P K Arun

Hi, I’m P K Arun the guy behind this blog. Our family constructed a house in Bangalore and I thought to share our house construction experience with this blog so users can avoid those common mistakes they do while constructing their house. Read Our Story

Software for detailed cost estimation right from Start to finish

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Yesterday one of the subscriber asked me a questions:

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Dear Arun

Greetings of the day
We are proposing to construct a G+ 5-story residential building at Shamshabad in Hyderabad.I need a detailed cost estimation right from Start to finish including Interiors and the external works. Could you suggest to me the software for the above-mentioned building or s similar building you have come across?
Appreciate your valuable advice.
Regards
Syed Zxxxxx Axxxx
Mob:9000xxxx0
Punjagutta, Hyderabad – 500082
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To my knowledge, common users cannot use software that provides such a detailed cost estimation. 

This software needs specialized knowledge to calculate the estimation accurately. Learning that skill just to calculate one or two house construction budgets is not worth spending our time on.

Let the professional engineer handle the job.  

The best and the right way to get the estimation is by getting in touch with the engineers who designed your building design. 

Yes, it cost money. It is one of the tasks that is worth spending.

Engineers usually estimate the construction cost accurately, considering the current market rate, which is very important.

Don’t rely on any free cost estimator that you find online. 

Before starting your house construction, you need to estimate the budget properly to complete the project without stopping. 

Especially if you are on a tight budget. 

Always have 5 to 10% extra cash on the estimated budget. I have seen many users struggle with finishing because of improper budget planning.

And, sometimes, banks also don’t help in such situations, depending on the case.

In such cases, owners are the ones who struggle with half-finished projects. 

You also need to keep one more thing in mind. You need more money at the ending stage of the construction than at the starting stage.

Keep that point while spending.

The cash you spend for the whole month during the construction stage, you will spend in a few hours during the finishing stage…

You will have to stop your construction work if you don’t have enough cash reserve at the ending stage.

I have prepared an Excel sheet calculator for the construction cost estimator based on my real construction data. 

All you need to do is enter the building size in sq feet, and it will display the estimated budget you may need for your construction.

Keep in mind. 

This is just an estimated cost based on my construction expenses. So you shouldn’t take the budget seriously. 

Still, it shows a rough budget category-wise, which could be useful for some users.

This calculator is a part of my Our House Construction Expenses Product.

I actually sold this Excel sheet for up to ₹99. 

But for the next 3 days (till the 23rd at 10PM), I’m going to give this for free to my email subscribers. 

If you are interested, just reply to this email saying “Send Me” and within 24hr I will send a link to download.

I Got scammed inside the temple

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Yesterday, all our family members went to Beegara Oota in Hassan.

On the way, we decided to visit some temples.

One such spot we choose is Panchamukhi Anjaneya Swamy -Temple, Bidanagere, Kunigal Tq.

It was having good reviews. It has a big god idol on top of the building. It’s like a visitor’s attraction point. So we decided to go once.

As soon as we reached near the spot, we could see a big idol. It’s looking good.

We took some photos and went inside.

As soon as we started entering the temple, we started to experience bad because of the priests.

Inside the temple, all priests are trying to scam all the visitors by asking them to do something and then asking for a fee for doing such things.

Usually, it consists of saying something without talking about fees. They act like it’s a procedure and will demand fees once the task ends.

Users who listen to priests words get scammed listening to their words.

One of the worst temple experiences I have ever had recently.

I also got scammed like this inside the temple for ₹50.

You may feel it’s just ₹50. It could be. But the feeling of getting scammed by unknown people doesn’t feel good.

Once I realised I got scammed, I got alerted. And never bothered to stand or listen to any priests inside the temple.

Again, a few priests tried to scam me with different offerings at a higher price point. I had already been scammed once, so I didn’t listen to anyone.

Once I came outside the temple, my brother and dad shared a similar experience.

