Leaking, mouldy houses, how to prevent?

R

rasi

Member
I hope this question doesnt 'offend' any superior people here that know everything...:icon_rolleyes:

While house hunting in Bali I noticed ALL the houses were either water damaged/leaking/mouldy/smelt stale etc. I realize it rains a lot and it's humid, but surely you can do something to prevent it if you build your own house?

For anyone that has built a house what did you do to prevent this. Obviously you put waterproofing in the floor and roof, but is the best thing to do is put in heaps of windows/skylights etc so light and fresh air can come through the house. Or is a leaking house just how it is in Indonesia?

Can't wait for the 'you're so stupid' answers!!
 
While house hunting in Bali I noticed ALL the houses were either water damaged/leaking/mouldy/smelt stale etc. I realize it rains a lot and it's humid, but surely you can do something to prevent it if you build your own house?
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There are many reasons for this including things like "builders" who don't know what they're doing, trying to cut corners, etc.

As a starting point, I suggest you read some of the following articles:

Ark the ‘Erald Angels Sing’
The Elusive Moby Dick
Wet Dream
“I Think The Answer Lies In The Soil”
The Elephant’s Bottom
A Damp Prognostication

Hope they help...

:icon_lol:
 
If you own a hammer in Indonesia you are called a Builder, Concreter, Brickie, Carpenter,Electrician & Plumber. :icon_mrgreen:All fully Licensed of course:icon_lol:. I removed the roof & fitted it correctly, no more leaks.
Building in Indonesia is done as cheaply as possible.
 
When planning to build my house the first thing I did was to go around and take a good look at what other expats had built (surprisingly, they are all pretty glad to give you a tour if you ask) and the biggest problem I found was that of too much house...

Building being relatively cheap here most expats had built way too much house and most of the rooms were not lived in most of the time. Add this to the Balinese style of huge over-stuffed furnishings and you have a recipe for mildew and mold.

If you want to avoid this then build small or at least live in the house that you build and make sure they are aired every day. I have the windows open every day - even when not there and so far all is good. And move the cushions around a bit and put em in the sun for an hour now and then. It aint rocket science now is it?

But it is still early days :icon_biggrin:
 
We have a room at the back of the house thats moldy smelling, its because it does not get enough sun or airflow. So this is the key, orientation of the house, high ceilings and airflow pretty simple.
 
Learning from the past

While house hunting in Bali I noticed ALL the houses were either water damaged/leaking/mouldy/smelt stale etc. I realize it rains a lot and it's humid, but surely you can do something to prevent it if you build your own house?
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I do agree with most posters on this issue,but not with those that blame immediately every builder.Please remember all those smelly milldewed ac-ed houses are built to western misconceptions how a tropical house should be constructed:airtight without any natural ventilation,lots of glass panes in full sun,too low ceilings ,on a small plot with three meter high walls.
It is absolutely possible to build a house in Bali that does NOT need AC,except maybe in some very hot spots.
Just follow the rules of building as they have been for ages,before The We-Know-Better mentality set foot on Bali:
#Design a house with eaves on ALL sides of the house,shading windows and minimizing raincontact with walls and windows.(for those who have not yet noticed:the sun is eight months in the north,four months in the south.)
#Do not fill the gaps between roof and wall.
#Make your lower floor at least 3,5 meter high.
#Do not use glass windows or doors,but ventilated shutters and doors or closed shutters with a big ventilation space on top.(and open everything in the morning.)
#Use non- airtight materials where ever you can.
#Install ceilingfans when building,much easier than afterwards.(you will find out you hardly ever need them,as i did.)
#Make sure your plot is as open to cooling winds as you can get it.Balinese walls were usually a lot lower than the current western standards,and their plots were bigger.Many of them used to have ventilation slits or rosters in them as well.
#Place trees and shrubs for shade.

The additional advantage of big eaves is that your doors and windows will hardly ever get wet,so you do not need top quality wood.
I have been living now for some years in a house like this and i really never missed an AC for a second. It is really cooler inside the house than on my already shaded and ventilated porch.
Get yourself some pets if you are afraid of all the beasties coming in.The toke's and tjitjaks get rid of most flying nuisances,a cat wil take care of the mice and rats.
I know,many balinese have left these principles as well,thinking it is progress to build a nonventilated house that needs less maintenance.
You might not find many existing buildings that answer these rules any more,but you might bear it in mind when renovating or designing a new house.Good luck.
 
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Good post hermit. I agree that things like ventilation, a high roof, plenty of overhang, etc really work. Unfortunately, we have found that cats do not always "fix" the rat problem, you sometimes need a bit more.
 
Hermit this is how most housing are built in the NT except we have a 2mts veranda around the entire house & of course we must have a cyclone shelter built in the center. Fly screen keep the bugs out & the air moving through to keep it cool. Now the Bali homes are set by the high priest, direction & layout??? The no eaves is a euro thing?? Years ago Darwin had a contest to build low energy housing & some of the ideas were a little out there entire walls built out of screens, Louvre's & some that were built off the ground had open floors like a searing shed. I will stick with my security screens, AC, outdoor living area & swimming pool.:icon_mrgreen:
 
Hermit..I do agree with the eaves, ventilation, high roofs, trees and plants.... however whats this about having gaps between the roof and the wall...and not using glass doors and windows. I for one will surely want to secure the insides...from insects, mosquito's, rats, cats, snakes and what ever is out there waiting to get in.

As Fred2 says...I too will stick with with security screens, AC.... etc etc
 
Vin said:
Hermit..I do agree with the eaves, ventilation, high roofs, trees and plants.... however whats this about having gaps between the roof and the wall...and not using glass doors and windows. I for one will surely want to secure the insides...from insects, mosquito's, rats, cats, snakes and what ever is out there waiting to get in.

As Fred2 says...I too will stick with with security screens, AC.... etc etc
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We're in the process of building and our house seems to fit Hermit's list to a tee. We have been living in Bali for almost a year now and the house we're currently in doesn't have a/c. We do have ceiling fans in every room and use them. We don't, however have window screens. They wouldn't do any good since we have carved open grills in many places in the house. We aren't having problems with mosquitos but we do burn coils in the evening in our lounge room.
As for the things that scamper and slither and go bump in the night I think our dogs and cat keep all of them away. The only thing we've seen inside are geckos.
I'll see if I can attach a photo of the way our roof sits above the walls. The light reflection in the photo is the sun shining in between the wall and roof.
 

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Vin said:
Hermit..I do agree with the eaves, ventilation, high roofs, trees and plants.... however whats this about having gaps between the roof and the wall...and not using glass doors and windows. I for one will surely want to secure the insides...from insects, mosquito's, rats, cats, snakes and what ever is out there waiting to get in.

As Fred2 says...I too will stick with with security screens, AC.... etc etc
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@Fred 2 and Vin:The question in the thread was how to prevent mouldy milldewed houses.I was trying to line out that too many people are copying the style of house they are used to "back home",wheter suitable or not.
The problem of unwanted intruders is not so big as it seems,i have never seen a snake inside the house.Today i had a big monitorlizard in my pool(family of the Komodo),no way to prevent that,so you really have to accept the tropics as they are.
If you would like to feel how it is to live in a bungalow that is more or les constructed the way they used to build here,i suggest you spend some days in Homestay Ida in Candi Dasa main street,6 houses in an oasis of an old coconutgarden on the sea,all houses constructed of timber and alang-alang roofs.No hot water,no AC.You will find you need neither.There used to be many more places like that in Bali,but i am afraid most of them have gone.It is also the favourite hangout of a famous architect,so it is not really slumming,although it is cheaply-priced.
I do agree that roofs could be better constructed here,but lots of the problems are caused by rooftiles that crack and break too easily.Also the way tiles and walls are joined with cement that cracks immediately is a recipe for leaks.I had my workers use silicone filler for the cracks and that works miraculously well.Insufficient roofslope is another problem.
If there were not so many problems with the supplying of lasting alang alang,i would have included that in my list as well,it is unsurpassed as heat- and soundinsulation.
No-one said you could not have a swimmingpool,i have one myself.I am not an eco-warrior.But as Markit said:it is not rocket science,just common sense.
The fact the dwellings in the NT were like this speaks for its self.

@Polyanna:I would not expect otherwise!Good for you.
 
Hermit I understand were you are coming from, but a homestay in Candi Dasa built for foreign tourist is not Balinese architecture. The high priest set the way the doors face , the way the building face & the placement in the compound everything is set by there religion, not how we would place a house in the west, I have always build to the climate. A alang alang looks beautiful but gecko shit every were. I have one outside next to the pool, you could live there but you need to cover everything up at night because of the geckos.
The first thing I would say about building in Indonesia is to build high at lest 1mtr above the ground.
more to add later.
 
Hermit...The simple way to prevent mould and mildew is to have high roofs, large doors/windows for cross ventilation. One doesn't have to live in a Shack (Bungalow to you) like Ida Homestay. Thats for adventure tourists/back packers who come in for short stays and then go back to the comfort of their secure homes.

