Good Thai builders

Post by **crazy88** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 5:46 pm

I hear a lot of ,often justified ,scathing and sweeping comments regarding Thai builders .This guy has done all the cement work by hand and eye without drawings,just a trqwel and mortar from his imagination .His wife was inside making beautiful wooden carvings .What would such talent cost at home ?

I ,of course,got their contact details .

Crazy 88

Post by **BaaBaa.** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 6:55 pm

I think his spirit level may have been out on the 2nd pic.

Post by **crazy88** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 7:34 pm

Did not look like that when I uploaded it

Maybe its fallen over since then

Crazy 88

Post by **kendo** » Fri Feb 13, 2009 10:44 pm

My gaff, 4 bed elevated villa with water tower and perimiter wall, from start to finish 14 weeks no real problems apart from a couple of issues with the plumbing, would i employ my Issan builder again, the answer to that is definitely, i just wish i could move my house to HH, maybe in a few years i will get him to build another one, first class trades men and very very cheap in labour costs.

Post by **PeteC** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:58 am

Not bad.

In the top pic it looks like you kept the old outhouse. Was there on old Thai house on the property when you bought it? Pete

Post by **hhfarang** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:31 pm

Pete, looks like that "outhouse" is on the adjacent lot to me...

Post by **norm** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:56 pm

Crazy........that is a really interesting looking house? Where is it located?

Back home you could not afford to have some of the work done that they do here. They spend days on finishing and really make it look good. We have found that you can get some very good tradesmen and some crappy ones.The major problem seems to be in making and meeting schedules. If they say 4 weeks plan on six.

When we renovated the quality of work varied from good to excellent. But the contractor had several jobs going and had all kinds of problems scheduling the work. Also had problems collecting from some of his clients. So that made the workers unhappy as the pay for them would also be late.

The job was suppose to take three months and was close to six, the price was as quoted and when we didn't like something he would change it, two or three times if necessary. Very easy to work with but limited English, not as limited as my thai though. We had a neighbor who spoke very fluent thai and english act as supervisor and interpeter for the job. End results were very good.

You can get really nice work done but it can be very frustrating.

Post by **PeteC** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:59 pm

hhfarang wrote:Pete, looks like that "outhouse" is on the adjacent lot to me...

I handn't had my coffee yet.

Pete

Post by **crazy88** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:20 pm

Some good and balanced points there Norm . I have employed local people here in many capacities .Some of them for many years .No matter how many times you ask them to communicate our way they still tell you what they think you want to hear .A question that requires a one word answer becomes a debate amongst half a dozen people about subjects that seem unrelated to us when all we want is a yes or no .Beleive me this is not restricted to those with limited education,far from it .I never accept TIT as an excuse for substandard performance but have to accept that the person I am dealing with,no matter how efficient they may be is dealing with a Thai person,who is dealing with a Thai person...etc...etc...etc I have had a much better understanding since having a TGF .If the lady in the shop says "about tomorrow" then the supplier in Bangkok has said "about tomorrow" which we all know means almost definately not tomorrow then what is Bee going to tell me apart from "about tomorrow" .The Thais accept these things and fail to understand why we cannot .Still its a beautiful saturday afternoon and I am having a cold beer in good company in about 10 seconds time .Will be at the merchants on monday for the tubing .

Crazy 88

Post by **Khundon1975** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:11 pm

Hi Crazy88

Your question as to cost of that type of work interested me.

Having been involved in the construction industry and more importantly the "stone industry", I can tell you that just the top tiled/slate portion of the roof the guy is working on, if the work was made here in the UK, just to produce the effect in stone would be well in excess of £35,000 not including the fixing or scaffolding.
Multiply that by all the fancy work you can see, well you do the math.

The guy is an artist, as good as I have ever seen, and believe me I have seen them all.

Post by **STEVE G** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:20 pm

Crazy, it’s impressive, but just out of curiosity, what type of building is that, is it a house or a resort or something else?
Incidentally Khundon, I don’t think that guy’s scaffolding would add much to the 35,000 pounds!

