Thursday, December 2, 2010

Building a house-is that so simple?

I get at least two or three emails everyday each saying like this

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I plan to construct a house with following rooms.Please reply  and inform me cost of building the house

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Some persons write like this

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I am planning to build four bed room house with 1500 sft .Please tell me the cost

Tell me what is the current cost of constructing a house

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After building more than 200 houses in Kerala directly and acting as designer/consultant for many more houses,I cannot give an answer to these questions.

Some how people seem to think that house construction is very simple.They think that If you ask some one in the field of construction ,he will tell you cost of building the house immediately.

How can anyone predict the cost of building a house without any data? Without site visit and study of soil and nature,without designing at least a plan of the house,how can any one predict cost of building a house?

House construction involves purchase of lot of materials which cannot be purchased and stored at site at a time.When you buy these materials,you will have to pay ruling market price if you want the material.Even if you take the case of labour involved,there are so many different types of labour is involved in building a house.You will have to pay them ruling rates on the dates of hiring labour.

In such a fast changing situation when there can be situations of material and labour not even available when you need them,how will you simply predict cost of building a house?

Even the process of building a house will  take not less than an year.During this period so many changes can happen in  in price, availability of material , labour,technology,trends are possible.Even Ambani took seven years to build his 100 crore house in Mumbai.Naturally time taken is not due to his inability to raise 100 crores.But work require time to get completed in spite of money you may have.

To complete building a house you need more than money.You should have the capability to manage these factors or people to reach your dream home in the best possible manner

1.Your designer/Architect

He may be having many works at a time.Unless he puts his mind sincerely in your work you will not get best out of him.Just money alone will not get you the best out of him

2.Your builder and his team of workers

They will also be having other works going on simultaneously.After your work is over,you are least bothered whether these people continue to get work for sustaining their lives.But they will naturally have to adjust to keep other works going on and other works coming in to remain in the business or field of work.

3.Your material suppliers

4.Your financiers , friends and relatives

5.People who give you free advice

Actually they create more problems during execution of work.If you start listening and following those free advices,you will land up in a mess.

Square feet cost of construction

Let me ask you one simple question.Who is talking about this so called square feet cost of construction?No professional will commit that at so much square feet cost a house construction can be completed.

For all the houses I built when completed each of them has got different square feet cost,if I bothered to write down all expenses from beginning to end and divide total cost by square feet plinth area. in the end.

For each house soil conditions will be different,nature of land will be different,access to  building materials production centers will be different,design will be different,needs of house owner will be different.In short every parameters will be different.Then how can you say that there will be a uniform constant square feet cost of construction?

Only non professional contractors without any technical knowledge will give you a quotation with square feet cost.He will try to minimise his costs during construction by compromising on quality aspects knowingly and sometimes without knowing also..He want profit by hook or crook..He knows very well that you do not know much about construction.That is precisely why you did not bother to get assistance and guidance from a professional.It is easy to cheat some one who has only very little and mostly wrong ideas on building a house.You are actually such a person.I have seen contractors cheating clients by knowingly talking about bad and wrong practices in construction as the right thing to do.You will simply believe him. .

Even though he might have given some square feet cost indication initially he will find ways and means to collect extras from you.In the end you will worry only about completing the house some how.If a contractor is doing the work,even if you want to change him in between it will not be possible.So you end up paying whatever he demands and that sweet low square feet cost he told initially to you to get the work from you is silently forgotten by you and the contractor.

So all those writing to me asking for square feet cost want me to tell a lie.I simply refuse to tell that lie.

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