₦airaland Forum

Building a home is an important investment and requires basic skill and tips that can help one to minimize cost during the construction processes

Many individual have fall victims of jumping into building their homes without proper planning simply because they thought they can do it without the support of any other professional.

The building project comprises of different professional coming together to achieve a common goal.

Before building your first home it is advisable to put into consideration the following tips.

The land you are about to build on.
site preparation for house

Base on experience many individual have fall victims of acquiring land that is not legit, only for them to discover that the land they want to build on is in dispute. This is a common mistake in Nigeria and most time it discourages people from acquiring land for building purpose.

Before you make payment for your land always ensure that the land in question is not in dispute. You can do this by involving a third person outside the agent and the land owner to investigate the legitimacy of the land.


if you are still not satisfy you can offer to pay part of the money and commence work at the site and make the remaining payment after a month if no one interfere with the work process. Avoid the mistake of preparing your floor plan when you are not really sure of the land.

The surveyor plan
house plan drawing- site plan



The next thing you need to do is to engage your surveyor to carry out site survey on the land. it is always better to use your own surveyor instead of using the land owner’s own.

Avoid using road side survey because there this tendency that your land might not be register with the appropriate authority. Take time to protect your site to avoid someone encroaching or reselling of the land.


If you are not ready yet to develop you can carry out perimeter fencing or protect the four angles with a clearly visible sign. Be sure to always check your site once every two months.

The floor plan
floor plan nigeria house



The floor plan is the number three consideration when planning your first home. Most people find it to be a waste of resources contacting an architect to design an ideal floor plan for them. They prefer to give it to an unprofessional person; sometime they do the draft them self. Remember the cost of correcting a mistake on the floor plan after the erection of building is always higher than the initial cost of plan.

Make sure you check and understand the position of your windows, doors, electronics, rooms, kitchen and others relevant features in the floor plan before the site work. Your architect will be of great help in achieving best result.


Check out the workability of the plan. I mean try to find out if the movement from one position to another will obstruct the position of another feature in the apartment.

Avoid bogus floor plan for a start, always go for floor plan that are moderate and of commercial value, since this is your first plan there is always the opportunity of building another.

Understanding the cost estimate of the building
house plan drawing

In Africa today most people carry out a building project without actually knowing the estimated cost of the project. This is a very common practice but the problem with it is that you might end up not completing the project.

It will be a wise decision if you can pay for the services of a quantity surveyor to give you an estimate of the building or better still your can contact me for that information or ask your builder or engineer to provide you information about the numbers of blocks, sand and chippings that will be required for the project.

The building process
in-situ casting work

The site work is the practical aspect of the building projects and it involves a lot of technicalities. Be sure to employ the service of an engineer or a builder depending on the complexity of the floor plan.

Avoid the use of Manson because most mason don’t really follow specify details of the floor plan. Remember to provide provision for storage hall and others working materials like water tank, generator wheel barrow, shovels and head pans.
Avoid the idea of buying materials without following the engineer’s advice, you might end up buying substandard materials or even placing them in a wrong location that may affect the actual position of the building and this will lead you to extra cost.

Others areas to consider when building your first house are:
Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components and materials but not substandard materials.
Make provision for Extra Conduit behind Walls for Future Electrical.
The height of your ceiling from ground level should be at least 9 feet.
Be flexible with your builder and take time to Build It right
Let your D.P.C level be at least two blocks high from ground level.

You will agree with me that building or developing your house plan is not a day project work, it begins with proper planning to take off.


Outside the planning stages there are other challenges that you might come across with your house plan project as you progress along the line. it is very important you know the stages associated with construction of a house plan projects. The first stage i will like to mention is the —

Site Investigation Stage :
This is the stage where you will invite the engineer or the builder to the site for the first time. it is also a period for proper investigation by your engineers. One important challenge the engineers face at this stage is that if investigation is not properly done they may end up positioning your house plan where will not be suitable for you.

Note : it will not be a bad idea if you provide adequate information that will help the engineer to give you his best. Checks for indications like direction of sun, access to road, and others important indicators that will enable you determine the right position of your house plan. The second stage is the —

Setting Out Stage :
This simply means the process where the engineer transfer the paper information of the house plan to the actual plot of land or a situation where the engineer or builder try to plot exactly all the information on your house plan on the actual size of land.

If the site investigation is properly done this process becomes very easy for the engineer because he or she must have taken note of the size of the land compare to the actual size of the building.


Apart from the fact that most young and non practical engineers and builders can not carry out sitting out activity very well. They are still faced with the problem of adjusting the house plan to fit to the actual land space especially with cases having small area of land space to work with.

One important thing you must do as a house plan owner is to try as much as possible to be present during the sitting out stage. Make sure you check for space for provision of soak-away and ensure that the provision for car park space is enough before the excavation process begins.

Advice the engineer where possible not to start the excavation work until you confirm that you have space for provision of car parks and a security outlet if need be.

Remember you are the one to stay in the apartment, so if it is wrongly position it means you have to manage it that way or start the process all over which might not be too good for you.

For the young engineers try as much as possible to make reasonable observations and calculations before the actual setting out date so that you won’t embarrass yourself in present of your clients and workers. if you need detailed explanation on how to carry out setting activities please do contact me i am always here to help.

excavation workThe Excavation Stage:
The process of excavation starts immediately the setting out process has been completed. This process involves digging of the foundation layers to the required depth which may varies depending on the nature of the house plan under consideration.

There are two stages involved in this process. The first is the excavation of foundation trench and the second is the excavation of column base for houses that are more than one storey building.


One of the challenges associated with this is payment of laborers. Care must be taken to make adequate provision for fund to be able to pay workers when they are through with excavation work. Most clients and engineers always keeps worker’s money till the next day. This is a very bad practice and highly condemn able. It can lead to destruction of site properties or serious demonstration by worker’s that can distort the flow and arrangement of work plan.

Leveling And Blinding Of Foundation Trench:
The leveling and blinding of foundation trench comes immediately the completion of excavation works. The level aspect of the job needs proper attention by the site engineer to ensure that all the point on the ground has the same level.

if this is not done properly you will have an undulating block work which can result in cracking of block walls. In areas where the slope difference is very high the engineer can use different methods when taking leveling. You can always find out what needs to be done from your engineers or feel free to contact me.

I will be glad to assist you in solving the issue where applicable. Remember during placement of concrete the mix ratio should be such that it will be good enough to withstand differential settlement in other to avoid cracking. To know more about concrete mix ratio click here.


Care should also be taken to ensure that the thickness criteria for blinding work is adhere to. Visit page to know more about different thickness for concrete blinding work.

This is not all you will need to know as a newbie in house plan development. I will be discussing the remaining stage by stage in my next article. If you have any question please feel free to drop your comment. if you have any pressing issue regarding your house plan or you want to more about practical aspect of the stages involved in the construction of house plan projects, please share your thought with us we are here to help. Have a wonderful time.

New house plan project is most time difficult for home owners to understand what it takes to start and finish the project. As a result, you find it very difficult to execute your new house project simply because you really do not know how to go about it, or the fear of getting it wrong.


If you are new in the building construction industry and you are likely to start your new home construction project. I will like you to pay attention to the listed 56 tips to note before you start your new house plan construction project.

1. Understand your budget cost
As a new bee in the building plan construction industries, you should ask yourself the following question on the budget cost. it is very necessary to have idea of what it will take to kick start the project, where you will get funds for the house project and how to repay back the funds for the house plan project.

It will also be wise for you to critically analyse every component of the budget cost, remove unnecessary addition of project activities and reduce some project activities where applicable.

Finally, remember to always work within your budget cost, avoid any construction activities that will make you work outside your budget cost.

For example, if you plan to construct a one-bedroom apartment at a cost of x naira, avoid any other construction activities in relation to the one-bedroom construction project that will lead to extra budget cost, except you are prepared for additional increase in the budget cost.

2. Involved the professionals
construction workers
If you are thinking you can manage your house plan project alone and you did not include the professionals in your budget planning cost, I am here to let you know that you have already planned to fail.

The professionals have a major role in your house construction work, it is very important you carry them along.
Look for a good architect to design a moderate and easy to build home that will be in line within your budget estimate.


Look for a competent civil/structural Engineer to carry out proper construction work activities that will conform to the design construction/architectural details and will be in line with your design budget. This will help to eliminate quacks and promote efficiency in your house plan construction project. You can find one through referrers from friends, neighbour or previous work done by the engineer.

3. Know your land before payment
For no reason, don’t pay for a land you do not understand the functionality. It is not every land you pay for that will be suitable for your house plan construction project.

Take time to investigate your land to know if it will cost you additional money before you can build on it.
Some land might be in dispute which might result in settlement before you can build on it. These might cause you additional money or you lose the land.

Some land might be in a low land area, and this might make you fill too high to get to normal ground level while others land might be in swampy area which might cause you a different design and construction approach.

You need to carefully study your land, ask relevant and important questions, use a third party to investigate if the land is free from dispute and finally get all document agreement regarding the land.


Once you are satisfied with the functionality of the land, you can proceed for payment but remember after payment quickly carry out perimeter fencing to avoid any one else encroaching your land.

4. Build Economic homes
economy homes

Every one wants to build a big home but not everyone that really need a big house, if you are new to building construction, try as much as possible to make your first house plan construction an economy home.

Consider building a house that you can later re sell or rent in the long run or try to build a house that can be easily maintained and converted to other uses when the needs arise


No matter how much you will love your house now, you will need to consider a time when you will need to upgrade to a more better once so be more economic in your house plan designs.

5. Make your home Green
Take the opportunity to upgrade any appliances you have to a higher star rating. This can include washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, taps and light globes.

Make sure you have green areas in your house design construction project and try as much as possible to plant trees where applicable.

Any step you can take to reduce your carbon footprint and your energy bills is a positive one.

6. Passive home designs
Consider building materials and other passive design elements to reduce the cost of your bills.

Ensure your main living areas are orientated north to allows the sun to naturally provide light to your home during the day. In some location the sun helps to provide heat to the house during the winter period

Try as much as you can to Install eaves, good insulation, glazed windows and other such devices that will help to contribute to a better home.

Spend time researching the latest building trends and materials. Talk to people in the real estate and home building industry, do extensive online research and ask lots of questions.

In the end, you will be grateful you spent so much time preparing to ensure your new house plan construction project really is a dream come true!

7. Have A Professional Attorney Review the Contract
Get a learned fellow to go through your contract document and interpret every section to your understanding before signing any contract document.

8. Fully go through the Complete House plan approval process.

Avoid shot cut to your building approval process, make sure you get your house plan approval document before you start construction works.

9. Make A Priority List & A Wish List

10. Ask What the Builder Includes in The Base Price

11. Ask What the Builder Charges Extra For

12. Ask What Fee the Builder Charges to Build the Home

13. Mentally Walk Through the Floor Plan (Over and Over Again)!

14. Understand the Property Boundaries

15. Protect Mature or Old Growth Trees on The Property

16. Expect to Spend More

17. Take Time to Build It Right

18. Be Flexible

19. Don’t Build the Most Expensive Home in Your Neighbourhood

20. Plan for Outdoor Living Space

21. Enhance Bedrooms with Tray or Vaulted Ceilings

22. Position the Laundry Convenient to Bedrooms

23. Create Wide Walkways & Stairways

24. Include A Walk-In Pantry

25. Allow Ample Work Spaces in The Kitchen

26. Reconsider High-Maintenance Materials (Marble, Stainless, Natural Stone)

27. Whenever Possible Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components


28. Price Compare & Purchase Fixtures Online (Lighting, Plumbing, Blinds)

29. Invest in Great Closet Storage Systems

30. Enhance Walls with Sconce Lighting

31. Add Ambiance with Dimmer Switches

32. Make Sure Porches Are 6′ Deep or More (For Furniture)

33. Include Outlets Outside & On Roof Line (For Holiday Lights)

34. Include Space for Your Hobbies (Craft Room, Extra Garage Space, Garden)

35. Don’t Skimp on The Details

36. Ceilings Should Be At Least 9 Feet High

37. Enhance the Home with Unique Trim & Mouldings

38. Consider Some Extra Conduit Behind Walls for Future Electrical

39. Plan Smart for Outlet Locations (Computer, Coffee Maker, Modem, TV, Etc)

40. Know That Adding Something Later Will Always Cost More

41. Go to Home Shows to Get Ideas & Take Pictures

42. Remember, If Designed Right, A Great Home Doesn’t Have to Be Huge

There are many approach on step by step guide to build your first storey house plan project. Over the years and even now, so many people start a house plan project without knowing the stages involved in completing a house plan building projects.


I came across a client who confidently inform me about his challenges in completing his house plan building project and as a result of that he was force to abandoned the project.

I felt very bad about it after much said and done i guided him on what he needs to do when starting his new House plan Project. Today my advice paid him off and he has successfully completed his new apartment with out much cost.

I will be introducing you to a step by step approach on how you can optimize your house plan building projects without spending too much to complete. The first i will like you to take note of is the planing stage.

house planThe Planing Stage:
At this stage, many people do not border about planing simply because of one reason or the other.

At the end they end up planing to fail. For you to properly optimize your house plan project.


You must understands what your budgets is all about. if your budget is a lump sum, i mean if you have set aside a specific amount for the project.

You might need to Schedule how the money will be spent on each phase of the project, how long the project will take to finish and what are the challenges you are likely to come across.

If you depend on salary or external source to fund your house plan project. You should also be careful and follow practical approach which i will explain later to ensure you do not spend out of budget.

if you are not conversant or too busy to do the planing yourself you can Engage Us or any practical civil engineer in house plan market to assist you for free.

Who To Engage:
The problems of who to engage really bore down to the client decision. Many clients make the mistake of engaging quacks not because they are not aware but because they feel they can easily manipulate them to achieve their objectives at a very reduce rate.

One thing is very clear you will end up spending more when you patronize quacks both in the short run and in the long run.


house design planWhen you finally make the decision to build your first storey house plan. The first thing i will advice you to do is to engage a professional architect to help you plan how every position of the building will function.

This way you will not have any reason to start making amendments during construction stages. Looking for professional architects? get one here!

The next thing …
i will like you to consider is to engage a practical civil engineer or builder during the construction stages. Make no mistake about it, engaging a quack will make you end up spending more than your proposed budget plan.

The reason is simple they have no explicit knowledge on how they can economically manage construction materials to still give you quality result.


If they try to reduced materials, they will end up creating artificial maintenance problem which will start manifesting during or after the construction stage.

That means you might end up running huge amount of money that would have being enough to engage a professional to get it right from the foundation stage. The result of poor construction work can equally leads to building collapse or large deformation of structural members.

Site Preparation Works:
This is a very sensitive stage of all, care must be taken to ensure that what needs to be done is adequately taken care of. If not you will end up repeating one thing several times and this will lead to double spending on a particular activity.

If the whole job is given as a contract due to tight schedule, the engineering firm should be able to manage the site preparation works effectively, but if you consider managing it yourself in a bid to reduce cost, make sure provision is properly made for a store house, ensure to make available facilities for water and make procurement for some site materials like wheel barrow, shovels,water tank and head pans.

Try as much as possible not to place sand, blocks or chip-pens in an area where the house plan will be positioned.

Making Provisions For Materials:
At this stage of how to build your first storey house plan. it make sense to take to take proper care at this stage if you really want to make significant reduction in cost of procurement of construction materials.

Enquirer from your engineer or builder the quantity of materials to execute the project. if you want to get accurate measurement you can seek for the services of a quantity surveyor to help you with the actual quantity of materials that will be needed for the construction of your first storey house plan.

construction materialsAlways try to purchase materials in bulk instead of buying them in smaller parts. Where applicable purchase materials directly from manufacturer or wholesales dealers instead of buying from a retail outlets. To know more about prices of different construction materials check here or click here to see price list of different building materials.


The quantity of materials supplied should always be monitored to ensure is the exact quantity of materials that is being purchased.

if you are very good with your engineer they can assist you greatly at this stage to help in reducing cost and ensuring that the right volume of material is delivered at the site.

The next thing i will like to talk about is knowing the different stages involved in house plan projects but for lack of not taking much of your time i will be discussing it in my subsequent article titled challenges and stages in house plan projects.

I hope i have being able to put smile on someone face, please i will be happy if others fellows professional can share their thought to expatiate more for others to learn. If you have any question feel free to drop your comment below, some one will always be available to help respond to your comments.

You will agree with me that building or developing your house plan is not a day project work, it begins with proper planning to take off.


Outside the planning stages there are other challenges that you might come across with your house plan project as you progress along the line. it is very important you know the stages associated with construction of a house plan projects. The first stage i will like to mention is the —

Site Investigation Stage :
This is the stage where you will invite the engineer or the builder to the site for the first time. it is also a period for proper investigation by your engineers. One important challenge the engineers face at this stage is that if investigation is not properly done they may end up positioning your house plan where will not be suitable for you.

