Before starting construction we should choose the contractor-
He should essentially have a Mobile No and should be traceable.
He should have good organizational skills if he has more sites otherwise he should have the capacity to work with his own hand.
He should know how many labors should be there during any day/stage of construction and he must be able to organize that.
He should know what work is to be done and how.
He should anticipate material consumption and convey its requirement to the owner for it 4-7 days in advance.
Check out his slab subcontractor.
Pre-Work Essentials-
These must be ensured to optimize the contractor's performance on site and to save overall time untangling the sequential constructional web.
ice to authorities- Give at least a week's notice to authorities about commencement of construction.
Contractors Ensure you have finalized all your contractors so that all things are clear and no contractor passively refers you any other.
Cleaning the site- Site should be cleared of its bushes, weeds, old malba, fauna droppings etc.
Water Connection- Temporary Water Connection is a must at this stage to moisten soil.
Electrical Connection- Required if there is work in night shifts/woodwork/motor.
Temporary Haudi- Water tank to store reserve water. It is economic to make a permanent tiled water tank, which can be covered-up later on. Water Bowser should be ordered if water is not available.
Temporary Store- Should be planned at an optimum position and partitioned for chowkidar to avoid mishandling. Instead of Chowkidar, Building Clerk-cum-Caretaker (Diploma Holder) should be appointed at remuneration of 5000/- pm subject to a max of ½% of building cost.
Raw Material Area- Should be laid where there is enough space for unloading and stacking of raw materials distance and displacement wise nearest to the center of gravity of the proposed construction.
Mortar Platform- Should be laid at ¾th the distance between raw material area and the center of gravity of the proposed construction in temporary brickwork 1:8.
Documents- A copy of the building plan, sanction letter and working drawings, site order book, bill folder packet, pen, pencil, sharpener, eraser, stapler, staples, tape and 3' plastic laminate roll, should always be present on the site carefully stored with the caretaker.
Materials Required- Bricks (1500-3000) could be easily retrieved later. 1 iron door set with a lock & 3 keys (or 2 door sets if chowkidar's chamber is separate) worth Rs 700-800 and 4-8 steel chadders/angles/bolts. Pipes (Including flexible), tap, nipple and motor tanker, if water supply is low.
Works till DPC Stage-
Determination of Excavated Volumatrix-v
This is an essential stage since it determines the exact shape of the building's foundation and can be managed without requirement of any bulk raw material.
Pegs (Burji) & Marks- Pegs are small temporary brick piers in mud mortar to ensure proper centerline distance as specified in Working Drawings. They should be stable and generally placed 2-5' outside the superstructure/circulation area to avoid its breakage or misplacement. DPC Level or multi-foot vertical reference offset is marked horizontally on internal side of peripheral pegs only to create a virtual horizontally leveled XY Plane on site higher than the would-be stacked excavated soil. Recron 3s (12mm filament length) 125 g per bag of cement is recommended to avoid dampness.
Center-Lining- The contractor shall mark proper centerlines in order to ensure proper spacing between the walls of the house. He must do it after grooving the soil if it is dry and windy since the marks could be lost. Centerlines of the columns should be done in white color and walls in red powder preferably.
Materials required- Holi Colors/Choona/Stone Dust/Brick Choora, Peg (Killi)/12 mm Æ steel bar, 200-1000 Bricks@ Rs_____per_____bricks, Water@ Rs_____per____litres tanker. Rate 24/125 g bag
Offsetting- Lines parallel to the centerlines at a distance to accommodate PCC (after excavation later on) are traced out (trimmed at intersections) marked in a different color. Offsetting distance varies from 9"(Boundary wall in hard soil/rock strata) to 4'(column base for soft/marshy soil as the case may be).
Note- Center-lining and offsetting stage are partially applicable in raft foundations for basement.
Excavation- Excavation is done in two ways. For bulk excavation JCBs are employed to save time. Survey determining soil's bearing capacity should be done to avoid useless expenditure. Excavation is generally done in stages and soil's bearing capacity should be determined there also. During excavation, a temporary staircase in and convenient position is dug for approach. The level difference in column footing/9" wall/4" wall/boundary wall foundation is adjusted by beveling the level difference 3" in favor of the deeper excavation at an angle of 35° thereafter.
Stacking of soil- The excavated soil should be put in position where there are larger (Mitti@Rs______per___cft.
