Thursday, November 8, 2012

Free Consultation,8,Nov,2012

Four bed room house with 1250 sft plinth area

Query

Dear Sir,

We are looking for a house with the following facilities:

1. Two Storied Building

Ground Floor :

  • 1 Master bedroom + 2 Bedrooms (1 for teenager, one for old age)

  • Kitchen

  • Living cum Dining

  • Verandah

  • Car porch

  • W/A cum store

  • Common toilet

First floor

  • 1 Bedroom with toilet

  • Balcony

We can keep all the rooms at minimum standard size

I would like to know if we can build a home looking similar to the attached photo with the above facilities in 1250 sq. ft.

Sreeja

My reply

Non professional contractors who build most of the houses in Kerala(They also give plan of the house sometimes free or for name sake charges) have created lot of wrong ideas in the minds of general public about house construction.

Major wrong concept almost ingrained in the minds of every one is that there is a fixed square feet cost of construction whatever may be the design and whatever may be soil conditions and other factors.This is totally wrong.I have directly designed and built more than 200 houses and on completion each of these houses had different square feet cost.

Another wrong concept is that owner of the house can decide square feet plinth area of the house in advance and the designer will have to some how meet all requirements within that square feet area predetermined by the owner.I get any number of mails reflecting these baseless wrong concepts among people.

Look at this case.She has a plot with width of 14M and depth of 18M.After statutory clearances to be left she will not get more than 11.8M width and 13 M depth.With that space no designer can provide three bed rooms and other facilities sought by her in Ground Floor

Of course I have designed 1200 sft house  with three bed rooms in three cents plot .But the rooms and living spaces were naturally congested.But in that case,there was no alternative.

For  reasonably good dimension rooms and other living spaces,a four bed room house will need at least 2500 sft in plinth area.Cost of a house is not determined by square feet plinth area alone.At best it can be one of the cost contributing factors.Cost of hundreds of input materials and different type of labour involved can only be controlled or reduced by having an appropriate design by a qualified and experienced designer who have direct experience in designing and managing several house constructions in different locations and environments.Wealth of experience gained cannot be obtained by any University studies

Another wrong concept is that one can design house starting from Elevation .You might have seen picture of a house somewhere and liked it.But you cannot simply copy it in to your plot.Your plot will have different measurements,directions and other factors which call for a unique design suited to your plot,budget and requirements.Most important part of design of a house is getting most appropriate plan of the house.A designer who can give you a good plan of the house can definitely give you a good Elevation suited to you rather than simply copying a house picture seen by you somewhere.

Villa purchase from a Builder In Cochin

Query

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Building Permit":
Mr Thomas,
I am planning to get a villa by a builder in Kochi. Do I need to check for the non encumbrance certificate or any kind of details of the land where the villa is situating?
Thanks,
Naveen

My reply

Just because you are buying a Villa from a supposed to be reputed builder(Whoever advertises more seems to be a reputed builder!),it does not mean that you can relax on all legal aspects.In such case you have to be more careful than buying a plot or house directly by you.You have to necessarily get technical and legal evaluation before you commit your money from impartial experts.Go to link Architectural Guidance in our website,

www.keralaarchitecture.com

and check what all you have to check before property purchase

Internship training with our organisation for Architecture/Civil Engineering graduates

Query

Respected Sir,

I am a 4th year student of the department of Architecture and Regional Planning, Indian institute of Technology(IIT), Kharagpur enrolled in its B.Arch. course. I have gone through your website and has found it really interesting. I hence intend to do an internship under your esteemed guidance and be a part of the projects undertaken by your company.

Neeharika,

My reply

We can provide training to selected fresh graduates in Architecture/Civil Engineering with exposure to design,Project Management at Sites and related activities of our organisation

Clearance required for Building Construction

Query

Sir,
I've 15cents of plot at Trichur Corporation area. From the main road, there is a sub road having width of 3.200 M. to the plot. I wish to build an apartment at there. Is 3.200 M accessibility is enough otherwise what papers has to submit to get relaxation. Pls. advice .
Regards.
jayadevan

My reply

Contact town planning section of local authority office(in your case Trichur Corporation) with Division No and Survey No of the plot.They are the competent authority to clarify your doubts as in addition to KBR provisions local authority can impose further restrictions and conditions.

Renovation/Remodeling of existing house

Query

Hi Thomas,

I am looking for some professional unbiased opinion on our house located in Chavara if it needs renovation and need some quote on those renovation/ remodeling.

Best Regards,

Santosh

My reply

Lot of people think of renovation/remodeling as a cheaper option compared to new construction.It is not so.Cost of renovation/remodeling cannot be predicted or estimated properly as there will be lot of unexpected costs coming in.All that defects in the original building by way of wrong design,bad workmanship cannot be simply rectified by a remodeling work.There are restrictions to which remodeling can be done

So  attempt for remodeling/renovation if you really need it and we can inspect the house and suggest whether remodeling/modification sought by you can be done without incurring much cost and if it is worth spending money for.

Whether rates of contractor is reasonable

Query

Jinu has left a new comment on your post "#Kerala House Construction-Replies to your queries...":
Hi My Name is Jinu BK from Kannur,working with a Singapore base Company, I am building a house in my native place,ground floor concrete has been done, now the construction is under process for first floor it's total of 1950 sq. ft. house, the agreement with the contractor was 1000 Rs per sq. ft. only for the structure(including kattila and Windows with grill)so could please advise me per sq. ft. price is reasonable or higher side.

My reply

What is the point in I telling whether your contractor rate is reasonable or not.Has any professional body fixed such square feet rate of construction ? Even you don’t know what all he will do for that agreed rate.Is there a professional to supervise the work?Will any professional  give architectural/structural drawings for the work?If so will the contractor agree to follow such drawings and professional instructions while doing work?

Who will check quality of work of the contractor?Non professional contractor do not have to follow any engineering standards and he will do anything to get profit even by compromising on quality of work which mostly he may not even know about .

This is how most of the house construction goes in our land.Professionals are supposed to “increase” cost of construction! In practice,contractor will try to cheat owner of the building who thinks that he is smarter than contractor.Finally only the contractor will be smarter and once the construction is completed this originally agreed square feet rate will be forgotten by all