Sounds like a few besser blocks could be needed over there. Nothing worse than having to chase in concrete walls.

I built my house with the exterior walls out of superblock with only the stucco like covering they trowel on it. The c-pac roof has the reflective membrane under it, there is good air ventilation at the roof peaks and 3 inches of fiberglass insulation on top of the ceiling.

When the air con guy came to give me an estimate I disagreed with his recommendations on the BTU's needed for each room. Basically, I went with about 1/2 of what he recommended and I don't regret it. The house is dramatically cooler than houses made from concrete blocks or red bricks with the pressure cooker roofs that have no heat releasing ventilation.

The walls remain cool to the touch even when the sun shines on them. As a comparison, the perimeter wall around the property is too hot to touch.

The electricity, cable, and telephone are in conduits in the walls coming down from above the ceiling. The plumbing is built into the floors and walls. Both systems are primitive in comparison to US building codes, but they are adequate, and because labor is so cheap tearing up a cement floor or wall is no big deal except for the inconvenience. Because the electrical system is so primitive I had safety cut GFI installed on the whole electrical panel. I highly recommend this.

I had the same trouble with the AC guys. They weren't happy that I only put 9,000 BTUs in a 25 sqm bedroom or 12,000 in the 50 sqm open kitchen/dining room/living room. I'm also glad I decided against the much more expensive inverter models. The payback period would have been at least 10 or 15 years.

Sammyg, red brick walls have been the traditional way of building walls here before concrete block and AAC blocks came out and Thais can be very reluctant to try something new. It's possible a brick wall is stronger than block, though these aren't the fired brick we're used to, but so what? The walls aren't structural and the block is certainly strong enough. I didn't price it out but I'd be surprised if brick isn't more expensive, both in terms of material and labor, than block.

Thanks Guys for the info. very helpful! UdonExpat did you build your exterior walls using double superblock with an air gap between or just 1 layer thick?Also did you use any insulation in between exterior walls?I would guess if you just did one thickness of superblock the answer would be NO.My friend was using double superblock with additional steel studs,insulation and then sheetrock.I want to get the most bang for the buck (keeping house cool)as does everyone and Fremmel has acheived this with building double large concrete blocks exterior walls with 2"insulation between them.UdonExpat It sounds as if you used concrete blocks on inside walls divier walls that you ran electrical into correct as it has hollow space for such?How did you run plumbing pipes and drains within the superblock walls on exterior walls even though they were brought up thru the floors into the walls?I like the idea of going thru the ceiling area with electrical.Fremmel I was also wondering if it was hard running pipes and electrical within the inside single concrete blocks when you need to stagger the blocks for strength and support and perhaps that is why you brought the electrical up from the floor area as it was closer for plug-ins,drians,pipes and lining up the inside block space areas?I agree that the blocks would go up faster and provide space for the utilities over the bricks and I also do not like the little bricks and will explain this to father in law that I wont use them.It sounds as if the AC Folks are just trying to double their profits with the farang pocket books.

Only the plumbing comes up through the floor. The electrical comes down from above. The voids in the concrete blocks don't run all the way through. The openings are only on one edge so the blocks have to be cut for both the plumbing and electrical. You can probably get a much clearer picture of how all this is done by finding a house under construction that has the conduit in the walls but hasn't been plastered yet. You'll be able to see how they put in both the plumbing and the conduit.

In defense of the AC guys, most houses here are built with little or no insulation so the normal BTU requirements are much higher. When it comes time to specify what size you want installed you'll have to figure that out for yourself because they won't have the training to factor in the insulation.

Oops, forgot you aren't currently in Thailand so it'd be kind of hard to go visit a construction site. Maybe when you get back. CoolThaiHouse has lots of pictures in their gallery section. You can probably find some good pictures there.

My interior walls are red brick with stucco. A groove is cut into the wall and the conduit placed in the groove and and then stuccoed over. Same with the switch and receptacle boxes. A space is fashioned in the wall and the box put in it, the conduit attached and everything is stuccoed up tight. The conduit just sticks out the top of the wall in the crawl space above the ceiling. All connections in the crawl space are primitive: No junction boxes, wire nuts, etc; just twisted and taped together.

