Foundation Rubble work for house construction

At Cochin Foundation work for house construction is generally costly as most of the land in Cochin are marshy land sometimes without even a trace of sand to depths as high as 12 to 15 metres.At Elamakkara where I have built a house of about 3000 sft in 2004 and presently building a house of about 3600 sft,I had to do concrete piling for foundation to depth of about 14.5 M.Similarly at Vyttila,Kathrikkdavu,Karukappilly,I had to do concrete piling.Including after piling works like raising pile columns,Foundation beams,basement brick work,filling plinth etc,Foundation costs in these cases have gone up to about Rs.10 lakhs
At Kaloor,Edappally,Palarivattom,Kalamassery,Kakkanad I could do with less costly rubble foundation as the soil in these places were stable with either abundant sand or laterite.
Rubble foundation traditionally was done in most of the places as rubble  masonry using rubble joined with sand cement mix or mortar with low mix ratio mostly as low as 1:10.Mortar when compared to rubble has low strength even after curing with water whereas the strength or bonding is better when used with brick normally with a mix ratio of 1:8.
My Guru Architect Angelique has taught me to use rubble work in dry pack for foundation as well as for basement.She was trained extensively under renowned Architect Lawrie Baker and thus I inherited all those cost reduction methods on building construction.


As usual I never accept anything unless I am fully convinced about correctness of the method adopted.Procedure followed by her duly followed by me with no change(As I am fully convinced about it)for Foundation work using rubble is detailed below
In a stable soil we do not dig a lot unnecessarily.In southern Kerala there is a widely accepted belief among people that whatever may be the strength of soil,one should dig at least 6 feet down for foundation rubble work for house.After digging 6 feet,mostly very stable soil(sometimes even laterite soil)they put p c c 1:10 in the bottom.

Then the rubble worker will simply throw rubble pieces into the six feet excavated foundation area.By such throwing of rubble,p c c will get damaged fully.nobody bothers.Once rubble filling reaches ground level they will build rubble basement above without doing anything extra for foundation rubble work in cement mortar of mix of 1:8 usually with cement plastering on top.If any builder or Engineer deviates from this generally accepted procedure not only the house owner but the entire people of the area will come and start abusing the person showing courage to deviate from the accepted practice.

I have faced this music and felt the heat very well when I built house at Ranni.Neither the owner nor the local people were willing to accept our procedure of rubble work for foundation.

Let us see what we do instead.

We do not dig more than 45 cm (1 1/2 feet) depth if the soil is stable.If the soil is hard laterite we do not even go down excavating more than 15 to 20 cm.We do not put p c c in stable soil to be broken by throwing of rubble pieces by rubble mason while doing foundation work.

We tell our rubble worker to closely pack rubble in dry pack method for foundation up to a height of 60 cm thereby keeping about 15 cm foundation rubble work above ground level.After this dry pack rubble foundation work,we force fill gaps of rubble work first by putting crusher sand above foundation work and then forcefully pumping water inside.As the crusher sand gets filled up inside dry packed rubble foundation,a stage will reach when no water will go down as it is fully packed with rubble and crusher sand making almost monolithic rubble foundation quite strong base for your house.

After this we build basement again by dry pack rubble work but with a slight inclination  sloping basement from 60 cm to 45 cm to a height of 45 cm for basement to add strength.We point outside of basement rubble work with mortar and plaster top of basement with a rich mix of mortar of 1:6.Inside of this rubble basement is open to receive forced filling of filling material usually red sand of powdery nature






At Ranni I had to threaten to leave the work to make my client to agree  to follow this procedure for Foundation rubble work and I have also given personal guarantee for the strength of work.Till completion of the work client and people around the area had doubts about our Foundation work.Once convinced Father of my client used to talk about others following usual procedure as fools and I used to enjoy his comments to that effect.
At Thiruvalla I was asked to leave the work due to my unwillingness to follow their  time tested or traditional method of foundation rubble work and I left the work in between rubble work.

At Chengannur,client reluctantly accepted my method of foundation rubble work.

At Cherthala and at many other places local people used to call me mad for doing this sort of foundation work and predicted that our Foundation will sink or break open.Once work progressed and nothing bad happened everybody seem to forget about their predictions.

