Again on cost of construction

If you go to a shop selling rice and ask for price of rice for a Kg,you will get an answer from the seller who might have been selling rice for many years.If you ask him what will be the price of rice after a month,possibly the rice seller will look at you with a smile or contempt in his face(depending upon his mood) and will ask you whether you are mad to ask such a foolish question.If you continue to press for an answer saying that you have been selling rice for many years,why cant you tell approximate cost after a month,the shop fellow will tell you to get lost.

People keep on sending mails to me and say that he is planning to construct house and what will be the square feet plinth area cost of construction.They add these words of praise to me some times:”You have been designing and building houses for so many years.So you must be able to tell”

Rice seller is not able to predict cost of rice after a month.Then how can any one predict cost of constructing a house which may  get completed  after a year or more? House construction involves not one material but hundreds of material and different types of labour.How can any one predict cost of a house to be constructed?

.Everyday price of materials and labour keep going up continuously.If any contractor quote a firm price,to keep his margin he will have to compromise somewhere and if that is not possible,he will be forced to leave contract mid way  as no body will be willing to build your house by spending money from his pocket.All estimates are sort of guesses.

Trouble with those who go for house construction in Kerala is that they have lot of wrong and foolish ideas and concepts about house construction.First and fore most is the thinking that if some one has money to build house every body related to house construction will come running for the cake.Those who come running will be crooks in the field.They know how to cheat  the client and run away with profit.
Another important wrong concept is that if you simply know square feet plinth area of a house cost can be known by multiplying square feet plinth area in to that "rate"
I have directly built more than 200 houses ,designed and acted as consultant for many more.All through this work,I have never come to know about that magical"rate"
There is no such thing as square feet plinth area rate which will be known before construction starts.Only way of finding it out if you are so much fond of finding that "rate"will be to add up all your expenses after completion of your house construction and divide by your square feet plinth area.Even then it will be the "rate " for your house construction and any body else building house will have a different" rate"
If you have decided to build your house,first important cost reduction exercise is to get a professional design,assistance and guidance through out construction.That will save you lots of money , better utility,lesser wastage and maximum facilities for money spent.
There is an Engineering Estimate method by which we calculate quantities of each item of construction and multiplying such quantities thus obtained with unit rates currently used ,you will get almost near cost of structure of building.

For finishing work there are umpteen options now and the options will change and innovations will come even during the progress  of construction. of your house.
Time of construction also depend upon many ifs.Funniest part is that nobody knows answers for all those ifs.If everything goes well smoothly you may be able to finish structural work within 6 to 8 months depending upon favorable answers to hundreds of ifs

For any good builder of house in Kerala ,there are more work than  they can handle and hence there is no need to quote low price and get work some how.If some one is willing to quote lower price and get work by talking nicely and sweetly to you,that is a clear indication that you are being led to danger taking advantage of your greed to pay less and get more for less money.

Earlier there were only Thiruvalla and Kottayam people who were happy to cheat others by not paying or paying less.They get sort of thrill in cheating others and they consider it as their capability,being able to avoid payments   legitimately due to some one.For such crooked minded people Indian rupee has different values, if it is their money and if it is some body else’s money.Their money is more valuable and other man’s money and his efforts have no value.Now this sort of thinking is spreading to even other parts of Kerala.In my native village we used to call this as policy of Thoompa(spade).A spade can only take things.It never gives away anything.

Once we start respecting value of other man’s efforts and pay others what is legitimately due to them you get  quality work,loyalty,sincerity and dedication from  the man at the receiving end.That will definitely help you a lot in life as well as in building construction.

Room sizes

I have come across several cases where the client ask for larger room sizes without realising what can be or should be the ideal room sizes

A Bed room with size,300 cm(10 feet) and 270 cm(9 feet) is more than sufficient to keep the largest normally used cot of size,180 cm(6 feet) x 155cm(5.5 feet).This room size will leave sufficient space on either side of the cot.There should not be any toilet door opening to this bed space as it will take passage space from this.So you have to have a space where toilet door can be opened.This space is normally indicated as dress space in plans even though the space may not be used for dressing.

