I really enjoyed the video. I have wanted to see how houses were constructed in Thailand. Just a suggestion for you sir. Next time cut the music though. I know that I would rather hear the sound of shovels and tractors, and maybe your voice! It seems that so many vloggers just have to have the background music going that is so distracting from the subject. Anyway sir, good job.
Maarten Munnik, I would almost think you're Dutch. Thanks for this, I was looking for a decent video showing foundation work. Looking to build in the future, although probably a lot smaller!!
I am very impressed with your foundation footing design and construction. Your bearing load calculations are right on,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you have done this before.
The Engineering in your foundation is excellent. I love the massive amount of steel in your Stem Walls. I didn't see the total amount of steel in your Column footings, but I assume it is also very adequate. Great job and I'm looking forward to the rest of your videos. And the generous amount of steel in your slab is super. Your work is above the standards of other foundation construction I've seen for Thailand on Utube. I hope to move to Thailand soon and build my own house as well. Mike
Hi Mike. Thank you for the compliments. We started building again last month and as soon as the walls and roof are done (2 or 3 months) I will make the next video.
Maarten, Nice to see you getting involved in the labour. Exactly what I did. I made sure I was on site first and left last and cleaned the tools as thais jsut stop and go generally.
Yeah, It is not easy to find "good" workers. The first house we built (15 years ago in Kanchanaburi) was a "tools nightmare". We would find expensive tools lying in the mud on a daily bases. Now we are lucky. These guys clean and store all tools by themselves.
Great video, in every respect (well, except the excessive music). Very informative for anybody without knowledge (like me) planning to build a house in Thailand.
We did this 6years ago in northern thailand, didnt make a video but i have over 500 photos throughout the build. Also the land scaping of the garden,building the carport and workshop followed by an outside kitchen c once i was there.
Fencing and gating your land is important in Thailand. We have loads of land near our big house that are ONLY fences, walls and gates- due to Covid lockdowns.
I will start my house next year in 2022 and plan on helping with some of the labor but mostly supervise and the project manager. Your video was encouraging being that you found qualified help. Wish me luck.
It is a bit of a gamble, but important is that the people want to work for a daily salary and not a fixed price. Then, let them do a small job and see how they perform. If they don't do as you wish, then do NOT continue with them, but find others. Nothing is more frustrating than building your house with people "who don't care". Be critical. You only get one chance to do it right.
@@Living-off-grid the problem is with a daily salary is fine but you must more or less know how long they will take if they honest then it's fine otherwise they could drag the work and a no one wants to have arguments over wages always best to pay your workers on time and what is due to them. Timing is everything because of your budget.
Hi Yaseen. It is easy enough to see if people are dragging their feet or not. And, we do not negotiate about salary. We offer 500 baht per day, which is a good salary. If someone wants to have more he/she is free to go and find it. It is my house and I build it the way I want. The people I work with understand and respect that. Don't be "scared" and don't listen to the stories of "no one will work for you". There are plenty of good people willing to work for a daily salary.
Hi, thanks for the video. Well produced, informative and enjoyable to watch. You have given a price for the fence and gate in one of your replies, out of interest how many metres of fencing is in that price. I am very much looking forward to following the build in details once work starts again.
Crikey I hope that entrance wall is still standing up .. foundation way to small 🤣🤣 ..leay Mai bein rai pom kao jai na khrub 555 I see 👀 you have an excellent crew looking good 👍 very interesting video Thanks
I agree that the entrance foundation looks a bit small, but it is build onto a rocky layer (small excavator can't get through and neither can its drill) so that should be solid enough, and it is not a straight wall, but it has an angle at the edge (with the pillar). Only time will tell if I did the right thing.
Hallo Maarten, Succes met de volgende fase, Ik zal het op de voet volgen, want wij gaan er in januari aan beginnen. Wij zitten nog in de ontwerpfase, en ondertussen maken we het land geschikt. We hebben geen bos / bomen in de buurt en gaan zelf veel aanplanten. Het stuk grond is rijstveld geweest en afgelopen droge periode hebben we het 2 m. opgehoogd. groet
Great video and great job. I can not wait for the next chapter. A few questions if you don't mind. 1. the column footings. did they have a cage in the bottom or did that cage sit on the concrete pad with no steel in? 2. I note the 16 mm reo bar for the floor at 5- 600 ctrs. Mesh is not used in Thailand ? what is the reasoning behind that spec? 3. I note the land is fairly low? will this be prone to flooding. Is the floor up enough. It appears you know exactly what you are doing. So not a criticism. Just interested. Thanks in advance. P.S ignore the snide remarks. there is always one or two that achieve zero so this is their way of feeling important.
Hi Mark. Thanks for the compliment. The columm footing is 1 square meter and 20 cm thick. It has a 10x10 cm grid of 16mm rebar in it. We did not use casing to make it. Just dug out the soil until we hit a rocky layer and lined it with plastic. First poured 10 cm of concrete, placed the rebar grid and the column rebar and poured the rest. Then kept it wet for one week, placed the column casing and poured the column. Wrapped the column with plastic-wrap, kept it wet (from the top) for a couple of days and carefully filled in the soil around it. The rebar sticks out about 1 meter and that was incorporated into the stem-wall which rests upon the columns. They have wire-mesh in Thailand, but I find it hard to work with and I think (I hope I am not wrong) that the thicker 16mm rebar is better suited to compensate bending-stress than 6mm mesh. The floor does have a lot of drying-cracks (mostly less than 30 cm long) due to overly wet concrete (a typical Thai problem with readymix) but as it is 10 cm thick I am not concerned by it. You are right, the land is very low and floods "normally" every year. I say "normally" because this year it did not even get very wet. We made a few water-managment adjustments (a pipe and a canal) and these seem to work great. But, nevertheless, the house sits 1 meter above the normal level... just to be sure 😉 You can see videos of this on this youtube channel.
