Well, hopefully the rains will be over in a few more weeks...no rain here in Bangkok for almost a week...

And the time has come to start to work on adding dirt to our building site in Bang Wor Sor.

My wife's aunt also lives in the area and is always anxious to help us do anything that needs to be done with the property. But I think she is raking a little commission off on each little job she volunteers to do for us..And I don't really mind that, as long as the amount is reasonable.

But now we are talking about 75 loads of dirt and then the leveling after the hauling. So to make sure I am not being overcharged too much, sure would appreciate some local knowledge about the cost for fill dirt and any reliable sources. And are there different types/qualities or is it all basically the same?

Stoneman

Usually it is dirt from old rice fields and is about 400 Baht a tipper load making 30,000 for the dirt and then another 1000 Baht for the tractor.

Stoneman. The last price I had for infill was 1,000 for 3 tipper loads and for where your garden is going to be you can specify better soil, but not by any means what we would call top soil. this can be had at about 4,000bht a load. The tractor charges 50bht per tipper load. don't know where in Nong Wor Sor you live, but the Tippers come from Nong Or which is a small village within the district of Nong Wor Sor.An enquiry at the local shop should point you in the right direction,. Sorry don't have his phone number.

valentine wrote:Stoneman. The last price I had for infill was 1,000 for 3 tipper loads and for where your garden is going to be you can specify better soil, but not by any means what we would call top soil. this can be had at about 4,000bht a load. The tractor charges 50bht per tipper load. don't know where in Nong Wor Sor you live, but the Tippers come from Nong Or which is a small village within the district of Nong Wor Sor.An enquiry at the local shop should point you in the right direction,. Sorry don't have his phone number.

John and Valentine..

Thanks for the prompt response and good info... Will be up there in the next few weeks to get things started...

Stoneman

I know this is irrelevant, but we just did 1/2 rai in Surin 180bt per truck load and 30bt per load for tractor. Took 70 loads about 14800bt total, maybe there was a tip involved not sure.

Nong Khai,400 per load +50.

We just had about 10 truck loads of pretty decent dirt delivered to our proiperty here in Udon Thani. Cost was 600B/6 wheel truck including the tractor.

Much depends on the type of dirt you are looking for. The dirt we had delivered is fine for planting grass etc.

outside udorn, 15 kms southwest, ban tad, same 400 + 50 for tractor. check your dirt, no decayables, tree trunks and such. had some trucks drive by, city/suburb boy, but i can smell good dirt, nice top soil. stopped him and ordered 5 trucks, just because it was nice. black w/earthy smell. once done, after house done, start buying cow sh#t, i paid 10 baht a bag, a light coat on top of soil, grow anything. my yard is green after 3yrs, and i didn't lay any sod in that area, didn't really start maintaining it until last year or so. grass grew and spread out pretty good by itself. although far from a nice grass lawn, buy free and can almost walk barefoot. looks nice from a distance. laid sod in front porch area, total waste of money.

Dirt, good question. Its seems to come in many forms, and most of it is like concrete. When it rains, you will be up to your ...... (well atleast) knees, and when it has dried for three days, your pick-axe will bounce off it.

It also comes in many colors, from white to red, and yes I have seen the dark brown (black) around, but no price on the latter, yet, I expect higher.

Seems to be sold by the cubic meter, small dump truck is 3 cubic meters and can cost between 350 - 700 baht. Depending on the purpose, its best to see it before you order. Watch out, you just might get a truck load of clay.

For a building site there is some red stuff which is the closes I could find to gravel, (again, watch out for the clay) with this stuff, it can rain for days and you can still walk and drive on it! But again watch out for the clay, walking on the clay will increase your height

Now the white fill was used across the soi from me, and the workers at my place, kept saying "no good". That was 8 months ago and the house has been finished for some time, and it looks ok to me, but give it a year and we will see.

Another place also across from me was filled about 2 months ago with a yellowish soil. I have no idea on it, not sure if something else will be added to the top. As of now no building or anything else going on.

good luck.

how high to build up ? old properties are really low lying and get flooded.

izzix,what i did was visit the village chief and ask him about the worst flood he could remember.He said two foot deep so i got land fill up to height of four feet above surrounding area.

I'm guessing this is rice paddy field already owned by family. or simply low lying land not owned by family or maybe but not paddy land, but low and prone to filling with water.

if so, and you didn't pay anything for it, you may want to forego the whole idea of backfilling and start from scratch. find a lot of land that doesn't need fill, bit higher, with a view maybe. if you do, do not let them again, build up the dirt and build on top, which is the method they use. go western, take highest point or level and scape level and put a proper pad, thick w/steel down and plasic as moisture barrier. don't forget to lay any pipe and seal and test for leaks if holding water, and feel free to lay extra, just in case.

if continuing with your original plan of backfilling, i would wait 2 seasons to build on, so land is settled and again, scrape level and proper pad. or trust me, from experience, you are going to have cracks in foundation and walls. hindsight and ignorance is a bitch.

good thread about building

http://www.udonmap.com/udonthaniforum/viewtopic.php?t=2375&highlight=building

La,
I have two questions and they will sound stupid for most of the people probably, but I have no clue about these building skills and I don't know what I have to be prepared for.

1) Where do I put the plastic?
first the plastic, then the steel?
Won't the steel cut the plastic?
Or do I put the plastic on top of the cement floor later before they start building the walls??

2) You wrote that you built your house double block wall on the east and west facing wall.
Why not also on the south facing wall? Is there a reason for this/
(sorry for my stupid questions, but I have no idea.)

the plastic, i'll get back to you, my neighbor built his house properly, i remember it on top of the pad, but will verify.

the steel will be placed in concrete for reinforcement, just noticed you answered plastic question. yes, a barrier between pad and floor. again, will verify and send you a pm, if i don't forget, send me one.

i only built the double block on the one wall, most of that post is suggestions i wish i did. but just the east and west wall, exposed to sun, as block houses store and radiate the heat inside temp up quite a bit. the reason for over extending roof all the way around and double block where ever sun hits wall or all the walls, block is very cheap. and don't let them fill the space of double block wall with cement, luckily they asked first, as they were going to.

no such thing as stupid question, just mistakes, which in thailand, are common place as i have yet to meet a skilled home builder, not that i'm looking that much. but almost all houses/buildings you see are inferior in design and materials used. most just due to ignorance, some laziness, and sadly some, poor workmanship, just because they don't care and want money. luckily, not all for the last reason.

Thanks LA,
I just called with the misses also because we just bought a piece of land and we want to start building soon.
Our land (5rai) is about 20 cm higher than the street.
My misses told me that they will put some kind of white ground fill only on the space where we are going to built the house.
She told me that they will put lots of water on this white land fill
the next they they will "trill" this land down with a "trilling machine" and one week later they will put the pad on there.
Does this sound good to you?