You know that feeling you sometimes get first thing in the
morning, you got invited to a party, the company was great,
food was excellent and a particularly good bottle of plonk
went down so well that you had one too many, well two too
many, well..... at 5 o’clock when you crawled home you
can’t remember how many you had and who the hell cares
anyway!
At 8am you crawl out of bed wishing you were dead and vowing
a hollow vow that you will never drink again, well - not until
the next time anyway.
Your feet meet cold tiles, halfway to the bathroom you step
into a wet puddle of something someone left the night before.
You go skidding across the floor. As you fall you know it
is going to be hard, very very hard.....
As you pick up your bruised and battered body you realise
you have quite an intimate relationship with your floor. It
is the part of the house you are usually in contact with and
very often with naked flesh. But pity your poor floor, it
gets walked on, sat on, jumped on, spilt on. It gets the most
wear in the house but is expected to scrub up well everytime.
If you think about it the general look of any house is very
much determined by the floor. Unfortunately once a house is
built it is a major exercise to change a floor and so we tend
to put up with them as they are. It is, therefore, worthwhile
taking the time to select floors with care and make sure they
are installed properly.
In western countries wood has been the material of choice
for floors but with the worldwide loss of rainforests those
beautiful hardwood floors will soon be a thing of the past.
Most floors here in Indonesia are, of course, made from ceramic
tiles which are nice and cool, very wear resistant and easy
to clean. Plain white has been the colour of choice for decades
making houses look like mortuaries.
Have you ever noticed how many colours of white there are?
Look at a paint colour chart and you’’ll see what
I mean. You can have white, “extra” white, “super”
white, “broken” white, “off” white,
“sooper dooper” white, “extra bright”
white, “white with an extra bit of white in it”
white and “this is so white you won’t believe
how white this is” white. In fact you can have any colour
of mortuary you wish white.
In recent years, however, a vast range of colours and designs
of ceramic tiles has become available and there are many many
shops in Bali selling them. Find a shop that specialises in
tiles and you’ll be amazed at the variety. You’ll
find a pretty good range at Deta Bangunan on Jalan Gatot Subroto
Barat.
If you build a house or install a new floor always make sure
you buy enough tiles in the first place and that you keep
a stock of spare tiles to replace ones that may get damaged
in the future. Tile designs are constantly changing and you
may find that a design of tile that was available in most
ceramic shops one week has suddenly vanished never to return
again. That friendly shop assistant will always promise that
they will get some more but when you ask they are always coming
“next” week. Like the old pub sign says “free
beer tomorrow” tomorrow never seems to come.
Tiled floors can be lethal when wet so, unless there is someone
you may wish to do away with, avoid putting shiny ceramic
tiles in outdoor situations where they are exposed to rain.
These days there are many styles of textured tiles available
to provide non slip surfaces for bathrooms, showers and wet
areas and, while the tiles used for local bathrooms tend to
look a little spartan, you will find some quite luxurious
textured tiles including very slip resistant styles with a
sand like finish (be careful though they might take the skin
off your nether regions if you get a bit amorous after a candle
lit dinner)!
In addition to ceramic tiles there are some excellent natural
materials available here in Bali. The floors in my house are
granite which has a natural look, is extremely durable and
has a very smooth finish.
Indonesia exports a wide range of coloured marble to all corners
of the world. Marble gives a luxurious look but be careful,
it is not as hard as ceramic or granite and may wear, stain
or damage. The shine can also be taken off by abrasive cleaners.
There are many types of stone available for flooring in Bali
but care is needed, avoid porous stone for internal floors
and uneven stones may look good but may cause you to trip.
Palimanan stone is very popular these days particularly for
outdoor areas but my advice is to avoid it for floors. Palimanan
is a white or light brown sedimentary rock similar to sandstone
but much finer grained and softer. It gives a beautiful Greek
temple look when it is new and clean but it has a tendency
to show the after effects of that memorable orgy, the red
wine stains, spilled coffee, scuff marks from black rubber.
When installing a floor think carefully about the joints.
Larger tiles mean fewer joints but may result in more wastage
when cutting and laying the tiles. A good tiler will always
plan carefully where the joints will fall. In a bathroom joints
in the wall tiles should not clash with the joints in the
floor. A clever trick is to install tiles with the joints
running diagonally to relieve the “square” look
in a room.
There are many colours of grout available too but some can
look quite garish. A look in a few local bathrooms and you
will see what I mean. Yellow tiles with green grout has a
tendency to give you morning sickness.
A trick to revitalise a “tired” looking floor
is to scrape out the grout and renew it with fresh white grout,
it is surprising what a difference it can make. Unfortunately
cracked or chipped tiles are not so easy to repair.
It is important to make sure when laying a floor that the
base is prepared properly before the surface is installed.
It is quite amazing how many floors in Bali have inadequate
base preparation. Ideally floor tiles should have reinforced
concrete under them to provide a stable crack and water resistant
foundation.
Finally it is well to note that in Bali few builders install
waterproof membranes beneath floors, a friend of mine has
had endless problems with moisture coming up through the attractive
quarry tiles in his living room. These days he watches TV
in his Speedos.
Phil Wilson
Phil Wilson is a project director for Focus Indonesia and
a partner of MrFixit property maintenance services. Opinions
expressed are those of Phil Wilson. If you have any questions
or comments he can be contacted at the office on 0361 288
789 or through the website at www.mrfixitbali.com