That's one strong foundation....me and my wife want to build on our farm in ubon just a few miles from the maekong river we have our village house but it's next to the temple and they are louder then all hell I love the farm its 20 rai of rubber...so I was thinking about just building on it its been in her family for at least 5 generations with no paperwork no power the well is in already I really don't want to go down the government path we have a book on the village house already. What do you think your not to far away and your building now so your up to date. Planing on about 3mil and we are going to do it ourselves.
Hi Dave. A 20 rai plot is nice, but you MUST first get the paperwork in order. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes it can take years and sometimes it is just not possible. It would be a shame to build your dream house, only to have the government come and demolish it. (Make no mistake, this can really happen). No power can turn out expensive (The power-company charges incredibly exuberant amounts of money and then takes possession on all items) But if you are willing to "go solar", as we do, it is half price and no more electric bills. Of course, you have a limited amount of power... and when you reach that limit, there is no more. So be sure to calculate your needs properly. That is all the advice I can give you. (For now). You are welcome to come and look at our progress and discuss things. We start building again on the 1st of november.
@@Living-off-grid nice we'll stop by in January...I better talk with the village leader...there are some small concrete houses near our farm most are wood but not many live out there. I know people near there buy land with no paper
This is a great video. I'm at the beginning stages of a build right now. I've only watched the first video so far. What have you done about electricity? I've had to pay the the board to come and install the electric. Not ideal but ......
@@Living-off-grid wow, 200,000 is ridiculousl! I paid a fraction of that (40,000). However, your solution is great and something I'll definitely consider. I will need a good connection as I'll be running a business from there. Onto episode 3. This is awesome!
looks like you have a good crew there ! Very nice entrance, but " so Thai" method....why did n't they mix the concrete closer to where it was needed, LOL. We hope to start our house in Ubon later this year.....COVID permitting !
It is actually depending on where the raw materials are dumped and where your water-source is. If you get a few cub of sand and stones, you put them there where you will use the bulk... so some little jobs will be a bit further away.
The reality is that you can never get a contractor anywhere who doesn’t cut corners, it’s in their blood to cheat and get higher profits. Hence, close supervisions and some knowledge of the project is key. Alternatively you can get professional help.
I am not sure what you mean. The interior walls, just like the outside walls, are suported by a "concrete ring" on top. If with "concrete cross pieces" you mean the foundation stem-walls, then no. Those support the load-bearing walls. There are a few interior load-bearing walls, mostly suporting the "internal gabels". One "load-bearing", or should I say potentially load-bearing wall runs end to end under the roof-ridge, but this is only supporting the attic floor as the span of the rafters is quit large (9 meters). I hope this answers your question. If not, feel free to ask further.
@Living-off-grid my apologies, l am not knowledgeable of building vocabulary. Yes, stem walls. Thanks for the answer. Another question- Had you thought about a polystyrene or some kind of under slab insulation?
@@nitepharmer5866 No. Just a vapor barrier. The soil under the house will always be cooler than the house, so it is better not to insulate that in a hot climate (in my opinion) That seems to work out well as our floors are always nice and cool.
I would argue that ready mix concrete for the footing would have been better. Saying that you have to buy it from a reputable company like SCG that offer many grades. Just order the strongest. Some of the independent ready mix suppliers skimp on the cement and add too much water.
Sadly I have to disagree. We tried a local supplier first. No success because his sand was contaminated with clay, creating large lumps of clay in the concrete-mix. So we changed to a CPAC supplier with not much better result. The first load was so thick it got stuck in the chute. We then changed to SCG which was better... but only as long as I was present at the mixing. We used that for the stem-wall. For the floor we used the same company, but due to the volume, I could not supervise the mixing. The result was that some trucks were OK and sone carried yogurt (way to much water). The result was hundreds of drying-cracks in several parts of the floor. Luckilly I oversized it (10 cm instead of 7). An other problem with ready-mix is that it is mixed by weight (and not by volume). That is OK as long as the sand and stones are stored inside, which is almost never the case. Taking in account that (after a day of rain) wet sand weighs almost twice as much as dry sand, you can imagine what this does to the mix. In my (humble) opinion, there is no better way than to mix by hand... as long as you can handle the volume.
@@SometimeWoodworker We are in one of the farthest corners of the kingdom... That might have something to do with it. As for hand-mixing, as long as you measure the volumes (buckets) it is much more accurate than machine mixing which uses weight and keeps its ingredients out in the rain and sun. After all, wet sand increases much more in weight than wet stones, and cement is always kept nice and dry.
@@Living-off-grid What did you do with the concrete from the first supplier which had a lot of clay and what did you do with the CPAC concrete from the 2nd guy ? If it was substandard I just wondered if you ended using it .