Plinth Beam- Before laying plinth beams, RWP, SWP and WWP stacks should be properly erected and fixed with outlet below the plinth beam. Plinth beams are required in case of non-consistency of brickwork below, incase of earthquake-prone zones, unequal soil bearing capacity, or to even out load of the unequally loaded building equally in the foundation. It ranges from 3"x3" to 18"x18" in section. Design of the beam including stirrup spacing should be properly adhered to. Single unbroken (least overlap) beam on site is recommended for economy. In other words they should be single entities running across each other. Plinth Beams should be properly tied to columns by cross tie with at least 3 mm Æ wire or welded. Properly tied ply/wood stops (rok) should be employed. Vibrator 10 No Nozzle is recommended to settle the mix. Plinth beam can be assumed as DPC in the manner below.
Materials Required 15 mm (av) Stone Ballast (Rori)@Rs______per___cft, Stone Dust (Badarpur)@Rs______per___cft, Cement (43 Grade OPC)@Rs____per bag and Steel @Rs _____per kg.
Damp Proof Course- It is applied to prevent water seepage inside the wall from the ground. It consists 1" thick layer of 1:2:4 mortar mixed with 1kg of waterproofing compound per bag cement. Thereafter it is covered with bitumen or tape Crete. Get your measurements checked to extract residual covered area.
Materials Required 15 mm (average) Stone Ballast (Vapsi Rori)@Rs______per___cft, Stone Dust(1½ No)@Rs_____per___cft, Cement (43 Grade OPC)@Rs____per bag, Additive @ Rs____per kg, Bitumen/tapecrete @Rs____per kg & Steel @Rs ___per kg.
NOTE Any feedback during problems encountered, feedback, and autosuggestion are welcome.
Works in superstructure-
Doorframe Erection- Doorframes are erected and checked by contractor with the help of plumb line on both the front and side edges and level checking on the top. Overall, this horizontal leveling is done with the help of siphon equipment at 6'-9½" at the underside of the door panel top (unless otherwise mentioned). Door choukhats should be embedded 1½"-3" below the finishing floor level preferably with aluminum box containing termite resistant pesticide which can be injected in future by keeping a small rubber tube inside the choukhats groove (pataam).
Erection of Columns- Before erecting the column, verify with plumb line. Column filling should be maximum 3½' at any stage. Load bearing columns are raised first to complete the frame while framing columns are erected either with iron strips inside or after the walls are constructed leaving a saw-tooth gap. It should be rodded to prevent air gaps. Columns should be cured properly.
Erection of Walls- Walls should be erected in level and plumb line. Brickwork is laid header over stretcher. The top layers or unfinished layers should be in headers only. In 9" walls stretcher brick should have header joints at ¼ and ¾ lengths and alternate header has joint above and below at ½ it's length. In other words there should not be any joint over joint at all. Windows should be laid with leveling at sill level mentioned in the window details. 4½" brick walls all vertically alternating stretchers should be completed (1:4 mortar) topped with flat every 4 courses. Holdfasts should be embedded in brick itself. Rori filling should be avoided as far as possible. Circular walls with radius less than 7'-6' should be constructed in tapered headers. 45° joints should have x-lapped bricks at pointed (225°) end of 1" beveled brick. Walls partially ending in sloping slabs along it's length like staircase etc. should have transverse steel bars at 9"-3' intervals. Bricks adjoining lintels are subject to strain hence should be packed properly. All walls especially west and south faces should be cured with water
Braced Walls- These are complex wall designs consisting of varying wall thickness at various lengths and heights. They are designed to create ambient display spaces, maximize utilizable area of any room, to minimalize furniture, save on structural costs etc. Its foundation's top course generally equals maximum wall thickness. Headers and stretchers should be carefully placed. Any requirement of the showcase etc should be discussed. All walls especially west and south faces should be cured with water
Materials Required Bricks@ Rs_____per_____bricks, Stone Dust (Badarpur)@Rs______per___cft, and Cement (43 Grade OPC)@Rs____per bag.
Lintel Level- Lintels beams are provided to transfer segmental load to load bearing zones. Quality control of mix is to be strictly maintained. Shuttering should be removed only after loading the lintels. Construction of the walls can be carried out in 1:7 mortar and top 2 courses should transit to 1:2 mortar. They should be cured properly.
Pre-Roof Laying Stage
Before laying roof slab, we should ensure the following;
The Shuttering- The Shuttering is tied & leveled properly. The logs (ballis) shouldn't be particularly supported on broken bricks but on jointed planks (phattas) smaller one resting on the top of the larger one. Before laying shuttering, we should ensure that the ground is leveled, compacted and free from moisture. Alternatively PCC can be laid in advance to prevent this problem.
Materials Required Shuttering Ballies, Phattas, Nails, Rental Costs@Rs_____per_____per_____.
