House Constuction Contractor - Sharing Experience

[vkalavar]

PS: Since I did not find this direct topic i have created one, plz merge in case it is a duplicate. Intention of this topic is not only just sharing contractor numbers for forum members but also sharing overall experience. Excuse me for my writing errors.

When I wanted to start constructing house, the major challenge I had was to find out the reliable contractor. My job requires me to leave home @7 am and reaching back to home@7-9PM and hence its virtually impossible to spare time on construction side. Hence I decided to go for material contract.

I had consulted at least 6 different contractors and many of them are material contractors and one or two are labour contractors. One common observation was all these contractors are not very professional and they seems to be promising which they will not able to deliver. I had one of them kept calling me daily twice insisting me to give him my work. My requirement was to construct single floor house within budget of 20 lakhs and did not wanted to spend money on Architect. It took help of my relative to come up with plan who is an Civil engineer as a favor.

Lessons learned: Ask them in details what are quality of materials, their brand, rates, inclusive & exclusive lists, ask their quotations,timing,material supplier etc. Do not go with words of mouth.

Finally I decided go with this guy Mr. Shivakumar who seemed a nearest to a professional on first impression. My house construction overall completed 90% now since the time I had started from Feb2014. So far I am more than satisfied customer of him.

I shall share the further experience on negotiation, construction and agreement copy in my next post.

[ramki067]

Hi vkalavar,
Plz do share your contractor number via pm or here. I am looking for one who is reliable.
Thanks,
Ramki

[vkalavar]

I have replied you his contact number.

Attaching my agreement copy here for forum member's reference. The rate was 10 square house (100 sqft = 1 Square ) at the rate of 1,60,000/- (One lac sixty thousand only) per square totaling to approximately Rs. 16,00,000 (Sixteen lacs only). The measurement must be considered between roof to roof only.

[ausraja]

Mr kalavar

Looks like you are happy with the contractor and his quality of work and he has completed it on time so not to worry u shold be happy as u now have a 10sq building which is completely finished with less of a headache.

quotation looks good which is std in the industry.The onloy diff could have been other use sal wood and you used neem wood.

reagrsd
ausraja

[ramki067]

I have replied you his contact number.

Attaching my agreement copy here for forum member's reference. The rate was 10 square house (100 sqft = 1 Square ) at the rate of 1,60,000/- (One lac sixty thousand only) per square totaling to approximately Rs. 16,00,000 (Sixteen lacs only). The measurement must be considered between roof to roof only.

Yes vkalavar. I did speak to him and he said for cement block construction its Rs.175000 and for red bricks its Rs.180000 per square(chadra)!!!
These guys are increasing rates like every 2 months. What about our salaries, do they increase at such rate?

[new_house]

You should be very lucky to get a good contractor. Ask for references for the last 5 projects which they have completed. He will obviously give references where you will get a good feedback.

Itemwise or squarefeet rate has its own advantages or disadvantages.

Itemwise contract, he will try to do more work than necessary.

Squarefeet wise, he will try to do less work than necessary like reducing the height of the house, claiming that some elements are not included. Since you are new to this field you will not realise when you sign the contract.

For Squarefeet contract: Ask him to give a detailed list of things and its measurement to every detail. He will most probably not do it.

In my experience, 99% of these contractors are crooks , unprofessional, unethical. Be very very careful, before you engage anyone. It is our hardearned money.

[vkalavar]

I agree with you 100%. It's difficult to get genuine contractor and most of them are over promising type. What they say and what they deliver does match always. Having said that I AM NOT ENDORSING this guy or I DO NOT Have any personal benefit out of it.

please do your research before any agreement.

Thanks,
vkalavar

[vkalavar]

I have replied you his contact number.

Attaching my agreement copy here for forum member's reference. The rate was 10 square house (100 sqft = 1 Square ) at the rate of 1,60,000/- (One lac sixty thousand only) per square totaling to approximately Rs. 16,00,000 (Sixteen lacs only). The measurement must be considered between roof to roof only.

Yes vkalavar. I did speak to him and he said for cement block construction its Rs.175000 and for red bricks its Rs.180000 per square(chadra)!!!
These guys are increasing rates like every 2 months. What about our salaries, do they increase at such rate?

I suggest you to visit some of his projects and see whether if you are ok with his overall construction quality. He just mentioned to me that my contract was executed 5 months back and now the material prices were gone up. However what he quoted to you on higher side. I think you should be able to negotiate nearest to 16lks based on number of floors etc.