@@nitepharmer5866 We send it back. Concrete with clay in it is not good for anything. In the mixer the clay starts to "clump" together, creating balls of clay with a bit of cement around it. It has no strength at all. The other (very dry load) did not even exit the mixer. The driver wanted to add water, but that is very bad for the concrete. Looses most of its strength. The next batches I was at the plant when they mixed it. The biggest problem here is that they mix on weight, but have the sand and stones outside without roof. After a bit of rain the sand suddenly weighs twice as much and the wet stones bring lots of water in the mix. They should mix on volume instead... but try explaining that. 🙄
Hi Maarten. If possible to can tell me cost for drawings and engineering as we live not far from you and having trouble finding someone reasonable as we already have our own design Cheer Tony
Hi Tony, I made my own design and drawings. If the "living space" is under 150 M2 and the house is just one floor, you do not need architectural approval. So, our "attic" is "officially" only for storage ;-). After the build, when you have the "house book", you can modify all you want. If you want detailed info, drop me a line on maartensworld@gmail.com
Hi Shawn. It is difficult to keep to standard sizes. A lot depends on the materials you choose. The only important tip I can give you is to make a plan, check it several times and then, stick to it. Any adhoc decision you make during the build will come back and bite you in your ass. If you have to change something, take a few days to ponder all consequences.
Brave of you to take this on yourself. How do you communicate with the help? Why did you back-fill the foundation instead of leaving a space under the house? You lose access to plumbing etc but you mentioned this is off-grid so perhaps incorporating some passive house concepts.
Hi Roy. We communicate in a mixture of english and thai and examples. And if we really can't figure it out... my (thai) wife translates. I choose to backfill because it was cheaper. The size (and weight) of the needed pre-streched floor-planks was a (costly) difficulty. I decided to go for safe. No plumbing under the floor, just some drains.
Hello Maarten nice house buiding without poles. Did you install foundation - concrete slab grounding for elecricity grounding connection ? Greetings from Germany Klaus 👋
Yes. But only time will tell if the plan is correct. Putting solar into an existing household is easy. You just measure what you use and that's that. With a new house it is all estimates.
Until now: Foundation & floor : 423.000 Fence & gate : 170.000 Well & water tower: 61.000 Various other things: 82.000 All amounts in Thai baht, rounded to the nearest thousand.
Hi Lode Wij hebben 12 rai (ongeveer 2 hectare). Het viel niet mee om dat te vinden voor een redelijke prijs (1 miljoen baht) dus wees hier op voorbereid. Geef niet te snel op, blijf zoeken totdat je het perfecte stuk land hebt gevonden.
@@Living-off-grid Ga ik zeker doen. Mijn vrouw heeft iets van 7 rai met chanote. Dat is nu rijstveld ingesloten tussen andere velden. Maar het lijkt er op dat de overheid een weg gaat aanleggen die er langs loopt. Dat kan interessant zijn. 20 km ten zuiden van Sisaket.
That is not an easy question to answer. There is a difference between a "middleman" and a "real-estate agent". In the country-side (isaan) there are no real-estate agents, so it is either you or a middleman. In our experience, middleman are totally useless and only trying to get a commission. One even offered us land that was not for sale. They don't know the price of the land they offer, they just know it is for sale and if you are interested in it, they'll try to make a deal with the owner, skimming as much as possible. The internet can be a good source, but you need to read and write Thai. For the rest, drive around, ask locals and don't decide too quickly. There are great pieces of land for sale, you just need to find them.
Looks great 👍 Can l ask concrete post size (ie 200x200 or 250x250) and the square size of the ligatures in the posts? Also, how many sqm is the slab area? Cheers
There are no posts. 🤗 The house is build with load-bearing walls. If you mean the foundation, the footings are 100x100 cm, 20 cm thick with 16mm rebar. (10x10cm grid) The pillars are 20x20 cm with 12mm rebar. (4 strands) The stemwall is 20cm thick and 100cm high with 16mm rebar. (6 strands) I hope this is what you asked for.
@@Living-off-grid yes, that what I meant in the pillars 😊 The ligatures that held the 12mm steel in place were 100x100 or bigger. Thanks for your reply 🙏🏻
@@Living-off-grid it's a brilliant job you have done. We are thinking of building in yasothon is this near you ? my wife has an acre of land so are thinking of doing the same as you
@@8971felix We have one septic-tank for all waste-water (grey & black). This tank has 3 stages: In the first stage bacteria break down the solids and the scum. Clear water (halfway up, or down) travels to a second stage where the last debris sinks to the bottom and clear (grey) water rises. This then travels to the third stage where it "sinks" into the ground.
@@Living-off-grid That is ingenious!! I am planning to do the same when building my new home in the New Mexico desert. Rather than run central air-conditioning, I will run metal tubes underground beneath the house and plumb them up into the walls. This will bring the cooled air into the home for free rather than paying the average monthly cost of $340 in electricity. Yes, there is a cost for the metal tubing and installation but that will not be more than running split air conditioners, and it will pay for itself in a short time as well as become a monthly savings. Love to see your progress! Keep making videos.
Hi Martin. Oh yes. Pressure is good. I will also use 1" pipe until the final part to a tap. To ensure even flow, even if other taps are opened or closed (the famous toilet-flush when having a shower😖)
@@Living-off-grid You mentioned that the water will be cooled in an underground tank/system? So the water goes from overhead storage tank under head pressure, to the underground tank? Probably not right, as you would then need a pump to get it back to ground level with some pressure in the taps?
@@kevhall4802 No. It does not go to a tank, though that would be possible as long is it remains pressurised. But in this case it goes through a 4" pipe from the tower to the house, at 2 meters dept. The distance is some 50 meters, so this pipe contains about 200 liters of water under pressure.
Hi Maarten. Just wondering if you found the contact details of the people that built your front wall and gates? Also. Did you buy or lease your sea container? And where from? I need something like that to keep materials during our build.