Contractor's Response-The slab subcontractor should be cooperative and chalk out day of roof laying only after checking of reinforcement. He should instruct his labor not to throw residual mortar piling up near pad position or arrange steel plates in that area.
Matrix Sequence- Put the beams reinforcement, ceiling designs, and electrical box's peripheral marks first, get it checked and put the slab reinforcement afterwards. This will avoid cutting of the slab reinforcement (jaal) and incremental wastage of the same in pretext of overlapping. This will also prevent relocation of the jaal when electrician puts his boxes. Alternatively, beam's lower reinforcement can be laid with stirrups, loose grid laid, and covered with top bars completing beam reinforcement. This works well for naturally smaller beams probabilistically. Beams/Column and Beam/Beam ties should be done with thicker wires (1-2mmf) or welded.
Warn the bar-binder- See whether the alternate cranking of the bars in slabs is properly done otherwise the bars may break. The angle of cranking of the bars should be close to 30°.
Steel @Rs _____per kg. Binding Charges@Rs_____per kg
ENSURE THAT- The slab subcontractor should be cooperative and chalk out the day of roof laying only after green signal given after checking of reinforcement. He should instruct his labor not to throw residual mortar piling up near pad position or arrange steel plates in that area. The labor of the slab contractor should be organized in getting the raw materials, mixing them, lifting them and putting them in destination. It is the joint responsibility of the contractor and the roof sub contractor to manage the labor.
watch out carefully- The slab subcontractor shall try to cast a slab in his mortar-landing area in pretext of arranging a permanent roof for you. This is to be prevented at every cost. Lay 6-10 Steel Planks there and throw down the accumulated aggregate.
Levels indicating slab thickness should be marked with brick blocks at places. In raised portions of ceiling such as ceiling designs, there should be overlap equal to the slab thickness sloping down at an angle of 30°.
Roof slab casting- Roof mix should contain optimum water for clinker setting. A mix upto 1:2½:4 by volume is recommended in RCC. 60 mm nozzle is recommended for vibration done keeping it parallel to the roof slab and pulling backwards and repeating it every 1' thereafter.
Materials Required 15 mm (av) Stone Ballast (Rori)@Rs______per___cft, Stone Dust (Badarpur)@Rs______per___cft, Cement (43 Grade OPC)@Rs____per bag and Steel @Rs _____per kg.
Roof slab should be kept under cool water for 7 days. Shuttering can be removed after 21 days.
Plastering Stage:
Pre-Plastering- Before plastering, we must ensure that all the conduits have been laid out in place and at no point the conduits including bends, tees etc, are projected beyond the wall level. There should not be any crossover/adjacency of electric pipe with phone/security/cable pipes/water pipes. Any brick gaps should be filled with tapered brick with narrow edge first thus auto packing the mortar. Brick-RCC joints including lintels should be lapped with chicken mesh. Level of the pipes and switch boxes must be ensured. Roof base /column face, if cast over/in steel plates, should be tucked (taanka) to enable plaster grip. Ceiling plastering is generally done first. Walls should be watered before commencement of plastering. Areas for kutcha plaster should be determined before the plaster itself hence tile levels and cladded areas in exteriors must be identified before application. Skirting level should be decided in advance for plaster to be left. Recron 3s (6mm filament length) 125 g per bag of cement is recommended to avoid honeycombing and crack formation of plaster only.
Before plastering the contractor should determine the finished plaster level so that expensive POP work could be avoided wherever it is not required. He should use plank (phanti) for larger and (gurmala) for leveling application undulations. Plaster should be 12 mm 1:4 for ceiling & 1:6 for interior walls, 18 mm 1:6 for exterior walls. Any tiled/cladded portion should be kutchcha left with broom marks for tiling.
Materials Jamuna Sand)@Rs______per___cft, Stone Dust (Badarpur)@Rs______per___cft, and Cement (43 Grade OPC)@Rs____per bag.@25/125g bag
Flooring Stage:
PCC Layer- PCC is to be applied before flooring. It consists of a horizontal Jamuna sand bed beveling down 7.5" deep in 1' periphery adjoining the walls. Before laying Jamuna sand, we should ensure that all the earth is neatly leveled and clean. Jamuna sand (1-2" thick) is filled and leveled. Thereafter brick ballast is filled and rammed. A layer is then filled after which flooring as per specification and levels is put.
Materials Jamuna Sand)@Rs______per___cft, Stone Dust (Badarpur)@Rs______per___cft, and Cement (43 Grade OPC)@Rs____per bag.
NOTE Any feedback during problems encountered, feedback, and autosuggestion are welcome.
