The development of timber defects inspection checklist for rumah kutai / Najat Affendy Dzulkifly

The threat of the extinction of Rumah Kutai is becoming a concern. To date, it is estimated that no more than 50 houses remain. Even so, less than 30 are still intact. The rest are in deplorable condition. The high maintenance cost of timber houses has caused damage after damage ignored by the occupants for a long time. Amongst issues, Rumah Kutai is privately owned and not subject to a heritage body to concern. Maintenance expenses need to be borne by the building owners who live below the poverty line on average. These are the problems being faced. Despite the scenario, something needs to be done to prevent the iconic heritage house from becoming extinct. Periodic inspections need to be executed on Rumah Kutai that are still intact to identify early damage to avoid high repair costs due to major repairs. The research aims to develop an appropriate checklist to conduct timber defect inspection for Rumah Kutai. Three research objectives have been established: (i) to identify the type of defect for timber building, (ii) to analyze the inspection process for timber building defect, and (iii) to develop the timber defect inspection checklist for Rumah Kutai.