Our House construction experience

[ravivasudeva]

Hi All,

Happy to share the news that our house construction has commenced last week after several months delay due to slow paper works. There are several threads that talk about house construction in this forum that has helped me immensely, now, I am doing my share of knowledge while my construction in progress.

Soil testing experience

After all the paper work was ready, I was having final discussions with contractor. My contractor and mastri figured out that my site is filled with soil several years back and hence they suspected that it is not fit for footing excavation and they were not sure how much depth the footing would go. I contacted a local guy who was fortunately the person who filled soil on my land when a previous owner was in possession, he confirmed that he filled soil up to 5 feet. I called up Structural engineer and asked him how to go about it, he suggested soil test. I found out that Soil test is expensive affair. Anyways I was determined to finish Soil test and authorized a person to do it. He quoted 18,000 for 3 holes manual testing.

The soil test was done in about 6 hours and samples collected, report came after a weeks’ time. After I sent the report to structural engineer, he further shocked me saying that the soil is very bad and it seems his earlier footing estimations have to be reworked and it will increase the footing cost. Little later he called me again and asked if he can talk to the lab where the soil test was done. Later on calling lab, it came out that the soil test report was full of mistakes and they apologized and emailed the correct soil report. With the revised soil test report, we found that the soil is one of best in area for footing work and we had to go around 5 to 5.5 feet deep for footing. Though I spent 18,000 rupees, it helped to clarify the doubts forever.

I will keep posting more experiences in days ahead.

[ravivasudeva]

Neighbor paper problem

Constructing Shed was our first step and we planed to use our neighbor vacant site for this, actually both sides of my sites are vacant and i can use any of them. I felt It's appropriate to inform the site owner that we put up shed and with inquiry of local people i found that my left side neighbor is in Mumbai and no one has his number. My right side site owner is in Bangalore and i got his number. I called up the owner to inform him of my desire to use his land for my construction purposes. He agreed readily and i further requested him to come to the site since i would be marking boundary of my site and in future we shouldn't fight for few cm of land going this side or other side. I also asked him to bring his site papers too.

In few days, he turned up on a Sunday with this papers and big gang of relatives [I guess they didn't visit their site for several years]. To our surprise, his site which is actually rectangle in shape; on papers shows that all the four sides are of different dimension and in fact when we join all the lengths it turns out to be a weird shape site which overlaps with my site. They started conversation with me to hold on the construction till his site dimensions are clarified and claimed some part of my site based on dimensions mentioned on papers. I was too disappointed and told them that they can approach BDA or the Society and get the survey done again. When we were having this conversation, a private land owners behind our site spoke with us and claimed share of the land from neighbor site and then those two guys started conversation. I said this is enough and told to both of them that i got "Releasing order" from BDA which clearly shows my site dimensions and neighbor site dimensions except the right side neighbor site details missing from BDA releasing order and they need to check with BDA why it happened. I can't hold on my construction since its not an issue with my site but yours and that you should approach whomever you like.

I believe his sale deed has wrong dimensions and that the allocating Society did a goof up or serious typing mistake. They need to get the survey again and a rectification deed done ASAP. If society has did anything wrong in his allocation intentionally, they can go court against the Society.

After few days i called him up to understand what action has he taken to which he didn't had clear answers. I said myself, why bother about his problem and lets start my construction as planned

[sureshpediveeti]

did you constructed shed in your neighbor land or you find any alternative?

[ravivasudeva]

did you constructed shed in your neighbor land or you find any alternative?

Shed is constructed in the right side neighbor site as we want to use left side site for construction materials. I don't want to use road for construction work.

[arunthl]

May i know the location of your site..

[ravivasudeva]

May i know the location of your site..

Gubbalala

[ravivasudeva]

Cement discussion

During the contract, i mentioned them to use Birla Super Cement (since this is what most of my friends told me). When i arrived at the site few days back, i see they are planning to do PCC with Zuari i.work 43 grade OP Cement. I asked contractor to explain why no Birla Super. He said that the Birla Super is 53 grade only and that they do not need 53 since it is not required in ordinary circumstances [Unless it is raining so that you need fast setting or need for high compression strength]. We further discussed that we would use the following cements for construction in future.

1. Zuari i.work 43 grade OPC for ordinary construction work
2. ACC 53 grade OPC for roofing, we will get the cube test done by ACC people
3. ACC PPC or PSC for plastering the walls [Gradeless]

If any of you have more information about the types and manufacturer of the cements which best suits the various stages of construction, please share it for everyone's benefit.

[sahu.mgse]

Dear Ravi......
Since your construction has just started ....A note of caution to you.
Kindly stick to what you have agreed in agreement unless you want a change in material specification. If you budge now, These contractors takes advantage of this and they may play a lot in future in various other materials.

Sahu

[nagzzz]

Zuari 43 grade is much cheaper than Birla Super 53 grade. But anyway, if that is not the Contractor's motivation, you can decide the grade based on what work is required.
My suggestion. Go with ACC end to end. ACC people will themselves advice on what grade to use, the mix etc. This also will ensure you wouldn't need to depend on the Contractor's word everytime. You can get in touch with Vinay, from ACC. He is a technical consultant and has good knowledge of what he speaks. his number is 9686684988.

[needybuddy]

Hi Ravi,

What is the agreed construction cost per sq.ft? does it include interiors work also?