Your dream house in Kerala

One day a young lady came to my office without any advance information and caught hold of my hand unusual for a Kerala lady and said-“I am coming from New York.I want to build a house.Can we discuss about it?”
That is how design and construction of house at Irinjalakuda started.Problems with her in making her dream house were many.
1.She has nobody except a retired father in law to look after construction.Even he is quite new in the place where they plan to construct house and hence cannot do much about construction other than watching in silence.
2.Father in law has already located a local builder and made a plan of the house.She is not so confident about capability and trustworthiness of that builder.
3.Communicating with that local builder from USA will be a problem and for monitoring and observing progress of work,she will have to depend solely on telephonic reports from father in law
4.Even she or father in law is not aware of technicalities involved in construction and hence there is no way to monitor or ensure quality of construction.
5.Accounting for work done needs a proper transparent arrangement which the local builder cannot ensure.
6.Just by looking at plan of the house made,she is not able to make out how the house will come out when finished and what features and facilities the house will have.
in short she is simply searching for a reliable professional who can guide them properly,manage finance for construction reliably and someone who can be fully trusted to make her dream house a reality.


After completion of the house ,she told me that many NRI malayalees like her really want to buy land in Kerala and construct a dream house where they can come and stay for few days of their vacation and come back and stay after retirement if they come back to India or sell at a later date at a good price if they do not want to come back and settle in Kerala for retirement.
But she also told me that in spite of having money most of the NRIs are not daring to venture into buying land and constructing house in Kerala as they are not hopeful of finding some one reliable to make their dream house a reality.
We have been trying to become this non existent reliable professional group who will fully take care of converting your dream house into reality with communication through blogs and emails making you feel like seeing your dream house coming up right in front of your eyes sitting in any far away corner of the world.




We have done many projects like that.For a Delhi based person working with a MNC without time to come and monitor construction of house at Kalady,for Dubai based persons at Ranni and Nilambur, for Botswana based Engineer at Cochin,For USA based persons at Cochin and Perumbavoor and the list go on .
We have recently started construction of  a house at Koratty.Husband is director of a pharmaceutical MNC based at Delhi travelling around the world and wife senior official of a foreign bank.Even though they are originally from Kerala,they were not having own land in Kerala and was nurturing a dream for a land and house in Kerala.
We have located land for their future house in Kerala.Did all documentation for land purchase,designed house,obtained building plan approval and now started construction.Sitting in any part of the world they can see pictures of work in progress of the house almost on daily basis through blog,communicate easily through emails and transfer funds through net and receive periodic bills also through net.



For doing all these,we are just billing clients practically on cost basis and quality of construction is strictly the best you can hope for with professional guidance and monitoring ensuring latest technology and best quality standards followed in each item and activity of construction.
Every house we design and build is normally offered for sale at almost double our billing amount by prospective buyers and we continuously get enquiries for purchase of houses which we have designed and built even though we always advice our clients not to sell the house as it will be practically impossible to get a similar house at the same cost.
Speciality of our design is that we have carefully chosen a  unique style of design which always give a bigger and appealing external appearance for the house as every malayalee client hope for.At Irinjalakuda we were building a 4000 sft house when a film star was having a 6000 sft house nearby.Half jokingly my client asked me-“Is it possible for our house to look bigger than that house with lesser area?”
I said –Yes and I kept my word.House really looks different,big and unique in its appearance.A still better looking design with 1000 sft less in plinth area is coming up at Cherthala.
So we are improving and reaching new heights in architectural excellence,quality of construction,better communication with client and definitely much much more value for the hard earned money of our clients many of them living and working in different parts of the world.

Building your house-How do you start?