Note : it will not be a bad idea if you provide adequate information that will help the engineer to give you his best. Checks for indications like direction of sun, access to road, and others important indicators that will enable you determine the right position of your house plan. The second stage is the —

Setting Out Stage :
This simply means the process where the engineer transfer the paper information of the house plan to the actual plot of land or a situation where the engineer or builder try to plot exactly all the information on your house plan on the actual size of land.

If the site investigation is properly done this process becomes very easy for the engineer because he or she must have taken note of the size of the land compare to the actual size of the building.


Apart from the fact that most young and non practical engineers and builders can not carry out sitting out activity very well. They are still faced with the problem of adjusting the house plan to fit to the actual land space especially with cases having small area of land space to work with.

One important thing you must do as a house plan owner is to try as much as possible to be present during the sitting out stage. Make sure you check for space for provision of soak-away and ensure that the provision for car park space is enough before the excavation process begins.

Advice the engineer where possible not to start the excavation work until you confirm that you have space for provision of car parks and a security outlet if need be.

Remember you are the one to stay in the apartment, so if it is wrongly position it means you have to manage it that way or start the process all over which might not be too good for you.

For the young engineers try as much as possible to make reasonable observations and calculations before the actual setting out date so that you won’t embarrass yourself in present of your clients and workers. if you need detailed explanation on how to carry out setting activities please do contact me i am always here to help.

excavation workThe Excavation Stage:
The process of excavation starts immediately the setting out process has been completed. This process involves digging of the foundation layers to the required depth which may varies depending on the nature of the house plan under consideration.

There are two stages involved in this process. The first is the excavation of foundation trench and the second is the excavation of column base for houses that are more than one storey building.


One of the challenges associated with this is payment of laborers. Care must be taken to make adequate provision for fund to be able to pay workers when they are through with excavation work. Most clients and engineers always keeps worker’s money till the next day. This is a very bad practice and highly condemn able. It can lead to destruction of site properties or serious demonstration by worker’s that can distort the flow and arrangement of work plan.

Leveling And Blinding Of Foundation Trench:
The leveling and blinding of foundation trench comes immediately the completion of excavation works. The level aspect of the job needs proper attention by the site engineer to ensure that all the point on the ground has the same level.

if this is not done properly you will have an undulating block work which can result in cracking of block walls. In areas where the slope difference is very high the engineer can use different methods when taking leveling. You can always find out what needs to be done from your engineers or feel free to contact me.

I will be glad to assist you in solving the issue where applicable. Remember during placement of concrete the mix ratio should be such that it will be good enough to withstand differential settlement in other to avoid cracking. To know more about concrete mix ratio click here.


Care should also be taken to ensure that the thickness criteria for blinding work is adhere to. Visit page to know more about different thickness for concrete blinding work.

This is not all you will need to know as a newbie in house plan development. I will be discussing the remaining stage by stage in my next article. If you have any question please feel free to drop your comment. if you have any pressing issue regarding your house plan or you want to more about practical aspect of the stages involved in the construction of house plan projects, please share your thought with us we are here to help. Have a wonderful time.

,

New house plan project is most time difficult for home owners to understand what it takes to start and finish the project. As a result, you find it very difficult to execute your new house project simply because you really do not know how to go about it, or the fear of getting it wrong.


If you are new in the building construction industry and you are likely to start your new home construction project. I will like you to pay attention to the listed 56 tips to note before you start your new house plan construction project.

1. Understand your budget cost
As a new bee in the building plan construction industries, you should ask yourself the following question on the budget cost. it is very necessary to have idea of what it will take to kick start the project, where you will get funds for the house project and how to repay back the funds for the house plan project.

It will also be wise for you to critically analyse every component of the budget cost, remove unnecessary addition of project activities and reduce some project activities where applicable.

Finally, remember to always work within your budget cost, avoid any construction activities that will make you work outside your budget cost.

For example, if you plan to construct a one-bedroom apartment at a cost of x naira, avoid any other construction activities in relation to the one-bedroom construction project that will lead to extra budget cost, except you are prepared for additional increase in the budget cost.

2. Involved the professionals
construction workers
If you are thinking you can manage your house plan project alone and you did not include the professionals in your budget planning cost, I am here to let you know that you have already planned to fail.

The professionals have a major role in your house construction work, it is very important you carry them along.
Look for a good architect to design a moderate and easy to build home that will be in line within your budget estimate.


Look for a competent civil/structural Engineer to carry out proper construction work activities that will conform to the design construction/architectural details and will be in line with your design budget. This will help to eliminate quacks and promote efficiency in your house plan construction project. You can find one through referrers from friends, neighbour or previous work done by the engineer.

3. Know your land before payment
For no reason, don’t pay for a land you do not understand the functionality. It is not every land you pay for that will be suitable for your house plan construction project.

Take time to investigate your land to know if it will cost you additional money before you can build on it.
Some land might be in dispute which might result in settlement before you can build on it. These might cause you additional money or you lose the land.

Some land might be in a low land area, and this might make you fill too high to get to normal ground level while others land might be in swampy area which might cause you a different design and construction approach.

You need to carefully study your land, ask relevant and important questions, use a third party to investigate if the land is free from dispute and finally get all document agreement regarding the land.


Once you are satisfied with the functionality of the land, you can proceed for payment but remember after payment quickly carry out perimeter fencing to avoid any one else encroaching your land.

4. Build Economic homes
economy homes

Every one wants to build a big home but not everyone that really need a big house, if you are new to building construction, try as much as possible to make your first house plan construction an economy home.

Consider building a house that you can later re sell or rent in the long run or try to build a house that can be easily maintained and converted to other uses when the needs arise


No matter how much you will love your house now, you will need to consider a time when you will need to upgrade to a more better once so be more economic in your house plan designs.

5. Make your home Green
Take the opportunity to upgrade any appliances you have to a higher star rating. This can include washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, taps and light globes.

Make sure you have green areas in your house design construction project and try as much as possible to plant trees where applicable.

Any step you can take to reduce your carbon footprint and your energy bills is a positive one.

6. Passive home designs
Consider building materials and other passive design elements to reduce the cost of your bills.

Ensure your main living areas are orientated north to allows the sun to naturally provide light to your home during the day. In some location the sun helps to provide heat to the house during the winter period

Try as much as you can to Install eaves, good insulation, glazed windows and other such devices that will help to contribute to a better home.

Spend time researching the latest building trends and materials. Talk to people in the real estate and home building industry, do extensive online research and ask lots of questions.

In the end, you will be grateful you spent so much time preparing to ensure your new house plan construction project really is a dream come true!

7. Have A Professional Attorney Review the Contract
Get a learned fellow to go through your contract document and interpret every section to your understanding before signing any contract document.

8. Fully go through the Complete House plan approval process.

Avoid shot cut to your building approval process, make sure you get your house plan approval document before you start construction works.

9. Make A Priority List & A Wish List

10. Ask What the Builder Includes in The Base Price

11. Ask What the Builder Charges Extra For

12. Ask What Fee the Builder Charges to Build the Home

13. Mentally Walk Through the Floor Plan (Over and Over Again)!

14. Understand the Property Boundaries

15. Protect Mature or Old Growth Trees on The Property

16. Expect to Spend More

17. Take Time to Build It Right

18. Be Flexible

19. Don’t Build the Most Expensive Home in Your Neighbourhood

20. Plan for Outdoor Living Space

21. Enhance Bedrooms with Tray or Vaulted Ceilings

22. Position the Laundry Convenient to Bedrooms

23. Create Wide Walkways & Stairways

24. Include A Walk-In Pantry

25. Allow Ample Work Spaces in The Kitchen

26. Reconsider High-Maintenance Materials (Marble, Stainless, Natural Stone)

27. Whenever Possible Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components


28. Price Compare & Purchase Fixtures Online (Lighting, Plumbing, Blinds)

29. Invest in Great Closet Storage Systems

30. Enhance Walls with Sconce Lighting

31. Add Ambiance with Dimmer Switches

32. Make Sure Porches Are 6′ Deep or More (For Furniture)

33. Include Outlets Outside & On Roof Line (For Holiday Lights)

34. Include Space for Your Hobbies (Craft Room, Extra Garage Space, Garden)

35. Don’t Skimp on The Details

36. Ceilings Should Be At Least 9 Feet High

37. Enhance the Home with Unique Trim & Mouldings

38. Consider Some Extra Conduit Behind Walls for Future Electrical

39. Plan Smart for Outlet Locations (Computer, Coffee Maker, Modem, TV, Etc)

40. Know That Adding Something Later Will Always Cost More

41. Go to Home Shows to Get Ideas & Take Pictures

42. Remember, If Designed Right, A Great Home Doesn’t Have to Be Huge

In a bid to understand how to determine concrete mix ratio in relation to the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually needed for a bag of cement.


Concrete mix ratio is widely use by civil engineers to define the relationship between cement, sands and gravels.

Over the years concrete mix ratio have being use by many civil engineering authors to mean the quantity of cement in relation to the quantity of sands and gravel that will result in maximum strength at a particular period of time usually 28 days.

Having this in mind it therefore means that care must be taking when deciding the concrete mix ratio to use at construction site and how to convert it into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels.

To understand the concept of concrete mix ratio, the concept of concrete mix design can not be under estimated. If you will like to know more about concrete mix design in details please check Nigeria manual on (Concrete Mix Design the first of it kind)

For the purpose of this article, i will be explaining some terms that will be use to help us understand better the concept of concrete mix ratio.

Concrete Mix Design
This could be explained as a step by step method of achieving the right materials needed to produced a specific strength of concrete mix. For the purpose of our discussion i am going to limit it to how you can determine concrete mix ratio at site using a specific concrete grade.

Concrete Mix Ratio
As earlier explained, it is the relationship that connects cement,water, sand and aggregated together that will result in a good concrete grade

Concrete Grade (C)
Concrete grade can be explain to be the different minimum comprehensive strength of concrete at a specific period of time usually 28 days under a quality control situation.

Characteristic strength of concrete (Fcu)
This could be explain as the comprehensive strength which the concrete must develop after 28 days of curing before failing to crushing.

Concrete Curing
methods of curing concreteOn the other hand is the process of ensuring that the concrete in question receives adequate moisture content and temperature in other to result in its maximum strength and durability after certain period of time.

Now that we have gotten clear understanding of the above terms lets begin by making reference to different grade of concrete in relation to their mix ratio and strength after specific period of time.


The BS code recommend that different concrete grade should be use for different purpose of construction work. These concrete grade will need to be converted in their mix ratio which will then be used at construction site. There are different types of concrete mix which are nominal mix and design mix. The nominal mix are always specified by volume and they are most widely used concrete mix in Nigeria today.

On the other hand the design mix is a more economical way which is done in the laboratory by using weight of different constituent materials to determine the strength or grade of concrete to be used at site.

The confusing part of the concrete mix ratio is that most young engineers, builders and masons do not know how to relate the mix ratio into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels. For the purpose of this article we will be looking at some specified grade of concrete and their mix ratio.

Note: the cement grades of 32.5 and 42.5 popularly used in Nigeria is not taking into account for this analysis.

The Grade are :
Grade C-10 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:4:6
Grade C-15 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:3:5
Grade C-20 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4
Grade C-25 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:1.5:3
Now that we know the relationship between the concrete grades and mix ratio. it simply mean that if you must produce a concrete grade of say C-20, you will need a mix ratio of 1 head pan of cement : 2 head pans of sands : 4 head pans of gravels.


This is just the simple truth, but the confusion here is that cement is always measured in bags at construction site instead of head pans. So the question here is how do we determine the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually need for a bag of cement giving the concrete grade to be C-20 and the concrete mix ratio to be 1 : 2 : 4

With reference to Building Contractor Secrete, one bag of cement should be able to fill 2 head pans full of cement. If this is correct it therefore means that for every :

1 head pans of cement we will need 2 head pans of sand and 4 head pans of gravels to produce the required concrete grade.

Mathematically;

1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels
1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels

if we add the above together we will have;

2 pans of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans gravel

but remember 2 pans of cement = 1 bag of cement

therefore;

1 bag of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans of gravel
This simply mean for every 1 bag of cement you will need 4 head pans of sand and 8 head pans of gravel to give you a concrete strength that will be equal to grade C-20 equal to 20 N/mm2

If you convert this to wheel barrow it means for every 1 bag of cement you will need 1 wheel barrow of sand and 2 wheel barrow of gravel to give the concrete grade strength of 20 N/mm2 This is the minimum standard that is suppose to be used at site during construction.

You can check the video for more explanation.


In Nigeria most construction site use below this minimum standard by using concrete mix ratio which reduce the concrete grade strength below grade C-10, for instances;

A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 10 head pan of sand and 12 head pans of gravel will give you a mix ratio of 1 : 5 : 6 which falls below concrete grade C-10


A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 8 head pans of sand and 10 head pans of gravel will result in a mix ratio of 1 : 4 : 5 which is greater than grade C-10 but less than grade C-15.

These two concrete mix describe above is what is generally use at most construction site in Nigeria. What this mean is that most construction site uses below the minimum concrete grade for reinforce concrete which is against the Nigeria design mix manual and British code of practice.

The use of concrete grade below the minimum standard should not be encourage. This could be as a result of high cost of cement or inability to deduce the right volume of materials needed to be use for a bag of cement.

Finally, proper care and steps should be taking by the Authorities in charge like COREN, NSE and others to educated the Nigerian artisan, craftsmen, masons and fresh graduate engineers of the danger of using sub standard concrete mix ratio, and educate them on how they can achieve the right concrete mix ratio for a bag of cement.

I hope this will help young engineers, builders and masons in making proper decision on how many head pans of sand and gravel that will be needed for 1 bags of cement to produce a minimum concrete grade of C-20, if you have any comment or want to improve in what i have on ground please feel free to help someone today or contact us now

New house plan project is most time difficult for home owners to understand what it takes to start and finish the project. As a result, you find it very difficult to execute your new house project simply because you really do not know how to go about it, or the fear of getting it wrong.


If you are new in the building construction industry and you are likely to start your new home construction project. I will like you to pay attention to the listed 56 tips to note before you start your new house plan construction project.

1. Understand your budget cost
As a new bee in the building plan construction industries, you should ask yourself the following question on the budget cost. it is very necessary to have idea of what it will take to kick start the project, where you will get funds for the house project and how to repay back the funds for the house plan project.

It will also be wise for you to critically analyse every component of the budget cost, remove unnecessary addition of project activities and reduce some project activities where applicable.

Finally, remember to always work within your budget cost, avoid any construction activities that will make you work outside your budget cost.

For example, if you plan to construct a one-bedroom apartment at a cost of x naira, avoid any other construction activities in relation to the one-bedroom construction project that will lead to extra budget cost, except you are prepared for additional increase in the budget cost.

2. Involved the professionals
construction workers
If you are thinking you can manage your house plan project alone and you did not include the professionals in your budget planning cost, I am here to let you know that you have already planned to fail.

The professionals have a major role in your house construction work, it is very important you carry them along.
Look for a good architect to design a moderate and easy to build home that will be in line within your budget estimate.


Look for a competent civil/structural Engineer to carry out proper construction work activities that will conform to the design construction/architectural details and will be in line with your design budget. This will help to eliminate quacks and promote efficiency in your house plan construction project. You can find one through referrers from friends, neighbour or previous work done by the engineer.

3. Know your land before payment
For no reason, don’t pay for a land you do not understand the functionality. It is not every land you pay for that will be suitable for your house plan construction project.

Take time to investigate your land to know if it will cost you additional money before you can build on it.
Some land might be in dispute which might result in settlement before you can build on it. These might cause you additional money or you lose the land.

Some land might be in a low land area, and this might make you fill too high to get to normal ground level while others land might be in swampy area which might cause you a different design and construction approach.

You need to carefully study your land, ask relevant and important questions, use a third party to investigate if the land is free from dispute and finally get all document agreement regarding the land.


Once you are satisfied with the functionality of the land, you can proceed for payment but remember after payment quickly carry out perimeter fencing to avoid any one else encroaching your land.

4. Build Economic homes
economy homes

Every one wants to build a big home but not everyone that really need a big house, if you are new to building construction, try as much as possible to make your first house plan construction an economy home.

Consider building a house that you can later re sell or rent in the long run or try to build a house that can be easily maintained and converted to other uses when the needs arise

No matter how much you will love your house now, you will need to consider a time when you will need to upgrade to a more better once so be more economic in your house plan designs.

5. Make your home Green
Take the opportunity to upgrade any appliances you have to a higher star rating. This can include washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, taps and light globes.