At Kalamassery,another contractor was building his own house near my site .My client was an Engineer.Our neighbour contractor was very much critical about our foundation rubble work"without even a bag of cement".He told my client and his wife about how bad our construction is.He assured my client that our building will sink or crack or foundation will get damaged thereby causing damage to house.
My client in spite of my assurances was jittery.

Neighbour contractor has done a retaining wall in cement mortar without proper packing for his boundary wall. As I predicted retaining wall done by him has fallen apart one day and then he silently did it again as dry pack rubble work with better packing of rubble.Therafter he stopped criticising my work and started asking my client about my plans for balance work of the building.Only after that falling apart of bounday wall of neighbour,my client really started believing my words

Can anyone prepare plan for your house?

Recently I was amused to recieve an email from a client trying to build a house in a larger plot he purchased for nearly Rs.60 lakhs slightly away from Cochin in an interior location where there is hardly any houses nearby.An NRI he has taken me to the plot recently to see the plot before we go into the plan stage.

At the site he told me that he has the plan of the house ready with him.I thought he might have got it done by some other Architect and that will probably lessen my work as I may have to only modify the Plan prepared.
He returned to his work place in middle east and  sent me a single line sketch made by him and said that I should not make any change to his "Plan of the house"

This prompted me to write these lines on preparation of Plan of the house
Even though every person sees houses,not many do not bother to study more on house design or even elementary aspects of house construction.A lot of people think that house plan is something which any one can draw.Cheaper the better.
After getting any plan prepared by anyone,they ask the Architect to prepare a very good elevation for the plan as if Elevation is something totally unrelated to the Plan.I keep getting several mails asking me to do a "real good elevation" for the house with the plan forwarded.No architect has a magic wand by which he can make "good Elevation" for any Plan.

Plan is the most important document for the house construction.It gives drawing of the house when you cut the building at window level and remove upper portion and then look down from top.

While preparing a plan what I do are the following

1.Visit the plot where the house will come up and study site conditions like soil,surroundings,road access,level of the plot,directions and visualise the future house to be built with that extra insight and talent of an Architect.Many people think that just by obtaining four side dimensions of the plot an Architect can draw the plan.I am not denying this.But visiting the site and visualising or imagining the house in that plot with the extra talent and creativity of an Architect can make a lot of difference to the plan of the house.
2.Study requirement of the client in detail with detailed discussions.Guide the client on many aspects of house design and construction to obtain his views and requirement details.
3.Find out from client his budget restrictions if any.
On this point .most of the clients I have met did not want to share his financial plan for the house.Most of the prospective clients try to downsize their budget indication thinking that telling about exact financial condition may prompt me to raise my charges or cost of construction.Giving a wrong idea on your budget can create problems at plan stage as I or any other Architect will not be able to plan exactly suiting to your budget  limitations or possibilties.This may result in a house with lesser facilties  due to wrong message on your financial capabilties or facilities which you may not be able to complete fully due to lack of funds.

4.Incorporate Vasthu aspects in design

5.Use structural engineering aspects to ensure structural stabilty of the house and to reduce cost of construction.
6.Find out optimum use for every bit of building to be constructed to avoid wastage of space and to enhance utilty for space in the house.

7.Use special features of Kerala architecture and modern architecture inputs.

8.Plan to be prepared with an eye on elevation.To obtain a good Elevation Plan has to be made with that intention in mind.Elevation will be good if and only if Plan is prepared to get a good Elevation.No Architect can make a good Elevation for any Plan.

Above all lot of common sense will have to be used while preparing the Plan.Here years of experience in designing and building hundreds of houses play a vital role.
I have heard several times people telling me that he knows everything about house construction.Then I will ask him-How?
He will reply-I have constructed one or two or three houses depending on persons.

I have directly constructed more than 200 houses and designed much more.Still with each building construction,I study  several aspects which I have never noticed earlier.When the Architect has this treasure of experience,plan prepared by him can only get better.

