A typical dream home construction of one's choice would require certain budget to carry out and finish the construction works.

One would require to properly estimate and workout a budget, which not only helps him/her in arranging the requisite funds at respective time schedules, but also assist the home owner to check if he/she is exceeding his/her pocket.

To plan and foresee the estimated costs, one would require to have certain amount of knowledge so as to have a basic understanding of things as well as tools to monitor the expenses involved.

Indicative Cost Components of a typical Home Construction

India's premier cement manufacturing company, ACC 's website, furnishes a very nice graphical representation of the typical breakup and contributing percentage of each of the major cost-head that is involved in incurring expenses during the construction of a home.

The graphical representation provides a broad estimate of the cost of materials, labour and other items as a percentage of the total expenditure.

Typical cost components of a home construction

The illustration lists the cost heads and respective cost components as following:

1. Design fees  -  3 to 5%
2. Contractors' payments, etc.  -  up to 12%
   
3. Earthworks (excavation, back filling, disposal of surplus soil, etc.)  - 2 to 6%
4. Cement  -  10 to 14%
5. Sand  -  3 to 5%
6. Stone aggregates (stone metal chips)  -  2 to 4%
   
7. Water  -  up to 2%
8. Rebar / Reinforcement steel  -  up to 6%
9. Masonry  -  8 to 10%
10. Flooring  -  3 to 7%
11. Shuttering (Form work)  -  2 to 4%
12. Electrical works  -  4 to 6%
13. Doors, Windows, Gates, Shutters, etc.  -  up to 10%
14. External works (boundary, drainage, landscaping, etc.)  -  8 to 10%
15. Plumbing and Sanitary works  -  up to 12%
16. Painting and finishing  -  up to 12%
    
17. Other (miscellaneous) expenses  -  up to 15%

Disclaimer: The above information is indicative based on a typical home construction primarily in reinforced cement concrete. The percentages and items will vary from case to case.

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Related earlier post:

• Importance Of Budgeting in Construction Practices
• A basic guide about what it all requires to be an entrepreneur in Construction field

Suggested stuff of interest:
             

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Today, the 5th day of June, is the World Environment day.

I've read quite a lot of articles in the news prints as well as watched many a programmes on the TV today about the topic. All of these programmes and newsprint articles essentially comprised of eco-awareness debates, news round-ups, sponsored construction project propaganda (ofcourse it means the paid commercial content on the TV by respective realtors), and what not.

While most of the printed / telecast content focused on telling what are Green Buildings, thereby stressing the plus points that we the earthlings can harness adopting such green way of living; the others focused on describing carbon credits and how irresponsible we have become by not adopting the new mantra of green living.

But, it was this small printed content in India's one of the leading media house's newspaper- Mail Today -- that stood out of all the other content.

Though I've not taken their formal permission to share this informative content on this blog submitting this in the form of a guest post, yet I do firmly believe that sharing such real-meaningful informative newsprint-content is alright in all senses since this is the right kind of information that one would need so as to understand the real meaning of GOING GREEN.

Sharing herewith the content with due credit to the people behind this content in Mail Today. This content lists out and briefly explains about the 5 common myths that we all usually associate the Green Buildings Concept with...

1. A green building is one that is surrounded by a tree cover: Not necessarily. It is about the right mix of design and construction techniques, materials and implementation which determines a green building.
   
   
2. Green housing is expensive: Actually green buildings can be cost-effective. Green buildings offer a lot of savings in the long run through energy savings. This helps the customer to repay the additional costs within three to four years. Reasonable levels of sustainable design can be incorporated into most building types at little or no additional cost
   
   
3. Golf course is a great example of a green development: On the contrary, golf course is one of the most non-green development factors. It consumes high volume of water and fertilizer
   
   
4. Green building is all about technology and material: Yes, and more. Green buildings are not only about the materials and technology used for the construction. Importance is also given on the location of the building, sunlight penetration and wind direction. Moreover, such buildings also take into account water efficiency, rainwater harvesting, etc. It’s about understanding the locality of your building
   
   
5. Green buildings do not look good and have a weird architecture: With new architectural designs, green buildings can actually be quite attractive. The application of design expression is no different from traditional architecture.