Designing and building a house require systematic planning preferably with professional assistance
First step is to formulate your requirements for the house like how many rooms and other facilities you are looking for or dreaming for the house
When you communicate these to the Architect, he will have many more questions to you to get a better picture on your needs and dreams for the house.
A site visit by the architect is essential as just any other plan of the house taken from websites or builder sites may not necessarily suit your plot and your needs. Information on which direction house will face, nearby roads and surrounding nature can be collected by the Architect during site visit
Above all, Architect will have to dream and visualise your future house in the plot selected so that you will get the best possible plan ideally suited to your plot.
It will be good if the Architect can consider Vasthu aspects, Structural engineering aspects in additional to modern architectural features and of course good elements of traditional Kerala Architecture.
Cost of the house is one aspect that cannot be estimated simply by knowing that you are going to construct a house. Before any approximate estimate can be worked out, following data is essential even to guess the possible cost.
1. Basic plan of the house
2. Soil nature and features of land where building will come up
Square feet cost is a vague term which is not an accurate indicator for the expected cost of building. At best it can be a guess. Your Architect will be able to work out a more correct cost indication after the Basic Plan is prepared using Engineering estimate method.

Basic Plan is the most important document for construction of your house. Your Architect can  bring in his expertise, years of experience, creative talent and lots and lots of common sense along with his knowledge in structural engineering and Vasthu factors to get you the best and most appropriate basic Plan ideally suited  to your requirements and exactly suited to your plot and surroundings.

As a professional, your Architect will be more interested in giving you best value for your money and the best house which you can truly call as your dream home.Not so qualified or experienced persons will be able to give you a plan of the house possibly without even charges possibly as a bait to get contract for house construction.But remember a proper professional plan from a good architect can not only save you lakhs of rupees but the space saving better utility design features he will be bringing in will be understood and appreciated by you only when you start living in the house.

Similarly defects and lack of good features of  good design by using a non professional plan and building a house without professional assistance will be known to you only after you start living in the house.At that time you simply will not be able to do anything about it.So better be pound wise rather than being penny foolish.I have just used the old saying”penny wise pound foolish” in the reverse.

Tall claims and Ad campaigns

Our marketing division was supplying an electronic component to a stabiliser manufacturer on a regular basis.When the unit wanted an extension for their building naturally we got the job for design and construction of that building.

This stabiliser manufacturing unit was manufacturing stabilisers for a well known brand along with many similar units run by Christian priests and nuns.They will do procurement of raw materials and components from sources identified by the marketing company,employ school and college drop out girls for the assembling work.After manufacturing and testing they will pack the product and deliver to retail shop selling the product as per directions of the marketing company in whose brand name product is being sold.

One day I checked up the price indicated on the packed stabiliser and asked the priest in charge-“How much you get out of this price?”
Price figure indicated by him was really surprising to me.It was just one fourth of the selling price of the product.Nearly three fourth of price goes as possibly marketing expenses including advertisement expenses through media and Point of Purchase ad material costs,margin of marketing company and profit for retail seller.
So while watching colourful advertisements in TV and news papers we never realise the fact that we are paying for all these ad campaigns possibly with an added percentage of margin to the marketing company for advertisement expenses.

I have been watching construction of a four story apartment project just in front of my office and another apartment project for three story near my house in the recent period.
The project in front of my office was done by a fairly known builder who advertise and sell his apartments.This builder regularly buy land in Cochin,build similar apartments on a regular basis and sell apartments also on a regular basis.The other project(I will call it as Project B) is being done by an unknown builder who may be selling apartments through contacts and possibly they may not continue to build like this unlike Project A

Project A has regular workers to whom they are paying almost half the wages prevailing in the industry.They simply do not care about quality of work.Their only attempt is to finish the work as early as possible.North Indian workers staying at site without much facilities are persuaded to do overtime work even during night so that work will get completed fast.

I have noticed with shock that for four story building they are doing excavation for column footings simply by Jcb excavation to minimum depths.Mat footing concrete is using not even sufficient size steel bars and just four nos 12 mm steel bars are used for columns with stirrup spacing as  high as 30 cm or more.I asked one of the supervisors-“Will it not fall down if you do like this?”
He simply smiled and said-“We are regularly doing like this and so far nothing has fallen down.After all buyers are going to see building only after painting.At that time it will look good”

In our country there is no government machinery to check and enforce proper structural design for buildings being constructed and any body can do as they pleases and ordinary house building owners simply do not know anything about structural design or importance of proper structural work for the building ensuring structural stability of the building.They are only interested in getting lowest”square feet cost” of construction for the building they construct.Who bothers even if the builder does not even use proper steel reinforcement? If you use adequate steel reinforcement with professional guidance from a structural consultant,cost of construction will go up.When the customer is interested only in getting lowest”square feet cost” of construction why should builder spend more money to ensure structural stability of the building?

