Query-Cooking facing North and Clay tile for flooring

I have visited your website, very informative and descriptive. I would like to have clarification on two things as follows:
1.       Is it permissible as per Vasthu to keep the cooking stove on the northern side of the kitchen, i.e. the cook facing North?
2.       My house construction is going on and the property is a developed area, hence the sand is wet after 4 ft. is it advisable to do clay tile flooring on the ground floor as we are very much interested to do the clay tile flooring, but fears the possibility of fungus due to the moisture.
Also, grateful if you can suggest any reliable dealers of quality Clay tiles in Trivandrum.
Soja Silvester

My reply

As per Vasthu you should keep cooking stove at East side of the Kitchen and cook facing East only.There is no other alternative position.Kitchen should preferably be  at South East corner of the house and if that is not possible you can have second option position of Kitchen-North West
Sand wet at a depth of 4 feet is not a problem for using clay tiles for flooring.Clay tile is laid over concreted surface and hence there is no chance of water getting into it from the ground.Present day clay tiles will not absorb moisture as much as you may be thinking.At exposed surface,polishing and poly urethane coating will make clay tile practically water resistant.
I am not aware of clay tile manufacturer location at Trivandrum

Pile foundation

A lot depends upon soil and nature of land where you intend to construct house especially for foundation work of your house.

In places like Cochin where majority of land is marshy in nature which is filled with laterite soil  to get a feel of land,there is no other alternative other than going for concrete pile foundation even when you construct an ordinary house.

Scientific procedure to ascertain the nature of foundation required will be like this

1.Conduct soil test at the plot

If the plot is small a soil test at center of the plot will be sufficient using rig which goes down to something like 40-45 feet taking samples of soil or whatever you have down the line as the rig goes down.Samples thus taken will be tested in soil test laboratory and the results obtained will be given along with plan of the house to be built to a structural consultant.

2.Structural Engineering design of foundation

A structural consultant is an Engineer specialised in Structural Engineering at post graduate study level after his basic Engineering graduation.He will study soil test results and  architectural plan of the building and suggest foundation details for the house.This structural design for foundation of the building will tell you about what exactly you have to do to obtain a safe foundation in your plot which has weak soil conditions

3.Options possible

Exact nature of foundation will be decided by the structural consultant.But I can tell you about various possibilities that may be suggested by the structural consultant

1.Sand piling

If sand is available in your plot at depth not more than 20 feet,you can go for sand piling in the excavated area for foundation which is basically ramming the  foundation area with pile filled with sand and 1/4 inch metal up to a depth of 20 feet or where you can find sand.This is the cheapest option of pile foundation only if you are lucky to have sand at a depth of 20 feet

2.Manual concrete piling

You may not be lucky to get sand at 20 feet at most places in Cochin.Even if you dig down to 45 feet or more,in most places you will find only mud(clay) with absolute no trace of sand.So you will have to bore holes at places in foundation as per suggestions of structural consultant  and fill concrete of a richer variety after putting in place reinforcement as designed by consultant preferably with welded tying of round stirrups.

3.Compaction concrete piling

This is better option technically and cost wise.Here you bore holes to desired depths,fill concrete and then by force ram down reinforcement as per design.But this compaction may cause slight vibrations nearby and your neighbor may object to it.So you will have no other option other than going for costlier manual method.In places where your neighbour do not object you can go for compaction method

Sometimes your structural consultant may suggest doing sand piling in the entire area where the house comes in addition to concrete piling at corner points and other places where he finds it essential .This will be much more safer as it will strengthen entire area and chances of floor going down after flooring  work can be avoided.

After the concrete piling you will have to do so many other works to complete your foundation work. See pictures of compaction piling.

Even in hilly terrain like Nedumkandom in Iduki district even though land may be quite strong with laterite,there will be big slope in land terrain.Some times it may not be possible to level the land.So there also foundation cost can go up trying to level foundation.

Building a house-is that so simple?

I get at least two or three emails everyday each saying like this

Quote

I plan to construct a house with following rooms.Please reply  and inform me cost of building the house

Unquote

Some persons write like this

Quote

I am planning to build four bed room house with 1500 sft .Please tell me the cost

Tell me what is the current cost of constructing a house

Unquote

After building more than 200 houses in Kerala directly and acting as designer/consultant for many more houses,I cannot give an answer to these questions.

Some how people seem to think that house construction is very simple.They think that If you ask some one in the field of construction ,he will tell you cost of building the house immediately.

How can anyone predict the cost of building a house without any data? Without site visit and study of soil and nature,without designing at least a plan of the house,how can any one predict cost of building a house?

House construction involves purchase of lot of materials which cannot be purchased and stored at site at a time.When you buy these materials,you will have to pay ruling market price if you want the material.Even if you take the case of labour involved,there are so many different types of labour is involved in building a house.You will have to pay them ruling rates on the dates of hiring labour.