Suggested stuff of interest on Amazon.com:

             

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Now, this must be one-of-a-kind golden opportunity for the subscribers, readers and visitors of this blog.

BRICKS-n-MORTAR, your favorite civil engineering and architecture based no-nonsense weblog, has got an eminent Delhi based Civil / Structural Design group to commit they shall offer their core structural design services* to one of our chosen subscribers FOR FREE*.

Yes, you read it right... absolutely free of cost*

This offer is being presented as part of our newly launched 'blog promotion cum members reward contest' discussed a few days back at this same blog. 

The contest is being extended to the members, subscribers, readers, visitors of this blog who would like to participate in the contest to get a chance to be lucky so as to receive free structural design consultation services towards his/her home design by professional structural design team based in New Delhi, India.
(Note: * Disclaimer - BRICKS-n-MORTAR's T&C apply)

To get lucky and win this golden opportunity, all you need to do is to:

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1. PARTICIPATE in "BnM's blog promotion contest - 2010" that shall run throughout the monsoons period (Jun 01, 2010 to September 30, 2010)
   
   
2. SHOW YOUR PATRONAGE and proving to us that you are an active part of this blog by one of the following deciding methods as enlisted under serial number 3 to 5 herein below:
   
   
3. SUBMIT YOUR GUEST POSTS comprising of original write-ups of about 200-300 words and/or non-bookish type user-friendly tips-n-bits and/or any other originally written/complied stuff that could be of some use to the readers of this blog.
   
   Again we are emphasizing that the content should be original and not to be copied and submitted as such. All submissions are liable to be checked for originality, and may be rejected at the sole discretion of BRICKS-n-MORTAR 's Edesk.
   
   
   
   • Fifteen (15) Points shall be awarded to any guest post that shall be shortlisted and published on this blog.
   • Twenty (20) Points shall be awarded to the person submitting that guest post which receives five to ten (5-10) meaningful comments; while
   • Twenty-Five (25) Points shall be awarded to the person submitting that guest post which receives eleven to twenty (11-20) meaningful comments.
   • Thirty (30) points shall be awarded to the person submitting the guest post that receives either more than twenty (20) meaningful comments OR gets bookmarked fifteen (15) or more times on selected social media networks (digg, twitter, facebook, orkut, yahoo! buzz, stumbleupon, delicious, technorati, etc.).
     
     
4. REFER AS MANY FRIENDS and NETWORK CONNECTIONS to subscribe to the updates of this blog (either by Email subscription method or by RSS Feeds subscription method).
   
   
   
   • Ten (10) Points shall be awarded to the referrer per successful subscription by Email subscription method, while
     
   • Two (2) Points shall be awarded to the referrer per successful subscription by RSS Feed subscription method.
   
   Referrers must however authenticate the successful activation of Email/ RSS subscription methods of their referred contacts by sending the names and email IDs (of the person(s) they claim to have referred/added to this blog readers list) through separate emails to us
   [Emails intimating this authentication info should be sent to info(at)bricks-n-mortar(dot)com].
   
   
5. POST MEANINGFUL & CONTENT ORIENTED COMMENTS to the blog posts during the period of this contest. All the comments posted on this blog posts-- whether on newly published posts OR to old published posts-- shall be considered for calculating points adding to the cumulative score of respective entries.
   
   The only catch here is that the comments should be meaningful; more than 25-30 words in length; appropriate and relating to the content of the respective posts; and non-generic lines (like nice post/ good info/ wonderful stuff/ etc. etc.).
   
   
   
   • Two (2) Points each shall add to the cumulative score of the Sender of every qualified comment.

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So, what do you think? Worth your spending valuable time with us on this blog or not?  Participate, Be lucky and Get a chance to have your Dream Home Designed Absolutely Free. 

As mentioned above, the contest kicks start tomorrow (June 01, 2010 onwards) and shall run till September 30, 2010. For any other information, feedback, etc. please feel free to contact us.

For other information and terms & conditions, keep visiting this blog and/or reading the updates regularly.

* Disclaimer: 'BRICKS-n-MORTAR's T&C apply' suggests in generality to all the participants of this contest to be abreast of the related terms and conditions of this contest, which in general limits the said design services to be provided based upon design augmenting inputs received from an individual's end, with this blog and/or their associated design team not committing any role in getting the inputs authenticated as received from the provider's end and/or not undertaking any statutory role whatsoever with local authorities/ design approving bodies, etc.)

