Need guidelines for selecting Steel & cement

[Iyyappan]

Hi,

I need your suggestions and feedback for selecting the steel and cement for constructing duplex house.

I am planning to go for the following brands for cement. Please give me your suggestions.
all RCC works - Birla super (53 grade)
all plastering works - Coramendal King

For Steel, I don't have any clear idea for choosing the brand. Please let me know which one is best.

Below are the price which I inquired recently.
Birla super - 315 (if we purchased minimum 50 bugs).
ISO-TMT - 42,500
Indus- 46,500
TATA - price per piece only

Please let me know that all above prices are OK. And If you have any direct company contacts for cement and steel, please let me know.

Thanks in advance

[sk1976]

I too have similar situation for selecting this. My Engineer says that for steel, any ISI tested TMT steel should be fine.

For cement, he recommends OPC (ordinary portland cement) instead of PPC(fly ash based) cements. Brands like Ultratech, Birla have OPC as well. But I read from some websites that PPC is more suitable than OPC cement as it cures slowly and the cracks will be minimal as compared to OPC which may cause cracks in RCC/plastering. I am confused as to which is the correct choice

Would be helpful if experts on this forum can comment on how to choose steel as well as cement

[buildingahouseinblr]

If you go by all the experts, they say that PPC should be ok for residential purpose. OPC 53 is an overkill for residential purpose. However, market wisdom says otherwise - everyone is using OPC 53 for RCC work. So I guess one has to take a call (only other way to find out is to check what did the expert use for his own house..)

For plastering, there is more clarity and everyone is recommending PPC.