My Dream House Construction Experience

[lasrador]

very informative post.. Firstly id like to know about the architects you mentioned in the first post (not the name). any particular reason you opted out of the contract. I think the services of an architect would come in handy to regulate the quality of materials from concreting to finishing apart from only planning and designing. In my case the architect stepped in a lot of times when the contractor tried using sub standard materials. in your case the sump tank and slab already have cracks which will only worsen with time. in presence of an architect the same would have been avoided as he'd instruct them to do it according to standard protocols. Most contractors would start on a good note and problems will arise during finishing stage. an architect would be an arbitrator in case this happens. hope everything goes well.. wishing you the best!

[tvsh]

Hello,

Any way I am up loading the two options with file names like Option_A and Option_B ,respected members, please give your choice and opinion between the two,it will help me to take a decision.

I would vote for Option B.

[praveendaspkd]

Greetings Sir,
I am regularly following your post, in fact its like daily morning tea  without fail I have to read it. Thank you for sharing your experience. I wish you all the best and I could see you becoming a proud owner of a beautiful home.
I vote for option B, very sleek and stylish

[house_2014]

Hello Mr.KVS Setty,

I am new to this forum and also in the same boat of getting my house constructed.
Before i get to my issue i would like to give my opinion on the Elevation and it is Option B. The granite finish will make it look elegant and rich.
My questions:
1. I need some with how to go about my sanction process. My site is in Malathalli which will come under RRNagar area. My contractor has asked me to just go to the BBMP office and talk to anyone and find out about who will be doing the plan and the cost.
If you could please give me some inputs it will be great.

2. My contractor suggest that we go ahead with the quarry sand as river sand is tough to get and is too expensive. What is your feedback. We are going with 6" solid concrete blocks and 4" conc block for internal walls and 8" wide columns.

Thanks
Kumar

[KVS Setty]

Hello to all,

First let me thank every one for the wonderful feed back on choice of elevation.I have not yet taken decision on that ,as I need to discuss with my builder for some clarifications regarding it and also want to wait for some more responses here.

However, let me give some explanations on other issues raised by some members.

First ,@basha_skj : It's 3.5 kg/sft throughout ,even in top floors .Usually some contractors reduce the dia of rods in pillars as they go to higher floors saying load reduces, i knew this from the readings in this forum, so I already instructed the builder no such shortcuts at any cost.

@ ramki067: please ,could you rectify your typo,it's bothering me a lot and i am keep guessing your choice all the time.

@ lasrador ,Thanks for your feed back and i agree cent percent with your opinion. Even i am feeling sorry and worried for not having a Architect to take the right feedback and control the quality of work and structure. I promised to all,to tell the events which led to keeping my architect and his services out of picture during construction , thanks for reminding and let me dedicate a separate post to tell the long and sad experience. so see my next post for more....

[sunildn]

Dear Mr. KVS Setty,

Because of the sand truck strike, I am also planning to go with RMC for my first floor roof instead of waiting for sand strike to end. Since pongal is next week, workers will go on holiday for 10-12 days and construction work will completely stopped. To avoid the delay i decided for RMC. I have got a quote from SVS RMC for 4500/cubic meter. Which RMC did you used?

@All other experts - Any suggestion on the RMC companies?

Thanks
Sunil

[ramki067]

Hello to all,

First let me thank every one for the wonderful feed back on choice of elevation.I have not yet taken decision on that ,as I need to discuss with my builder for some clarifications regarding it and also want to wait for some more responses here.

However, let me give some explanations on other issues raised by some members.

@ ramki067: please ,could you rectify your typo,it's bothering me a lot and i am keep guessing your choice all the time.

LOL!!! Now corrected. Must have guessed a lot with the choice i gave

[KVS Setty]

Hello,
Here is the long sad story...sorry it is not a story, it's a real experience.

Where to start ? How to tell a long story in a short way ? I am poor at it and in fact i am good at the other way round,you can see that from my earlier posts.

I am sorry if a long story becomes a long, long story or a boring story for some. but i need to put forward what all happened all the real facts and truths with no editing.... I may complete the story in two three posts (episodes) if it becomes too long , hope you guys used to watch never ending TV serials...ready guys.. let us take off....