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Hi! This is Vivek, one of the five permanent members of BnM's Edesk as of now, writing in to you in an interactive way for the very first time. Though have wrote a number of posts on this blog otherwise, this is the first time am conversing with you in direct mode on particular instance of Shelly, who is on vacations. With no post published on the blog since last 10-12 odd days, she insisted me to write in to you asking for active contribution from your (the active readers and subscribers of this blog) end by means of knowledge-sharing contributions.

When we started this blog in April 2008, we knew little about blogging tricks and terms, so to say. While two our E-desk members and co-founders of this blog- Pankaj and Shelly- were amateur bloggers in their own personal capacity, the rest of us (counting a total of five in numbers as of now in the Edesk) had almost negligible experience as what were blogs and how blogs could be an effective tool in sharing knowledge with like minded people.

We all are amateurs still, but thanks to certain helpful blogs posting about tips and tricks of blogging, like dailyblogtips, quickonlinetips, and the likes which write stuff about do's and don'ts of the art of blogging.

Walking down the blogging lane since last almost 2 years, we now feel it would be good to ask like-minded professionals and readers to come on board as GUEST-WRITERS on our blog, and contribute to our primary objective of SHARING OF KNOWLEDGE.

In the same context, we ask fellow netizens to share their articles, short write-ups, tips 'n tricks, construction related news, views, snaps, etc. with the readers of this blog. Credentials and/or respective links shall be published alongwith for those who want link exchange by publishing their original content on our blog as Guest Writers.

Write to us at team(at)bricks-n-mortar(dot)com with your idea/ proposal/ summary of what you would like to post with us, and we shall get back to you with further details.

What more... As a special gesture, the best and most voted/commented upon guest post of the month shall receive a special mention in the blog and allied forums. Besides, the best adjudged guest post of a particular calendar quarter, viz., Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sep and Oct-Dec (decided by the BnM Edesk in a transparent way on the basis of BnM's Edesk weightage points combined with the numbers of votes and/or comments received by a particular post) shall receive a gift voucher/ gift certificate/ amount transfer equivalent to US$10 on equivalent quarterly basis by means of any mutually suitable payment network (paypal, gift mate, etc.). No other means or cash payments be however entertained in lieu of the gift vouchers.
[Note: Standard global disclaimers and creative common guidelines suiting such similar services on other blogs of repute shall primarily apply to this service of ours also.]

Hurry up, and Write in to us. We shall be waiting for your suggestions as well as contributions.

While on my way down in the hills one fine day
where not just holidays, but some work took me there
I came across a hamlet; a hamlet within the hills
that was hidden from the outside busy world & its sounds of roaring mills.

No one could guess or make out at first
that a hamlet lies there hidden under nature's veil
And that perhaps why the place is still so very peaceful
and not like a city transformed to some commercial jail.

Alas, asked one very happy peasant there
sir, what purpose brought you today here?
And I realized I had come searching for an ideal place
that could be used for building factories & manufacturing space.

Wow! That means we would get money and all we need
said the beaming farmer jumping with boundless joy & bit sense of greed
That my people won't need to work so hard from now
for they'll have plenty to rejoice even without touching the plough.

But his joy was momentary and short lived it soon fizzled out
just as he realized we were offering to buy his land sans any doubt
He hesitantly asked did we really mean to buy their land
and he couldn't face the real situation when things came to his mind.

No sir, no! please don't offer such a lucrative bet to us
for its so hard to resist looking back how difficult sometimes life is for us
But no matter what this land is the land thats brought us up
and sir please tell me how would I be able to evaluate its worth

Sir, please listen my request and leave this place
before my son comes and meet you face to face
I love him a lot but know him too well
he'll not be able to desist your offer while looking at all that promised wealth

You may give us money and you may give its material worth
but tell me will I be able to sleep elsewhere like this on this part of earth
I can't imagine life and I can't comprehend about my stand
if I'm doing something other than serving all my life caring this mother land

Ah! I came back that day empty hand
but only having decided to return
To meet the younger generation there
and tell them what they could earn

But deep in my heart I fear now
what if his son really agrees to accept the offered golden dimes
Will that peasant ever be happy again
having lost his motherland that offered him childhood lullabies & rhymes?I am still undecided and perplexed what to do
what option should I follow; shall mind or heart ultimately rule
But no clear answer comes to mind as I'm sharing my mind with you
can you, my friend, please suggest me what should I do?

