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Cement holds entire house – stronger the cement, stronger the house. Make sure you buy a cement of reputed brand. Ensure cement you have purchased is fresh. Look for manufacturing batch details & best before period printed on every bag of cement for ensuring its freshness. Generally, a house with 1,000 sft. built-up area will require approximately 400 bags of cement. You may require to purchase cement in small lots of 5-25 bags as per weekly consumption. However, at the time of slab casting you will require to purchase bigger lot of 50-100 bags of cement.

Generally, sand comes from the nearest river. Good quality sand shall be clean and granular. But, at times it carries mitti (silt), dirt and oversize stones. In case of sand containing oversized stones, you can sieve sand and remove oversized stones. You can check cleanliness of sand - grab sand and rub it between your palms. If sand contains mitti or dirt, it will stick to your palms. It is better to wash such sand before using.

Generally, aggregates are locally available rocks crushed in quarry. Good aggregates will be a mixture of small (1/2”) and bigger (3/4”) stones and produce densely packed concrete. Also avoid aggregates containing excessively elongated and flaky stones.

Reinforcement steel is the metal pillar that is being used in Column, beam and other structure. They support the concrete structure like bones support our body. Hence, ensure you buy steel with IS:1786 mark.

The bricks shall be of uniform size, pucca (well burnt) and strong. Pucca (well burnt) brick will make metallic sound when two bricks are struck with each other. A strong brick will not break when dropped vertically from about one meter height. Since, bricks are made from soil, they absorb water. It shall not absorb water more than 1/6th of its weight when soaked in water for 24 hours. Hence, it is very important to soak them in water before using for walls. Because dry bricks will absorb water from cement mortar (masala) leaving walls weaker.

Now a days, there are good alternatives to bricks available such as AAC blocks and Fly-ash bricks. These alternatives are better than traditional clay bricks in terms of quality and economy. They are environmentally friendly.

Water used in construction for mixing with cement as well as curing. The water shall be potable means drinkable. Do not use waste water from industries, agriculture etc. Salty water or sea water are also not recommended.

Concrete is mainly used for casting slabs but it is also used for casting foundation footings, columns, beams, lintels, bands, chhaja etc. You must have observed some slabs leak and some don’t. The main reason is bad quality of concrete. When right quality of concrete ingredients – cement, sand, aggregates and water – are mixed in right proportion and placed, compacted, and cured well; the concrete becomes strong, develop fewer cracks and becomes less prone to leakages & seepages. Please take care of few things as below to produce good quality concrete.

• Select good quality of cement, sand and aggregates in right proportion. Generally it is recommended to use proportion of 1: 1.5: 3 (Cement: Sand : Aggregates) by volume to produce M20 grade concrete for slabs, beams, columns and footing. However for accurate proportioning concrete mix design shall be carried out taking samples of sand and aggregates from particular site.
• Do not mix water more than 27.5 litres per bag of cement.
• Use mixer machine for mixing concrete ingredients.
• In case of manual mixing (hand-mixing) use the concrete within 30 minutes after mixing water.
• While casting RCC (Re-inforced Cement Concrete) - where we use steel bars in concrete - use cover blocks of appropriate size. The cover blocks protect steel bars from corrosion and increases life of concrete.
• Perform simple test on site to gauge the quality of concrete. Take handful of concrete roll it into a ball, toss the ball about one feet in air and catch it. If concrete is well-mixed, the ball will retain its shape. It it contains too much water; it will collapse into a shapeless mass. On the other hand, if it contains less water, it will disintegrate and fall apart.
• While transporting and placing concrete avoid segregation of concrete ingredients.
• Compact concrete with mechanical vibrator to remove entrapped air and make concrete denser.
• Curing is critical for making stronger and durable concrete. Start curing by sprinkling water as soon as concrete surfaces dry (within few hours after finishing concrete) and continue water curing for minimum 7 days on the surfaces of concrete exposed to air. It means keep such surfaces 100% moistened through out one week. Alternatively, you can cover / wrap exposed surfaces of concrete with plastic sheets for at least one week. This will save a lot of water used for water curing.

In house, walls act as an enclosure as well as partition the floor plate into rooms of different sizes as per their utility. Walls are built laying bricks or blocks and joining them using ½” thick right-proportioned mixture of cement & sand added with water just enough for consistency. For building stronger walls one can take care of the following:

• Select good quality cement and bricks or blocks.
• Soak bricks under water for at least one hour before using for walls.
• Prepare mixture of cement and sand in 1:6 proportion add water just enough to ensure right consistency.
• Ensure the mixture is used within one hour after adding water.
• Ensure uniform thickness of joints between bricks / blocks and fill them properly with the mixture.
• Do not erect wall beyond 5' (5 feet) height in single day.
• Ensure proper curing – sprinkle water immediately after the mixture in joints dries out and continue to keep the walls moistened for minimum seven days.

Plaster is like skin for the building because it protects the walls from weathering. Plaster is mixture of right proportioned mixture of cement and sand added with water for consistency. The mixture is applied on well-prepared walls in ½” to ¾’ thickness within 1 hour of mixing water and finished. Quality of plaster is depending on:

• Quality of cement and sand used for plaster.
• Mix proportion of cement & sand added with water just enough to get right consistency.
• Using the mixture within 1 hour after mixing water.
• Preparing surfaces before application of plaster for improve bonding.
• Uniformity in thickness of plaster.
• Finishing of plastered surfaces.
• Proper curing – sprinkle water immediately after the plastered surfaces dry out and continue to keep them moistened for minimum seven days.