Building our dream house

[RashmiL]

Hi all,

We are planning to build our new house which has been our dream since a decade. At last we were able to adjust some amount and we decided to construct our house. So we have hired a architect and are in final phase of finalizing the drawings. However ever since we decided to go for construction, I started checking all the aspects of home construction. I did check on many aspects of home building and gained a lot of knowledge which I hope will be useful for us while building. I have opened this thread with and intention to get regular feedback on our house construction and also share the knowledge which I have gained during this process.

So my first post is on Granites.Granite stones have been my first choice for flooring as I have not yet till date see one broken granite stone however i have seen/visited homes with lot of issues on vitrified tiles.Firstly when we started visiting granite shops,the main things i learnt were

In Granite there are two types of stones.

Hard Stones : These stones generally tend to be darker in colour, do not allow water or oil absorption i.e. less porous and require less maintenance.

Soft Stones : These Stones generally are whiter/fair colour stones which are porous in nature and allow water absorption and require higher maintenance.

Hard stones, even though they are much better in quality, are priced less than soft stones.

However even before understanding the nature of stones,the first thing you must be aware of one important point. NEVER BUY A COLOUR COATED GRANITE.The stones are coated with colour epoxy to give it a fake attractive colour which will wane out in few years and worst in months if exposed to sunlight.

To understand how colour is applied on Granites,please check the above video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnh1SykFHBk

So how do one ensure the granite which you buy is not colour coated is very easy. Please refer this video on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNpcsj9mpfE

You just have to pour water on the side and back portion of stones and see if the colour matches that of the front face.

Once you know that granite is not colour coated, Next step is to check for Rusting. Some stones have high iron content. Especially the ones coming from Tamilnadu. These stones rust staining after a few months.Have you ever observed yellow colour stains on sadrahalli stones? They are rusting issues. Avoid stones where you find rust type stains.

Once you check for these two aspects, then you need to know a few things.

Granite stones are cut using water cut and Kerosene cut ways. Kerosene cut slabs will have issues after laying and hence should be avoided.Just smell the granite and if you get kerosene smell keep away from them.However most of the slabs nowadays are water cut. But yet keep an eye on it.

Now how are Granites priced?

Granites are generally priced based on the colour and pattern of the stones and distance of the stone availability from the shop and based on the polish. Higher the demand , higher the price. However please do note that, Higher prices never mean higher quality when it comes to granites. For example Stones like Steel Grey and Tan brown are easily available
For 60 rs sq ft , are harder and good stones than some of the white granite stones sold at 130-200 rs.

Now coming to important question, how are granites priced.

Granites are divided into 3 categories

First quality - The stone has uniform pattern, Line polished or mirror polished and cut in equal sized slabs with no cracks.


Second quality - The stone has slight variations in the pattern like lines in between interrupting the patterns and are polished manually or automatic polish.

Third quality - The stones have lot of variations and polished manually and slabs have uneven edges. They are generally sold for commercial places and customers who want it for cheaper prices.

So do check on this below video to identify on how quality is determined in granites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2gSHHdwY-Q

Few important points
A) Never buy granite stone in evening. It's hard to identify cracks in evening . Always hit shops early morning when there is ample time to look for cracks.
B) Always get at least 4-5 members to shop granite who can assist you in detecting cracks after you have selected granites . The shop guys do measurements so fast in order to fool you. After checking few stones fatigue factor will kick in. So carry as many friends or family members with you for assisting.
C) Avoid the trap of export stones. Buy only if you are impressed and not because it is called export model.
D)I would additionally recommend the forum members to watch various YouTube videos on granites. And please remember you can find quality granite stones from 75 Rs onwards if you know how to shop. Do not go with market hearsay and think good quality granites are only available if price is above 100 rs.

I will strongly recommend users to view YouTube channels on granite which can give you lot of useful information.Some of the main ones are Deepz stone advice, granite hub , eighteen Mm.

My personal advice to all members avoid wavy patterns. Wavy patterns will look beautiful when seen in stand alone but will be nightmare if they don't match when laid in numbers. Also darker stones are much harder and less porus and will not absorb oils and other liquid and are also priced lesser. Do learn about famous stones in market and hit shops.

Many of the shop guys were literally shocked when I spoke with confidence and knowledge on stones and would immediately show the best ones and yet price would be below 100 rs when I went to window shopping. Knowledge on granites is very much required.