So never try to design your house by yourself or go to less qualified less experienced person for preparation of Plan attracted by possibly lower charges.You will lose more money due to improper design and construction and when you realise the mistakes and shortcomings,it will be too late.You cannot do anything about it and you will have to live and suffer all those problems and deficiencies unless of course if you are rich enough to construct another house correcting your mistakes.

Before I conclude I should talk about another common wrong impression by prospective house building clients.Many get impressed by Plan and Elevation of houses built by others or dispayed in websites of builders.So,I keep getting mails saying that I want a house like this without even bothering to check whether that particular plan of the house will fit in his plot dimensions,requirements and above all his budget constraints.

You have to understand clearly that any plan and Elevation will not suit your plot.You have to obtain that unique plan ideally suited for your plot,requirements,budget,tastes etc.Instead of trying to become an Architect on your own, leave that job to the expert,Architect and do not forget to give him all those information on what all you need in the house including your dreams and hopes for the house.
Architect will guide you properly.
Before deciding on which Architect to choose try to understand and find out more on the works so far done by the Architect.If you feel happy about his qualifications and  experience in handling residential projects,then allow him to do the work without disturbance.

In my traditional christian family, years back it was considered great to have priests and nuns in the family circle even though of late their credibilty and status have declined a lot.When one client approached me for guidance right from selection of plot for house construction and related documentation,I thought I will be designing the house also.But when it came to preparation  of plan of the house,just as we used to proclaim about having our own priest from the family,he said relative of his wife is an Architect and naturally he will do a better job than me possibly due to relationship.
But when I saw the plan prepared I could make out several basic flaws in the plan which will ultimately turn out to be inconvineances leading to lesser utilty for space and cause for increase of cost.He was not willing to listen to my mild suggestions and insisted that the Plan is the best possible having prepared by a relative.When the construction moved on, he realised the flaws but it was too late to do anything.
The relative also gave him a three dimensional Elevation for the house.When I told him that even though picture looks good with the colours,house built like that will not look good,he simply laughed at me.But when  my prediction on deficiencies of Plan became clear to him,he told me to prepare an alternate three dimensional elevation whatever may be my charges.

Even though money is yours if you do not give the Architect proper professional freedom to decide and choose the best for you,you may not get the best work from him.After all for him it is only one of the many houses he design and build.For you it is the only house you build in your life time for you and for generations to come.Make the Architect feel good for you to make him put that element of extra care for your project.

Onam -festival of Keralites

Almost all festivals of Kerala are festivals of home coming for Keralites working outside his home town or village.Quite a lot of Keralites live in almost all countries of the world because Kerala even though rich with beautiful nature does not offer much on the economic front.
You can watch water flowing down over rocks amidst thick green forests,lakes and rivers running all over Kerala land and long beaches on one side of the state through its full length.But all these natural beauty you can enjoy during a vacation or holiday.When the money in pocket flows out you will have to move out of Kerala to fill the pockets again.
Very few Keralites are lucky enough to live and work in their home state if not necessarily in their native village or town.Others always live away from Kerala with an undying wish for living in Kerala.So festivals turn out to be family get togethers when relatives living and working in different parts of the world join at their native place.

Of all the festivals of Kerala Onam seems to be the most popular celebrated by all people of Kerala irrespective of religious divisions.Onam is celebrated using an excuse of a story possibly scripted by some one wise enough and rich in imagination.But still we Keralites would like to firmly believe just like a religious belief that the story of Onam is real and there really was a good king called Mahabali with an utopian life under his rule.
I will reproduce below a poem written by me which explains on rule of Mahabali the King and his days of happy life for all those people lived under him.
But the story says that this good King was sent to the other world called as pathalam by the real God who might have got irritated by lack of sorrow or unhappiness among human beings living under King Mahabali.If there is no sorrow and unhappiness ,who will cry for mercy of God?
But while being sentenced to pathalam,King Mahabali prayed to God to allow him to come and visit his land and people once in a year.We celebrate our greatest festival called Onam when the legendory King visit us for ten days in an year

Onam and King Mahabali

Long long back
We had this King called Mahabali
When he was ruling,
there was no sins.

No looting, no cheating
No lies, no killings
No rapes, no beatings
No double standards,
No scheming treachery.