Hi Bernard, We bought the container. Many companies on internet sell them. Cost, including shipping, about 70K. Unfortunately I can not help you with the contact details. Just where they live... and they are not there as they are working elsewhere at the moment. I though I had send that to your gmail address. I am sorry if I did not.
Yes you can. However, you can not own land, but there are (legal) ways around it. For example: I have an usurfruct on the land we build on, which means I have all rights over the land except the right to sell it, until I die. After I die, my (Thai) family gets full ownership over the land.
Hallo Marten Goede morgen van uit het nate Luyksgestel NB Ik volg je video's interessant Ik wil in 2024 beginnen ons huis in pho thong / chai badan Ik zie dat jij een contener Hebt laaten komen van uit Nederland ????? Ik wil dat ook doen op naam van Mijn vriendin..met mijn gereedschap Ik vindt het jammer om alles áchter te laaten in Nederland Nu de vraag heb je dat ook gedaan Moet op de vracht lijst precies staan 12 borden 7 pannen 7 vis hengsels Boormachine 7 boertjes. 7 schilderen.. Hoe precies komt dat Mooi huis en met gasbeton helemaal mijn ding GR ADRI VAN DEN BERK luyksgestel
Hoi Adri. Nee hoor. Niks vanuit NL meegenomen, maar dat is omdat we voorheen in Bolivia woonden 😊. De container hebben we hier gekocht om een "secure storage" te hebben. De meeste geteedschappen kun je hier gewoon kopen en met de import-tax hier is dat waarschijnlijk goedkoper dan het op te sturen. Import-tax voor buitenlanders is hier een melk-koe die gouden eieren legt 🤣. Ik hoop dat dit helpt. Groeten Maarten
Yes, if you watch the last episode you'll notice the music is a lot softer. It is hard to cook for every taste, on phones and tablets (the majority of viewers) the balance is fine, but computers with speakers and TV,s etc, voices get drowed by the excessive low frequencies. But I think I found the middle ground now.
@@Living-off-grid Good on you Maarten, its your life so live it on your terms. Mine is 23 yrs younger. I told her you should find a younger guy, shes says I don't like young guys. I said, younger not young ! She said you will do, Hahaha, anyway we are perfectly happy together, so jealous trolls like your friend who commented can continue to live their miserable lives in envy that others are happy with their Thai partners.
@@kevhall4802 yes Maarten is far more polite than i would be. In fact i would have pointed out The Pink Panzy Tiger shows off his Gay Pride BS. I am guessing he takes it where the sun don't shine and will likely be pissed right off for being judged. Or the idiot is simply jealous that Marty lives the life with a hot Thai wife. 555
That is the way it is done in north-east Thailand. There is no heavy equipment available. Thinking that this is for "mad people" says more about you than about the people who build it.
@@Living-off-grid From my perspective, I appreciate people being able to build with their own hands and manual labor. Industrious self sufficient people will survive in difficult times. Your approach to building your house and sharing the process is super, looking forward to more. BTW, my wife is Thai, we been married 34 years. Greetings from Scottsdale Arizona.
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I really enjoyed the video. I have wanted to see how houses were constructed in Thailand. Just a suggestion for you sir. Next time cut the music though. I know that I would rather hear the sound of shovels and tractors, and maybe your voice! It seems that so many vloggers just have to have the background music going that is so distracting from the subject. Anyway sir, good job.
Thank you.
I will adjust the volume of the music in the next part.
Came for the rural thai house build, stayed for the dope edm music 😆 🤣.
Maarten Munnik, I would almost think you're Dutch. Thanks for this, I was looking for a decent video showing foundation work. Looking to build in the future, although probably a lot smaller!!
I am very impressed with your foundation footing design and construction. Your bearing load calculations are right on,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you have done this before.
The Engineering in your foundation is excellent. I love the massive amount of steel in your Stem Walls. I didn't see the total amount of steel in your Column footings, but I assume it is also very adequate. Great job and I'm looking forward to the rest of your videos. And the generous amount of steel in your slab is super. Your work is above the standards of other foundation construction I've seen for Thailand on Utube. I hope to move to Thailand soon and build my own house as well. Mike
Hi Mike.
Thank you for the compliments.
We started building again last month and as soon as the walls and roof are done (2 or 3 months) I will make the next video.
Maarten,
Nice to see you getting involved in the labour.
Exactly what I did.
I made sure I was on site first and left last and cleaned the tools as thais jsut stop and go generally.
Yeah, It is not easy to find "good" workers.
The first house we built (15 years ago in Kanchanaburi) was a "tools nightmare". We would find expensive tools lying in the mud on a daily bases.
Now we are lucky. These guys clean and store all tools by themselves.
Great video, in every respect (well, except the excessive music). Very informative for anybody without knowledge (like me) planning to build a house in Thailand.
An enjoyable and informative video, thanks for sharing!
Amazing video showing that house
We did this 6years ago in northern thailand, didnt make a video but i have over 500 photos throughout the build.
Also the land scaping of the garden,building the carport and workshop followed by an outside kitchen c once i was there.
Fencing and gating your land is important in Thailand. We have loads of land near our big house that are ONLY fences, walls and gates- due to Covid lockdowns.
I will start my house next year in 2022 and plan on helping with some of the labor but mostly supervise and the project manager. Your video was encouraging being that you found qualified help. Wish me luck.
It is a bit of a gamble, but important is that the people want to work for a daily salary and not a fixed price.
Then, let them do a small job and see how they perform. If they don't do as you wish, then do NOT continue with them, but find others.
Nothing is more frustrating than building your house with people "who don't care".