Recently I was rather shocked to receive mail from a qualified experienced engineer working abroad on construction projects asking me to quote my square feet cost of construction.So much for the lack of awareness even among professionals thus allowing crooks to flourish in the industry

I was watching Project B running construction from the beginning.They were doing the construction strictly as per the best procedure with proper professional design and quality.They are not well known builders.They do not advertise heavily through internet,media and hoardings.Probably they will not be getting buyers like usual players in the trade and may not get same high prices and thereby higher profits.
It is high time awareness about proper construction methods and procedures are known to potential buyers.Most of the bigger players in apartment business do not do anything other than marketing and reaping profits.They simply subcontract entire work on smaller players to earn huge margins from buyers who simply trust more advertised names.For them it is very easy to build lakhs of square feet within the committed delivery period.After all who bothers about quality?
“With painting and finishing works nobody will be able to notice defects initially.After purchase the apartment society will worry about quality problems and manufacturing defects”

Laying of concrete-Kerala practices

Having worked with many workers in different work sites in Kerala,I can tell you one fact which is common among all these workers.They give only lip service to quality of work.
When you ask them about quality of work,all of them tell that they are not like others and they do the work in the correct manner irrespective of supervision or lack of supervision.But this is  just a  hollow promise without any intension of following it up with action.In reality they will do only that which has less physical strain and they will try to make the owner of building believe that what they are doing is the correct manner of doing work.
While laying concrete usual follies or mistakes done by workers are the following
1.They add more water to the concrete so that it is easier for them to level the concrete or compact it in case of beams and columns even though more water in excess of allowed quantity will reduce strength of concrete.
2.They reduce quantity of coarse aggregates(3/4 inch metal if I use usual terminology) so that it will be easy for compaction especially when compaction is done manually without use of vibrator.They increase quantity of fine aggregates like river sand,again for less physical strain in mixing and compacting.
3.Cement quantity will be reduced only if material supply is also being arranged by the contractor.Otherwise cement will not be reduced as it is not affecting physical strain of concrete mixing and laying.
4.For beams and columns they talk as if concrete with more water is essential.After hearing it for some time any one will start thinking that columns and beams require concrete with more water.

As majority of houses and other buildings in Kerala are being constructed without professional guidance and supervision,there is also absolutely no structural design by a qualified Engineer.Workers will lay steel as they feel comfortable so that steel tying and fixing can be the minimum possible to reduce steel work.






I will tell you about two events among my varied experiences in dealing with unrelenting work force in concrete work.
We were laying concrete somewhere near Angamaly for a convent building.Suddenly mother superior of that convent wanted me to meet her.I went and met her
“Why are you concreting without sufficient water in concrete?”She asked.In fact I literally had to fight with unrelenting workers to reduce water in concrete to desired level and now this lady is finding fault with me for that.See how these workers have misinformed general public to believe that the follies narrated by them are the right of way of doing work.
At ranny at the time of first roof slab concreting my client has called a few of the local contractors of building work who were quite unhappy for not getting work of this house as my client has chosen to get me for the work from far away Cochin.He called them to be present at the time of concrete to check whether the Engineer from Cochin and his workers are doing the concrete properly.
After the tea within half an hour of commencement of concrete laying all of them left the place saying that ” now he will do it correctly as we have come”
I asked my client-“What do they say about steel reinforcement work for roof concrete?”
He replied-“They say that you have put steel for four houses in this roof”

