Building an economical, durable house

 Jagvir Goyal

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Whenever a person plans construction of his dream house, he has aims to build a beautiful and unique house that would serve his requirements, but all this at minimum possible cost. Another important aspect is constucting a durable house, which would require minimum maintenance and post-construction problems. The task can be little challenging, yet the proper planning can go a long way.

Let’s have a look at a few such methods that can ensure economy and durability without compromising on the beauty and serviceability of the house:

Avoid a low-lying plot

A low-lying plot requires not only extra earth-filling below the floors, but the foundations will also be deeper as these are essentially to be dug below natural ground level to sufficient depth. Additionally, the foundations may need lateral support in the filled portion. All these costs can be avoided if the plot chosen is not low-lying. The earth filled below the floors keeps consolidating with time and may result in settlement of floors. A low-lying plot can be chosen only if you intend to have a basement. Else, avoid it and save cost and time.

Use quality steel reinforcement

Always get the steel reinforcement to be provided in RCC components like slabs, columns, beams, lintels, window projections, balconies, staircases and foundations designed from a structural engineer. Never go as per the arbitrary thumb rules followed by masons. The structural engineer will not only ensure provision of lesser quantity of steel in RCC, but will also check the safety of these structural items. Many cantilever slabs serving as balconies fail only due to wrong provision and placement of steel reinforcement in them.

Plan the construction of your house in a manner that most of its structural framework, including foundations, walls, beams, columns and slabs get completed during summer time. Summer has longer days and thus the daylight working hours available are more.

Go for concrete mix

Always use designed concrete in RCC components of the house. Till recent times, only uncontrolled concrete, denoted as 1:2:4 or 1:1½:3 has been under use in the housing sector. Instead of such ratios of cement, sand and coarse aggregate (bajri), properly designed concrete mix like M20, M25 should be used in RCC work. Such concrete will consume less quantity of cement but will ensure better strength of concrete. If 24 bags of cement get consumed in 100 cubic feet of 1:1½:3 concrete, not more than 18 to 19 bags will get used in the same quantity of M20 concrete having better strength.

Structural design

While designing the steel reinforcement of RCC components of the house, the structural design engineer will also determine the sizes of beams and columns, along with their locations. He will also determine the thickness of roof slab, staircase slab, size and depth of RCC foundations, along with the grade of concrete, to be used in each of them. Thumb rules lead to uneconomical sizes and thicknesses. The structural design engineer will also ensure safety of the house against earthquake by using latest codal provisions for the same.

Use an RMC station

In case you are constructing your house in an area where a RMC (ready mix concrete) station is available nearby, it may would beneficial to buy the ready-mixed concrete instead of preparing it at site. Concrete prepared, supplied and poured in place by RMC station will have better quality control and can be exactly as per the mix design wanted by you. Some RMC stations now agree to supply even small quantities of concrete in buckets. Otherwise, for large pours such as roof slabs at least, using RMC is better. Inquire about the RMC rate and compare it with the likely cost of concrete prepared at site before placing the order.

Make the most of sunny days

Plan to start construction of your house in a manner that most of its structural framework, including foundations, walls, beams, columns and slabs, gets completed during summer time. Summer has longer days and daylight working hours available are more. Moreover, shuttering for RCC work needs to be kept in position for lesser period as the concrete gains strength in summers in a faster manner. Workers too have better efficiency. By the time winters arrive, the workers will engage themselves on inside activities of the house. However, take care of proper curing of RCC work during summer.

Check wastage

After the finalisation the house plan and structural design, work out the quantities of major material to be used such as cement, steel of different diameters, bricks, sand, coarse aggregate, wood, water supply and sanitary pipes, electricity conduits, etc. These quantities will give you an idea of cost involved and you can tie up with the suppliers for sending materials on receiving your call. Keep a check on consumption to avoid pilferage or wastage. This will certainly bring savings.

(We’ll continue with more tips to achieve economy and durability in the next article.)

—The writer is former HoD and engineer-in-chief, civil engineering department in a Punjab PSU