I have been reading your posts for the past couple of weeks and I have found them very helpful. Thanks for the info and I look forward to meeting some of you in the future.

I am about to start building a medium sized bungalow near Victory Park Golf Course, about 12 kms from Non Khai. I have received a materials/price list from the archetect. After checking his material pricing with Global, I have decided to pay a contractor to build the house with me suppling the materials. I found Global's pricing to be quite favorable to the archetect's - first lesson learned...

Are there any other places between Udorn and Non Khai that would be worth checking before I making my first purchases? The main post goes up Feb 26th. Suggestions I have gotten so far are to check HomeMart in NonKhai, as I am told they will give a 10-20% discount if all materials are purchased from them. Falongs I have met at Danny's Resort (where I will be staying throughout the construction) have mentioned various places where I can buy steel, sand, windows made etc... but I wonder if running around buying piecemeal is worth the effort.

Unlike most of you, my resume on house building is a very, very short one........... Consisting of only outfitting two condos from shells. What I have learned is: you need to be constantly onsite; you need to have a contractor who's work you have seen/has experience with Falong building requirements; and that most competent Thai builders want to do a good job - they just need some friendly direction from time to time.

Finally, if any of you have materials/items left over from your projects that you think I could use, let me know.

Any and all recommendations/suggestions/criticisms would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Missouri Mike

Mike why not be your own contractor and cut out the builder altogether you will save a whole lot of money
they only rip you off with there huge profits for doing very little to nothing and when you have a complaint
they just waltz around it like you know nothing. this way you can get a price on every different job
this is what I did when I built my house in Sang dai BTW when you only pay labor cost it easy to find
people who will do the job much cheaper and there work is just as good or better also if there is some thing they did in correctly you can have them do it over or fire them with out paying them the full labor cost also pay attention to the materials you buy some how they might wind up on another job

i did a major refurbishment about 6 months ago,i got all material's from global house ,everything is priced and above board.but one word of warning they have toilet set's i.e sink,pedestal ,cistern and bowl for 1800B made in china,not worth a damm after grief everyday and near nervious breakdown i had to replace them apart from that everything else was a1

aznyron,

Thanks for your suggestion Aznyron, I've read a number of your old posts/replies to posts over the past couple of weeks. I agree with you, it would be cheaper to be my own builder. The problem with that is I am not a builder and have learned that when you want something done right, it's best to get someone who knows what they're doing. After seeing his work, and being recommended by an English builder who did his guest house, I've committed to him. If he doesn't work out, I'll go you're route.

I'll let you know how things are going after the first 2 weeks.

Thanks again,
Mike

ULICK MC GEE,
Thanks for the reply. I'll watch out for the toilet combos. I thought I would go with either Toto or American Standard for the Bathroom stuff. Sounds like Global treated you as well as they did me on my initial visit.

Mike

Global are pretty good - especially for the more "Falang" type of things you want for your house.
But keep your receipts - especially on electrical goods.
They are (in my opinion) a bit expensive for concrete products. You can probably find a local (to you) supplier of, for example, the very large diameter pipes that you need to make the septic tank from.
If you are going to use reinforced concrete floor slabs then that is a specialist company - whose name escapes me completely - but they turn up with a lorry/crane that locates the slabs when you are ready for them. I am sure that your builder will be well aware of who they are.
Same is true of roof tiles. Couple of companies (again both companies names escape me... ) supply most of the Thai market. You can buy from 'outlets' but if it is a 'lorry's worth' then you can go direct.
This site is well worth you reading - huge amount of information...
http://www.coolthaihouse.com

my first builder was a con man lasted 2 wks .next guy was 100% .he priced for labour i was on site everyday and by end of day would have a list of material we needed both of us would go to global get what was needed and back on site.you should ask him how many men will be on site everyday what hours and days treat him like foreman on things like hinges paint they tend to over order for theselves not much so i ignored it because the job was flying.so if you can spend time everyday on site do.enjoy.i'm not a builder either

BobHelm,

Thanks for the info on Global pricing re: concrete. I have read CoolThaiHouse-full of useful info. I am considering using insulation blocks. I can't remember the name of them but they are about 18cm long, white, made of a soft, chalky type material and require a special glue/cement.

Has anyone any experience with them?

mseely wrote:BobHelm,

Thanks for the info on Global pricing re: concrete. I have read CoolThaiHouse-full of useful info. I am considering using insulation blocks. I can't remember the name of them but they are about 18cm long, white, made of a soft, chalky type material and require a special glue/cement.

Has anyone any experience with them?

Q-Con.

They're the only option for building here. You're a fool to use the little red bricks.