I have put steel only sufficient and essential for the work.Of course this sufficient and essential is four times according to worker as more steel means more work for him.As the work is taken up on square feet rate basis more steel work means lesser profit for him as the labour wages will increase due to more steel work.
Who is bothered about structural stability of the house?The concreted roof should not fall down immediately after removal of supports after curing period.Whatever happens later,the worker will not be around to face it.Even if he is locally available,he will wash his hands saying “You gave the work to me knowing very well that I am not an Engineer?If you were so particular about stability of the house,you should have engaged an Engineer for the work”
At the time of negotiating to get contract for the building if you ask him “Should we not go for an Engineer to design and supervise the work?”
He will reply like this-“Why you have to waste money on an Engineer?I have built hundreds of houses without any Engineer.Nothing happened to any of the buildings.If you have more money to waste,get an Engineer'”
Concrete mixing practices are different in different parts of Kerala.
In Nilambur they use a sloping wooden case where they keep cement and aggregates at top side and as these are brought down mixed with water using hand tools,concrete mixed is received at end of sloping wooden case.
At Alwaye they  use long spade to mix concrete.This make movement of spade and mixing easier.
At Cochin and many other places there is a bad habit of dumping aggregates one above other and trying to pour water and mixing whatever is available at one end.This practice prevents proper mixing of concrete.But here again who bothers?Worker will vouch vehemently to the owner who does not know anything about concrete mixing that what he does is the correct and most appropriate method.
Many people think that by using a manually operated mixer machine concrete is mixed properly.First of all workers will not put aggregates in proper proportion to reduce their strain in levelling and compacting concrete.Secondly the operator of mixer machine will not turn it sufficiently for proper mixing as he want the work to be over faster ,mixing or no mixing.




The best way out in recent time available in major towns like Cochin are ready mix concrete.As the mixing and laying is done mostly by machine without much man power involvement,worker introduced excuses for low quality work will not come into play.Only precaution required is that ready mix supplier should be given instructions about quantity of water as they will again try to increase water content for easier pumping of concrete.
Vibrator is the best option for proper compaction of concrete after laying on roof or beams.The old method of using hand compaction with steel bars is likely to be affected by worker laziness and fatigue.
Another advantage of using ready mix concreting is that you can avoid too many workers running around roof to be concreted with all sorts of confusion and shouting at the time of concreting.In some places there is a practice of giving continuous run of  food and drink to these concrete workers including liquor to make them happy for doing a lousy  irresponsible job for concreting roof of your house to be built only once in your life time.
Another important aspect to be noted is curing required after concrete laying.Many worker turned contractors will advise house owner that spraying water once or twice is sufficient  again to reduce his labour charges.Concrete laid will have to be kept under water for minimum two weeks.In case of slope roof,jute bags will have to be kept above slope roof with frequent spraying of water on it to keep concrete surface wet and cool.

In search of a good Elevation

While dealing with house construction clients in Kerala,it is very common to hear from them that they require very good Elevation or appearance for the house.
Some people even send Elevations of houses they have seen in websites of builders and send it to me saying that I want my house to look like this.The person who make such demands is not even bothered about plan of that house which may be totally different from his requirement,budget and it may not even fit into his property.Who bothers about all these?
Most of them think that a good Architect is simply some one who can draw impressive Elevation from any plan of the house prepared by any one.Again usual Malayalee expectation of a house to be built is that the house should look impressive from outside.For them an Architect is some one capable of doing this from any plan.So you do not require an architect to draw plan of your house.A lot of people think that if they draw few lines and write whatever measurements they feel like,it will be the best plan for his house.
”After all,how can an Architect draw plan of my house when I am spending my money?.Let him draw a good Elevation for the house preferably one which look like a photo.I should know how the house will look,when completed”
A good elevation is possible only for a good Plan of the house.An Architect has to use the following during preparation of plan of a house.
1. His knowledge.
2.Years of experience in designing and building houses.
3.Structural engineering aspects to reduce construction costs.
4.Modern architectural techniques to enhance utility of every bit of built up space.
5.Ensure proper ventilation and lighting using sunlight in all living spaces.
6.Proper control and protection from sunlight,winds and rain for every living space.
7.Vasthu compliance
8.Reduction of cost by better utilisation of available resources.
9.Plan to obtain good external appearance for the building not only from front side but from every sides of the building.
Additionally for Malayalees,
10.Try to make the house look bigger than what it really is.
I can tell  many stories of experiences in dealing with clients about each of these aspects.But I will tell only two experience detail here.
At Punalur,I met an NRI who has become rich only very recently for design of his house in his existing plot.When I reached from Cochin with prior fixing of time,I had to wait at his rented accommodation for nearly an hour for the simple reason that my novae rich client wanted to make me wait for making me feel his “greatness” in front of me.
Before even proceeding to see the plot,he opened his laptop and showed me house pictures taken from websites of villa builders.
“I want house like this”
I said Okay.When I reached the plot ,the plot has only more cents which is only area of the land.It has very little width and the picture he showed simply will not fit into that plot.Even though I tried to prepare plan suited to that plot and his requirements,he was adamant that the plan does not suit with the plan he showed me.What will I do and how will I make him understand the fact?
At Irinjalakuda when I went to design and build a house father of my client had one simple demand.
House should look bigger than the new house of a film star nearby even though he cannot have 6500 sft plinth area of house of film star.He cannot go beyond 4000 sft.With 4000 sft.I designed and built house looking bigger than that 6500 sft house of neighbour.
Plan of the house is the most important, most valuable drawing of your house.Try to get the best talented Architect for preparation of that unique plan specifically suited to your plot,requirements and budget.A good plan will naturally give you a good elevation.But give the Architect time to dream and visualise a good plan and give him more time to develop a good and unique appearance for your house.Do not make him design in a hurry for you.Some times he may need more time to dream well for you.

Rubble work for Foundation of House construction

At Cochin Foundation work for house construction is generally costly as most of the land in Cochin are marshy land sometimes without even a trace of sand to depths as high as 12 to 15 metres.At Elamakkara where I have built a house of about 3000 sft in 2004 and presently building a house of about 3600 sft,I had to do concrete piling for foundation to depth of about 14.5 M.Similarly at Vyttila,Kathrikkdavu,Karukappilly,I had to do concrete piling.With after piling works like raising pile columns,Foundation beams,basement brick work,filling plinth etc,Foundation costs in these cases have gone up to about Rs.10 lakhs

At Kaloor,Edappally,Palarivattom,Kalamassery,Kakkanad I could do with less costly rubble foundation as the soil in these places were stable with either abundant sand or laterite.

Rubble foundation traditionally was done in most of the places as rubble masonry using rubble joined with sand cement mix or mortar with low mix ratio mostly as low as 1:10.Mortar when compared to rubble has low strength even after curing with water whereas the strength or bonding is better when used with brick normally with a mix ratio of 1:8.

My Guru Architect Angelique has taught me to use rubble work in dry pack for foundation as well as for basement.She was trained extensively under renowned Architect Lawrie Baker and thus i inherited all those cost reduction methods on building construction.

As usual I never accept anything unless I am fully convinced about correctness of the method adopted.Procedure followed by her were duly followed by me with no change(As I am fully convinced about it)for Foundation work adopted by me using rubble is detailed below:

In a stable soil we do not dig a lot unnecessarily.In southern Kerala there is a widely accepted belief among people that whatever may be the strength of soil,one should dig at least 6 feet down for foundation rubble work for house.After digging 6 feet,mostly very stable soil(sometimes even laterite soil)they put p c c 1:10 in the bottom.Then the rubble worker will simply throw rubble pieces into the six feet excavated foundation area.By such throwing of rubble,p c c will get damaged fully.nobody bothers.Once rubble filling reaches ground level they will build rubble basement above without doing anything extra for foundation rubble work in cement mortar of mix of 1:8 usually with cement plastering on top.If any builder or Engineer deviates from this generally accepted procedure not only the house owner but the entire people of the area will come and start abusing the person showing courage to deviate from the accepted practice.

I have faced this music and felt the heat very well when I built house at Ranni.Neither the owner nor the local people were willing to accept our procedure of rubble work for foundation.Let us see what we do instead.

