Lovely Lake in Thailand for a floating house Check out these photos Mae Taeng Dam - All House Boats Are Not Created Equal ! - Thailand Forum
Now, those are houseboats. Living in one of those for a while on the water wouldn't be the worst thing a man could do.
Here is a suggestion that was made on another forum as related to locating a floating house in the USA and possible avoiding some real estate taxes-assesements,....but it also may have some application in Thailand Thought about that idea recently for the inland areas of Thailand. If your 'house' was 'floating capable' it might have made out better in those really bad floods they experienced this year. I'm over here now and I see many villages that experienced really high waters as the result of the dams up north having to release waters to lessen their overwheming loads....and many facilities that were located on the lakes formed by those dams. Also since foreigners can't own land in Thailand, many times they build a house there and have to give it up for a total lose as they don't own the land it is built on. (in Thailand foreigners can't own the land, only with majority Thai nationals...girl-friend, wife, family) Now if the 'house' was mobile...as in floatable, or sectional...or....they just might salvage part of their investment in the event of a break-up....and it happens quite often in Thailand Besides if your house could 'float' you might have this garden/pond scene without all of the foundation problems associated with being right next to water,...and you could rise and fall with the flood water much like a spud barge, or floating docks at a marina.
One Pillar Pagoda While I am still looking for my Thai styled floating accomodations, I thought I might first build a seaside office....or it might be lakeside or pond side. Actually the photos here are of a re-creation of a famous Vietnamese one-pillar pagoda that sits in Hanoi. This re-creation sits on a big lake here in Khon Kaen Thailand. I really like this structure, and I might like it even more if it were a bit more Thai in its architecture. ...the original one... "Its unique design is of a three square meter wooden structure resembling a “lotus blossom”, the Buddhist symbol of Enlightenment. It sits on a concrete support (pillar) that replaces the original wooden one. The original structure is thought to date from about 1049 during the Ly dynasty but the factual history is not clear. The pagoda has been damaged and restored many times. The last major demolition came at the hands of the French in 1954" Can you imagine having a design office at waterside something like this...WOW
Proper Cottage/Cabin on the Water Here is a neat idea & somewhat I have in mind,...but in a Thai style A houseboat sounds like a liberating place to live – but limiting as well for those who like to relax on the front porch, sun on the back deck or tend to growing plants in a garden. This floating homestead blows traditional boat-based homes out of the water, so to speak. How much to buy it? Well, the current owners purchased it a decade ago for around twenty-five thousands dollars USD. Floating Home Powell River Books Blog
Two Unusual and Fancy Houseboats Couple of unusual and fancy houseboats ...in Sausalito, CA....video tours The Dragon Boat : Video : Travel Channel The Train Wreck : Video : Travel Channel
Man Made Island on old plastic bottles plastic bottles again.... Man Made Island on old plastic bottles Richie Sowa's man made island - YouTube
Here is some more info on several floating islands this fellow has built Spiral Island - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Of course there are always practical negative reasons, but, boy, what a compelling possibility to live a less crowded life!
These darn links that keep going bad. Lets see if we can provide this better link, and a few of the photos. Mae Taeng Dam - All House Boats Are Not Created Equal ! - Chiang Mai Forum - Thailand Forum I was just talking with a new friend in Thailand today about this idea of a 'floating house'. I told him I had posted some ideas on several forums, and directed him here to have a look. I may have a lot more soon as I believe I will be making a trip down to that lake region in a week or so. Brian
Living on a lake in Chiangmai Over in Thailand again, and this idea of a floating house / cottage / whatever has resurfaced. So I'm going thru a few forums over here and look at this reference that has just turned up.....WOW Living on a lake in Chiangmai Mountain Float
Absolutely gorgeous! If I showed my wife that she'd never be happy until we up and left Canada to live out our days in a place exactly like that!
River Kwai Jungle Rafts OK, got a few more for you. Floating Bamboo Raft Rooms - River Kwai Jungle Rafts
...oh yeah, we need some coffee,..... after that night at the bar and you are in Thailand, so another message
Some import ideas... Those massage ladies... would make good crew members... ! That floating snake river yacht is another idea... sure solves the jungle flooding problems... ! Or, is that a floating train yacht... ? And, that floating tiki bar cat might make retracing Thor Heyerdahl voyage worth a go... !
Here is another big lake area in a National Park I want to visit. Khao Sok Photo & Map- Floating House Chaeo Lan Lake It also has some 'floating cottages' Khao Sok Transfer service & How to get there- Floating House Chaeo Lan Lake
Brian... after all this time of reading your beautiful pictures... I finally read your premise for this thread. Well yes and no. A few years ago visiting NE France we ventured over to Holland so I could look at boats. Well we saw these floating concrete constructed houses. The house was just a a normal house but the basement was a float chamber so the house could float. At the corners were concrete pilings or columns set into the ground under water. The columns came up through cast holes in each corner of the house foundation/float. The house could float up and down with raising water level. Well the ladies really liked this idea of a "boat". Why because I could not flood like a shore house but was stationary... which to them is the important thing. The grand dame of the household and her ideas that this was the perfect "boat": Well it it occurred to me if the piers were placed outboard of the foundation/raft and the attachments to them were rather than through the foundation/raft but removably attached you could detach the floating house and transport it to another parking spot with the vertical column set up. Now this is not your anchor line floating platform idea but its close. Actually it's not too far of how many motor yachts are used. Exactly that is what the 90 year old in the household pointed out!
I've seen some of those examples in my web searches where the 'float chamber' is a hollow core concrete structure. And that makes sense in some applications, particularly where no 'portability' is a consideration. At present I really like the idea of just utilizing steel tubes as the floatation devices. I can imagine that these steel tubes could also form the backbone of support for this floating house/cottage to be moved overland by road, either in a move between two different locations/settings, or even from a small scale assembly plant. If the house/cottage structure is of a reasonably lt-weight, and the tubes are of sufficient diameter and thickness (I'm thinking gas-line tubing), then just a dolly wheel arrangement under the tubes would be sufficient to move the 'cottage' (perhaps in halfs) rather than needing some sort of trailer transport and offloading crane at designation point. ...somewhat akin to house trailers in the USA. Fully understand Might be an important consideration in Thailand where a lot of 'gentleman' lose their investments in house building as they can not own the land its built on. But now a 'mobile abode' might make a difference.....