KhunDon Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 59 minutes ago, ChiFlyer said: The Thai government fees (I could have said this better to start with) are the bill for the annual Accounting work related to the company that owns the house we live in. You probably know this already, but a Farang can not own a house or property directly. The way around this is to form an LLC that owns the house and we in turn own shares of the LLC with myself appointed as the only shareholder with voting rights. A Thai LLC must file annual accounting reports with the government. I considered putting the house in the Mrs name, but in the unlikely event that I outlive her I might end up living in a cardboard box under the overpass where Thappraya meets Second Road and Phratamnak. The druggie who has been living there for years might not send over the welcome wagon. 🙂 The association fees cover everything you mentioned as well as Garbage service, very good security teams, a fitness club, a very large common area pool with lots of kids stuff, and some other things I am probably forgetting at the moment. I just looked up the Association Payment and it was actually 18,900 for the entire year. They give one the option to pay monthly but that ends up costing about 2000 more, so I just pay it for the year. Thanks @ChiFlyer I suspected as much but wasn’t 100% sure. I don’t have same problems, as everything for now is in In-laws names, so they pay any bills. 🤗 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiFlyer Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 Day 4 - Late Morning - Grouting Continues Hmm - looks like they have added a new guy. See the green shirt near the top of the foto. Appears to be a supervisor type. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forcebwithu Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 On 3/18/2024 at 9:44 AM, ChiFlyer said: That is a possibility. I will get back to looking at this in the fall. I really do not need a pool heater until Loy Krathong or so and it is only needed through Chinese New Year of so. I just remembered another option for solar heating and that is a simple solar pool cover. I used one when I had a pool back in the US and it worked reasonably well, even in the cooler climate of Wisconsin. I expect it work even better here as it would help retain the heat in the water during the cool nights, as well as provide increased solar heating during the day. Two other benefits would be reduced water loss due to evaporation and keeping the wind born crap out of the water. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiFlyer Posted March 20 Author Share Posted March 20 13 hours ago, forcebwithu said: I just remembered another option for solar heating and that is a simple solar pool cover. I used one when I had a pool back in the US and it worked reasonably well, even in the cooler climate of Wisconsin. I expect it work even better here as it would help retain the heat in the water during the cool nights, as well as provide increased solar heating during the day. Two other benefits would be reduced water loss due to evaporation and keeping the wind born crap out of the water. I have looked into this. One costs about 10 K in Thailand. We shall see. Nice looking pool lady. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiFlyer Posted March 20 Author Share Posted March 20 Day 5 - Rain - and some new considerations. Not much got done today due to the rain. Still the grouting is nearing completion and looking good. Next major item is the reflection wall, which requires a sunny day. The owner/manager seems to be backing off of his statement that the reflection wall can be made to look like new. The Mrs is giving him an earful about that. He has agreed to give said wall a vinegar treatment. https://aseannow.com/topic/876376-thai-lime-scale-remover/ His crew has done a little of this on one area and the results are good enough IMO. In the event that I am not happy with the end product, I will not refill the water and look for someone to try the @forcebwithu 's muriatic acid solution treatment. We shall see. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freee!! Posted March 20 Share Posted March 20 1 hour ago, ChiFlyer said: [...] In the event that I am not happy with the end product, I will not refill the water and look for someone to try the @forcebwithu 's muriatic acid solution treatment. After which the grouting will need to be redone. I would first go with a slightly higher concentration of acetic acid than vinegar provides. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiFlyer Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 Day 6 - Continued Clean up from the grouting work The crew put in a half day today after things dried out somewhat from yesterday's rain. The grout work is cleaned up and all eyes are on tomorrow, when the wall cleanup will be done, weather permitting. I think my apprehension about the wall clean up was in part due to some Thaiglish problems between me and the Mrs. We shall see. She does attack at times to make sure that I know she is on my side. Forgot to take a pic today. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiFlyer Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 Day 7 - Work Completed and Water Refilled The crew finished up the pool work today and I am overall happy with the net result. The wall was "painted" with an acetic solution. The result was not perfect, but overall a decided improvement. Will the improvement hold up? We shall see. About 1/2 hour after the wall was completed rain started up again. After a few hours the pool was refilled. This was a little costly as it required 8 larger water trucks at 800 per truck. Like I said I am happy enough with the job. Here is a night time shot of the finished product. The regular pool maintenance guy stops by tomorrow to check out the water and reset the various timers for the reflection wall flow. We have been advised to stay out of the pool water for 3 days due to chemicals having been added. 1 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiFlyer Posted April 1 Author Share Posted April 1 I need to add a followup note on this. If anyone has picked up on the phone numbers and company names on the worker's shirts, I do not recommend this company. That has to do with the owner/manager. The work crews were great. The re-grouting of the pool tile was a first rate job. The acetic cleaning of my reflection wall caused damage to the water flow over said wall. This was not obvious until a few days after work had been completed and the bill had been paid. We contacted the owner/manager about this. He came out, looked at the problem, and lied saying he had not caused the damage. He then went Thai A-hole (not much different than Farang A-hole) saying that he was a busy man. I replied in kind (maybe not so kind). Anyway, I really do not have much in the way of options for chasing the guy for the damages. I have had another guy out to look at what it would take to correct things and it will likely come to about 3000. Paying a lawyer to go after the guy would cost much more than that and it is unlikely that a Thai Judge would rule in favor of a Farang over a Thai National. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forcebwithu Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 4 hours ago, ChiFlyer said: I need to add a followup note on this. If anyone has picked up on the phone numbers and company names on the worker's shirts, I do not recommend this company. That has to do with the owner/manager. The work crews were great. The re-grouting of the pool tile was a first rate job. The acetic cleaning of my reflection wall caused damage to the water flow over said wall. This was not obvious until a few days after work had been completed and the bill had been paid. We contacted the owner/manager about this. He came out, looked at the problem, and lied saying he had not caused the damage. He then went Thai A-hole (not much different than Farang A-hole) saying that he was a busy man. I replied in kind (maybe not so kind). Anyway, I really do not have much in the way of options for chasing the guy for the damages. I have had another guy out to look at what it would take to correct things and it will likely come to about 3000. Paying a lawyer to go after the guy would cost much more than that and it is unlikely that a Thai Judge would rule in favor of a Farang over a Thai National. Out of curiosity, what was the damaged caused by the acetic acid? What was the remedy the other contractor proposed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiFlyer Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 (edited) 2 hours ago, forcebwithu said: Out of curiosity, what was the damaged caused by the acetic acid? What was the remedy the other contractor proposed? The damage was caused by the way the acetic acid was applied. A few tiles were pushed in a little causing the water flow to look like the wall is pissing into the pool in a couple of places. Additionally, the water flow is no longer being released as before. There are places where there is no flow. This is probably caused by a few top tiles impeding the flow and additionally the pipe having been clogged a little by the dust from the re-grouting. The new guy is going to replace the water pipe and realign the few tiles causing the problem. Unfortunately for me, he currently has a big job down the street so it will be a while and Songkran will likely affect the schedule as well. Oh, how I suffer. 🙂 Really the dummy is me. I should not have paid the final installment until I did a more rigorous check of the final product. Edited April 2 by ChiFlyer 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KhunDon Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 How did acetic acid cause the tiles to move? Seems very strange. 😟 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiFlyer Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 5 hours ago, KhunDon said: How did acetic acid cause the tiles to move? Seems very strange. 😟 The acetic was applied with a paint roller. Evidently a little too vigorously at times. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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