[mvadg]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

A few years ago, I built my house - my dream home. During the initial discussions my Architect encouraged me to build the house myself and not contract out to a contractor. His reasoning was that the experience is something that I will cherish for a long time, not to mention the cost savings. It took me 2 years right from discussions, creating the plan, getting the necessary approvals, building, inspection and occupancy.
...
Now, the feeling living in the house is priceless. Cos it feels like every nook and corner was planned and built with my own hands.

I have nothing against contractors. But I would urge everybody out there to build their own house themselves. And be sure to employ an Architect. Keep aside a couple of lakhs for that, it would be worth it.

Quite an accomplishment! How about a "Build your own house for dummies” short guide for us here, or even a real book on your experiences? I'm sure it will be a hit in the market.

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by mvadg

Quite an accomplishment! How about a "Build your own house for dummies” short guide for us here, or even a real book on your experiences? I'm sure it will be a hit in the market.

Thank you. I had never thought about it, but looking back those two years were full of learnings. I would try to write things down and collate the artifacts that I used for planning, budgeting, tracking etc. and post it here. Need some time though.

[redcruiser]

I am into the market looking at various options for the interiors of my flat.
Will be starting the interiors in a couple of weeks.
What I gathered from plywood shopkeepers is that one can go for Neem wood ply for wardrobes to save costs and it lasts as much as a commercial ply. Is this statement correct?

What kind of material should I use to make cabinets in the bathroom? Cabinets which would keep toiletry stuffs.

Rgds..

[architect]

Originally Posted by redcruiser

What kind of material should I use to make cabinets in the bathroom? Cabinets which would keep toiletry stuffs.
Rgds..

Get bathroom cabinets done in WPC (wood plastic composite) board or in marine-grade plywood from a good company. Make sure that cabinetry is not close to the floor and is placed on raised legs. You should be OK. A lot also depends on how you use and maintain your bathroom. If your family usually keeps it dry and well-ventilated it should work. Also, ensure use of good quality hardware (hinges / locks / handles) that do not rust.

[anku94]

Does anyone have experience with waterproofing products from iFixit/Berger/Asian Paints?

My parents have a mild peeling paint problem in some parts of their (independent) home - has anyone tried looking up the product recommendations on the websites and trying to DIY-fix them, or calling them up for consultations?

[Sebring]

Our apartment roofing had some leakage issues and the association called iFIXIT guys, their consultation charges are Rs. 1000 - but the quote was quite heavy running into several lakhs. Almost 10 Lakhs

Originally Posted by anku94

Does anyone have experience with waterproofing products from iFixit/Berger/Asian Paints?

[anku94]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Our apartment roofing had some leakage issues and the association called iFIXIT guys, their consultation charges are Rs. 1000 - but the quote was quite heavy running into several lakhs. Almost 10 Lakhs

Wow, that's a bit ludicrous.

I feel it should be possible to understand the products and DIY with the help of some local painters, but I'm concerned that if we under-provision, like just waterproof the interior walls and not the outer walls/roof, the peeling problem might re-appear and then it'd just be a waste of effort.

[Sebring]

I realised the onerous task of waterproofing in India because most products are either fake or of dubious quality. Painters always recommend products which give them maximum kick-back. For roof seepage, the surface treatment works best. But for walls, you must treat the outside as well as inside. Abroad, there are numerous DIY coats available-and they last a lifetime. So I did get a few products from ACE and gave a single coat, and it holds up really well, over time.

Originally Posted by anku94

but I'm concerned that if we under-provision

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by anku94

Does anyone have experience with waterproofing products from iFixit/Berger/Asian Paints?

My parents have a mild peeling paint problem in some parts of their (independent) home - has anyone tried looking up the product recommendations on the websites and trying to DIY-fix them, or calling them up for consultations?

Getting rid of water leakage from walls or Waterproofing is quite a complicated affair, as most of the time the source is far away and water travels through capillary action and emerges where it finds an opening. So fixing the immediate area by scraping and re plastering rarely works. In fact if there is a leak in water pipe, it is best to identify and repair the leaking pipe.