If you want to keep a table on one side of cot,you will have to increase that side length by another 90 cm.So your bed space now goes up to 300cm x 360 cm.This size is normally considered as comfortable space for a bed room with dress and toilet nearby.Most of the apartments have bed room size as 300cm x 360cm..If you  want to increase the bed space ,maximum you need to go in case of a villa can be 420cm x 390 cm(14 feet x 13 feet).Bed space above this is simply a wastage.

When you look at formal living room where you entertain your guests you have to see how many persons will visit you at a time.In a normal house not more than  five people will not be using formal living room at a time.So there is no point in having very large living room.

Members of the family require a living space where they can sit and relax,watch TV,work on your lap top,listen to music away from place where guests sit and thus a space called as family living space is required.You can have Dining room on one side of this family living ,Pooja,access to stair also close to this space.There can be another family living space where you reach by climbing up stair in the case of two storey house.This space can also be combined with Home theatre even though some people prefer Home theatre space closed to avoid disturbance to other family members who does not want to watch TV or listen to music.Home theatre can ideally have a size of 450cm to 600 cm in length to 390 cm in width

When the room size or (loading span in structural engineering language) increases structural cost will increase due to more steel reinforcement required.So unless you really need it,do not increase size of rooms.Apart from structural cost,over all cost of house will also increase unnecessarily if you increase size of rooms without any reason or justification.

For keeping all necessary gadgets of Kitchen in workable distance is very important in Kitchen.If you have an unnecessarily large Kitchen,the person working in the kitchen will find it difficult as she will have to walk around kitchen a lot adding to her strain.I have observed that Kitchen with dimensions 270 cm x 240 cm(9 feet x 8 feet) is more than sufficient to keep all Kitchen facilities at a comfortable distance allowing lesser running around for the Kitchen user.You need to add to these dimensions only if you want to add an eating place inside Kitchen or an Island in the Kitchen just like in western houses.Check on possible dimensions required for adding a small dining space or island and then suitably increase dimensions of Kitchen in consultation with your Architect.

There has to be a utility space in the house where you can keep washing machine,ironing table,grinder etc.Keep it nearer to Kitchen and Family living space.Unless you live in Village areas,you do not require a firewood Kitchen or  so called work area.

Guest bed room is rarely used these days as with increased availability of travel facilities and faster life nobody would prefer to stay overnight in the house of a relative.So go for guest bed only if you can afford it .

In the beginning of construction when you prepare plan of the house,you may feel like adding one more room though not essential and increasing sizes of rooms unnecessarily.But all cost indications given by your contractor and Architect can go wrong and construction cost can only go up in Kerala Conditions.So plan a house with dimensions of rooms just sufficient for your needs and definitely not bigger than required.Your Architect can guide you  after understanding your needs in selecting ideal room sizes for your house.

Foundation of the building

Having built houses in different parts of state of Kerala,I have come across different beliefs in different areas about foundation work for a building.

Kerala is yet to reach a situation were professionals are sought for design and construction of a building.Professional Architect and structural Engineer is considered to be ornamental requirements for those who build large costly houses.Most of the professionals of Kerala are also responsible to a great extent for this alienation from the majority of their possible clientele ,as they never tried to make themselves easily accessible to their possible clients.

People of Kerala have this peculiar behavior where they try to avoid making payments to professionals for their services.I have come across several people who ask “Why you want to take thousands of rupees for drawing some lines as plan of the house?”They will not bother about spending lakhs of rupees but spending few thousands will be extremely painful to them especially if it is design charges or consultation charges.For such services they expect the professional to be happy with whatever they may please to pay without specifying any specific fees or charges.

In different locations of Kerala  people are following certain practices for doing foundation of a building without bothering to check with a qualified professional to see whether that procedure is the right ,technically correct way of doing foundation of a building.

In most of the places especially in southern Kerala people believe that excavation for foundation of a building should be at least six feet deep.Soil in most of these places are quite strong and in some places it is even hard laterite.There is no point in breaking this solid soil strata to have “deep excavation”.Technically depth of excavation do not matter much if you have a stable soil.Of course having wider excavation helps to increase strength of foundation.

