There is nothing as exciting as buying your first home. It is however extremely important to know how well your new home is being constructed. This is not as easy as it sounds, since spotting construction flaws is hard. Builders promise quality construction and not many of them follow through with it. The easiest approach to ensure the quality of construction is to have all the construction related amenities/specifications mentioned clearly on paper. This will pressurize the builder to follow through with the specifications you both have agreed upon.
A good use of open spaces, speaks volumes about the mindset of the builder. It means that they care about providing a wholesome living space for their customers. A greedy use of open spaces by focusing on maximizing construction area shows that the builder is more inclined to profits, than providing quality construction and ambience.
Once you have committed to buy a property, it is good measure to make a few unannounced visits to the site. This will give you a fairly good idea on the quality of construction. Here are few things you will need to check:
- Quality of external fittings: Check the quality of external fittings in all the rooms, especially the kitchen and bathrooms. Cheap quality fittings can result in breakage and leakage. A reputed builder will always go for quality fittings. If your builder is using cheap fittings, it means that they are prone to cost cutting to extent where they will compromise on providing quality materials. Ensure that your builder has used quality bathroom fittings, electrical wirings and electrical points that are certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
- Quality of plastering on the outer walls: Check the quality of plastering on the walls. An uneven wall surface on the outside entails poor quality of construction that can lead to cracks. Similarly, check the plastering inside your home.
- Wall painting and flooring: Poorly painted walls, doors or windows would mean that your builder has not used quality construction materials. It would also mean that your builder has not followed the desired construction standards. Quality wall painting will ensure long life and durability. It is also important to check the quality of flooring. Cracked or broken tiles relate to poor quality of construction.
- Get the property checked by an Independent auditor or structural engineer: It is always advisable to have your property undergo a third-party audit. If you have any doubts regarding the quality of construction, do not hesitate to call in an external structural engineer or independent auditor. A structural engineer can check the skeletal structure for faults that you cannot see.
Some reputed builders go for extra certification such as, CIDC-CQRA quality certification. This is a certification provided by the Durocrete Construction Quality Rating Agency and Construction Industry Development Council, and promoted by the Planning Commission.
So, whatever your chosen method may be, be sure to follow these points to prevent unnecessary future hardships. Quality control in construction may seem like an additional complication but as the idiom goes ‘a stitch in time saves nine’.
