Blog

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on July 10, 2010

We completed work altering the existing boundary walls on two sides of the property some time ago.  We have now started construction of the new walls needed down one side and at the front of the house.

We have also taken delivery of the septic tanks which will be installed over the next couple of days.  We are also still busy with painting the house.  Especially all of the wood effect detailing, which takes quite some time to achieve the look of real wood.

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Tags: architecture, Home Construction, house design, Khon Kaen, Nong Khai, Structural Engineering, THip Thani, Udon Thani

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on July 6, 2010

I have been very busy over the past few weeks and so the blog updates have not been as frequent as they used to be.  I’m going to try and get back to making short regular posts again.

With that in mind, here is a very short progress update:

We are currently in the process of painting the interior and exterior of the house.

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Tags: Home Construction, house design, Khon Kaen, Nong Khai, Structural Engineering, Udon Thani

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on June 15, 2010

Sorry for the lack of updates over the past two weeks.  I have been very busy managing our two projects and also carrying out design work for a number of other clients…..  So, on with the update:

TREES

Our two transplanted trees have started sprouting new growth which is a very good sign.  This means that the hardest part is over and they are likely to survive the transplant and take to their new location.

EXTERIOR DETAILING

All of the preformed exterior detailing has been applied around the windows elsewhere on the house.

In addition to the concrete detailing, we have also added more wood effect detailing.  This is the same  material that we used on the roof wing, and as with the roof wing, the full effect can not be appreciated until it has all been painted, which will be done over the next few days.

SUSPENDED CEILING

n addition to the concrete detailing, we have also added more wood effect detailing.  This is the same  material that we used on the roof wing, and as with the roof wing, the full effect can not be appreciated until it has all been painted, which will be done over the next few days. After a slow start due to an unreliable third party contractor, we now have a very good contractor who has completed almost all of the ceiling work.

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Tags: architecture, Home Construction, House Builder, house design, Interior Design, Isaan, Khon Kaen, Nong Khai, Structural Engineering, Thailand, THip Thani, Udon Thani

Project: Thip Thani Project 2

Posted By Alec on June 2, 2010

All of the column reinforcement structures have been placed and the concrete footings poured.  The next stage is to apply the formwork and pour the first stage columns.

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Tags: architecture, Home Construction, House Builder, Isaan, Khon Kaen, Nong Khai, Structural Engineering, Thailand, Udon Thani

Project: Thip Thani Project 2

Posted By Alec on May 5, 2010

I have now passed on the plans for our next project to our structural engineer in order for him to perform all of the necessary calculations and produce all of the material we will need to pass on to the planning department.  Below are a few 3D renderings showing how the exterior of the finished home will look.

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Tags: architecture, Home Construction, house design, Isaan, Khon Kaen, Nong Khai, Thailand, Udon Thani

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on May 5, 2010

I last posted just over a week ago.  Since then there has been a reasonable amount of progress, though the workers have had a few days off.  It is the start of the rocket festival season in Nong Khai, and the staff have enjoyed a few days supporting their local village rocket team!  If you have never heard of the Isaan Rocket festival, it is quite a sight to be seen.  You can find out more about the Rocket Festival on our Nong Khai Information site here – http://events.nongkhaiinformation.com/Rocket_Festivals/

Back to the build…. most of the steel framework for the roof wing has been fitted.  Now that it is in place, you can see how much of a shadow they cast and how they will give a lot of much needed shade to the second floor windows and also to the balconies.  This is exactly the effect that was intended with the wing structure.

Steel roof wing structure

All of the door frames have been custom made and today work began on installing them into the house.

First door frames fitted

It has been a while since I have posted any videos to the blog, however, I shall be taking a few more and uploading them shortly.

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Tags: Architect, Home Construction, House Builder, house design, Isaan, Khon Kaen, Nong Khai, Structural Engineering, Thailand, Udon Thani

Project: Thip Thani Project 2

Posted By Alec on April 26, 2010

Having been busy with client projects over the past week or so, I had somewhat neglected our next project in Thip Thani.  However, after a couple of days of focus I have now finalised the design for our second project in Thip Thani, which we will be offering for sale once completed.  If you like the idea of moving into a brand new home, finished to western standards, feel free to <a href=”http://contact.nongkhaidesign.com/”>contact us</a> to discus this or our future construction projects.  If you prefer, we can also help you find land and then design a build home to you exact specification and budget.

Any way, with that bit of shameless marketing out of the way, back to the project….

The house will again be two storey in order to maximise the available garden area.  The area of the plot is 400 sq.m. and the house will have a footprint of 90 sq.m. (not including a detached covered parking area).  The total internal floor area will be about 170 sq.m.

On the ground floor will be a family room, lounge, dining room, kitchen, laundry room and bathroom.  Then on the second floor will be the 3 en-suite bedrooms.    Below are my initial plan drawings of the house.  I shall also be producing a 3d rendered view of the property which I shall post to the blog in the next few days.

Once I have completed all of the detailed architectural drawings, I shall pass these on to our structural engineer to perform all of the calculations necessary to ensure the structural integrity of the building.  He will then produce the structural drawings the structural calculation report which will be submitted to the local planning department.

You may think this would be a long process if you have any experience of building projects in other countries.  However, in Thailand, obtaining planning permission is a very simple procedure. For our last project, it only took 30 MINUTES to obtain planning permission.

