House Building / Living In Issan

[gymshark]

Cheers Bergen, I think it will be PVC.

[gymshark]

Well, after looking at my plans the builder says it will not cost me more than 1.5 Mil to build my house, apparently the constant fluctuation in price means they can't give an exact materials quote but we will be buying it ourselves anyway and have a fair idea of costs already. Does anyone know if there are any restrictions on transfering large sums of money into a Thai bank account?

By the way, anyone out there live in or near Sakorn nakorn?

[gymshark]

Here are the latest additions to the album including my almost finished 2D & 3D plans, comments welcome, especially if you spot something stupid I have overlooked.

Web Album

[Naam]

Here are the latest additions to the album including my almost finished 2D & 3D plans, comments welcome, especially if you spot something stupid I have overlooked.

Web Album

three bedrooms and only one bathroom? how many persons will live in the house?

[Naam]

Well, after looking at my plans the builder says it will not cost me more than 1.5 Mil to build my house, apparently the constant fluctuation in price means they can't give an exact materials quote but we will be buying it ourselves anyway and have a fair idea of costs already. Does anyone know if there are any restrictions on transfering large sums of money into a Thai bank account?

By the way, anyone out there live in or near Sakorn nakorn?

none!

[Dave the Dude]

Here are the latest additions to the album including my almost finished 2D & 3D plans, comments welcome, especially if you spot something stupid I have overlooked.

Web Album

Hi Gymshark

Nice plans. Not that its a error or criticism but I have three points maybe worth considering :-

1. Think about the direction of the sun, so that you know what rooms/walls will heat up during the day.

2. The partition wall in the bathroom may make it a bit claustrophobic. Do you need it in the nice sized bathroom? Most here are open-plan 'wetrooms'. DONT forget to install 'traps' on all outlets.

3. Door to the carport leading straight into bedroom. If a spare room= no problem but otherwise your main front door is nearby and covered. Do you need another door to secure?

Good luck mate, enjoy

Dave

[gymshark]

Answers to questions, there will only be 2 of us in the house so we only really need 1 bathrom.

The dividing wall in the bathroom was taken out after I posted the plans, we decided the same thing about wasting space and have since seen some nice shower cubicles in the home centre that we might have fitted. As for the carport, the drawing isn't that clear becuse it's just a screenshot from the programme but that isn't a door to the bedroom, just a window, thanks for the input though, the builder has already been fully briefed on traps and U Bends and we are buying the materials ourself so we can get the right stuff.

We don't want to go too overboard on this house as it will not be our permanent residence, just more of a holiday home really.

[Andrew Hicks]

Hi,

Having family up near Sakorn Kakhon and visiting often we are thinking of building a house there. We have about 20 Rai of land and a truck, so that's not a problem.

I just want to ask some of the people who have "been there, done that" to get a few pointers.

This will be more a holiday home than a permanent residence and we are thinking of a single story two bedroom place.

I just wonder how you guys get on with TV / Internet etc. because due to my work I need to be able to check email at the very least once a day and it must be reliable. Is it possible to have sattelite TV/Internet in Issan? The TV isn't critical but would be nice but I must have internet access.

Also, (and I know this is bal park) how much do you think I will need to spend for a small 2 bedroom place, I am getting rough ideas from family between 500,000 and 1,500,000.

Any help and tips about things i haven't mentioned would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Internet is possible by either satellite or mobile, and you can build a house for between 500,000 and 1,500,000.

It all depends of what you want to spend, what quality of materials you want to use, and if you can find reliable and good workers.

And remember ............to get a good end result, you have to be on site and supervise 24/7.

Satellite Internet! Don't!

I have TOT IP Star and it's a disaster. I'm paying through the nose for it for a speed of 516/256. Today it's actually working and was even fast enough to run the speed test. Today it says I'm getting 17/80! And they expect you to pay the bill!

I've built a house where we live in Surin and I second the point that you cannot turn your back for one minute. It was such an experience I've even written a book about it!

[Andrew Hicks]

Well, I had a fairly positive experience with the builder and have seen some of the stuff he has built, everything seems ready to go. Checked out some of the available supplies in Sakorn Nakhon and they had some pretty nice stuff in the Sakorn Home Centre.

Plenty of flooding up there at the moment but as usual our place is well above the water level so that is good news. I am considering using the synthetic roof tiles as opposed to concrete tiles after numerous recommendations but would welcome any other comments. Also noticed during the wet season that the wood windows / doors etc. in the parent's house have swelled and it made me think about any problems I may have with wooden windows and doors in an air conditioned house up country as we will have a/c in most of the rooms, I am leaning towards alluminium / PVC windows or doors, again would appreciate input from people with experience of this.I have checked about phones / electricity etc. and there is a pole right outside where the front of the house will be and also a telephone box so the line should be easy to install.

Stay away from wooden windows which will soon cause you trouble!...................

Choose aluminium or pvc and you have no worries

I did aluminium windows on the sunny southside and wood which looks nice in the verandah and to the north where it does not get burned. Four years on they have needed no maintenance.

A nice compromise perhaps.

[denniswilson61]

Hi i have just had three bed bungalow built near sawandandin cost excluding land was around 1,000,000.

baht, livng room 4.5 mtrs x 8 mtrs, 2 bedrooms 4.5 mtrs x 4 mtrs 1 bedroom 3.5 mtrs x 4mtrs ,kichen

4.5 mtrs x 4 mtrs 1 onsuit bathroom and one family bathroom. White ally windows with integral flysceens,

plus patio doors. All electrics set into walls. Kichen units all extra. All the furniture, hi fi and computer was

shipped from England, not a good idea as some boxs were stolen at customs. By the way the bungalow is

9 mtrs x 16 mtrs. I hope this is of some help.

[nitehawk56]

I just finished having my home built in SiSaKet, father in laws brother built my home and did a great job, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths and 2 septic systems, 18" to 24" concrete slab, (15) 10 1/2" concrete colums a little over 2000 square feet, I drew the floor plans myself, my father in law and wife supervised, as some of the other members stated pay for your material as you go, I spent around 900,000 baht for my home.

[CakeBandit]

I have a ton of advice, but only a little bit comes to mind right now. There is yip-sam and there is re-baar. yip-sam is the drywall/sheet rock and ye-baar (something like that) is like a concrete or a bit harder then sheet rock. That ye-bar can get wet with out damage, but is the hardest ever to install, You have to drill out the hole a little to hide the screws and then when you tape the joints, the wood frame expands or moves a little later in a couple years and you get cracks going though on all the joints. Not only that but it is hard to cut. Also, a big tip here- Dont use concrete shingles on your roof if your using wood support beams. I did that and the supports where starting to look like pretzels, after I did the math and relized there was something like 50 tons of weight over head. hehe

If anybody has advice for me as to how to keep the upstairs in my house cool like the downstairs. I have a cemented in downstairs and a wood sided upstairs. Lightweight cheap carbonfiber type shingle roof. My idea is to put insulation directly behind the shingle and then possibly put plastic below that, then have a box fan in the attic access move a small amout of air though there maybe using a temp switch. There was a post about a insulation brick, not sure what that is...

The post about color cordnation is exactly right, you should be present!

Just a side note, I have been here in Issan since around 2002 on and off, During that time I have seen it go from just one person in the village with a mobile to today- every 12 year old kid with one. Gravel roads to Paved roads. In Surin - no big stores to , BigC, Tesco, Modren Trade, Macro etc. Things are changing fast.