Hi all,
i plan to build a small 20x20 cottage on my farm. It needs to be functional for the now. nothing fancy. any idea how much it could cost? the local contractor has furnished me a cost of INR 3.2 lacs. i find this too high for a small village structure without any frills! besides the previous land owner hd already built a small room + toilet.(14x14)…i just want to strengthen and extend it. would it really cost so much!
Regards
Devyani
Hi Devyani, I have just got some quotes for a 16x20 prefab and it comes to around 3 L too.
Looks like brick and mortar is the way to go.
That is too expensive. I have a quote from local contractor every 10x10 is 60K. This with not steel, no floor tiles and Doorand windows exluded because I wanted steel frames for windowes. I may go for jungle wood.
I was cinvinced because RCC with tiled flooring+ pillars will cost 1.2 lacs.
Hi Sri,
thanks for your info - what do you propose to do for flooring?
for my 20x20 i am aiming for brick structure with shahabadi tiles as flooring; cement roof for the now, doors and windows included. lets hope that i get it for 2 lacs…fingers crossed.
For floring Red oxide finishing. They mix redoxide powder with cement and make like a cream and plaster the floor. Later it will be polished with coir and wax if needed.
RCC roofing +Neem wooden windowes included for 20x20ft 2 lacs is OK.
Hi!
In our place they has a stone plinth 2.5 ft above the ground level( this is called dubbur in our place, then they have 14’ walls of brick and they dont use cement , they use red soil for the binding, then ibeams and t sections frame on the roof, this is fixed with kaddappa stone and plastered from inside and above, which gives a decent finish, and then a asbestos patra on top, for rain protection.
Sorry forgot abt the walls, they are plastered with cement on both side.
Then the flooring and tiling is as per ur choice. Typically this house will cost around 1.5 lacs for 20x20 along with every thing. the big cost saving is the cement replaced by soil.
Most times the bricks are also baked on site.
there r houses built like this that are like 50 yrs old and still going in our place.
hope this helps in some way.
This sounds great , and used to see this kind of structures in villages but these days finding the workers with that skillset is a major hurdle in most areas.
As every one is interested in taking up cement structure work.
Thanks & regards,
More discussion on below thread.
Check especially earthbag construction(I came to know latley)
farmnest.com/forum/farm-equipmen … 9/#msg6159
Hi all
Following is content of mail I received being the member of fukuoka_farming group, hope this will add to your info someway- Thanks - Anant Joglekar
The Natural Building Apprenticeship 2013
Greetings all,
The apprenticeship this year is in Ladakh.
We shall be living and working at the beautiful, solar passive SECMOL
campus located near the village of Phey in the Indus Valley.
This time, the course shall be woven from three distinct threads:
Earth Construction, Solar Passive Design & Sustainable Sanitation.
Invoking all of which, we shall create a new toilet block for the campus.
The apprenticeship shall comprise of physical work and learning
experientially which shall be supplemented by theory classes and
discussions.
We are inviting applications from individuals wishing to be a part of
this journey.
The course shall be divided into two modules of two weeks each:
Module I: 15th July - 28th July
(with a focus on Solar Passive Design & Sustainable Sanitation)
Module II: 29th July - 11th August
(with a focus on Earth Building)
We shall be limiting the number of participants to ten for each module.
Applicants able to attend both the modules shall be preferred.
Who should apply:
design
Investment:The apprenticeship fee is 8,500 Rs. per module (two weeks). This includes
the course content, a study tour, simple vegetarian food and dormitory
style accommodation. Scholarships are available for deserving candidates.
Participants shall have to travel to and from SECMOL on their own and
bear the expenses for the same.
How to apply:
Please send us a small note about yourself along with your contact
details to soar.hub@gmail.com by the 3rd of June, 2013.
Please visit www.sourabh.tk to know more. Please feel
free to mail queries if any, to the email address mentioned above.
Copyleft!
Sourabh
SukalattiPune 411051
India
Hi,
The cost will depend on few things such as:
You can ask him to give you a breakdown of cost of material and labor of various stages.
Regards,
Satish
Dont know where you come from, but even today at my place near Murbad (Maharashtra) 90% of the inside village houses are this type. Believe me i have seen houses that are 100 years old and still pretty much going. The folks say a simple practical thing. “Cement has a usefull life , red mud doesnt”, practical wisdom guess.
Hi all,.
thanks for your feedback.
I wanted to do a Bamboo, lime and mud house. but the folks in the village quoted me a bomb! maybe they thought that the city gal has potloads of money that she can offload to them 
i will develop these in course of time but for the now am getting a small brick walled and cement roofed one. Need it esp. with the monsoons now getting in gear.
Had got in touch with some architects from Auroville - but they charge sky high. How does one expect common man to adopt eco-friendly stuff if it is not economical?
Anyways, will post the pics once my humble structure is ready … cheers!
Please look at following link, where they mentioned the cost per sft for bmboo house as Rs.300 to 400.
Regards,
T Shanmughan
Here is an interesting technology. Cheaper and durable versions of prefab structures from IIT Madras researchers: