Can anyone recommend a local construction company near Singaraja?

A few questions of importance

Does "WE" mean you and your Indonesian wife?
Do you own the land?
Do you own a PT PMA company?

Hi Fred,

Yes, the first two are correct. My wife is from Bali and we purchased land already a couple of months back

As for construction, some Indonesian companies are not all that professional, especially in smaller towns where you're far more likely to get a small business with local experience and local craftsmen, many of whom have little idea of how to do their jobs, and some just don't care.
I caught one 'electrician' twist jointing wires then trying to bury them with no protection at all. The poorly made joints would have failed in no time and, because they were buried, would have been hard work to find and repair.
Other factors with electricians is poor or no earthing when really needed, and really bad planning such as all lighting and sockets being on just one breaker.
Poor plumbers, and there are many, are just as bad at their work.
In other words, you need to be around to watch them or there's a fair chance you'll have the same problems.

danieldiosi wrote:

Hi Fred,

Yes, the first two are correct. My wife is from Bali and we purchased land already a couple of months back

That's handy as she can own the land in her name and you're pretty much safe from Indonesia's land ownership laws. If you have a prenup stating she owns to title to all land owned, that's even better and will 100% protect you. There was talk of post nup agreements but I have no idea if that ever happened.

I'm talking a wild guess (Maybe not so wild considering your business) you know the many pitfalls of poor builders so will be able to keep a close eye on them, and you will need to.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. These are the things I am worried about as well. As I know, some houses are being built without proper planning and in a few years, it's all mouldy, water in walls, having structural issues.

Seeing some relatively new houses crumbling made me very worried so that's why I am looking for a reputable construction company - if such a thing exists in that area. I am okay to invest more to avoid later fixing costs.

I would suggest to take a drive around (if possible) and look at new builds and larger developments currently underway, some expatriate estate agents may have a record of contractors who designed and built properties they currently have listed and/ or if you know people word of mouth
Postnup are perfectly legal and has been the case for a little while, but prenup Carries a little more weight, in certain provinces a prenup is needed to purchase freehold with postnup it’s not possible, but this varies from place to place

Your favourite is to be there and watch.
I did this some years ago and found a massive number of obvious problems that I refused to accept and told them to do properly or go away. I ended up doing the wiring myself as none of the three electricians had any clue about safe installation of what circuits to wire where, and which breakers to use. I'm into over engineering anything electrical so insist the best of everything, but these guys were basing their work on how cheaply they could do it, so twist jointing whatever bits of wire they had left was deemed acceptable.
Seriously, be there and watch like a hawk.

Heat insulation is all but ignored, even unknown, so your air conditioner units will blast out cold air that that's reheated as the sun's heat flies through single skin non-insulated walls, and single glazed windows, and through ceilings made of thin plasterboard with nothing above it except duff wiring.

Gwmeath wrote:

I would suggest to take a drive around (if possible) and look at new builds and larger developments currently underway,

Beat me to it Grrrr!

Yes, that could be helpful but still keep a close eye on their work as it's likely to get slack if you leave them alone.
One silly point, make sure there's lots of sweet tea available for the builders - A little plus like that will allow you to get away with being stricter than they're used to.

Thanks so much for your suggestions. Probably that's the best to look around and if we will see some neat constructions we can look up their contact. Excellent idea!

Oh, I will be on-site that's 100% sure. Back in Europe, I did some constructions and property restoration so thankfully I'm not clueless.

Any chance there are foreign construction companies there? Maybe I'll look up some directories and such.

Totally agree good (real) elections here are as rare as rocking horse ****, it was an Australian expat drinking buddy who did our builds (electrics and plumbing) and was completed to a excellent standard,, I would also agree to project manage as much as possible and have any design clarified with a recognised architect
Heat reflecting double glazing / doors are very big now and not badly priced (expensive by Indonesia standards) and I’m glad we got this done and is a much safer security option
I would also advise to have a survey on your land for bedrock depth or any underlying issues with builds

I’m sure they will be expatriate influences within some companies or expatriate owned companies

Double glazed windows are easy.
Just go to a local supplier, they'll build the frames to order, and ask them to allow for two pieces of glass with a gap between, the outer glass being darkened.

Cash will do the persuading for you

We found our workers just down the road. They weren't working for a contractor or architect and they are from the same family. The savings from not using a contractor are considerable. And these guys know everything and will always come back to cleaner the torrent water tanks, fix this and that whenever we need them. They built the house we live in and have done one major renovation on another and currently fixing up another. However, they are in Java. We used them because they had built a house for an architect and the quality was good, the lead tukang could also read architects plans. He also arrange other contractors for drilling the well, installing the Wika roof water heater and everything else.

My point is also to wander around and find similar people doing other houses of good quality. We pay our workers IDR120k per day per worker. Usually around 8 workers when we built our house and for the renovations they use 5 workers.  We also provide them lunch everyday even though that was not in our agreement.

The other important thing is to always pay promptly. If you delay paying the supplier of the materials then the tukangs will be hanging around and may walk off the job. We do get credit for the materials supplier but no more than 2 weeks. We pay the tukangs weekly.