Building a New House in Udon Thani

Post by **arjay** » November 15, 2005, 12:03 pm

Can someone explain then, where do these large black plastic tanks come into play? I understood they were septic tanks with an exit pipe near the top for the excess liquid to drain away. Or is it that the dialogue is about remote rural houses, whereas I am thinking about estate houses on a development?

Post by **businessman** » November 15, 2005, 12:12 pm

arjay,the plastic septic tanks are more expensive.The concrete ones are made of 3 bits of pipe used primarily for drainage on main roads and only a few hundred Baht each.

Marcus

valentine · Post by **valentine** » November 15, 2005, 6:38 pm

The black tanks are basically sludge holding tanks with water outlets at the top level which drain off into the concrete ones which are soakaways. These are emptied by the mobile tankers. In my case about once every 3 months.The waste water from sinks,baths, washing machine etc, bypass the sludge tanks and go straight into the soakaway tanks. Which are, in my case 2 sets of 4 deep adjoining and linked to each other, these are never emptied, they have no base, other than the hole bottom.
When the black tank is emptied, I put a chemical, supplied by manufacturers in which helps to break down the solids.
No more info, my dinners ready!!!

Post by **arjay** » November 15, 2005, 6:57 pm

Ok, thanks that's helpful. So on an estate house I guess the black tank water outlet feeds into the normal (road) drains,

or possibly just soaks into the ground

Post by **fdimike** » November 15, 2005, 11:49 pm

Actually I believe the currently available large black plastic tanks are a little more involved than simply a holding tank. The tank is split into two sections. The first section is hollow and allows the solid waste to settle to the bottom of the tank from the toilet. The second section of the tank which is partially divided from the first by a screen contains hundreds of plastic spheres which house anerobic bacteria (bacteria which lives without O2). This bacteria digests the waste leaving only liquid behind. This liquid then drains into whatever drainfield you install.

Grey water (from sink and bath) is transported to a grease trap before it is sent on to the drain field.

I don't claim to be an expert in this area just reporting what I am being told by my builder and engineer.

Mike

Post by **yorkman** » November 16, 2005, 2:47 am

banpaeng wrote:John, as a suggestion only. I have seen folks make a flower garden over their field lines. Just make sure not a deep rooted plant and use annuals as they will have to be planted every year so no long standing roots.

Remember this is a suggestion only.

Hehe Thank you!! I know it was a serious suggestion, and I thank you for that, but I laughed because of myself. I am definately not a gardener. I'll tell the wife about the flower garden idea, it actually might just work for us perfectly!

I've actually got two of the black tank systems planned in (for redundancy from 3 bathrooms) so at least if one goes wrong we have somewhere to...errrrr....go; while the pump truck is called etc etc.

My ignorance stemmed from what happens after it goes through the black tanks, and thanks to here I understand better.

Valentine (long after your dinner hopefully

)What are these chemicals/tablets you can add to break down the sludge, and where do you get them?

John

Post by **PopsIcafe** » November 16, 2005, 8:23 am

Anyone have pros and cons on the "Dream Up House Builder Co., LTD". They are located down the road from Rajabhat University. I also would be interested in the contruction of an in ground swimming pool.

Pop's

valentine · Post by **valentine** » November 16, 2005, 11:05 am

John, those chemical additions to the tank. I am sorry the writing is in Thai and I can't make heads or tails of my wifes translation, but they are in a big bag and look like granules., dirty white in colour. We get them at Homebase but I understand most places that stock the tank will also carry them. In fact you get a bag when you purchase the tank, packed with it.

Post by **fdimike** » November 16, 2005, 11:13 am

Ron et all. Re: the additive for the septic tank. Home Mart and I believe Global carry a liquid additive for the tank. It is in a Green bottle with instructions in english and thai. This can be used straight or mixed with mollasses to increase the size of the bacterial colony before adding it to the tank via the toilet. Mollasses is available in a shop just in front of the main entrance to Paolo Hospital.

Mike

Post by **Garnet** » November 27, 2005, 12:05 am

I very recently came upon this website that discussed a water filtration process:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/urine.html

To quote from it: "Water Security has already begun putting the technology to work in areas where freshwater is in short supply. This summer, global relief agency Concern for Kids deployed a foot-powered purification unit in northern Iraq. Robert and Roni Anderson, Concern's founders, loaded it onto the back of a Toyota pickup and drove to dozens of villages to purify their groundwater. The unit pumps out 5 gallons per minute, and a single day of purification can sustain a village of 5,000 people for a month. The cost is about 3 cents a gallon. Iraqi water companies, by comparison, charge $4 a gallon.

"It's not just war-torn regions that are short on potable water. After the tsunami hit Indonesia last December, much of the freshwater supply became contaminated with salt water and toxic street runoff. Kearney says the Water Security system is perfectly capable of working in such natural-disaster scenarios. After all, the technology was originally tested on an open sewage ditch in Jakarta and produced water that met Environmental Protection Agency standards."

That is unbelievably cheap water, particularly when it's water you may already have in your taps or well, but dare not use for consumption!

