I stayed in a B&B in Sun Moon Lake that was built using shipping containers, never, ever again. We were booked in for 2 nights, left in the early morning after one having already changed room. The level of mold in the first room was crazy, behind every fixture, above the false ceilings, pretty much everywhere that wasn’t easily accessed to wipe the mold off was covered in it. Owner said the aircon was malfunctioning so moved us to another room. This one had a fully functioning aircon, you could tell because the outside compressor unit was mounted on the container wall and the entire container thrummed along with it when it kicked in. It also had large amounts of mold in hidden places, just not as bad as the first one. Neither were oppressively hot, and it was a full summer day, so assume there was some sort of insulation.
It had nothing to do with insulation.
In Taiwan especially around bodies of water (such as sun moon lake) if you want the place to be mold free it needs constant dehumidification, just AC alone isn’t going to cut it (unless the AC runs nonstop).
I struggle to keep my room below 60% at times on a rainy day and that’s with a dehumidifier running nonstop (I tapped the water outlet so it automatically drains to the outside). Keeping rooms dry and therefore mold free is a challenge in Taiwan. Especially if steps aren’t taken to limit moisture ingress. For example using a selective barrier such as House Wrap, which I do not even know if it exists in Taiwan.
An AC unit blowing fans (but not running its compressor) actually adds humidity to the room.
Good point. They’re expensive to buy, and expensive to run, but a humidistat controlled, whole house extractor fan would be a top priority for any new house I would build in Taiwan.
In my experience building a home cost me a relationship and much more money then I had budget.
There is so many small decisions that can easily end up in disagreement between you and your partner. Make sure both of you have a realistic view of the project before you start. If you can’t agree what to eat for dinner… Then just forget about it.
The money you think you can save on building yourself will probably be lost somewhere in the process. But if you are dreaming about building your own house I would say go for it.
Doesn’t mean a thing.
I keep reading “house” as “horse.”
There are high-cube containers, used to transport low weight, high volume goods.
The max. is 10% from at least 700 ping agri land I was told.
Yes, the rule is can build on 10% of the farm land size. We actually did not want more than 1000 ping but finding the right size in right area can be tough. Farm land normally is larger size unless broken down into smaller lots hoping to sell to future home builders.
Minimum lot size needed is 756 ping to build farm house. Rules keep mutating so keep paying attention along the way. For example, now near us farm houses must be built right next to the road so cannot get some leeway to have drive way for car to reach house.
Getting harder to get approved for building as now enforcing more of the many rules.
While building our house the wife and I had many very stressful conversations. Many ended with me pissed off and the wife crying. I would definitely not recommend this process unless a couple has discussed in detail their expectations down to details like what type of flooring used in each room. Go to stores and try to agree on what you like. The wife and I visited the floor and wall tile company showroom probably 20 times to choose our more than 15 tiles. Was a nightmare.
And also people in the construction trade tend not to be the nicest of people…
Better to either just get them to build a standard house, or buy an existing house, or just don’t do it.
As far as I could search in 2016 the rules to build farmhouses got very tight. Here is the link for regulation in Chinese. That means, after buying a farmland you cannot immediately get permission to build. You must satisfy a lot of requirements like possessing a farmland for at least 2 years. The land must be cultivated and so on. Here is some summary article in English
Thanks for the summary in English. That is basically what I had been hearing as far as being a “farmer” in order to build a farm house. That in itself will severely limit the number of builds. Then there are other restrictions. Near us in one area we heard govt only approving houses which have a water way passing by on their land.
Hard to blame them for trying to limit the builds. Near us are many buildings (e.g. student dorms, hotels, churches, etc.) build on farm land with no farming going on at all on the land. One church has just made a big parking lot on the unused portion of the land.
I wish we had been required to prepare a “farm plan” regarding what we were planning to plant. I would have asked for more opinions and certainly have done a better job of laying out the land. ha.
You said it brother. A good building manager is key. He/she will explain the problems encountered and come out will plan to address without ruffling too many feathers. Some vendors are simply not honest and require constant monitoring. Some are just used to fighting with not so nice customers. I found that just not being an asshole and providing some “afternoon tea” snacks to workers helps create a better working atmosphere. ha.
Taiwan is a total joke how it allowed it’s land to be messed up everywhere. And the East coast is the ‘good coast’ ! Foreigners aren’t allowed own farms and forests, is that correct ?
And you actually need to have some farming activity. And as said, only permission to buid after 2 years of owning the land.
You can basically have a farmer cultivate part of your land for a small fee.
So that explains why you see people farming small yield stuff in the middle of Taipei City, probably just so they can build their luxury house on the farmland.
How long does a house take to build?
Average house, 50 ping per floor and 2 floors as an example.
Well, I can say that I greatly underestimated how much effort to take care of our fruit trees and other stuff. Of course, if was not trying to do organic would be different scenario. If I had planned better I would have let someone manage half of our land.
I can say our house took a year. But there are so many considerations including vendor availability. For example, we were stringent about letting cement walls and floors “rest” for 3 weeks before going to next set of cement walls and floors. However, we sometimes missed the time window to get the vendors back on site immediately when we were ready…they were then busy elsewhere.