In such a fast changing situation when there can be situations of material and labour not even available when you need them,how will you simply predict cost of building a house?

Even the process of building a house will  take not less than an year.During this period so many changes can happen in  in price, availability of material , labour,technology,trends are possible.Even Ambani took seven years to build his 100 crore house in Mumbai.Naturally time taken is not due to his inability to raise 100 crores.But work require time to get completed in spite of money you may have.

To complete building a house you need more than money.You should have the capability to manage these factors or people to reach your dream home in the best possible manner

1.Your designer/Architect

He may be having many works at a time.Unless he puts his mind sincerely in your work you will not get best out of him.Just money alone will not get you the best out of him

2.Your builder and his team of workers

They will also be having other works going on simultaneously.After your work is over,you are least bothered whether these people continue to get work for sustaining their lives.But they will naturally have to adjust to keep other works going on and other works coming in to remain in the business or field of work.

3.Your material suppliers

4.Your financiers , friends and relatives

5.People who give you free advice

Actually they create more problems during execution of work.If you start listening and following those free advices,you will land up in a mess.

Square feet cost of construction

Let me ask you one simple question.Who is talking about this so called square feet cost of construction?No professional will commit that at so much square feet cost a house construction can be completed.

For all the houses I built when completed each of them has got different square feet cost,if I bothered to write down all expenses from beginning to end and divide total cost by square feet plinth area. in the end.

For each house soil conditions will be different,nature of land will be different,access to  building materials production centers will be different,design will be different,needs of house owner will be different.In short every parameters will be different.Then how can you say that there will be a uniform constant square feet cost of construction?

Only non professional contractors without any technical knowledge will give you a quotation with square feet cost.He will try to minimise his costs during construction by compromising on quality aspects knowingly and sometimes without knowing also..He want profit by hook or crook..He knows very well that you do not know much about construction.That is precisely why you did not bother to get assistance and guidance from a professional.It is easy to cheat some one who has only very little and mostly wrong ideas on building a house.You are actually such a person.I have seen contractors cheating clients by knowingly talking about bad and wrong practices in construction as the right thing to do.You will simply believe him. .

Even though he might have given some square feet cost indication initially he will find ways and means to collect extras from you.In the end you will worry only about completing the house some how.If a contractor is doing the work,even if you want to change him in between it will not be possible.So you end up paying whatever he demands and that sweet low square feet cost he told initially to you to get the work from you is silently forgotten by you and the contractor.

So all those writing to me asking for square feet cost want me to tell a lie.I simply refuse to tell that lie.

Developments in concrete technology

I have recently attended few lecture series of Mr.C.M.Dordi,Chief of QA of Ambuja Cements on developments in concrete technology It may not be of much interest to lay men on most of the details,I will just give a hint of changes that is taking place in concrete technology for the benefit of my readers who are basically laymen finding ways and means of building their dream house in Kerala.

Mr.Dordi is a highly qualified and experienced Engineer who previously worked with Tata Electric at Mumbai for.their 500 MW power projects.

Original 1:2:4 concrete is now giving way to much more capable stronger concrete.This 1:2:4 concrete is referred to as M20 concrete by engineers.As the strength and quality of concrete improves this M no.goes up.For Burj Building which is supposed to be the tallest building in the world M80 concrete was used.When the concrete become better it is called HPC(High performance concrete).Instead of having just fine aggregates(sand),coarse aggregates(metal in our usual language) ,cement and water,this HPC has the following components

1.Cement of better strength (above 60 grade)

2.Water in calculated quantity(not as you please)

3.Fine aggregates

4.Coarse aggregates

5.Cement adhesives

6.Fly ash

7.Micro silica

8.Fibers

If you use optical fibers in concrete you can even get transparent or translucent concrete.As technology advances there will be two type of cement.One high setting cement of the order of grade 60 or above.Two,cement for plastering of low grade as plastering does not require high grade cement.

Very soon,you will have plaster mix coming in bags just like you buy cement.So ,you will not have to arrange for river sand .There will be ready mix concrete which can be made to remain not setting even as long as 56 hours so that concrete workers can go on week end holidays and come back to resume concrete work.

As the use of high performance concrete increases steel reinforcement can be reduced as concrete itself will be more stronger.Even with high performance concrete water curing after concrete laying  will be very important.

Immediately after laying of concrete the reactions taking place will generate temperature as high as 25 degree centigrade.So when you do concreting at high atmospheric temperature,it is better to cover concreted surface immediately after concreting with a plastic sheet when it is real hot atmospheric conditions to prevent hair line cracks forming on concreted surface.You can remove the plastic sheet next day morning when you are ready for water curing.

