Building a dream home is everyone’s aspiration. Every person wants to construct a home where they can cherish their memories. But when people want to make their dream into reality it is very hard to fulfil. It is because house construction costs are not cheap nowadays. For the middle-class family it is about investing their whole life income in building a home. People always search for ways to reduce construction costs.
That’s why many people find it a large investment in their life. For this reason, they try to save as much as possible to get the optimum value of their price. Also, some people go for loans that are why it is necessary to effectively use the money to get maximum benefit. It is not a big task nowadays to construct a low-cost house in India.
1. SOIL TEST:
Soil test is critical for constructing a building. The most important part of any building is the part under the ground – the foundations. The larger the building, the more important this is.
Soil testing gives necessary information to determine the type of foundation required. Indeed, it also determines what sort of material to be used for construction and the load it can bear. Soil testing also helps eliminate various types of building failures.
- Identifying suitable construction materials
- Identifying type of foundation needed
- Helps avoid resting foundations on poor soil or inadequate depth
- Helps avoid resting foundation on reclaimed soil
- Identify soil liquefaction possibilities during earthquake
2. BUY FROM LOCAL VENDORS:
While buying material for construction, try to buy from local vendors in and around 5km of the site, as this will reduce your transportation cost, labour cost and material cost.
If you purchase material from the local dealers and wholesale shops, then there will be less expenditure regarding construction material. Because the dealer will give you more discounts and offers as you purchase more material.
For example if the site is Chennai, buy from surrounding places like Coimbatore, Bengaluru and Hyderabad
3. HAVE AN ESTIMATE/PLAN:
Before getting started on the planning process, start collecting estimates. These early estimates will be approximate, but they can help in making important building decisions. Once the likely costs are estimated, you can modify the plans to meet the budget. Estimating building costs helps you get closer to the budget, when more details and information are gathered.
4. LOCALLY SOURCED MATERIALS:
Ensure that you go for local materials. It’s not just about the cost of gas on default, seeing as how an overloaded truck (or any vehicle in general) tends to spend more gas to traverse the same distance.
Furthermore, the greater the distance it passes while overburdened, the more often it will break down. In other words, going for local materials saves you money in more than several ways. You will lower the environmental impact of your construction site, which is one more thing worth keeping in mind.
For example, in Kerala red bricks and laterite blocks are available. In Chennai, you can opt for fly ash bricks and concrete.
5. MORE NO. OF WINDOWS AND OPENINGS IN HOUSE:
Having a lot of windows and openings in the house reduces the wall quantity. Lesser walls mean more natural light inside the house, implying lower electricity costs. It also reduces the surface area of the house so it reduces construction costs like material costs of foundation, brick concrete, bricks etc.,
6. BUILD DURING OFF SEASON:
Constructing during the off season has a lot of benefits. It saves you on the manpower, material costs and the availability of the resources is also high during this season.
7. FILLER SLAB AND RAT TRAP BOND:
Instead of building a full concrete roof, you can use filler slabs that could reduce up to 40 per cent of the overall cost of your roof. You use far less concrete and steel when you use filler material such as bricks, tiles, mud blocks, or broken cement blocks on the roof. Filler slabs also reduce the weight on load-bearing walls and foundation.
You can save about 25 percent of costs on bricks with this simple method. The Rat Trap Bond is a masonry technique that creates a hollow cavity between bricks while keeping the thickness of the wall intact. It reduces the amount of bricks and cement used, while also reducing the overall load of the structure, leading to cost-cutting in other areas. The hollow space in the walls also thermal-proofs the house.
8. CUT DOWN ON PLASTERING COST:
The cost of plastering and painting is quite a huge part of the overall budget, as it involves plastering, adding putty and then adding colour. However, if you have an excellent team of skilled labour, you could actually consider leaving the brickwork exposed, without any plastering. It adds a warm and simple touch and can cut costs down by 10-15 per cent. The same applies to concrete works. Exposed walls and surfaces are aesthetically very appealing.
9. WATER EFFICIENT FIXTURES:
Control of water flow and water efficiency can be gained using various fixtures like low flow shower heads sinks with auto shut off mechanism and water saving toilets and urinals and equipment that saves water including dishwashers, clothes washers, other commercial kitchen equipment such as sprayers and steam cookers. It reduces costs in the long-run and advocates a green concept.
10. HIRE A RIGHT ARCHITECT:
An architect is more than a mere designer of buildings. An Architect, in fact, has the unique advantage of having a 360-degree view of a construction project by virtue of which she/he plays a critical role in any building project from conception to delivery. An Architect is usually the only person who has discussed and understood a client’s requirement with his/her budget constraints and the one who also understands local site and planning constraints. The decisions taken by an architect at every stage impact not only the spatial design of a building but also the construction costs, quality and time taken for completion of the same.
