Your home is your biggest investment. So, it’s crucial that you know the construction quality of your property as early as possible. But that doesn’t mean you should rush into it blindly. If you are a home buyer and planning to invest in an under-construction project, checking and measuring the construction quality of construction should be of paramount importance. When investing in such a property, it is advisable to make a surprise visit to the construction site and check the construction quality. Though not an easy task, here are a few pointers to check the quality of construction.
Check the soil
Apartment construction is a very competitive business. However, it is important to remember that the success of your apartment depends on the quality of its foundation. When choosing an apartment, it is important to ask about the soil of the construction site and wait for the reply. The quality of the soil at a construction site can offer clues about whether it will be a good place to live. Clay-rich soil and black cotton soil are examples of some forms of soils which are not recommended for construction as they tend to expand, swell and shrink depending upon moisture or water.
Quality & the integrity of the structure design
In the real estate business, it’s important to pay attention to the quality of apartment structure design. The quality of your apartment structure design will directly affect how long that building lasts and how much it costs to maintain in the long term. Good design is also important for aesthetic and technical reasons.
Apartment design also involves aspects such as floor plans, building materials, window arrangements, amenities provided and management control measures. All these factors should work together to ensure that apartments are designed for maximum comfort and convenience for both residents and management personnel.
You can seek the assistance of an expert like an architect or a design engineer to give you an opinion on the structure design
Inspect the concrete mix
Next aspect to check while ascertaining quality of construction is concrete. Concrete is a mixture of cement, sand, water, and an aggregate (usually gravel or sand). It’s a common misconception that all you have to do is add water to enable the cement to bind with the other components. The ratio of cement to all other components in a batch determines its ultimate strength. TO maintain consistency of the proportions in gated community high rise apartment structures. Ready mix concrete is used.
Wall thickness
When you’re moving into a new apartment, it’s always a good idea to inspect the walls and see how thick they are vis-à-vis what is mentioned on the property brochure, website and other promotion material. The thickness of the drywall can give you clues about how well your new place is insulated from its neighbors, and whether or not the building is properly insulated from its environment.
The trick is to knock on the wall at various places with your knuckles, and to do this in both directions (i.e., left-to-right and right-to-left). If you don’t hear any difference between one side of the wall and the other, that’s normal. But if you hear a difference that suggests that there may be a problem with the wall construction, which could mean a lack of proper insulation.
Also try knocking on the floor above your apartment. If it sounds hollow and you can hear footsteps or other sounds coming through the ceiling, then there might be problems with insulation as well.
Safety Features
Keeping your home and family safe is more important than ever. That’s why builders are putting more safety features in new homes. Reducing the risk of fire, carbon monoxide poisoning, electrical safety and natural disasters can be as simple as using construction materials that meet certain standards and following certain construction techniques.
Fitting & fixtures
While finalizing your new apartment, you need to ensure that the quality of fitting and fixtures are of high standard, at par with your expectations and more importantly in line with what has been claimed on the builder’s website and other sales material. They should also be certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Apart from ensuring that the fittings are perfect in their places, you also have to ensure that they are installed in a proper way.
Floor Alignment
Something very easily overlooked while checking the quality of construction is the floor alignment or sloping. A simple marble test will help you get an idea. Lay a few marbles in various parts of the apartment especially the hall, bedrooms, kitchen etc., to check if the floor is level. If they roll away especially in places with no drainage then there is a sloping with faster the rolling, higher the sloping. On the contrary, in the restrooms and balconies there should be a tilt towards the drainage.
Conclusion
In a competitive real estate market builders go out of the way to make a host of promises with respect to the aspects discussed above in order to attract the customers. With it being possibly the most expensive investment in one’s lifetime, it’s advisable that the customers evaluate all the aspects in great detail to get completely satisfied, before moving into your new home. It’s always advisable to use the help of a third party professional to help you ascertain each of the aspect detailed above is in order.
With nearly 25 years of experience of developing residential and commercial spaces in Hyderabad & Bengaluru, at Nestcon, we have always ensured delivering projects of renowned quality and specifications as promised, every time. We are more than happy to assist you in verifying the quality of construction. For more details log onto nestcon.com or contact us at 9666123463.
