house construction

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.

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.

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

Had a conversation with a friend and a structural engineer

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A few days back, one of my Dad’s and brother’s friends came to our house casually.

They are also staying near our house so they visited.

While my brother and dad were speaking in the first building hall, I was writing that day’s email and joined their conversation a little later.

I learned he is now a structural engineer running his own construction business when I went.

As soon as I got to know him, I asked him some construction-related questions. I just want to get some ideas and his viewpoint.

I noted some key points in my Excel sheet for the email ideas.

He answered all my questions, and he couldn’t answer some of them. Specifically, some rules-related stuff he didn’t know.

He informed me that he had started doing construction in the past 2 years, so he had less knowledge of the subject I asked about.

No problem.

He was sure about the construction-related questions I asked for.

I observed him… the way he sees house construction is somewhat different from what I see.

He is a professional. He speaks what he is trained for…

I write and share my experience living in a constructed house and common mistakes we make while constructing… these are small things.

I never saw those types of conversations coming while I was talking to him.

Professionals treat and think professionally. Users who face issues practically speak differently.

I’m on the user end.

My content and guides are shared on my daily experience of staying and noticing issues in the house.

My ideas & guides are in no way the same as what most engineers & contractors think.

I recommend you also observe the small issues you notice everywhere and try to solve those while doing your house construction.

Most of the time, your contractors or engineers can bypass those small issues.

Those small problems are the ones which annoy you a lot when you move into your new building.

Sometimes, it even costs a lot to fix those. Sometimes, you cannot even fix them.

If you want to learn from my point of view, the All-Access Pass is where I shared all such small findings.

Arun

An idea to think about…

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The day before yesterday, I talked about a movie I watched…

Today’s email is about the same topic. Which is related to a movie but in a different way.

If you regularly read my emails, you might notice some changes we made at home, which helped us.

Recently, we disconnected the DTH connection, and now we completely rely on the Internet, YouTube, and OTT apps for entertainment in my home.

It would be a good move if you could ask me.

No more time wasted on watching useless ads and getting updated entertainment at our fingertips.

However, not all can implement this in their home because you need a good broadband (internet) connection with unlimited data and a proper network plan to enjoy 4K videos without buffering.

If you don’t have those, you cannot enjoy them properly.

If you are a light internet user, then no issues.

If you are a heavy consumer, OTT will not help with the fake unlimited data with what other major service providers are offering.

To my knowledge, Excitel is the only major internet provider offering a truly unlimited plan.

If you have Excitel near your house, upgrade your TV to 4K and the latest version to truly enjoy entertainment at your house.

I don’t tell this easily.

Regarding entertainment, you might seen a trend of having a separate home theater.

If you will build only an owner-stay house and have a budget to build one extra floor/room for the home theater, do it.

See… till now, I never saw any value in those home theater.

Now, after seeing some changes in my home after upgrading the old TV to a new 4K TV, Old DTH to OTT Apps, and a good Home theater for a better sound system. It’s truly a different entertainment.

It’s never happened before.

I used to watch 1 or 2 movies a year on my PC. Now I watch 1 movie a week with all my family members.

Oh.. you might count time waste.

Ya, that’s right. But the feeling and energy after spending time with the whole family is worth spending 3 hrs watching a movie at home.

We don’t have a dedicated home theater room in our house. We cannot do that. Because it requires some good space & a good budget.

Everything we watch and enjoy is in the Hall itself.

Suppose you are building some luxury home, duplex, or triplex. In that case, you can consider having a separate floor or room for a home theater.

Most owners will be on a tight budget during construction time; if that’s your case, just build the extra floor or room and don’t bother doing any false ceiling or home theater setup during construction.

Don’t keep windows on the home theater floor/room; it isn’t required. Having windows actually costs more than without windows.

Once you are comfortable with the budget, hire professionals who take care of all those.

A quick search for home theater services on Google Maps will get a list of popular service providers in your area.

I will share my first reaction to seeing a home theater system tomorrow.

I still laugh at how I changed my view once I experienced myself in my home.

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

Ayudha Puja collection

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Today, I saw our area waterman on the backside of my house going on his bike.

I called him to come and collect his monthly bribe…

He came and opened our sump cover to see our water level and collected ₹1000.

After collecting, he should leave. But this time, he asking ₹1,000 extra.

I was quite confused at first as to why he was asking ₹1000 extra.

When I asked why, He said, “Sir Ayudha Puja collection…”

People never stop asking for money when an opportunity arises.

After a little discussion, I paid ₹500, and he left.

Even our Bescom meter reader will come to collect the ayudha pooja fund.

When he came for this month’s meter reading, he asked about the Ayudha pooja fund. While he was leaving our house, I spoke with 4 to 6 of our tenants (college students), so he left without asking.

My guess is he will come once again.

Last year, he came and collected with us.

You will also get such extra expenses when you are constructing your house.

I shared a tip at 3.10 in my Building Contractor Guide to prevent this type of unexpected expense.

Keep those tips in mind while speaking to contractors.