Be critical. You only get one chance to do it right.
@@Living-off-grid the problem is with a daily salary is fine but you must more or less know how long they will take if they honest then it's fine otherwise they could drag the work and a no one wants to have arguments over wages always best to pay your workers on time and what is due to them. Timing is everything because of your budget.
Hi Yaseen.
It is easy enough to see if people are dragging their feet or not.
And, we do not negotiate about salary. We offer 500 baht per day, which is a good salary. If someone wants to have more he/she is free to go and find it.
It is my house and I build it the way I want. The people I work with understand and respect that.
Don't be "scared" and don't listen to the stories of "no one will work for you". There are plenty of good people willing to work for a daily salary.
@@Living-off-grid thank you very much for your input much appreciated.
Your the first person I have seen on builds in Thailand and the Philippines do it correctly and bend the hooks on the sturips at 135°
I got to the party late, but great stuff!
Hi, thanks for the video. Well produced, informative and enjoyable to watch.
You have given a price for the fence and gate in one of your replies, out of interest how many metres of fencing
is in that price.
I am very much looking forward to following the build in details once work starts again.
Hi Kevin,
The fence is 590 meters long, with a pole every 2.5 meters.
The wire is 4mm galvanized steel-rope.
Crikey I hope that entrance wall is still standing up .. foundation way to small 🤣🤣 ..leay Mai bein rai pom kao jai na khrub 555
I see 👀 you have an excellent crew looking good 👍 very interesting video Thanks
I agree that the entrance foundation looks a bit small, but it is build onto a rocky layer (small excavator can't get through and neither can its drill) so that should be solid enough, and it is not a straight wall, but it has an angle at the edge (with the pillar).
Only time will tell if I did the right thing.
@@Living-off-grid
I see Should be ok 👍
Thanks 😃
Hallo Maarten,
Succes met de volgende fase,
Ik zal het op de voet volgen, want wij gaan er in januari aan beginnen.
Wij zitten nog in de ontwerpfase, en ondertussen maken we het land geschikt.
We hebben geen bos / bomen in de buurt en gaan zelf veel aanplanten.
Het stuk grond is rijstveld geweest en afgelopen droge periode hebben we het 2 m. opgehoogd.
groet
Heel veel succes Ferry.
Waar zitten jullie ?
@@Living-off-grid precies op de grens tussen Nakhon Sawan en provincie Kamphaeng Phet.
Behoorlijk een eind van jullie verwijderd zo te zien.
Great video and great job. I can not wait for the next chapter. A few questions if you don't mind. 1. the column footings. did they have a cage in the bottom or did that cage sit on the concrete pad with no steel in? 2. I note the 16 mm reo bar for the floor at 5- 600 ctrs. Mesh is not used in Thailand ? what is the reasoning behind that spec? 3. I note the land is fairly low? will this be prone to flooding. Is the floor up enough. It appears you know exactly what you are doing. So not a criticism. Just interested. Thanks in advance.
P.S ignore the snide remarks. there is always one or two that achieve zero so this is their way of feeling important.
Hi Mark.
Thanks for the compliment.
The columm footing is 1 square meter and 20 cm thick.
It has a 10x10 cm grid of 16mm rebar in it.
We did not use casing to make it. Just dug out the soil until we hit a rocky layer and lined it with plastic. First poured 10 cm of concrete, placed the rebar grid and the column rebar and poured the rest.
Then kept it wet for one week, placed the column casing and poured the column. Wrapped the column with plastic-wrap, kept it wet (from the top) for a couple of days and carefully filled in the soil around it.
The rebar sticks out about 1 meter and that was incorporated into the stem-wall which rests upon the columns.
They have wire-mesh in Thailand, but I find it hard to work with and I think (I hope I am not wrong) that the thicker 16mm rebar is better suited to compensate bending-stress than 6mm mesh.
The floor does have a lot of drying-cracks (mostly less than 30 cm long) due to overly wet concrete (a typical Thai problem with readymix) but as it is 10 cm thick I am not concerned by it.
You are right, the land is very low and floods "normally" every year. I say "normally" because this year it did not even get very wet.
We made a few water-managment adjustments (a pipe and a canal) and these seem to work great.
But, nevertheless, the house sits 1 meter above the normal level... just to be sure 😉
You can see videos of this on this youtube channel.
@@SometimeWoodworker We had some storms, but nothing really serious... but maybe it's just my interpretation of it.
Can you turn the music up please? My neighbours want to keep dancing.....
That's one strong foundation....me and my wife want to build on our farm in ubon just a few miles from the maekong river we have our village house but it's next to the temple and they are louder then all hell I love the farm its 20 rai of rubber...so I was thinking about just building on it its been in her family for at least 5 generations with no paperwork no power the well is in already I really don't want to go down the government path we have a book on the village house already. What do you think your not to far away and your building now so your up to date. Planing on about 3mil and we are going to do it ourselves.
Hi Dave.
A 20 rai plot is nice, but you MUST first get the paperwork in order. Sometimes this is easy, sometimes it can take years and sometimes it is just not possible. It would be a shame to build your dream house, only to have the government come and demolish it. (Make no mistake, this can really happen).
No power can turn out expensive (The power-company charges incredibly exuberant amounts of money and then takes possession on all items)
But if you are willing to "go solar", as we do, it is half price and no more electric bills.
Of course, you have a limited amount of power... and when you reach that limit, there is no more. So be sure to calculate your needs properly.
That is all the advice I can give you. (For now).
You are welcome to come and look at our progress and discuss things. We start building again on the 1st of november.
@@Living-off-grid nice we'll stop by in January...I better talk with the village leader...there are some small concrete houses near our farm most are wood but not many live out there. I know people near there buy land with no paper
This is a great video. I'm at the beginning stages of a build right now. I've only watched the first video so far. What have you done about electricity? I've had to pay the the board to come and install the electric. Not ideal but ......
Hi.
There is an episode about the electrics.
Spoiler: I did not pay the PEA a single baht... and still do not.
Curious? Have a look.
@@Living-off-grid wow, 200,000 is ridiculousl! I paid a fraction of that (40,000). However, your solution is great and something I'll definitely consider. I will need a good connection as I'll be running a business from there. Onto episode 3. This is awesome!
looks like you have a good crew there ! Very nice entrance, but " so Thai" method....why did n't they mix the concrete closer to where it was needed, LOL. We hope to start our house in Ubon later this year.....COVID permitting !
It is actually depending on where the raw materials are dumped and where your water-source is. If you get a few cub of sand and stones, you put them there where you will use the bulk... so some little jobs will be a bit further away.
The reality is that you can never get a contractor anywhere who doesn’t cut corners, it’s in their blood to cheat and get higher profits. Hence, close supervisions and some knowledge of the project is key. Alternatively you can get professional help.
😀 In this case, I guess I am the contractor. The best way to go in Thailand. 👍
@@Living-off-grid Well you can still cheat yourself if you want too. LOL 😂
I actually like your music selections. I have a question. Are all your interior wall supported by those concrete cross pieces ?
I am not sure what you mean.
The interior walls, just like the outside walls, are suported by a "concrete ring" on top.
If with "concrete cross pieces" you mean the foundation stem-walls, then no. Those support the load-bearing walls.
There are a few interior load-bearing walls, mostly suporting the "internal gabels".
One "load-bearing", or should I say potentially load-bearing wall runs end to end under the roof-ridge, but this is only supporting the attic floor as the span of the rafters is quit large (9 meters).
I hope this answers your question.
If not, feel free to ask further.
@Living-off-grid my apologies, l am not knowledgeable of building vocabulary. Yes, stem walls. Thanks for the answer.
Another question- Had you thought about a polystyrene or some kind of under slab insulation?
@@nitepharmer5866
No. Just a vapor barrier.
The soil under the house will always be cooler than the house, so it is better not to insulate that in a hot climate (in my opinion)
That seems to work out well as our floors are always nice and cool.
I would argue that ready mix concrete for the footing would have been better.
Saying that you have to buy it from a reputable company like SCG that offer many grades. Just order the strongest.
Some of the independent ready mix suppliers skimp on the cement and add too much water.
Sadly I have to disagree.
We tried a local supplier first. No success because his sand was contaminated with clay, creating large lumps of clay in the concrete-mix.
So we changed to a CPAC supplier with not much better result. The first load was so thick it got stuck in the chute.
We then changed to SCG which was better... but only as long as I was present at the mixing.
We used that for the stem-wall.
For the floor we used the same company, but due to the volume, I could not supervise the mixing. The result was that some trucks were OK and sone carried yogurt (way to much water).
The result was hundreds of drying-cracks in several parts of the floor.
Luckilly I oversized it (10 cm instead of 7).
An other problem with ready-mix is that it is mixed by weight (and not by volume).
That is OK as long as the sand and stones are stored inside, which is almost never the case.
Taking in account that (after a day of rain) wet sand weighs almost twice as much as dry sand, you can imagine what this does to the mix.
In my (humble) opinion, there is no better way than to mix by hand... as long as you can handle the volume.
@@SometimeWoodworker We are in one of the farthest corners of the kingdom... That might have something to do with it.
As for hand-mixing, as long as you measure the volumes (buckets) it is much more accurate than machine mixing which uses weight and keeps its ingredients out in the rain and sun. After all, wet sand increases much more in weight than wet stones, and cement is always kept nice and dry.
@@Living-off-grid What did you do with the concrete from the first supplier which had a lot of clay and what did you do with the CPAC concrete from the 2nd guy ? If it was substandard I just wondered if you ended using it .
@@nitepharmer5866 We send it back. Concrete with clay in it is not good for anything. In the mixer the clay starts to "clump" together, creating balls of clay with a bit of cement around it. It has no strength at all.
The other (very dry load) did not even exit the mixer.
The driver wanted to add water, but that is very bad for the concrete. Looses most of its strength.
The next batches I was at the plant when they mixed it.
The biggest problem here is that they mix on weight, but have the sand and stones outside without roof.
After a bit of rain the sand suddenly weighs twice as much and the wet stones bring lots of water in the mix.
They should mix on volume instead... but try explaining that. 🙄
You're must tell us the cost when you done and how much does artisans cost per day and the helpers per day.
I will do that.
Mooi Maarten, zie uit naar het vervolg. Waar is dit in Thailand?
Hai Rene.
Dank voor je reactie.
Dit is in noord-oost Thailand, in de Nakhon Phanom provincie.
Hi Maarten.
If possible to can tell me cost for drawings and engineering as we live not far from you and having trouble finding someone reasonable as we already have our own design
Cheer Tony
Hi Tony,
I made my own design and drawings. If the "living space" is under 150 M2 and the house is just one floor, you do not need architectural approval.
So, our "attic" is "officially" only for storage ;-).
After the build, when you have the "house book", you can modify all you want.
If you want detailed info, drop me a line on maartensworld@gmail.com
Any house planning tips? Like Standard measurement, unit side.. Thank you.