I opened Google Maps reviews to see what others share; all the latest reviews share their scam experience inside the temple.

Now, understand what they are doing in the name of God.

I left the temple feeling very bad for getting scammed.

This reminded me of my first house construction, where an electrical contractor scammed us with extra charges. We trusted his words but ended up overpaying because nothing was in writing.

A good way to avoid contractor scams is to have a written contract agreement. Which clearly outlines the contract work scope, payment terms, exit terms, etc., in a written agreement.

Now… I will make a special and limited-time offer where you can get all the labour contract agreement templates I have prepared based on my construction experience.

It’s only available for 3 days. After that, I will take it down.

If this is something you are interested in, visit the below link to learn more:

https://houseconstructionguide.com/agreement-bundle

Arun

Added: Electrical Labour Contract Agreement Template

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For the past few days, I’ve been working on creating a Labour contract agreement template for our HCG All-Access Pass Buyers.

It’s like me sitting and thinking where and all the differences would come between owner and contractors, how those could be avoided, and some common problems owners must go through once the work is started.

From my end, I’m giving an agreement template, and from your end, you need to replace/delete the terms and conditions that are not required in your case.

These are not the type of agreements you see on Google. (ok. I’ve never seen how those are, honestly).

These are the agreements created from my own construction experiences and problems I noticed during our construction time.

Today, I added the Electrical Labour Contract Agreement Template inside the HCG All-Access Pass members area.

Don’t feel shy about having all the terms and conditions on paper. When a problem arises, these conditions could literally save you from losing money, headaches or verbal fights.

Suppose I had to do house construction again. In that case, I use all the agreement templates, whatever I’m providing inside the members’ area, without hesitation.

Please don’t get confused with the free agreement that I shared with my subscribers.

They don’t even come close to what you see inside the member’s area.

Currently, I don’t have any separate sales page for these. I focus on adding content inside the member’s area rather than writing a sales page for every guide.

If you want these agreement templates, you can get them by joining the HCG All-Access Pass.

things to keep in mind while building rental property

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When we started renting our first property, we had no clue.

Ours is a student rental area. Which means more rent, more maintenance, and fewer headaches.

After renting our property for 3 years, we understood what could have been done better and what could have been avoided.

No one guided us that before.

Even a small small things matter for a better experience.

All the lessons I learned from my experience and observation.

Rental property shouldn’t be treated as owner property in all the terms. This property requires maintenance work every time a tenant vacates the property.

Once any tenant vacates the property (which happens often), a lot of cleaning and repainting work will be involved. So it’s your job to make sure you make that task easier.

How do you do that?

That’s something I share inside my Rental Property Guide.

When building your rental property, always keep one thing in mind.

“How can I make my maintenance job easier?“

If you keep that thing in mind and build your property, it will help a lot in the rest of your rental property journey.

You can get it here if you want to learn from my experience managing 32-door rental units.

Use delays to your advantage

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Today, my dad and I went to see the status of our 32 Diwan cots order that we placed a few weeks ago.

The vendor delivery date came near, so we went to see how the work is going…

To our surprise, the vendor has not yet started our order.

Spoke with the owner and told them to deliver fast and come back.

This type of delay is common in almost all areas. You may also encounter similar delays in the delivery of some construction-related items.

I have a small tip or suggestion I recommend you follow to avoid such delays or get benefit from such delays.

The idea is…

Ask the vendor when they can deliver the product. Double confirm the delivery date…

Once they confirm the date, you tell them – if you don’t deliver on that date, I will cut ₹XXXX from the payment amount.

The amount you mention shouldn’t be too high…. The seller should be able to easily bear the amount, or else he won’t allow you to deduct it on the payment day.

With such a condition, you usually get it on or before the delivery date, or you will save money on the order.

I used this strategy during construction, and it worked very well.

I immediately remembered this strategy as soon as I learned that the cot guys had not started working on our cot order.

I thought I could have used it here as well. On the day of the order, I didn’t go there.