This type of extra expenses added up a little bit in your construction budget. Depending on the owner, they collect such funds.

Contractors are not ready to sign the Agreement

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Today, I was chatting with one of my customers on WhatsApp. The customer questioned me…

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In my experience, no contractor signs an agreement before the work is assigned to him, do you agree?

And how can this situation be handled?

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I was a little confused about what this customer was saying. So I suggested:

First, have an oral discussion. Once You and the Contractors agree to the Contract Terms, Both sign the Written Agreement and Start the Work as I suggested.

To which the customer replied:

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They don’t sign after verbal discussion and refuse to take that work

They are okay working without written agreement

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A clear RED FLAG.

Now, I clearly understood what my customer was saying. None of the contractors are ready to sign a written agreement before starting work.

After listening, I was shocked to see the fact.

At least I never got such a contractor here. Moreover, the customer I was chatting with has done good research and is aware of a few scams and how they work.

Based on a chat discussion I had with this customer, he is quite knowledgeable.

Because of his knowledge, he is struggling to find an ideal contractor for his house construction. (When you know some facts its difficult to cheat/scam and red flag contractors also shows less interest in such projects).

Most contractors he encountered were not ready to sign the agreement before starting the work. (He knew what would happen if he started work without proper written agreement).

Now he said… “Then hunting contractors is a big pain.”

If you pick the right contractors in the beginning, the rest of the construction job becomes much easier.

Really… even if you took 2 or 3 months to find the right contractors, it’s still worth it.

Reason? You won’t face headaches, verbal fights or issues while at the time of construction. Speak to someone who has gone through it so you will understand better.

If you also come across similar situations, don’t work with contractors who are not ready to sign before starting work.

Once they start work without proper agreement, it’s really difficult to deal with when issues happen.

One my good suggestions to all first-time house construction users is to implement what I shared inside my House Construction Tracking System Guide to easily deal with contractors when any issue happens.

Arun

They are in the business to make money

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This morning, I got a WhatsApp message from some guy saying —

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Good to see u r regular updates on home construction

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Based on the construction image DP, I guess he is in the construction field. Possibly some contractor, I guess.

Whatever may be…

Today, I want to share a small tip related to contractors. This applies to all contractors.

The thing is, I recommend you to always keep in mind that they are in the business to make money.

I see some owners treat them very differently.

I saw one of my dad’s friends here. They think they are paying the contractors and must extract as much output as possible.

It doesn’t work like that.

If someone is doing work, you should remember that contractors should save money on your project.

If their labourers are not properly working in your building? are their labourers coming daily late?

If you notice such stuff, you must notify your contractor and stop all such activities.

If you think it’s the contractor’s responsibility and not yours… and he is the one who will lose money. No no…

Don’t think or treat like that.

If Contractors didn’t save much money at the end of your construction, Give some extra money depending on his nature.

Our construction was never finished within the agreed contract amount for both constructions.

Both our contractors are good. None of them asked for any extra money. We understood they didn’t save much in our contract, and we happily paid some extra at the end of construction.

Both are happy.

Even today, we sometimes call our building contractor labourers for some labour tasks. He promptly sent them.

These days, it’s very rare for owners to have such a good relationship with their contractors.

It’s because owners just think about themself.

Nothing wrong with that.

But I recommend keeping contractors’ profit also in mind while doing your construction, and they will happily assist even after your house construction work is over.

Oh.. by the way, we executed our building contracts differently. That’s why both contractor didn’t save much money.

If we simply went with what the contractors wanted in the agreement, then I’m sure both could have saved from our construction.

My dad is knowledgeable about this agreement framing and wanted to go only with what he suggested. Because of such conditions, contractors didn’t save much.

I shared all such contract framing tips inside my Building Contractor Guide.

That’s for it today,

Happy weekend,
Arun

Help Out with a Building Contract Draft

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Today, I got the below WhatsApp message from one of my customers:

Customer: Hey good morning Arun.

Customer: I bought one of your expense calculators, and it is very detailed. Thank you very much.

Customer: I am right now signing a contract with my contractor and just getting quotes.

Customer: I wanted to check if you could help out with a contract draft that I use.

No. I don’t offer 1 on 1 support.

Instead, you can go through my Building Contractor Guide, where I shared many tips for framing a good building labour contract.

I don’t have any standard contractor agreement format.

Most of the time, your building contractor won’t understand my language. And I cannot make an agreement in all the languages.

So, Instead of giving a standard contractor agreement format, what I’m doing is… I’m sharing some important points you must mention in the agreement.

By this way… No matter what the agreement, your contractor can bring. Include the points I shared in my guide inside your building contractor agreement.

By including those points, you will safeguard yourself.

Those are the points where the difference between you and the contractor usually arises.

And most first-time owners aren’t even aware of those things. This is a plus for the contractor to make more money or trouble owners (depending on the contractors) once construction starts.

Apart from framing contract tips, I also have a lot of general construction tips as well. Learn and avoid making them when you are constructing your building.

Hope it helps.

Arun