Solutions... Solutions....

From exact location and type of light to how the ceilings will look with respect to the sunken slabs, it is decision time before casting the first slab. Since we have decided for "No POP" project, lot has to be planned in terms of electrical and plumbing locations.

We decided to spend a bit more upfront and go for LED lights in ceilings for ambient lighting in the house. Which meant that we needed boxes to go in slabs for holding these lights. Conventionally, these lights would go into POP. It was a long search to identify a supplier that would give us boxes for casting in the slab. We did find one, thanks to connections of our connections, and ordered 80+ boxes.

Here is how they were placed in the slab:

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Boxes were welded with the slab bars so that they don't move at the time of pouring RMC.

This is how they looked once the slab was completed:

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This will be repeated throughout the house.

There was one more problem with the contractor before casting the slab. He did not want to use the centering material we had agreed upon. He had no intention of continuing the business after our house was done and wanted to cut corners in terms of using the material for supporting the slab.

After lengthy discussions and persuasions, we managed to get him to rent better quality material to finish the project.

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Centering the helical stair was the biggest challenge of this stage. It took them 3 full days to try and get each step right!

Plinth Level Done!

Plinth level is done. PCC completed for the plinth. Compared to the traditional construction, this is additional layer that gives a major benefit in terms of the stability of our structure.

Since we have opted for the frame construction, having this weight added to the ground floor along with ground beams at the ground floor and foundation structure underground lowers the center of gravity of the entire structure. This helps make our structure very stable in the event of an earthquake.

From the foundation level, we have following layers:

• PCC plates for column pedestals of M15 grade RMC
• Column pedestal RCC structure with M25 grade RMC
• Column RCC with M25 grade RMC
• Ground beams RCC tying all the columns with M25 grade RMC
• Brick masonry from ground beams to Plinth level - 2.5ft
• Coping and PCC at Plinth level with M25 grade RMC

We used 15 truck loads of sand (550 cu.ft. X 15 = 8250 cu. ft.) for filling up to plinth level after back-filling the excavated earth. Added about 7 tankers full of water to make this settle down. All this should've been done by September 2013. So, we are two months late compared to the original schedule. But the project is picking up pace now!

Added benefits of M25 grade PCC and sand filling at plinth level is improved termite protection. We however did do the necessary termite treatment at foundation and plinth level before doing PCC work.

Both the water tanks are also complete with slab. Only thing pending is the plaster on interior for these tanks.

We now get some idea of the room sizes. It feels a bit small at this point. But I guess it is the case with almost all constructions until the rooms are finished.

Off to getting the first slab cast! I must commend our team for coordinating work so far. We can not order the batch of RMC that is less than 4 CuMtr. It becomes commercially nonviable. So, adjusting quantities and scheduling work such that that much quantity is utilized without any wastage is not-so-straight forward.

Electrical planning is also complete before we cast the first slab. More on that and slab casting work later...
Here are some of the pictures of work  towards the finished Plinth.

Compacted Sand finished till plinth level

RMC pumped for Plinth PCC

PCC curing with water

House footprint visible from the vantage point

We are out of the ground, finally...

Between the rains, Navaratri & Diwali, the work continued at breakneck speed, but we were not able to achieve our goal of finishing the plinth before Diwali break.

Diwali this year was quiet nice, knowing this most like was our last Diwali in our current home. By next Diwali, the goal is to move into Utsav!

So, there it is... the deadline... Move-in by Diwali 2014. What's the plan to get there?

1. First thing's first, we need to finish ALL masonry work by February 2014. 
2. Windows, plumbing, A/C & AV ducting, electrical & flooring done by March 2014. Since we are going to go for UPVC windows, this does not seem like a major problem. Our electrical plans for all slabs are out and looks like they will need very little tweaking as usual.
3. That leaves six months for interior furniture, kitchen, glass, and systems installation. Doable, right?

Here are some of the latest pictures of how much the work has progressed before Diwali break. Ground beams are cast perfectly and water tanks are also done. We are going to fill up the remaining portion by sand instead of earth. There will be brick masonry work on top of the beams till the plinth level after which there will be plinth coping covering the entire ground floor.

New post after a long long while

Rains of September 25th stalled work for quiet some time. Here are some of the images of the conditions on the ground after rain.

Thankfully, the foundation work was done, column RCC done till the ground level. But, filling excavated earth back in was quiet painful since everything was soaked in too much of water.

We lost good two to three weeks of work due to rains of 3 days.

Oh well, all is well that ends well... but when???

3D Rendering of the expected outcome

Move over scale models... It's CGI time!

Thanks to the hard working folks at our Architect's office, we have a beautiful 3D render of our project.

Here it is...

Hope the actual outcome is as beautiful as this one...

Foundation Work

It has been a great learning experience so far. I truly appreciate the effort that goes into construction work. It is one thing to sit in the office and design and make decisions on something and completely the other thing to execute it on ground.

Udaybhai and team are very competent and efficient at executing the column and foundation details given to them. However, reliance on technology slows things down a bit at times.

I hear that nowadays contractors are so reliant upon TotalStation output that they do not undertake work without the surveyor coming to site at multiple occasions and giving them the markings on site. So far they have visited our site for following activities:

1. At the very beginning to survey the site
2. To give excavation points
3. To give PCC location and size points
4. To give actual column footing location (on the PPC) and size points
5. Pending: Once plinth level PCC is done, to give final column locations. After that, next levels all will be vertically above the ground level columns.

At several occasions, our work has stalled since the surveyor is not available to come on site to mark points. What happened to our good old tape measure?

Here are some pictures from the foundation work:

Rain Rain Go Away...

Come back another day :-(

We decide to start building our home in 2013 and this becomes the year with historical rains in Ahmedabad :-(

Under the normal circumstances, I would welcome so much rain... It is just beautiful all round with Green Carpet still visible everywhere. But, not this year. Our construction commencement already got delayed by two months due to heavy rains and we are not seeing much reprieve towards the end of September as well!

Foundation work has completed. Plan was to complete filling up the excavation and start working on the ground beams. We missed this  task by about 4 days... Had the filling been completed, all this rain would have been perfect to completely settle it down.

Checkout the latest satellite image from the Indian Meteorological Department. Ahmedabad is lighted up like never before and more rain is expected in the next few days..