Make sure you have green areas in your house design construction project and try as much as possible to plant trees where applicable.


Any step you can take to reduce your carbon footprint and your energy bills is a positive one.

6. Passive home designs
Consider building materials and other passive design elements to reduce the cost of your bills.

Ensure your main living areas are orientated north to allows the sun to naturally provide light to your home during the day. In some location the sun helps to provide heat to the house during the winter period

Try as much as you can to Install eaves, good insulation, glazed windows and other such devices that will help to contribute to a better home.

Spend time researching the latest building trends and materials. Talk to people in the real estate and home building industry, do extensive online research and ask lots of questions.

In the end, you will be grateful you spent so much time preparing to ensure your new house plan construction project really is a dream come true!

7. Have A Professional Attorney Review the Contract
Get a learned fellow to go through your contract document and interpret every section to your understanding before signing any contract document.

8. Fully go through the Complete House plan approval process.
Avoid shot cut to your building approval process, make sure you get your house plan approval document before you start construction works.

9. Make A Priority List & A Wish List

10. Ask What the Builder Includes in The Base Price

11. Ask What the Builder Charges Extra For

12. Ask What Fee the Builder Charges to Build the Home

13. Mentally Walk Through the Floor Plan (Over and Over Again)!

14. Understand the Property Boundaries

15. Protect Mature or Old Growth Trees on The Property

16. Expect to Spend More

17. Take Time to Build It Right

18. Be Flexible

19. Don’t Build the Most Expensive Home in Your Neighbourhood

20. Plan for Outdoor Living Space

21. Enhance Bedrooms with Tray or Vaulted Ceilings

22. Position the Laundry Convenient to Bedrooms

23. Create Wide Walkways & Stairways

24. Include A Walk-In Pantry

25. Allow Ample Work Spaces in The Kitchen

26. Reconsider High-Maintenance Materials (Marble, Stainless, Natural Stone)

27. Whenever Possible Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components


28. Price Compare & Purchase Fixtures Online (Lighting, Plumbing, Blinds)

29. Invest in Great Closet Storage Systems

30. Enhance Walls with Sconce Lighting

31. Add Ambiance with Dimmer Switches

32. Make Sure Porches Are 6′ Deep or More (For Furniture)

33. Include Outlets Outside & On Roof Line (For Holiday Lights)

34. Include Space for Your Hobbies (Craft Room, Extra Garage Space, Garden)

35. Don’t Skimp on The Details

36. Ceilings Should Be At Least 9 Feet High

37. Enhance the Home with Unique Trim & Mouldings

38. Consider Some Extra Conduit Behind Walls for Future Electrical

39. Plan Smart for Outlet Locations (Computer, Coffee Maker, Modem, TV, Etc)

40. Know That Adding Something Later Will Always Cost More

41. Go to Home Shows to Get Ideas & Take Pictures

42. Remember, If Designed Right, A Great Home Doesn’t Have to Be Huge

New house plan project is most time difficult for home owners to understand what it takes to start and finish the project. As a result, you find it very difficult to execute your new house project simply because you really do not know how to go about it, or the fear of getting it wrong.


If you are new in the building construction industry and you are likely to start your new home construction project. I will like you to pay attention to the listed 56 tips to note before you start your new house plan construction project.

1. Understand your budget cost
As a new bee in the building plan construction industries, you should ask yourself the following question on the budget cost. it is very necessary to have idea of what it will take to kick start the project, where you will get funds for the house project and how to repay back the funds for the house plan project.

It will also be wise for you to critically analyse every component of the budget cost, remove unnecessary addition of project activities and reduce some project activities where applicable.

Finally, remember to always work within your budget cost, avoid any construction activities that will make you work outside your budget cost.

For example, if you plan to construct a one-bedroom apartment at a cost of x naira, avoid any other construction activities in relation to the one-bedroom construction project that will lead to extra budget cost, except you are prepared for additional increase in the budget cost.

2. Involved the professionals
construction workers
If you are thinking you can manage your house plan project alone and you did not include the professionals in your budget planning cost, I am here to let you know that you have already planned to fail.

The professionals have a major role in your house construction work, it is very important you carry them along.
Look for a good architect to design a moderate and easy to build home that will be in line within your budget estimate.


Look for a competent civil/structural Engineer to carry out proper construction work activities that will conform to the design construction/architectural details and will be in line with your design budget. This will help to eliminate quacks and promote efficiency in your house plan construction project. You can find one through referrers from friends, neighbour or previous work done by the engineer.

3. Know your land before payment
For no reason, don’t pay for a land you do not understand the functionality. It is not every land you pay for that will be suitable for your house plan construction project.

Take time to investigate your land to know if it will cost you additional money before you can build on it.
Some land might be in dispute which might result in settlement before you can build on it. These might cause you additional money or you lose the land.

Some land might be in a low land area, and this might make you fill too high to get to normal ground level while others land might be in swampy area which might cause you a different design and construction approach.

You need to carefully study your land, ask relevant and important questions, use a third party to investigate if the land is free from dispute and finally get all document agreement regarding the land.


Once you are satisfied with the functionality of the land, you can proceed for payment but remember after payment quickly carry out perimeter fencing to avoid any one else encroaching your land.

4. Build Economic homes
economy homes

Every one wants to build a big home but not everyone that really need a big house, if you are new to building construction, try as much as possible to make your first house plan construction an economy home.

Consider building a house that you can later re sell or rent in the long run or try to build a house that can be easily maintained and converted to other uses when the needs arise


No matter how much you will love your house now, you will need to consider a time when you will need to upgrade to a more better once so be more economic in your house plan designs.

5. Make your home Green
Take the opportunity to upgrade any appliances you have to a higher star rating. This can include washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, taps and light globes.

Make sure you have green areas in your house design construction project and try as much as possible to plant trees where applicable.

Any step you can take to reduce your carbon footprint and your energy bills is a positive one.

6. Passive home designs
Consider building materials and other passive design elements to reduce the cost of your bills.

Ensure your main living areas are orientated north to allows the sun to naturally provide light to your home during the day. In some location the sun helps to provide heat to the house during the winter period

Try as much as you can to Install eaves, good insulation, glazed windows and other such devices that will help to contribute to a better home.

Spend time researching the latest building trends and materials. Talk to people in the real estate and home building industry, do extensive online research and ask lots of questions.

In the end, you will be grateful you spent so much time preparing to ensure your new house plan construction project really is a dream come true!

7. Have A Professional Attorney Review the Contract
Get a learned fellow to go through your contract document and interpret every section to your understanding before signing any contract document.

8. Fully go through the Complete House plan approval process.

Avoid shot cut to your building approval process, make sure you get your house plan approval document before you start construction works.

9. Make A Priority List & A Wish List

10. Ask What the Builder Includes in The Base Price

11. Ask What the Builder Charges Extra For

12. Ask What Fee the Builder Charges to Build the Home

13. Mentally Walk Through the Floor Plan (Over and Over Again)!

14. Understand the Property Boundaries

15. Protect Mature or Old Growth Trees on The Property

16. Expect to Spend More

17. Take Time to Build It Right

18. Be Flexible

19. Don’t Build the Most Expensive Home in Your Neighbourhood

20. Plan for Outdoor Living Space

21. Enhance Bedrooms with Tray or Vaulted Ceilings

22. Position the Laundry Convenient to Bedrooms

23. Create Wide Walkways & Stairways

24. Include A Walk-In Pantry

25. Allow Ample Work Spaces in The Kitchen

26. Reconsider High-Maintenance Materials (Marble, Stainless, Natural Stone)

27. Whenever Possible Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components


28. Price Compare & Purchase Fixtures Online (Lighting, Plumbing, Blinds)

29. Invest in Great Closet Storage Systems

30. Enhance Walls with Sconce Lighting

31. Add Ambiance with Dimmer Switches

32. Make Sure Porches Are 6′ Deep or More (For Furniture)

33. Include Outlets Outside & On Roof Line (For Holiday Lights)

34. Include Space for Your Hobbies (Craft Room, Extra Garage Space, Garden)

35. Don’t Skimp on The Details

36. Ceilings Should Be At Least 9 Feet High

37. Enhance the Home with Unique Trim & Mouldings

38. Consider Some Extra Conduit Behind Walls for Future Electrical

39. Plan Smart for Outlet Locations (Computer, Coffee Maker, Modem, TV, Etc)

40. Know That Adding Something Later Will Always Cost More

41. Go to Home Shows to Get Ideas & Take Pictures

42. Remember, If Designed Right, A Great Home Doesn’t Have to Be Huge

According to the Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly matters (Senate), Ita Enang, the new amendment has broadened the powers of COREN with far-reaching powers of prosecution of infractions, regulating industrial training of Engineers, capacity building of local content in Nigeria engineering industry.

Specifically, he said, the new law grants COREN powers of: “prosecuting any person or firm that contravenes the provisions of this Act in a court of competent jurisdiction; .regulating industrial training schemes in engineering practitioners and students;

(I)..ensuring capacity building and monitoring local content development in the Nigerian engineering industry through – mandatory attachment of Nigerians to expatriate engineers on major projects to understudy them from inception

“(ii) ensuring that all foreign engineering firms establish their design offices in Nigeria. (iii) granting of compulsory attestation to all expatriate quota for engineering practitioners, including turnkey project, that there are no qualified and competent Nigerians for the job in question at the time of application and that granting of the expatriate quota shall be contingent on training of such number of persons as may be required for the execution of the job, and; To complete the story visit Story page

In a bid to understand how to determine concrete mix ratio in relation to the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually needed for a bag of cement.


Concrete mix ratio is widely use by civil engineers to define the relationship between cement, sands and gravels.

Over the years concrete mix ratio have being use by many civil engineering authors to mean the quantity of cement in relation to the quantity of sands and gravel that will result in maximum strength at a particular period of time usually 28 days.

Having this in mind it therefore means that care must be taking when deciding the concrete mix ratio to use at construction site and how to convert it into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels.

To understand the concept of concrete mix ratio, the concept of concrete mix design can not be under estimated. If you will like to know more about concrete mix design in details please check Nigeria manual on (Concrete Mix Design the first of it kind)

For the purpose of this article, i will be explaining some terms that will be use to help us understand better the concept of concrete mix ratio.

Concrete Mix Design
This could be explained as a step by step method of achieving the right materials needed to produced a specific strength of concrete mix. For the purpose of our discussion i am going to limit it to how you can determine concrete mix ratio at site using a specific concrete grade.

Concrete Mix Ratio
As earlier explained, it is the relationship that connects cement,water, sand and aggregated together that will result in a good concrete grade

Concrete Grade (C)
Concrete grade can be explain to be the different minimum comprehensive strength of concrete at a specific period of time usually 28 days under a quality control situation.

Characteristic strength of concrete (Fcu)
This could be explain as the comprehensive strength which the concrete must develop after 28 days of curing before failing to crushing.

Concrete Curing
methods of curing concreteOn the other hand is the process of ensuring that the concrete in question receives adequate moisture content and temperature in other to result in its maximum strength and durability after certain period of time.

Now that we have gotten clear understanding of the above terms lets begin by making reference to different grade of concrete in relation to their mix ratio and strength after specific period of time.


The BS code recommend that different concrete grade should be use for different purpose of construction work. These concrete grade will need to be converted in their mix ratio which will then be used at construction site. There are different types of concrete mix which are nominal mix and design mix. The nominal mix are always specified by volume and they are most widely used concrete mix in Nigeria today.

On the other hand the design mix is a more economical way which is done in the laboratory by using weight of different constituent materials to determine the strength or grade of concrete to be used at site.

The confusing part of the concrete mix ratio is that most young engineers, builders and masons do not know how to relate the mix ratio into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels. For the purpose of this article we will be looking at some specified grade of concrete and their mix ratio.

Note: the cement grades of 32.5 and 42.5 popularly used in Nigeria is not taking into account for this analysis.

The Grade are :
Grade C-10 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:4:6
Grade C-15 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:3:5
Grade C-20 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4
Grade C-25 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:1.5:3
Now that we know the relationship between the concrete grades and mix ratio. it simply mean that if you must produce a concrete grade of say C-20, you will need a mix ratio of 1 head pan of cement : 2 head pans of sands : 4 head pans of gravels.


This is just the simple truth, but the confusion here is that cement is always measured in bags at construction site instead of head pans. So the question here is how do we determine the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually need for a bag of cement giving the concrete grade to be C-20 and the concrete mix ratio to be 1 : 2 : 4

With reference to Building Contractor Secrete, one bag of cement should be able to fill 2 head pans full of cement. If this is correct it therefore means that for every :

1 head pans of cement we will need 2 head pans of sand and 4 head pans of gravels to produce the required concrete grade.

Mathematically;

1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels
1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels

if we add the above together we will have;

2 pans of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans gravel

but remember 2 pans of cement = 1 bag of cement

therefore;

1 bag of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans of gravel
This simply mean for every 1 bag of cement you will need 4 head pans of sand and 8 head pans of gravel to give you a concrete strength that will be equal to grade C-20 equal to 20 N/mm2

If you convert this to wheel barrow it means for every 1 bag of cement you will need 1 wheel barrow of sand and 2 wheel barrow of gravel to give the concrete grade strength of 20 N/mm2 This is the minimum standard that is suppose to be used at site during construction.

You can check the video for more explanation.


In Nigeria most construction site use below this minimum standard by using concrete mix ratio which reduce the concrete grade strength below grade C-10, for instances;

A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 10 head pan of sand and 12 head pans of gravel will give you a mix ratio of 1 : 5 : 6 which falls below concrete grade C-10


A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 8 head pans of sand and 10 head pans of gravel will result in a mix ratio of 1 : 4 : 5 which is greater than grade C-10 but less than grade C-15.

These two concrete mix describe above is what is generally use at most construction site in Nigeria. What this mean is that most construction site uses below the minimum concrete grade for reinforce concrete which is against the Nigeria design mix manual and British code of practice.

The use of concrete grade below the minimum standard should not be encourage. This could be as a result of high cost of cement or inability to deduce the right volume of materials needed to be use for a bag of cement.

Finally, proper care and steps should be taking by the Authorities in charge like COREN, NSE and others to educated the Nigerian artisan, craftsmen, masons and fresh graduate engineers of the danger of using sub standard concrete mix ratio, and educate them on how they can achieve the right concrete mix ratio for a bag of cement.

I hope this will help young engineers, builders and masons in making proper decision on how many head pans of sand and gravel that will be needed for 1 bags of cement to produce a minimum concrete grade of C-20, if you have any comment or want to improve in what i have on ground please feel free to help someone today

There are many approach on step by step guide to build your first storey house plan project. Over the years and even now, so many people start a house plan project without knowing the stages involved in completing a house plan building projects.


I came across a client who confidently inform me about his challenges in completing his house plan building project and as a result of that he was force to abandoned the project.

I felt very bad about it after much said and done i guided him on what he needs to do when starting his new House plan Project. Today my advice paid him off and he has successfully completed his new apartment with out much cost.

I will be introducing you to a step by step approach on how you can optimize your house plan building projects without spending too much to complete. The first i will like you to take note of is the planing stage.

house planThe Planing Stage:
At this stage, many people do not border about planing simply because of one reason or the other.

At the end they end up planing to fail. For you to properly optimize your house plan project.


You must understands what your budgets is all about. if your budget is a lump sum, i mean if you have set aside a specific amount for the project.

You might need to Schedule how the money will be spent on each phase of the project, how long the project will take to finish and what are the challenges you are likely to come across.

If you depend on salary or external source to fund your house plan project. You should also be careful and follow practical approach which i will explain later to ensure you do not spend out of budget.

if you are not conversant or too busy to do the planing yourself you can Engage Us or any practical civil engineer in house plan market to assist you for free.

Who To Engage:
The problems of who to engage really bore down to the client decision. Many clients make the mistake of engaging quacks not because they are not aware but because they feel they can easily manipulate them to achieve their objectives at a very reduce rate.

One thing is very clear you will end up spending more when you patronize quacks both in the short run and in the long run.


house design planWhen you finally make the decision to build your first storey house plan. The first thing i will advice you to do is to engage a professional architect to help you plan how every position of the building will function.

This way you will not have any reason to start making amendments during construction stages. Looking for professional architects? get one here!

The next thing …
i will like you to consider is to engage a practical civil engineer or builder during the construction stages. Make no mistake about it, engaging a quack will make you end up spending more than your proposed budget plan.

The reason is simple they have no explicit knowledge on how they can economically manage construction materials to still give you quality result.

If they try to reduced materials, they will end up creating artificial maintenance problem which will start manifesting during or after the construction stage.

That means you might end up running huge amount of money that would have being enough to engage a professional to get it right from the foundation stage. The result of poor construction work can equally leads to building collapse or large deformation of structural members.