Post by **Khundon1975** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 7:28 pm

STEVE G wrote:Crazy, it’s impressive, but just out of curiosity, what type of building is that, is it a house or a resort or something else?
Incidentally Khundon, I don’t think that guy’s scaffolding would add much to the 35,000 pounds!

Hi STEVE G

No, bean stickers as my dad used to call bamboo sticks, and available in any good garden shop are cheap as chips.
Look at the ladder directly behind him. Made for someone with Long John Silver syndrome I think.

Put that building up in the UK though, and you would not be able to see it for the metal scaffolding.

If you put a roof on a little semi detached in UK, the scaffolding will cost you around £2,500.

Look at that little plank balanced on some of his work.
He must have been a tightrope walker in his previous life.

Post by **STEVE G** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 10:02 pm

Yes don, I don’t think he likes to waste too much time making ladders!
I’ve seen Thais make quite decent bamboo ladders in about half an hour with a machete, so I think that one must have been knocked up in about thirty seconds.
He is obviously very skilled with the cement though, I’ve often marveled at that sort of work; a couple of years ago I watched a guy make an a large ornamental crab for a sea-food restaurant out of nothing more than chicken-wire and cement, and all by eye.

Post by **Khundon1975** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:28 am

STEVE G wrote:Yes don, I don’t think he likes to waste too much time making ladders!
I’ve seen Thais make quite decent bamboo ladders in about half an hour with a machete, so I think that one must have been knocked up in about thirty seconds.
He is obviously very skilled with the cement though, I’ve often marveled at that sort of work; a couple of years ago I watched a guy make an a large ornamental crab for a sea-food restaurant out of nothing more than chicken-wire and cement, and all by eye.

Hi STEVE G

Agreed great work, but would be no good for UK, one good frost would blow it apart.

The guy is what used to be called a "Journeyman Artisan" same as used to come from Italy to England, to work on large country houses 17th to late 18th century, highly skilled workman.
Very difficult to find these. I bet this guy is booked up for a while.
It looks like a resort of some kind don't you agree, maybe a spa hotel.

They do as you say just seem to knock a ladder up with almost anything, they cannot plan for the future as you and I would. I need a ladder so will buy a good one that will last 20 years, no best to pick up some drift wood and trust my life to that and some binder twine.

Even so I have to admire his work, I had a company that did stone work for large buildings in London and to produce that sort of fancy detail costs a fortune, yet one man and a bucket, trowel, string line can do that.

Amazing, in the UK the machines alone needed to do that, would set you back £300,000.

There is a guy here on the south coast, who used to make amazing detailed models of all sorts of animals etc, just from beach sand and water, no cement, and would paint them with pastel paints. Of course they only lasted a week or more.

Post by **norm** » Sun Feb 15, 2009 12:08 pm

crazy88 wrote:Some good and balanced points there Norm . I have employed local people here in many capacities .Some of them for many years .No matter how many times you ask them to communicate our way they still tell you what they think you want to hear .A question that requires a one word answer becomes a debate amongst half a dozen people about subjects that seem unrelated to us when all we want is a yes or no .Beleive me this is not restricted to those with limited education,far from it .I never accept TIT as an excuse for substandard performance but have to accept that the person I am dealing with,no matter how efficient they may be is dealing with a Thai person,who is dealing with a Thai person...etc...etc...etc I have had a much better understanding since having a TGF .If the lady in the shop says "about tomorrow" then the supplier in Bangkok has said "about tomorrow" which we all know means almost definately not tomorrow then what is Bee going to tell me apart from "about tomorrow" .The Thais accept these things and fail to understand why we cannot .Still its a beautiful saturday afternoon and I am having a cold beer in good company in about 10 seconds time .Will be at the merchants on monday for the tubing .

Crazy 88

Thanks crazy I look forward to hearing what you find.
I agree with your comments on working with Thais. One of these days when I can get the wife out of the condo we'll take a look at that building. Thanks for the directions.
Regards
Norm