Building regulations and water pipe

Ask here about the pleasures and pitfalls of buying, selling or renting property and real estate in Hua Hin. Building, design and construction topics welcome. Commercial or promotional posts for real estate companies or private properties are forbidden.
brianks
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

Post by brianks »

If you spend any time reading the various construction projects on CoolThaihouse.com it becomes quite clear that in order to have a successful building experience you will have to have someone or yourself monitoring the project on a DAILY basis. I don't know how many times I came over to our house last year that was under construction and found mistakes that had to be corrected. Even a simple one like not having the hole for the pool dug deep enough because the contractor could not understand the plans. I had to be there constantly to make sure everything was right.

Look at the prefab house just built in Hua Hin in under 90 days that is on the CTH website. Takes all the worries and most of the problems out of the equation if you can live with a smaller house.
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

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We used to go very often to a 5 star hotel in Sanya, Hainan. The whole ground floor area with restaurant, reception, disco etc. has no air condition. The temperature was always very comfortable as far as I can recall whether it was morning, afternoon or evening. Also other hotel complex in Bali were built in such a way too- no window, only wind. In a city where all the sky carpers were air-coned to a temperature like arctic inside, outside became really uncomfortable.
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

Post by Artist »

How about a wood deck with pebbles underneath?
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STEVE G
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

Post by STEVE G »

....it becomes quite clear that in order to have a successful building experience you will have to have someone or yourself monitoring the project on a DAILY basis.
This is the difficult part unless you're retired and already living in the area or can otherwise afford to hang around Thai construction sites all day. In my case the lost earnings involved in doing that just didn't make any kind of financial sense so I found a Thai builder who knew what he was doing and got my partner to monitor the day to day stuff.
You will hear many people say that Thai builders don't know how to build a house, this is not true. What is true is that there are many Thai and Cambodian farm labourers pretending to be builders and that is where many of the problems start.
A lot of the shoddy construction in the area has come about through many property developers sub-contracting out work for rates below which a Thai builder would touch the job leaving the amateurs to chance it.
I came across one case some years ago where a local developer was charging 1.5 million bt to build a two bedroom bungalow, (purely for construction, the site was 2 million more.) and then trying to pay 6-800,000 to sub-contractors for the work. Those houses weren't very well built!
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dozer
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

Post by dozer »

It’s not easy to find good Thai builders in Hua Hin.
There are few reputable Thai builders in Hua Hin, but who for various reasons are now reluctant to build for farang. Our builder, who has completed several houses for us over the last 20 years, would, up until a couple of years ago take on clients who I had contacted me looking for builder recommendations. However now he does not want me to give, his contact details out unless I actually know the person and that I am willing to vouch for them and arrange the initial meeting. So I just don’t get involved these days.
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

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Artist wrote:Hallo! Anyone can tell me something about the building regulations in Thailand? What are the
restrictions? How about sewage system and water pipe (DIN?)? What kind of system and standard are applied in Thailand? Is lime being used for walls?

Thanks in advance!
I don't think their are any regulations and restrictions. In Thailand it's build whatever you want, wherever you want.
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crazy88
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

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Name taken wrote

"I don't think their are any regulations and restrictions. In Thailand it's build whatever you want, wherever you want"

Of course there are regulations,lots of them. Not that well enforced in rural areas but if someone complains you will get a legal notice or have to come to a compromise with the complainant and or the authorities. They are getting stricter all the time.

As for building a house yourself as yourself a few questions.

Can I read a plan properly?

Do I know where to source materials of the correct quality at trade, not retail, price from proven reliable suppliers?

Do I know the regulations?

Do I know the difference between simple things like sand and cement types?

Can I tell the different types of steel, wood, glass etc...etc...etc ?

Do I really want to spend months of my life doing this rather than hire a supervisor who has gained my trust through showing me a proven track record and communicates effectively throughout leaving me free to spend time with my family instead of jumping up and down on site every day frustrating myself with a bunch of semi skilled, nervous workers, that cannot understand the concept of what I am trying to achieve because I hired the cheapest labour available that are quite happy living in a tin shack with blue pipe running round the walls and deathtrap electrics?

There are many skilled, not expensive workforces in Hua Hin but most are retained by the major developers of course.


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STEVE G
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

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Do I really want to spend months of my life doing this rather than hire a supervisor who has gained my trust through showing me a proven track record a...
Nothing personal Crazy but I have to work hard away from home for much of the year and if I'm going to pay for a Farang to swan about in the tropics, it's going to be me!
I don't think you have much to worry about anyway as the vast majority of Westerners buying property in Thailand seem to go for developments and I'd be the first to admit that going it alone is not for the faint hearted. In our case we had a rai of land that we bought some years ago for an investment and when we decided to live there, it was only really achievable within my budget by going direct to the subcontractor.
Actually, considering how land prices have risen in some local areas over the last few years, some developments don't look to be such a bad deal, I presume they're built on land bought some time ago.
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

Post by Artist »

Well, I can feel that I am really going to settle down in Hua Hin, so many nice people giving me helpful advice and so kindheartedly- though I never met any of you personally! It must be a wonderful place with so many wonderful people.