No shortage of food
No rich and poor
No sorrows, no pain

No one was afraid of anyone
No one was doubtful about any one
No one was expecting trouble from any one

No locks and safe lockers
No jails and no police

Every one was loving and caring
Every one was helpful
Every one was there when you need help
Every one loved every one.

In our land, every year
We still celebrate ten days of festival
remembering those old days of happiness
Dreaming with no reason,
those dreamy days will come back.
Dreaming that our old King Mahabali
will come back from death
and rule us again.

with no looting, cheating
with no lies and killings
with no rapes and beatings
with no shortage of food
with no rich and poor
with no sorrows and pain.

We call those ten days
Onam festival days
Onam days of King Mahabali

Life in Kerala turning out to be highly insecure

Communists ruling Kerala is throwing away all sense of security feeling for poor ordinary people living in this beautiful state of India.

Unquestioned  leader of the party,Pinaray Vijayan who acts and talk like a dictator with scant regard for the people  or law of land  sends out nothing but fear in the minds of hapless people of Kerala whenever he opens his mouth.His close aides like three Jayarajans also talk like him .None of them are least bothered about laws of the land or minimum decency expected from the people in public life.

Pinaray and his team accused of looting 374 crores in one single deal which alone has come out in the open has done everything possible to defeat prosecution and is still confident of getting out triumphant laughing at all those who tried to make him face prosecution for the blatant looting.

Even the Chief Justice of India has commented adversely on the draconian rule purposely put in place in Indian penal code by unscrupulous politicians preventing prosecution of rulers of the country practically without their consent.

Look at what has happened in SNC Lavlin looting case.

Only after 16 long years due to continuous fighting by a non politician like T.P.Nandakumar,allegation of corruption was investigated by CBI under close supervision by high court of Kerala.

If a case has to be registered against Pinaray Vijayan people he appointed as ministers and who remain as ministers only as long as he pleases have to give consent for prosecution.

Naturally they refused action against Pinaray
Then Governor of Kerala who happened to be in the opposite political camp rejected reccommendation of ministry of Kerala to let Pinaray Vijayan go scot free whatever may be the extent of looting or evidences against him obtained by CBI through years of investigation.

With all official documents supposed to be confidential ,Pinaray Vijayan who happens to be an out of constitutional  position person approached Supreme Court of country with highest paid lawyer for him and another equally high profile lawyer to support him in the name of  State Of Kerala to protect and save him from prosecution.

If all these are not sufficient for an ordinary citizen like me to loose faith in the system of governance of the country look at what happened to a very rich highly influential youth from Muthoot family.

He was killed brutually on the way side at midnight
Police simply tried to charge some one totally unrelated for the murder.
A film actress known to everyone present in the vehicle at the time of murder not even questioned by police.
Lots of cash present in the vehicle disappeared.Police did not bother to enquire into this.

People who are likely to be murderers were allowed to escape and finally caught as per a game plan to be let out only as witness.
Police making knife through a blacksmith to prove that alleged accussed are behind the murder.Post martom report was tampered using the influence and muscle power of ruling party.

Family of killed Paul.M.George keep quiet inspite of all these due to reasons known only to them and probably due to pressure from  the powerful minister of internal security who happens to be a close confident of Pinaray Vijayan
With all these going on can an ordinary person living in this state without support of Pinaray and company feel secure?

Poem-God Laughing at me

This poem was written when my cousin died suddenly in a scooter accident.His scooter hit head on on a Toyota collis when it was coming from a side road.Vehicle coming from side road should have waited to allow vehicle coming from main road to pass.But nobody bothers much about traffic rules in this part of the world and naturally you can be treated as lucky if you return safe back home after a journey

God laughing at me


I asked him:
'Can I see the body? '
'Yes. before the doctors come'
He opened the door
and then
the mortuary drawer.
Out came my cousin's body
cuddled with that of a beggar
He looked majestic
all 186 cm
Designer shirt
with upper buttons open
to show a rosary on the neck.
Coffee brown pants
Imported stylish costly watch
stopped showing time of his death.
Specially made
elegant shoes.

His eyes closed
as if in sleep
not even a cut on his body
Only the body of beggar almost embracing him
in the same drawer looked
abnormal.
Otherwise he looked
just sleeping
his hands still in a position
holding bike.
I thought of calling him,
even his thick stylish hair looked live.

Coming out I strangely felt
envy for him.
He could escape from this world.
I had years and years of torture
unending torture
never ending stories of pain.

God must be thinking that
death will be my greatest enjoyment.
He being naughty
He must be denying it to me
like even a bit of love.

But I am working out my plans to defeat God
and his unending laugh
whenever he sees me

Poem-Alone, how long I can go?

I used to write poems from my college days.At Trichur Engineering college I was quite happy and thrilled to see admiring faces of my fellow students after hearing me reciting poems in Malayalam from the stage whenever an opportunity came.even during college election time,I used to write campaign material for rival parties in poems and poetic language.I have never kept those poems with me.But the poet in me still lives and as a poet you feel and experience everything in life differently with that extra vision on everything feeling intensely for every minute experiences of mine and others.I will reproduce some of the poems I published in a poetry site
Alone, how long I can go?


Alone, how long I can go?
Do I need to hear your voice near me?
Do I need to feel your sweating hand inside my hand?
Making me feel you are with me.
Do I need to look at your clear sparkling eyes?
Just to feel thrill of my heart
When it notices that widening of your eyes
When you look at me
as if seeing the most beautiful
being of this world.


Alone, how long I can go?
without feeling your smell close to me
without feeling your warm body near me
without feeling a part of me walking by my side
with my own legs
with my own hands
with my own mind
with my own dreams.


Alone, how long I can go?
without you calling the naughtiest of names
without you getting worried about
even sweat on my forehead
without you planning
our days coming
without you pushing me to move on
without you pushing me to face
whatever may come on our way


Then you told me
I was with you even before you
came to earth
and even when you go from earth
I will be with you

We travel
to eternity
Our road never ends.
Our legs never get tired
We laugh, hug and walk
hand in hand
to the never reaching
end of the world.

Kuttanad landscape

For those of you who think that Kerala does not produce any rice for food for Keralites,just travel to Kuttanad or interior Palghat.Even now they are cultivating rice in paddy fields against all odds.I have no idea whether the cultivation is profitable or not.I have taken few pictures of these paddy fields on the side of road on my way to Chengannur where I am building a house for an NRI
During my last trip, I think I have seen machines being used to take harvest of rice in the same paddy fields.Now they have planted small rice plants in a large paddy field.You can see workers doing work in the paddy field,a rare sight in Kerala where getting workers for agricultural work is a bit difficult.
By the side of paddy fields blank spaces are being taken by Ambal flowers( a smaller version of lotus).Seeing those flowers with their round leaves spread on water surface is something nice to see.You can see the picture here

Low cost house construction

This  heading by itself does not mean reducing cost of construction while attempting to build a house at least for Keralites.Possibly a foreigner architect settled ,lived and died in Kerala called Lawrie Baker introduced this concept called low cost construction with houses not plastered and looking a bit strange with odd shaped structural work
Basic assumption of Lawrie Baker was that material used for house construction is costly and labour is cheap.So every attempt should be made to save cost of material even if it meant increasing the labour input.
Today labour is not cheap and hence that theory advising to save only material has no relevance .Gradually those so called low cost houses are coming down and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find out masons who can do that type of brick work which do not require plastering.
In the beginning I was fascinated by the attempts to reduce cost of construction of houses.I have used filler slabs for roof which involve use of low quality clay tiles inside concrete to reduce steel reinforcement for roof slab,even though it meant searching for low quality tiles and using this type of concreting with not so happy reaction from my client.My client even though happy about reducing cost was never happy about filler slab roof concrete with reduced use of steel reinforcement and using clay tiles inside concrete as filler material
When you start doing cost reduction methods to reduce cost,you tend to become an architect for people with little money or more correctly people who are reluctant to part money which they have.Even after building the house with reduced house,my client will not be happy.With the usual Malayalee habit of always trying to find fault syndromme you end up having an unhappy client saying that even with all that low cost methods your cost of construction seems to be high!
To tell you the truth,I have never ever came across a client who does not say that cost of construction is high.Even if I build with loss,he will still say that cost of construction is high and normally no client will be happy to hear that the builder is making profit.All house owners pray and hope that the builder should make a loss.Even if the builder quit the trade after work on his house,he is not bothered.After  all he is not going to make another house
About five years back,I came across a christian priest who used to make houses for poor and then obtain almost double of his expenses for building houses for poor from the foreign charity organisations.In fact it was simply a lucrative business for him even though through paid advertisements in news papers he put his pictures and called himself as,"Karunyathinte nirakudom"(A symbol of mercy and love towards downtrodden)
When he called me to see construction going on in a plot for 40 houses for the poor,I have noticed that the poor were getting only poor quality construction and the contractor was simply getting rich partly due to ignorance of the priest on building related matters.After all he himself was not much bothered about quality of construction.He only wanted to take pictures of the houses and earn money from his foreign donors.

