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

A good family entertainment

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I’m writing this email after watching a Tamil movie in Kannada language on Amazon Prime Video.

An OTT app which I recently subscribed to watch movies…

After subscribing, every week, all our family members sit in our first building hall and watch movies together.

Sitting with all family members and spending time together is a really good feeling.

Earlier, it was not like that.

It’s just parents who used to watch regular dish TV channels and movies, which are always filled with plenty of Ads.

Now, with OTT apps, it’s way better experience.

You can enjoy new movies with little or no ads with family…

Isn’t it a good feeling?

It is for me.

That’s why we are all spending time together now. If it’s not OTT apps, we will be minding our own business in front of a computer 24*7.

It’s a boring life. Life is meant to be enjoyed… not just work always.

Oh, we don’t watch movies quite…, as my younger brother and my kids will always be disturbing. We still somehow manage and watch in that disturbance as well by keeping a little high volume.

Apart from that good disturbance, we thoroughly enjoy movies.

Luckily, in our house, we don’t manage a few of our day-to-day tasks, which we need to manage ourselves.

For example, Outdoor lights? It works in Auto mode. We no longer spend time to manage it.

Sump taps? It also works in Auto mode. Our auto unit inside the sump stops water when the sump is full. If your tap is a little below the sump, I have a solution to fix the float value issue as well.

Overhead tank? That also runs with a motor controller unit. Anytime our overhead tanks get empty, it does the job.

If you think you need to spend lots of money to do all this automation… then you are wrong.

All the above automation setups can be done for 1000 to 3000 rs if you plan well during construction time.

If not planned, then it’s a different story.

I shared all such preliminary setups that you need to take care of during house construction time inside my guides. And I recommend that everyone implement those suggestions to make their lives easier.

For security 24*7? Our CC cam takes care of everything in the building.

If students need to brun crakers on Terrace, they will first ask me before they do so. Because they know I can see all those activities.

There is nothing they can hide outside their unit.

All are covered under surveillance cameras. If you ask me, it is one of the most worthy investments for any house.

This email is written right after watching a movie. This means it was written yesterday, unlike any of my emails, which I usually write on the same day. Because I was in a good mood to write so.

That’s all for today’s email.

Tomorrow, I will share some different thoughts I got an idea from today.

Till then, take care.

Arun

A Buyer Asking Agreement for Trunkey Construction Project

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Today, I got the below email from a Building Labour Contract Agreement Template Buyer.

—
Dear Sir,

We are providing total design and built turnkey construction project with material.

Please share agreement between cliennt and contractors with terms an conditions.

Regards
Imran

—

I got a few such requests.

I don’t have any such agreement prepared for a material contract or turnkey construction project.

At least, Not at the moment.

It is because “it’s really difficult to properly create a detailed agreement in such projects”.

No matter how good you are, your chances of missing a few specifications will always be high.

If those things are not mentioned in writing, what will happen?

The difference between owners and contractors will start.

That’s why most material contract projects have some kind of disputes.

And…

Honestly, I don’t want to be a part of such disputes. That’s why I simply say NO.

Some readers are interested in going with material contracts for their house construction.

If that’s your plan, I have a small tip for you.

When choosing a material contractor, ask the contractor to show any recently completed material contract projects and discuss with such owners before finalizing the contractor.

The project should be completed. Not work in process projects. Because most disputes happen at the end of the construction stage. Not during the construction stage.

You can read one of our relative’s stories who went with a material contract for their building recently here.

If you still have no choice, take your engineer’s help to verify the contract agreement terms and conditions.

Arun

If you are buying my products from ads, read this

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Yesterday, a buyer emailed me to ask about the product he paid for but has not yet received.

I searched his email in my email system to see what product he had purchased.

I noticed 3 products he bought, and he is also on my email list for quite a few days.

I believe this user is buying only from some offers that I make on running ads on Facebook.

I don’t know who else is doing similar things. It’s pretty difficult to go and check all those details.

If you are also doing the same, understand the logic of offering discounts on Facebook ads and not here.

I’m offering a good ad deal because I need to attract customers who will likely buy my future products.

Ads are costly to run. We don’t make money on ads. It’s just a tool to attract the right customer with product buyer’s funds. Not from our pocket money. That’s all.

