When JCB sound starts…

by

Before bringing JCB to do any work, I have a small tip to share.

Inform the JCB operator to follow only your instructions and not all the visitors.

The reason?

In some cases, if you bring a JCB to do your task, neighbours sometimes ask you or a JCB guy to do the cleaning work here and there.

You cannot say No in front of them. You cannot say Yes also…

Some use such instances very well.

They don’t pay for using such a service. They just want to use free service when you bring a JCB vehicle.

It depends on the place and people near your site. This doesn’t happen in all places.

Just sharing so you are aware of it.

Today, I added one more important and a money-saving tip to the Building Contractor Guide. If you have not yet done your earthwork, read the tip in section 4.68 (46th page).

Arun

Engineer measurement to easy to understand way

by

When your engineer gives your building plan, they give it on paper containing dimensions, which usually cannot be felt in most cases.

If you want to experience room dimensions live practically, what I recommend is…

Ask labourers to build one course of masonry (one bricklayer) according to the engineer’s plan during construction time. Now, go and walk and feel physically to experience the room’s size live.

If you find something you need to change, make changes and experience first. If you feel good, then proceed with the remaining construction/masonry work.

Don’t make changes too much after construction work is already done.

It’s simply a waste of materials and labour charges.

Keep in mind you cannot make changes however you need. You can only change in some areas, not all the places.

The reason is that the engineer plans pillars and beams where required. You cannot move walls randomly…

If you are in doubt, you can always ask the building contractor or engineer before making changes. They will tell if it can be done without issue or not.

When we checked the room size like this, we made our hall a little bigger than the engineer’s plan without affecting any load issues.

Not only that…

We made some minor alterations here and there without affecting the engineering plan too much.

If you need to get such ideas, you must do this one brick construction and experience and think in that spot.

The more family members, contractors, friends present on that day, better the idea you can get.

There is no better suggestion than this tip to experience room sizes.

Most important, valuable, and common mistakes realted to construction are shared in my building contractor guide.

These mistakes are like make once, and suffer longer time kind of…

Arun

Think rental income before planning

by

One thing that I like apart from my online business is collecting rent.

Although it comes with its own risk. But if you ask me, the reward always overtakes the risk in the rental business.

Every month, by the 10th, all rent is automatically deposited in my bank account without fail.

People who fail to send rent are charged extra for late payment. So again, there will be a reward for that.

I still remember when we first rented our property, which was around 5500rs.

Now we collect rent up to ₹8500 based on how many persons (students) stay (not PG).

Rent actively rises every year. Ours is the student market. That, too, out-of-state students studying in college means you can expect good rent.

So it’s really a good income you can depend on.

If your site is also located in such an area, do think about rental property and its income.

It’s really a good source to depend on.

If you are tight on budget, just inform the engineer in future you will build another 2 or 3 floors and ask him to give a plan accordingly.

Once you get the budget, you can reconstruct & add more floors on the same building.

That’s what we did in our first building. First, we built the ground and first floor. After seeing rental returns, we added the 2nd and 3rd floors again.

We are able to add more floors because we planned for the G+3 floor at the time of planning itself.

If you are good at marketing & technology, you can also reduce the vacancy period.

That means more ₹₹₹₹.

I follow my own system to keep my rental units full always. I will share all my experiments and learning at IndianLandlord.com.

I’m not very active there yet.

I will soon when I have something to share.

If you plan to start or already have rental properties in India, join me at IndianLandlord.com to receive landlording tips.

Arun

How not to get an extra work monthly once

by

Today, outside my home office window, I noticed that a construction building made two mistakes related to the meterbox.

So I opened my Electrical Work Guide to check if I mentioned that point or not…

When I searched, I noticed one point had already been added, but no images had been added, and another point had not been added. Now that also mentioned.

I went back to my second building, took a photo of the mistake they made, and added it to the document in the 5.53 section (redownload again to see updated content).

By the way, this is not their first building.

They recently built one beautiful house on the same road with great care. However, as soon as they entered the house, they sold the building within a few months.

That building not even completed 1 year.

I already written about it earlier. If you are interested in learning more, please visit this article.

