DESIGN AND MAINTENANCE OF BUILDINGS

It is every one’s dream to own a house of his liking, but it needs a thorough and vigorous planning right from the beginning. Various steps in such planning can be as under:

Planning and Designing:

The perfect planning comprise of knowing all the details of planning and design of the house. These aspects should be taken into account for proper orientation to ensure that

benefit of natural daylight;

adequate natural ventilation;

soil analysis and treatment for termites;

use of energy efficient construction materials;

easy maintainability;

aesthetics;

facility for extension/modification;

Interior furnishing:

It should be ensured that the interior furnishing shall be done with ergonomic aspects in view, proper selection of colours for wall paint and drapery and effective carpenting.

Exterior finishings:

The exteriors should include the right of plants, trees and laws.

Safety measures:

Several factors related to multi storied buildings, apartments and clusters of interconnected buildings with regard to safety measures, are mentioned

hereunder:

The buildings and associated services should invariably keep safety aspect as one of the most important, vital and fundamental considerations: This includes, among other things

Proper approach;

Slope;

Correct width;

Tread and rise of staircase steps;

Elevators of proper rating/grading;

Emergency staircase;

Proper illumination for stairways and corridors;

stair case and corridor lighting.

Besides the above, it is also equally important to take into consideration, the following:

Fire detection and alarm system;

Proper storage of garbage;

Parapet walls/barricades in terrace area;

Emergency first aid facility.

Maintenance:

Proper effective and timely maintenance is the key to long life, good and nice appearance, comfortable living and safety. This aspect also assures besides other factors, good market value for the property.

The maintenance of buildings includes:

Periodic window cleaning;

Repainting of internal and external surfaces;

Painting/polishing of doors, windows and ventilators;

Lubrication of rolling shutters and other metal doors;

Floor polishing;

The maintenance of the building also should cover not only the internal areas, but also the external surfaces and surroundings.

In the case of multistoried apartments and clusters of buildings attention should be paid to the common areas; and common utilities like:

Elevators,

Water storage tanks (underground and over head) and pumps;

Standby power supply plant,

Lawns,

Garbage disposal area,

Playground, etc.

However, these are normally taken care of by a committee set up for the purpose by the Association of Apartment owners’.

Besides the above, following are some of the suggestions to ensure a safety, comfortable and trouble-free dwelling place:

Ensure that the building plan is approved by the statutory authority and that it adhered to the various regulations/laws prescribed;

Entrust the design of the building to a competent designer;

Get the work executed by a suitable person with proper license and expertise;

Draw out contract specifications clearly to avoid disputes at a later stage;

Inspect the construction materials and workmanship periodically during execution and progress of the work to ensure adherence to stand specifications;

Most importantly ensure that proper earthing is done for entire electrical installation in the building.

For More..........:

Property Documentation

Property registration