Foundations and Columns
Since the garage is located a little distance away from the house, and the rains in Chiang Mai are often monsoonal, we decided to build a covered walkways. The easiest solution was to buy prefabricated concrete poles, dig some foundations, and concrete them into the ground.
After that, we put down some metal mesh and lay a layer of concrete on top for the pathway.
Cover for walkway
Once the columns set, we installed wooden struts on top of the columns. This provides a foundation for metal sheets.
Conwood for the walkway floor
For the walkway floor we used a fibre-cement product available in Thailand called Conwood.
Walkway from House to Observatory
Foundations and Columns
We decided to build a second house on the land. This one is two floor. It has guest accommodation on the ground floor, and two observation and recreation rooms on the top floor.
We also decided to build an elevated walkway from the rear of the main house to this second house. As before, the first part of building the walkway was to dig foundation holes for the prefab concrete columns.
After that, the columns are installed and filled with concrete, providing a quick yet sturdy structure.
Metal frame for walkway
In order to build the walkway, we installed metal beams linking the columns. Then cross beams were welded in, before making the handrails and the conwood planks.
Garden footpaths
Since the garden gets quite a lot of rain at monsoon season, we thought it best to build some raised footpaths throughout the garden.
Initially we were going to only make a few footpaths between the main areas, but I think they look pretty good, so we decided to make a few more.
It’s really nice to wander along the footpaths in the garden when the air is cool, like early in the morning.
