Farm house - ready made or traditional construction?

Farm Questions
21

as per saverafarms, the cost for a basic farmhouse works out to around Rs. 800/- per square feet so yes 1000 sq feet could cost 8 lakhs

22

I plan to have a normal concrete flooring and plasting only to the inner walls. I doors and windows are costing the same which are made of Iron sheet.

Srinivas

23

Hi Murali,

Did you give a though to container if you want a small house? its waterproof, can be made heat proof and easy to setup. there are some companies in India too who do this. Should be affordable compared to usual way.

indiamart.com/adithya-contai … ut-us.html
promarket.in/p23597-container-li … tions.html
falconcontainers.com/portabl … oor-plans/

Hope this helps

Cheers
Aditya

24

Hi Aditya,

Buying brand new containers are expensive. More over some cuts need to be done to take in windows and doors. So no idea how much a second hand one costs. I have seen in Bangalore where Metro is being constructed. They have good such container office and house for some of their security guys. No idea about the cost.

New ones are in excess of 1 L per container.

Regards

Murali KG

25

Hi Murali,

Yes, new one are quite expensive but usually people use only old containers to make house/office. there are companies who do old container refurbishing and cut etc. also dont forget cost to transport to your farm, that would also be bit expensive but I guess looking at time and ready to use it may be worth and guess best feature would be ability to move your "house"if you feel like you wanted house at different location…

Hope it works

Cheers
Aditya

26

Hi Aditya,

Recently in Bangalore Mirror an article had come where in the guy has used containers for his house. It was expensive. You have rightly said, transporting them costs a bomb.

I wonder if a model exists that can be dismantled and rebuild at site. Weill make things pretty easier. These metro guys have all trucks, cranes etc at their disposal. Every time i see this, its at a different place.

Major hurdle you would be avoiding is the local masons etc. They are a pain.

Sintex has one, but costs a bomb.

Regards

27

On Tile roofing:

I have no first-hand experience of housing/buildings that have a traditional tile roof.

I would love to learn more about this, could anyone here comment on:

  1. The maintenance aspect and longevity?

  2. Expense, vis-a-vis concrete roofing and asbestos/corrugated powder coated sheets?

  3. Safety - is gaining entry into a tile-roof home via the roof simply a matter of dislodging a few tiles?

  4. Anything else of significance.

Thanks!

28

Not from experience, all the following is from observation, my ancestral home has tile roof.

  1. No problem in maintenance, once in a while in rainy season it may leak, just push the tile up and let the water flow thru the joints, it will settle down as the clutter is cleared.
  2. No idea
  3. Safety depends on how the supporting structures are, if you are having one more supporting line, it would be tough to gain entry. Breaking that is like breaking your windows or door.
  4. Earlier, there used to be a air layer created by having sort of false sealing with wood, that would be too expensive now, but they have come up with something of tiles itself that looks beautiful from below, in that case you will have two layers of tiles. I think that too would have air layer, helps in maintaining the temperature.
29

For a traditional tiled roof how do you prevent rats ,snakes etc from entering through the gaps between the tiles and the walls?
At my place 95 km from Mumbai ,locally dug sand (river touching property)costs 3000/- a tractor load,small crusher/jelly 4000/- a tractor load and mud 800/- a tractor load.
Got a decent local teak door for 3000/- for the caretakers hut.The Caretakers hut cost me 30000/- to build, made from mud and bricks and an asbestos roof.Cement plaster (inside and out) and cement “coba” for the floor was done later and is not included in the above mentioned cost.
Regards,
Yaj.

30

Hi airfoil,

As hegde has said, majority of the houses in malnad area where it rains like mad, are tiled houses. But mind you, these were all built long ago, atleast a generation old. But the new ones are all roofed ones. So that means roof ie RCC works out cheaper and more over guys have the mindset that like city guys they too need a modern house.

My hunt for tiles was not satisfactory, the factory seconds costs around Rs 15 per tile. Good ones at Rs 18 to 20. More than this is the wooden reepers that cost a bomb. One can go in for steel pipes also by they are not cheaper either. The convention is every 2 ft you have a vertical heavy reaper. 2inch by 4 inch. and then horizotal for every 11 inch. So that costs a bomb for wood alone.

Regards

Murali

31

For cost effective and rural housing with the locally available material, check the following link with the different types of building material (wall,roof, foundation,structure etc…) to cut down expenditure.

nird.org.in/Rural%20Technolo … shing.html

You can visit “Rural technology park” inside the NIRD campus,hyderabad and have the look and decide it or check the pdf file (rtp_mhouses.pdf) attached.

We are doing laterite stone cutting along with the farming. The laterite stone has load bearing capacity upto 3 floors without any RCC pillar. You can build RCC roof (see picture) or ferro-cement channel roof (cheaper then rcc slab) for modern house over the wall. Cement plastering is not essential. The size of the brick is 14 Inch x 7 inch x 7 inch. The cost of each brick is less then Rs.10/- at the cutting site and transport,loading and un-loading charges extra depend upon the distant. We are located at Marpally, 26 kms from sadasivapet and 13kms from NH-9 highways@budhera junction. Any custom size can be done, if the order is bulk. Please contact My partner Mr.Mohammad yusaf, 9949740581 for business enquiry.

L.R.Ramesh
rameshlr@yahoo.com
9441263306
9849004110
rtp_mhouses.pdf (287 KB)



32

Thanks Ramesh. I spoke to the site manager. It does look like a cost efective way to construct. Do you have any construction plans for a simple farmhouse with tiles?

