in the upper room level, the extractor will automatically start pumping air from the gable end and the vents in the ceiling below.

[ajarnudon]

Time for another update. The major accomplishment in October was the ceiling installation. This work was done by an external contractor - at THB 28,000 they weren't cheap, but their work is first class; and I was surprised how quick it all went up.

Rear deck

Hallway from lounge to kitchen/dining

Front patio

While the ceiling guys were working my own crew continued on with other things, such as the flashing in the pic above and a lot of painting. All of the wall painting is 100% complete and, as of yesterday, all of the ceilings have two coats of Dulux ceiling acrylic.

Dulux ceiling paint

We also installed the vented front door on the gas cylinder closet, and enclosed it on the inside.

Gas cylinder closet.

Meanwhile the leccie has been back and installed some ceiling downlights as well as fitting some of the sockets to the boxes now that the walls have all been painted. I am still waiting on the arrival of some light fittings that I bought on Aliexpress.

[sometimewoodworker]

Meanwhile the leccie has been back and installed some ceiling downlights as well as fitting some of the sockets to the boxes now that the walls have all been painted. I am still waiting on the arrival of some light fittings that I bought on Aliexpress.

Do remember to order extras of the lights, they fail and a particular light will be discontinued. DAMHIKT