Suggestions for building a house

cup1981

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Mods: I wasn't sure where to put this, so feel free to move it if needed :). Apologies in advance.

So, my wife and I are moving back to Indo permanently on May 23, 2018 (VITAS is already in hand without setting foot in a consular or immigration office, but more on that later), and we were planning to save up for property and build a home over the course of five to 10 years due to the high land costs in her town. We have just shy of Rp. 200jt saved and should be just over Rp 300jt by the time we leave, so we were well underway. Well, the unimaginable happened the other day (in a good way) as her aunt announced she was giving us her property in the center of town.

It's about 90 square meters, so nothing big, but it is worth 1M easy. And, yes, we have the separation of assets (post-nup) agreement being drawn up now -- for reference, it cost us Rp 5jt. from a notary in Bandung. This allows us to dive straight into the building phase. So, I need some advice from those who have experience in this.

We will first need to demolish the ragged house that is there now, have the land regraded, then build a two- to three-story home on it with a rooftop garden.

Does anyone know a trusted architect/engineer/contractor that will work in Tasikmalaya? My cousin-in-law owns a huge firm in Bandung, but they work mostly on commercial buildings, plus he is too busy with his new life as a politician to give us much guidance.

Does anyone have any experience in having a home built like this and what it may cost (just ballpark)?

Are there super-thick windows available that will help minimize the outside noise or are they always those paper-thin rattle magnets;)?

Thanks in advance everyone. If you need any other advice, I appreciate any input you have :D.
 
What surface building are you targeting?

You should aim for 4 to 4.5jt per sqm but I don't think you will get anything too fancy.

Thick glass is available just request it with your architect/contractor. You can also look for double pane windows but then the cost will add up.

Ideally, you want a contractor who has an in-house architect to keep the cost down.

When presented with the RAB (Rencana Anggaran Biaya) which lists all the construction material and service, make sure you go over it several times with a fine brush. Contractors will say yes to everything face to face but often "forget" to put it in the RAB. When you realize it's missing from your house, they will refer to the fact that it was not included and charge you extra for something they promised at the beginning. It's very easy for them to do so.

Also for payment: payment schedule following construction progress.

Time frame: add at least 30% more time to whatever agreed time frame for the construction. Don't forget about breaks for Idul Fitri and Idul Adha.

At the same time, when you see paints and cements in your rab, go check the manufacturer's specifications for quantities per sqm or volume and verify that it matches with the quantities your contractor listed for your house. Nothing like weak cement or over diluted paint. And even if it matches, there is no guarantee that the correct quantity will end up in your construction unless you watch the workers like an hawk.

Which brings me to the next step: watch and watch and watch during the construction. Better to catch something messed up when they start messing it up rather than after the fact.

Another one: wood. From experience, and in retrospective, I would avoid wood for any door, window and associated frame exposed to the elements. Because the best woods to withstand this are expensive (will blow your budget) and need to be dried properly to avoid cracking, rotting, etc. This is one item where your contractor will screw with you easily, especially if you're not an expert. It will look great when built but a few months from then it will start going bad and it's too late to get compensation plus a major headache to fix/replace. Aluminium or upvc are better.

I don't mean to discourage you, far from it, but you should be prepared and lower your expectations.

Here's an example of a bad contractor. First house he built went great, relatively speaking. Second house was a mess. Same contractor, same team.

The doors started cracking because the wood wasn't dry enough before the construction was finished. Basically a gap was forming between the panels, eve. On the interior doors. Asked him to repair them. These idiots fixed the doors but painted them without properly covering the floors. A dozen of 60x60cm "granit" tiles got stained and thinner would not help but luckily we had just enough left over tiles to replace the stained ones.

I find the mandor working on one tile with sand paper (!!) and trying to polish it back with wax, yes wax, not even polish. I stopped him while I searched for a solution. Searching online, I read that some kind of chemical might help (forgot which) so I went and bought a bottle to try on that sanded tile. At that stage, I wanted to try and clean the tiles first rather than them replacing the tiles and breaking something else in the process. So I leave them with the bottle and tell them to try on one tile only to see if that works.

