My Building construction Expereince with a Labour contract.

[venkyn]

Hi Praveen,

Thanks for the info.

Regarding the footing size and depth, we got the soil testing and structural design by the same company and according to it, where ever there is rock is seen near the footing, 3feet of excavation is sufficient and where there is no rock 5feet of excavation was done. We got around 7 footing of 5 feet depth but could not get for others. In anycase the plinth is sitting on size stone masanory of 1.5 feet from the ground level. which should get the required depth of 5feet.

My structural engineer had visited during footing concret, site visit is part of the contract, and he did not mention about lockers. Need to check.
We use the granite boulders/chips that came out footing for sizestone packing and used used 20mm Aggregate (jelli) to plinth.

I don't know if material wastage was intentional but its a good lesson which can be used for next building.

Thx
venky

[venkyn]

With a week of curing the plinth, we started pillar construction, all the pillar have brought till 7 feet/Lintle level. The concrete mix was done by labour [Not the Concrete Gang] but i felt that it could be done better with Gang because labour will become lazy after lunch.. This will impact the concrete mixing effectiveness.

Brought White Sal and Hone from Bhagawan timber mysore road, near RR nagar for GF. will be looking for local teak for FF and SF frames.

[riturajmnit]

Hey,

I am also planning for labor contract as my uncle knows someone who did couple of houses including his (so guess can be counted upon).
Now i need some help related to same:

1> Did you hire any structural engineer or architect (to figure out raw material needed). If yes how much was cost involved.
2> How much should i pay if i want full architect services (including designing, to raw material estimate, supervision with structural design )


Regards,
Rituraj

[venkyn]

Attaching the expense based on materials.
Currently we have materials left for wall construction till ground floor roof slab.

Regards,
Venky

[venkyn]

Hi Rituraj,

I went with structural engineer alone[ 14K for services and 2 K for four times visit]. If a plot is on a fertile land then the job could be very simple but it will be challenging if plot is elevated or near a lake. I also got soil testing done for 9K, based on the soil testing the load and everthing can be caluclated.

Architect work based on percentage. If your budget allows, do try Satya prakash varanasi, who is one of the best architect in bangalore . His articles are great.

Regards.
Venky

[riturajmnit]

Thanks Venky.

My only reason for hiring an architect was to finalize the modelling of house. Might sound crazy but i found a pic on internet of a house which doesnt look to fancy but its good enough so I was wondering if an architect could use that and design requirement for me.

secondly, who has enlisted what is rough estimate and what all raw material will be required to be given at different statges. Does Structural engineer will do that ?
Pardon my ignorance, but I am lil confused beacuse I can give time mostly on sat and sunday every week, so was wondering if labour contract is suitable for me.

Regards

[zahid]

@Rituraj - Initially I also felt that I could use a pic from Internet for construction. However, I realized later that my thinking was incorrect. An architect looks at the condition of site and decides what would be the best design, given your specific requirements and site constraints (such as setback of adjacent houses, staircase width & position expected by you, etc.)

On the second point, I doubt if anyone can provide comprehensive list of all materials required till the end, because it's just not possible

Until the point where overall structure of home is completed, you will not need whole bunch of raw materials. However, the real fun starts after that

If you cannot spend "at least" 2 hours everyday (in the morning), until the completion of your home, I will not suggest labor contract. I did that myself and it has been a huge challenge for me.

If you have someone to support you, during your absence, you could do that.

[venkyn]

Yes, I agree that you need support from trusted folks, when you are not arround.

Even with material contract, you should ensure that you make surprise visit otherwise the contractor
will try to save as much as possible for e.g, in front of my house the material contractor is not curing properly,
did not use vibrator for columns, like this many more.

Anyway if you do not have time then go with Material contractor.

[girishd]

Good points from Zahid, Venky.

I had the same dilemma at the beginning and I actually decided to give material contract with item rate. Also I picked a contractor who had just started doing material contract but was primarily a mestri+labour contractor couple of years back and had done excellent work of finishing on those houses. For my project it has worked out pretty well because the contractor's expectation is not too high and for him getting a contract of an almost 7000sft house with swimming pool, basement, stone and vertically perforated block masonry... was a big deal.

Initially I spent sometime at site everyday during marking and basement wall phase. After that I stared to reach site just when they are finishing the work so that I can check what is done and discuss what they will do next. Also I put a condition that the contractor has to come to site everyday at least for few hours so that he can monitor the work. His own brother is the expert mason working on site. Once I built good rapport with both the need for going there everyday reduced.

[Pratap]

Hi Rituraj,

I went with structural engineer alone[ 14K for services and 2 K for four times visit]. If a plot is on a fertile land then the job could be very simple but it will be challenging if plot is elevated or near a lake. I also got soil testing done for 9K, based on the soil testing the load and everthing can be caluclated.

Architect work based on percentage. If your budget allows, do try Satya prakash varanasi, who is one of the best architect in bangalore . His articles are great.

Regards.
Venky

Hi Venky,

Whether the 14K charged for Structural design service? whether Rs. 2 K is for per visit charges or total for 4 visits? please clarify as my SE quoted Rs. 15K for structural design and Rs. 5 K for per visit.

Thanks,
Pratap