After excavation in most of the places people use dry pack rubble foundation.Instead of doing rubble dry pack foundation carefully with good tight packing,rubble is simply thrown into the deep excavation area leaving lots of gap in between rubble pieces.This actually weakens foundation.In stable soil conditions you do not need more than two feet depth for excavation.It is better to make it about 45 cm so that foundation when done with careful dry packing of rubble will have about 15 cm projecting up.This 15 cm or slightly lower projection of foundation due to ups and downs of ground level can be used to raise ground level slightly higher.

Once the foundation dry packing of rubble is done fill the gaps of rubble work with crusher sand  using water forced into the foundation as can be seen in the pictures below

Force fill crusher sand into rubble foundation till water will not go down any more thus making your foundation rubble work one monolithic  water tight rubble work. You can  then be sure of strength of your rubble foundation.

Above proposed ground level rubble foundation is called Basement.You can either do it again with dry pack rubble work(which I recommend)or Rubble work in cement mortar.In case you do daypack,point outside of basement with mortar to fill gaps between rubble pieces.Again fill inside of basement with red sand for filling and force fill this sand into basement rubble work using water forced inside as in the case of foundation this time from inside basement.Top of basement may be given a plastering with mortar.See pictures.

Is Architect just a drawing worker?

When I see the behavior and reactions of some of my clients I get a feeling that they consider an Architect as simply some one to draw plan and Elevation of building as per some cranky ideas they may have.

Quite often I have come across situations caused by highly inflated ego of the client who thinks and demands that Architect should simply follow his orders and as the person spending money , Architect should simply act as a paid employee  and nothing else.

In this modern age a paid employee is not supposed to be a simply yes man obeying by word even foolish directions given by the boss .Employee today is supposed to be more informed than the boss possibly due to his knowledge and expertise at least in a field of knowledge.As a person who knows better ,employee is supposed to advise his boss  and direct him to better course of action using his better knowledge and intelligence.

When I was building house at Ootty from the very beginning,my client was simply vetoing most of what I advised him based on my knowledge and experience simply citing the reason as he working as Vice president of his company managing much bigger budgets than What I am managing.That is no reason to allow him to go on doing blunder after blunder simply because money involved is his.In spite of my mild reminders he was insisting on making wrong decisions over ruling my suggestions,with the argument that when he spends money ,things should be done as he pleases.After few reminders I will leave matters to his choice and I will simply watch him doing mistakes after mistakes wasting his own money in the process.On quite a few occasions I reminded him that there is no point in hiring an expert if he is not willing to follow his advices.

Another client of mine who came to me for designing his house after not satisfied with work done by other Architects earlier gave me a list of his requirements and when I gave him the design he was quite pleased with it and expressed it.Suddenly he realised that square feet plinth area of the house is higher than his expectations as he happened to be one of those persons who think that cost of a house is simply dependant on square feet plinth area and nothing else.He then asked me to cut down plinth area drastically without reducing any of his requirements for the house.I said that it is not possible.Then he started literally abusing me and told me that Architect is supposed to  obey whatever client asked him to do.

In another rather funny case an NRI client of mine approached me for design and construction of house at Cochin attracted to me after reading my blogs.He has a six cents land with lot of restrictions.When I put down his requirements into a drawing,the land was not sufficient to meet all his needs.When Vasthu compliance is brought in it reduces flexibility of the Architect as certain positions for a particular type of rooms are essential to comply with Vasthu.After using all my creative and experience capabilities,I came up with a plan which was a compromise on his demands and requirements within the limitations of land ,vasthu and building rules.He was very much upset and started demanding me to do impossible tasks.I had no option other than saying bye to him.There are several such stories basically due to ignorance  and highly inflated ego of the client which I do not want to go on narrating.