It’s better to follow my house construction tracking system to execute this idea successfully, or it could fail.

This is a system/guide designed to execute many such things without fail.

got 53,000 rs electricity bill

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A few days back, a popular Kannada YouTuber uploaded a video showing how he got a ₹53,000 electricity bill for a residential house.

This bill is linked to his house construction, so I thought I would share it here so you will know.

A few years back, he finished his house construction and took a permanent connection from BESCOM through an electrical contractor.

After 3 years, now in the BESCOM bill he got an electricity bill of ₹53,000 for Temporary connection pending bills.

It’s not his fault.

It’s the Electrical Contractor’s and BESCOM’s fault.

What happened was that his electrical contractor when surrendered his temporary connection, He was supposed to clear any temporary connection dues and get a permanent connection.

Looks like his contractor, without clearing the temporary connection pending dues, got a permanent connection. BESCOM also accepted this without clearing temporary connection dues.

After 3 years… when the BESCOM auditor did the audit, they billed all the pending charges with a penalty.

Penalty charges are high for a temporary connection, and now he has a 53K bill.

Youtuber took his camera to the BESCOM office and asked all the officials why. He learned that a total of 8,000 users had received such a bill.

Bill going up to 1,00,000rs.

A few months before, a reader emailed me a similar case. I also responded to that email by asking our electrical contractor.

This YouTuber is running behind BESCOM officials to fix the issue, which was probably caused by his electrical contractor or BESCOM officials.

I need to wait and watch for the updates.

What can you learn from this incident?

Suppose you are constructing a house in Bangalore. In that case, there are a few things you must be aware of when picking an Electrical contractor, framing a contract, payment releasing tips & more.

If you think it’s easy… no, it’s not.

We also got scammed by our first building electrical contractor and learned our lesson the really hard way.

Choosing the wrong electrical contractor costs you a lot in terms of money and time.

When hiring an electrical contractor, ensure you do your groundwork before hiring. If you need my tips, I shared them here.

Arun

Why Reliable WiFi Network Should Be a Priority for Every Building Owner

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I don’t usually recharge my mobile with a huge data plan because, in my home, I always connect my mobile to WiFi, which has better speed and unlimited data.

I only use my mobile data when I go outside.

When I was in the lodge, I checked if the lodge offered WiFi services.

In most cases, this is a mandatory service almost all lodges offer.

They also have a Free WiFi network in the lodge where I stayed.

While thinking about a password, I noticed the lodge network didn’t ask for a password for me to connect.

So, I directly connected without asking the receptionist for a WiFi password.

This is the wrong way to offer WiFi service.

Anyone can easily connect to the open network, which is not a good idea regarding security and usability.

As soon as I entered my lodge room, my phone’s WiFi signal was gone. I am no longer able to connect to Lodge’s free WiFi signal.

Looks Lodge offered internet service only for the namesake purpose.

I can only use their WiFi outside the room and standing in the passage. Not even able to sit also.

Hmm… I turned off my phone’s WiFi and turned on my mobile Data.

Even though they have a networking setup in their lodge, they set it up in such a way so no one can use their service.

From my assumption, they did this setup for advertisement purposes only, or the network guy didn’t properly educate the lodge owner or service provider didn’t bother to do his job properly to avoid the difficult tasks.

Whatever might have happened, the network set up in the lodge where I stayed a few days back is useless.

If you see my network setup in our two buildings, you will see the right way to do it.

All our tenants enjoy freaking awesome internet service (WiFi) in all their units, no matter where they stay near their units.

They always get Full signal, Good Speed… Best Internet Experience inside their house they might ever experienced anywhere.

That’s how anyone should plan if you are going to offer internet service, or else don’t bother offering just for namesake WiFi.

No one will go outside to use the internet. It’s not the best experience.

I don’t know how much experience you have with network setup, but I shared my recommended network setup for construction building in my Internet Everywhere Guide.