We do not dig more than 45 cm (1 1/2 feet) depth if the soil is stable.If the soil is hard laterite we do not even go down excavating more than 15 to 20 cm.We do not put p c c in stable soil to be broken by throwing of rubble pieces by rubble mason while doing foundation work.We tell our rubble worker to closely pack rubble in dry pack method for foundation up to a height of 60 cm thereby keeping about 15 cm foundation rubble work above ground level.After this dry pack rubble foundation work,we force fill gaps of rubble work first by putting crusher sand above foundation work and then forcefully pumping water inside.As the crusher sand gets filled up inside dry packed rubble foundation,a stage will reach when no water will go down as it is fully packed with rubble and crusher sand making almost monolithic rubble foundation quite strong base for your house.

After this we build basement again by dry pack rubble work but with a slight inclination sloping basement from 60 cm to 45 cm to a height of 45 cm for basement to add strength.We point outside of basement rubble work with mortar and plaster top of basement with a rich mix of mortar of 1:6.Inside of this rubble basement is open to receive forced filling of filling material usually red sand of powdery nature

At Ranni I had to threaten to leave the work to make my client to agree to follow this procedure for Foundation rubble work and I have also given personal guarantee for the strength of work.Till completion of the work client and people around the area had doubts about our Foundation work.Once convinced Father of my client used to talk about others following usual procedure as fools and I used to enjoy his comments to that effect.

At Thiruvalla I was asked to leave the work due to my unwillingness to follow their time tested or traditional method of foundation rubble work and I left the work in between rubble work.

At Chengannur,client reluctantly accepted my method of foundation rubble work.

At Cherthala and at many other places local people used to call me mad for doing this sort of foundation work and predicted that our Foundation will sink or break open.Once work progressed and nothing bad happened everybody seem to forget about their predictions.

At Kalamassery,another contractor was building his own house near my site .My client was an Engineer.Our neighbour contractor was very much critical about our foundation rubble work"without even a bag of cement".He told my client and his wife about how bad our construction is.He assured my client that our building will sink or crack or foundation will get damaged thereby causing damage to house.
My client in spite of my assurances was jittery.

Neibour contractor has done a retaining wall in cement mortar without proper packing for his boundary wall. As I predicted retaining wall done by him has fallen apart one day and then he silently did it again as dry pack rubble work with better packing of rubble.Therafter he stopped criticising my work and started asking my client about my plans for balance work of the building.Only after that falling apart of bounday wall of neighbour,my client really started believing my words.

Can anyone prepare Plan of your house?

Recently I was amused to recieve an email from a client trying to build a house in a larger plot he purchased for nearly Rs.60 lakhs slightly away from Cochin in an interior location where there is hardly any houses nearby.An NRI he has taken me to the plot recently to see the plot before we go into the plan stage.


At the site he told me that he has the plan of the house ready with him.I thought he might have got it done by some other Architect and that will probably lessen my work as I may have to only modify the Plan prepared.
He returned to his work place in middle east and sent me a single line sketch made by him and said that I should not make any change to his "Plan of the house"

This prompted me to write these lines on preparation of Plan of the house

Even though every person sees houses,not many do not bother to study more on house design or even elementary aspects of house construction.A lot of people think that house plan is something which any one can draw.Cheaper the better.

After getting any plan prepared by anyone,they ask the Architect to prepare a very good elevation for the plan as if Elevation is something totally unrelated to the Plan.I keep getting several mails asking me to do a "real good elevation" for the house with the plan forwarded.No architect has a magic wand by which he can make "good Elevation" for any Plan.

Plan is the most important document for the house construction.It gives drawing of the house when you cut the building at window level and remove upper portion and then look down from top.

While preparing a plan what I do are the following

1.Visit the plot where the house will come up and study site conditions like soil,surroundings,road access,level of the plot,directions and visualise the future house to be built with that extra insight and talent of an Architect.Many people think that just by obtaining four side dimensions of the plot an Architect can draw the plan.I am not denying this.But visiting the site and visualising or imagining the house in that plot with the extra talent and creativity of an Architect can make a lot of difference to the plan of the house.

2.Study requirement of the client in detail with detailed discussions.Guide the client on many aspects of house design and construction to obtain his views and requirement details.

3.Find out from client his budget restrictions if any.

