7. Preparation for roof concrete

Putting wooden pieces (shuttering) to give support for roof concrete. Instead of laying wooden pieces completely, we put wooden planks like this and lay thick iron sheets. That is the new trend. Do not forget to give enough support below with supporting posts (centering). 

Laying steel bars according to specification. You can see thicker steel bars that is for beam in front hall.

Steel bars for beam

Put PVC pipes for electrical lines which is used for electrification on ceilings.

6. Wall above lintel

Constructing wall above lintel

Above lintel the wall is 3 feet (including lintel height). So total the height from floor level to roof will be 10 feet. Give spaces for air vent. Remember to allow cross vent ie; Give air holes opposite to each other. One is to get air in and other is to get air out. This also called 'crows vent' because if there is some food item inside a room, the crow will come, only if there is a window opening on the back side also. Through one window it will come in to pick food and continue flying out through the window on back side.

Give at least two vent opposite each other, even for bed rooms in my opinion. This will reduce temperature inside the rooms. 

One thing I forgot to mention, I used Violet wood for windows and doors. It is very hard and durable. I purchased everything ready made. So it does not have good finishing. For me it is ok.

5. Wall and Lintel

Construction of building wall

I used solid cement blocks. There are merits and demerits. Cement block have 6 inches width while clay bricks (ishtika) have 9 inches. I felt 6 inches is very thin for the wall. It is better to have 9 inches minimum. Wall constructed at a height of 7 feet. Since river sand is very difficult and expensive to buy I used Pobsons Msand. This type of sand is very good for concreting. But to make cement mortar, (chaanth) mix it with river sand. Msand have more big grains along with small ones. Masons are usually reluctant to touch cement with hands, as it may damage their skin. What they do is add less water to cement mortar. This is not recommendable. Tell them to use appropriate wooden pieces to touch cement instead of using fingers.

Constructing lintel

Wooden support is erected for lintel and sunshade. Sunshade is planned only above doors and windows. No need to construct sunshade all around the building. Use steel reinforcement.

Putting steel bars for lintel and sunshade near kitchen.

Pergola near front door

Instead of sunshades for front door and window I transformed it into pergola. Below is a photo of putting wooden planks for pergola design.

Concrete on pergola.

Lintel all over the wall. While concreting lintel, it is advisable to put necessary PVC pipes for electrical lines. That is done by electrician. This will reduce slightly the need of cutting walls for electrical lines. See the photo below for black PVC pipes hanging from lintel.

Sprinkle water and retain there for few days. After five days you can remove wooden support from lintel. But allow it to be there for few days more from sunshade.

4. Belt concrete

House Construction: 

Belt concrete (plinth beam) above basement

After finishing foundation and basement, we have to give a concrete belt on the top of basement. Here use steel bars. This will redistribute weight of the whole building towards all over the basement and foundation. We construct this on 1.5 feet wide basement. We have to give 9 inches width for this. I am going to use 6 inches cement block, so the width of belt is 9 inches. See the photo below to know how to put steel bars and wooden construct for filling concrete. 

See the photo below: Near kitchen side the foundation comes very close to the wall of open well. So instead of normal foundation and basement we gave concrete  structure.

By putting metal concrete all over the top of basement, the work of belt concrete is complete. For three four days do watering to cure concrete. Fill water and allow it to retain there. Then we can remove wooden planks.

No need to fill earth up to the level of belt concrete. But put some more earth and after pouring water this level become down.

Here I have one suggestion. As I said the width of basement is 18 inches. And the belt is 9 inches. Put the belt exactly on the middle of basement. Usually people build the belt putting towards outer boundary of basement. This also is ok. Here we can increase the inner area little bit. But better to do the other way for getting more strength to whole structure.

3. Basement

Kerala House Construction Tips:

Construction of basement

Above foundation we have to build the basement for the building. It is enough for a residential house construction a 1.5 feet high and 1.5 feet wide basement. Foundation have 2ft. width. So basement should come in the middle of foundation. That means on both side of basement there will be 0.25 ft. space. But normally it is a trend to avoid space on the outer side. So there will be 0.50ft. space on inner side. This way we can increase inner space of rooms. Giving spaces on both side is better in an aspect of strength for the walls of house.

Cement mortar is used to build basement. Fill gaps from both sides. After completing this, fill inner space of rooms with read earth. During all construction stages watering is a must. This will help curing of cement. Pour water on the earth filled portion also. This will help to set the earth properly. It is good if there is rain on this stage. Give a gap of one or two weeks to start next works.

Basement for house construction

earth filled up to basement level