Whatever mistake they make now will cause extra work for them monthly once they enter the house this time.

By this, I can conclude that just having construction experience is not enough to identify mistakes. We need to have an extra eye and thinking knowledge.

One way you can improve your ability to identify such mistakes is by reading the guides that I have written.

It’s not an encyclopedia.

It’s a simple guide with straightforward concepts shared with images wherever applicable.

Arun

Careless Tenants

by

In one of our rental units, 500 rs of electricity bill came this month.

But the thing is, no one has stayed in the building for the past 20 days…

Moreover, even if they stay, their electricity bill usually comes to 0 rs because the Karnataka government offers some free units.

The student got suspicious, and we got to know something was wrong.

When the student/tenant was informed regarding the electricity bill issue, we checked to see if the meter reader had taken the wrong reading.

The reading looks correct.

The meter also shows that it is actively consuming electricity.

The tenant not yet returned from home. We asked our tenant permission to check inside the house, and he said ok, go and check like he gave permission.

When checked inside, the Geyser, Fridge, and Wifi router have been running 24*7 for the past 20+ days…

Careless Tenants.

Informed the student and switched off all the devices.

Before returning, I took a photo in that rental unit for another example to check whether the electrical contractor knew his work.

This is a good example that shows how careless electrical contractors who don’t know proper working methods can be easily identified by seeing their other works.

In the electrical contractor guide, I shared that image in section 1.5, example 2.

This issue happened in our first building when we didn’t know how to hire a good electrical contractor.

For the second building, we learned our lesson very well after dealing with this cheap & headache electrical contractor.

We not only learned just choosing a good electrical contractor, we learned a lot from this guy…

Every lesson I learned from this guy in a hard way is shared in my electrical work guide.

Arun

pain after housewarming function

by

Yesterday, while going through my email inbox, I came across an email with the subject line “Pain”.

I remembered one incident in our first building when I saw the word pain.

It happened when all the construction work was over, and we shifted from a rental property to a brand-new house.

Usually, once the housewarming function is over, it’s recommended that someone stay in the brand-new house.

That’s a kind of tradition we follow. I’m not sure about others…

So, we started shifting all the items on the same day, and I also helped with the shifting process.

I stand on the staircase, and when someone gives me an item from below me, I take and pass that item to the next person.

While doing this type of shifting, I noticed no pain that time…

Once all the shifting was done, whenever I walked for a longer period or in any hilly area, I started noticing some strange pain in one leg.

That pain still has not left me.

When I put more strain on my legs, I feel that pain again, or else I won’t notice that pain at all…

After thinking about why and how it happened, I noticed it happened only after shifting from rental property to our house.

That day, it seemed I put more stress on one of my legs than it could handle.

Whatever weight I used to lift while standing on the staircase put a load on that one leg.

Don’t make similar mistakes to what I did on that day.

Use labourers to shift the materials and monitor them on both buildings at shifting times.

You spend a little on labour charges, but you take care of your health. Which is way more important than anything else.

Arun

PS: I shared some of the lessons that I learned after doing housewarming function inside my Housewarming guide.


Plinth beam work is going on but same parking mistake

by

Today, my brother and I were going on my bike to bring estamp paper to make a rental agreement for our tenants.

While going, I took the internal route so I could see new construction works.

In my area, lots of construction work is going on… so anywhere I look, there is always some construction activity.

Buildings are built and are sold like fast-moving food in a hotel.

Anyway, while going, I saw a new house with plinth beam work going on. When I saw it, I noticed a terrible mistake any new owners make.

I don’t understand if it’s the owner’s or, builder’s or engineer’s mistake.

Most of them make this mistake. Mostly unknowingly. That’s what I assume.

From my point of view, at least the building contractor could have fixed or suggested the mistake to the homeowners once.

For some reason, this is not happening. Mostly, it’s not the contractor’s job to make you understand future problems.

It’s your responsibility to know the ins and outs of a building.

I’m doing my job in alerting and guiding you….

If you don’t want to commit the same sin done by many other users, tap on Parking Horror Guide and avoid making the same mistake as others.

