Make that incomplete house habitable

In a bid to have rent relief and enough space, Vincent Kintu and his family moved into their incomplete three-bedroom-house in Gayaza. We felt we were wasting money that could be used to complete the house in rent, we therefore decided to enter the house without fittings and an incomplete floor,” he says.

The floor
The father of two says since the floor was not complete, they decided to use a plastic carpet for the entire house.
“Since we have a baby who crawls, we did not want him to hurt his knees. However, we did not put a carpet in the kitchen because he has no business there,” he explains.
He adds that the engineer discouraged them from pouring soapy water on the concrete floor because the soap makes the surface slippery thus making it hard to lay tiles. “We decided to complete the outside bathroom which we use as we complete the bathrooms inside.”

The walls and ceiling
The businessman adds: “When you enter our house, you would think we painted the walls and ceiling white but this is just a good undercoat job which we opted to use for purposes of beautifying the house pending painting.”

Lighting
He, however, adds that since they had already done electrical wiring, they did not want to do more of the same when it came to solar hence settling for using solar lamps at night.

The windows
Anthony Nakedde, a self-employed engineer, says if the windows of your house are not complete, you can improvise by fitting in cardboards, plywood or iron sheets but this means you will have limited lighting during day.
“However, if you use these, you should plan on installing glass at least within a month’s time because of security reasons.”

The walls
Nakedde explains that you can live in a house without plaster as long as the walls have a fair surface that can allow for the placing of cabins and clothing hangers among other things.
However, for the wet areas such as the bathroom, and the kitchen, Nakedde advises the use of PVC sheets on the walls so as to protect them from water.
“It is not good to spill water on the walls before they are complete since it makes them weak. If you cannot afford PVC, ensure that you do not pour water on those walls when using those rooms,” he says.

The don’ts
Do not enter a house without an operational toilet or pit latrine so that you do not compromise your health.
A secure house should have all the main doors fixed.
Do not enter the house where the drainage cannot be managed because it will compromise your health.

Advice Find an engineer or an architect that can advise you on what to fix before moving in, here you can be able to weigh options either staying at a relative’s home as the completion goes on or moving in.
He advises people not to use woollen carpets on incomplete floors as these collect dust which harbours fleas.

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