Site Preparation Works:
This is a very sensitive stage of all, care must be taken to ensure that what needs to be done is adequately taken care of. If not you will end up repeating one thing several times and this will lead to double spending on a particular activity.

If the whole job is given as a contract due to tight schedule, the engineering firm should be able to manage the site preparation works effectively, but if you consider managing it yourself in a bid to reduce cost, make sure provision is properly made for a store house, ensure to make available facilities for water and make procurement for some site materials like wheel barrow, shovels,water tank and head pans.


Try as much as possible not to place sand, blocks or chip-pens in an area where the house plan will be positioned.

Making Provisions For Materials:
At this stage of how to build your first storey house plan. it make sense to take to take proper care at this stage if you really want to make significant reduction in cost of procurement of construction materials.

Enquirer from your engineer or builder the quantity of materials to execute the project. if you want to get accurate measurement you can seek for the services of a quantity surveyor to help you with the actual quantity of materials that will be needed for the construction of your first storey house plan.

construction materialsAlways try to purchase materials in bulk instead of buying them in smaller parts. Where applicable purchase materials directly from manufacturer or wholesales dealers instead of buying from a retail outlets. To know more about prices of different construction materials check here or click here to see price list of different building materials.

The quantity of materials supplied should always be monitored to ensure is the exact quantity of materials that is being purchased.

if you are very good with your engineer they can assist you greatly at this stage to help in reducing cost and ensuring that the right volume of material is delivered at the site.

The next thing i will like to talk about is knowing the different stages involved in house plan projects but for lack of not taking much of your time i will be discussing it in my subsequent article titled challenges and stages in house plan projects.


I hope i have being able to put smile on someone face, please i will be happy if others fellows professional can share their thought to expatiate more for others to learn. If you have any question feel free to drop your comment below, some one will always be available to help respond to your comments.

You will agree with me that building or developing your house plan is not a day project work, it begins with proper planning to take off.


Outside the planning stages there are other challenges that you might come across with your house plan project as you progress along the line. it is very important you know the stages associated with construction of a house plan projects. The first stage i will like to mention is the —

Site Investigation Stage :
This is the stage where you will invite the engineer or the builder to the site for the first time. it is also a period for proper investigation by your engineers. One important challenge the engineers face at this stage is that if investigation is not properly done they may end up positioning your house plan where will not be suitable for you.

Note : it will not be a bad idea if you provide adequate information that will help the engineer to give you his best. Checks for indications like direction of sun, access to road, and others important indicators that will enable you determine the right position of your house plan. The second stage is the —

Setting Out Stage :
This simply means the process where the engineer transfer the paper information of the house plan to the actual plot of land or a situation where the engineer or builder try to plot exactly all the information on your house plan on the actual size of land.

If the site investigation is properly done this process becomes very easy for the engineer because he or she must have taken note of the size of the land compare to the actual size of the building.


Apart from the fact that most young and non practical engineers and builders can not carry out sitting out activity very well. They are still faced with the problem of adjusting the house plan to fit to the actual land space especially with cases having small area of land space to work with.

One important thing you must do as a house plan owner is to try as much as possible to be present during the sitting out stage. Make sure you check for space for provision of soak-away and ensure that the provision for car park space is enough before the excavation process begins.

Advice the engineer where possible not to start the excavation work until you confirm that you have space for provision of car parks and a security outlet if need be.

Remember you are the one to stay in the apartment, so if it is wrongly position it means you have to manage it that way or start the process all over which might not be too good for you.

For the young engineers try as much as possible to make reasonable observations and calculations before the actual setting out date so that you won’t embarrass yourself in present of your clients and workers. if you need detailed explanation on how to carry out setting activities please do contact me i am always here to help.

excavation workThe Excavation Stage:
The process of excavation starts immediately the setting out process has been completed. This process involves digging of the foundation layers to the required depth which may varies depending on the nature of the house plan under consideration.

There are two stages involved in this process. The first is the excavation of foundation trench and the second is the excavation of column base for houses that are more than one storey building.


One of the challenges associated with this is payment of laborers. Care must be taken to make adequate provision for fund to be able to pay workers when they are through with excavation work. Most clients and engineers always keeps worker’s money till the next day. This is a very bad practice and highly condemn able. It can lead to destruction of site properties or serious demonstration by worker’s that can distort the flow and arrangement of work plan.

Leveling And Blinding Of Foundation Trench:
The leveling and blinding of foundation trench comes immediately the completion of excavation works. The level aspect of the job needs proper attention by the site engineer to ensure that all the point on the ground has the same level.

if this is not done properly you will have an undulating block work which can result in cracking of block walls. In areas where the slope difference is very high the engineer can use different methods when taking leveling. You can always find out what needs to be done from your engineers or feel free to contact me.

I will be glad to assist you in solving the issue where applicable. Remember during placement of concrete the mix ratio should be such that it will be good enough to withstand differential settlement in other to avoid cracking. To know more about concrete mix ratio click here.

Care should also be taken to ensure that the thickness criteria for blinding work is adhere to. Visit page to know more about different thickness for concrete blinding work.

This is not all you will need to know as a newbie in house plan development. I will be discussing the remaining stage by stage in my next article. If you have any question please feel free to drop your comment. if you have any pressing issue regarding your house plan or you want to more about practical aspect of the stages involved in the construction of house plan projects, please share your thought with us we are here to help. Have a wonderful time.

New house plan project is most time difficult for home owners to understand what it takes to start and finish the project. As a result, you find it very difficult to execute your new house project simply because you really do not know how to go about it, or the fear of getting it wrong.


If you are new in the building construction industry and you are likely to start your new home construction project. I will like you to pay attention to the listed 56 tips to note before you start your new house plan construction project.

1. Understand your budget cost
As a new bee in the building plan construction industries, you should ask yourself the following question on the budget cost. it is very necessary to have idea of what it will take to kick start the project, where you will get funds for the house project and how to repay back the funds for the house plan project.

It will also be wise for you to critically analyse every component of the budget cost, remove unnecessary addition of project activities and reduce some project activities where applicable.

Finally, remember to always work within your budget cost, avoid any construction activities that will make you work outside your budget cost.

For example, if you plan to construct a one-bedroom apartment at a cost of x naira, avoid any other construction activities in relation to the one-bedroom construction project that will lead to extra budget cost, except you are prepared for additional increase in the budget cost.

2. Involved the professionals
construction workers
If you are thinking you can manage your house plan project alone and you did not include the professionals in your budget planning cost, I am here to let you know that you have already planned to fail.

The professionals have a major role in your house construction work, it is very important you carry them along.
Look for a good architect to design a moderate and easy to build home that will be in line within your budget estimate.


Look for a competent civil/structural Engineer to carry out proper construction work activities that will conform to the design construction/architectural details and will be in line with your design budget. This will help to eliminate quacks and promote efficiency in your house plan construction project. You can find one through referrers from friends, neighbour or previous work done by the engineer.

3. Know your land before payment
For no reason, don’t pay for a land you do not understand the functionality. It is not every land you pay for that will be suitable for your house plan construction project.

Take time to investigate your land to know if it will cost you additional money before you can build on it.
Some land might be in dispute which might result in settlement before you can build on it. These might cause you additional money or you lose the land.

Some land might be in a low land area, and this might make you fill too high to get to normal ground level while others land might be in swampy area which might cause you a different design and construction approach.

You need to carefully study your land, ask relevant and important questions, use a third party to investigate if the land is free from dispute and finally get all document agreement regarding the land.


Once you are satisfied with the functionality of the land, you can proceed for payment but remember after payment quickly carry out perimeter fencing to avoid any one else encroaching your land.

4. Build Economic homes
economy homes

Every one wants to build a big home but not everyone that really need a big house, if you are new to building construction, try as much as possible to make your first house plan construction an economy home.

Consider building a house that you can later re sell or rent in the long run or try to build a house that can be easily maintained and converted to other uses when the needs arise

No matter how much you will love your house now, you will need to consider a time when you will need to upgrade to a more better once so be more economic in your house plan designs.

5. Make your home Green
Take the opportunity to upgrade any appliances you have to a higher star rating. This can include washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, taps and light globes.

Make sure you have green areas in your house design construction project and try as much as possible to plant trees where applicable.


Any step you can take to reduce your carbon footprint and your energy bills is a positive one.

6. Passive home designs
Consider building materials and other passive design elements to reduce the cost of your bills.

Ensure your main living areas are orientated north to allows the sun to naturally provide light to your home during the day. In some location the sun helps to provide heat to the house during the winter period

Try as much as you can to Install eaves, good insulation, glazed windows and other such devices that will help to contribute to a better home.

Spend time researching the latest building trends and materials. Talk to people in the real estate and home building industry, do extensive online research and ask lots of questions.

In the end, you will be grateful you spent so much time preparing to ensure your new house plan construction project really is a dream come true!

7. Have A Professional Attorney Review the Contract
Get a learned fellow to go through your contract document and interpret every section to your understanding before signing any contract document.

8. Fully go through the Complete House plan approval process.
Avoid shot cut to your building approval process, make sure you get your house plan approval document before you start construction works.

9. Make A Priority List & A Wish List

10. Ask What the Builder Includes in The Base Price

11. Ask What the Builder Charges Extra For

12. Ask What Fee the Builder Charges to Build the Home

13. Mentally Walk Through the Floor Plan (Over and Over Again)!

14. Understand the Property Boundaries

15. Protect Mature or Old Growth Trees on The Property

16. Expect to Spend More

17. Take Time to Build It Right

18. Be Flexible

19. Don’t Build the Most Expensive Home in Your Neighbourhood

20. Plan for Outdoor Living Space

21. Enhance Bedrooms with Tray or Vaulted Ceilings

22. Position the Laundry Convenient to Bedrooms

23. Create Wide Walkways & Stairways

24. Include A Walk-In Pantry

25. Allow Ample Work Spaces in The Kitchen

26. Reconsider High-Maintenance Materials (Marble, Stainless, Natural Stone)

27. Whenever Possible Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components


28. Price Compare & Purchase Fixtures Online (Lighting, Plumbing, Blinds)

29. Invest in Great Closet Storage Systems

30. Enhance Walls with Sconce Lighting

31. Add Ambiance with Dimmer Switches

32. Make Sure Porches Are 6′ Deep or More (For Furniture)

33. Include Outlets Outside & On Roof Line (For Holiday Lights)

34. Include Space for Your Hobbies (Craft Room, Extra Garage Space, Garden)

35. Don’t Skimp on The Details

36. Ceilings Should Be At Least 9 Feet High

37. Enhance the Home with Unique Trim & Mouldings

38. Consider Some Extra Conduit Behind Walls for Future Electrical

39. Plan Smart for Outlet Locations (Computer, Coffee Maker, Modem, TV, Etc)

40. Know That Adding Something Later Will Always Cost More

41. Go to Home Shows to Get Ideas & Take Pictures

42. Remember, If Designed Right, A Great Home Doesn’t Have to Be Huge

In a bid to understand how to determine concrete mix ratio in relation to the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually needed for a bag of cement.


Concrete mix ratio is widely use by civil engineers to define the relationship between cement, sands and gravels.

Over the years concrete mix ratio have being use by many civil engineering authors to mean the quantity of cement in relation to the quantity of sands and gravel that will result in maximum strength at a particular period of time usually 28 days.

Having this in mind it therefore means that care must be taking when deciding the concrete mix ratio to use at construction site and how to convert it into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels.

To understand the concept of concrete mix ratio, the concept of concrete mix design can not be under estimated. If you will like to know more about concrete mix design in details please check Nigeria manual on (Concrete Mix Design the first of it kind)

For the purpose of this article, i will be explaining some terms that will be use to help us understand better the concept of concrete mix ratio.

Concrete Mix Design
This could be explained as a step by step method of achieving the right materials needed to produced a specific strength of concrete mix. For the purpose of our discussion i am going to limit it to how you can determine concrete mix ratio at site using a specific concrete grade.

Concrete Mix Ratio
As earlier explained, it is the relationship that connects cement,water, sand and aggregated together that will result in a good concrete grade

Concrete Grade (C)
Concrete grade can be explain to be the different minimum comprehensive strength of concrete at a specific period of time usually 28 days under a quality control situation.

Characteristic strength of concrete (Fcu)
This could be explain as the comprehensive strength which the concrete must develop after 28 days of curing before failing to crushing.

Concrete Curing
methods of curing concreteOn the other hand is the process of ensuring that the concrete in question receives adequate moisture content and temperature in other to result in its maximum strength and durability after certain period of time.

Now that we have gotten clear understanding of the above terms lets begin by making reference to different grade of concrete in relation to their mix ratio and strength after specific period of time.


The BS code recommend that different concrete grade should be use for different purpose of construction work. These concrete grade will need to be converted in their mix ratio which will then be used at construction site. There are different types of concrete mix which are nominal mix and design mix. The nominal mix are always specified by volume and they are most widely used concrete mix in Nigeria today.

On the other hand the design mix is a more economical way which is done in the laboratory by using weight of different constituent materials to determine the strength or grade of concrete to be used at site.

The confusing part of the concrete mix ratio is that most young engineers, builders and masons do not know how to relate the mix ratio into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels. For the purpose of this article we will be looking at some specified grade of concrete and their mix ratio.

Note: the cement grades of 32.5 and 42.5 popularly used in Nigeria is not taking into account for this analysis.

The Grade are :
Grade C-10 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:4:6
Grade C-15 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:3:5
Grade C-20 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4
Grade C-25 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:1.5:3
Now that we know the relationship between the concrete grades and mix ratio. it simply mean that if you must produce a concrete grade of say C-20, you will need a mix ratio of 1 head pan of cement : 2 head pans of sands : 4 head pans of gravels.


This is just the simple truth, but the confusion here is that cement is always measured in bags at construction site instead of head pans. So the question here is how do we determine the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually need for a bag of cement giving the concrete grade to be C-20 and the concrete mix ratio to be 1 : 2 : 4

With reference to Building Contractor Secrete, one bag of cement should be able to fill 2 head pans full of cement. If this is correct it therefore means that for every :

1 head pans of cement we will need 2 head pans of sand and 4 head pans of gravels to produce the required concrete grade.

Mathematically;

1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels
1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels

if we add the above together we will have;

2 pans of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans gravel

but remember 2 pans of cement = 1 bag of cement

therefore;

1 bag of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans of gravel
This simply mean for every 1 bag of cement you will need 4 head pans of sand and 8 head pans of gravel to give you a concrete strength that will be equal to grade C-20 equal to 20 N/mm2

If you convert this to wheel barrow it means for every 1 bag of cement you will need 1 wheel barrow of sand and 2 wheel barrow of gravel to give the concrete grade strength of 20 N/mm2 This is the minimum standard that is suppose to be used at site during construction.

You can check the video for more explanation.


In Nigeria most construction site use below this minimum standard by using concrete mix ratio which reduce the concrete grade strength below grade C-10, for instances;

A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 10 head pan of sand and 12 head pans of gravel will give you a mix ratio of 1 : 5 : 6 which falls below concrete grade C-10


A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 8 head pans of sand and 10 head pans of gravel will result in a mix ratio of 1 : 4 : 5 which is greater than grade C-10 but less than grade C-15.

These two concrete mix describe above is what is generally use at most construction site in Nigeria. What this mean is that most construction site uses below the minimum concrete grade for reinforce concrete which is against the Nigeria design mix manual and British code of practice.

The use of concrete grade below the minimum standard should not be encourage. This could be as a result of high cost of cement or inability to deduce the right volume of materials needed to be use for a bag of cement.

Finally, proper care and steps should be taking by the Authorities in charge like COREN, NSE and others to educated the Nigerian artisan, craftsmen, masons and fresh graduate engineers of the danger of using sub standard concrete mix ratio, and educate them on how they can achieve the right concrete mix ratio for a bag of cement.

I hope this will help young engineers, builders and masons in making proper decision on how many head pans of sand and gravel that will be needed for 1 bags of cement to produce a minimum concrete grade of C-20, if you have any comment or want to improve in what i have on ground please feel free to help someone today or contact us now

Building a home is a sensible investment and requires basic skill and tips that can help you to minimize cost during the construction process. So many individual have fall victims of jumping into building their homes without proper planning simply because they thought they can do it without the support of any other professional.

The building project comprises of different professional coming together to achieve a common goal. Before building your first home it is advisable to put into consideration the following tips.

The land you are about to build on
first construction project 2

Base on experience, many individual have fall victims of acquiring land that is not legit, only for them to discover that the land they want to build on is in dispute. This is a common mistake in Nigeria and most time it discourages people from acquiring land for building purpose.

Before you make payment for your land always ensure that the land in question is not in dispute. You can do this by involving a third person outside the agent and the land owner to investigate the legitimacy of the land.


if you are still not satisfy you can offer to pay part of the money and commence work at the site and make the remaining payment after a month if no one interfere with the work process. Avoid the mistake of preparing your floor plan when you are not really sure of the land.

The survey plan
survey plan1

The next thing you need to do is to engage your surveyor to carry out site survey on the land. it is always better to use your own surveyor instead of using the land owners own.

Avoid using road side survey because there is this tendency that your land might not be register with the appropriate authority, take time to protect your land to avoid someone encrusting or reselling the land.


if you are not ready yet to develop you can carry out perimeter fencing or protect the four angles with a clearly visible sign, be sure to always check your site once a while.

THE floor plan
floor plan1

The floor plan is the number three consideration when planning your first home building or construction project, most people find it to be a waste of resources contacting an architect to design an ideal floor plan for them, they prefer to give it to an unprofessional person, sometime they do the draft them self.

Remember the cost of correcting a mistake on the building project after the erection of building is always higher than the initial cost of the actual floor plan.


Make sure you check and understand the position of your windows, doors, electronics, rooms, kitchen and others relevant features in the floor plan before the site setting out process, your architect will be of great help in achieving best result.

Check out the functionality of the floor plan, I mean try to find out if the movement from one space to another will obstruct the position of another feature in the apartment.

Avoid bogus house plan for a start, always go for floor plan that are moderate and of commercial value, since this is your first plan there is always the opportunity of building another.

UNDERSTANDING THE COST ESTIMATE OF THE BUILDING
house design plan

In Africa today most people carry out a building project without actually knowing the estimated cost of the project, this is a very common practice but the problem with it is that you might end up not completing the project.

it will be a wise decision if you can pay for the services of a quantity surveyor to give you an estimate of the building project or better still your can contact me for that information or ask your builder or engineer to provide you information about the numbers of blocks, sand and chippings that will be required for the project.

THE BUILDING PROCESS
renovation of buildings Nigeria
Introduction to Front fence line of building
The site work is the practical aspect of the building projects and it involves a lot of technicalities, be sure to employ the service of an engineer or a builder depending on the complexity of the floor plan.

Avoid the use of Manson because most Manson don’t really follow specified details of the floor plan and remember to provide provision for storage hall and others working materials like water tank, generator wheel barrow, shovels and head pans.


Avoid the idea of buying materials without following the engineer’s advice, you might end up buying substandard materials or even placing them in a wrong location that may affect the actual position of the building and this will lead you to extra cost.

Others areas to consider when building your first house are:



Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components and materials but not substandard materials.


Make provision for Extra Conduit behind Walls for Future Electrical.


The height of your ceiling from ground level should be at least 9 feet.


Be flexible with your builder and take time to build it right


Let your D.P.C level be at least two blocks high from ground level.

New house plan project is most time difficult for home owners to understand what it takes to start and finish the project. As a result, you find it very difficult to execute your new house project simply because you really do not know how to go about it, or the fear of getting it wrong.


If you are new in the building construction industry and you are likely to start your new home construction project. I will like you to pay attention to the listed 56 tips to note before you start your new house plan construction project.

1. Understand your budget cost
As a new bee in the building plan construction industries, you should ask yourself the following question on the budget cost. it is very necessary to have idea of what it will take to kick start the project, where you will get funds for the house project and how to repay back the funds for the house plan project.

It will also be wise for you to critically analyse every component of the budget cost, remove unnecessary addition of project activities and reduce some project activities where applicable.

Finally, remember to always work within your budget cost, avoid any construction activities that will make you work outside your budget cost.

For example, if you plan to construct a one-bedroom apartment at a cost of x naira, avoid any other construction activities in relation to the one-bedroom construction project that will lead to extra budget cost, except you are prepared for additional increase in the budget cost.

2. Involved the professionals
construction workers
If you are thinking you can manage your house plan project alone and you did not include the professionals in your budget planning cost, I am here to let you know that you have already planned to fail.

The professionals have a major role in your house construction work, it is very important you carry them along.
Look for a good architect to design a moderate and easy to build home that will be in line within your budget estimate.


Look for a competent civil/structural Engineer to carry out proper construction work activities that will conform to the design construction/architectural details and will be in line with your design budget. This will help to eliminate quacks and promote efficiency in your house plan construction project. You can find one through referrers from friends, neighbour or previous work done by the engineer.

3. Know your land before payment
For no reason, don’t pay for a land you do not understand the functionality. It is not every land you pay for that will be suitable for your house plan construction project.

Take time to investigate your land to know if it will cost you additional money before you can build on it.
Some land might be in dispute which might result in settlement before you can build on it. These might cause you additional money or you lose the land.

Some land might be in a low land area, and this might make you fill too high to get to normal ground level while others land might be in swampy area which might cause you a different design and construction approach.

You need to carefully study your land, ask relevant and important questions, use a third party to investigate if the land is free from dispute and finally get all document agreement regarding the land.


Once you are satisfied with the functionality of the land, you can proceed for payment but remember after payment quickly carry out perimeter fencing to avoid any one else encroaching your land.

4. Build Economic homes
economy homes

Every one wants to build a big home but not everyone that really need a big house, if you are new to building construction, try as much as possible to make your first house plan construction an economy home.

Consider building a house that you can later re sell or rent in the long run or try to build a house that can be easily maintained and converted to other uses when the needs arise

No matter how much you will love your house now, you will need to consider a time when you will need to upgrade to a more better once so be more economic in your house plan designs.

5. Make your home Green
Take the opportunity to upgrade any appliances you have to a higher star rating. This can include washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, taps and light globes.

Make sure you have green areas in your house design construction project and try as much as possible to plant trees where applicable.


Any step you can take to reduce your carbon footprint and your energy bills is a positive one.

6. Passive home designs
Consider building materials and other passive design elements to reduce the cost of your bills.

Ensure your main living areas are orientated north to allows the sun to naturally provide light to your home during the day. In some location the sun helps to provide heat to the house during the winter period

Try as much as you can to Install eaves, good insulation, glazed windows and other such devices that will help to contribute to a better home.

Spend time researching the latest building trends and materials. Talk to people in the real estate and home building industry, do extensive online research and ask lots of questions.

In the end, you will be grateful you spent so much time preparing to ensure your new house plan construction project really is a dream come true!

7. Have A Professional Attorney Review the Contract
Get a learned fellow to go through your contract document and interpret every section to your understanding before signing any contract document.

8. Fully go through the Complete House plan approval process.
Avoid shot cut to your building approval process, make sure you get your house plan approval document before you start construction works.

9. Make A Priority List & A Wish List

10. Ask What the Builder Includes in The Base Price

11. Ask What the Builder Charges Extra For

12. Ask What Fee the Builder Charges to Build the Home

13. Mentally Walk Through the Floor Plan (Over and Over Again)!

14. Understand the Property Boundaries

15. Protect Mature or Old Growth Trees on The Property

16. Expect to Spend More

17. Take Time to Build It Right

18. Be Flexible

19. Don’t Build the Most Expensive Home in Your Neighbourhood

20. Plan for Outdoor Living Space

21. Enhance Bedrooms with Tray or Vaulted Ceilings

22. Position the Laundry Convenient to Bedrooms

23. Create Wide Walkways & Stairways

24. Include A Walk-In Pantry

25. Allow Ample Work Spaces in The Kitchen

26. Reconsider High-Maintenance Materials (Marble, Stainless, Natural Stone)

27. Whenever Possible Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components


28. Price Compare & Purchase Fixtures Online (Lighting, Plumbing, Blinds)

29. Invest in Great Closet Storage Systems

30. Enhance Walls with Sconce Lighting

31. Add Ambiance with Dimmer Switches

32. Make Sure Porches Are 6′ Deep or More (For Furniture)

33. Include Outlets Outside & On Roof Line (For Holiday Lights)

34. Include Space for Your Hobbies (Craft Room, Extra Garage Space, Garden)

35. Don’t Skimp on The Details

36. Ceilings Should Be At Least 9 Feet High

37. Enhance the Home with Unique Trim & Mouldings

38. Consider Some Extra Conduit Behind Walls for Future Electrical

39. Plan Smart for Outlet Locations (Computer, Coffee Maker, Modem, TV, Etc)

40. Know That Adding Something Later Will Always Cost More

41. Go to Home Shows to Get Ideas & Take Pictures

42. Remember, If Designed Right, A Great Home Doesn’t Have to Be Huge

How To Determine Concrete Mix Ratio In Relation To The Number Of Head Pans Of Sands And Gravels That Is Actually Needed For A Bag Of Cement.
concrete mix ratio 1:2:4In a bid to understand how to determine concrete mix ratio in relation to the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually needed for a bag of cement.


Concrete mix ratio is widely use by civil engineers to define the relationship between cement, sands and gravels.

Over the years concrete mix ratio have being use by many civil engineering authors to mean the quantity of cement in relation to the quantity of sands and gravel that will result in maximum strength at a particular period of time usually 28 days.

Having this in mind it therefore means that care must be taking when deciding the concrete mix ratio to use at construction site and how to convert it into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels.

To understand the concept of concrete mix ratio, the concept of concrete mix design can not be under estimated. If you will like to know more about concrete mix design in details please check Nigeria manual on (Concrete Mix Design the first of it kind)

For the purpose of this article, i will be explaining some terms that will be use to help us understand better the concept of concrete mix ratio.

Concrete Mix Design
This could be explained as a step by step method of achieving the right materials needed to produced a specific strength of concrete mix. For the purpose of our discussion i am going to limit it to how you can determine concrete mix ratio at site using a specific concrete grade.

Concrete Mix Ratio
As earlier explained, it is the relationship that connects cement,water, sand and aggregated together that will result in a good concrete grade

Concrete Grade (C)
Concrete grade can be explain to be the different minimum comprehensive strength of concrete at a specific period of time usually 28 days under a quality control situation.

Characteristic strength of concrete (Fcu)
This could be explain as the comprehensive strength which the concrete must develop after 28 days of curing before failing to crushing.

Concrete Curing
methods of curing concreteOn the other hand is the process of ensuring that the concrete in question receives adequate moisture content and temperature in other to result in its maximum strength and durability after certain period of time.

Now that we have gotten clear understanding of the above terms lets begin by making reference to different grade of concrete in relation to their mix ratio and strength after specific period of time.


The BS code recommend that different concrete grade should be use for different purpose of construction work. These concrete grade will need to be converted in their mix ratio which will then be used at construction site. There are different types of concrete mix which are nominal mix and design mix. The nominal mix are always specified by volume and they are most widely used concrete mix in Nigeria today.

On the other hand the design mix is a more economical way which is done in the laboratory by using weight of different constituent materials to determine the strength or grade of concrete to be used at site.

The confusing part of the concrete mix ratio is that most young engineers, builders and masons do not know how to relate the mix ratio into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels. For the purpose of this article we will be looking at some specified grade of concrete and their mix ratio.

Note: the cement grades of 32.5 and 42.5 popularly used in Nigeria is not taking into account for this analysis.

The Grade are :
Grade C-10 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:4:6
Grade C-15 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:3:5
Grade C-20 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4
Grade C-25 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:1.5:3
Now that we know the relationship between the concrete grades and mix ratio. it simply mean that if you must produce a concrete grade of say C-20, you will need a mix ratio of 1 head pan of cement : 2 head pans of sands : 4 head pans of gravels.


This is just the simple truth, but the confusion here is that cement is always measured in bags at construction site instead of head pans. So the question here is how do we determine the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually need for a bag of cement giving the concrete grade to be C-20 and the concrete mix ratio to be 1 : 2 : 4

With reference to Building Contractor Secrete, one bag of cement should be able to fill 2 head pans full of cement. If this is correct it therefore means that for every :

1 head pans of cement we will need 2 head pans of sand and 4 head pans of gravels to produce the required concrete grade.

Mathematically;

1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels
1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels

if we add the above together we will have;

2 pans of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans gravel

but remember 2 pans of cement = 1 bag of cement

therefore;

1 bag of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans of gravel
This simply mean for every 1 bag of cement you will need 4 head pans of sand and 8 head pans of gravel to give you a concrete strength that will be equal to grade C-20 equal to 20 N/mm2

If you convert this to wheel barrow it means for every 1 bag of cement you will need 1 wheel barrow of sand and 2 wheel barrow of gravel to give the concrete grade strength of 20 N/mm2 This is the minimum standard that is suppose to be used at site during construction.

You can check the video for more explanation.


In Nigeria most construction site use below this minimum standard by using concrete mix ratio which reduce the concrete grade strength below grade C-10, for instances;

A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 10 head pan of sand and 12 head pans of gravel will give you a mix ratio of 1 : 5 : 6 which falls below concrete grade C-10


A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 8 head pans of sand and 10 head pans of gravel will result in a mix ratio of 1 : 4 : 5 which is greater than grade C-10 but less than grade C-15.

These two concrete mix describe above is what is generally use at most construction site in Nigeria. What this mean is that most construction site uses below the minimum concrete grade for reinforce concrete which is against the Nigeria design mix manual and British code of practice.

The use of concrete grade below the minimum standard should not be encourage. This could be as a result of high cost of cement or inability to deduce the right volume of materials needed to be use for a bag of cement.

Finally, proper care and steps should be taking by the Authorities in charge like COREN, NSE and others to educated the Nigerian artisan, craftsmen, masons and fresh graduate engineers of the danger of using sub standard concrete mix ratio, and educate them on how they can achieve the right concrete mix ratio for a bag of cement.

I hope this will help young engineers, builders and masons in making proper decision on how many head pans of sand and gravel that will be needed for 1 bags of cement to produce a minimum concrete grade of C-20, if you have any comment or want to improve in what i have on ground please feel free to help someone today or contact us now

There are many approach on step by step guide to build your first storey house plan project. Over the years and even now, so many people start a house plan project without knowing the stages involved in completing a house plan building projects.


I came across a client who confidently inform me about his challenges in completing his house plan building project and as a result of that he was force to abandoned the project.

I felt very bad about it after much said and done i guided him on what he needs to do when starting his new House plan Project. Today my advice paid him off and he has successfully completed his new apartment with out much cost.

I will be introducing you to a step by step approach on how you can optimize your house plan building projects without spending too much to complete. The first i will like you to take note of is the planing stage.

house planThe Planing Stage:
At this stage, many people do not border about planing simply because of one reason or the other.

At the end they end up planing to fail. For you to properly optimize your house plan project.


You must understands what your budgets is all about. if your budget is a lump sum, i mean if you have set aside a specific amount for the project.

You might need to Schedule how the money will be spent on each phase of the project, how long the project will take to finish and what are the challenges you are likely to come across.

If you depend on salary or external source to fund your house plan project. You should also be careful and follow practical approach which i will explain later to ensure you do not spend out of budget.

if you are not conversant or too busy to do the planing yourself you can Engage Us or any practical civil engineer in house plan market to assist you for free.

Who To Engage:
The problems of who to engage really bore down to the client decision. Many clients make the mistake of engaging quacks not because they are not aware but because they feel they can easily manipulate them to achieve their objectives at a very reduce rate.

One thing is very clear you will end up spending more when you patronize quacks both in the short run and in the long run.


house design planWhen you finally make the decision to build your first storey house plan. The first thing i will advice you to do is to engage a professional architect to help you plan how every position of the building will function.

This way you will not have any reason to start making amendments during construction stages. Looking for professional architects? get one here!

The next thing …
i will like you to consider is to engage a practical civil engineer or builder during the construction stages. Make no mistake about it, engaging a quack will make you end up spending more than your proposed budget plan.

The reason is simple they have no explicit knowledge on how they can economically manage construction materials to still give you quality result.

If they try to reduced materials, they will end up creating artificial maintenance problem which will start manifesting during or after the construction stage.

That means you might end up running huge amount of money that would have being enough to engage a professional to get it right from the foundation stage. The result of poor construction work can equally leads to building collapse or large deformation of structural members.

Site Preparation Works:
This is a very sensitive stage of all, care must be taken to ensure that what needs to be done is adequately taken care of. If not you will end up repeating one thing several times and this will lead to double spending on a particular activity.

If the whole job is given as a contract due to tight schedule, the engineering firm should be able to manage the site preparation works effectively, but if you consider managing it yourself in a bid to reduce cost, make sure provision is properly made for a store house, ensure to make available facilities for water and make procurement for some site materials like wheel barrow, shovels,water tank and head pans.


Try as much as possible not to place sand, blocks or chip-pens in an area where the house plan will be positioned.

Making Provisions For Materials:
At this stage of how to build your first storey house plan. it make sense to take to take proper care at this stage if you really want to make significant reduction in cost of procurement of construction materials.

