In Reply to: Building questions! posted by Rock n Robyn on Saturday, 24. May 2008 at 06:25 Bali Time:
your husband plans on doing any work here without the correct visa. You are in danger of being deported even if the work is on your own home.
I was a registered builder in Australia and am a trademan carpenter, so I understand your husband wanting to get in and be involved in a hands on manner.
I was also the Construction Manager when we built the new Australian Consulate in Bali. It was finished last year at a cost of $7.5 million.
We worked in conjunction with many of the local tradespeople.
The Javanese are very willing workers. With the right direction and a LOT of patience you will get a high quality job done by them.
Techniques are different here. Floors are poured, topped and then the tiles are set in about 40mm of cement. This is why so many floors are "drummy". Bond crete is available here but is not used so as to keep costs low.
If your husband tries to change these systems he will only end up frustrated and confused.
Your building will more than likely not be square so his efforts would be better spent working out a pattern to get around that problem. If he is like the rest of us tradesman he would have already bored you to death pointing out the tiling/building mistakes in most buildings.
Tiles here are cheap but vary in size and colour(constantly). He will already know how to get around those two problems but he will have to be more aware than usual.
As mentioned by Dave, you can get a good trademan for $6 a day.
Okay that is my serious post for this year, the normal dribble will resume from this point.