Hopefully my post will help members here on granites. I will post my next post on electrical wires and earthing .

Also check this video on white granites.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjlEJRhcfKQ

Only check the info. Avoid contacting the youtubbers and always go for buying after seeing stones in many shops and never take your contractor with you. Additionally there are stone handling charges of 3 rs charged every sq ft. So do keep a eye on miscellaneous charge.I would have added much more but I think this is enough.


Thanks,
Rashmi L

[ganeshncm]

Great one.. thank you for taking time to write these out..

Most of the time, commoners can never detect cracks (because they are filled with crackfill) and colouring done.. Best would be to take an experienced granite layer along..

[RashmiL]

Thanks ganesh.

I had talked about granites in last post. This post is on earthing. Back in 2004 when we brought new computer we faced frequent hard disk failures and assembler had to replace 2 hard disk. Only when we installed 3rd one we realized there was no earthing done and we had to do separate wiring and get earthing done. In olden days hardly no house had proper earthing due to lazy electricians (a wire has to be drawn from each electrical point to earthing connection ) or electricians would simply steal the wires and resell it.Things have improved from then. However how do you know earthing has been done and whether it is done properly. The procedure is extremely simple.

To check earthing connection do watch this video.


https://youtu.be/TEXmE0wBluE

This test is very simple and you can ask your electrician to conduct this test for each point and then pay complete payment. Remember , earthing has to be strong. To check earthing full capacity use higher watt bulb or even use multimeter if you know how to use it.

[ganeshncm]

Rashmi,

A request. You are sharing some great info

Can you please post each guidance in separate thread (Granite in one, earthing in another), with the Thread subject being the topic (Such as earthing).. It will be good to have discussions specific to each topic separately and also for someone searching, it will be very helpful

Thanks,
Ganesh

[RashmiL]

Finally we started out house construction. So as a first step we had to clean the site. There were houses constructed on side of our house and they had put lot of mud and people had thrown waste into the site.

So we booked a JCB to clean the site. The site cleaning took 3 hours more than we expected. So we had to give 2500 rs (minimum for JCB ) and 200 rs for driver bata.As we did not expect so much mud, we had not called tractor to throw away the mud(we decided not to use the mud as it had contained lot of impurities and waste materials).

Now we will be spending extra money and will have to look for JCB and tractor to throw the muddy out.we did check few pot making people if they are interested in taking mud for free, however since it had impurities mixed they denied it. We will check with near by govt construction sites if they are interested to use it for free. At least it will save for minimum 10k as the waste mud is at least 8-10 load.

The first and most important point we realised was , any house construction require lot of space and you will be blessed if you have vacant sites beside your site for shed construction and material unloading.

Another point, never discuss your house build planning with your neighbours. My neighbour has not left any space yet wants us to live space as per bbmp setback ( 3 feet).We just told him , ours is engineer plan and we will leave space as per norms(we are leaving 2 feet). Try to be nice to neighbours at least till your home construction is completed.

[srinihome]

All the best!

No matter how good you are with the neighbours unless they are like-minded they have their own mind.
You should not be concerned given they have not provided the required setback.

[RashmiL]

All the best!

No matter how good you are with the neighbours unless they are like-minded they have their own mind.
You should not be concerned given they have not provided the required setback.

We are leaving 2 feet space all round except few stretches in upper floor for internal stair case. So will be postponing the inevitable fight till then.

[ganeshncm]

Leaving not adequate space on all sides can involve too many side effects :

When you cure or plaster the top floors, the water/cement falls on the neighbours house, can leave stains, or fall on the area where they walk or dry their clothes. They will strongly resist it, unless you can cover all the sides well stitched plastic sheets. These sheets tear off in sometime,and it significantly adds to budget. Some neighbours will demand that their house be cleaned and repainted, some will go to police

Pillar footing come very close to the neighbours compound wall. If they dig deeper at a later date, it might expose your footing and the soil beside it.

Windows of two houses can get very close, compromising privacy, or food smells

In the long run, it is probably not worth it to save a feet or two..

[Raju091117]

I also left 2ft all 3 sides... with few exceptions due to internal stair case

[RashmiL]

Today we ordered first block of APCO bricks. Although this lot is for shed, we will be using the same for compound construction. I have attached the current prices of the blocks. Additionally you need to pay 3700 rs for transportation charges.