Enquirer from your engineer or builder the quantity of materials to execute the project. if you want to get accurate measurement you can seek for the services of a quantity surveyor to help you with the actual quantity of materials that will be needed for the construction of your first storey house plan.

construction materialsAlways try to purchase materials in bulk instead of buying them in smaller parts. Where applicable purchase materials directly from manufacturer or wholesales dealers instead of buying from a retail outlets. To know more about prices of different construction materials check here or click here to see price list of different building materials.

The quantity of materials supplied should always be monitored to ensure is the exact quantity of materials that is being purchased.

if you are very good with your engineer they can assist you greatly at this stage to help in reducing cost and ensuring that the right volume of material is delivered at the site.

The next thing i will like to talk about is knowing the different stages involved in house plan projects but for lack of not taking much of your time i will be discussing it in my subsequent article titled challenges and stages in house plan projects.


I hope i have being able to put smile on someone face, please i will be happy if others fellows professional can share their thought to expatiate more for others to learn. If you have any question feel free to drop your comment below, some one will always be available to help respond to your comments.

You will agree with me that building or developing your house plan is not a day project work, it begins with proper planning to take off.


Outside the planning stages there are other challenges that you might come across with your house plan project as you progress along the line. it is very important you know the stages associated with construction of a house plan projects. The first stage i will like to mention is the —

Site Investigation Stage :
This is the stage where you will invite the engineer or the builder to the site for the first time. it is also a period for proper investigation by your engineers. One important challenge the engineers face at this stage is that if investigation is not properly done they may end up positioning your house plan where will not be suitable for you.

Note : it will not be a bad idea if you provide adequate information that will help the engineer to give you his best. Checks for indications like direction of sun, access to road, and others important indicators that will enable you determine the right position of your house plan. The second stage is the —

Setting Out Stage :
This simply means the process where the engineer transfer the paper information of the house plan to the actual plot of land or a situation where the engineer or builder try to plot exactly all the information on your house plan on the actual size of land.

If the site investigation is properly done this process becomes very easy for the engineer because he or she must have taken note of the size of the land compare to the actual size of the building.


Apart from the fact that most young and non practical engineers and builders can not carry out sitting out activity very well. They are still faced with the problem of adjusting the house plan to fit to the actual land space especially with cases having small area of land space to work with.

One important thing you must do as a house plan owner is to try as much as possible to be present during the sitting out stage. Make sure you check for space for provision of soak-away and ensure that the provision for car park space is enough before the excavation process begins.

Advice the engineer where possible not to start the excavation work until you confirm that you have space for provision of car parks and a security outlet if need be.

Remember you are the one to stay in the apartment, so if it is wrongly position it means you have to manage it that way or start the process all over which might not be too good for you.

For the young engineers try as much as possible to make reasonable observations and calculations before the actual setting out date so that you won’t embarrass yourself in present of your clients and workers. if you need detailed explanation on how to carry out setting activities please do contact me i am always here to help.

excavation workThe Excavation Stage:
The process of excavation starts immediately the setting out process has been completed. This process involves digging of the foundation layers to the required depth which may varies depending on the nature of the house plan under consideration.

There are two stages involved in this process. The first is the excavation of foundation trench and the second is the excavation of column base for houses that are more than one storey building.


One of the challenges associated with this is payment of laborers. Care must be taken to make adequate provision for fund to be able to pay workers when they are through with excavation work. Most clients and engineers always keeps worker’s money till the next day. This is a very bad practice and highly condemn able. It can lead to destruction of site properties or serious demonstration by worker’s that can distort the flow and arrangement of work plan.

Leveling And Blinding Of Foundation Trench:
The leveling and blinding of foundation trench comes immediately the completion of excavation works. The level aspect of the job needs proper attention by the site engineer to ensure that all the point on the ground has the same level.

if this is not done properly you will have an undulating block work which can result in cracking of block walls. In areas where the slope difference is very high the engineer can use different methods when taking leveling. You can always find out what needs to be done from your engineers or feel free to contact me.

I will be glad to assist you in solving the issue where applicable. Remember during placement of concrete the mix ratio should be such that it will be good enough to withstand differential settlement in other to avoid cracking. To know more about concrete mix ratio click here.

Care should also be taken to ensure that the thickness criteria for blinding work is adhere to. Visit page to know more about different thickness for concrete blinding work.

This is not all you will need to know as a newbie in house plan development. I will be discussing the remaining stage by stage in my next article. If you have any question please feel free to drop your comment. if you have any pressing issue regarding your house plan or you want to more about practical aspect of the stages involved in the construction of house plan projects, please share your thought with us we are here to help. Have a wonderful time.

,

How To Determine Concrete Mix Ratio In Relation To The Number Of Head Pans Of Sands And Gravels That Is Actually Needed For A Bag Of Cement.
concrete mix ratio 1:2:4In a bid to understand how to determine concrete mix ratio in relation to the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually needed for a bag of cement.


Concrete mix ratio is widely use by civil engineers to define the relationship between cement, sands and gravels.

Over the years concrete mix ratio have being use by many civil engineering authors to mean the quantity of cement in relation to the quantity of sands and gravel that will result in maximum strength at a particular period of time usually 28 days.

Having this in mind it therefore means that care must be taking when deciding the concrete mix ratio to use at construction site and how to convert it into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels.

To understand the concept of concrete mix ratio, the concept of concrete mix design can not be under estimated. If you will like to know more about concrete mix design in details please check Nigeria manual on (Concrete Mix Design the first of it kind)

For the purpose of this article, i will be explaining some terms that will be use to help us understand better the concept of concrete mix ratio.

Concrete Mix Design
This could be explained as a step by step method of achieving the right materials needed to produced a specific strength of concrete mix. For the purpose of our discussion i am going to limit it to how you can determine concrete mix ratio at site using a specific concrete grade.

Concrete Mix Ratio
As earlier explained, it is the relationship that connects cement,water, sand and aggregated together that will result in a good concrete grade

Concrete Grade (C)
Concrete grade can be explain to be the different minimum comprehensive strength of concrete at a specific period of time usually 28 days under a quality control situation.

Characteristic strength of concrete (Fcu)
This could be explain as the comprehensive strength which the concrete must develop after 28 days of curing before failing to crushing.

Concrete Curing
methods of curing concreteOn the other hand is the process of ensuring that the concrete in question receives adequate moisture content and temperature in other to result in its maximum strength and durability after certain period of time.

Now that we have gotten clear understanding of the above terms lets begin by making reference to different grade of concrete in relation to their mix ratio and strength after specific period of time.


The BS code recommend that different concrete grade should be use for different purpose of construction work. These concrete grade will need to be converted in their mix ratio which will then be used at construction site. There are different types of concrete mix which are nominal mix and design mix. The nominal mix are always specified by volume and they are most widely used concrete mix in Nigeria today.

On the other hand the design mix is a more economical way which is done in the laboratory by using weight of different constituent materials to determine the strength or grade of concrete to be used at site.

The confusing part of the concrete mix ratio is that most young engineers, builders and masons do not know how to relate the mix ratio into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels. For the purpose of this article we will be looking at some specified grade of concrete and their mix ratio.

Note: the cement grades of 32.5 and 42.5 popularly used in Nigeria is not taking into account for this analysis.

The Grade are :
Grade C-10 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:4:6
Grade C-15 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:3:5
Grade C-20 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4
Grade C-25 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:1.5:3
Now that we know the relationship between the concrete grades and mix ratio. it simply mean that if you must produce a concrete grade of say C-20, you will need a mix ratio of 1 head pan of cement : 2 head pans of sands : 4 head pans of gravels.


This is just the simple truth, but the confusion here is that cement is always measured in bags at construction site instead of head pans. So the question here is how do we determine the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually need for a bag of cement giving the concrete grade to be C-20 and the concrete mix ratio to be 1 : 2 : 4

With reference to Building Contractor Secrete, one bag of cement should be able to fill 2 head pans full of cement. If this is correct it therefore means that for every :

1 head pans of cement we will need 2 head pans of sand and 4 head pans of gravels to produce the required concrete grade.

Mathematically;

1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels
1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels

if we add the above together we will have;

2 pans of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans gravel

but remember 2 pans of cement = 1 bag of cement

therefore;

1 bag of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans of gravel
This simply mean for every 1 bag of cement you will need 4 head pans of sand and 8 head pans of gravel to give you a concrete strength that will be equal to grade C-20 equal to 20 N/mm2

If you convert this to wheel barrow it means for every 1 bag of cement you will need 1 wheel barrow of sand and 2 wheel barrow of gravel to give the concrete grade strength of 20 N/mm2 This is the minimum standard that is suppose to be used at site during construction.

You can check the video for more explanation.


In Nigeria most construction site use below this minimum standard by using concrete mix ratio which reduce the concrete grade strength below grade C-10, for instances;

A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 10 head pan of sand and 12 head pans of gravel will give you a mix ratio of 1 : 5 : 6 which falls below concrete grade C-10


A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 8 head pans of sand and 10 head pans of gravel will result in a mix ratio of 1 : 4 : 5 which is greater than grade C-10 but less than grade C-15.

These two concrete mix describe above is what is generally use at most construction site in Nigeria. What this mean is that most construction site uses below the minimum concrete grade for reinforce concrete which is against the Nigeria design mix manual and British code of practice.

The use of concrete grade below the minimum standard should not be encourage. This could be as a result of high cost of cement or inability to deduce the right volume of materials needed to be use for a bag of cement.

Finally, proper care and steps should be taking by the Authorities in charge like COREN, NSE and others to educated the Nigerian artisan, craftsmen, masons and fresh graduate engineers of the danger of using sub standard concrete mix ratio, and educate them on how they can achieve the right concrete mix ratio for a bag of cement.

I hope this will help young engineers, builders and masons in making proper decision on how many head pans of sand and gravel that will be needed for 1 bags of cement to produce a minimum concrete grade of C-20, if you have any comment or want to improve in what i have on ground please feel free to help someone today or contact us now

There are many approach on step by step guide to build your first storey house plan project. Over the years and even now, so many people start a house plan project without knowing the stages involved in completing a house plan building projects.


I came across a client who confidently inform me about his challenges in completing his house plan building project and as a result of that he was force to abandoned the project.

I felt very bad about it after much said and done i guided him on what he needs to do when starting his new House plan Project. Today my advice paid him off and he has successfully completed his new apartment with out much cost.

I will be introducing you to a step by step approach on how you can optimize your house plan building projects without spending too much to complete. The first i will like you to take note of is the planing stage.

house planThe Planing Stage:
At this stage, many people do not border about planing simply because of one reason or the other.

At the end they end up planing to fail. For you to properly optimize your house plan project.


You must understands what your budgets is all about. if your budget is a lump sum, i mean if you have set aside a specific amount for the project.

You might need to Schedule how the money will be spent on each phase of the project, how long the project will take to finish and what are the challenges you are likely to come across.

If you depend on salary or external source to fund your house plan project. You should also be careful and follow practical approach which i will explain later to ensure you do not spend out of budget.

if you are not conversant or too busy to do the planing yourself you can Engage Us or any practical civil engineer in house plan market to assist you for free.

Who To Engage:
The problems of who to engage really bore down to the client decision. Many clients make the mistake of engaging quacks not because they are not aware but because they feel they can easily manipulate them to achieve their objectives at a very reduce rate.

One thing is very clear you will end up spending more when you patronize quacks both in the short run and in the long run.


house design planWhen you finally make the decision to build your first storey house plan. The first thing i will advice you to do is to engage a professional architect to help you plan how every position of the building will function.

This way you will not have any reason to start making amendments during construction stages. Looking for professional architects? get one here!

The next thing …
i will like you to consider is to engage a practical civil engineer or builder during the construction stages. Make no mistake about it, engaging a quack will make you end up spending more than your proposed budget plan.

The reason is simple they have no explicit knowledge on how they can economically manage construction materials to still give you quality result.

If they try to reduced materials, they will end up creating artificial maintenance problem which will start manifesting during or after the construction stage.

That means you might end up running huge amount of money that would have being enough to engage a professional to get it right from the foundation stage. The result of poor construction work can equally leads to building collapse or large deformation of structural members.

Site Preparation Works:
This is a very sensitive stage of all, care must be taken to ensure that what needs to be done is adequately taken care of. If not you will end up repeating one thing several times and this will lead to double spending on a particular activity.

If the whole job is given as a contract due to tight schedule, the engineering firm should be able to manage the site preparation works effectively, but if you consider managing it yourself in a bid to reduce cost, make sure provision is properly made for a store house, ensure to make available facilities for water and make procurement for some site materials like wheel barrow, shovels,water tank and head pans.


Try as much as possible not to place sand, blocks or chip-pens in an area where the house plan will be positioned.

Making Provisions For Materials:
At this stage of how to build your first storey house plan. it make sense to take to take proper care at this stage if you really want to make significant reduction in cost of procurement of construction materials.

Enquirer from your engineer or builder the quantity of materials to execute the project. if you want to get accurate measurement you can seek for the services of a quantity surveyor to help you with the actual quantity of materials that will be needed for the construction of your first storey house plan.

construction materialsAlways try to purchase materials in bulk instead of buying them in smaller parts. Where applicable purchase materials directly from manufacturer or wholesales dealers instead of buying from a retail outlets. To know more about prices of different construction materials check here or click here to see price list of different building materials.

The quantity of materials supplied should always be monitored to ensure is the exact quantity of materials that is being purchased.

if you are very good with your engineer they can assist you greatly at this stage to help in reducing cost and ensuring that the right volume of material is delivered at the site.

The next thing i will like to talk about is knowing the different stages involved in house plan projects but for lack of not taking much of your time i will be discussing it in my subsequent article titled challenges and stages in house plan projects.


I hope i have being able to put smile on someone face, please i will be happy if others fellows professional can share their thought to expatiate more for others to learn. If you have any question feel free to drop your comment below, some one will always be available to help respond to your comments.

The federal Government has empower COREN with additional powers that will enable the engineering practice to be more effective in Nigeria.

According to the Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly matters (Senate), Ita Enang, the new amendment has broadened the powers of COREN with far-reaching powers of prosecution of infractions, regulating industrial training of Engineers, capacity building of local content in Nigeria engineering industry.


Specifically, he said, the new law grants COREN powers of: “prosecuting any person or firm that contravenes the provisions of this Act in a court of competent jurisdiction; .regulating industrial training schemes in engineering practitioners and students;

(I)..ensuring capacity building and monitoring local content development in the Nigerian engineering industry through – mandatory attachment of Nigerians to expatriate engineers on major projects to understudy them from inception

“(ii) ensuring that all foreign engineering firms establish their design offices in Nigeria. (iii) granting of compulsory attestation to all expatriate quota for engineering practitioners, including turnkey project, that there are no qualified and competent Nigerians for the job in question at the time of application and that granting of the expatriate quota shall be contingent on training of such number of persons as may be required for the execution of the job, and; To complete the story visit Story page

Building a home is a sensible investment and requires basic skill and tips that can help you to minimize cost during the construction process. So many individual have fall victims of jumping into building their homes without proper planning simply because they thought they can do it without the support of any other professional.

The building project comprises of different professional coming together to achieve a common goal. Before building your first home it is advisable to put into consideration the following tips.

The land you are about to build on
first construction project 2

Base on experience, many individual have fall victims of acquiring land that is not legit, only for them to discover that the land they want to build on is in dispute. This is a common mistake in Nigeria and most time it discourages people from acquiring land for building purpose.

Before you make payment for your land always ensure that the land in question is not in dispute. You can do this by involving a third person outside the agent and the land owner to investigate the legitimacy of the land.


if you are still not satisfy you can offer to pay part of the money and commence work at the site and make the remaining payment after a month if no one interfere with the work process. Avoid the mistake of preparing your floor plan when you are not really sure of the land.

The survey plan
survey plan1

The next thing you need to do is to engage your surveyor to carry out site survey on the land. it is always better to use your own surveyor instead of using the land owners own.

Avoid using road side survey because there is this tendency that your land might not be register with the appropriate authority, take time to protect your land to avoid someone encrusting or reselling the land.


if you are not ready yet to develop you can carry out perimeter fencing or protect the four angles with a clearly visible sign, be sure to always check your site once a while.

THE floor plan
floor plan1

The floor plan is the number three consideration when planning your first home building or construction project, most people find it to be a waste of resources contacting an architect to design an ideal floor plan for them, they prefer to give it to an unprofessional person, sometime they do the draft them self.

Remember the cost of correcting a mistake on the building project after the erection of building is always higher than the initial cost of the actual floor plan.


Make sure you check and understand the position of your windows, doors, electronics, rooms, kitchen and others relevant features in the floor plan before the site setting out process, your architect will be of great help in achieving best result.

Check out the functionality of the floor plan, I mean try to find out if the movement from one space to another will obstruct the position of another feature in the apartment.

Avoid bogus house plan for a start, always go for floor plan that are moderate and of commercial value, since this is your first plan there is always the opportunity of building another.

