5 PROCESS OF PLANNING

S. Shanthi

Introduction:

Every man in this world has a dream to build his own house. It is seen as societal status to own a house that they have dreamt of. It is necessary for everyone to have knowledge on building process. Knowledge on building process helps them to (i) monitor construction of building (ii) check quality of materials used (iii) estimate number of days required for construction (iv) estimate on cost of building (v) reduce wastage of materials and thereby need to know about materials needed for construction and simple techniques involved in construction.

In this lecture let us take a look on building process to be carried during construction. Now let us take an example of process involved in building a residential house which involves

Selection of suitable location
Purchase of property
Survey and footprint of property
Accessibility of the project
Planning and designing of the home
Getting the Necessary Permits
Prepare an Estimated Cost Breakdown
Begin Construction
Complete Construction

Finding a location:

Many factors govern to find a suitable location on which to build a house. Think about a place that would help them to live long-term and keep in mind thing like :

Climate. Consider the climate that is suitable for living. Knowledge on climate helps to select special materials required for construction and also special care on shape of structural components. Eg., at heavy rainy areas sloped roofs are preferred.
Ground stability: Any building to be built need to be checked with the resistance of soil to bear the load of the building. This needs to perform soil investigation of the place in the case if area of construction is large, if small area only soil recognisance is needed. This will help to decide on type of foundation and also number of floors they could construct.
Availability of utilities: This gives the knowledge of materials available at the site/locality for construction such as water, electric power and other conveyance.
Community infrastructure. This is one of the necessary facility needed in this modern growing world such as good school facility for kids, place to acquire basic commodities, pharmacies and hospitals nearby.

Select the property on which you are going to build and purchase it.

This may be a hurdle, depending on the cost, and the available funds with us . Building a house is an expensive process, but purchasing suitable property is also a major investment just as important as homebuilding. Decide how you’re going to pay for your building project going forward and start that process with the land.

Some home builders will decide to go for bank loans to purchase the land and mortgage for secure funding for the building project. This requires knowledge to enter into a contract with a builder or a contractor. The loan amount to be claimed must be decided and proceeded with the plan of the building to be constructed as per the rules of the building. The builder’s resume and serve as a contract between you and the builder, as well as a source of funding for the project. To do this, you’ll need to wait until you’ve hired and vetted a builder before purchasing the land.

2.Have the property surveyed and the footprint of the house

Located ?

This is not absolutely necessary, especially if you are building on a large parcel of land, but if there is any doubt about the property lines, have this done to assure you are not encroaching on a neighbour’s property, or the city’s. This will be useful as you move forward with the building process

.IV. Consider access issues.

On large parcels, especially, you will need to ascertain the route for a usable driveway if you depend on a car for transportation. Look at any low area that would become impassable in winter mud or heavy summer rain, how installing drive way will affect the landscape, and whether a driveway will be in conflict with underground utilities.

Pay particular attention to the way surface water will drain off the property. Every effort should be made so that water drains off and away from the driveway. This may require the placement of culverts or pipes as shown in fig under the driveway to avoid puddling along its sides.

Planning and Design your own home.

Architects and engineers have special training and years of experience in designing houses, and are necessary for most building. Regardless of whether you contract their services or elect to design your own, the house you build will be built for you, so you should be involved closely in the design process.

Before you hire or consult an architect, find out what management services the firm may or may not provide. Some architecture firms will help hire contractors they know and trust, as well as consult and inspect the contractor’s work as it progresses, making necessary revisions and additions as the work progresses. This can be a significant headache relief in the process.

Before building, you’ll need to submit plans to the city building commission for approval. Unless you’re an experienced architect, it’ll be very difficult to produce the necessary to-scale production drawings and engineering specs necessary for approval. To save time, energy, and money, it’s recommended that you consult a professional and work alongside them to design the home you want as shown in fig.

Design the living spaces. The fun part of designing a home is imagining your new life in your new space. Spend some time researching pre-drawn floor plans for inspiration and consider using them as a guide for your own space. Home building guides are commonly available for free online. Give lots of thought to what kind of rooms you want, the number of bedrooms that will be necessary for your family, and what sort of a style you want in the rooms you’ll be spending the most time in.

Bedrooms: For a family house where the possibility of additions exists, remember it is simpler to add a room during initial construction than to remodel or build an addition later. If you only need two bedrooms at present, an extra room might be used for an office, storage, or even left unfinished and unfurnished until such time as it is needed.

Bathrooms: In practical terms, one bathroom can suffice in almost any circumstances, but if the house is for multiple people, two makes life much easier. Having two or more bathrooms will also increase the resale value in the convenience minded home buyer’s mind.

