We Don't Need No Education ......
But we need a wall to stop our expensive landfill washing into the Kings Khlong.
During the process of granting planning permission for our palace the chaps from the Tambon office (Town Hall) came round to re-mark the extremities of the property, to ensure we didn't "accidentally" build on next-doors land.
Part of the process was to insert marker posts to define our property, several of these posts ended up some metres outside what we thought were our limits, two posts were placed in the khlong (canal).
We're not far above river level so we added 2m of fill to keep from flooding.
Khun Id (that's the Missus) worked out that we could gain 150 - 200m2 of flat, usable land by building a retaining wall rather than sloping down at the edges, since that's about 2/3 the area covered by the planned house it's not to be sneezed at.
The proposed structure consists of 6m H piles driven at 2m intervals with 2m concrete planks slipped between, every 2nd pile will have an angled brace as support to prevent the lot moving under the pressure of the fill behind it. A cast-in-place concrete cap will form a base for the decorative wall that will eventually top the structure and provide privacy.
| A 30% down payment was made so the
contractor could buy materials.
This is Khun Contractor (no I can neither spell nor pronounce his name) trying to direct the truck with the first load of stuff.
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The truck arrived eventually and over several trips delivered enough concrete bits for 100m of wall. |
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| We are now the proud owners of:- | ||
 50 off 6m x 150mm H piles |
 25 hexagonal 4m thingies (apparently for the braces) |
 Innumerable 2m concrete planks.
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Markers were surveyed and placed. Here Id shows the level of the wall cap. |
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  More markers at the corners.
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The property line runs from this bamboo marker to a similar one in the distance. That slight valley is actually a canal full of yukky water. We will build our wall right up the middle. The near post is a good 3m from where we thought the property ended. | |
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Id told me they would use a back-hoe to insert the piles. How thinks I since the piles are flat-ended. With what looks like a bloody great nail, pushed in to make a hole. This is the biggest dibber ever seen.
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Care is taken to keep the nail vertical. |
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The pile is then pushed into the hole. A
special gauge ensures the correct spacing. Amazing what you can make from re-bar. |
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Khun Backhoe nudges the pile to keep it vertical.
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And another special tool is used to align the pile correctly with the line of the wall. |
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The pile is then gently pushed to the correct depth. |
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| The first three piles. The top 300mm will have the concrete removed with a jackhammer (or a regular hammer) to allow the re-bar to be welded to the reinforcement of the top cap. |
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Water provides lubrication for the dibber and piles where the ground is dry and hard. |
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| The concrete planks slide between the piles. No I don't know what the numbers mean :) |
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| Pretty straight considering the low-tech
surveying tools used. The right hand bank of the khlong will be reinforced with a bamboo and wood arrangement. Once cleared out we will install some edible fish for the locals to catch and eat. |
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