One thing I forgot to mentioned earlier was the compound & drainage pit was not included in agreement, Now he is charging high for two sided compound which i need to negotiate with him. I spent 14K for 15 ring pit on this weekend + 5K for BBMP charges.

[ramki067]

I suggest you to visit some of his projects and see whether if you are ok with his overall construction quality. He just mentioned to me that my contract was executed 5 months back and now the material prices were gone up. However what he quoted to you on higher side. I think you should be able to negotiate nearest to 16lks based on number of floors etc.

One thing I forgot to mentioned earlier was the compound & drainage pit was not included in agreement, Now he is charging high for two sided compound which i need to negotiate with him. I spent 14K for 15 ring pit on this weekend + 5K for BBMP charges.

Thanks. I shall visit his projects.
I showed him the structural details which would require 9"x18" columns for the whole building and No concealed beams in the roof slab(this is as per my architect). All the beams in the roof slab should be of 9". So, for this structure, he quoted Rs.18.5K/chadra excluding compound, sump construction, sump motor, temporary shed, temporary electrical and water connections. Overall it the construction comes to ~1050 sqft.

What materials he said he will put are:
1. UPVC water pipes of Ashirwad.
2. Hindware bathroom accessories.
3. Jaguar taps.
4. Granite for whole house of Rs.100/sqft.
5. Red mud bricks for whole house.
6. Birla 53 grade cement for whole house.
7. Priya gold 500 TMT steel.
8. Teak wood for main door frame and door and also for pooja room.
9. Bevu wood for room door frames and flush door shutters for rooms.
10. Bevu wood for window frames and honne shutters for windows.
11. 1000lts sintex make overhead tank.
12. Electrical: Finolex wires(original) and Anchor roma switches with metal boxes.
13. Kitchen: Granite slab and 4 feet high tiles above the slab.
14. Bathroom: 7feet high tiles in both the 2 bathrooms and antiskid tiles for floor.
15. 10 feet SS Gate.
16. 10 feet passage with interlocking tiles from gate till main door passage.

Is this quote reasonable?

Regards,
Ramki

[vkalavar]

PS: I am pasting here some one questions & my answers to him

I got to know that your home construction has been completed. How was your experience with contractor shiva kumar?
We are contemplating of hiring him for our house construction. Please provide your genuine comments regarding his work.

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His number is 9900809669 He speaks Kannada, Tamil, Hindi. You can refer my
name V***** from JP Nagar and currently building house in Hosa Road
E-city. Let me know if you need any more details.

Please note that I m neither endorsing him nor getting benefited out of it.
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to R*****
Just read your email now, will reply in some time. On overall i m happy with his quality of construction.

to R*******
Overall I am more than satisfied with his work and professionalism. I have already shared my contract agreement in my post you may go through once and ask me any specific questions.

I got his contact from my brother in law who is a civil engineer and constructs flats and commercial complexes in Bangalore. He use to sub-contract to Mr. Shivakumar some portion of buildings like moulding, maison works etc. After his reference I had visited 3 houses he had constructed near Jnanabharathi, two of them are material contract and one is on full contract, I liked to some extent.
I also saw one commercial complex he is building in near my home in JP nagar, ring road . And hence I approached him--------------I am giving history so that you get his background and reliability etc.

Since, my house is small, single floor, i did not approach architect instead my brother in law only gave me house plan & construction plan including structural diagram etc. My house is 90% completed now and will be work finished june end.

What I have observed is that
1. He always purchases item in bulk and hence he might get some margin
2. They are 4 brothers, many of the other workers are relatives, mason workers are from Bihar. The initial structure will be build by two of his brothers, one of brother always stays at site and hence security is not required.
3. Mr. Shiva kumar Visits regularly to site just to make sure things are fine.

You have to set the expectation right and ask him to involve you in major material purchase and modification in plan etc. One more things is he always expects payment on time, some time i have paid him more than i owe him that moment. Our was purely based on trust, However I do not recommend same to you.

Make sure you agreements speaks most of conditions,

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Thanks very much V*******. Yes, by far he is the lowest quoted contractor f...
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I have mentioned the payment schedule in my contract. Usually I pay by cash or cheque. Refer the contract doc in my post
R****************

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You have mentioned in the agreement that 9"x9" columns needs to be put all around. Did Mr.Shivakumar dig 3ft(length) x 3ft(width) x 3ft (depth) for footing?
How much footing concrete (is it for 2 feet?) , pedestal concrete did he put ?
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