Will Your Retirement House In Thailand Have Two Floors Or A Single Floor?
This is maybe the most significant factors determining the cost and time needed to construct your house in Thailand. Until recent times Thai houses were traditionally designed with the living accommodation elevated from the ground on wood or concrete columns, or 'posts' as the Thai refer to them. A normal Thai house may be constructed with, say, a dozen posts arranged in a three by four matrix, and this is called a "twelve post house".
Our own house in Pakchong (Pak Chong) where we plan to retire to, Thailand, is a "sixteen post house" (4 by 4 posts) and the upper story containing the living spaces is 3 meters above ground floor level. This is considerably more difficult to construct and more expensive than a single floored house building with all the accommodation on the ground floor.
The difference between a Thai two storey house and a western one is that:-
A western house usually has the living accommodation on the ground floor and the bedrooms on the second floor.
A Thai house has the living accommodation and the bedrooms on the second floor. The ground floor if it has any rooms at all would probably be a utility area.
The tradition of having elevated living accommodation in the Thai houses goes back hundreds of years and there are two reasons why this tradition developed:-
1) Rooms higher than ground floor level were safer from prowling animals like lions and tigers that were prevalent at the time and.
2) Much of Thailand is flat and prone to flooding. A house elevated on stilts (posts) is safe from flooding.
My husband undoubtedly wanted a post house, and I adore it, but I would have been equally happy with a single storey house. My husband is paying the price of his decision to have a traditional Thai post house in terms of additional cost and longer time to construct.
Therefore think with care if you actually must have a post house or if you can resign yourself to a one-floor construction which will be less costly and faster to construct.
Bathroom With Bathtub Or Simple Shower Only Room
This is one more choice that will shape the price and time to build your retirement house and yet again, it is a Thai compared to Western subject.
Traditional style and typical Thai houses are usually not designed with a bath tub as is the norm in a western bathroom. Actually, my husband, who is British, did not want to have a bathtub, because he doesn't take a bath. He likes to take a shower so for this reason a straightforward shower room is all he wanted to have.
Odd for a Thai, I love to relax in a bath tub filled with hot water and those aromatic bath salts or bubble bath. Consequently my husband has agreed to install a bath. Seeing he wanted to have a walk-in shower room, we will be having two 'bathrooms', one for myself with a bath, WC and hand wash basin, the other a shower room with hand wash basin and shower only. Yet again, the choices are made as a result of posing the question 'Who is the house for?'
Type Of Kitchen - Thai Style Or Avant-Garde Western Style Kitchen
The style of kitchen you make your mind up to design for is one more topic that always has a large influence on the cost of the house. Normally a whole lot of preparation of Thai food for cooking is done at floor level. I mean sitting on the floor, whether "floor level" is at ground floor level or second floor level. Whilst we have a customary western standard kitchen in our home in England, I still put the 'crock' on the floor to pound the cooking ingredients.
In addition, Thai food is very often cooked on a single gas ring (or even a charcoal fire), or sometimes two heat sources, but no more than that.
According to this food preparation and cooking approach, Thai kitchens historically are very plain affairs, and are without the long worktops and ovens, grilles, integrated sinks and integrated cupboards and appliances that practically every western kitchens has.
In fact so simple are Thai kitchens that kitchens even in new Thai houses, are often not constructed as an enclosed room, instead they are a minimal exterior area perimeter wall with a roof and maybe a simple counter-top.
It follows that if you are building a Thai-style house you do not have to pay for a western style kitchen with all the luxurious fittings that are expected in a modern western house.
In Thailand, as a westerner, you must have a refrigerator but countless Thai kitchens do not contain a fridge or a freezer nor clothes or dish washing machines.
Yet again, our retirement house in Thailand is planned with a western style kitchen, including a long granite counter-top and integral dual sink, fridge and freezer. Installing cupboards, drawers and washing machines is บ้านมือสอง not in the current scheme, however, but may be provided afterwards.
Whether To Have Air Conditioning Or Not
Whether or not you choose to have air conditioning can appreciably influence the construction of your house if it is appropriately designed.
A house in Thailand correctly designed for air conditioning will be considerably different from one designed to utilize the natural flow of air for keeping cool, instead of air-con.
How A House Built In Thailand Is Designed For Natural Ventilation (Not Having Comfort Cooling)
In a Thai house without air conditioning you will be relying on natural flow of air blowing through the rooms to dissipate the heat. Our retirement house in Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand is designed like this.
You should have plenty of options for the natural wind to flow throughout the rooms. The house should be built of light materials that do not easily absorb and re-emit heat. Our house has external walls made from wooden planks that allow the wind to blow through.
Openings to permit the natural air drafts to flow will feature open windows and doors, air flow louvres and open-area room designs.
Windows with glazing must be avoided as they prevent the breeze from blowing in and windows focus the sun's rays like a greenhouse.
You only have to look at the traditional Central Plains Thai houses built a hundred years ago to appreciate how to design a natural-cooling Thai house.
Features Of A House Designed For Air Conditioning
Air-con works like a fridge and the house should be configured like a fridge to get the best out of the Air Conditioning. This means preventing natural air currents - it must be designed as an extremely well sealed building, tightly closed doors and windows - well insulated and if you must have natural light this ought to be provided through windows with glazing, preferably which has a coloured coating to reduce heat from the sun's rays. Double glazing also helps.
It is clear that a house designed for air-con will be more pricey than a house designed for natural ventilation.
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