Civil Construction

Primary steps towards Building your Dream Home

Stage 1 : Visit & revisit your favorite houses with your family, take a close look at all the elements. Jot down the sizes of the important areas like Bed rooms, dining, kitchen & even bathrooms. Pay attention to the outdoor spaces as well including Utility, wash areas, parking & garden spaces. Discuss all the observed aspects with family members who will ultimately have a say in your dream home. Arrive at the total super built up area you need after visiting a few houses. Make it a point to enquire & get the contact details of the Architect / civil engineer / contractor etc of each house you visit.  If budget has the final say then you can use current 2012 house construction costs in bangalore which vary from 1 lakh to 1 lakh fifty thousand per square (100 sft) for a middle class finish (Sal or honne wood or aluminium or upvc windows, medium range vitrified or granite tiles ) all the way upto 2 to 2.5 Lakh for a high end Italian marble & Teak wood finish.

For example if you are ready to spend 50 lakh on your house, keep aside about 10% of it towards BBMP plan sanction, KPTCL & BWSSB charges , keep aside another 10% towards interiors like wardrobes & basic furnishing. So that leaves you with 40 lakh with which you can build a 2500 sft house. In construction no one has ever completed a project at or below the estimated cost so its taken for granted that you need to keep atleast 15% buffer from start to finish, from your statutory costs to your final finishes.

Stage 2 : You need to decide if you are going to an Architect to help you from start to finish i.e. plan, elevations, drawings to contractor enrollment,bill checking & site supervision (for an approximate charge of 4 - 6 %) OR if you will just take basic plans & elevation (1-2%) from an architect & give it to an able contractor to execute. If an Architect or a Contractor is your childhood friend or your mothers brother half your problems are solved :) Else begin your quest to hand over the reins of your dream project by asking around for recommendations. Get an estimate from atleast 3 contractors / civil engineers & zero in on One with help from your architect or you yourself take a look at the contractors past & ongoing projects before taking the final call.  Electrical & Plumbing quotations can be taken & contractor finalized after work commences before casting the first lintel.

Here there are 2 Main types of Estimates :

1. Item Rate (lot of constant calculations are involved but its the Best & Most transparent)
2. Lump - sum Square rate (Its for those who hate to do math. Simple but will usually end up souring relations as it cant be Clear Cut)


Stage 3 : Now that you have hired a contractor (& an architect) get in touch with their trusted government liaison agents & get quotes for plan sanctioning (BWSSB & KPTCL comes later). If you have a few half days to spare just get the Sanction plan made from the architect & you yourself can get the file moved in the concerned BBMP office. Along with plan approval, mobilizing & proper planning of funds needs attention at this stage. Once the approval comes & ground breaking starts, see to it that work Never stops on site due to payment issues. If it does stop then there will be cost escalation as well as quality issues.


Stage 4 : Working plans & elevation to the maximum possible extent must be ready. Get into an agreement with the contractor (& an architect) putting pen to paper on each & every issue & also freezing the final rates. The agreement should be time bound & for typical residential houses, the duration should be a maximum of One Year. Make the first payment to the contractor (called Mobilization advance which is usually 10% of the project cost) & you are ready to roll !

More to follow . . .