The roof of the first house is now complete. Additionally, they have finished the floor sheeting out of “cement board” (I’m translating this from Thai… not sure what it is called in English). We will try to get a good veneer tile to put on top after the walls are built. If you look carefully at the pictures, you can see that they have begun running the wooden support structure for the walls overhead. The walls will be solid pine wood for both interior and exterior walls. If I understood the foreman’s Thai, he seemed to think he would have most of the walls up in about 1 week. That sounds fast to me, so maybe I misunderstood.
Many construction materials have asbestos. I am not sure if the cement board has it. I saw one brand of roof tile claimed that it contains no asbestos, so I think other brands may have some. Please check carefully.
Yes, very good point. We had to read up on this. Since asbestos isn't illegal in Thailand, it is sometimes difficult do determine what has it and what doesn't. But we are going with a fairly unusual roofing tile called "Onduvilla" that is very light and bendy, and is made from bitumen (which is related to asphalt), and is available in Europe and the US, so I'm quite sure it doesn't have any asbestos.
But I took your comment to heart with regards to the cement board for the floor. I asked around a bit today, and everyone I spoke to was quite sure that there is no asbestos in the cement board. But I can't really think of any way to be sure.
It was a really good point to consider, though. I will certainly keep my eyes open in the future to see if I can find out more about this.