Wednesday, February 3, 2010

House construction-How to start and proceed

I am sure you might have noticed a spider making a net to catch it’s preys to eat it.After spinning the net spider watches for any movement and wait in a corner.Once a fly or other insect get caught in the net,spider rushes close to it’s prey and tie it with net finally to kill it and eat it.

This is exactly how non professional contractors who construct most of the houses in Kerala talk of a square feet cost of a house simply to mislead possible clients into their spider like net. Once caught in the net, you cannot escape and by the time you finish construction of the house ,the last thing you worry about is the original promised square feet cost of construction. You somehow try to complete the house whatever may be the final cost.

Construction cost in Kerala is rapidly rising and any house construction will take not less than one year. During this period cost of input materials and labour increase a lot and no contractor is going to bear the increase in cost and still give you a quality product.If you plan to build your house in Kerala try to do it as fast as possible as tomorrow will be too late and you may not be in a position to afford construction cost of tomorrow.This is precisely why any house built well sells at double the construction cost immediately after completion.

Design and construction of a house is a bit complicated affair if you want to do it properly. You need Architectural design and complete design details for it, structural design details, interior and landscape details. Only a professional agency can do it rightly for you.

House construction  has got three major components in it

1. Basic Structure and plastering. Probably I can give a guess on  cost of this part. If you do it with right structural design, proper quality and engineering at present in put cost level, it may cost about Rs.1000/- per sft.Again it is only a guess and when you actually construct your house with proper engineering it may go up and not likely to go down.

2. Interior work like flooring, Electrical, plumbing, painting, interior wood work like modular kitchen ,stair case etc

3.Compound wall,gate,septic tank,water storage tanks, landscape work,rain water storage,Electrical and water connections etc

On second and third phases of construction rapid change of technology forces you to adopt to latest trends and facilities.At the beginning stage of construction,there is absolutely no way of correctly predicting cost of these stages.Of course,contractor will gave cost figures with several conditions applicable and these conditions applicable can take care of his profits whatever may be cost indications given by him.

It will be better to decide on umpteen options available for each and every item of work with professional guidance at these later stages of construction.

Once  your plan is ready, using Engineering estimate methods cost of structural work can be calculated. Square feet plinth area is not the only deciding factor of cost. At best it can be treated as one of the many factors. If you calculate cost considering only this  square feet plinth area factor it will be like the old story of blind going to see elephant.

Let us see how we proceed on design and construction of your house.

We proceed in a systematic manner in developing design for your house and then proceeding to make it a reality with high standards of design, quality and workmanship.

First step is my visit to your plot.

This visit to your plot to study your plot, site conditions, surroundings and to visualise house in your dreams through the eyes of an Architect will cost you Rs.3000/-plus travel expenses.

After this we will prepare the most important document for your house which we call as Basic Plan showing dimensions and positions of rooms, doors and windows only. We charge Rs.2.5 per square feet plinth area for this Plan.

You can go through this drawing and suggest changes as may be required and it can be revised not once but twice without any extra charges.

Then we will have to prepare a set of drawings as required by Kerala Building rules for submission to local authority like Panchayath for approval. Our charges for these set of drawings is Rs.6000/-

If you have someone to follow up about this with local authority, he can arrange site inspection by concerned official and obtain Building Permit after paying fees as may be applicable to local authority.

If you have no one to do this, we can arrange this. In that case our travel expenses and other service charges will be extra.

Then we proceed to prepare Engineering Estimate giving item wise costing for each item of construction mainly for budgetary purpose and also to act as a starting point for construction if we take up construction directly.

Before each stage of construction we will give you expected cost, time required for that stage of work and rates applicable in writing to you.No extra charges for site visit,detailed architectural and structural design  and close monitoring of work if we take up work on contract basis.

After completion of each stage of construction, we will take detailed measurements from site and billing will be on this actual site measurements details of which will be forwarded to you for your verification. Rates applicable will be the same as that given in the Stage Estimate given prior to commencement of that stage of work. There will be a proper agreement for construction work signed by both parties entered prior to commencement of work

If you are an NRI,you can peacefully leave the entire house building job to us.You will get transparent billing with complete details,you can watch work progress of each day through pictures in blog specifically created for your site sitting in any part of the world.Our reputation gained through building more than 200 houses in Kerala and designing much more will ensure that you get the best work done complying with modern architecture,structural engineering vasthu and complete professional care

2 comments:

  1. Dear Sir,

    Can you help in building a house if your charges are applicable to us. Also i can send you the drawings of house plan if you approach us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes.I can help you building a house.Write to me with all details to
    vhthomas@viruvelil.com
    I rarely check these blogs.So avoid writing here as you may not get response from me

    ReplyDelete