Special function rooms: Consider if your lifestyle requires rooms suitable for special functions, such as formal dining, office space, a den, or a play room.

Design the utility areas

For family life, having a laundry room, and possibly even a garage can be a real help in managing day to day chores. Planning out the necessary house-running spaces is a critical part of the design process. It’s also important to design them to be as easy-to-wire and outfit with plumbing as possible, making it important to consult an architectural engineer when designing the home. Carefully design your:

Kitchen
Garage
Laundry room
Storage areas

Place windows with the maximum energy efficiency in mind.

Part aesthetics and part energy-efficiency, designing your home with an eye toward sunlight will ensure that your home stays full of warm radiant light when it needs it the most. If you are building a home with large windows in a living room, consider facing these toward the most appealing view and at an angle that maximizes the natural lighting when you’ll want it most.

Kitchens may benefit the most from exterior light, so think about what time a ray of sunshine in the kitchen will offer the best results. Late afternoon may be cooking and dish washing time, so it may be best to orient the kitchen towards the west to take advantage. Larger windows

Name of the Content Writer: Mrs. S.Shanthi

on the north/south face of your house will also help heat the house through solar gain in colder climates.

If you live on the northern hemisphere, build your windows facing the south. If you live on the southern hemisphere, build your windows facing the north.

Prepare to tackle water drainage issues with the proper design.

Be aware of how surface water (rain, drainage from seasonal springs) moves across the building site. It is critical to keep water away from your home, especially in colder climates. Freezing pipes and foundation damage can result from a failure to plan at this stage. You want to keep your basement dry and lessen the chance that you will have damp wood, which invites termites in any climate. Simple swales or grassy ditches will go a long way in controlling surface water drainage as shown in fig.

Getting the Necessary Permits

Secure the proper construction permits.

A building permit is a basic requirement in many areas, particularly for permanent construction. To obtain this, you’ll need to provide detailed architectural diagrams, engineering load specs, and other materials to your state’s Department of Housing. It’s likely you’ll also need the following to comply with local codes and zoning requirements by obtaining:

o A septic tank permit
o An electrical permit
o A plumbing permit
o A mechanical (HVAC, or air conditioning) permit

You may also find you are required to apply for and receive an environmental and/or impact permit. Having the house location marked prior to obtaining your permits will help to work details out in the environmental permitting process After getting permission for construction from the competent authority then construction works are initiated after mobilizing necessary funds.

Secure a construction loan. If you haven’t already started this process when securing the land, you’ll need to figure out a way to fund the project and a construction loan is the most recommended method of doing so. Apply for a construction loan by filling out a loan application, called a 1003, and submitting it to a loan officer along with a credit report. The completed loan application will need to include information like:

The type of loan requested
The amount of money requested
Your current living situation
Your social security number
Adadhar information

Get construction insurance. To engage in a homebuilding project, you’ll need three types of construction-related insurance, some of which may be provided by the builder, some of which won’t, depending on the state you live in and the nature of the contract you’ve signed. Typically, it’s required that you provide:

Course of Construction Insurance to cover against unforeseen loss including damages from fire, accident, vandalism and malicious mischief.

General Liability Insurance is sometimes provided by the builder and sometimes not. It is a comprehensive liability coverage against accident on the workplace. You should only hire builders who provide this insurance themselves, as it can be quite expensive and could be indicative of shoddy workmanship if a builder doesn’t provide it.

Workman’s Compensation Insurance is necessary if your builder hires their own workers. If the work is subcontracted (a common practice) you’ll need to provide workman’s comp and the builder must write a letter acknowledging that they do not have employees and will not provide compensation.

VII. Prepare an Estimated Cost Breakdown (ECB).

This is the breakdown of each particular cost of construction of the home, the foundation, plumber, framing, plumbing, heating, electrical, painting, and builder’s profit, etc. When you hire a builder, they will usually complete this form to show you exactly what it will cost to build your new home.

Cost also include price of building materials in the area. How much is the cost of wood in the prospective area? Labor? Vinyl? It’s helpful to give some though to how much the process will end up costing, aside from the land purchase itself. Try to get a rough estimate of how much it’ll cost to build the kind of house you want to build at the location you’re considering.

Decide how much of the actual construction you will do yourself.

