Thursday, February 9, 2012

Design and Construction of house in Kerala:Replies to your queries

CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSE WITHIN A PREFIXED AMOUNT

QUOTE

Dear Sir,

Good day to you

Cost figure which you put up on is not at all affordable to me.

My maximum budget 20-24 Lakhs. 

So in that budget i need a house. And i intend to start by 1st of July, 2012 and looks to complete in 31.05.2012.

Ranjith O S

My reply

Cost of construction of house to be built is not in the hands or control of me or any body else.Nobody can predict cost increases in hundreds of materials to be used for construction and increases in labour charges.

If some body says I will build a house only if some body can guarantee cost within certain amount is like saying you will buy rice after one and a half years only if the price per Kg is say Rs.23/- No shop is going to supply you rice at price decided by you.You have to pay ruling price of the day.

Similarly for house construction,you have to pay ruling price of day for all inputs that go in to construction.

All that you can do is to bring down your requirements for the house to bring down cost component if you have no way of finding finance required to meet your needs for the house

There can be lot of cost reduction and possibility of getting better utility for every bit of built up area if you are willing to have and pay for professional design and guidance through out construction.

Are you willing to go ahead or you want to wait for  a non professional contractor to say false promise about cost of building house to start construction?

RATES FOR TILE LAYING

QUOTE

Dear Sir, Good Morning

It’s really nice to hear from you, always am watching yours articles and suggestions. Sir, my house construction was going on now flooring stage – please advise me the reasonable rate of Verified tiles & Granite fixing (fixing charge)per square meter.

Mahesh Kumar.T.K

Coca-Cola

Abu Dhabi – UAE

My reply

If I tell some rates for fixing flooring material,will your contractor agree to do work for that rate?

Rates of labour charges can be compared only if the way of fixing tiles/flooring material is similar,work man ship is similar and if availability of such labour in all areas are similar.But all these vary from place to place, from one contractor to another.

Generally all construction workers and contractors try to cheat owner of a building to be constructed mainly because he has practically no knowledge or very little(mostly wrong) knowledge on building construction.Unless you have a professional to advice and guide you throughout building construction,workers and contractors will take you for a ride.Their objective is simply to make more money..In that process of making money they do not consider anything as wrong.Quality of your construction and structural stability of your building will be irreparably damaged in their quest for making money.All that they will do to make you feel confident is to talk nicely and advice you wrongly to meet their objective of making more money.

After structure work of building is completed,most of house building owners think that most important parts of construction is over and you simply need some workers to complete balance work.You need continuous guidance and assistance of a qualified experienced professional to get things right at this stage.

RIVER SAND OR M SAND?

QUOTE

Respected Thomas Sir,
I would like to construct a house in Sreekariyam in Trivandrum,
keeping construction costs as low as possible. Sir, do we have to use
wire cut bricks or are ordinary bricks strong enough for double storey
buildings. I came across the term" Manufactured Sand" what is
manufactured sand. Is it better than river sand or vice versa? Also
how much does it cost? Some people say river sand now available is not
pure river sand instead sea sand is mixed with some other sand and
thus we may be cheated. How can a layman like me know the purity of
river sand that I purchase? If we do not get river sand are there any
other alternatives for a)concrete work b) plastering work. Any other
tips to reduce Electrical and plumbing cost? What do you think of
Anthenkudi tiles for low cost flooring?
Anoop

My reply

I have commented on difference between River sand and M sand several times earlier.But still I continue to get queries on this.

Manufactured sand ( M sand ) is made at metal crushers using rock pieces.If properly crushed to size of river sand and cleaned to remove quarry dust,M sand is better compared to river sand for concreting and brick work.

For plastering till such time packaged plastering sand is available in market,we have to use lower size river sand only.

Trouble with river sand is that it has several impurities like mud, and even chemicals discharged from factories near rivers in it.Some of these chemicals present in river sand can cause deterioration of building parts over a period of time.So technically it is better to use manufactured sand for concrete and brick work

I have not heard about “Anthenkudi” tiles and hence cannot comment on it

CAN I USE PLAN OF HOUSE OF MY FRIEND?

QUOTE

I myself Manjumol. from Oman. I am working as a cardiologist in a hospital.

Sir, I came to know about you from website and i am very happy to read all your article about House and Vasthu.

My plot is located in Ernakulum, Kolenchery, Pattimattam. I am planning a make a home in my plot. I like my friend house and she has given me the drawing also.

If you can check this drawing as per vasthu and please give some suggestion about it. Kindly send me your service cost also. My house is faced to North.

My reply

Thank you for your nice words on my work.

Plan sent by you have several architectural and Vasthu defects.Some of them which came to my notice at first checking for GF Plan  are the following:

Vasthu defects

1.For a North Facing house Kitchen should be at Agni Konam(South East).Bed room here will be dangerous.

2.Other Bed room at North East is also not auspicious as North East is Eesaanaknoam ideal for Pooja

3.Kitchen at South West is bad.South West is ideal space for Master bed

Architectural defects

1.Living room has very little space for Sitting.TV is kept in a Home Theatre and not in middle of sitting room as per present trend

2.Light at Living room  and Dining is not adequate and U shaped old style stair case blocks whatever little light that can come to Dining space.Living,Dining in single hall creates problem for privacy.

3.Toilets are too narrow with 140 and 150 cm width.Present trend is to have spacious toilets

4.Rectangular shape plan will not give opportunity for a good Elevation and better ventilation and lighting

5.Dress in Master Bed is a dark area with no access to light

It is better to go for a design with modern architecture features combined with traditional Kerala Architecture.We can design a house suited to your needs,budget,Vasthu considerations of the plot.

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