In my experience of past few decades, once there is seepage, it is best to waterproof the whole wall. This is done by injecting specialist chemicals on a nominal 1 meter grid (drill a hole and inject chemicals at a substantial pressure). The chemical spreads through most of the micro cracks and seals the passages. This ensures that no water will percolate through the wall.

The above method is the only one that guarantees to stop seepage for at least a decade or so. It is also labour intensive and expensive, but at the end of the day worth the cost.

There are quite a few contractors in every major city, who specialise in this. The chemicals used are normally from Dr Fixit. In Delhi waterproofing a 10' x 10' wall would cost between 20K and 30K, depending on what else is to be done.

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by anku94

Does anyone have experience with waterproofing products from iFixit/Berger/Asian Paints?

My parents have a mild peeling paint problem in some parts of their (independent) home - has anyone tried looking up the product recommendations on the websites and trying to DIY-fix them, or calling them up for consultations?

I think these would help - I have used these 2 to partially control the water leakage in one of the rooms of our house which was damaged due to earthquake - water use to flow in like stream, now it gets damp but does not flow in. Make sure you are sealing the source where water makes an entry and not the inside where it exits:

https://www.drfixit.co.in/product/re...kfree-206.html

https://www.drfixit.co.in/product/re...-ezee-208.html

[Prafful_Rathod]

Originally Posted by civic-sense

A few years ago, I built my house - my dream home. During the initial discussions my Architect encouraged me to build the house myself and not contract out to a contractor. His reasoning was that the experience is something that I will cherish for a long time, not to mention the cost savings.

I am also currently building my own house, which is 90% complete now with painting and finishing touches remaining. It is indeed a good idea to save cost. But trust me it was not easy, at times I felt so frustrated and thought of giving up, but somehow sustained. The thing is you need a good advisor in the form of an architect, who would give honest opinions otherwise you will be screwed. You are bound to make small mistakes in the learning process but it is still very enriching experience.

The only thing which kept me on the edge was the Total Cost. Correct cost estimation is the most difficult part in building your own house, unlike full contract where you know beforehand that you have to pay x amount of money for a particular house plan. I must admit that I was not really conservative in cost estimation and the total cost kept gong up. Unknown / unheard costs would keep coming, resetting budget everytime was painstaking. It really took considerable amount of time and involvement in completing the task. But in the end I made a priority list of what is must have and what can be postponed, which helped me in better planning. For every single thing I took almost 3 to 4 quotations from different vendors for material to labour.

The most difficult part of the journey was tiling work. It took me considerable amount of time in searching the most cost effective and good material. There were shortages / surpluses / mismatches etc. In the end I am still not 100% satisfied with the tiling work but the small mistakes made early were difficult to correct and now living with it.

Most important thing is you should choose good quality Labour for every task otherwise everything will go for a toss. A good labour would also give you right direction about material selection.

I can now safely say that if I were to build another house I would definitely do a much better job both in terms of quality / cost and timeframe.

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by Prafful_Rathod

I am also currently building my own house, which is 90% complete now with painting and finishing touches remaining. It is indeed a good idea to save cost. But trust me it was not easy, at times I felt so frustrated and thought of giving up, but somehow sustained. The thing is you need a good advisor in the form of an architect, who would give honest opinions otherwise you will be screwed. You are bound to make small mistakes in the learning process but it is still very enriching experience.

The only thing which kept me on the edge was the Total Cost. Correct cost estimation is the most difficult part in building your own house, unlike full contract where you know beforehand that you have to pay x amount of money for a particular house plan. I must admit that I was not really conservative in cost estimation and the total cost kept gong up. Unknown / unheard costs would keep coming, resetting budget everytime was painstaking. It really took considerable amount of time and involvement in completing the task. But in the end I made a priority list of what is must have and what can be postponed, which helped me in better planning. For every single thing I took almost 3 to 4 quotations from different vendors for material to labour.

The most difficult part of the journey was tiling work. It took me considerable amount of time in searching the most cost effective and good material. There were shortages / surpluses / mismatches etc. In the end I am still not 100% satisfied with the tiling work but the small mistakes made early were difficult to correct and now living with it.

Most important thing is you should choose good quality Labour for every task otherwise everything will go for a toss. A good labour would also give you right direction about material selection.