Episode 01:
We were a family of three just two years back, me, my wife and my son living in a own house bought around 20yrs back .It is on a plot of 30x34 with two independent 2bhk houses,the ground floor rented out and we were living in the first floor. My son got married two years back and his bed room is not in the right location as per vasthu for couples to live and it is also small , so we thought of buying a new house which is slightly bigger and better location.( We thought by selling this house and mobilizing our savings and rising some loans we can afford a bigger house may be a modern 3bhk in a better location) .During that time we started to looking for some ready houses, as we have no time and experience to construct a house.During hunting for a ready house to buy we saw an ad in a news paper ,a brand new 3bhk, built on a 20x30 plot for an exorbitant price, we were wondering how for such a small plot that much of price,so we went ahead and saw the house.Wow ! what a architectural plan it is !, in such a small plot ,it looked like a big bungalow and we were very much impressed with the plan and design, and it made us to change all our plans of buying a ready house. Decided that we will rebuild our old house with a similar plan by the same Architect. that's how we came in contact with the Architect after taking the reference from the owner of the house.

We met him at his office and we introduced ourselves and told our intentions and told that we liked the planning and design of the house we saw and we want something on similar lines.He said then you are at the right place with right person and things will done in a right manner nothing to worry at all and gave us all the hopes with lot of positivity.
And during the talks he said "the house is planned and designed not by me but by my daughter, she is an Architect now married and settled in States and i am a civil engineer with a 30yrs experience in construction line and we do the projects not for only money sake but out of passion with just three to four projects in a year."

It seems all planning and designing is done by her from states and executed by him here in Bangalore and he is in touch with her everyday by Skype to discuss and update the things so there is no issues and promised to give best service. well we agreed though my inner thinking saying that I am talking to civil engineer and not to Architect and having my own doubts about how well this is going to work out.

He took all our requirements and needs in the house ,told his terms and conditions and his architectural service charges and payments schedules at different stages of project and after all the talks we entered in to a simple agreement pre drafted by him briefly describing his services and charges and asked us to sign, which we did after going through it briefly ,thinking that we will get a copy to go through thoroughly at later stage,he said he will give copy after receiving some initial advance which is around 25k. next day we paid the advance and asked for a copy,he said don't worry about it ,it is just a formality what is more important is trusting each other going ahead with the project with mutual understanding.

At the end of talks on that day he made one important statement " what we entered in to agreement is only for architectural services and I will also do the execution part
if you want and that will be only ,if you feel my quote is competitive compared to others for that part ,which I will give you after finalizing the plan and you also have the option and full liberty to choose a different contractor if you want". guys note this point as it will play a important role in the climax of the story .

Here let me take a break ,I will be back with next episode shortly....

[chakra_krish]

Dear KVS
Thanks for your feedback on construction cost( i understand you have given Material contract), still i will be interested in knowing the basice price, you can also mention the price agreed for the following materials for that basic cost in the material contract

Cement( per bag)
Brick( per no)
Sand( per Cuft)
20mm and 40mm Jelly( per cuft)
Wood( which wood agreed in your basic cost)
Flooring( which flooring with the basic cost of material)
Bathroom flooring( basic cost)
wall tiles( basic cost)
and finally total area of the building
Hope you can share with us to understand the costing running in Bangalore, as i am also in the process of getting the final

Regards
Srikrishna

[KVS Setty]

Hello,

@sunildn: The RMC is from a company called Hitech, located in kanakapura road. It costed around 4000 per cubic meter all inclusive. I would prefer on site mixing provided some one takes care of mixing ratios.

@srikrishna: here is a list of basic material brand and price agreed up on in the the contract.

cement: coramoandel king rs 330/bag
steel : any brand i prefer in basic rate of 47.5k/ton
20mm jelly: 25.00/cft
40mm jelly: 20.00/cft
Solid blocks :4",6",8" of Apco brand
Burma Teak: 3200cft maximum of 175 cft
sand: 65/cft:
Flooring
Granite: 150/sft full house including stairs except bedrooms and toilets
Vetrified tiles :120/sft for bed rooms
Tiles for car parking,bolconies,utility areas : rs 45/sft
Galzed tiles for toilet walls and kitchen walls :rs70/sft.

Hope this helps ,for more details please PM me.