How to reduce cost of construction? Part 2
If you are reading this blog then I am sure you want to construct your house on your own sometime in near future or have plan to do so at some point of time in your life.
Many people who want to construct their home, are worried about the cost of construction like what will be the cost? will I be able to finance it? is it going to exceed my budget? etc.
Also people are not aware how to select construction material that is best for their needs & that fits in their budget. Some contractors may misuse this lack of information to their benefit.
So I thought of coming up with blogs to help people to understand various aspects of selection of different construction material and help them realise the impact of material selection on the cost of construction. In these blogs I will provide you with information on how to choose the construction materials and its implications on budget and quality of your house.
How choosing different constuction material makes difference to the cost of construction
In my first blog on reducing cost of construction I covered how using bricks or concrete blocks will affects the cost of construction.In this blog I will cover how selection of other construction material will make difference to the overall cost of construction.
Let us start with selection of flooring material.There are different types of flooring materals like mosaic tiles, ceramic tiles, vitrified tiles, marble, granite, italian marble etc.Selection of each of these options will affect the cost of constuction.
Mosaic tiles for flooring is the cheapest option followed by ceramic tiles.You can have mosaic tiles starting from as low as ₹20/- per sft and ceramic tiles around ₹30/-per sft but lookwise mosaic and ceramic tiles will not be that good.Ceramic tiles are better than mosaic tiles lookwise.You can go for ceramic tiles or low quality vitrified tiles only when you have very limited budget to complete the house and want to keep the overall cost as low as possible.
If you want elegant look of the flooring,then best option is to go for good quality branded virtified tiles of size 2'x2' which are available from ₹60/- per sft onwards.Almost 99% of aparment builders use this type of vitrified tiles.This is economical as well as gives an elegant look.Even a flat from reputed builder priced at one crore rupees will use this same type of flooring,but if you ask them what is the cost of only flooring of the flat of price ₹80 lakhs, they will tell that it is at least ₹15-₹20 lakhs.Where as the actual cost of floorig in a flat of carpet area 1500 sft including labour will be 1500sft x(60+20) = ₹1,20,000/-. Even if you multiply by ₹100 persft it will be just ₹1,50,000/-. With this you can imagine how much money you will be paying extra to builder when you buy a flat.
So using good quality virified tiles is the best option if you do not want to spend too much or too less on flooring and want to have an elegant look.You should be careful to avoid water on the floors with vitrified tiles as it will be too slippery.
The other options of material for flooring are marbles and granites.Marbles are cheaper compared to granites and may get in the range of ₹50/- to ₹100/- per sft based on quality and size.The cost of labour to lay marbles & granites is also high when compared with vitrified tiles as it involves more work to lay them.The labour charge for vitrified tiles starts from ₹20/- per sft but for marbles and granites it will be minimum ₹50/- per sft.Also the cost of labour for skirting will be very high if you use marbles and granites.
There are less options in marbles compared to granites.In granites you will have lot of options with different types of granites with various colours, textures and sizes of slabs. The bigger the size, higher is the price per sft and higher will be the cost of labour to lay them as it will need a skilled labour for laying granites.You will get granites starting from as low as ₹80/- to ₹500/- per sft depending on quality, colour, size and textures.
You also have an economical option in marbles and granites, where in you will get ready small cut sizes of 2'x1' or 2'x2' of thickness 10mm at price as low as ₹40/-per sft.You can go for this instead of mosaic tiles or ceramic tiles.
One more option in flooring is of Italian marbles.This is the most expensive option and gives a very posh and great look to your house.Italian marbles are the ones which are used in five star hotels.You can use them if your house is very big and has a very big hall or living room.You can also use these only in living and dining area instead of using in all rooms to save the cost and gives a royal look to your house.The price of Italian marbles starts from ₹300/- per sft.
Other material that impacts the cost of house is the material for doors and windows.As you may be aware that the doors and windows made of teak wood will be the most expensive one because of price of teakwood & labour.So most of the people building their independent house go for teak wood doors only for main door and use readymade flush doors for doors of other rooms.In case of flats no builder will use teak wood even for the main door even if you are paying ₹1 Crore to your flat.one main door in teak wood will cost minimum ₹30,000/- to 50,000/- depending upon size & design.Whereas the membrane doors used by apartment builders will cost as low as ₹5000/- for main door and even lesser for other room doors
In case of material selection for windows, alluminium windows are the cheapest option and wooden windows with teak wood will be the expensive ones.Alluminium sliding windows are available at price starting from ₹250 per sft.Another better option in windows is UPVC windows, which gives very modern look and are economical as well compared to teak wood.The price of UPVC windows will start at ₹350/- per sft.
If you have any specific questions on material selection,then feel free to write to us at manemaadi@gmail.com.
Hope you enjoyed reading my blog and it will be useful for you to choose construction material.
- by Chandrashekhar
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ManeMaadi.com offers services of floor planning & elevation at price as low as ₹5000/- for builtup area of upto 1000sft. Please send details of your requirement to manemaadi@gmail.com. ManeMaadi.com will be happy to serve you.