Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Our Bali hut, which was part of our house purchase 5.5+ years ago, has been looking the worse for wear. Holes in the roof, broken bits of thatching rows, chunks out of the hips etc. So it was time to see if it could be repaired, or if a complete rethatching job was the only option. Guess what? Unable to be repaired…

It got rethatched over a couple of days last week. (For those in the south-west of Western Australia, the company I used was Carpenters R Us, from Mandurah. The tradies were young, polite, and cleaned up after themselves. Cost: About $4000… ouch! Expected life — 12 to 15 years.)

Before

If you look closely near the hips/ridges, you can see gaps, which are much more obvious from the photo taken from the inside.

During and after

Removing the old thatching; new stuff (Alang Alang) wrapped in the ‘body bags’

All the old thatching is now gone

The new stuff is pretty hairy! This is before it was raked and tied down

Before the new hips (with metal flashing beneath) were added

No daylight to be seen!!

Hairy hut, with a big fringe. Yes, I opted for fire retardant on the thatching (extra $450), and had a butterfly sprinkler installed on top of the hut a few weeks earlier.

Looking through the fringe