Basically you hire an expert to get the best.Of course you are spending your money and you have every right and reason to put forward  your wishes and demands.But when an experienced expert advises you,you should have the wisdom to listen to him.No professional is going to insist you to accept his advices.It is for you to try to understand why he is advising you possibly against your demands.If you chose to ignore his advices and go on with satisfaction of your ego,finally when you realise the mistake,it will be too late and you can only suffer your losses due to wrong decisions.

In my work sites,I listen to practically illiterate workers and try to accept their suggestions wherever i feel that it is worth it.I never keep my ego between their suggestions and my acceptance of it.By experience they may have so many valid suggestions worth examining.Unless I am clear that it is wrong,I try to accept it for the benefit of better work.I have learned a lot through interactions with practically illiterate workers.So it is the idea which is more important not the man who put it forward.

Foundation-Soil Investigation

There are lot of wrong concepts,beliefs and wrong practices on construction of houses in Kerala depending upon location.As I have built houses in almost all parts of Kerala,I have come across these local practices and beliefs many a time and had tough time convincing local people especially in the interior parts of Kerala as almost the entire population around construction site will come to the site to supervise,question and offer free advices and suggestions sometimes cautioning the owner,sometimes threatening him with dire consequences and always opposing what we “coming from Cochin”  are doing.

First of all you have to assess the soil condition technically.In stable soil conditions,an experienced Construction Engineer will be able to assess the soil nature and suggest appropriate foundation design.In places like Cochin where most of the land is filled up or marshy area with practically not even a trace of sand even up to depths as high as 40 feet,a proper professional soil test will be essential to find out what type of foundation will be required.

While conducting such a soil test they will dig the place where the house has to come up up to about 45 feet and will collect samples of soil on the way to depths.These samples of soil will be tested in Engineering laboratory and a proper professional soil test report will be given to you.This report will be passed on to a Structural Consultant(An Engineer who has done post graduation in Structural Engineering) preferably with experience in designing structures for many years in that area.

Structural consultant will give a foundation design prepared using a software called STAAD in consultation with the Construction Engineer/Architect concerned.For smaller plots one bore for soil test will be sufficient normally done at centre of the plot.For bigger plots,more no of soil test bores will have to be used.

Engineering Estimate

After the Plan is finalised an Engineering organisation dealing with house construction will be able to give you a detailed item wise,step by step costing at least for the structure part.

From the drawings they will calculate quantity of each item of construction like brick work,concrete,plastering etc . Using data available with them about cost of inputs required for construction of each item in the Estimate like material,labour and other expenses involved,unit rates for each item can be calculated to a greater extent of correctness depending upon extent of their involvement with  regular construction activity.

If you simply get an Engineering Estimate from a design office or those with little day to day contact with actual construction activity,even though quantity of each item calculated may be correct,costing figures need not necessarily be correct as cost varies rapidly in Kerala conditions.

For work after structural work like foundation,brickwork,concreting it will be better to attempt to take cost figures after completion of structure work.One of the main reason for this is that for after structure work there are so many options each varying in cost figures at greater difference.Depending upon fund availability and your taste for finishing and interior works,cost figures will vary.You will need the guidance and assistance of your Architect in plenty at this stage even though many people think that Architect and Structural Engineer is required only at structure stage

Site clearing,leveling and filling

Once the Architect mark four boundaries of the place where your house will come up,you will have to clear that space by removing or cutting down trees or any other items that may exist in the space.

While cutting down trees make sure that you remove tree routes also.Removing root of the tree later will be difficult after cutting down top above soil portion of the trees.

It is better not to do any leveling or filling of the space before  foundation work except in case of piling foundation where you will require a clear level filled space.In the case of rubble foundation,you can do the filling after foundation rubble work is done.

After the site is cleared your architect will have to do set out of the building at site.In some cases Architect may issue a Set out plan of the house and work in charge may do this set out work.But it will be better to do this very important step of construction in presence of the person who designed the house as he will be able to make any minor changes if required on the spot.

Set out of the plan is nothing but drawing plan of your house on the land where it comes with strings and posts.Traditionally it was called as “Kutti adi”.Central line of the brick wall is  drawn by using strings and wooden posts.