I anticipate all of the structural engineering and planning to be completed by the end of next week (7th May).  We will then be able to begin to prepare for construction by digging the holes for the footings.  This should tie in nicely with work being completed on our first Thip Thani project and our workers will be able to move seamlessly from one project to the next.

Ground Floor Layout Plan

Second Floor Layout Plan

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Tags: architecture, Home Construction, house design, Nong Khai, Planning Permission, Structural Engineering

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on April 12, 2010

Light switches

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Tags: architecture, Builder, Electrical Fittings, Home Construction, house design, Interior Design, Isaan, Light Switches, Nong Khai, Thailand

Project: Thip Thani Project 2

Posted By Alec on April 9, 2010

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Tags: Architect, Home Construction, House Builder, Isaan, Nong Khai, Structural Engineer, Thailand

Project: Thip Thani Project 2

Posted By Alec on April 9, 2010

Timed to perfection, even if I do say so myself! The surveyors had just finished marking out the boundaries of our new plot of land as the first truck load of infill arrived!

Soil arrives as the surveyor leaves...

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Tags: Home Construction, House Builder, Isaan, Nong Khai, Structural Engineering, Thailand

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on April 9, 2010

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Tags: Architect, Home Construction, House Builder, Isaan, Nong Khai, Structural Engineer, Thailand

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on March 26, 2010

After a few days of preparations, the concrete has been poured for the roof beams.

Also, today we took delivery of the first load of construction blocks. It is common, in Thailand, to use traditional small red bricks when constructing house walls. However, these are heavy, have poor insulation properties and are labor intensive to lay. Another common alternative to the red bricks is standard breeze-blocks and whilst these may be quicker to lay, they also offer relatively poor insulation and fire resistance properties. We are using a new type of block that is less than half the weight of standard bricks whilst offering over ten times the thermal insulation and eight times the fire resistance of standard bricks. Coupled with their already outstanding thermal properties, we will be using two courses of bricks with a gap between the two layers providing yet further cavity insulation which will be so beneficial in such a warm climate in keeping the house cool inside. The dimensions of these block, being 60cm x 30cm, lead to unmatched construction time when compared to any other type of brick.

First delivery of construction blocks arrives

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Tags: architecture, Home Construction, house design, Nong Khai, Structural Engineering, Thailand, THip Thani

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on March 21, 2010

Back at work and well rested from their days off, the workers made great progress today in preparing the supports for the roof beam shuttering.  Tomorrow, they will begin to assemble the shuttering itself.

Roof beam shuttering supports

I have created a somewhat unique roof design, part of which involves completely concealed guttering and down pipes.  In order to achieve this, the roof beams I have designed are also somewhat unique.  I anticipate progress to appear slow over the next few days, as a lot of preparation will be needed in order to realise the design of the complex roof beam  reinforcement structure, before the beams can be poured.

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Tags: architecture, Beams, Concrete, Home Construction, House Build, Nong Khai, Property, Structural Engineering, Thailand

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on March 18, 2010

I had a nice surprise this morning to find that our foreman, Kan, had managed to get the shuttering in place more quickly than planned and so had already poured the first batch of columns.  By the end of the day, the rest had been poured.

All final stage columns cast

It is important that freshly poured concrete is kept from drying out too quickly during the ‘curing’ period  This is because the full bond between all of the ingredients will not be achieved if it is left to dry out of its own accord, leading to a weaker structure with a greater tendency to crack.  With the columns, this is achieved by wrapping them in plastic, thus preventing evaporation of moisture.  With the beams and slabs, it is done my periodically spraying them with water to ensure they stay wet.  Now that the columns have been cast, another method has been employed on the second floor slab known as ponding.  In this case, a sand wall has been formed around the edge of the slab and the slab flooded.

Ponding of second floor slab

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Tags: architecture, construction, Home Construction, Home For Rent, house design, House for sale, Nong Khai, Property, Real Estate, Structural Engineering, Thailand

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on March 17, 2010

Today, with the all of the second floor slab cast, the final stage of steel reinforcement and shuttering was applied for the final stage of column casting.

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Tags: Con, Home Construction, house design, Nong Khai

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on March 3, 2010

Another great day of progress today, with the ground floor slab having been poured by lunch time! The steel bars that you can see protruding from the slab is the attachment point for the steel re-enforcement structure of the concrete staircase.

The finished ground floor slab

Tomorrow, the steel reenforcement structures for the second floor beams will be tied and attached to the columns.

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Tags: architecture, construction, Home builder, home building, Home Construction, Home Design, Home for Sale, Homes to Rent, House Builder, House Construction, house design, Nong Khai Real Estate, Property Development, Structural Engineering, Thailand

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on March 1, 2010

Yesterday was a Buddhist holiday so no one was working.  Today, however, they were back to work pouring the last of the second stage columns.  Also, more of the area between the ground floor beams was filled in.

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Tags: architecture, Home Construction, Home For Rent, Home for Sale, house design, Nong Khai, Structural Engineering, Thailand

Project: Baan Sanploen

Posted By Alec on February 26, 2010

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Tags: architecture, Home Construction, house design, Nong Khai, Thailand

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).

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Tags: architecture, Home Construction, House Build Photos, House Builder, Nong Khai, Thailand, Videos

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

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Tags: architecture, Beam, Home Construction, house design, Nong Khai, Structural Engineering, Thailand