Shiv

33

Attaching the image of a cute laterite house.

Shiv

laterite_house.JPG640×512 19.7 KB

34

NIRD claims, Ferro-cement channel is cheaper then Asbestos Cement Corrugated sheets. It has following advantage.

  1. No in-between support is needed upto (span length of) 6.5 meter.
  2. Can be made on-site itself, according to the size of the house.
  3. Process is as simple as making Well cement ring making.
  4. Saving of cost by no transport cost, no wastage of material.
  5. More stronger then any tiles roof and durable.
  6. Rain water harvesting is possible.
  7. More attractive look and modern.
  8. Lower dead load on wall.
  9. High strength to weight ratio.
  10. Can be reused.

Check this link.

hindu.com/pp/2005/10/01/stor … 460200.htm

The cement ring for Well’s circumference are made according to the diameter and this mould can be made same way.

Ferro-cement.JPG800×702 113 KB

35

Just came across a company that makes bamboo prefab buildings that are sustainable as well as highly cost effective @ Rs.500/sq.ft.

apilbambooprefab.com/bamboo_prefab.htm

apilbambooprefab.com/building_process.htm

36

Hi Shiv,

Any idea how much will that laterite house will cost??

Regards
Venkat

37

Hi Venkat

The picture of the laterite house is from NIRD in Rajendranagar. These are meant to be low cost structures made with local materials. I would suppose that the house is approx 600 sft and would cost around 1.5 lakhs.

The laterite stones are available for 9 rs each + transport, probably can shop around and get diff rates.

Shiv

38

In south Konkan, these laterite stones costs 20-25 rs each plus transport. and if they not cut properly, then more cost for shaping them. Cost at doorstep might work out to 30-40 rs each.

Laterite construction is bit cheaper as stones are big size and less cement used. But laterite stones should be plastered as bugs and iscests can stay in the crevices.

My neighbouring caretaker made about 350 sq ft house for less than Rs 40,000 with plain cement and cudpah floor, ordinary thin tree stems with no bark as roof supports, second hand mangalore tiles and over veranda coconut and straw thatch, rocks foundation and rocks for walls upto 3 or 4 ft hight, then mix of laterite stones and mud bricks and mud walls upto ceiling. He used cement grill for windows and second hand doors and windows. Bathroom (attached to house) he used cudpah stone on floor and upto 2 ft. Latrine outside the house. Whole house he plastered with mud-lime mix inside and outside. Not so beautful, but very useful and suitable and lot of place to store things in veranda area. In rainy season, goats, chicken, hay, etc stored in veranda.

39

Folks … I must warn you that is a totally radical design and is called Earth Ships that are self-sustained provided Solar panels are built into the design, can do grey water recycling from washrooms and is based on availability of cheap used tires in Bulk in close proximity to the farm.

Am attaching a recent article that it had downloaded and is one of the first of it’s kinds in India!

There are quite a few designs available on utube as well.

Personally i would like to spend as less as possible on the structure and then spend more on the gadgets like, solar cooker, gobar gas, solar lighting and heating which are all one time investments for unlimited free usage.

Cheers,
Madhukali.
Earthship.pdf (1.45 MB)

40

Another new design hot from the Press DC ;D though it being widely used in the west as filler material…

BE grads make home for tribals with used bottles

Skyrocketing real estate pr­i­ces and escalating constr­u­c­tion costs could be a dampener for any builder. But not for the two young civil en­gineers who have constr­ucted a house made of used plastic bottles for tribals at Gudalur in Nilgiris district.

Manwel village, in Gudal­ur, is the first to get a tribal house made of 4,000 mineral water bottles.

And the Ka­ttunayakars and Panniy­a­rs there hope to get many more.

Mohammed Sahad and S. Ma­nikandan, who passed out of Sathyabama College of Engineering in Chennai, had attempted this as their fi­nal-year project and it has turned out to be a success. So much so that a couple of mul­tinati­o­n­al companies have come fo­r­ward to take this as part of their corporate social re­s­ponsibility and give more tribals a roof over their head.

“Nearly 80 tonnes of plast­ic bottles are wasted in Che­n­nai without being recycl­ed. And we used a small qu­a­ntity of these to provide a roof to these underprivile­g­ed with the help of funds from NGO Noble Mission and Vision of India.

The fir­st house, which used 4,000 bo­ttles stuffed with sand and the usual concrete mixture to bind, cost us Rs 45,000. The 20X20 type, which is a 1 BHK, cost Rs 75,000 and uses nearly 7,500 bottles,’’ said Sahad.

Rice husk, cowdung and sand are used for plastering these houses as they have been doing traditionally si­n­ce time immemorial.

This natural mixture of plastering helps keep the inside of the house warm in a hilly te­r­rain, he explained. The structure will be able to wi­t­hstand torrential rains and dampness, they assured.

Stating that at least 50 families have approached them for similar houses, the engineers are planning to provi­de such shelters to tribes in Th­enkuzhi and Odakuzhi.

deccanchronicle.com/node/165524

There is also an amazing article using straw bales plastered with natural mud provide you has access to cheap straw…

/ compressed mud which is withstood the test of times and amazing we have structures built 1000’s of year b4 still standing.

BTW- Compressed MUD is the altime best privide u have cheap labor…

Will be posting the above two cheap building techniques soon.
Cheers,
Madhu.