Engineer measurement to easy to understand way

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

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

a shady laptop battery seller

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

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

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

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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how to plan during rainy days

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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went extra mile in securing materials at a best price

The guy who contacted me a few days ago on the phone who is going to start his house construction soon is smart.

Why?

He does many extra things that most homeowners don’t get such an idea for the first time.

He has done a lot of groundwork on securing important house construction items at a much cheaper price. 

When he called me, he discussed how to find such suppliers, what their minimum order requirement is, and the price he will get, etc. on the short call.

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50000 Liters Sump

Yesterday, I met with some users who came looking for rental units. We had one vacancy, so they came to our house to inquire about the vacant property.

While we casually discussed, he asked about any water issues in this area like they asked.

When discussing this water topic, one of the parents replied that he had a 50,000 Ltr sump in their building, which they use for garage purposes.

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I Miss This Thing for My Daughter

Yesterday, while I was going from my Home office (second building) to our first building on the back side door, I noticed something behind our house.

That is, neighbour kids were playing on a cloth swing in front of their house on the first floor…

All those kids were laughing too loud, and it got my attention.

Suddenly, I thought I needed to do the same in our house so our kids could play.

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