Read it, Understand it and Implement it.

Don’t just rely on the knowledge of service providers. Sometimes, they take shortcuts to save themself from doing the right work.

If you know the work, you can guide them according to your plan. Not just what they suggest you to do.

If WiFi is almost mandatory in Lodges, don’t you think it should also be in your building as well?

What I Noticed About Lodges That Can Help Your Rental Units

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Our family attended a relative marriage function in Hassan for the last two days.

Function finished successfully.

I guess this is probably one of the grandest weddings I have attended… It came out that good.

I felt they overspent little for this marriage.

My thought process never allows me to overspend that much for functions.

It’s just my opinion.

Our relative booked a lodge for our stay.

As soon as I start working on this house’s construction-related content, I usually pay attention to any type of construction-related activity.

Similarly, I have been paying much attention to Lodges as well.

I noticed that lodges have different setups from any typical house or rental property.

From power supply to water supply, light setup, hot water supply, lock system, bed setup, toilet setup, etc., all have completely different setups compared to normal houses.

Why do they do such things?

To improve operational efficiency and save cost.

This is the same for all the lodges that I have visited recently.

Why am I sharing this? The reason is…

If you plan to include a rental unit in your construction, there are a few things you should keep in mind at the time of construction.

These rental property tips will help you to maximize operational efficiency, rent faster, and save money.

This is some knowledge that I gained after managing our own rental units.

I will be sharing all those tips and lessons in my upcoming guide, Rental Property Guide.

Now the guide is almost ready. It will soon be added to the member’s area.

A Small changes in the setup could save money on the maintenance of the property.

Arun

What might you be undervaluing right now?

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Yesterday, when I slept, I went through some of my emails on my mobile.

I came across a meaningful message and thought of sharing it with you.

Here’s the message:

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We undervalue health if we have not recently experienced illness.

We undervalue wealth if we have not recently experienced poverty.

We undervalue kindness if we have not recently experienced cruelty.

We undervalue avoiding construction mistakes until we face problems in a newly built house.

What might you be undervaluing right now?

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Ya… the construction point is something I added from my experience.

Each of these statements holds a profound truth. For those who’ve lived through these situations, the meaning resonates deeply.

If the message doesn’t click right away, give it a moment. Reflect on it—you might uncover its depth with time.

Arun

I was speaking about Quality in construction

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Continuing yesterday’s conversation with a structural engineer, I asked if you really provide quality work with material contract projects.

He replied, Ya. I always maintain quality.

But, it won’t be the same with general labour contractors. He mentioned.

He gave one example.

Usually, general labour contractors don’t offer meshwork during sump construction. I always provide that without failure.

That’s his version of the statement.

I believe it depends on the owner’s budget; they also need to skip a few things here and there…

No one will give from their own pocket.

He only does material contract work. No labour contact.

I asked him, don’t you face any difference with the owner.

He said in the Agreement that we give a price range for each item. The owner will pay the difference if they want to buy anything out of the range.

Do you think you can mention all the items in the agreement?

“Main items only we mention.” Small things we don’t.

I asked how many pages your agreement contains.?

He replied around 4 Pages.

I thought of asking for his version of the material contract agreement. But I didn’t feel it was right to ask him.

So I didn’t ask.

My Building labour contract agreement contains 8 pages of content without me even talking about the product price range.

I’m unsure how he put all the important terms and conditions in just 4 pages.

As this is an agreement from the contractor, I guess he just took care of what he wanted to protect himself.

This is the case with almost all contractors, not just with my friend.

These are the kinds of agreements I don’t recommend you to sign directly.

There is no issue if everything is fine between you and the contractor. If any difference comes, that’s where the problem starts.

Having the right kind of detailed agreement protects you and the contractor.

I don’t have a material contract agreement template, but I have a Detailed Labour Contract Agreement template.

If you use the Labour Contract method to construct your house, you can use my agreement template.

Watch how detailed my labour contract agreement is >>