On this point .most of the clients I have met did not want to share his financial plan for the house.Most of the prospective clients try to downsize their budget indication thinking that telling about exact financial condition may prompt me to raise my charges or cost of construction.Giving a wrong idea on your budget can create problems at plan stage as I or any other Architect will not be able to plan exactly suiting to your budget limitations or possibilties.This may result in a house with lesser facilties due to wrong message on your financial capabilties or facilities which you may not be able to complete fully due to lack of funds.

4.Incorporate Vasthu aspects in design

5.Use structural engineering aspects to ensure structural stabilty of the house and to reduce cost of construction.

6.Find out optimum use for every bit of building to be constructed to avoid wastage of space and to enhance utilty for space in the house.

7.Use special features of Kerala architecture and modern architecture inputs.

8.Plan to be prepared with an eye on elevation.To obtain a good Elevation Plan has to be made with that intention in mind.Elevation will be good if and only if Plan is prepared to get a good Elevation.No Architect can make a good Elevation for any Plan.

Above all lot of common sense will have to be used while preparing the Plan.Here years of experience in designing and building hundreds of houses play a vital role.

I have heard several times people telling me that he knows everything about house construction.Then I will ask him-How?
He will reply-I have constructed one or two or three houses depending on persons.

I have directly constructed more than 200 houses and designed much more.Still with each building construction,I study several aspects which I have never noticed earlier.When the Architect has this treasure of experience,plan prepared by him can only get better.

So never try to design your house by yourself or go to less qualified less experienced person for preparation of Plan attracted by possibly lower charges.You will lose more money due to improper design and construction and when you realise the mistakes and shortcomings,it will be too late.You cannot do anything about it and you will have to live and suffer all those problems and deficiencies unless of course if you are rich enough to construct another house correcting your mistakes.

Before I conclude I should talk about another common wrong impression by prospective house building clients.Many get impressed by Plan and Elevation of houses built by others or displayed in websites of builders..
So,I keep getting mails saying that I want a house like this without even bothering to check whether that particular plan of the house will fit in your plot dimensions,requirements and above all your budget constraints.

You have to understand clearly that any plan and Elevation will not suit your plot.You have to obtain that unique plan ideally suited for your plot,requirements,budget,tastes etc.Instead of trying to become an Architect on your own, leave that job to the expert,Architect and do not forget to give him all those information on what all you need in the house including your dreams and hopes for the house.
Architect will guide you properly.

Before deciding on which Architect to choose try to understand and find out more on the works so far done by the Architect.If you feel happy about his qualifications and experience in handling residential projects,then allow him to do the work without disturbance .

In my traditional christian family, years back it was considered great to have priests and nuns in the family circle even though of late their credibilty and status have declined a lot.When one client approached me for guidance right from selection of plot for house construction and related documentation,I thought I will be designing the house also.But when it came to preparation of plan of the house,just as we used to proclaim about having our own priest from the family,he said relative of his wife is an Architect and naturally he will do a better job than me possibly due to relationship.

But when I saw the plan prepared I could make out several basic flaws in the plan which will ultimately turn out to be inconvineances leading to lesser utilty for space and cause for increase of cost.He was not willing to listen to my mild suggestions and insisted that the Plan is the best possible having prepared by a relative.When the construction moved on, he realised the flaws but it was too late to do anything.

The relative also gave him a three dimensional Elevation for the house.When I told him that even though picture looks good with the colours,house built like that will not look good,he simply laughed at me.But when my prediction on deficiencies of Plan became clear to him,he told me to prepare an alternate three dimensional elevation whatever may be my charges.