More similar mistakes on this topic are shared on the below link if you need to explore more on this:

https://houseconstructionguide.com/category/parking

Arun

glassy vs non glassy for walldrop

by

When it’s time to choose wardrobe laminate design, our supplier bought a big laminate design book to choose from.

At first, we chose a Glassy finish design. Before finalizing, I always ask the supplier’s opinion once… 

Supplier told, sir… Glassy is usually a little over for wardrobe. I personally don’t recommend a glassy finish like he informed me.

Moreover, he also told one more thing.

That is, both glassy and non-glassy laminate sheets cost the same. If you want a glassy laminate sheet, I can do that only as the supplier said.

Today, I made the right decision by listening to that supplier.

Because even if I can imagine a glass look in my wardrobe, I don’t feel good.

I don’t want to see our faces or our reflection every time I walk in front of it. Just imagine yourself once… 

Some still go with the glass look…  

Maybe they could have changed their opinion if they had thought a little longer about the reflection issue. 

Personally, I feel glassy looks is quite over look. 

Think about it when your time comes to choose a wardrobe laminate sheet. 

One more important wall-drop concept everyone should implement during construction is shared in my Walldrop guide.

I made that mistake in our first building and corrected it in our second building.

Personally I feel it’s an important point to keep in mind.

Arun

a shady laptop battery seller

by

The day before yesterday, my brother and I ordered a laptop battery for his laptop.

We ordered from a nearby local shop as no proper battery was available on the Amazon site.

Most don’t keep stock of the exact laptop battery model, so we need to book to get a product by paying in advance.

We booked by paying a full advance of ₹3,000, and the battery was delivered the next day.

Went and collected the battery.

When we returned home and tried charging it, it was not working.

When we properly checked the box and battery, we found that it was a very old and rejected battery they gave in a box.

No proper seal… they closed the battery box with brown tape instead of a company sticker.

The manually written date on the battery shows 6 months before the date.

We got suspicious, so we immediately went to the shop and enquired. The shop owner is arguing with us and telling some random story.

No issues.

Our main complaint is the battery is not charging and not working.

We showed him.

He also tried a few things and told sometimes the laptop may have issues. I will order a replacement battery tomorrow; if that also doesn’t work, you need to check your laptop for any issues, as he started telling me.

We… who had already paid in full advance, started feeling like something was wrong.

Luckily, we have another laptop (mine) battery that fits the laptop, and its laptop is charging well.

Without informing him, we took that laptop battery to show him if he said it was a laptop issue.

This time, the replacement battery came with all original seals and the latest date on the battery.

As soon as we saw it, we learned that it was going to work. When we installed it, it started working.

No more drama in the shop. Thankfully, our issue was solved easily.

We didn’t bother arguing with the shop owner about the first battery being rejected one.

This is the first time we tried buying a laptop battery. So, we learned some lessons, and we will not make the same mistake again.

Similarly, while doing your house construction the first time, home builders make many more mistakes unknowingly…

I shared all my learnings, mistakes, suggestions, etc., inside my guides.

If this interests you, then my HCG All-Access Pass is something you can learn from my mistakes.

Arun

don’t shop online till

by

After having a good tea sitting under a 2-speed Atomberg BLDC fan in my Home office, I’m writing today’s email.

Today, email about saving money on your online shopping.

Who doesn’t want to save money on online shopping? everyone does…

If you also do, then don’t buy anything online now. Wait a few more days.

Amazon India and Flipkart will start the year’s greatest sales next month. You can expect a good discount if you shop on those shopping days.

My younger brother and I waited almost a year to shop on those days to get better deals on some bigger and non-urgent items.

  • Sellers offer discounts
  • Bank offers discounts
  • Shopping sites also offer discounts

Combining all or a few of those allows you to save money by shopping online.

Make a list of items you plan to buy online and keep it somewhere. Once sales start, I will send an email so you can grab all those required items at an amazing deal.

If you are not an online shopper, I still recommend try buying at least small items to experience online shopping.

From small items to big home appliances, we order online and save.

Here are some of the product categories I recommend buying online instead of offline shops to save more if you are constructing a new home:

Arun