Hi Shawn.
It is difficult to keep to standard sizes. A lot depends on the materials you choose.
The only important tip I can give you is to make a plan, check it several times and then, stick to it.
Any adhoc decision you make during the build will come back and bite you in your ass.
If you have to change something, take a few days to ponder all consequences.
Brave of you to take this on yourself. How do you communicate with the help?
Why did you back-fill the foundation instead of leaving a space under the house? You lose access to plumbing etc but you mentioned this is off-grid so perhaps incorporating some passive house concepts.
Hi Roy.
We communicate in a mixture of english and thai and examples. And if we really can't figure it out... my (thai) wife translates.
I choose to backfill because it was cheaper. The size (and weight) of the needed pre-streched floor-planks was a (costly) difficulty. I decided to go for safe.
No plumbing under the floor, just some drains.
@@Living-off-grid oh hadn't thought of that , about the planks.
Actually, I think it looks better, graded as you have done.
Hello Maarten
nice house buiding without poles. Did you install foundation - concrete slab grounding for elecricity grounding connection ?
Greetings from Germany Klaus 👋
Hi Klaus.
No we did not.
Electrical grounding is via a copper rod that goes into the ground.
@@Living-off-grid
Yes this works as well.
Did you plan your Solar project ?
Yes. But only time will tell if the plan is correct.
Putting solar into an existing household is easy. You just measure what you use and that's that.
With a new house it is all estimates.
Can you do a breakdown in costs as were hoping to return back next year
Until now:
Foundation & floor : 423.000
Fence & gate : 170.000
Well & water tower: 61.000
Various other things: 82.000
All amounts in Thai baht, rounded to the nearest thousand.
What part of Thailand? did you build your house.
Mooi werk hoor! Nog een klein jaartje en dan vestig ik mij ook in Thailand. En dan op zoek naar een mooi stuk land. Hoeveel rai heb jij. iets van 4?
Hi Lode
Wij hebben 12 rai (ongeveer 2 hectare).
Het viel niet mee om dat te vinden voor een redelijke prijs (1 miljoen baht) dus wees hier op voorbereid. Geef niet te snel op, blijf zoeken totdat je het perfecte stuk land hebt gevonden.
@@Living-off-grid Ga ik zeker doen. Mijn vrouw heeft iets van 7 rai met chanote. Dat is nu rijstveld ingesloten tussen andere velden. Maar het lijkt er op dat de overheid een weg gaat aanleggen die er langs loopt. Dat kan interessant zijn. 20 km ten zuiden van Sisaket.
Thanks for the video. It seems to be hard to find good land in Thailand, Do you recommend using a real estate agent to find the land ?
That is not an easy question to answer.
There is a difference between a "middleman" and a "real-estate agent".
In the country-side (isaan) there are no real-estate agents, so it is either you or a middleman.
In our experience, middleman are totally useless and only trying to get a commission.
One even offered us land that was not for sale.
They don't know the price of the land they offer, they just know it is for sale and if you are interested in it, they'll try to make a deal with the owner, skimming as much as possible.
The internet can be a good source, but you need to read and write Thai.
For the rest, drive around, ask locals and don't decide too quickly. There are great pieces of land for sale, you just need to find them.
@@Living-off-grid thanks for these precious advices!
Looks great 👍
Can l ask concrete post size (ie 200x200 or 250x250) and the square size of the ligatures in the posts? Also, how many sqm is the slab area?
Cheers
There are no posts. 🤗
The house is build with load-bearing walls.
If you mean the foundation, the footings are 100x100 cm, 20 cm thick with 16mm rebar. (10x10cm grid)
The pillars are 20x20 cm with 12mm rebar. (4 strands)
The stemwall is 20cm thick and 100cm high with 16mm rebar. (6 strands)
I hope this is what you asked for.
Ohhh... Slab is 240sqm
@@Living-off-grid yes, that what I meant in the pillars 😊
The ligatures that held the 12mm steel in place were 100x100 or bigger.
Thanks for your reply 🙏🏻
100x100. 6mm
@@Living-off-grid thanks again.
Hi Maarten. did you design the plan's for your house or did someone do them for you ? Cheers Chris
Hi Chris. The style came from a photo. From that photo I designed the house myself.
@@Living-off-grid it's a brilliant job you have done. We are thinking of building in yasothon is this near you ? my wife has an acre of land so are thinking of doing the same as you
@@chrisafan-jones6729 It's about 150 km south of us.
Not too far, but not next door.
Just wondering if I could bring my wife to see your house when I come over in 3 months so she can decide if she likes the design? Cheers Chris
@@chrisafan-jones6729 Of course. Very welcome.
Contact me via WhatsApp (+66656101213) or phone.
Do they build the septic and the house at the same time ?
That all depends on the builder and the situation.
As you could see, we build the septic tank much later.
@@Living-off-grid do you have 2 separated system for your grey water and your black water or it's the same tank for both ?
@@8971felix We have one septic-tank for all waste-water (grey & black).
This tank has 3 stages:
In the first stage bacteria break down the solids and the scum.
Clear water (halfway up, or down) travels to a second stage where the last debris sinks to the bottom and clear (grey) water rises.
This then travels to the third stage where it "sinks" into the ground.
No heated floor in this one, eh Maartin?
Here we do the opposite. Everything to keep the house cool.
We even use geothermal to cool down the water before it enters the house.