I can now safely say that if I were to build another house I would definitely do a much better job both in terms of quality / cost and timeframe.

Don't worry. You will cherish the memories for a long time to come.

I did have the support of my Architect and it was him who encouraged me to build on my own. You can substitute a contractor with yourself, but can't substitute the knowledge of an accomplished architect with anything else.

In my case I created estimation sheets for all the phases of construction before hand. In none of the phases the final number overshot the estimates as I provided a good amount of buffer. Even with the buffer costs were never near the contractor quotes. Costs constantly go up and contractors make up by reducing the quality of materials used or revise the asking price. Also ask for a small change in plan and you will get a huge bill.

About tiling, that is one area where you have to keep a close eye on. You have to first plan how each of the rooms are going to be laid and the number of tiles you will need. Plan to utilize the cut pieces efficiently. If left to the workers they will go on a cutting spree. I was flabbergasted seeing them cutting from a new tile for the borders while there were a number of cut pieces lying around. At the end I ended with only a few sqft of wasted tiles. I did a mistake of going for ceramic tiles for the bathrooms to save cost. But that was not to be as ceramic tiles break easily and what you save on cost is lost on wastage.

My home isn't flawless. There are numerous thing I could have done better. I even did some very stupid things. There are things I intend to correct down the line. But that is true with most houses whether it is built by a contractor or not. But at least, good or bad, the choices are your own.

At the end I saved more money than I even planned to, even after I splurged a bit during the last phases (I spent liberally on bathroom and electrical fixtures). The advice I got from my architect was to spend on things you get to interact with everyday. At the end of the day the kind of brick or steel or cement used isn't going to matter as much but the faucets, the basins, the tiles, the paint, the switches, the lights are.

[Guite]

I tend to disagree on the last para of above post. Bricks, cement, steel make up the skeleton of the building. That skeleton has to be robust. Brick and concrete are not something you can change later unless you demolish entire walls or entire building. So quality matters in those materials. Higher quality equates higher cost.

On the other hand the so called human interface materials can also be thought of as make-up, as in cosmetics. It’s something you can change later as part of renovation.

[anku94]

Originally Posted by Sebring

Abroad, there are numerous DIY coats available-and they last a lifetime. So I did get a few products from ACE and gave a single coat, and it holds up really well, over time.

Thanks! Would you mind sharing the names of the products you bought? And sorry, but what's ACE?

Originally Posted by Aroy

In my experience of past few decades, once there is seepage, it is best to waterproof the whole wall. This is done by injecting specialist chemicals on a nominal 1 meter grid (drill a hole and inject chemicals at a substantial pressure). The chemical spreads through most of the micro cracks and seals the passages. This ensures that no water will percolate through the wall.

I see, thanks!

This sounds like an approximation for the integral waterproofing process described on Asian Paints/iFixit websites, where you mix an additive to the mortar while laying down the walls. But given the costs you mentioned, I'm tempted to try out just the surface waterproofing methods - both interior and exterior, on a part of the house and see how that works out over a short period.

Our problem (in my lay opinion) seems to stem from our neighbour having a garden adjacent to one of our walls, and capillary action causing water to rise from the ground, so there's no obvious ways to fix the sources of dampness, except for the drilling process you suggested.

Originally Posted by blackasta

I think these would help - I have used these 2 to partially control the water leakage in one of the rooms of our house which was damaged due to earthquake - water use to flow in like stream, now it gets damp but does not flow in. Make sure you are sealing the source where water makes an entry and not the inside where it exits:

https://www.drfixit.co.in/product/re...kfree-206.html

https://www.drfixit.co.in/product/re...-ezee-208.html

Hmm, I've been trying to understand their entire catalog and see where all of their products fit. Surface treatment on rooftops, exterior walls, and interior walls, along with crack filling seems doable for a reasonable cost. We do not have a dripping problem - just a paint peeling problem so hopefully our results would be better than yours... thanks!

[Sebring]

ACE is a hardware store from the US. This was so long back, but I recall a product called DAMPLOCK and PENETRON. RUSTOLEUM (Brand available in India) has amazing DIY products in NEVERWET which i just paint on with a normal brush.

Originally Posted by anku94

Thanks! Would you mind sharing the names of the products you bought?