UNDERSTANDING THE COST ESTIMATE OF THE BUILDING
house design plan

In Africa today most people carry out a building project without actually knowing the estimated cost of the project, this is a very common practice but the problem with it is that you might end up not completing the project.

it will be a wise decision if you can pay for the services of a quantity surveyor to give you an estimate of the building project or better still your can contact me for that information or ask your builder or engineer to provide you information about the numbers of blocks, sand and chippings that will be required for the project.

THE BUILDING PROCESS
renovation of buildings Nigeria
Introduction to Front fence line of building
The site work is the practical aspect of the building projects and it involves a lot of technicalities, be sure to employ the service of an engineer or a builder depending on the complexity of the floor plan.

Avoid the use of Manson because most Manson don’t really follow specified details of the floor plan and remember to provide provision for storage hall and others working materials like water tank, generator wheel barrow, shovels and head pans.


Avoid the idea of buying materials without following the engineer’s advice, you might end up buying substandard materials or even placing them in a wrong location that may affect the actual position of the building and this will lead you to extra cost.

Others areas to consider when building your first house are:



Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components and materials but not substandard materials.


Make provision for Extra Conduit behind Walls for Future Electrical.


The height of your ceiling from ground level should be at least 9 feet.


Be flexible with your builder and take time to build it right


Let your D.P.C level be at least two blocks high from ground level.

Challenges And Stages Involve In House Plan Projects. You will agree with me that building or developing your house plan is not a day project work, it begins with proper planning to take off.


Outside the planning stages there are other challenges that you might come across with your house plan project as you progress along the line. it is very important you know the stages associated with construction of a house plan projects. The first stage i will like to mention is the —

Site Investigation Stage :
This is the stage where you will invite the engineer or the builder to the site for the first time. it is also a period for proper investigation by your engineers. One important challenge the engineers face at this stage is that if investigation is not properly done they may end up positioning your house plan where will not be suitable for you.

Note : it will not be a bad idea if you provide adequate information that will help the engineer to give you his best. Checks for indications like direction of sun, access to road, and others important indicators that will enable you determine the right position of your house plan. The second stage is the —

Setting Out Stage :
This simply means the process where the engineer transfer the paper information of the house plan to the actual plot of land or a situation where the engineer or builder try to plot exactly all the information on your house plan on the actual size of land.

If the site investigation is properly done this process becomes very easy for the engineer because he or she must have taken note of the size of the land compare to the actual size of the building.


Apart from the fact that most young and non practical engineers and builders can not carry out sitting out activity very well. They are still faced with the problem of adjusting the house plan to fit to the actual land space especially with cases having small area of land space to work with.

One important thing you must do as a house plan owner is to try as much as possible to be present during the sitting out stage. Make sure you check for space for provision of soak-away and ensure that the provision for car park space is enough before the excavation process begins.

Advice the engineer where possible not to start the excavation work until you confirm that you have space for provision of car parks and a security outlet if need be.

Remember you are the one to stay in the apartment, so if it is wrongly position it means you have to manage it that way or start the process all over which might not be too good for you.

For the young engineers try as much as possible to make reasonable observations and calculations before the actual setting out date so that you won’t embarrass yourself in present of your clients and workers. if you need detailed explanation on how to carry out setting activities please do contact me i am always here to help.

excavation workThe Excavation Stage:
The process of excavation starts immediately the setting out process has been completed. This process involves digging of the foundation layers to the required depth which may varies depending on the nature of the house plan under consideration.

There are two stages involved in this process. The first is the excavation of foundation trench and the second is the excavation of column base for houses that are more than one storey building.


One of the challenges associated with this is payment of laborers. Care must be taken to make adequate provision for fund to be able to pay workers when they are through with excavation work. Most clients and engineers always keeps worker’s money till the next day. This is a very bad practice and highly condemn able. It can lead to destruction of site properties or serious demonstration by worker’s that can distort the flow and arrangement of work plan.

Leveling And Blinding Of Foundation Trench:
The leveling and blinding of foundation trench comes immediately the completion of excavation works. The level aspect of the job needs proper attention by the site engineer to ensure that all the point on the ground has the same level.

if this is not done properly you will have an undulating block work which can result in cracking of block walls. In areas where the slope difference is very high the engineer can use different methods when taking leveling. You can always find out what needs to be done from your engineers or feel free to contact me.

I will be glad to assist you in solving the issue where applicable. Remember during placement of concrete the mix ratio should be such that it will be good enough to withstand differential settlement in other to avoid cracking. To know more about concrete mix ratio click here.

Care should also be taken to ensure that the thickness criteria for blinding work is adhere to. Visit page to know more about different thickness for concrete blinding work.

This is not all you will need to know as a newbie in house plan development. I will be discussing the remaining stage by stage in my next article. If you have any question please feel free to drop your comment. if you have any pressing issue regarding your house plan or you want to more about practical aspect of the stages involved in the construction of house plan projects, please share your thought with us we are here to help. Have a wonderful time.

New house plan project is most time difficult for home owners to understand what it takes to start and finish the project. As a result, you find it very difficult to execute your new house project simply because you really do not know how to go about it, or the fear of getting it wrong.


If you are new in the building construction industry and you are likely to start your new home construction project. I will like you to pay attention to the listed 56 tips to note before you start your new house plan construction project.

1. Understand your budget cost
As a new bee in the building plan construction industries, you should ask yourself the following question on the budget cost. it is very necessary to have idea of what it will take to kick start the project, where you will get funds for the house project and how to repay back the funds for the house plan project.

It will also be wise for you to critically analyse every component of the budget cost, remove unnecessary addition of project activities and reduce some project activities where applicable.

Finally, remember to always work within your budget cost, avoid any construction activities that will make you work outside your budget cost.

For example, if you plan to construct a one-bedroom apartment at a cost of x naira, avoid any other construction activities in relation to the one-bedroom construction project that will lead to extra budget cost, except you are prepared for additional increase in the budget cost.

2. Involved the professionals
construction workers
If you are thinking you can manage your house plan project alone and you did not include the professionals in your budget planning cost, I am here to let you know that you have already planned to fail.

The professionals have a major role in your house construction work, it is very important you carry them along.
Look for a good architect to design a moderate and easy to build home that will be in line within your budget estimate.


Look for a competent civil/structural Engineer to carry out proper construction work activities that will conform to the design construction/architectural details and will be in line with your design budget. This will help to eliminate quacks and promote efficiency in your house plan construction project. You can find one through referrers from friends, neighbour or previous work done by the engineer.

3. Know your land before payment
For no reason, don’t pay for a land you do not understand the functionality. It is not every land you pay for that will be suitable for your house plan construction project.

Take time to investigate your land to know if it will cost you additional money before you can build on it.
Some land might be in dispute which might result in settlement before you can build on it. These might cause you additional money or you lose the land.

Some land might be in a low land area, and this might make you fill too high to get to normal ground level while others land might be in swampy area which might cause you a different design and construction approach.

You need to carefully study your land, ask relevant and important questions, use a third party to investigate if the land is free from dispute and finally get all document agreement regarding the land.


Once you are satisfied with the functionality of the land, you can proceed for payment but remember after payment quickly carry out perimeter fencing to avoid any one else encroaching your land.

4. Build Economic homes
economy homes

Every one wants to build a big home but not everyone that really need a big house, if you are new to building construction, try as much as possible to make your first house plan construction an economy home.

Consider building a house that you can later re sell or rent in the long run or try to build a house that can be easily maintained and converted to other uses when the needs arise

No matter how much you will love your house now, you will need to consider a time when you will need to upgrade to a more better once so be more economic in your house plan designs.

5. Make your home Green
Take the opportunity to upgrade any appliances you have to a higher star rating. This can include washing machines, dishwashers, fridges, taps and light globes.

Make sure you have green areas in your house design construction project and try as much as possible to plant trees where applicable.


Any step you can take to reduce your carbon footprint and your energy bills is a positive one.

6. Passive home designs
Consider building materials and other passive design elements to reduce the cost of your bills.

Ensure your main living areas are orientated north to allows the sun to naturally provide light to your home during the day. In some location the sun helps to provide heat to the house during the winter period

Try as much as you can to Install eaves, good insulation, glazed windows and other such devices that will help to contribute to a better home.

Spend time researching the latest building trends and materials. Talk to people in the real estate and home building industry, do extensive online research and ask lots of questions.

In the end, you will be grateful you spent so much time preparing to ensure your new house plan construction project really is a dream come true!

7. Have A Professional Attorney Review the Contract
Get a learned fellow to go through your contract document and interpret every section to your understanding before signing any contract document.

8. Fully go through the Complete House plan approval process.
Avoid shot cut to your building approval process, make sure you get your house plan approval document before you start construction works.

9. Make A Priority List & A Wish List

10. Ask What the Builder Includes in The Base Price

11. Ask What the Builder Charges Extra For

12. Ask What Fee the Builder Charges to Build the Home

13. Mentally Walk Through the Floor Plan (Over and Over Again)!

14. Understand the Property Boundaries

15. Protect Mature or Old Growth Trees on The Property

16. Expect to Spend More

17. Take Time to Build It Right

18. Be Flexible

19. Don’t Build the Most Expensive Home in Your Neighbourhood

20. Plan for Outdoor Living Space

21. Enhance Bedrooms with Tray or Vaulted Ceilings

22. Position the Laundry Convenient to Bedrooms

23. Create Wide Walkways & Stairways

24. Include A Walk-In Pantry

25. Allow Ample Work Spaces in The Kitchen

26. Reconsider High-Maintenance Materials (Marble, Stainless, Natural Stone)

27. Whenever Possible Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components


28. Price Compare & Purchase Fixtures Online (Lighting, Plumbing, Blinds)

29. Invest in Great Closet Storage Systems

30. Enhance Walls with Sconce Lighting

31. Add Ambiance with Dimmer Switches

32. Make Sure Porches Are 6′ Deep or More (For Furniture)

33. Include Outlets Outside & On Roof Line (For Holiday Lights)

34. Include Space for Your Hobbies (Craft Room, Extra Garage Space, Garden)

35. Don’t Skimp on The Details

36. Ceilings Should Be At Least 9 Feet High

37. Enhance the Home with Unique Trim & Mouldings

38. Consider Some Extra Conduit Behind Walls for Future Electrical

39. Plan Smart for Outlet Locations (Computer, Coffee Maker, Modem, TV, Etc)

40. Know That Adding Something Later Will Always Cost More

41. Go to Home Shows to Get Ideas & Take Pictures

42. Remember, If Designed Right, A Great Home Doesn’t Have to Be Huge

Challenges And Stages Involve In House Plan Projects. You will agree with me that building or developing your house plan is not a day project work, it begins with proper planning to take off.


Outside the planning stages there are other challenges that you might come across with your house plan project as you progress along the line. it is very important you know the stages associated with construction of a house plan projects. The first stage i will like to mention is the —

Site Investigation Stage :
This is the stage where you will invite the engineer or the builder to the site for the first time. it is also a period for proper investigation by your engineers. One important challenge the engineers face at this stage is that if investigation is not properly done they may end up positioning your house plan where will not be suitable for you.

Note : it will not be a bad idea if you provide adequate information that will help the engineer to give you his best. Checks for indications like direction of sun, access to road, and others important indicators that will enable you determine the right position of your house plan. The second stage is the —

Setting Out Stage :
This simply means the process where the engineer transfer the paper information of the house plan to the actual plot of land or a situation where the engineer or builder try to plot exactly all the information on your house plan on the actual size of land.

If the site investigation is properly done this process becomes very easy for the engineer because he or she must have taken note of the size of the land compare to the actual size of the building.


Apart from the fact that most young and non practical engineers and builders can not carry out sitting out activity very well. They are still faced with the problem of adjusting the house plan to fit to the actual land space especially with cases having small area of land space to work with.

One important thing you must do as a house plan owner is to try as much as possible to be present during the sitting out stage. Make sure you check for space for provision of soak-away and ensure that the provision for car park space is enough before the excavation process begins.

Advice the engineer where possible not to start the excavation work until you confirm that you have space for provision of car parks and a security outlet if need be.

Remember you are the one to stay in the apartment, so if it is wrongly position it means you have to manage it that way or start the process all over which might not be too good for you.

For the young engineers try as much as possible to make reasonable observations and calculations before the actual setting out date so that you won’t embarrass yourself in present of your clients and workers. if you need detailed explanation on how to carry out setting activities please do contact me i am always here to help.

excavation workThe Excavation Stage:
The process of excavation starts immediately the setting out process has been completed. This process involves digging of the foundation layers to the required depth which may varies depending on the nature of the house plan under consideration.

There are two stages involved in this process. The first is the excavation of foundation trench and the second is the excavation of column base for houses that are more than one storey building.


One of the challenges associated with this is payment of laborers. Care must be taken to make adequate provision for fund to be able to pay workers when they are through with excavation work. Most clients and engineers always keeps worker’s money till the next day. This is a very bad practice and highly condemn able. It can lead to destruction of site properties or serious demonstration by worker’s that can distort the flow and arrangement of work plan.

Leveling And Blinding Of Foundation Trench:
The leveling and blinding of foundation trench comes immediately the completion of excavation works. The level aspect of the job needs proper attention by the site engineer to ensure that all the point on the ground has the same level.

if this is not done properly you will have an undulating block work which can result in cracking of block walls. In areas where the slope difference is very high the engineer can use different methods when taking leveling. You can always find out what needs to be done from your engineers or feel free to contact me.

I will be glad to assist you in solving the issue where applicable. Remember during placement of concrete the mix ratio should be such that it will be good enough to withstand differential settlement in other to avoid cracking. To know more about concrete mix ratio click here.

Care should also be taken to ensure that the thickness criteria for blinding work is adhere to. Visit page to know more about different thickness for concrete blinding work.

This is not all you will need to know as a newbie in house plan development. I will be discussing the remaining stage by stage in my next article. If you have any question please feel free to drop your comment. if you have any pressing issue regarding your house plan or you want to more about practical aspect of the stages involved in the construction of house plan projects, please share your thought with us we are here to help. Have a wonderful time.

How To Determine Concrete Mix Ratio In Relation To The Number Of Head Pans Of Sands And Gravels That Is Actually Needed For A Bag Of Cement.
concrete mix ratio 1:2:4In a bid to understand how to determine concrete mix ratio in relation to the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually needed for a bag of cement.


Concrete mix ratio is widely use by civil engineers to define the relationship between cement, sands and gravels.

Over the years concrete mix ratio have being use by many civil engineering authors to mean the quantity of cement in relation to the quantity of sands and gravel that will result in maximum strength at a particular period of time usually 28 days.

Having this in mind it therefore means that care must be taking when deciding the concrete mix ratio to use at construction site and how to convert it into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels.

To understand the concept of concrete mix ratio, the concept of concrete mix design can not be under estimated. If you will like to know more about concrete mix design in details please check Nigeria manual on (Concrete Mix Design the first of it kind)

For the purpose of this article, i will be explaining some terms that will be use to help us understand better the concept of concrete mix ratio.

Concrete Mix Design
This could be explained as a step by step method of achieving the right materials needed to produced a specific strength of concrete mix. For the purpose of our discussion i am going to limit it to how you can determine concrete mix ratio at site using a specific concrete grade.

Concrete Mix Ratio
As earlier explained, it is the relationship that connects cement,water, sand and aggregated together that will result in a good concrete grade

Concrete Grade (C)
Concrete grade can be explain to be the different minimum comprehensive strength of concrete at a specific period of time usually 28 days under a quality control situation.

Characteristic strength of concrete (Fcu)
This could be explain as the comprehensive strength which the concrete must develop after 28 days of curing before failing to crushing.

Concrete Curing
methods of curing concreteOn the other hand is the process of ensuring that the concrete in question receives adequate moisture content and temperature in other to result in its maximum strength and durability after certain period of time.

Now that we have gotten clear understanding of the above terms lets begin by making reference to different grade of concrete in relation to their mix ratio and strength after specific period of time.


The BS code recommend that different concrete grade should be use for different purpose of construction work. These concrete grade will need to be converted in their mix ratio which will then be used at construction site. There are different types of concrete mix which are nominal mix and design mix. The nominal mix are always specified by volume and they are most widely used concrete mix in Nigeria today.

On the other hand the design mix is a more economical way which is done in the laboratory by using weight of different constituent materials to determine the strength or grade of concrete to be used at site.

The confusing part of the concrete mix ratio is that most young engineers, builders and masons do not know how to relate the mix ratio into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels. For the purpose of this article we will be looking at some specified grade of concrete and their mix ratio.

Note: the cement grades of 32.5 and 42.5 popularly used in Nigeria is not taking into account for this analysis.