The plumbing that comes up from the floor is the same. A groove cut into the wall and the pipe placed in it. Then stucco and tile over it. The drains are similar. It took some effort to get them to install pea traps under the sinks, but I finally did it, after removing all their initial setups. This helps keep roaches, other insects, and smells from coming up the drains. They also thought I was crazy for wanting a drain vent pipe that extended up through the roof to vent away bad sewage smells. They thought that it was adequate to put it on the exterior wall about shoulder height.

Single superblock is adequate. I didn't have money to spend on elaborate walls that really aren't necessary in my opinion. The builder's foreman complained about the high cost of the mastic used to hold the superblocks together and wanted to revert to what they use for the red bricks. I nixed that idea. I have never been able to find a R value for the superblock, but simply judging from the differences in heat uptake between it and red brick, it is probably considerable.

The sheet rock used in Thailand probably comes from China, and there are currently numerous lawsuits in the US over the use of this sheet rock there as it seems to be causing health problems in the homes where it was installed. I am bit concerned because my ceilings are made from it. I recommend keeping sheet rock at a minimum.

I agree with fremmel, the a/c guys just have no experience with insulated homes. I think my a/c guy was genuinely concerned that I'd be unhappy with such small units. He was basing his estimates on red brick walls, pressure cooker roofs, and windows and doors that are not even close to air tight and square meters in each room. I also used dual pane windows with e-glass that helps to reduce heat uptake and makes the house much quieter when the windows and doors are closed. I used a web site by Mitsubishi in the US that helped me estimate my BTU needs. It was quite extensive and used the volume of the rooms rather than square feet. As I have higher than normal ceilings this was essential to getting a good estimate.

Building a house in Thailand that is comfortable throughout the year is not all that difficult if you use superblock for the exterior walls and create a well ventilated roof with some insulation. Design that limits exterior walls exposure to the mid and late afternoon sun also goes a long way in making a comfortable home. Placing the car park area in the SW corner will help in protecting the walls from the sun.

Good luck.

Thanks So Much Guys ,Great Information All !!! I truely appreciate it.SammyG

I ran across the figures I used to decide what kind of walls I wanted to build so I thought I'd post them in case Sammyg or anyone else was interested. But be careful with these numbers. The prices are from better than a year ago. The only firm prices were for the concrete block, AAC block, and insulation. The mortar, mastic, and render prices were best guesses. Some R values are from this R value table and hopefully are close. The insulation R value was from the packaging. The R values for the AAC block are from the Q-Con site and I had to convert them from the metric system to the English system but they're close to what's in the other R value table. I just took a wild guess for an R value for the AAC block render. Also, I had no way of guesssing the labor prices so I left those off. Conceivably labor for AAC block walls should be cheaper but I don't know if that's actually the case or not.

(Sorry about the formatting here but I couldn't make it any prettier.)

Per sqm price for a double concrete block wall:
block @ 3.5 bt 87.5
mortar and render 46
insulation 47.9
181.4

Per sqm for a single 7.5 cm AAC block wall
AAC block @ 18 bt 145
mastic and render 55.5
200.5

R value double concrete block
block(2) 1.6
render 0.2
fiberglass 7.7
9.5

R value for AAC block
7.5 cm 3.3
render 0.2
3.5

For reference - 20 cm AAC block R value - 8.7

These results really surprised me. I've lived in several houses in Thailand and the one made of AAC block was cooler and quieter so I thought I'd probably build with them even though they were pricier. But when I actually ran the numbers I saw that I could get a wall with about 2 or 3 times the R value for less money. Even allowing for substantial errors in my calculations I decided that a double block wall should be about the price of a thin AAC block wall and the R value much better. In addition, with a thicker wall I wouldn't have to look at so many posts and I could do a better treatment with my windows, burglar bars, and screens.

Again, treat the numbers with a grain of salt but the general relationship should hold.

If you see any holes in my reasoning feel free to poke.

Good Info.fremmel I have studied,copied and stored for future reference.Thanks Very much!SammyG