Here is another related article:

http://www.kolotv.com/news/features/6/1768641.html

And www.watseco.com appears to be the company homepage:

I hope that they can make their product so successful that it is priced within reach of home users, but it doesn't sound like it wouldn't hurt to have some sort of system like this in place at the small community level.

Post by **yorkman** » November 27, 2005, 1:58 am

Good information Garnet,

The only thing I cannot see on the website is pricing...it says specs and price list but the .pdf does not have pricing (or maybe it's me just not looking carefully)

They tested it with water from a sewage ditch!! Well, that should about cover the needs

John

Post by **yorkman** » January 16, 2006, 7:48 pm

As requested, a few more piccies as it progresses

After the rice crop slowdown, and the holidays, now a bit more progress

Taken a couple of weeks ago, roof trusses going on now and floors going in

John

Post by **BangkokButcher** » January 17, 2006, 2:17 am

Good to see things are going well with it John.

Post by **yorkman** » January 17, 2006, 3:00 am

Its going well, but not perfectly. The Engineer thus far has been excellent (I will not as yet recommend and tempt fate) and has rectified immediately any problems found. He laughs a bit as he is not used to having a Civil Engineer (my brother in law) looking over his shoulder!!

However it does reinforce the oft given advice that they must be checked regularly. Minor problems thus far have included:

- concrete pours not completed in one go on beams, because they have run out of concrete. They wanted to finish it the next day. They did remove and do it all again when it was pointed out

- Not wrapping the concrete in plastic to allow a slow dry. Fixed within 1 hour when spotted

- Not tying in ALL the uprights both top and (3 missing) bottom. This actually is a minor issue given that they have driven piles some 6m plus into the ground and drilled and pressure concreted them into bedrock, but its on the plan...sooooooo

Its not the Engineer (his responsibility though) or necessarily the contracted builder, he cannot be there all the time, but and this is the point, these things would not cause problems until maybe 5 years down the line, and then where are you when the walls start cracking.

I took a look at some construction in one of the well known "villages" around Udon, and spotted all the same issues and others. Example: putting rubberised water supply pipe under a floor prior to laying the concrete floor. Zero access when (not if) that becomes a problem, unless you want to dig up your tiled lounge area.

However, on the upside.....they have made a cock up about which I am keeping very quiet until its too late to go back. It looks like I might have a somewhat larger house than I am paying for!!!!! They are building a second floor over a rear 6*5 metre covered patio area and that is not on the plan!. Looks like it might be a 4 bedroom house soon!

Already planned are the shocked looks and how are you going to fix this questions.

I do not mean to paint a black picture, its generally going very well. I would just hate to be an absentee ( me, partially) potential house owner without somebody local you can absolutely trust and that they respect.

John

Post by **businessman** » January 17, 2006, 11:04 am

John,i do remember the fun of building this house.Really must be around at all times or they will do their own thing rather than "bother" you and ask how something needs to be done."geng jai" causes many a hassle between Thai and farang.

Post by **Kudjap or Bust** » January 17, 2006, 2:28 pm

what size pool are you building, I'm thinking of putting one in myself. Is your builder installing the pool himself or is he hiring a pool company. If its a pool company could you leave any contact details on this thread, i'd like to speak with them direct.
Also, if it's not too rude to ask, what's the final charge for the pool.

Post by **yorkman** » January 17, 2006, 4:42 pm

Was the question for me Kudjap?

In which case I can be of only limited help. The pool is stage 2 when the house is complete, so at this stage I have just established where it is to go, so no drains, piping or whatever go there, and had some rough quotes.

No the builder is not doing this; he openly states he has no experience of doing it. For a kidney shaped recreational rather than serious swimming pool so far indications are 300,000 to 500,000B. The variation is more a function of the filtration systems, as the better systems are imported from Australia or the USA. I will be contracting with a pool company direct.

I will leave some details later in the year, assuming that its a good job that is!

Maybe Mike the OP can help more, he is doing the same except a more ambitious pool, and he might be further down the line with this now.

John

Post by **yorkman** » January 17, 2006, 8:33 pm

businessman wrote:John,i do remember the fun of building this house.Really must be around at all times or they will do their own thing rather than "bother" you and ask how something needs to be done."geng jai" causes many a hassle between Thai and farang.

Yes it's fun most of the time. I am still amazed a bit at the skill and knowledge thats actually demonstrated time and time again by the on site workers. The single power tool is for chopping the rebar and the rest is ingenuity. I, frankly, would not be as cheerful and friendly if I was working 8:30 to 5, in the heat, for 150B a day!

Post by **yorkman** » February 9, 2006, 1:30 am

A couple more..... basic pours for the floors complete...

This is done first before the roof steel framing, reflective insulation and tiling goes on to strengthen further the alignment of the structure and give a working base higher up. For the same reason my own tame (almost) in family civil engineer has "recommended"

that they brick it up as well.

The....errr...scaffolding

can go mostly now, to be made into platforms to work on the roof

John

Post by **BangkokButcher** » February 9, 2006, 2:45 am

It's looking good John

Building a New House in Udon Thani

Building a New House in Udon Thani

Building a new house in Udon Thani

Drinking Water