Building a house involves several specific trades to ensure quality work, so it is usually better to have trained craftsmen perform things you’re unable to do at an expert-level. You can probably paint the house and put up drywall yourself, but maybe you want to hire those jobs out. Try to find an economic and practical balance between doing projects by you to save money and hiring out more intricate and difficult work. Consider hiring out:

Site workers to clear and grade the land, prepping it for building
Masons to lay the foundation, construction of walls, plastering walls, construction of ceilings and water tanks.
Carpenters to perform rough carpentry, frame up the walls, and install the trusses or stick-framed rafters, erection of door, window frames,
Roofers to install the roof and insulate the house from lighting
Electricians, plumbers, and HVAC workers to do the difficult interior work of outfitting the home for living
Trim and finish carpenters for interior design work
Flooring installers to lay the carpet, hardwood, or tile, marbles, granite mosaic flooring, Consider hiring a builder on contract. Everything will be made easier if you hire an experienced builder to oversee the project. You won’t need to worry about doing everything yourself, hiring out particular tasks, and securing the permits yourself. It’s also much easier to secure a construction loan if you’re working with an experienced builder who can include a statement, resume, banking and experience references, a line item cost breakdown of expected costs (an ECB), a materials list, and a construction contract.[6] The contract should include:

The individual responsibilities of each party
The expected date of the beginning and ending of the project
The payment expected by the builder
A completed Estimated Cost Breakdown (ECB), signed and dated
Provisions for changes

After Planning , designing and estimating the proposed construction building the execution of works are carried out in an integrated manner with various specialised field Engineers, Consultants and others. Implementation of all the works by preparing an PERT chart with various activities involved and time allocation for each activity may clearly determined and stick on the programme.

VIII. Begin construction

Once you have building consent, construction can begin. As soon as you know the start date, you need to tell your council. This date is important as you need to start your project within 12 months of receiving your building consent and finish it within two years. It might seem a long way off, but the date will be used in the council’s final project sign-off, and is part of the information you need to gather throughout the project. You or your project manager, builder or architect need to monitor progress and keep the council informed. Organise inspections and ensure they happen.

If your work is not progressing as planned, that’s another reason to talk to your contractor. They can help you identify and document variations or amendments to your building consent.Pay bills as milestones are met or as you’ve agreed in your contracts.

Collect energy work certificates for electrical and gas work as it is finished. Keep them on site with your other papers, as your contractor will want to see them before they sign-off your contractor agreement certificate.

Complete your project

Ensure everything has been done as set out in your building consent, plans and contracts. You need to let your builder know of any problems within the period of contract, of the end of the build.

You also need to make all final payments, as agreed in your contracts. Ensure all contractors fees have been paid as well, so that you can get contract sign-off in the form of agreement.

If more inspections were required or they took longer than originally anticipated, there may be additional fees. These may not be calculated until after your final inspection, but will need to be paid before the agreement is issued.

Apply to your council for your agreement. The council may need a few days’ notice to review your project before they make their final inspection. Maintenance protects your investment. Your contractors need to let you know about any required maintenance related to products or materials. You’ll need to keep to the instructions so that any warranties and guarantees are effective.

For most domestic building projects, the agreement is the end of the inspection process. However, if your house has a specified system, such as a cable car, it will need regular, ongoing monitoring for safety reasons.

Conclusion:

Your home is an investment. If your construction project does not comply with the codes adopted by your community/ family, the value of your investment could be reduced. If you decide to sell your home or building it may be required to tear down the addition, leave it unoccupied, or make costly repairs.

Gaining knowledge about process of construction leads to face

Process of permission to your site
Awareness to soil strength
Awareness on reading design of construction
Selecting environmentally attractive materials with reduced environmental impacts is primarily achieved through the practice of resource conservation and selection of non- toxic materials.
Assurance on quality of materials and construction
Assurance on safety of building to fire, natural hazards such as earthquake, flood.,
Know how of finding ways to reduce cost of building
Prevent wastage of materials and time
Sequence of construction procedure in order to reduce time of construction
Availability of materials at site
Methods of low cost maintenance
Effective utilisation of natural lighting, ventilation etc.
Number of labours needed for doing the work
Procedure for obtaining financial assistance
Community services needed to live comfortably
Different construction techniques of construction of building
Identify components of cost expensiveness
Less weather affected construction through usage of materials
Knowledge of modern techniques and materials for usage of construction of building
Able to judge on durability of the construction

you can view video on PROCESS OF PLANNING

References / Web Links:

http://www.jbcbuilding.com/custom-homes/choosing-a-building-site.html,
Palanichamy,M.S. , Basic Civil Engineering, 4th Edition, Tata McGraw Hill Education Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. Pp. 410-413, 2011
Agarwals,S.C., Architecture and Town Planning, DhanpatRai& Co.(P) Ltd., New Delhi
Gandotra,V&Patel,S, Housing for Family Living, Dominant Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi
Arora,S.P. &Bindra, S.P., The Text Book of Building Construction, DhanpatRai Publications (P) Ltd., New Delhi, 2005