Homes Homes Homes 3 rules 1) safety 2) Safety and rule 3) Safety

Post by Nigel Saywell-Lee.

 

 

Homes Homes Homes  3 rules: 1) safety 2) Safety and 3) Safety

Villa style or starter homes try a Bali Puri Gelis property.  Much has been said about properties in Bali and perhaps right across Indonesia.  Be advised Bali and Indonesia sit on a fault line, they are also in the tropics and experience short spells of monsoon rains.  Wet areas dry out as the year progresses causing the ground to shrink. 

As for the fault line earthquakes means that the ground can move, sometimes violently. The reason for this is the two plates where they meet are not necessarily a smooth surface and often trap each other that is until the force is overwhelming and the plates free from each other forcing movement in any direction. up, down, left or right.  This is of course a scary experience and it should not be dismissed; most fatalities during an earthquake are caused by the buildings collapsing either ones that we live within or work in. Earth quakes are not something that goes away or lays dormant like a volcano can as the plates can move all the time and this movement can be anywhere between 1cm to 9cm per annum.

Bali sits on the larger Australia plate which includes much of the Indian ocean and New Guinea.  The rest of Indonesia sits on the smaller plate known as the Sunda plate, however, this excludes Irian Jaya.  The Australia plate is by far the most active as it is traveling north at an alarming rate of 6cm per year.  This plate is sliding underneath the Sunda plate and is situated just 250 km south of Bali.

It is fair to say that this area with the tectonic plates, volcanoes and Tsunamis is one of the most unstable areas on the planet; which brings me to the need to be sure that your home is equipped for the worst scenario as death comes quick if the roof or the concrete floors collapses.

In order to make your home secure you need to be sure that the foundation is deep and well keyed to the ground that it sits.  Columns need to connect with the foundation by a heavy gauge steel and travel to the roof structure uninterrupted.  You then need a well constructed ring surround the house at each floor level.  This ring also has a steel structure over which is pored concrete ideally mixed with super cement which we always use.  This structure wires if you like all corners of the building structure into a 3D dimension i.e. roof is connected to the foundation and front is connected to the back etc.

This brings me to the depth of the foundation minimum for a single storey (1 floor) should be 1Meter deep.  some areas where houses are built on what used to be rice fields means the ground is very unstable, extremely wet in the monsoon season and extremely dry in the hot season.  Needless to say the ground stretches and shrinks at an alarming rate and your home needs to be well keyed to the land that it sits. Take a look at our starter homes in Permogan and our villa style properties in Sidakarya