I come back from an errand a couple hours later and I witness the horror: these @#&$!, without testing first, grabbed a bucket, a mop and proceeded to mop very roughly each stained tile and the tiles surrounding them with that chemical. That chemical had the exact same effect as sand paper and brought the number of ruined tiles from a dozen to well over 50! ??

Because the color of the tiles is slightly different from one production batch to the other, we were never able to find the exact same color. And of course the contractor did not take full responsibility for this.

So as you can see, a lot of lessons were learned on my part ?

But it's not impossible and certainly easier if you have experience building yourself already.
 
What surface building are you targeting?

You should aim for 4 to 4.5jt per sqm but I don't think you will get anything too fancy.

Thick glass is available just request it with your architect/contractor. You can also look for double pane windows but then the cost will add up.

Wow! Thanks for all the info!

We are looking to stretch to 180 or 200 square meters on the existing land. Hopefully they can get that much and still leave a sliver of a yard until we can buy out my wife's parent's old (foreclosed on) house behind the land we were gifted and turn that into our yard.

Yeah, we are not looking for insanely fancy -- just modern. The windows are a big deal for me, so I will just have to stretch the budget to get them in.

4 to 4.5jt seems about right where we were thinking -- I was shooting 3.5 to 5jt.
 
Mods: I wasn't sure where to put this, so feel free to move it if needed :). Apologies in advance.

So, my wife and I are moving back to Indo permanently on May 23, 2018 (VITAS is already in hand without setting foot in a consular or immigration office, but more on that later), and we were planning to save up for property and build a home over the course of five to 10 years due to the high land costs in her town. We have just shy of Rp. 200jt saved and should be just over Rp 300jt by the time we leave, so we were well underway. Well, the unimaginable happened the other day (in a good way) as her aunt announced she was giving us her property in the center of town.

It's about 90 square meters, so nothing big, but it is worth 1M easy. And, yes, we have the separation of assets (post-nup) agreement being drawn up now -- for reference, it cost us Rp 5jt. from a notary in Bandung. This allows us to dive straight into the building phase. So, I need some advice from those who have experience in this.

We will first need to demolish the ragged house that is there now, have the land regraded, then build a two- to three-story home on it with a rooftop garden.

Does anyone know a trusted architect/engineer/contractor that will work in Tasikmalaya? My cousin-in-law owns a huge firm in Bandung, but they work mostly on commercial buildings, plus he is too busy with his new life as a politician to give us much guidance.

Does anyone have any experience in having a home built like this and what it may cost (just ballpark)?

Are there super-thick windows available that will help minimize the outside noise or are they always those paper-thin rattle magnets;)?

Thanks in advance everyone. If you need any other advice, I appreciate any input you have :D.

Buy an already solid built house that is at least several years on the market or older so you can see if there are any structural problems. Eventually, renovate if necessary and save yourself of the horror building a house in Indonesia.

Contractor`s quality of work in Indonesia is criminal and substandard. Every new house or building has cracked after building, meaning they do put too much water in the cement or the sand is dirty.
A substandard thickness of steel for concrete is a regular practice as well. All knowledge for construction, from ancient times till Dutch colonial times is forgotten. It is not even a matter of price, it is a matter of knowledge. Same is for tukangs (handymen), they also don`t know anything in 99,99% o case. Those who know work for big companies or abroad.

The situation is so absurd that even buildings built 20-30 years ago are more solid than this build today in Indonesia. Never in my life, I have seen so many crappy buildings in one place.
 
We have teak windows & doors, not cracked (or eaten) yet, thankfully... several years on.
Last year I took a pic of a 3 paned arched window to our local go-to wood place & they made it for us at a cost of around 5jt. Ridiculously cheap compared to prices in UK
 
I have an architect friend based out of Sentul City. If he is interested in a modest project in Tasik, I will post his contact information.
 
