Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 27, 2010
The shuttering was removed to reveal the first five columns that were poured yesterday. Shuttering was applied and concrete also poured for the next five columns. The area between the ground floor beams was also filled in first with earth, then with a layer of sand ready for pouring the concrete floor. This will be done when all of the second stage column casting has been done.
Five columns up, five more being cast
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 26, 2010
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 25, 2010
The shuttering has now been removed, revealing the ground floor beams.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 25, 2010
I have been taking far too many photos and videos of the build to include them all within this blog. However, if you are interested in in seeing more photos and videos, you can find them by clicking the links in the right hand column to Flickr (for Photos) and Vimeo (for videos).
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 24, 2010
All of the concrete for the ground floor beams was poured today.
Somehow, when you just have the floor plan of a house marked out on the ground, it always appears much smaller than when the house is completed. With this house, even when the columns went up you still could not get a real sense of the size and it is only now that the ground floor beams have been cast that you can start to appreciate the scale.
Pouring the ground floor beams
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 23, 2010
After another day of hard work, almost all of the shuttering is in place for the ground floor beams, which will be poured tomorrow.
Ground floor beam shuttering
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 22, 2010
It is not uncommon for developers to design homes to order for future buyers, but it is almost unheard of for developers to build to order for prospective tenants. However that is, in essence, what we are planning to do. We want your feedback on the type of property you would like to rent. How many bedrooms & bathrooms? How much garden area? Furnished or unfurnished? Do you prefer a one or two storey house? What type of kitchen do you prefer? Do you prefer wood floors or tiled floors? Is there anything that you consider a necessity that has been missing in other rental properties in Nong Khai?
Please contact us to let us know your requirements.
We would greatly appreciate any feedback you could give and who knows, maybe we could be building your perfect rental property next!
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 22, 2010
The house is located in Thip Thani, which is a small village about 4km out of Nong Khai, that borders the larger village of Na Khlong, shown on the map below.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 21, 2010
It seems to have been a very productive day today, with the basic beam structure for the ground floor laid out. Tomorrow, additional steel re-enforcement will be added in areas where greater loads are to be carried. There are also addition beam structures to be added between the primary beams.
Result of a days work installing beam re-enforcement structure
Additional beam re-enforcement added in high stress areas - in this case where an additional beam is to be connected in the area around the staircase structure
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 21, 2010
The guys working on the site have been very hard working from the very start of the project, but I was surprised to see so much progress had been made since last night, when I visited the site this morning. The re-enforcement structure for the first of the ground floor beams was being fitted. This had involved a huge amount preliminary work in cutting and shaping the hundreds of pieces of steel re-bar that make up the structure.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 20, 2010
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 20, 2010
The rest of the first stage columns were poured today. The shuttering was removed from those poured yesterday and the holes in which they stand filled in. We also took delivery of more materials in preparation for construction of the ground floor support beams.
First stage column with concrete set and shuttering removed
Filling in the footing holes
First ten footing holes filled
Another 3 tonnes of steel arrives ready for beam construction
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 19, 2010
We have now poured the first 10 columns and applied shuttering to the rest, ready for pouring tomorrow.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 18, 2010
First stage column shuttering
Today we took delivery of more materials for the next stage of the build. Shutting was also fitted around the steel re-enforcement columns ready for concrete to be poured tomorrow. The shuttering comes to a level lower than the eventual level of the ground floor. Once the concrete has set, the steel re-enforcement beam structures will be attached to the steel column structures, and the concrete beams poured.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 17, 2010
Another four re-enforcement columns went up today and the final footing holes we dug. Tomorrow, the remaining eight columns will be installed, and will be prepared for casting of the actual concrete columns.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 16, 2010
For more re-enforcement columns erected
Today, a further 4 re-enforcement columns were erected. Most of the rest of the footing holes were also dug and prepared for their respective columns to be installed tomorrow, with the addition of their base layers of sand and concrete.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 14, 2010
Today is the Chinese New Year and in Thai culture is considered to be a lucky day to begin the actual construction of the house. So with the holes having been dug, we were ready to erect the first two steel re-enforcing columns.
Cutting corners is a common practice in Thailand, with developers and builders keen to reduce construction costs, often at the expense of the structural integrity of the building. It is often in the places that can not be seen that these corners are cut, but invariably, these are the worst possible places to try to save on a few Baht such as with the foundations. We are ensuring that at every stage of the build we are using only the best quality materials and also that we are adhering to the highest possible international construction standards.
Here you can see the first of the steel re-enfored footings being laid. These are large in area (1.7m x 1.7m), deep (1.4m), and laid on two layers, one of sand (10cm) and one of concrete (10cm). Aside from using smaller shallower footings, the steel re-enforcment is often laid directly onto bare earth, or at best a layer of gravel, but this can lead to problems later with moisture able to seep in and corrode the steel structure.
With the base in place, the column re-enforcement structure is lowered into place and attached to the base. Another Thai tradition is to throw in some coins to be set within the concrete base for good luck.
Concrete is then poured in to the base, in this case to a depth of 30cm.
Here you can see the first two column structures held up by temporary wooden supports. In addition to placing coins within the foundations, baskets containing further offerings are attached to the columns as part of the same Thai – Buddhist tradition.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 12, 2010
Digging Footings, Connecting Electricity, taking delivery of equipment
A temporary electricity meter was connected in order to provide power during the initial build phase. The electricity company charges double the standard rate for electricity from this type of meter. It will be replaced with standard meter once a circuit breaker box and wiring has been installed in the semi-finished house.
Also today, work began on digging the holes for the foundations and we took delivery of the equipment and materials that will be required over the coming days.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 11, 2010
Staking out the land and setting datum level
Today, with the land cleared and the plans finalised, the area was staked out and a datum level established from which to ensure the correct level of all components of the structure. The position of the structural supporting columns was marked out, then following this the placement of the holes to be dug for the footings of the building.
Project: Baan Sanploen
Posted By Alec on February 7, 2010
As the architect for this project, I gave a lot of consideration to the size and position of the land and tried to come up with design that would not only just look great, but also would make the best possible use of the land. One criticism that I have of most of the other houses in Thip Thani is that being one storey, they are very spread out over their respective plots of land resulting in very small gardens. Another consequence of this is that the houses are very close to one another which results in heat traps between the homes with poor air circulation.
I have designed a two storey home to reduce the building’s footprint and maximise both the available garden area and the distance to neighbouring properties. The building plan is L-shaped in form, built relatively close to the front of the land, creating a large and private rear garden area.
Ground Floor Plan
On the ground floor there is a covered parking area and a two storey high entrance hall with staircase to the second floor. Leading off the entrance hall is an office (or third bedroom) at the front of the property, a bathroom and then the large living area at the rear. This living area takes the form of a long room with open plan living, dining and kitchen area. This living area has two very large full heigh windows / sliding doors leading out to the large garden and decking.
Second Floor Plan
The second floor covers a smaller area than the ground floor providing two large en-suite bedrooms each with its own large balcony, one at the front and one at the rear. The bedrooms are of a generous size and include large built in wardrobes. The bathrooms are also of a large size.
The positioning of the building on the land also provides much needed shade from the sun to the large rear garden.
Now that a plan has been established, the next step for me is to generate all of the other drawings and 3-D models required to provide to our Structural Engineer in order to carry out the calculations required in order to ensure the structural integrity of the finished home. The architectural plans, along with the structural calculations & plans will then be submitted to the local planning department for approval.