Even though money is yours if you do not give Architect proper professional freedom to decide and choose the best for you,you may not get the best work from him.After all for him it is only one of the many houses he design and build.For you it is the only house you build in your life time for you and for generations to come.Make the Architect feel good for you to make him put that element of extra care for your project

Less than 2000 square feet 4 bed house design

1900 square feet plinth area two bed rooms of size,300 x 360 cms (10 feet x 12 feet),two more bed rooms of size 300 x 270 cm(10 feet x 9 feet) with three toilets close to bed rooms(almost attached) house design is now ready with me
This house has got sit out at entry,living space as big as 450 x 360 cms(15 feet x 12 feet),Dining space as big as 330 x 405 cms with a stair moving up by the side of dining,Kitchen and work area spacious enough.
A guest bed close to living space with toilet nearby which can be used also as a common toilet,double height area above dining space at first floor,balcony and family living lounge at First Floor.Three bed rooms come at first floor.
Living room is seperated from inner rooms of the house providing privacy for family members to move freely inside the house.
Even though it is an economical design,the house will have a very attractive external appearance.Another major advantage for the design is that every room is well ventilated with almost day light natural lighting inside rooms
For this economical but good design please write to me at vhthomas@viruvelil.com

Irinjalakuda house revisited

I visited Irinjalakuda house designed and built by me about two years back with my client for whom I am building house at Kuruppampady, Perumbavoor today
Only the old parents of my client is staying in the five bed room 4000 sft house. They are using only one bed room now. Rests of the rooms are simply kept locked. House is kept neat and tidy.
I have noticed the advantage of practically an open area comprising of foyer (where you enter the house through main door), Living, dining, stair way and Lounge where you reach after climbing stair. On two sides of stair which has a larger landing space in the middle as big as an inner balcony, there are two long round columns going full height to roof top of the house giving added elegance to the house.Foyer,Living and dining are separated only by open passages with decorative round pillars on both sides. On one side of the Family living space comprising dining area, you have common toilet and bed rooms on both sides. On the other side you have spacious kitchen connected with Utility area. Pictures show this area and stair
As the two old persons are practically having no activity there, I thought why they cannot use the large house with typical Kerala Architecture features and modern facilities to be used as a Home stay for foreign tourists. This will bring in regular income and will make the two of them staying there busy interacting with tourists and talking to them on Kerala and making them feel and experience Kerala Life, food and habits

Lowest offer for building a house

In designing and building your dream house, the search for lowest offer for the house by collecting offers from two or three builders/contractors can actually put you into trouble. But the cruel fact is that you will come to know about the trouble only when you can simply do nothing about it-after construction of the house
In designing and building a house there is absolutely no meaning in checking up with two or three people as these two or three people will be doing the work in every aspect in two or three ways and hence you can never compare their offers as these are not going to be in the same level playing ground
I have built one bed room houses with a sit out, toilet, kitchen and a hall in 300 sft plinth area with concrete roof, concrete frames for doors and windows, without plastering (using solid block for walls) and with cheru teak and plastic shutters for joinery at a cost of Rs.50,000/- about five years back. I have built such 60 houses for a charity organisation.
Cost of constructing a house depends upon not exactly the plinth area of the house but what specifications you chose for each and every component of the house. For explaining this in a manner by which you will be able to understand is actually difficult as people generally have very little knowledge about house construction before they actually burn their fingers in the house building process
Before you start thinking about cost of construction, first you have to think, dream and thus figure out what exactly you need essentially in the house. Think about the minimum you need in the house. With this initial data you approach a qualified and experienced Architect. In this business of building houses experience matters a lot as every architect study a lot by making mistakes in each and every project. A man who has gone through several such projects can guide you properly.
Here one very important factor is that you should allow the Architect to guide you and not otherwise. I have seen several clients talking about foolish ideas one after another about the house to be built with an inner feeling that the money is his and the Architect should simply obey him. When the Architect starts simply obey you, you are definitely going to be in trouble .Give him the freedom to guide you properly and every professional Architect will guide you well. If you have financial constraints tell him openly about your limitations. He will make suitable adjustments in specifications of the house so that you will get best value for your money
If a builder simply make a low amount offer, it will be foolish to go after him without knowing details of what exactly you will get as specifications of building and each and every part and processes for the building. With same plinth area you can construct a low quality building and a high quality building with lot of difference in cost. Do not try to squeeze your funds with the builder. He will find ways to make profit even with your squeezing of funds. Quality of your house construction naturally will suffer and the builder definitely will not be around to suffer the problems in the house later due to quality compromises.