Common Mistakes

Don’t Let Misheard Prices Cost You — Our Story

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We were looking for Jali wood diwan cots. In sawmills, they were saying they don’t have jali wood.

After asking our carpenter, he suggested a shop where they use only Jali wood to make cots.

My dad wants to have cots with only jali wood because of the hardness of the wood, quality and cost.

We visited the shop once, enquired about pricing, and came back.

Today, my Dad and I went to order a bulk diwan cot for our rental property.

While negotiating the price, the seller quoted ₹3800 for the specification we requested.

We told ₹3400.

He said ok…

Because of the lessons we learned during our house construction time, we took one book to make it in writing.

We wrote 3400*16 on the book to calculate the 1st phase order cost.

The seller also saw the price as soon as we wrote the cost. And immediately informed us it was 3600rs.

No..we told ₹3400. “No sir, you told ₹3600”, the seller said.

This conversation went on for some time. It happened because of the sound seller probably couldn’t hear the price clearly and misheard what we said.

Luckily, we decided to put it in writing before placing the order. Otherwise, while doing the settlement, a problem could have been created.

That’s why I always tell you how important it is to have everything in writing or with proper proof.

When you are doing your house construction, you will be doing a lot of transactions. Having proper proof is highly recommended for all the transactions you do.

After learning some hard lessons in my first construction, we changed many things in the second construction to avoid disputes with contractors.

Luckily, my new system, whatever I adopted, helped in many cases.

I recommend every new house construction user follow what I shared inside my house construction tracking system to avoid the difference between you and contractors.

In that guide, I shared some of my case studies and how they helped me in problematic situations. So you will understand the importance of that guide.

Small changes in the system we follow can avoid many disputes.

Planning for G+3+1?

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I’m writing this email today after having tea with a little more sugar, which my mom always does anytime she prepares.

Today, the construction building, which is happening right in front of my home office, did a material shifting and pillar work with the gang team.

This construction is happening in half site. Today, whatever the pillar work they have done is for the 4th floor!

Yup! G+3+1 construction going on.

This is the only residential building with a G+4 floor in our area.

I don’t know if the owner knew some rules regarding building height.

Even if he doesn’t know now, he will surely come to know when he applies for a permanent power connection.

When files go to the BESCOM office, they see the building size and come for measurement with a big team.

Almost 5+ people came to take the measurements in our building, and that too after duty hours.

Our building is on the border to their rules, so they came and measured every inch of our building for 1 or 2 hours.

They didn’t find any deviation and left.

For the G+4 building, they surely wait for their extra paycheck by telling rules and violations.

To my knowledge, this building is only for owner stay. Due to the small size site, they are building more floors.

Using stairs all the time is not an easy task. And maintaining unused floors is also not an easy task. Just imagine maintaining G+4 floors…

I will wait and see what happens in their case.

When constructing our building, we also planned for a G+4 floor building.

Planning was also done for G+4; before starting our construction, we learned a few rules through our engineer.

After getting to know them, we immediately dropped the plan and went with G+3.

I shared more details about this in my Electrical work guide.

Make sure to know what you need to know before starting a construction work.

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

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.

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?

Get products delivered fast without any follow-up

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The last rice bag also getting over…

We needed to order a few rice bags. Because the older the rice, the better it is.

We usually buy a few rations from a nearby provision store rest of them my brother order online.

Every time I order a rice bag, I always pay first so when he delivers to our house, I don’t need to go to pay him.

I used to follow this method many times…

Whenever I pay him the full amount upfront, he used to deliver after 1 week. That too after multiple followups only he used to deliver…

I don’t have any trust issues with the shop.

But we used to waste our time following up with the shop owner to get the product we paid for.

This time, I decided to do something else.

I ordered 3 bags of rice and didn’t pay anything in advance.

To my surprise, this time, he delivered the rice bag the next day itself.

This is the first time he has delivered so fast.

Same way…

When you pay the amount in advance, be aware that sometimes, paying in advance can actually slow the product delivery.

I got stuck similarly when we ordered tiles.

I already paid 50% of the amount upfront. The seller is not ready to deliver the product.

He always told me some reasons and kept postponing the delivery date.

I used to follow up with the shop guy almost 30 to 40 times just to get the products that we paid for.

I decided I would never go back to that guy again.

More such tips from real construction experience are shared in my guides.

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

Customer Notices Water Pressure Issue

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Some time ago, I received an email from one of my customers.

I think now is the time to share that conversation with you all so you can understand what could have happened.

Here’s the conversation on email:

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Customer:

Hi Arun,

Can you suggest a brand and model for water pressure?

ME:

For what purpose?

Customer:

This is for getting water pressure at home for all floors. For getting water pressure in the bathroom and other taps

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My Rameswaram Trip Experience

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Last week I went on a Rameshwarm trip. Few back I’m back to my home. After taking enough breaks, I’m writing this email.

This trip is a pretty new experience for me.

I went on some trips… Most are day trips or local trips organised by someone who knows the place.

This time, it’s a completely different experience.

All of us are pretty new to the places we visited. We took our own vehicle driven by my brother.

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