How to measure a plot and check it against the area on record
Turn the area written on the record into square feet, tape the plot's sides yourself, and compare the two before you rely on a broker's round number.
16 guides · 48 worked examples
Construction guides: checks on site, at the shop and on paper
Short guides for the checks a calculator can't do for you: what to measure when a truck arrives, what to read on a bag or a tank, and what to write down.
Quick Answer
Each guide covers one check you make on site, at a shop or on paper, such as weighing a steel delivery against IS 1786 or measuring a sand truck before it tips. It gives the rule from its Indian Standard or official source with the month we checked it, at least two worked examples, tips, and the calculator that does the sum. Use the calculators to work out quantities, then use these guides to check what arrives.
Before you buy: the plot
Tape the land, level on a slope, and compare it with the area on the papers before any money changes hands.
How to measure a sloping plot: keep the tape level
Land records measure a plot flat, as if seen from above. A tape laid down a slope reads long, so on hill or sloping land you hold it level in steps, or tape the ground and correct with the drop.
Delivery day: check what arrives
Turn the bar bending schedule into a steel order first. Then check the four materials that come by the truckload, each before the load comes off the truck or the bill is signed.
From bar bending schedule to steel order: kg and bars for each size
Your engineer hands you a bar bending schedule. The dealer wants kilograms of each size. This guide reads the schedule's columns as IS 2502 lays them out and turns each row into a cutting length and a weight. Then it works out how many full bars to buy so the fixer can cut them with little waste.
How to check a TMT steel delivery by weight
Steel is sold by the kilo, so weight is the check that counts. Weigh five bars, divide by their length and compare the result with the IS 1786 tables.
How to check cement bags when the truck arrives
Five checks at the truck and one way to stack the bags: what IS 269 says every bag must show, what the three-month line really means, and how IS 4082 wants cement stored on site.
How to measure a sand or aggregate truck before it tips
A tape, a straight stick and five minutes at the tailgate: how to turn a truck body into cubic feet and brass, why damp sand looks like more than it is, and what CPWD deducts from a measured stack.
How to check a brick delivery: count, size and quality
Stack the load so you can count it at a glance, then measure twenty bricks in a row the way IS 1077 does and read what the class number on the bill promises.
Slab day
The cover blocks and chairs to check the day before, the cube samples and the record sheet your engineer will ask for 28 days later, and how many days to keep the slab wet before the props come out. The slab casting day checklist ties them into the day itself.
Concrete cube test on slab day: how many cubes, and what to write down
How many cube samples IS 456 asks for by the volume you pour, how the cubes are made and cured on site under IS 516, and a record sheet that lets you read the lab report when it comes back 28 days later.
Curing a concrete slab: how many days, how to keep it wet, and how long the props stay
IS 456 asks for 7 days of wet curing with ordinary Portland cement and at least 10 with PPC or slag cement. Here is the rule, a curing calendar, the water a ponded slab takes, and the earliest prop dates to plan your shuttering hire around.
Cover blocks and chairs for a slab: how thick, how many, how tall
The structural drawing sets the cover. The blocks and chairs on site decide whether the slab gets it. This guide covers how thick each block should be, how many a slab and its beams take, how tall to bend the chairs for the top steel, and which blocks to send back before the pour.
Water storage and drainage
What a sump or a plastic tank really holds, how to test your soil for a soak pit, and where the tank and pit can go on your plot.
Sump and overhead tank: how to check the litres on a quote
A sump quoted at 6,000 litres can hold 4,800. Work out what a built sump or a plastic tank really stores from its inside size and overflow level, and read a plastic tank's label the way IS 12701 defines it.
How to do a percolation test for a soak pit
Dig a small hole where the soak pit will go, soak it overnight and time the drop. That gives the minutes per 25 mm the soak pit calculator asks for.
Where to put the septic tank and soak pit on a small plot
The septic tank and the soak pit follow different rules. The tank can sit near the house; the soak pit needs 6 m from any house and 18 m from any drinking-water well, and on a small plot those two numbers are usually the hard part.
Wiring
Plan the points and circuits before the walls are chased, and read an AC's nameplate before you buy its MCB.
2BHK wiring plan: points, circuits and DB ways, room by room
Before the electrician cuts a single chase, list every point room by room, group the points into circuits by the CPWD rules and count the ways your distribution board needs. A typical 2BHK comes to 10 circuits and a 12-way board.
Which MCB for an AC: read the nameplate, not the tonnage
A 1.5 ton AC does not draw 5,275 W. That is the heat it moves. The current it draws is printed on the nameplate, and it is a fraction of that. That is the number the MCB and the wire are chosen from.
Finishing
Ordering tiles from one batch and buying the right number of adhesive bags.
How to order floor tiles: boxes, batch and shade, adhesive bags
Count the order in whole tiles, get every box from one batch and shade, look at 30 tiles laid out before the tiler starts, and work out the adhesive from the bag's own data sheet.
Where each guide fits in a build
16guides
48worked examples
33sources cited, each with the month checked
Which guide to start with
If you're building now, read the four delivery checks before the first truck comes, and print the cube record sheet before slab day. If you're buying land, measure the plot first. If the house is already up, the tank and tile guides are the ones you'll use.
Tips and tricks
- Most of these checks need only a 5 m tape, a 30 m tape and a phone calculator. Keep them on site.
- Write the batch or lot number from each bag, bar tag or tile box on the delivery bill before you sign it.
- Check before the material is unloaded or mixed. Once the sand has tipped or the bags are opened, a short delivery is hard to prove.
- Every guide names the clause and the month we read it. Standards get revised, so if that date is more than a few months old, check the current edition on the BIS site.
Frequently asked questions
Are these construction guides free?
Do I still need an engineer?
Where do the rules in the guides come from?
Measuring, counting and records only. Decisions on structural material, concrete results and design belong to your engineer.