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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2015 12:08:25 GMT 7
For what it's worth we just had a house built at Saraphee, about 15km from city center Chiang Mai, not far from the river. I was there for the start of construction back in November but had to go back to work in Australia and my good wife Nunni looked after the building process. She stressed a bit but I probably would have as well had I been there. We were very lucky to snag a good builder, he is the father of a good Thai lady friend we have known for years, who is married to an Aussie I have known for about 5 years. Apparently good, honest builders are a God-send in Thailand. I know how many questions there are to ask when building in a foreign country and would be happy to answer anything I can. Some of them I will have to ask the Missus about. The designing bit was not that hard, we bought a book of house plans and found one which was almost right for our needs and our block of land, 800 sq mtrs. All we did really was to add another bathroom and change position of back door coming out of the kitchen into back yard. Found a good draftsman who works out of Hang Dong and he did the drawings for about 5,000 baht, lots of pages of A3 with lots of detail. Submitted plans to the local Amphur which was a formality, gave a set of plans to the builder and away he went. Attachment DeletedAttachment DeletedFeel free to ask any questions and I will help as much as I can. (clicking on the image on my computer opens the image bigger in my photo viewer) Mick - Saraphee
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siampolee
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Alive alive O
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Post by siampolee on Apr 10, 2015 14:07:28 GMT 7
Nice place there Mike
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2015 14:13:20 GMT 7
I will post some more pics later but I am laid up at the moment in hospital and being constantly harassed (looked after) by nurses and doctors. Better than being ignored I suppose.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2015 14:22:35 GMT 7
Thanks SP, hope to invite you over for a beer one day and some northern hospitality.
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Post by Skywalker69 on Apr 10, 2015 16:44:13 GMT 7
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2015 17:06:41 GMT 7
Your house looks great, and a lot bigger than ours. Where did you build ?
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Post by Skywalker69 on Apr 10, 2015 18:09:44 GMT 7
Your house looks great, and a lot bigger than ours. Where did you build ? Not to big 116 sq.m It´s in Isaan 50km from Thep Satit.
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Post by cheeryble on Apr 13, 2015 0:33:17 GMT 7
Hi Mick
also live in Sarapee her river near Padua... how much did it work out per sq m? And was the builder paid for the total job or per sq m labour and you supplied materials.
You did well with the architect. How was his English?
cheers Cheeryble
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Post by Deleted on Apr 13, 2015 6:18:32 GMT 7
Nice little bungalow, Nick.. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2015 9:01:25 GMT 7
Hi Mick also live in Sarapee her river near Padua... how much did it work out per sq m? And was the builder paid for the total job or per sq m labour and you supplied materials. You did well with the architect. How was his English? cheers Cheeryble Hi cheeryble, The total cost from the builder was about 1.2 mil baht, give or take a few. I believe the house was quoted on 110 sq mtrs so that works out to be 10,909 bat/sq mtr. I may be out on my figures but it was close to that anyway. Of course there were added extras which we had to pay for like some of the light fittings which we wanted, hot water systems, having power connected to house etc. We were lucky enough to find a builder with a connection to us, as his daughter and her Aussie husband had been good friends of ours for years and we had no issues with this guy when it came to being overcharged for materials, which we were warned about before we built. So we told him to supply all materials and we paid progressive payments as the house was built. As far as I am concerned he did a great job of the house and for a fair price and my wife and I are very happy with the project over all. We used a draftsman as opposed to an architect as we already had a house plan and there was nothing really to "design". The plans simply had to be put on paper for the builder to be able to follow. As I said in an earlier post we made a couple of changes to the original plan - added a bathroom and moved the back door leading out of the kitchen, to suit our back yard. My wife and I had a meeting with the draftsman and I explained to him what we wanted and he did a rough draft and about a week later the plans were drawn up. The draftsman spoke little English and I had to speak Thai with him but it was not hard because most of the talk was regarding measurements. My wife helped me when I got stuck. I would be happy to recommend both our builder and our draftsman to anyone building a house in Chiang Mai, although I believe our builder is kept quite busy and will not take on too many jobs at once. I have not seen the house since it was finished as I have been away working (and doing a spell in bloody hospital) but my wife is very happy with the finish. The tiling and the wall and ceiling finishes look good in the photos. Attachment DeletedI will upload more pics later.
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Post by cheeryble on Apr 14, 2015 10:52:59 GMT 7
Thanks for that Mick First of all hope you well and recovered.
Must be odd not to have seen your own house yet!
Always good to get real life info like pricing. I think you've done OK and I see you have pretty high and fancy ceilings.
Though we live in Sarapee I'm currently wanting to start a simple holiday chalet near CR....also delayed through health.....nothing much really but may as well do it right at the best price if I can. It's very near missus's sister and family so very good for the future for her. It's basically just one studio room 7.5mx4m incl shower room plus verandah 7.5m x 3m. It's a bit diffferent in that if it's a success and we really use it I want to be able to add to the size a couple of rooms AFTERWARDS and prepare for that in advance (there are complications like it being near a ghost place wife and Mum not at all sure about that so I want to know the place will be properly used before I spend more money!). On the main level by simply adding a small room under the long roof overhang which will be built into the design. Also below, the land steps off steeply under the big verandah so out of the nine support legs six will be extended down long enough to build underneath the balcony.....both just using a small strip foundation which should be ok with lightweight block walls and roof already supported.)