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This is a contributed post by one of our long-time subscribers. For those who also wish to submit their posts, articles, etc. for sharing it with all our readers, please sent it to shelly@bricks-n-mortar.com

How did you find this post? Liked it? Felt it coming from the heart? If yes, then do 
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When decorating interiors, homeowners most often rely on their sense of sight to gauge how attractive a room is. Most, however, forget that there are four other senses that the human body uses and these are as important as sight. The best and most comprehensive room designs are those that are able to engage all five senses and create a space that's best experienced and not just seen.

Sight is where most homeowners and designers start decorating, mostly because it's the quickest and easiest way to judge how a room appears. There are two ways to visually engage a person - with colors and with shapes. While solid colors are the safer choice for decorating a room, colors that contrast with or complement each other make a room seem much more interesting. At the same time, mixing up shapes and playing with proportion can give a room personality and character. They're effective enough on their own, but the best visual effect comes from using shapes and colors in harmony.

Auditory senses should also be engaged by the ideal home. And while a stereo system or a television could provide sounds, none of those sounds say anything about a room. Compare that to, say, the tinkling of wind chimes hung from a window or the gurgling of a small fountain in a corner. Either of those two sounds help set the mood of the room and give the space its own ambiance.

Your sense of smell, which in itself closely relates to the sense of taste, is one of the most overlooked of all the senses. Believe it or not, the olfactory senses are some of the easiest to engage when it comes to decorating a room. A set of scented candles shall be enough to generate some interest with a visitor's nose. Add a pot of potpourri or a small pot of heated aromatherapy oils to enhance the experience and reinforce the ambiance that you want to achieve in the room. You could even combine sight and smell together with, say, a bowl of fresh ripe oranges as a centerpiece for the dining table.

Touch is a very strong sensory element and shouldn't be overlooked in your design. Your skin can sometimes pick up messages that can't be sent through any other sensory pathway, so your design should hold something interesting for the sense of touch as well. Mix up textures with curtains, pillows, various fabrics and the likes. Different materials often feel very different to the touch, so try to incorporate a whole range of materials when designing the room so that guests will be curious enough to explore your little world of textures.

Your floor, in particular, is a great place to add textures because it's most often left as an unbroken and smooth expanse of wood, tile or cement. A simple rug should solve that little issue by breaking up both the texture and the color, giving your floor a whole different look and shape. Whether you plan to use rich and plush rugs or rough ones with short threads, they add a whole new dimension to what would otherwise be a boring room.

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This is a guest post by Joe Griffith posted at BRICKS-n-MORTAR's web-group sometime back this month. This blog however does not claim to have checked the credentials and/or authenticity of the guest author or his/her submission & works. (Standard 'CC' instructions and global disclaimer applies). B-n-M readers may visit his/her/their website at their own will.

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Note: We do accept knowledge sharing guest articles, generic contributions and knowledge-products marketing/sharing content for this blog. Contact: team@bricks-n-mortar.com for the same.

[This post has been contributed by Ms. Annapurna Lakshmi, a dedicated reader of bricks-n-mortar.com]

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"We all have been making drawings in various drawing softwares, the AutoCAD being the most popular of them all. Day in and day out, we produce thousands of layouts, plans, sections, etc. etc. of buildings, industrial units, highways, landscapes, and what not. But it was so very fascinating to see someone taking so much pains in creating a drawing replicating one of the most respected and loved Hindu mythological God- 'Lord Ganesha'.



The drawing is so intricately done that it must have called for investment of enormous time, patience, dedication and perseverance on account of that person who has made it. Hats of to him / her!

The email, which is doing rounds over the internet, is aptly having the punch line...
"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is mere calculating"

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[Filed under "Readers'-Contributions, Engg.-Graffiti" category(ies) by Team@Bricks-n-Mortar.com]
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