Farm house - ready made or traditional construction?

Farm Questions
1

For the house requirement in the Farm what is the best option?

Few folks said, we can go for ready made house, I enquired them and they said 2bed room + bathroom around 3.5L that is not cheap.

If we go for the traditional building materials like bricks, cement and asbestus sheet (Cement - heard there is side effect of it), is it good to go for cement bricks instead of traditional fire earthen bricks? I have noticed people going for cement bricks any specific reason?

Thanks

2

I guess cement blocks are cheaper compared to bricks.

You can think of going for exposed brick construction method where you save on cement in terms of plastering. Look up Laurie Baker construction method on google. But the main issue you could run into is technical labor.

Goodluck with the construction.

-Biju

3

Rammed earth construction is one of the ways, you may want to search for that, there are quite a lot of videos available, As Biju indicated, you may find is difficult to get labour with that skill, or atleast understand what you want them to do. I was really impressed by the way people have constructed using this method.

4

Hi All,

Never ever go with anything local. I got a farm house built and used some local stuff for looks. They came horrendously expensive. Mine is 4.5 Sqrs and costed around 2L. Here is the break up what got consumed.

  1. Gave contract for labor. 8k / sqr for Sheet construction.
  2. Solid cement block. Rs 30 / per piece inclusive of transportation. It require around 1000 of these.
  3. Charminar sheets with iron pipes to hold Rs 15 k.
  4. Cement around 50 to 60 bags at Rs 320 transport inclusive.(310 + 10 to 15)
  5. Sand and jelly etc

If you get involved, per sqr it comes out to 40 to 45k max with city type plastering inside and outside, But cement floors with red oxide borders.

Regards

Murali

5

Murali,

Could you please post some pictures!

6

Rameshwari, getting a house made, even a small one, is a tremendous undertaking. The easy way is to get a contractor to do it conventionally and pay through the nose. But if you want to get it done cheaply, using eco-friendly and local materials, you will need to work extremely hard, willing to take risks and go into uncharted territory, be prepared to acquire new skills and manage to get some of the people working for you to acquire new skills as well.

It’s not easy but if you’re willing to do all of the above, I’d suggest two methods, one was mentioned on this site recently, a simple Adobe cottage that cost less than Rs.300/sq ft. finished. I think that was a fine achievement.

A slightly more expensive but definitely more sturdier and longer lasting technique is earthbag construction. Look it up on Google, you’ll find tons of resources, pictures, videos. If you’d like to pursue this, I can mail you a popular book on this describing the method in elaborate detail.

If you utilise used windows and doors, I think both methods should cost you in the range of Rs.1.50 to 2.5 lakhs for a 500-800 sq. feet house. Of course, if you opt for a smaller house, like in the case of adobe cottage linked above, you will get it done for much less.

7

Murali, I’m not able to follow that unit. How much is that in square feet or sq yard?

8

Hi, Here in karnataka its sq ft. So mine is around 450 sft. Its 22 ft width and around 20 ft lenght. It has a hall, a room an attached bathroom and a slightly larger open kitchen cum dining hall.

But the sad thing is during the recent storm, my AC sheets have got blown off. :astonished: :astonished: So one lesson all need to learn if your farmhouse is standing in open fields. The wind picks up dangeous speeds. So have top ventilators to release the pressure inside.

I will post the pics

Regards

Murali

9

Thanks for the information guys. I wanted to construct a 22FT x 20 FT asbestos shed split into two for the care taker and myself. I got the foundation dug up using a JCB which costed be Rs.1500/- and then the rains started. The mason is asking for Rs.22,000/- for the construction work. I estimated the shed to cost Rs.75,000/- max. but is turning out to be around 1 Lakh.

The break up is:

  1. Foundation digging - 2000/-
  2. Foundation Stones - 2000/- already have a few loads.
  3. Asbestos Sheets - 15000/-
  4. Pipes - 7000/-
  5. Labor - 15000/-
  6. Doors 4 Nos - 6000/-
  7. Windows 4 Nos. - 6000/-
  8. Electrical fittings - 3000/- (2 Fans + 6 Lights)
  9. Cement Bags 35Nos - 10500/-
  10. Sand Tractor 4 Loads - 7400/-
  11. Cement Brick 1500 x 15 - 22500/-

I hope to finish this once the monsoon is over.

Srinivas

10

Asbestos is a health hazard, try going in for an alternative if budget permits

ibasecretariat.org/bc_subst_asb_ … _prods.php

regards,
brijesh

11

One of the alternatives that I am looking at is a pure cob or rammed earth cottage. Waiting for pond to be dug to get the soil

Articles on this on the auroville site. Also several architects in kerala and karnataka are familiar with earth.

Shiv

12

I am looking to get a plan for a tiled roof village house - early estimates suggest it should cost around the same as cement construction.

13

HI Chandra

Let me know about the design and what is cost per sft. Everyone i asked is quoting me 8 lakhs for 1000 sft

Shiv

14

In one of the research I found that the cement bricks comes much cheaper than soil bricks (traditional). Perhaps because the cement bricks length, width is more than traditional bricks.

15

You may want to check biome-solutions.com/

16

Thanks Srinivas for sharing this information. This would help in some planning.

I have similar plans, though Murali has been cautioning us about using local material, i would want to try, rammed earth walls and may be compress earth blocks for the shed/house. To start with i can even try constructing some wall to place the entrance gate.

Was wondering if you extend this to 6 x 9 mtrs, can you call this as agriculture produce processing unit and get subsidy for the same?. I am sure, you would be doing the produce package/processing anyways.

What is the floor you plan?. Do you plan to plaster the walls?. Other thing i noticed is both doors and windows cost the same.

17

Thanks Hedge. That was really interesting.

Thanks
Biju

18

Hi Shiv,

I didn’t get to that level of detail, but for a simple small tiled house, I was given a high level indication of a lakh. Will keep you posted as I get more information.

19

Hi All,

Some things are cheaper in Hyd than in Karnataka, But just check the prices.

Ex Cement Solid block local ones are not less that Rs 28 when I bought and now its around Rs 30 to 32. But I am sure its not Rs 15.

Sand / Jelly / Big Jelly for a tractor load is Rs 3k here in villages.

And door no way Rs 1500. I got a local one and it costed me a bomb with very very poor quality. Best is to go for cement frames (3ft X 7ft) costs around Rs 1200 for me and ready made ply board door @ Rs 2,500 and add other hardware like hinges bolt etc and labor comes to around 1k. So per door costs around Rs 4,500 to 5,000 roughly. Same is with windows.

Regards

Murali KG

20

I plan to use Steel Doors made by Shakti Met Door for my farmhouse, wherever practical. Perhaps for windows as well.

[url=http://www.shaktimetdor.com/]http://www.shaktimetdor.com/[/url]

I’m yet to check on the pricing and viability for this sort of use though, I don’t expect them to be cheap alternatives to traditional offerings, but do expect improved durability and strength, besides ease of installation. Ultimately, if the pricing is comparable to wooden frames made of Teak for all doors and a combination of teak/prefab for the shutters, then I believe it will be worth looking at.