Good luck, and don't forget to apply for an IMB (izin mendirikan bangunan), or building permit. Provided that you get the right drawings from your architect and maybe some assistance from your wife's aunt with the no objection signatures from the neighbours, you should be able to handle the application process yourself.
 
if you want to use service architect in Indonesia read this table guidance for service and calculation fee of architect

https://iai-jakarta.org/informasi/lingkup-pekerjaan-arsitek

https://iai-jakarta.org/informasi/honorarium-arsitek

so you can know what architect doing and calculate how much fee you spend for use architect services.

_____________________________________________________________________________architect

1. Yu Sing
http://rumah-yusing.blogspot.com/

Yu Sing creates examples of effective architecture, which take advantage of used and environmentally friendly materials.

http://akarumput.com/en/environment/0604212-akanoma-anomali-biro-arsitektur-1/


2. Budi Pradono
https://budipradono.com/home/

budipradono architects is a research based architectural studio with interdisciplinary practice focusing on contemporary lifestyle, hospitality and urban design through collaboration and experimentation.

3. Andra Matin
http://www.andramatin.com/about/

andramatin is known for clean, modern creations that attempts to use space in a way that reflects and is sensitive to its environment.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------architect

these three (3) architects are widely known in Indonesia. the price range they offer for design services only ranges from Rp. 300,000 to Rp. 500,000 / square meter, maybe the service price can be lower/higher than that, its depend how you negotiate the price...

cheers..........
 
Budi pradono or andra matin between 300.000 to 500.000? That would be a steal if it's true!
 
Budi pradono or andra matin between 300.000 to 500.000? That would be a steal if it's true!

Don't know what you mean about stealing..

this is only for comparison, because I have experienced using service of an architect where the price requested is around the price 300-500 thousand rupiah when have project Bali area.

My friend tell me, to use architect services of those two person Budi/Andra himself, the price around 300-500 thousand rupiah for square meter. And this is also depends on size your project building area, technical, supervising, etc

Since I don't know, sometimes people using our handicap for they to get a money from user because we don't have any enough information/regulation to use architect service.

So it just for you comparison price if you meet situation like me...

Therefore I also enclosed link from Ikatan Arsitek Indonesia about architect.


Cheers
 
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@Mike Ariteus, what @melvintee mean is that those 2 architects are very cheap at that price.

Oh I see... My apologies about understanding...

Trully is never using Budi, Yu-sing nor Andra Matin services or asking his prices of they services, so don't know what right price is.

But I heard about they services around that price. The prices is only for design not all the material you need build a construction.

Right now many contractor in Indonesia for square meter plotting the price 4-5 million rupiah. This is also depends where you project is, since for material need to build every area is different like Papua and Java island.

It is different for using architect and contractor

architect only for design and contractor is for take care construction to build the design you have, but each services sometime they also have a team to do this.

And now I still studying architecture for my bachelor degree, I take class "Kelas Karyawan" of Mercu Buana University, Jakarta

Cheers
 
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We did a top to bottom rebuild of our house a couple of years ago. My wife had a high school friend who was an architect who charged us 4 juta or so.

We tore out lots of walls upstairs, and some downstairs. Installed concrete stairs to upstairs to replace the creaky wooden stairs.

It was a 4 month project that wrapped up in a out 6 months. We had two contractors working together. One was excellent, the other took shortcuts at each and every step. We didn’t find out about all the shortcuts until the problems popped up at the end of the project. Luckily the good contractor was able to fix most of the things.

The most important things I found for a project

Have exact plans, with everything on the plans. Electrical plugs, light sockets, doors (don’t go cheap on interior doors and hardware), light switches.

Make sure that all materials are specifically stated on the contract. Wire type and gauge. Bathroom fixtures. Ceiling lighting.

Paint, paint, paint!

Most problems on the project occurred with paint. Getting the walls prepped correctly, and then painted right was next to impossible. We had some rooms done 3 times to get somewhere close.

Buy the best quality paint, with a excellent basecoat of primer.

If you have a construction contract for the builder, which I would highly recommend, make sure the timeline for the project is included.

Do not give large upfront payments. We gave 20% just before starting, and another 6 payments at certain landmarks of the project, with 10% being held at the end to make sure everything was good.

90 sm is a fairly small plot. Make sure you’re aware of what the required setbacks are. We have a 160 meter lot, and you could not have the house closer than 5 meters (I think) to the street.
 
Are there super-thick windows available that will help minimize the outside noise or are they always those paper-thin rattle magnets;)?

This might be interesting to you, there definitely are local solutions:


uPVC vs Aluminium is an everlasting discussion. So far it seems to me the uPVC is a bit better suited for extreme climates. But also needs more internal strengthening (obviously). The problem is also they don't insulate the inside of the frames. And as you know, solid is better.

The theory about glass insulation (the U value being expressed in W/m2K etc.) is pretty easy to find so I won't elaborate on that anymore. Something I wrote somewhere before:

Some of my own personal experience:
There is a big misunderstanding concerning double glass. When we talk(ed) about this in the US and Europe, we almost always mean two or three separate sheets of glass, with Argon or so in between. One of the insides can also be coated. But what I get here is laminated glass; that is two panes of glass with a layer in between. We call that layered or security glass. The name says it all, right? Also used in cars.

images
pro_31.jpg


Well, layered glass can also have good insulation qualities. But the local suppliers get nervous when you say you want 4-8-4 (those are mm) glass or even 5-15-4 what is called HR++. It means extra high gain, don't know the English term. They simply can't make uPVC profiles supporting that thickness. (But I must say I have seen double glass here with some window suppliers since I wrote this seven years ago, but it is extremely expensive so we haven't used it ourselves and stick with 20mm in extreme cases.)

Btw, they completely freak out when you mention the 'crosses' (mullion and transom?) on the french doors should be put between the glass, as is common in the western countries now (easy cleaning).

images


Ah yes, something else: massive uPVC doors are almost impossible to get. They always want glass panels in there (like terrace doors). So replacing your wooden front door is very difficult. Only some higher level suppliers as Broco could offer this.

For those not familiar with high quality uPVC, we are not talking about the cheap plasticky doors which are sometimes used for the maid room etc., but something like this:

images
 
My sister is renovating her house because termites ate most of the wooden structure. Go with as much aluminum or upvc as you can get, unless you can afford teak wood.
 
Talking of shoddy workmanship, the wife and I, for a laugh I might add, decided to check out some brand new houses being built. The sales guy's eyes lit up when he saw me with the wife but I quickly changed that after I told him I would not even pay 50% of the sales price as the build quality was absolutely terrible. Trying to convince me that the house was still settling did not go down too well either. Of the 3 we checked, they were all like this. Starting price was over 1.5 billion too.

The house was fitted with uPVC windows and doors and the gaps where huge, as you can see from the attached images. These windows were supposed to be closed. The door catch was a classic. They obviously bodged the cutting and then insert pieces behind to try and fix it.

If ever I was to get a new house built, I would be onsite almost 100% of the time to keep an eye on the work. ;)

20190413_151645.jpg 20190413_151707.jpg 20190413_151838.jpg
 
Yeah those projects are infamous for their ahem ‘quality’.

Like in the USA, the staging is rather nice. But you can even see leaking ceilings etc. in the show units.

Being there all the time is practically impossible. And even when you’re there and explain what you want, they say yes and do something different behind your back.

I wanted and demanded that they would install the ‘swan neck’ system ? below the shower rooms and bathtubs. To avoid cockroaches and rats coming in and sewer smell. I even bought them myself in Kenari. Not installed of course. Try to break out 60 cm ceramic tiles ?

And there are hundreds of examples like that, esp. on plumbing and electricity.
 
So what is the solution. Grin and bear it? Pay more and get builders with a decent track record? Wait and hope that better builders will come along? If "mass-produced buildings" are stuffed up, what chance does a person have getting a one-off architect-designed house built well? (I am particularly interested in water run-off from roofs and drainage after that. About 1 in 20 houses that I observe seem to use what I term external "spouting/guttering". Perhaps it is better to just let the rain run off willy-nilly?)
 
I am particularly interested in water run-off from roofs and drainage after that

I had to explain the builders (but also my extended family here) the concept of talang. Nobody had any idea. Let it run I guess. Finally I found them in a shop in Rawasari.
 

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