HOME CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE

Building a home by oneself is not a difficult task. If you have a land and sufficient fund, you can start on. Now a days, many people wants to build their own home by himself to save cost. It's a good initiative. But some homework should be done to become successful in this game. What people actually do. If they have a land, approaches to an Architect or an Engineer to prepare a plan. The Architect makes the drawing as per client's requirement with robust exterior design. The plan apparently looks very beautiful. The client becomes happy with the design and gets necessary approval of the plan. After that, they contact a local contractor by reference of their colleagues or relatives who agrees to do the construction at lower rate. Client thinks that he got a good contractor and he assigns the job to that contractor. Now contractor starts the construction work. Everything goes right for few months.

After someday, in the midway of work, contractor becomes unhappy with the client. Contractor starts saying that he will not do the work because he is not making any profits. Now the misunderstanding starts arising between client and contractor. Sometimes contractor stops the work arising different issues like drawings are not coming in time or drawings are changing frequently or client supply materials are not available in time or client's payment is very delayed or labours are not willing to work for late payments etc. Contractors have thousands of issues to delay the work and usually they do it and claims extra bill for idle labour charges. It's their common practice. Sometimes they create such a situation that client becomes bound to increase their rate of contract.

This is not a story but actual fact. Most of the client face this problem during home construction procedure.Generally, a client starts home construction with a specific budget and arranges fund accordingly. But, if the rate is to hike in the midway of work, it hits the budget badly.

The second episode of the event becomes like this....

After increasing contractor's rate the client starts struggling for fund. Because he didn't expected such expenses. Now, the present situation of site is half done work, about 40% works are pending. The client is in big tension. He wants to complete the work as soon as possible. But fund does not permit it. He starts cost cutting, left some work undone. Believe me, this is the most miserable situation of the site. Contractor tries to finish the work in hurry resulting many mistakes. Everyone is in hurry. So,workmanship becomes very poor. Quality of work gets hampered. The beautiful exterior design of building finds itself in the undone work list because it costs more than other items of work in comparison to the urgent work. Ultimately the client stops the work due to lack of fund. And, the dream home becomes a half done home.

However, after few months later, client able to arrange funds and again he starts the work. This time the work gets completed after many addition, alteration and rework. Because during the crisis period many mistakes were done which has to rectify now. Though it has escalated the budget again but the home is completed.

After someday, in a relax mood the client looks at the home and thinks, What a great thing I did !

There is no doubt about it, it's a great feeling to have an own home. He did an excellent job. After a big long stressful journey he achieved the dream home. Now, he became a master of home building.  He knows everything about home building. He can give advice to anyone. But, but, he learned this against a HUGE COST and TIME.

If someone asks frankly, by how much cost?

The answer will be against 'DOUBLE BUDGETED COST' and almost 'TWICE ESTIMATED TIME' and, and that's the problem. Because same types of home in that locality is available almost at the half price with better workmanship. So, the question arises what is the benefit of building home by self ?

The most important things for home construction procedure is to complete the home as per design within budgeted cost and specific timeline. To complete the work within timeline depends on sound knowledge of  planning, adequate fund and proper works sequence. Sequence of works play very important role. For any planning, it's vital. If sequence of works are known one can visualize the forthcoming activities and become prepared for the required drawings, materials and manpower etc. In this way one can overcome the bottlenecks of the project and controls the timeline with less rework. Remember completing any task within timeline not only saves the time but the cost also. Saving time and cost means more fund. Hence, there are more chances that the construction of home can be completed within the budgeted cost and preferred timeline.

What is sequence of work?

Sequence of work means the proper planning of works in the activity list i.e. which work is to start earlier and which one is to start later on, which work to finish first so that next activity can be started earlier. Which works are inter-related to each other, like that. If one activity gets delay the other activities also gets more delayed. Resulting the delay of the whole project. So, finding out the critical activity and focus on it is the prime area of concern. If the critical activity is completed, the project work runs smoothly. So, the main target is to complete the critical task as early as possible.
Here, the sequence of works for building a home are mentioned serially which may help the home construction procedure simple.

SEQUENCE OF WORK:

1. CHOOSING A LAND FOR HOME
2. LEGAL REGISTRATION AND MUTATION
3. PREPARATION OF PLAN, ESTIMATES, BUDGET AND ITS APPROVAL
4. SELECTION OF CONTRACTORS/VENDORS
5. PREPARATION OF WORK SCHEDULE
6. PREPARATION OF SITE INFRASTRUCTURE( like construction water, power, site barricade, approach road, labour camp etc.)
7. SETTING OUT OF PLAN ON GROUND
8. FIXING (+/- 0.00) LEVEL AT SITE
9. BHUMI PUJAN (It's a common ritual in India done before home construction)
10. EARTH EXCAVATION (For foundation, septic tank, water tank etc.)
11. BRICK FLAT SOLING / P.C.C (1:3:6) WORK TO FOUNDATIONS
12. ERECTION OF FOUNDATION BRICK WORK / R.C.C COLUMN
13. TIE BEAM AND STAIR WORK
14. ERECTION OF COLUMN / BRICK WORK ON TIE BEAM
15. LAYING OF DAMP PROOF COURSE AT PLINTH LEVEL
16. EARTH FILLING AT PLINTH LEVEL AND COMPACTION
17. BRICK FLAT SOLING AT PLINTH LEVEL
18. ERECTION OF COLUMN / BRICK WORK UP TO 1ST. FLOOR BEAM BOTTOM LEVEL
19. CENTERING AND SHUTTERING WORK FOR 1ST. FLOOR SLAB
20. REINFORCEMENT WORK FOR 1ST. FLOOR SLAB
21. FINAL CHECKING OF 1ST. FLOOR SLAB BEFORE CASTING
22. 1ST. FLOOR SLAB CASTING
23. CURING(WATERING) TO NEWLY CAST SLAB
24. LAYOUT FOR 2ND. FLOOR COLUMN STARTER / BRICK WORK
25. 2ND. FLOOR COLUMN ERECTION
26. STAIR FOR 2ND. FLOOR / ROOF
27. THEN REPEAT THE ACTIVITY SAME AS GROUND FLOOR (For shuttering, reinforcement work, checking, casting etc.)
28. REMOVAL OF SHUTTERING OF GROUND FLOOR THEN 1ST. FLOOR
29. HACKING / CHIPPING OF CONCRETE SURFACE
30. GROUND FLOOR BRICK WORK(1:6), LINTELS, SUNSHADE ETC. THEN 1ST. FLOOR
31. CURING OF BRICK WALLS TO BOTH FLOOR
32. INTERNAL ELECTRICAL / HVAC / PLUMBING ROUGH WORK TO BOTH FLOOR
33. GROUND FLOOR P.C.C (1:2:4) WORK
34. DOORS & WINDOWS FRAME FIXING TO BOTH FLOOR
35. INTERNAL PLASTER TO BOTH FLOOR
36. ELEVATION / EXTERNAL DESIGN WORKS
37. EXTERNAL PLASTER 
38. EXTERNAL PLUMBING WORK
39. EXTERNAL DRAINAGE WORK (Septic tank, soak well, inspection pits etc.)
40. EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT WORK (Passage, porch, approach road, compound wall, garden, lawn etc.)

FINISHING WORK CAN SIMULTANEOUSLY BE STARTED AS SCOPE OF WORK GETS OPEN.

1. WATERPROOFING WORK TO TOILETS, KITCHEN ETC.
2. FLOOR FINISHES / TILES WORK ETC.
3. M.S GRILL WORKS
4. INTERNAL PAINTING WORK
5. CARPENTRY WORK TO DOORS, WINDOWS, FURNITURE ETC.
6. ROOF PARAPET ETC./ ROOF TREATMENT WORK 
7. EXTERNAL PAINTING WORK
8. SITE CLEANING
9. CLOSURE

CRUCIAL POINTS: To get success in building a home within budget and timeline the following points are very much crucial along with sequence of work.

Drawings & Specifications : Make building design as simple as possible. A square or rectangular shape building costs less than others. All the working drawings and specifications get ready in hand, at least one month before starting the construction work. It should be communicated with the Architect regularly to get the detail working drawing of the related work beforehand. There should be no issue about drawing delay. Drawings should be given to contractor at least 20 days before the work to check any discrepancies for necessary corrections. Any discrepancy found in the drawing should be reported to the architect immediately and ask him to give revised drawing as early as possible.

Budget making : Another important work is to prepare a budget before starting construction work. Don't go for assumption or hearsay. It should be calculated as per the present market price and with provisions for future price hikes. Budget gives a clear picture of probable expenses and helps to arrange fund. If you think that the budget is higher than fund available, you can make some necessary curtailments or adjustment in the budget. The work which is not required now can be stopped and add later on. Budget is the line of control, it helps to control the unnecessary expenses. So, preparing budget is very important.

Selection of contractors or vendors : This is very much crucial task to choose a right civil contractor or vendor. The contractor should be resourceful and should have good track records and credential. He should have sufficient manpower and plants & machinery. He must have past experience for successfully execution of similar types of job at least three projects. If possible one can visit his ongoing sites and check his workmanship, manpower and plants & machinery etc. Remember, a good contractor's motive is always to complete the job in right time. He knows the value of time.

Preparation of work schedule : This is a very useful method for tracking any project work. Whenever a job is assigned to a contractor or vendor, there must be a work schedule in written. It should be prepared by the contractor and it should be agreed by the client. In work schedule, details of work and time duration with dates to complete each task should be mentioned.It should be made before starting the work. Sequence of works given above can be used as work schedule by providing date and time with necessary modifications.

During progress of work this work schedule is to be reviewed every week by the client and contractor together. If any task delays, it should be analysed and verified to find the actual reasons. Justified reasons for delay should be solved by taking right decision.This practice gives a good result and keeps everyone updated. Progress becomes smooth, less contradiction between client and contractor. Hence good relationship and better workmanship. This is a very useful Technique for any project work.

NOTE : This home construction procedure is for R.C.C. Frame Structure or Brick Structure Buildings only. One can apply it for other types of building but items of work in sequence list to be changed accordingly.

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Green Environment

Hi, I’m Gobinda Burman (Green Environment). More than 27 years in the field of Building Construction industry, I’ve completed many high-rise building projects successfully. I have got the opportunity to learn and solve the critical practical problems related to building construction. I love to share my knowledge with those people who wants to build their own home and the budding civil engineers willing to build their career in this field..

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