Constructing house DIY for dummies

Foundation and plinth

Super structure above plinth beam

Steps of house construction (Mysuru, Karnataka) for 30 x 40 plot with costs for reference

1. Paper work:

1.  Approval from Urban development authority of sanction plan  (this is for approval only showing the space from compound to house etc)
1. Sanction plan cost for 2 floors Rs. 2,500  . done in 2 days
2. Government fee for approval : Rs.21,000. Done in 2 weeks
2. Working plan  Rs. 2500. Done in 3-4 days (ensure you spend more time on this as it is realized and cant change after starting)
3. Structural design plan (showing the columns position, plinth beam details) Rs.7000
4. KEB electricity approval can be done after sanction plan approval.. Rs.6000 for 1kw

     Total cost: 39,000

2. Dig borewell before starting any work. 

     Cost :rs 70 per feet . 240 feet digging cost Rs. 50,000 along with 100 feet of casing pipe (which costed a lot around rs. 28000) . Done in 1 day.

     Gotchas: The bore digging company cheated us by charging Rs.280 per length (20 feet long) MS pipe of 7 inch diameter. The actual cost in market is just Rs. 130 per length. We needed 5 lengths of such pipe

In fact the cost of pipe was more than digging. b** cheated us as we didnt know and they force us to use their pipes. Better to be informed about it and negotiate early.

3. Foundation

    1.Digging - carried out by JCB in 1 day. 12 columns with pit size 5 ft x 5ft x5 ft. Also sump is dug
    Gotchas: The sump dug was too small and we ended up manual digging. Make sure you consider atleast 9 x 6 x 6 feet sump for storing 9,000 litres of water. The sump dug should be 2 feet more than what you want to build that is 11 x 8 x 7 feet so after laying bricks it will be as required
     Cost breakup: Rs.550
                           JCB hired at Rs.750/hour x 5 hours = 3750
                           Tractor hired for dumping mud from JCB = 1800

   2. Footing -
          a. Prepare : Before column footing is filled with 1.6 feet of concrete it should be prepared with 6 inches of concrete using 40mm jelli (big sized) and cement.
          b. Bar bending for column and mat for footing: 4 feet square mat is laid below as per column size given in structural design the TMT bar diameter is selected like 12mm, 16mm. The column using TMT bar is 20 feet high.
          b. Footing concrete is added for upto 1.6 feet with concrete. The grade of concrete we selected was M15 for footing (1: 2 :4 bandli of cement: msand: jelli or 1 bag :4 bandli: 8 bandli of ratio). Refer. Less than 25 litres of water should be used per bag of cement. Better to use a concrete mixing machine.
      Cost breakup: 
        1. TMT rods SK super at Rs. 47 /kg . For 820kg I paid Rs. 39,000.
        2. 70 bags of ACC cement at Rs.380/bag = Rs. 26600
        3. msand double wash : Rs. 20,000
        4. Jelli 20mm : Rs. 11000

    3. Footing column
           a. Prepare: Alway good to keep the plinth lower level 2 feet above the road (as roads will become taller over time and we can avoid rain water seepage etc). Using a water pipe the tube level is used to raise all the footing columns to plinth level. (note : plinth is normally 3 feet above the footing concrete bed but varies as per rise we want for house above the road).
Note: Plinth is basically a 2 feet hight concrete cement structure above the size stone coarse which becomes the base of all the walls being raised.
           b. Concrete column : ratio of 1:6:4 (cement : sand: gravel 20mm) was used for column building of footing column.

    4. Digging is done by laying of size stone below the plinth beam. This is done using the plinth diagram provided by the structural design team.