Plinth beam work is going on but same parking mistake

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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

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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

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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

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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

Ugly electrical boxes in the beam/wall

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A few days back, all our family members attended our relatives weddings.

In one marriage, we had to stay in the rooms available in the function building.

It’s quite a good and a new marriage hall, to say.

We got 3 room keys for our family. In one room, I noticed something that happened in our first building.

That is, some unskilled electrician did the electrical work on that building, which affected the finishing look of the room.

I wish I could have taken some images of that spot.

Anyway, the same thing happened in our first building as well.

We unknowingly hired some unskilled electrician to do the electrical work. Because of this result, the same kind of issues also happened in multiple locations in our first building.

Hiring cheap or unskilled labourers always costs more than skilled labour.

The first building’s electricians used many more electrical materials, like pipes, wires, etc., than our second building’s skilled electricians.

It’s not just about the money…

Those unskilled electricians put electrical boxes in beams/walls, etc., which cannot be hidden. We have a few such spots in our first building.

I initially thought that our first building electrical contractor was the only one who was unskilled to do such electrical work.

I felt wrong after seeing the similar work in that room.

So, I just added another point inside the Electrical work guide regarding How to Pick the Right Electrical Contractor in the 1.5 section.

Go through that point, see the image, read the tip, and follow all the instructions while picking an electrical contractor for your building.

Not all contractors/labourers do the same standard work. Keep that in mind.

Choosing the right contractor is very important to get a quality output in your house construction.

Arun

A ‘wired’ network issue…

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From last month onwards, we had a strange network problem in our building (both).

Because of this problem, most of our tenants and we could not connect to our WiFi router.

Anytime we connect, it keeps on disconnecting.

We never had an issue with a wired connection. 

This only happens on our sub-router, which we placed in our tenant’s house (in Access Point mode). In the main router, we never had any such issue. So this is something within our house network and has nothing to do with the internet service provider.

Usually, any kind of network issue happens in our house, I was the one who handled it. 

For some reason, I wasn’t able to fix this problem. All tenants keep on complaining about internet issues. 

This time, I decided to try a professional network engineer to fix this problem, and he also arrived at our house and asked how we did the wiring and how we connected…

I answered.

He also observed and noticed the same and informed everything you have done right. 

He also tried to do some tests by ping and all… and also tried checking wire connections.

He also didn’t understand the problem and tried to call some of his network friends, but their suggestions didn’t help.

He suggested one more solution: changing our unmanaged switch to a managed switch. Which cost around 12K per switch and we need two such switch. 

I’m fine with that solution. But our current switch is going to waste. I still agreed to his suggestion… but he didn’t promise it will 100% fix the problem.

I don’t have any other option, so I’m okay with experimenting with his suggestion.

He left home, informing me I would come next week with a switch.

One day, I got some free time and was playing with different router settings to fix the issue.

While experimenting with the setting, I found something wrong and fixed the setting. Immediately, the WiFi connection and disconnection issue was fixed.

I double-checked whether it really fixed the problem or not. It was fixed immediately….

I called that network engineer and informed them to cancel my switch order, and I paid 1K for just coming to visit our house. 

He also agreed and cancelled my order. 

If he had bought and installed a new switch in our house, it could have cost around 30K just to check…

Thankfully, I got the solution to the problem at the right time.

Now, we need to update the same settings for all the subrouters (which are used in Access point mode). I guess almost 20 routers we need to make changes.

It almost took half a day to make these changes in all routers. 

Now, we have zero issues with our network. 

All users (almost 50+ active devices) use a single internet connection without issue. 

That’s how you should design a network setup when constructing your house. 

Consulting a professional network of engineers is a costly thing.

Most electricians don’t know how to do proper wiring…

If you need internet service in every corner of your house without speed drop, WiFi signal issue, or any router limit, read my Internet Everywhere Guide.

I shared all my practical knowledge… which I implemented in both my building and using it successfully. 

No theory. Only praticle.

Arun

1 more floor on 20 year old building, is it ok?

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Yesterday, I got the following question from one of my customers:

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Hi Arun, my house is a 20 year old constructed property. It’s a 2bhk independent house with 1200 sq. ft in ground floor. 

Do you think it wise to construct the 1st floor and terrace with a pent house now and give the ground floor for rent?

I am going through all your materials and it’s really helpful.

Regards,
Dileep

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rent not getting paid for 6 months+

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Today my mom brother came to our house. While discussing, I generally speak about business stuff more…

While speaking with them, I asked how their rental property was doing. 

They shared that our saree weaving business is down, so our tenants staying at our rental property are not paying rent.

Most of their tenants are labourers of saree weaving, and when saree is not in demand, owners also stop power looms. So, labourers don’t have work, and they don’t get paid.

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how to plan during rainy days

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Today it’s raining here…

If you are constructing your house during rain, it causes a lot of disturbance, especially during plastering time.

I remembered one of my personal incidents during rain. Due to limited knowledge, we did not plan properly during the construction of our first building. 

We were simply going with the standard construction flow.

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