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Metal Mesh Fencing and Topsoil Costs In Thailand – Plus a Progress & Quality Report

The Concept Of Metal Mesh For Perimeter Security Fencing

This is entirely Kanyah’s idea and I give her due credit for that.

The objective is to have fence around the perimeter of our land that:-

• Is low cost
• Is secure against people and animals
• Looks natural to blend in with the garden and plants in the area

The concept is to make a perimeter fence from steel mesh fencing panels. Then to put some special kind of plants along the fence. these plants then grow up the fencing panels and soon the panels become hidden by the plants. the result – a natural looking fence that incorporates strong steel security panels.

I have seen the steel mesh security fencing panels in the U.K., but not where the plants have been added. I have seen the fence with the plants in Thailand and it seems to be a perfect secure, pretty and low-cost answer to perimeter security.

I don’t have any photos of the fence with plants but here are couple of just the fencing itself:-

Metal Mesh Security Fencing

Next, a close-up photo.

Close-Up of Metal Mesh Security Fencing

Those photos are taken from the website http://www.weld-mesh.com/securityfencing.htm and since I am giving them free publicity I hope they don’t mind me showing their product images.

This is how they describe their steel mesh security fencing:-

“Fmm Heavy Security Fencing system consists of 2.5 m panels with 4mm horizontal wires 6mm vertical wire with 3 decorative profiles along the horizontal. The panels are hot dip galvanised followed by a dark green powder coating. The support posts are 3.2m high, .8m to be concreted in the ground All posts come with holes pre drilled and tapped to accommodate an 8mm screw.”

Thai Metal Mesh Fencing Costs In Thailand

Assume that these prices are for a product similar to the U.K. product described above.

Prices received from Kanyah:-

Materials: 115,244 Baht.

Our land is 80 x 20 m = 200 m perimeter (ignoring gates)

Therefore material cost is 115,244/200 = 576 Baht/m.  (Material only price)

Add labor cost, = 64,800 Baht

Total 180,044 Baht, £3,830 (@ 47 Baht/£)

That is a lot of money and I need to think about that before giving the go-ahead.

or 900 Baht/m installed price (£19/m)

Compare Those Prices to U.K. Metal Mesh Fencing Costs.

2.35 high by 2.5 wide per panel plus post = £110, includes 1 post per panel and all fixings.

£110/2.5 = £44/m

or 2,068 Baht/m (at 4.7 Baht/£) (Material only price)

As you can see the UK costs are 2,068/576 = 3.6 times the Thailand price.

Of course, I have not checked with Kanyah yet that the specification (wire diameter, galvanising, plastic coating etc) are the same.

Update 22 January 2011

Kanyah phoned a few munutes ago and gave me a new price for a lesser quality steel mesh security fence:

Saving = 40,951 Baht or £871 @ 47 Baht/£

I can’t see why the labor costs have dropped so much. Surely the number of posts is the same? Beats me.

Now, she is asking me to choose between the two. How can I choose when I have no details of the materials or quality for rither option?

I ask her for details and a photo and she goes berserk on the phone. “Don’t buy it then. Let the chickens and the geese escape and go where they want!”.

“I’ll send you a photo by email marked up with my questions” I said. “No.” she said and put the phone down.

There was more to it than that, but that’s the gist of  it. Very difficult to communicate and control a project so far away.

Topsoil Prices In Thailand

Our land is a bit lower than the blue house neighbors land and lower than the main road. Kanyah wants to put some soil on the land infront of the house to make it flat, level with the road and at least as high as the neighbors land.

She says we will need 12 trucks of soil at a cost of 16,800 Baht. (£357 @47 Baht/£)

Update 22 January 2011

Kanyah just told me that she had three trucks of soil delivered today and perhaps another two later depending upon how it looked.

Also there will be the cost for the tractor to level the soil.

The last time she phoned me (20 January) she said whe was waiting for me to decide. Now she has gone and done it! Who’s in charge of this project?

Progress and Quality Report On The Retirement House Build In Pakchong (Pak Chong), Thailand

Progress Report

Kanyah reports that progress is going well and quality is high.

From the photos she sends me the quality looks OK but the pictures are too few and not detailed enough for me to judge, really.

I keep asking for pictures of (for example) the steel (rebar) and formwork before the concrete is poured but it’s hard to get the message across that I want to see the situation before the concrete is poured for quality asurance purposes.

She keeps telling me to wait “It’s not ready yet”. What she means is that the concrete is not poured yet so there is nothing to see! She wants me to see the concrete columns (posts as they call them in Thailand), concrete beams and floor slab all finished and looking nice. That’s O.K. but I also want so see ‘behind the scenes’. I finally got the message across today and Kanyah has promised to send me the pictures tomorrow.

She says that all the foundations and all the posts are finished, i.e. concrete poured.

The ground floor is at the stage of fixing the steel for the ring-beam she reports.

In short the progress is very fast. In fact for me, too fast because I can’t make changes and check the quality, bearing in mind that I am 6,000 miles away.

For example I wanted to get a price to remove the topsoil from under the house and replce it with sand. This is an anti-termite measure about which I’ll explain elsewhere.

Also I wanted to have a water-proof membrane put under the ground floor slab.

But as you have read above the rebar for the ground floor is already going in so I am too late.

Quality Report

Kanyah says she is very happy with our builder and the quality of the work.

I paid for a top-quality Arcihtect in Bangkok to produce our construction drawings and they are very detailed. The builder follows them religiously and Kanyah’s nephew, Jalan, whom she drafted in to oversee the build checks the build against the drawings every day.

I’m so glad I had those drawings made. Sure, I may have paid a bit extra for them, but I have piece of mind in that I know that if the house is built to the drawings then there will be no major quality issues.

You can’t cheap-skate on design and construction drawings if you are living half way round the world from where your house is being built!

That’s all for today, tomorrow I should get the promised photos of the concrete posts and the rebar for the floor slab.

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