Prefab House

[Bangyuk]

Has anyone had any experience of buying a prefab house? I’ve seen a building locally that’s made of wood / teak and is a really smart design. Not looking for a cabin or boring house! Any thoughts?

[Whistler]

Has anyone had any experience of buying a prefab house? I’ve seen a building locally that’s made of wood / teak and is a really smart design. Not looking for a cabin or boring house! Any thoughts?

They look great, a few erected in my village but they are very expensive, about twice as much as traditional ACC or concrete brick construction. from what I estimate. Superior insulation properties. As an ex firey, I would give you about 5 minutes to evacuate what you can if they caught on fire.

[Bangyuk]

Has anyone had any experience of buying a prefab house? I’ve seen a building locally that’s made of wood / teak and is a really smart design. Not looking for a cabin or boring house! Any thoughts?

They look great, a few erected in my village but they are very expensive, about twice as much as traditional ACC or concrete brick construction. from what I estimate. Superior insulation properties. As an ex firey, I would give you about 5 minutes to evacuate what you can if they caught on fire.

Ha! Thanks. That’s a shame!

[stattointhailand]

Termites are not keen on brick, however I and every single person in my moo bahn will testify they love hardwood floors/softwood door frames even if the property is treated every couple of months

[glalt]

I once rented a two bedroom new house. I was the first tenant. They had used aluminum wire and I found that some switches and outlets didn't work. I eventually took off all the cover plates and after tightening all the connectors everything worked fine. That's the first thing I would look at on a prefab. The house also had hard wood floors. They looked great. I used the second bedroom for storage. I had a large bag that held my scuba diving gear. After a year or so I picked up the bag and termites had eaten most of the floor. I have no idea how they got in because under the hard wood was concrete. Now I know why builders use ceramic tiles. I would not buy a house with hardwood flooring.

I had a good friend who had a large house built, He used all wood. It took about ten years and he had to replace all the door and window frames. He had a large fireplace made from stone. It was lagged to the wall studs and the entire chimney had leaned about six inches from the wall. The entire attic was filled with termite dust. The house was a total loss.

A house here in Thailand needs to be made from brick or blocks with steel rafters and aluminum or plastic framed doors and windows. I have not looked at any prefab houses here but would bet they are mostly made with light weight soft wood. Be very careful/

[Whistler]

Termites are not keen on brick, however I and every single person in my moo bahn will testify they love hardwood floors/softwood door frames even if the property is treated every couple of months

They can be easily treated with a single match.

[stattointhailand]

Termites are not keen on brick, however I and every single person in my moo bahn will testify they love hardwood floors/softwood door frames even if the property is treated every couple of months

They can be easily treated with a single match.

You have to know they are there first ......... by the time you find that out its too late as all thats left of the floor/doorframe is paper thin layers of varnish with nothing underneath

[Whistler]

Termites are not keen on brick, however I and every single person in my moo bahn will testify they love hardwood floors/softwood door frames even if the property is treated every couple of months

They can be easily treated with a single match.

You have to know they are there first ......... by the time you find that out its too late as all thats left of the floor/doorframe is paper thin layers of varnish with nothing underneath

Burns a treat

[glalt]

Termites are not keen on brick, however I and every single person in my moo bahn will testify they love hardwood floors/softwood door frames even if the property is treated every couple of months

They can be easily treated with a single match.

You have to know they are there first ......... by the time you find that out its too late as all thats left of the floor/doorframe is paper thin layers of varnish with nothing underneath

I had a small one room overnight sleeping place built next to a pond. Since there was no electricity, the rafters were made from wood. A couple years later I saw a piece of trim hanging down. I grabbed a piece of bamboo and tried to push it back in place. The entire piece fell off. The room is still standing but the roof could collapse anytime. The front door frame is now completely destroyed.

[Bangyuk]

Thanks everyone. Maybe not such a genius idea! The place I saw is effectively the office of the milk plant near to us in Thung Fon. Really lovely design! But surrounded by concrete which must help with the tetmites!

[deankham]

We have a small Thai wooden house (they seem to call them 'knock down' house) very similar to the picture below, in our back garden.



The idea was it would be used for storage for a few months as we shipped a container of household stuff to Thailand, then it would become my private bar
4 years later and it is still full of boxes and stuff we don't use. I've had a beer sat on the porch area but never inside the bloody thing!

The termites have left the main body of the thing alone but the bottom stairs and back support of the seating area are rotting away as the rain comes straight off the roof and onto them. Also think they are being eaten but could just be wood rot.

Total cost was either 200 or 220K baht (was 20k for the concrete pad and crane to lift it into position, forget if house was 180 or 200k).

If we could turn back the clock we would not bother with the wooden house and instead have build a small building from Qblock / glass (or similar) that we could actually use.
Actually we are thinking of moving the wooden house to the farm and doing that anyway at some point in the future. Something similar to the following picture but without the pool;