That means I only run ads for selected products, not all.

If you properly calculate the cost you are paying for a single product is still more than the price you could get from my All-Access Pass.

Do some calculations you will understand.

Moreover, I only run ads for a few products, not all.

So, if you repeatedly buy my products, the best way is to buy my All-Access Pass. Not buying through ads. As you never see ads for all my products,

With my All-Access Pass, you can always get any updates or future guides at no extra cost.

All you need to do is log in to the member’s area to find the latest or updated guide.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this with you to make you a better-informed buyer.

I don’t want to play such games with my email subscribers. I could make quick cash by doing that… but it definitely not gonna help my buyers much.

I want my subscribers to buy my All-Access Pass (who can offered, If not also no issues). This is where they get all the common mistakes they could make and how to avoid them during construction time.

Which could help them for the lifespan of the building.

Anyway, The next guide I’m working on is for users planning to build rental property in their building.

I will share all the lessons I learned in this guide after having 16+ door rental units. You can learn and implement the suggestions I shared in your property to avoid mistakes.

It will also be added inside the All-Access Pass members area at no extra cost.

Arun

How to Spend More and Make Building Look Old

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We went to ask about cot pricing for our rental unit a few days back. I noticed a construction building…

The building installed a Granite Wall Cladding all over it.

Do you know how it looks? BORING. Like an old building look.

Granite is good for flooring work, not for wall cladding work. It won’t look good.

I recommend using 2 by 4 Double glazing Tiles for wall cladding for a premium look.

Still in confusion?

Watch any YouTube videos where sale buildings or interior work is done.

They all use Tiles.

In our first house, we also did granite wall cladding, thinking more expensive == more premium looks.

It won’t work like that.

Granite wall cladding costs more than tiles. But look-wise, nothing beats Tiles.

Don’t keep thinking spending more makes your building look more beautiful.

Nope. Not always.

I still see many new buildings with granite wall cladding, which most older generation prefers.

Don’t make the same mistakes as others do.

Think and make decisions.

Granite is a good choice for maintenance-free flooring.

Suppose you want to use granite flooring and want to know the granite pricing and labour charges we paid. In that case, I have shared all those details inside my Our House Construction Expenses product.

Sometimes, it helps to know the price on average to better negotiate with the sellers.

Arun

Help to check the strength of a building

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For my email yesterday, I got the below reply from a subscriber:

Hi.

Can you suggest someone who can help to check or strengthen a house building?

We have purchased a old
Building & added a heavy floor on top. Structural and architects were involved though.

The house has load bearing walls.

Regards,
Vixxx Hxxxx

Can you suggest someone who can help to check or strengthen a house building?

I don’t have any such contacts apart from my building structural engineer.

Moreover, even if I give our engineer contact details, It would cost you more for him to visit your location for a consultation.

Instead, I recommend you search for a structural engineer near the building and do a consultation.

We have purchased a old Building & added a heavy floor on top. Structural and architects were involved though.

It looks like you have already involved a structural engineer. I hope they did bother checking old building plans and verified pillars (or) added additional pillars before giving yes to construct.

If not. Why not search on Google Maps so you can pick an engineer near your building to do a consultation, which could help.

If you just built one floor on top of an old building, it may not add much stress. But you are also mentioning “Heavy Floor,” something I wouldn’t dare to DO or Think about doing on any sale building.

For sale buildings or any existing building, they never construct a building while keeping future floors in mind.

The reason? It would significantly increase the building construction cost.

Why would anyone invest now when they don’t have a clear picture of their building?

No one would.

Anything invested in foundation work doesn’t add any value while selling time. Instead, they could invest the same in their interior, which significantly increasing the building’s value.

That’s why all sales buildings come with good interiors. Not with extra addable floors feature.

Anyway… I highly recommend getting in touch with some or a few structural engineers and consulting once.

Ask any building contractors, labourers, or engineers how well-sale buildings are built. They will give a clear picture of it.

If you are building a house using the labour contract method, check my guides, which will help avoid a few first-time user mistakes.

Arun

A building collapsed in Bangalore

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I hope you have already come across the building collapse news in Bangalore today.

