My Dream House Construction Experience

[mudude12]

Hi KVS,

I am a software engineer by profession with some experience in construction.

I have seen such shuttering issues during my house construction. The strength to the building is eventually given by the columns and beams. As long as they are laid well, we should be fine. Having said that, ideally we should give a gap of three days at the least after a wall is constructed before they start construction. I never had the patience and always asked them to start shuttering within a gap of one day.

regards.

[KVS Setty]

Since no work in progress at site because of sand strike coupled with Sankarnthi festival.
I thought of writing my experience with the Architect ( sorry ,it is really civil engineer) so here it is ....

Episode 02:

After around 20 days he informed that the basic schematic floor plans are ready and asked us to collect and go through them to choose between the two options and note down any changes needed in the chosen option.

Both the floor plans are good ,well thought out and meeting most of our needs and wishes. presentation of floor plan drawings are also nice on a A3 thick sheets for each floor with color full layout any body can easily understand, it is not like any regular plan drawing I have seen.
After considerable discussions at home by participation of the all members and considering pros and cons of both the options we finalized on one and noted down all changes we needed in the selected option.

we met him regularly once in a week and we went through two or three iteration of the plan revising ,tweaking and making some small changes to the plan and at the end two of our requirements were not met at all ,though we wanted those changes to be made very much.He said it is not possible to meet those needs.

During each meeting we found that he talks less about the plan and deviates the talk to some unwanted subject like his previous works &other things.When we asked him to show some of his completed projects he didn't, saying he does not want to disturb them and each ones needs are different so there is no point in seeing them. Asked to show at least projects under progress, he some how avoids it saying some reason or the other. so we had our own doubts on his capability and he never allowed us to contact his daughter (the Architect) to discuss the possibility of our unfulfilled needs.

Please note we never contacted nor met the Architect ( his daughter) all the meetings are with him and he collected payments in her name only.
So we are paying amounts/charges to some one whom we never met or contacted by any other means and all the time discussing about the plan and needs only with civil engineer and not the Architect ,that made me somehow uncomfortable and doubting about him and his company.
We had gone to his office nearly eight to ten times and not even once we found any other client in his office other than us.

To be continued in next Episode......

[Marvel]

Hi KVS,

I have been following your thread and have some queries about how you finalized the floor plans etc. Did you eventually use the plans you got from the first (the civil engineer whose daughter is architect) guy or you went about the process again with the second team (your current builder)?

Also would be glad if you could share details about the builder who is currently doing your project.

Regards...

[KVS Setty]

Hello Marvel,

We are implementing the plan of of our first architect who is now out of loop,the plan is really nice and meets most of our needs. To be frank he/she has done lot of home work and used their brain and experience to design the house there is no complaints regarding the plan except two or three issues which he did not agree at all (saying space constraints or from aesthetics point of view )and now during implementation we are feeling that he is 100% correct.

When we met him first time we told four main things to consider while planning and designing .
They are:
# Optimum space utilization, as plot is small.
# Proper ventilation with lots of natural light and air.
# Basics of vasthu to be fulfilled
# Proper Security and Easy maintenance.

During second visit we added
# All stair cases of uniform size with no winding steps.This we told him because the house we had seen, that is done by him had narrow steps with lots of winding steps making little bit uncomfortable while using.

[dolphin18]

Hi KVS,

I am about 1 month behind your schedule and just finished the plinth area. Mine is a 60*40 with GF+2F, also in south, BSK 3 stage. I just finished going through your entire posts and found it very interesting and useful.

My current questions to the experts are;
1. I see that the plinth is not exactly in straight lines in many places nor is the height level as exactly the same. Is this okay, as the centre is in line with the columns?
2. Also he is doing the sump in front (car park area) with Brick (he just needs to do the plastering and RCC on top now), is this ok to take the weight of car on top of the sump and what are the precautions to be taken.
3. Do I need to start looking at wood options now, we have decided to build walls (mud bricks) before laying the roof and therefore guess need to decide on the wood.
4. I am doing a front and back car park, the front car park(towards the house) is at about 1.5 feet higher(plinth) than the back car park(towards the gate), distance to the gate from the front car park plinth is about 12-15 feet, is the gradient ok or do I need to bring the plinth to same level as back car park.


P.S: I am doing this thro' material contract through an Architect. All the material and rates are negotiated,fixed and supplied through him, I just need to pay the vendors through him if I am ok with the prices.

Rgds
Santosh

[Marvel]

Hi Dolphin ( Santosh),

I am not an expert but an owner. My construction is in progress and the following are my views based on info collected from my architect for my project.

1. If plinth beams are not straight you should instruct your shuttering guy to pay more attention while setting the shuttering boards next time. Height gets maintained with pouring proper quantity of concrete and marking levels while shuttering. However I guess they will take care of all this by finishing with mortar. As centre is in line, I guess there wont be load issues.
2. Sump with brick and RCC top is also frequently adopted method though it is said that retaining wall sump is stronger and lasts longer.
3. I learnt from other owners that placing wooden frames (they call it vaskal) and windows while constructing walls saves labour and time.
4. Plinth towards house at higher level will ensure water during rains does not enter the house and flows towards gate. You could get an exact idea about the slope by getting a marking thread tied from front to back car park plinth. I guess 1.5feet seems a little high.

Regards

[Marvel]

Hi Dolphin & KVS,

I found this forum and discussion informative and useful. I have posted queries about my project under the topic 'Construction of our Stilt+G+1 project'. We are constructing this unit in Banashankari and your comments on the queries will be appreciated.

Regards

[sunildn]

Dear All,

After all hurdles, finally, we got our first floor moulding done on last Saturday using RMC. It is from Raghavendra RMC whom we paid @3950/M3 and we had ordered for
18.5 M3. They will give us the test report on 7th and 28th day. Please find the photos and let me know if it is fine.

Also, I got wood for door and window frames. Burma Teak for main and pooja room door, Ghana teak for room door frames and White saal for window frames. I am thinking of teak wood for window shutters as the requirement will be less and durability will be good.

Regards,
Sunil

[sahu.mgse]

Hi Sunildn;

Congrats for geting first floor moulding done with odd situation of sand crisis.....

I would like to know , what is the difference between white and red sal wood.......what are their pros and cons.

how much you paid for these woods .

sahu

[sunildn]

Hi Sahu,

Yes, you rightly said that during sand crisis getting RMC is also a tough job.

The difference between White and Red sal wood is,
both will shrink little bit and can develop sun crack. White sal is harder than Red sal and other wise both are fine for frames.

I paid Rs.3500 for Burma teak,
Rs.2200 for Ghana teak
Rs.1250 for White sal.

Sunil