I offered to do the construction with better quality and lower cost.Naturally he was happy.But when I started doing the work with better quality materials and labour,he did not appreciate my good work.Just like any other client he started thinking that I must be making good profits.He started quarelling with me finding out excuses after excuses and started squeezing funds to me.Finally I was forced to get out of the contract after nearly 90% of work was completed as he avoided making payments to me even for the work done.
Then he started building similar houses directly without any contractor hoping that he can get the profit of contractor also.When he eventually spent more money naturally due to absence of professional management he stopped the project.
Almost all house owners building their houses think on the same lines.
They think the following
1.Contractor is making huge profit
2.If I remove the contractor and arrange materials directly and engage workers directly I will save lot of money.
He learns his lessons only by burning his hands and those lessons have no use as he is not going to build another house.
Any business need profit to survive.Profit is not a bad word.If somebody makes profit by running a business it is not due to looting of money.It is due to efficient management of the business.Not every person will  be able to make such profits if any without the professional capabilties,experience and capabilty to manage and run the business efficiently

Missed opportunities

I was standing in the queue for a movie ticket just behind the first man.A beautiful looking girl came and smiled at me and said-Can you take a ticket for me?Standing behind this queue I will not get ticket.
That was quite unexpected for me having come for this film alone just to kill my boredom.Before I could even think of an answer to her, man standing before me said-You will get ticket standing behind .
So she left unhappy.While entering the theatre after buying the ticket I noticed that she has not got the ticket.She looked at me with hope in her eyes thinking that I might have purchased an extra ticket.Ever since that day I kept on cursing my inabilty to catch that opportunity.She was looking so good.I could have become friendly with her and then the prospects looked so rosy.But a dumb fool like me has missed that golden opportunity
I have heard from many people many times-If only I have taken that decision at that time--
But the trouble is that we miss the opportunity when it knocks on our door and keep on lamenting about missed opportunities for days and years together
Basically we are reluctant to take decisions,act in time and catch opportunities life throws in front of us.
Those who are sucessful in life also might have missed several opportunities due to their reluctance or more often their fear to take decisions.But they might have caught opportunities head on more than most of us.Success need risk taking and abilty to take decisions fast and act also fast.

Less than 2000sft four bed economical house design

1900 square feet plinth area two bed rooms of size,300 x 360 cms (10 feet x 12 feet),two more bed rooms of size 300 x 270 cm(10 feet x 9 feet) with three toilets close to bed rooms(almost attached) house design is now ready with me.
This house has got sit out at entry,living space as big as 450 x 360 cms(15 feet x 12 feet),Dining space as big as 330 x 405 cms with a stair moving up by the side of dining,Kitchen and work area spacious enough.
A guest bed close to living space with toilet nearby which can be used also as a common toilet,double height area above dining space at first floor,balcony and family living lounge at First Floor.Three bed rooms come at first floor.
Living room is seperated from inner rooms of the house providing privacy for family members to move freely inside the house.Even though it is an economical design,the house will have a very attractive external appearance.Another major advantage for the design is that every room is well ventilated with almost day light natural lighting inside rooms.
For this economical but good design please write to me at vhthomas@viruvelil.com