To explain my situation a bit, I've been a hobby builder since 10 years, so I do have some experience and knowledge regarding building. My building experience was gathered in different countries and Thailand is something new for me so I am here asking those questions. Since my only child has grown up and is about to leave home so I decide to intensify this hobby to fill the void.

I can understand Dozer's local builder very well since we've very similar experience: lots of foreign workers with different level of skills here and a large crowd of clients who have no clue about building work, material/labour cost and no time to engage in communications, finalize the details. Yep, we have it all here. Terrible situation for everyone involved and nobody is happy at the end of the day.
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

Post by hhfarang »

Building is by far the cheapest way to go if you can find a reasonable piece of land to buy, but with the approximately 1000% rise in land prices in the last several years that could be tough unless you're willing to live a fair distance out of town. If you do find reasonably priced land in a decent location, buy more than you need if you can afford it. Our land value increased 400% in the first four years after we bought it. (I know because we bought 2 rai and 4 years later sold off 1/2 rai of it).

I built a mansion when I first came here; started with a builder who proved to be incompetent so had to fire him and take over the job myself. The build ended up taking nearly three years to finish and I was on site every day from beginning to end except for one holiday to the U.S. when my wife was on site every day. We even lived in the unfinished house for the last six months while sub contractors were working around us.

I ended up with a property worth twice what I could have bought already built by a contractor and it was on a much larger lot and not in a development (which I consider a plus). Because of the trouble I had with the original contractor, it did go about a million and a half over budget, but still a bargain.

So if you're willing to do the work and do the due diligence, and have a Thai partner with good connections to help find skilled and unskilled labor, I'd say build it yourself. I just drew up a simple floor plan and then used an archetect/engineer from the Tessabahn to finalize the design and drawings. By doing that it had no problem getting approval.

The water and electric company handled the hookups once the house was (nearly) finished, but before that the original contractor had made some temporary arrangements/hookups. I think you have to have an address (house nearly finished, if outside a development) to get permanent hookups and meters.
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

Post by STEVE G »

Another point is that when I'm in Asia I pretty much spend all the time outside, so I wanted a smallish house with a large garden and outside entertaining areas. Very few developments give you that, they're too generally too crowded. The only one I've seen in Hua Hin that would give you that sort of lifestyle is Palm Hills and they cost about four times what I built my place for.
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

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crazy88 wrote:Name taken wrote

"I don't think their are any regulations and restrictions. In Thailand it's build whatever you want, wherever you want"

Of course there are regulations,lots of them. Not that well enforced in rural areas but if someone complains you will get a legal notice or have to come to a compromise with the complainant and or the authorities. They are getting stricter all the time.
There doesn't seem to be much enforcement of zoning laws(if there are any) here, which is probably why a lot of people prefer to live in gated/walled communities.
There also seems to be a problem with unlicensed 'Cowboy' builders here in Thailand.
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

Post by Artist »

How much are they now selling for one rai? I think 1 rai is a good size. As for the size of the house, I would say less than 200 sqm. We like things simple. How much it would approximately cost if we build it ourselves?1000 B per sqm? Is it correct? Is the price include land?
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

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Artist wrote:How much are they now selling for one rai? I think 1 rai is a good size. As for the size of the house, I would say less than 200 sqm. We like things simple. How much it would approximately cost if we build it ourselves?1000 B per sqm? Is it correct? Is the price include land?
You're at least a 0 out and even then you would not build a quality home for 10,000 baht pet sqm. The price of land varies considerably, with the rule of thumb being the nearer the town centre and the nearer the coast, the greater the cost, but there are so many other factors to take into account it's impossible to give an accurate guide, but expect to pay a minimum of 1 million for a rai and that will increase significantly as you move closer to the centre of HH and/or the coast.
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Re: Building regulations and water pipe

Post by STEVE G »

Yes, like everywhere, location is everything when it comes to land value. I've seen a rai of farmland in Issan sell for 20,000 BT, a rai on the beach near Hua Hin would be a ridiculous amount, something like 50 million baht.
I built my house at 10,000 BT a Meter but that was a couple of years ago and I believe prices are rising.
One thing to be aware of is that a rai is a pretty large plot and the cost of walls, drives, garden etc. to fill it all adds up but obviously you don't have to do it all at once.
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