Constuction uniqueness

We find that the construction standards are quite different here in Thailand. Even for our building which is supposed to be built to western standards. Attached is a view from our 22nd floor balcony,  Ther are 30 stories in our building.  We have a lovely view overlooking he Srinakharinwirot University Campus.

  






Lois was walking down the internal hallway outside our door and noticed a door slighty ajar. Lois opened the door to look, in preparation of closing it, thinking it was the access for the Electrical panel.  She was surprised with what she saw.

 The doors were not locked. There was no latches on them and they exposed a brick vertical passage way that contained pipes that  dropped the entire height of the building.  Some were drain pipes others were water pipes.  There were two separate locations like this in our hallway.


So we took note of other access doors and even looked in the garbage room.  Each floor has a small room with a garbage bin and a recycle bin.  These garbage bins are wheeled to the ground floor via the elevator.  There isn't a trash slot to drop things to the basement.

The pictures to the left and below are of three pipes that are in the garbage room.  Note that the pipes pass thru the floor ( thus the ceiling of the floor below) all the way to the ground floor.  I can just imagine if I was a 10 year old boy...... I would have to experiment with dropping things down just to see what would happen.  Could I get something all the way to the ground from the 30th floor?

Then we actually looked closer in side our own apartment. We actually found another door that was able to be opened without a lock or latch right in the kitchen wall.  I had assumed it was the electrical panel.  See Picture above of my shot looking down the length of the three pipes.

The windows on the building are single plane glass.  Many windows in the hallways open outward. Some are even knee high - again a hazard for little ones to simply fall out.  Our balcony sliding glass door has no lock or latch on it. The is a railing on the deck. It would be interesting and scary to live here with a little one.

I remember my first visit to Thailand 38 years ago taking a picture in Bangkok of scaffolding made entirely of bamboo. It was surrounding a 25 story building all the way to the top.  Things have changed in construction methods in 38 years, but in Thailand things still are quite different.