@@Living-off-grid That is ingenious!! I am planning to do the same when building my new home in the New Mexico desert. Rather than run central air-conditioning, I will run metal tubes underground beneath the house and plumb them up into the walls. This will bring the cooled air into the home for free rather than paying the average monthly cost of $340 in electricity. Yes, there is a cost for the metal tubing and installation but that will not be more than running split air conditioners, and it will pay for itself in a short time as well as become a monthly savings. Love to see your progress! Keep making videos.
It is now July 27, do you have an update or has it been too wet?
Hi Martin.
We will start building again in November.
But, I am working on a video about the water-tower.
Should be ready in a week or so.
You will definitely get great water pressure from that height, I use only 1” or 25 mm pipe on mine and and only 3 meter towers, great pressure .
Hi Martin.
Oh yes. Pressure is good.
I will also use 1" pipe until the final part to a tap. To ensure even flow, even if other taps are opened or closed (the famous toilet-flush when having a shower😖)
@@Living-off-grid You mentioned that the water will be cooled in an underground tank/system? So the water goes from overhead storage tank under head pressure, to the underground tank? Probably not right, as you would then need a pump to get it back to ground level with some pressure in the taps?
@@kevhall4802 No. It does not go to a tank, though that would be possible as long is it remains pressurised.
But in this case it goes through a 4" pipe from the tower to the house, at 2 meters dept.
The distance is some 50 meters, so this pipe contains about 200 liters of water under pressure.
Hi Maarten . Do you have the contact details of the people that built your fences and front wall/gates? Thank you. Bernard
I will check.
They are local farmers.
How can I send it to you?
Bernardh.huwart
@@Living-off-grid gmail
Hi Maarten. Just wondering if you found the contact details of the people that built your front wall and gates?
Also. Did you buy or lease your sea container? And where from? I need something like that to keep materials during our build.
Hi Bernard,
We bought the container. Many companies on internet sell them. Cost, including shipping, about 70K.
Unfortunately I can not help you with the contact details. Just where they live... and they are not there as they are working elsewhere at the moment.
I though I had send that to your gmail address. I am sorry if I did not.
Martin, what part of the country is this?
This is in the North East, in the Nakhon Phanom province, some 30 km south of the Nakhon Phanom city.
Can you buy or build house in Thailand as foreigner ? 😉
Yes you can.
However, you can not own land, but there are (legal) ways around it.
For example: I have an usurfruct on the land we build on, which means I have all rights over the land except the right to sell it, until I die.
After I die, my (Thai) family gets full ownership over the land.
Hallo Marten
Goede morgen van uit het nate
Luyksgestel NB
Ik volg je video's interessant
Ik wil in 2024 beginnen ons huis in pho thong / chai badan
Ik zie dat jij een contener
Hebt laaten komen van uit Nederland ?????
Ik wil dat ook doen op naam van Mijn vriendin..met mijn gereedschap
Ik vindt het jammer om alles áchter te laaten in Nederland
Nu de vraag heb je dat ook gedaan
Moet op de vracht lijst precies staan
12 borden 7 pannen 7 vis hengsels
Boormachine 7 boertjes. 7 schilderen..
Hoe precies komt dat
Mooi huis en met gasbeton helemaal mijn ding
GR ADRI VAN DEN BERK luyksgestel
Hoi Adri.
Nee hoor. Niks vanuit NL meegenomen, maar dat is omdat we voorheen in Bolivia woonden 😊.
De container hebben we hier gekocht om een "secure storage" te hebben.
De meeste geteedschappen kun je hier gewoon kopen en met de import-tax hier is dat waarschijnlijk goedkoper dan het op te sturen.
Import-tax voor buitenlanders is hier een melk-koe die gouden eieren legt 🤣.
Ik hoop dat dit helpt.
Groeten
Maarten
Very hard to hear you because of the music. Be great if you could lose the music
Yes, if you watch the last episode you'll notice the music is a lot softer.
It is hard to cook for every taste, on phones and tablets (the majority of viewers) the balance is fine, but computers with speakers and TV,s etc, voices get drowed by the excessive low frequencies.
But I think I found the middle ground now.
Another dutchie building a house for her 30 years younger toy wife.
Actually, my wife is 11 years younger than me and we have been married for 17 years now.
So, maybe you should be a bit less judgemental.
@@Living-off-grid Good on you Maarten, its your life so live it on your terms. Mine is 23 yrs younger. I told her you should find a younger guy, shes says I don't like young guys. I said, younger not young ! She said you will do, Hahaha, anyway we are perfectly happy together, so jealous trolls like your friend who commented can continue to live their miserable lives in envy that others are happy with their Thai partners.
@@kevhall4802 "road to thailand" is definitely not a friend.
I have other descriptions, but want to stay polite 😉
@@Living-off-grid Kudos to you for staying polite.
@@kevhall4802 yes Maarten is far more polite than i would be. In fact i would have pointed out The Pink Panzy Tiger shows off his Gay Pride BS. I am guessing he takes it where the sun don't shine and will likely be pissed right off for being judged. Or the idiot is simply jealous that Marty lives the life with a hot Thai wife. 555
Old fashioned, labour intensive style of house construction. I think its for mad people.
That is the way it is done in north-east Thailand.
There is no heavy equipment available.
Thinking that this is for "mad people" says more about you than about the people who build it.
@@Living-off-grid From my perspective, I appreciate people being able to build with their own hands and manual labor. Industrious self sufficient people will survive in difficult times. Your approach to building your house and sharing the process is super, looking forward to more. BTW, my wife is Thai, we been married 34 years. Greetings from Scottsdale Arizona.