The Grade are :
Grade C-10 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:4:6
Grade C-15 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:3:5
Grade C-20 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4
Grade C-25 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:1.5:3
Now that we know the relationship between the concrete grades and mix ratio. it simply mean that if you must produce a concrete grade of say C-20, you will need a mix ratio of 1 head pan of cement : 2 head pans of sands : 4 head pans of gravels.


This is just the simple truth, but the confusion here is that cement is always measured in bags at construction site instead of head pans. So the question here is how do we determine the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually need for a bag of cement giving the concrete grade to be C-20 and the concrete mix ratio to be 1 : 2 : 4

With reference to Building Contractor Secrete, one bag of cement should be able to fill 2 head pans full of cement. If this is correct it therefore means that for every :

1 head pans of cement we will need 2 head pans of sand and 4 head pans of gravels to produce the required concrete grade.

Mathematically;

1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels
1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels

if we add the above together we will have;

2 pans of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans gravel

but remember 2 pans of cement = 1 bag of cement

therefore;

1 bag of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans of gravel
This simply mean for every 1 bag of cement you will need 4 head pans of sand and 8 head pans of gravel to give you a concrete strength that will be equal to grade C-20 equal to 20 N/mm2

If you convert this to wheel barrow it means for every 1 bag of cement you will need 1 wheel barrow of sand and 2 wheel barrow of gravel to give the concrete grade strength of 20 N/mm2 This is the minimum standard that is suppose to be used at site during construction.

You can check the video for more explanation.


In Nigeria most construction site use below this minimum standard by using concrete mix ratio which reduce the concrete grade strength below grade C-10, for instances;

A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 10 head pan of sand and 12 head pans of gravel will give you a mix ratio of 1 : 5 : 6 which falls below concrete grade C-10


A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 8 head pans of sand and 10 head pans of gravel will result in a mix ratio of 1 : 4 : 5 which is greater than grade C-10 but less than grade C-15.

These two concrete mix describe above is what is generally use at most construction site in Nigeria. What this mean is that most construction site uses below the minimum concrete grade for reinforce concrete which is against the Nigeria design mix manual and British code of practice.

The use of concrete grade below the minimum standard should not be encourage. This could be as a result of high cost of cement or inability to deduce the right volume of materials needed to be use for a bag of cement.

Finally, proper care and steps should be taking by the Authorities in charge like COREN, NSE and others to educated the Nigerian artisan, craftsmen, masons and fresh graduate engineers of the danger of using sub standard concrete mix ratio, and educate them on how they can achieve the right concrete mix ratio for a bag of cement.

I hope this will help young engineers, builders and masons in making proper decision on how many head pans of sand and gravel that will be needed for 1 bags of cement to produce a minimum concrete grade of C-20, if you have any comment or want to improve in what i have on ground please feel free to help someone today or contact us now

Building a home is a sensible investment and requires basic skill and tips that can help you to minimize cost during the construction process. So many individual have fall victims of jumping into building their homes without proper planning simply because they thought they can do it without the support of any other professional.

The building project comprises of different professional coming together to achieve a common goal. Before building your first home it is advisable to put into consideration the following tips.

The land you are about to build on
first construction project 2

Base on experience, many individual have fall victims of acquiring land that is not legit, only for them to discover that the land they want to build on is in dispute. This is a common mistake in Nigeria and most time it discourages people from acquiring land for building purpose.

Before you make payment for your land always ensure that the land in question is not in dispute. You can do this by involving a third person outside the agent and the land owner to investigate the legitimacy of the land.


if you are still not satisfy you can offer to pay part of the money and commence work at the site and make the remaining payment after a month if no one interfere with the work process. Avoid the mistake of preparing your floor plan when you are not really sure of the land.

The survey plan
survey plan1

The next thing you need to do is to engage your surveyor to carry out site survey on the land. it is always better to use your own surveyor instead of using the land owners own.

Avoid using road side survey because there is this tendency that your land might not be register with the appropriate authority, take time to protect your land to avoid someone encrusting or reselling the land.


if you are not ready yet to develop you can carry out perimeter fencing or protect the four angles with a clearly visible sign, be sure to always check your site once a while.

THE floor plan
floor plan1

The floor plan is the number three consideration when planning your first home building or construction project, most people find it to be a waste of resources contacting an architect to design an ideal floor plan for them, they prefer to give it to an unprofessional person, sometime they do the draft them self.

Remember the cost of correcting a mistake on the building project after the erection of building is always higher than the initial cost of the actual floor plan.


Make sure you check and understand the position of your windows, doors, electronics, rooms, kitchen and others relevant features in the floor plan before the site setting out process, your architect will be of great help in achieving best result.

Check out the functionality of the floor plan, I mean try to find out if the movement from one space to another will obstruct the position of another feature in the apartment.

Avoid bogus house plan for a start, always go for floor plan that are moderate and of commercial value, since this is your first plan there is always the opportunity of building another.

UNDERSTANDING THE COST ESTIMATE OF THE BUILDING
house design plan

In Africa today most people carry out a building project without actually knowing the estimated cost of the project, this is a very common practice but the problem with it is that you might end up not completing the project.

it will be a wise decision if you can pay for the services of a quantity surveyor to give you an estimate of the building project or better still your can contact me for that information or ask your builder or engineer to provide you information about the numbers of blocks, sand and chippings that will be required for the project.

THE BUILDING PROCESS
renovation of buildings Nigeria
Introduction to Front fence line of building
The site work is the practical aspect of the building projects and it involves a lot of technicalities, be sure to employ the service of an engineer or a builder depending on the complexity of the floor plan.

Avoid the use of Manson because most Manson don’t really follow specified details of the floor plan and remember to provide provision for storage hall and others working materials like water tank, generator wheel barrow, shovels and head pans.


Avoid the idea of buying materials without following the engineer’s advice, you might end up buying substandard materials or even placing them in a wrong location that may affect the actual position of the building and this will lead you to extra cost.

Others areas to consider when building your first house are:



Use Low or Maintenance-Free Building Components and materials but not substandard materials.


Make provision for Extra Conduit behind Walls for Future Electrical.


The height of your ceiling from ground level should be at least 9 feet.


Be flexible with your builder and take time to build it right


Let your D.P.C level be at least two blocks high from ground level.

The federal Government has empower COREN with additional powers that will enable the engineering practice to be more effective in Nigeria.

According to the Senior Special Assistant on National Assembly matters (Senate), Ita Enang, the new amendment has broadened the powers of COREN with far-reaching powers of prosecution of infractions, regulating industrial training of Engineers, capacity building of local content in Nigeria engineering industry.

Specifically, he said, the new law grants COREN powers of: “prosecuting any person or firm that contravenes the provisions of this Act in a court of competent jurisdiction; .regulating industrial training schemes in engineering practitioners and students;

(I)..ensuring capacity building and monitoring local content development in the Nigerian engineering industry through – mandatory attachment of Nigerians to expatriate engineers on major projects to understudy them from inception

“(ii) ensuring that all foreign engineering firms establish their design offices in Nigeria. (iii) granting of compulsory attestation to all expatriate quota for engineering practitioners, including turnkey project, that there are no qualified and competent Nigerians for the job in question at the time of application and that granting of the expatriate quota shall be contingent on training of such number of persons as may be required for the execution of the job, and; To complete the story visit Story page

There are many approach on step by step guide to build your first storey house plan project. Over the years and even now, so many people start a house plan project without knowing the stages involved in completing a house plan building projects.

I came across a client who confidently inform me about his challenges in completing his house plan building project and as a result of that he was force to abandoned the project.

I felt very bad about it after much said and done i guided him on what he needs to do when starting his new House plan Project. Today my advice paid him off and he has successfully completed his new apartment with out much cost.

I will be introducing you to a step by step approach on how you can optimize your house plan building projects without spending too much to complete. The first i will like you to take note of is the planing stage.

house planThe Planing Stage:
At this stage, many people do not border about planing simply because of one reason or the other.

At the end they end up planing to fail. For you to properly optimize your house plan project.


You must understands what your budgets is all about. if your budget is a lump sum, i mean if you have set aside a specific amount for the project.

You might need to Schedule how the money will be spent on each phase of the project, how long the project will take to finish and what are the challenges you are likely to come across.

If you depend on salary or external source to fund your house plan project. You should also be careful and follow practical approach which i will explain later to ensure you do not spend out of budget.

if you are not conversant or too busy to do the planing yourself you can Engage Us or any practical civil engineer in house plan market to assist you for free.

Who To Engage:
The problems of who to engage really bore down to the client decision. Many clients make the mistake of engaging quacks not because they are not aware but because they feel they can easily manipulate them to achieve their objectives at a very reduce rate.

One thing is very clear you will end up spending more when you patronize quacks both in the short run and in the long run.


house design planWhen you finally make the decision to build your first storey house plan. The first thing i will advice you to do is to engage a professional architect to help you plan how every position of the building will function.

This way you will not have any reason to start making amendments during construction stages. Looking for professional architects? get one here!

The next thing …
i will like you to consider is to engage a practical civil engineer or builder during the construction stages. Make no mistake about it, engaging a quack will make you end up spending more than your proposed budget plan.

The reason is simple they have no explicit knowledge on how they can economically manage construction materials to still give you quality result.


If they try to reduced materials, they will end up creating artificial maintenance problem which will start manifesting during or after the construction stage.

That means you might end up running huge amount of money that would have being enough to engage a professional to get it right from the foundation stage. The result of poor construction work can equally leads to building collapse or large deformation of structural members.

Site Preparation Works:
This is a very sensitive stage of all, care must be taken to ensure that what needs to be done is adequately taken care of. If not you will end up repeating one thing several times and this will lead to double spending on a particular activity.

If the whole job is given as a contract due to tight schedule, the engineering firm should be able to manage the site preparation works effectively, but if you consider managing it yourself in a bid to reduce cost, make sure provision is properly made for a store house, ensure to make available facilities for water and make procurement for some site materials like wheel barrow, shovels,water tank and head pans.

Try as much as possible not to place sand, blocks or chip-pens in an area where the house plan will be positioned.

Making Provisions For Materials:
At this stage of how to build your first storey house plan. it make sense to take to take proper care at this stage if you really want to make significant reduction in cost of procurement of construction materials.

Enquirer from your engineer or builder the quantity of materials to execute the project. if you want to get accurate measurement you can seek for the services of a quantity surveyor to help you with the actual quantity of materials that will be needed for the construction of your first storey house plan.

construction materialsAlways try to purchase materials in bulk instead of buying them in smaller parts. Where applicable purchase materials directly from manufacturer or wholesales dealers instead of buying from a retail outlets. To know more about prices of different construction materials check here or click here to see price list of different building materials.


The quantity of materials supplied should always be monitored to ensure is the exact quantity of materials that is being purchased.

if you are very good with your engineer they can assist you greatly at this stage to help in reducing cost and ensuring that the right volume of material is delivered at the site.

The next thing i will like to talk about is knowing the different stages involved in house plan projects but for lack of not taking much of your time i will be discussing it in my subsequent article titled challenges and stages in house plan projects.

I hope i have being able to put smile on someone face, please i will be happy if others fellows professional can share their thought to expatiate more for others to learn. If you have any question feel free to drop your comment below, some one will always be available to help respond to your comments.

How To Determine Concrete Mix Ratio In Relation To The Number Of Head Pans Of Sands And Gravels That Is Actually Needed For A Bag Of Cement.
concrete mix ratio 1:2:4In a bid to understand how to determine concrete mix ratio in relation to the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually needed for a bag of cement.


Concrete mix ratio is widely use by civil engineers to define the relationship between cement, sands and gravels.

Over the years concrete mix ratio have being use by many civil engineering authors to mean the quantity of cement in relation to the quantity of sands and gravel that will result in maximum strength at a particular period of time usually 28 days.

Having this in mind it therefore means that care must be taking when deciding the concrete mix ratio to use at construction site and how to convert it into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels.

To understand the concept of concrete mix ratio, the concept of concrete mix design can not be under estimated. If you will like to know more about concrete mix design in details please check Nigeria manual on (Concrete Mix Design the first of it kind)

For the purpose of this article, i will be explaining some terms that will be use to help us understand better the concept of concrete mix ratio.

Concrete Mix Design
This could be explained as a step by step method of achieving the right materials needed to produced a specific strength of concrete mix. For the purpose of our discussion i am going to limit it to how you can determine concrete mix ratio at site using a specific concrete grade.

Concrete Mix Ratio
As earlier explained, it is the relationship that connects cement,water, sand and aggregated together that will result in a good concrete grade

Concrete Grade (C)
Concrete grade can be explain to be the different minimum comprehensive strength of concrete at a specific period of time usually 28 days under a quality control situation.

Characteristic strength of concrete (Fcu)
This could be explain as the comprehensive strength which the concrete must develop after 28 days of curing before failing to crushing.

Concrete Curing
methods of curing concreteOn the other hand is the process of ensuring that the concrete in question receives adequate moisture content and temperature in other to result in its maximum strength and durability after certain period of time.

Now that we have gotten clear understanding of the above terms lets begin by making reference to different grade of concrete in relation to their mix ratio and strength after specific period of time.


The BS code recommend that different concrete grade should be use for different purpose of construction work. These concrete grade will need to be converted in their mix ratio which will then be used at construction site. There are different types of concrete mix which are nominal mix and design mix. The nominal mix are always specified by volume and they are most widely used concrete mix in Nigeria today.

On the other hand the design mix is a more economical way which is done in the laboratory by using weight of different constituent materials to determine the strength or grade of concrete to be used at site.

The confusing part of the concrete mix ratio is that most young engineers, builders and masons do not know how to relate the mix ratio into bags for cement and head pans for sands and gravels. For the purpose of this article we will be looking at some specified grade of concrete and their mix ratio.

Note: the cement grades of 32.5 and 42.5 popularly used in Nigeria is not taking into account for this analysis.

The Grade are :
Grade C-10 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:4:6
Grade C-15 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:3:5
Grade C-20 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:2:4
Grade C-25 which has a concrete mix ratio of 1:1.5:3
Now that we know the relationship between the concrete grades and mix ratio. it simply mean that if you must produce a concrete grade of say C-20, you will need a mix ratio of 1 head pan of cement : 2 head pans of sands : 4 head pans of gravels.


This is just the simple truth, but the confusion here is that cement is always measured in bags at construction site instead of head pans. So the question here is how do we determine the number of head pans of sands and gravels that is actually need for a bag of cement giving the concrete grade to be C-20 and the concrete mix ratio to be 1 : 2 : 4

With reference to Building Contractor Secrete, one bag of cement should be able to fill 2 head pans full of cement. If this is correct it therefore means that for every :

1 head pans of cement we will need 2 head pans of sand and 4 head pans of gravels to produce the required concrete grade.

Mathematically;

1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels
1 pan of cement = 2 pans of sand = 4 pans of gravels

if we add the above together we will have;

2 pans of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans gravel

but remember 2 pans of cement = 1 bag of cement

therefore;

1 bag of cement = 4 pans of sand = 8 pans of gravel
This simply mean for every 1 bag of cement you will need 4 head pans of sand and 8 head pans of gravel to give you a concrete strength that will be equal to grade C-20 equal to 20 N/mm2


If you convert this to wheel barrow it means for every 1 bag of cement you will need 1 wheel barrow of sand and 2 wheel barrow of gravel to give the concrete grade strength of 20 N/mm2 This is the minimum standard that is suppose to be used at site during construction.

You can check the video for more explanation.


In Nigeria most construction site use below this minimum standard by using concrete mix ratio which reduce the concrete grade strength below grade C-10, for instances;

A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 10 head pan of sand and 12 head pans of gravel will give you a mix ratio of 1 : 5 : 6 which falls below concrete grade C-10

A concrete mix of 1 bag of cement with 8 head pans of sand and 10 head pans of gravel will result in a mix ratio of 1 : 4 : 5 which is greater than grade C-10 but less than grade C-15.

These two concrete mix describe above is what is generally use at most construction site in Nigeria. What this mean is that most construction site uses below the minimum concrete grade for reinforce concrete which is against the Nigeria design mix manual and British code of practice.


The use of concrete grade below the minimum standard should not be encourage. This could be as a result of high cost of cement or inability to deduce the right volume of materials needed to be use for a bag of cement.

Finally, proper care and steps should be taking by the Authorities in charge like COREN, NSE and others to educated the Nigerian artisan, craftsmen, masons and fresh graduate engineers of the danger of using sub standard concrete mix ratio, and educate them on how they can achieve the right concrete mix ratio for a bag of cement.

I hope this will help young engineers, builders and masons in making proper decision on how many head pans of sand and gravel that will be needed for 1 bags of cement to produce a minimum concrete grade of C-20, if you have any comment or want to improve in what i have on ground please feel free to help someone today or contact us now