After seeing the building falling clip and images, I noticed it’s mostly foundation and pillars fault.

If you properly notice the pillars on that building, only a few can be seen there. And the pillars size? Too small for a G+3+2 building.

Who is to blame?

Engineer or Owner or Contractor?

In this case, it seems the owner is at fault.

I don’t think any engineer would give such a low-quality plan for a G+5-floor building.

After reviewing the news, I noticed one contractor built G+3 floors. And nobody shared who built the remaining 2 floors.

Maybe the contractor also got scared while building itself and left the work partially?

It happens.

Contractors also don’t show interest in building sub-par quality buildings. If something goes wrong, they are also held responsible…

Or the contractor might had a dispute with the owner and left the project without finishing?

Whatever may be the reason.

When you are planning to construct, clearly share how many floors you need to build so engineers can properly calculate load and design plans accordingly.

If you want to build 1 floor now and a few floors later, share the same with engineers.

They plan for all the floors and provide the plan.

I got a few user queries about users who bought a sale building and now planning to extend one or two floors.

I straightly tell them, don’t bother doing that.

If you still want to do it, then consult the engineer. They will add a few pillars before raising the floors.

Because of such low-quality construction, all the users involved in that property will now suffer.

Whatever the project you handle, don’t mindlessly build cheap quality buildings. This statement applies to Owners, Engineers & Contractors as well.

Lots of users suffer because of this.

Don’t get involved in such projects if you don’t have control.

Arun

Real life Rain lesson that I learned from Yesterday rain…

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Today at 10 Am, I came to my home office to start work.

I noticed something.

I called my Dad to discuss about it. We both went and verified the root cause of that issue.

Later, we learned that it had happened due to yesterday’s rain.

We went back to the first house to have breakfast. While my dad and I were discussing about the issue, my mom also listened to our conversation about the rain problem that we noticed recently.

She also shared something similar she noticed in one of our neighbour’s houses a few days back (as it’s raining now).

I updated my Rainy Days guide after noticing our and our neighbour’s issues.

If you have access, please download the latest version to learn from my and our neighbour’s mistakes.

I added images to explain the concept that happened in our house.

Regarding our neighbour’s mistake, I just shared a guide to avoid that mistake so you can be careful during your house construction.

The updated sections are in 2.7, Example 2, and 2.9 in the Rainy Days Guide.

No matter who you hire for your house construction work, it’s your responsibility to properly take care during house construction time.

Or else you are the one who pays the price later.

That’s why I’m sharing all my lessons inside my guides so smart people who invested in my guides can learn and avoid making my mistakes in their building.

Whatever problem we noticed in our building is mostly fixable… but in our neighbour’s case, it costs a lot to fix permanently. That’s why they do manual work every time it rains to prevent further damage to the building.

For saying “yes,” now I’m attending calls

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Yesterday, a tenant requested that I collect his Flipkart order, which was supposed to be delivered yesterday.

As he went to his home, I said I would collect it.

For saying “yes” to that request, now I’m attending all his customer support calls from Flipkart.

The WakeFit mattress that was supposed to be delivered yesterday has not yet been delivered.

The guy who ordered probably raised complaints after complaints sitting in his home.

Every time he raises complaints, the support team calls me. He probably shared my number on Flipkart, I guess.

Whenever I receive calls, I am told I’m not the right person to speak with about that order, but I still receive support calls.

That too in Malayalam language.

I told them I didn’t understand the Malayalam language, and the support team told sir it was a Malayalam support team kind of response.

Today is also over, and the product has not yet been delivered.

I’m still unsure how many complaints the guy has to go through and how many calls I need to attend to say Yes to help this guy.

The point is…

When constructing your house, you get similar help requests from a few labourers.

If you say yes to their request, they repeatedly ask such requests. Your helping nature can sometimes backfire on you.

So remember this before saying yes to any help request.

I remember a few labourers who collected cash from us, saying they would return in a few days… but that return never happened.

We also never bothered to ask those.

Never say yes to such requests if you are not ready to lose such an amount.

These are all small stuff. I’m fine losing a few here and there for labourers.

When you are constructing a house, many transactions happen in a day, and some transactions may go unnoticed. Which could potentially cause a loss someday.

