House we have just built in Khorat Vid ...

[alanthebuilder]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85x3w0_f ... e=youtu.be (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85x3w0_fFoY&feature=youtu.be)

Morning guys its been a long time and yes I did miss you all :happy7: ,here is a short vid of the house we built in Khorat

Hi,

Nice house and lovely interior finishes. What was the size of plot and building costs please?

[Beachlover]

What was the size of plot and building costs please?
Heh... that question always comes up quickly here. Seems SGT members aren't big on foreplay. :rolling:

[alanthebuilder]

Thanks guys around 4.9 mill .
Size around 350
Alan...

[thaiguest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85x3w0_fFoY&feature=youtu.be

Morning guys its been a long time and yes I did miss you all :happy7: ,here is a short vid of the house we built in Khorat

You know there's often a 'but' after praise but here goes;

Design- very pleasing-clean lines, angular, harmonious, workmanship- superb, materials- high grade BUT for me one more example of housebuilding in Thailand that ignores the basic fact that this is Thailand not some transplanted western suburbia.

I think the market awaits a builder/designer who's prepared to incorporate into new builds; thai style, traditional materials (wood, bamboo, ricestraw thatch etc.) and discreet placement in the landscape without compromising on quality and energy efficiency.

There's something about Alan-the-builder that tells me he might be the man!

[alanthebuilder]

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/ ... /tpod.html (http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/chan_hc/1/1259263564/poor-man-s-house.jpg/tpod.html)

Like this you mean ?
This is what some(a lot of) our clients -- wife's\ girlfriends\ boyfriends ... came from !
No wonder they head for the likes of Pattaya to meet there lover...

Hi Alan,

Totally agree with you.

Also, if you look at the style in Isaarn that the Thais themselves are building, they are mainly concrete bungalows and houses.

The wooden house on sticks may look romantic in the TV movies, but they are by and large, dirty bug infested traps not fit for purpose.

Yes, you can pull up photos of very wealthy Thais re creating this beatiful vision (when they have a lot of cash to spare) but they are not really practical, in my view, in 2011.

[thaiguest]

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/chan_hc/1/1259263564/poor-man-s-house.jpg/tpod.html

Like this you mean ?
This is what some(a lot of) our clients -- wife's\ girlfriends\ boyfriends ... came from !
No wonder they head for the likes of Pattaya to meet there lover...

No, I don't mean like this and I think you know that already because if you can manage a successful building company you're, by definition, not stupid.

Aping western house style has become a sad practice among Thais, rich and dirt poor alike; wedding cake mansions for the rich and roasting hot sheet metal roofed huts for the rice farmers.

Thailand has a long tradition of unique indiginous architecture.
Jim Thomson, though american, didn't have to go outside Thailand for inspiration when putting together his house in Bangkok. He also drew from traditional thai design practice when building his first shop on Suriwong Rd. and incorporated western ideas where appropriate.

Rural thais, cambodians, vietnamese etc. have used by necessity (and successfully) locally available materials to protect their homes from heat and rain for hundreds of years because these materials work and can be incorporated today into modern design.

Maybe you're not the man to do it after all. Lao daa khun.

[cameroncat]

Very Nice house! Too bad it's not located in a nice coastal area. Khorat is the Hottest Place in Thailand I've ever visited. LOL.
Not a hell a lot to do there either. Why did you choose Khorat? for a Job?

[alanthebuilder]

The shack picture was just a bit of a joke , didn't mean it seriously.We would build a wood or fusion wood and modern style if or when the client comes along ,would be nice for a change !
Khorat is where the clients bought his land that's why we built there we build all over the place, Khorat is a nice city (if you like city's) one of the best I have been to also not far from the mountains of Pak Chong and Khow Yai .

BIG THANKS again guy for you input ... one of the nicer forums !!!

[Beachlover]

Design- very pleasing-clean lines, angular, harmonious, workmanship- superb, materials- high grade BUT for me one more example of housebuilding in Thailand that ignores the basic fact that this is Thailand not some transplanted western suburbia.

I think the market awaits a builder/designer who's prepared to incorporate into new builds; thai style, traditional materials (wood, bamboo, ricestraw thatch etc.) and discreet placement in the landscape without compromising on quality and energy efficiency.
This one's not too bad. But I hate the cold, unwelcoming tiles, bland interiors and unoriginal layouts you often see in these "mansion in a rural area" house setups around Asia.

They need nice timber flooring and banisters (I know steel lasts longer), better windows to let in more natural light and better connection between indoors/outdoors...

[alanthebuilder]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ,If we all had the same tastes ,that would be no good ! :rolling:

Thanks again ..

Hey Alan,

Nice house !.......and as I was looking at it it led me to wonder - and this is just PURE nosiness and curiosity and my part so feel free to say "mind your own bloody business" if you chose to or if you feel it's at all commercially sensitive information or something, but I was wondering - you mentioned that you build all over T/L so I wondered what you do re managing your Labour squad ( as I'm assuming that you employ local Thai labour for most of the manual / specialist work required and then you "oversee" their work etc) so I was wondering if you just recruit locally each time from scratch when your arrive at whatever site / area the client has purchased for you to build on or maybe perhaps do you have a set squad of guys that work full time for you and maybe travel to that area and then stay there living locally in that village perhaps until the job in complete?

As I said my question is just a purely passing one thought of after as I was working with guys from a building site here in the UK that where telling me that they think nothing of travelling a 200 mile a day round trip now to get to their site ( as there's so little work for them ) which led me to wondering how your guys in T/L manage with the distances / bad roads / financial hardships involved etc ?? -

Of course all of the above is based on my assumption that you ARE using labour as perhaps that's not the case AT ALL and maybe you just build all of your lovely houses yourself by your own fair hand !!? lol

[alanthebuilder]

Hi mate ,what we do is move my gang about 8 guys built this from site to site , we might get 1 or 2 local labor but most of the time we dont .
We build a camp and they live on the job until its completed ,I come to and throw -we do have contractors to do the - Windows\gypsum\ electric\painters .. these contractors have been working for us for years ,they all come from Surin our town and are all good friends of my family.We dont really work all over Thailand these days we try to stick mainly in Issan however if the project is big enough and were not booked up we may build long distant jobs ,Thanks again guys ....