Water curing with plenty of water is essential  for three days immediately after laying of concrete.Any carelessness in this case for those critical three days cannot and will not be compensated by curing after three days though concrete gradually attains higher and higher strength with curing going on for about 56 days

Nalukettu house-features

I get enquiries for design and construction of Nalukettu house quite often.Many of those who desire to build a Nalukettu house do not really know merits and problems associated with a Nalukettu house.But still prefer to have a Nalukettu house possibly due to desire to have a traditional design house or simply to show off as one of the major requirement when building a house in Kerala these days is to announce to neighbours and relatives about the newly acquired  financial status of the owner of the house.

One of the major differences between present day houses and houses of yester years is that for present day houses security and privacy are  major concerns.Again lighting and ventilation is not required to be generated through natural means these days as Electricity is available.In olden days there was no Electric supply and hence house has to be designed to provide lighting and ventilation through natural ways.

Nalukettu type houses provide natural lighting and ventilation .Security was not a major concern in those days partly due to large number of inmates in the house due to joint family living and also due to lesser wealth stored in the building..

Poomukham

Typically A nalukettu house has got a Poomukham in the centre of the portion of front side of building.This is where the master of house used to relax by sitting in a  chair which provides facility to recline in the chair.So the master of the house will be partly lying and partly sitting.All his visitors are not supposed to sit in his presence.So they come and stand in front of Poomukham  at Ground level and talk to master of house with fear and reverence.As all sides of Poomukham except entry to house portion is open,master of house will get sufficient wind and breeze while relaxing in his “Charu Kasera”.

Such a master of house cannot be seen these days and hence Poomukham in the same manner is not required now.

Chuttu verandah

Connected to  poomukham as a continuation of the open space,there will be verandah going around the house.If not exactly going round the house at least it will go around front and one side of the house.This Chuttu verandah with typically about four to five feet width can have Charupady which is wooden seating arrangement .Usually this Charupady is built in Teak wood with seating and reclining portion both in Teak wood with reclining portion possibly with wooden hand carvings.

This Charupady must have been a later addition as originally no body was allowed to sit at same level of master of house.Now a days, to save money and reduce cost people have started using granite slab instead of wooden seating of Charupady.Wooden reclining portion of charupady is also  being  substituted  with concrete reclining portion.But these substitutes lack elegance and in my opinion you should go for  teak wood that too Kerala Plantation teak preferably the Nilambur variety for the best finish.

Charupady will be useful to have informal discussions with relatives and friends  as the position of charupady allows both natural ventilation and light.

Nadumuttom

Lot of people have a mistaken notion that  a house with Nadumuttom is called Nalukettu.Even though Nadumuttom is central and essential for Nalukettu house,Poomukham and Chuttu verandah also are essential features of Nalukettu house.Nadumuttom is normally a square gap not less than ten feet by ten feet size  preferably at exact centre of the house.Even if that is not possible due to other construction requirements,the centre of Nadumuttom should be in line with centre line of Poomukham and front door opening.In the traditional arrangement where slope roofs of rooms around Nadumuttom slope down on all four sides to Nadumuttom,there has to be at least four feet wide passage like a verandah around Nadumuttom.

In the present day adaptation of this arrangement Dining room ,Family living space and Formal living space are provided at three different sides of Nadumuttom thereby allowing visibility and access to Nadumuttom from these three  living spaces.At least on one side of the house close to these common spaces,Chuttu verandah comes up.So naturally you will have to place bed rooms in the other side leaving rear space for Kitchen and front space for formal living connected to Poomukham and front door.

Naturally the plinth area of house with Nalukettu arrangement goes up.Even with 3000 sft plinth area you cannot have more than three bed rooms at Ground level in this arrangement.Nalukettu houses are mostly single storey.

Closing top of Nadumuttom

This was not a problem for yester year people  as they kept Nadumuttom top open .That opening was required for light and ventilation.As I told you earlier security was not their problem in those day houses.From about sitting height there was not even any brick work as they used to have wood work with ample gaps for light and air around all rooms.Now we cannot even think of such open type bed rooms and other living spaces.Check my blog entry on Krishnapuram palace at Kayamkulam.The entire palace is an open building with free flow of light and air  and the major component of house construction was thick size wood.We cannot even think of using such quantity and quality wood these days for house construction.Krishnapuram palace is a Pathinaru kettu house(House with four Nadumuttom) used by the King for his leisure days.Protected by armed soldiers ,King was not worried about any intruder entering his house without his knowledge and permission.

But now  a days you have to close top of Nadumuttom with concrete slope roof at a higher level to allow air inside through side openings at higher level possibly with grills or brick work with small gaps.

In conclusion I can say that it is not advisable to go for a nalukettu house unless of course budget is not your problem.

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.