You should maintain a proper system to track all such transactions to avoid such loss.

If you think an Excel sheet is fine… think again. Excel sheets are never the right system to track all of those. Especially in house construction time.

You will understand its issues if you start using Excel sheets in a real environment.

Excel sheets should be part of the system. Not a whole system.

If you want to keep a proper system to manage all the transactions, here is what I used to do in my second house construction.

I explained all the tools and how I used them during my second house construction in my House Construction Tracking System guide.

This is a guide that everyone should follow during their house construction time – for easier management of finances and protection from contractor issues.

Using cotton mattress? here’s a better alternative

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Today, as soon as I woke, I got a different energy to start working on my new “Rental Property Guide” guide.

This is a guide I’m writing for someone who is planning to start house construction with rental properties in it.

After managing 16-door rental units, I’m dumping all my knowledge on this guide. I’m not sure when I’m going to release it. It will come soon.

Ok…

Today, one of our tenants (a student) asked me to collect his mattress as he won’t be available.

** My daughter came, so I took a 15-minute break **

This is the same mattress my brother is also using. After using it for a few days here and there, I can say… it’s really better to opt for a wake-fit mattress than a cotton mattress.

In fact, my mom was also impressed by this Wakefit mattress sleeping experience.

Currently, I’m using a cotton mattress.

After experiencing wake fit, I regretted getting a custom cotton mattress.

With a cotton mattress, the bed becomes uneven after sleeping for a few days, and you will get body pain from sleeping on it.

However, the Wakefit bed has not yet changed its structure after being used for a few years.

If you plan to buy a mattress, I wouldn’t recommend using a normal cotton mattress. Instead, go with any wake-fit type of mattress.

Other brands could offer similar features, but I’m not sure how long they last.

Sleeping with a wake fit is different from sleeping on a cotton mattress.

If you haven’t experienced it, give it a try. You will love it.

Oh, by the way, this is not sponsored by the WakeFit brand. I’m sharing my experience after using it for a few days (my brother one).

Even I plan to change my bed with a wake fit one. But the current one will get idle, so I’m waiting…

So I’m writing here to share my experience so you could avoid buying cotton mattress on your new building if in case you wanted to.

Arun

The struggle that I witnessed during rain

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Today and yesterday, near my home, there were a two functions.

You might already be aware of the rain conditions currently in Bangalore. For the past few days, it has been raining heavily.

Both their functions are already scheduled. I got to witness owners struggle in making arrangements for the function.

For one function, they arranged a dinner facility inside the parking area. They kept all the other tables outside the gate, using only 4.

And the house is full of wet everywhere… They kept 4 or 6 mats outside before entering their house to prevent wetness inside the house.

A few guests who came for the function also stood in the parking to avoid the rain.

That’s a story of one function.

And another function that is scheduled today? They have a little different story…

This function is a little bigger than the one which happened yesterday. So, preparation for this function started with yesterday’s rain.

When the cook came, it was raining heavily.

The owner arranged an outside space to prepare food. Because of heavy rain, first owner diverted all the water entering the selected space by digging the earth.

The next challenge is… arranging a shamiyana tent to protect against wind and rain.

As it’s raining, they have to arrange a special waterproof tent.

This is the first time I saw a waterproof tent being used. This waterproof tent did a wonderful job protecting the cook from rain. I was seeing all these from my house.

Somehow, both owners managed and finished the function.

These are all the headaches you will face if you arrange your housewarming function during rainy times. Make sure you keep functioning in the non-rainy seasons.

Or else, on those function days, you will face a hell of a lot of problems for sure.

Suppose you are still in the construction phase. In that case, I have one important suggestion you should implement to have a better experience in your house during the rainy season.

Which I explained in my Rainy Days guide. (no dedicated sales page or more infomation, sorry!)

If it’s raining in your area, I recommend reading this guide today so you can experience the feeling and avoid making similar mistakes in your construction building.

When constructing for the first time, these points are easy to ignore. That’s why I’m writing these guides so others can be aware of them and avoid making mistakes.

I have written this email while sipping hot coffee and listening to the rain sound outside my home. What better topic should I talk about apart from Rain, isn’t it?