I did a basic plan myself and jut a couple of days ago gave it to an architect friend of friend of missus to come back with improvements/ideas after which final agreement and detailed drawing to follow. Architect maybe not necessary for a small place but for a few thou it may save some hassle and I'm interested to know about the add-on complications in advance and who knows he may be able to save us some money. Even at our little meeting he suggested that long pillars under the verandah instead of being made in situ may be able to be bought ready made which would be a saving.
As for pricing: ARCHITECT: I heard of two good prices for friends.......one was an amazing 4500 for full plans for a 140sqm bungalow in CR (which BTW got used for three bungalows meaning even cheaper!, the other 15,000 in CM for about a 186sqm jobbie a full set including approval at Tessabahn. Anyway the guy said to us no more than 8,000bt so maybe not a super bargain for a small place but it keeps wife happy using him, I'll get him to include the additional future rooms as add-ons, and it's small in the bigger scheme.
BUILDING: As for the main work same thing I base my expectations on three friends who have done really well on price. They ALL paid for labour and provided materials themselves.......definitely a bit more work for the saving but with the advantage you know exactly what you're getting. The one friend has built three places in CR for a total per sqm price of 7000-7500bt which may be up to 8000 now. The second I told that price and he said yes should be able to do it for that (his pricing was higher and complicated by some luxury stuff like a European kitchen, double 8inch thermalite blocks etc ....he comes from Sweden!..... but he thought for the main build ballpark should be OK.) The third I believe has spent about 1.4m for the 186sqm house including a double carport.
The longer "legs" and the roof overhang built in may be offset by having so much verandah (42.8% of the build) with no walls. It will only have a kitchenette with microwave like a holiday apartment so that's a saving too......will add an outside kitchen if it all works out. The first friend actually says I may come in under 7000/sqm. Let's hope. I must provide my own water and electricity I guess as an extra to that budget.
I may be way too optimistic especially as it's a bit of an awkward site but it's for certain my first friend paid those prices he was scrupulous recording everything and his places whilst not super luxury are really OK quality and even include perimeter wall and so on.
Thanks again for the input and look forward to seeing more photos of your place Cheeryble.
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Post by Skywalker69 on Apr 14, 2015 12:37:28 GMT 7
Hi Mick also live in Sarapee her river near Padua... how much did it work out per sq m? And was the builder paid for the total job or per sq m labour and you supplied materials. You did well with the architect. How was his English? cheers Cheeryble Hi cheeryble, The total cost from the builder was about 1.2 mil baht, give or take a few. I believe the house was quoted on 110 sq mtrs so that works out to be 10,909 bat/sq mtr. I may be out on my figures but it was close to that anyway. Of course there were added extras which we had to pay for like some of the light fittings which we wanted, hot water systems, having power connected to house etc. We were lucky enough to find a builder with a connection to us, as his daughter and her Aussie husband had been good friends of ours for years and we had no issues with this guy when it came to being overcharged for materials, which we were warned about before we built. So we told him to supply all materials and we paid progressive payments as the house was built. As far as I am concerned he did a great job of the house and for a fair price and my wife and I are very happy with the project over all. We used a draftsman as opposed to an architect as we already had a house plan and there was nothing really to "design". The plans simply had to be put on paper for the builder to be able to follow. As I said in an earlier post we made a couple of changes to the original plan - added a bathroom and moved the back door leading out of the kitchen, to suit our back yard. My wife and I had a meeting with the draftsman and I explained to him what we wanted and he did a rough draft and about a week later the plans were drawn up. The draftsman spoke little English and I had to speak Thai with him but it was not hard because most of the talk was regarding measurements. My wife helped me when I got stuck. I would be happy to recommend both our builder and our draftsman to anyone building a house in Chiang Mai, although I believe our builder is kept quite busy and will not take on too many jobs at once. I have not seen the house since it was finished as I have been away working (and doing a spell in bloody hospital) but my wife is very happy with the finish. The tiling and the wall and ceiling finishes look good in the photos. I will upload more pics later. Lov the ceilings.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 14, 2015 15:27:56 GMT 7
Thanks cheeryble, It is a bit odd not to have seen the house since they first started building it back in November but I am glad it is finished and my wife and kids are living in it. We have an 18mo son now and wife has 2 boys from her first marriage, 10 & 13yo who come stay with us sometimes) Bad timing this hospital business but will be good to get it out the way and start living again. Sounds like you have a good plan ahead of you, hope it all works out. Your prices seem more than fair, which is great. I lived in Chiang Rai for the first 4 years I was in Thailand, loved it there until first marriage broke down then moved to Chiang Mai. Some beautiful country around CR, in any direction, perfect area for building a holiday chalet. When we built our house we built small just to get a roof over our heads quick (our son was 14months old when we started building and our condo in town was shrinking by the hour) we only have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, but the plan is to also build a two bedroom chalet with a share bathroom behind the house (we have about 700sq/mtr of yard to play with) which we will use for visitors. This will give us 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. I also want to build a resort style bar at the back of the house, not far from the chalet, and the bar will also be my office. That way I can tell me wife I will be working in the office when in fact I will be playing in the bar. May have to pick your brains later regarding building a chalet, have some basic ideas but that's all. Wife wants outdoor kitchen/laundry area and I want a small workshop as well so the backyard will soon fill up. @ Skywalker69 - The ceilings were a bit of a shock, had no idea they would build them like that, we did not ask for it. Builder said because the walls are so high it would look good, and he was right. He did the same to the ceiling outside above the front entrance patio. Attachment Deleted
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OlPhatHo
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Post by OlPhatHo on Apr 15, 2015 13:44:30 GMT 7
Looks sweet Mick!
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Post by Skywalker69 on Apr 15, 2015 14:07:23 GMT 7
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