SITE VISITS BY CONSULTANTS, HOW IMPORTANT IT IS?

 

  Nothing requires the Architect’s care more than the due planning of the building. Planning starts from just a Site Visit. What does a site visit comprise of, that makes it the most important activity of Building Planning. Still, 90% of the people avoid it in fear of site visit charges. Either they go for a traditional approach or call a relative who is a civil engineering professional or to a related field. In such an approach they forget the basic thing of planning. A professional does charge for a site visit but also does save you a lot based on the site conditions they come through. Here are the points they take care of while making a site visit.

Land pattern & level:

 They check whether the plot is sloppy or leveled. Also they check the overall position of the land to understand whether the plot is placed lowered or higher from the adjacent sides of the plot. This is done by observation itself. In the first case if the land is not leveled then the suggestion would be cut the extra soil and level the ground before hand to avoid common mistakes in center line layout. Next is level, as it helps to determine the Plinth level of the Building. But How? The level is taken in reference to the road level. As you need to have the plinth level at least 2’ above the road level. 

Soil Type: 

This is an integral part of the visit as here the consultant need to understand the soil type like it’s clayey or silty or sandy or good for construction soil. How is it possible to know the soil strata without examining the soil in lab? Then here is the answer, a consultant always follows the standard, they conduct some field test if required or go for case history of existing houses nearby the project site. If they feel something is fishy they ask for a soil test to determine its soil bearing capacity and also do examine the bore log or soil strata of around 15 to 21 mtrs deep. Based on the soil report the foundation type and detailing is decided.

Directions: 

It’s a very basic data collection process that every consultant does it the moment they reach the site. Now a day your smartphone compass is the best application you can use to find the true north. This site visit activity is very important to inculcate Vaastu Constraints in the drawing. In addition, Directions help to place the road in the proper place.

  Dimensions:

 Now you may think, it’s a cakewalk but wait here also some geometry is involved. In addition to length and breadth, an additional diagonal is also taken to map out the exact plot shape. In case the even shaped plot size is below 4000 Sqft a consultant can take a measurement using a measuring tape, otherwise they need a Total station survey team to assist the consultant. Now, this survey can be covered in a different topic.

      Access Road: 

      It is such an aspect that a consultant notes down to put it in the approved format. A consultant also cross verifies the road width dimension in your Revenue Map as well. It helps in the documentation of the building approval plan which needs to be approved by the local developmental authority in place.  Additionally, this piece of information is also required to understand whether a heavy material vehicle can deliver its supplies to the residential plot or not.

     Space for Material Storage and labor Hutment: 

     Why this information is necessary? This piece of information is very much necessary while preparing the Estimate.  In case you have no or little space you can store very less material, that’s why you can bring in only small loads of raw material which will eventually increase your transportation cost thus impacting the overall cost of the project. An experienced and smart consultant never forgets to gather such information from the site.  

Now as you know the details don’t try this yourself, as there are more such points a consultant does note in a paid site visit. Do never compromise a site visit with one of your Civil Engineer Relative or traditional expert locally. To hire a consultant you can get their contact number from www.builtify.in/services/consultant talk to them and always ask for a site visit.