saint wrote:and whilst your out , maybe you can stop somewhere and pick yourself up a life .....

Yes, maybe you have a point - bye Doug.

rick wrote:BM,

I am impressed by the depth of your pond! Is it because the water level fluctuates, because you wanted the soil or in case you needed to bury a few enemies first?

I presume you eat the fish? Otherwise a lot of pets. If i ever get a place with space for a pond, I know where to come for advice.

It's not a pond, Rick - more like a Panzer trap.

BM, you should charge people to go fishing there (or is that your plan?).

No not my plan, at the moment i have 'razor' wire up till i can afford a large wall right round the plot..to keep poachers and Buffalo away and to stop small people playing in it..its far too deep, think they got carried away when digging it out...but sure the out-laws will be selling the fish to other homesteads, going to put a few thousand goong in too.

eagle wrote:

timthebrit wrote:All very interesting Could any of you guys give me a ball-park figure to raise one rai of land by an average of 2 metres?? I have been quoted 200,000. Is this about right or a 'special' price for falang??

I paid 250 000 thb and more important was the land rising, not the price for one truck. I have now other provider and he wants 800 thb/truck. Question is that it takes 10 tons instead of normal 5 tons.

Our price was estimated only by the filling. I calculated my own estimation and when I got almost same level from that company, I decided to takes soil from them. In fact i do not know all the trucks thay used, but there were also 20 tons trucks (to save fuel). My estimation was a liitle bit lower and it can be that I got only that soil. Never mind, I am happy and it is the only thing that counts.

1600 sq meters and two meter filling means 3200 tons soil. If price is 800 thb per 10 tons it would cost about 250 000 thb. I believe that some part of your land is already on the higher level? It does not need same amount of soil everywhere.

Thanks for this Eagle. My original post was (unintentionally) a little misleading re 'quote'. In fact the work has now been completed and I have paid the 200k. I paid 100k up front and the rest on satisfactory completion. I simply asked for a price for the job. I have no idea how many truck loads were needed - and do not care. The land was fairly level, but an average of 2 metres lower than the road. I had a long chat with the contractor on my last visit in January (with my wife's help) and my brother-in-law already lives on the land so was there to oversee things. I also have a fearsome sister-in-law living in Bangkok who knows the contractor well and has used him in the past. He lives in the village, so if things had gone pear-shaped then he would have had a problem! She 'had a word' with him on the phone while I was there and I was assured all would be well. I am reliably informed that an excellent job has been done. Like you, I am happy too, but my original post was just to put my mind at ease re price should I use this contractor again in the future. Interestingly, my brother-in-law used the 'dig a great big hole' method to fill part of his land, which I could have done as I have four rai there, but didn't fancy another big hole on the land. Very cheap way of doing the job though.....

Yeah, always good to have a fierce sister-in-law in your corner. When will you build on it, Tim? - the land not the sister-in-law.

timthebrit wrote:Thanks for this Eagle. My original post was (unintentionally) a little misleading re 'quote'. In fact the work has now been completed and I have paid the 200k. I paid 100k up front and the rest on satisfactory completion. I simply asked for a price for the job. I have no idea how many truck loads were needed - and do not care. The land was fairly level, but an average of 2 metres lower than the road.

Sometimes one truck can carry more soil if you agree the filling price, not price for one truck. You really needed that raising. Our plot was already at same level and we needed only a small raising. Of course house will be raised more, but raising 8 rai plot is not cheap if you need 2 meters.

westerby wrote:Yeah, always good to have a fierce sister-in-law in your corner. When will you build on it, Tim? - the land not the sister-in-law.

No definite plans yet Westerby. I decided to get 1 rai filled in preparation as the price to do it was only ever going to go up year on year. I plan to retire to Udon as soon as I get the right offer from work, but this is unlikely to be for a few years yet. I will definitely not get the building work done until I can oversee it personally - too many scare stories on that front! Will be over as usual at the end of Dec and will certainly be along to the Jan NM meet to say hi to you guys and blow the froth off a couple of cold ones.........