I will be moving to Bali...to spend the rest of my life, and will at no point compromise with the comforts I am used to...in the home i live in and the life style I am used to. Specially not at this stage of my life.

Stay away from cheap local Terracotta tiles and instead use good quality glazed Ceramic tiles for the roofing and there will be no breakage or leaks. BTW I have lived in Indonesia for over 20 years in Tile roof homes...never had problems of breakages... yes a few minor leaks ..which were fixed.
 
Fred2 said:
Hermit I understand were you are coming from, but a homestay in Candi Dasa built for foreign tourist is not Balinese architecture. The high priest set the way the doors face , the way the building face & the placement in the compound everything is set by there religion, not how we would place a house in the west, I have always build to the climate. A alang alang looks beautiful but gecko shit every were. I have one outside next to the pool, you could live there but you need to cover everything up at night because of the geckos.
The first thing I would say about building in Indonesia is to build high at lest 1mtr above the ground.
more to add later.
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Fred,i am not sure what you mean by"ï understand where you are coming from".Do you mean you get the gist of my post or is it meant litterally?
I am not sure if you have ever seen Ida.Some of the houses are original wooden structures that have been transported from villages to the site.The others have been built with elements of balinese architecture.Of course there is a lot to improve with Balinese architecture:i have never understood why they build in a mudfloor compound with seperate houses and kitchen in a country where it can rain for days,without any chance to get dry from one place to another.
Geckos shit everywhere anyway,i do not think that has anything to do with the rooftype.Mine live on a beam of the wooden structure of the roof.
My house stands on a base of one meter (i found it like that)and you are right,it is good for airflow and the view as well.
Your post and Vin's made me realise everybody's sense of comfort is different.No big deal,i was just trying to explain that if you go with the flow of the elements life can be much more simple.(or simpel,not sure wich is correct.)

@Vin:Most local homes in Bali use the terracotta rooftiles that are unsufficiently fired to be lasting,causing the many leakages.There are also rather nice beton tiles on the market,factory-made so correctly sized and strong.
You can of course maintain the comfort and lifestyle you are used to,but i think we owe it to the balinese people to make our "footprint"as small as possible.I have seen villas in Canggu that use as much electricity as my whole banjar.
Whether you prefer pan-seared foie-gras or food from a warung is a matter of taste,so we will not discuss that.
 
The only people that buy Balinese roof tiles are poor Balinese and Bule anyone else buys Javanese cause they are fired hotter and last longer - the Balinese tiles break if you look at them hard.

Personally I'm not a big fan of the glazed ones as they look so "unnatural".

Oh, the Javanese are about twice as expensive too.
pool7.jpg
 
From what I under stand if you are Balinese, you stand on your block of dirt & look at the mountain. In the very RH front corner is were all your temples should be placed. your sleeping is at the front, then the kitchen & ceremony hut, last is the shower/ toilet area, no buildings can touch & the high priest will tell you how far apart the buildings should be. The rice room is on the front fence line. front gate should be placed so no evil spirits can look in & see people.
Iam sure someone can tell us more????
 
Fred2 said:
From what I under stand if you are Balinese, you stand on your block of dirt & look at the mountain. In the very RH front corner is were all your temples should be placed. your sleeping is at the front, then the kitchen & ceremony hut, last is the shower/ toilet area, no buildings can touch & the high priest will tell you how far apart the buildings should be. The rice room is on the front fence line. front gate should be placed so no evil spirits can look in & see people.
Iam sure someone can tell us more????
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The RH front corner where your MAIN temple should be placed. This temple is called Padma and is usually decorated with gold and white skirting and gold or white tedung (ceremonial umbrella).

Another temple should be in the LH front corner (facing the mountain). This temple is called Tugu and should be decorated with black and white checked fabric and matching tedung.

If there is another temple in the front (road side) of the property, this one should also be decorated with black and white.

Before erecting any of the temples, a priest or mangku is called to decide exactly where they should be placed and a ceremony is performed once they are complete and before they are used.
 
Thanks Gil, it wasn't such hard work... or work at all - I always thought of "work" as something you do for someone else that you don't really want to do. Me, I loved it.

Most fun I've had with my clothes on - ever!

Temples, I bought one because I had to, my guys and all other Balinese kept on at me to get it.

I mean I was worried about losing my creds as an Hard-Assed Athiest!

But I relented one day when I happened to see one that I really liked, I mean there was room for all the garden tools and such like.

The minute I get the damn thing home they all start telling me that I now have to get another one!

If I read this post correctly it sounds like you're saying I now have to get a third one!!! Bernard Madoff would have loved this.

I thought they were taking the piss:icon_rolleyes:
 
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