Watt's Up, Water's Down

The house is nearing completion and there’s quite a lot of things to tell you about electrical and plumbing lines here. Let's just dive in after a small clarification, if you like or hate the title of the blog, please hold CharGPT accountable XD (but I really like it). I am clearly running out of creative quirky ideas to name my blogs and any suggestions for the upcoming ones would be welcome. The topics ahead are related to Carpentry, Labour management, Flooring, Brick Masonry and Plastering, Budgeting, Scheduling etc.,

ELECTRICAL LINE

Electrical line pipes raised from bottom at the initial stages before beginning brick masonry.

Electrical line planning was crucial and had to be decided ahead of the brick-laying process. In general electrical lines are planned on the roof before roof concreting electrical tubes are placed on the reinforcements. Whereas in this CSEB construction with no concrete roofing, the lines were planned from the bottom. Reason one is that there is no concrete roof to hide the wire passages on the top and reason two is that once the masonry is done, electrical lines cannot be brought through them, hence they need to be done from the bottom. Like reinforcements that are placed between the holes of the interlocking blocks, these tubes are connected and placed accurately to rise through the holes of the blocks.

This is the initial draft plan and there were quite a few changes made to this later

For the planning. initially, on top of the house plan, I created an electrical plan. This plan included the types of lighting elements and electrical equipment the house needed and their positions as accurately as possible. On discussing with the electrician, we finalized the number of switch boxes that would be required and where to place them. Quite a few things had to be kept in mind while considering the position of the switch boxes, such as:

• Comfortable height for accessing the switches, keeping in mind the height of the tiles that would rise from the floor level. The height of the switchboard in common areas had to be different from those at the bedside, and one switchboard was planned at the bottom near Muttram - this could come in handy when there were electrical lines required near the bottom.

• Differentiating switches that needed to be accessed from inside the house and those that needed to be accessed from outside the house. Also, those that needed to be two-way switches had to be thought of.

• Finalizing the position of the DB - Distribution Board, the main switchboard from where all connections should be drawn.

• Since there were plans to have quite a number of fancy lights, we coupled the lighting together to reduce the number of switches.

Switch box (6 Model) packed with cement.

• When determining electrical line pathways, we minimized the number of turns and bends. This could later cause difficulty in pulling out the wire. The process usually goes like this - The tube lines for the connections are to be set up during the concreting or masonry work, and later, towards the completion of the house, electrical wires are to be passed through them using springs. Care has to be taken to keep the passageway clean from dust and cement blocking.

• Inverter lines, additional lines, and dummy switch holders were planned keeping in mind the requirements in the future. Since this was a CSEB Construction without plastering, there wouldn't be a choice of changing from 6M to 8M switchboards later without tedious alteration works.

• The type of switchboard depended on the number of switches and sockets that would be placed there. Each switch was calculated as 1 unit, and each socket was calculated as 2 units (based on the space it occupied on the box). Based on the number is positions required switch box can be chosen as 4M or 6M or 8M. And for the corresponding size, a groove is to be made on the wall in the positions of the switchboard. To minimize the length of the box, multiple sockets could be connected to a single switch or multiple lights or fans could be connected to a switch (best to avoid this until and unless we are sure both would be required simultaneously as this might otherwise be a waste of electricity).

• Junction boxes were to be used wherever possible to minimize hectic work in the future for changes. Any error or repair and maintenance work would become easier with a junction box. This worked like a station where multiple wires met. Instead of always having to look at the beginning and end of wires to find out the errors, these could be opened and checked for errors.

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Distribution box with wires from all the major switch ports

Minor curves in the tube lines can be brought about by heating the plastic pipe and bending it when it expands, however, a huge bend is to be dealt with "U bend" or "L bend" or "Shoe bend" as per requirement.

• Before pulling out the wire, water was passed through the outlets and checked. Later springs are pulled through the pipes. While pulling the wires through them care was taken to prevent the wires from heating. Pulling causes expansion and expansion causes heating. This might cause damage to wires, so a wet cloth can be used to cool down the wires.

PLUMBING LINES

Water inlet and outlet for kitchen counter hidden within kitchen cabinet.

The location of the sewage tank had to be planned before the house was designed. This was a farmhouse and was hoped to generate less than average waste. Therefore, a simple sewage tank was planned to be constructed a little away from the house. It would be made by mounting circular cement rings (Called Orais in Tamil). We had chosen to use 4 numbers of 4ft rings. They were generally available in sizes like 3ft, 4ft, 5ft, etc. Size could be chosen based on the capacity of the house. This would now be the outlet for the Blackwater (waste from Toilet). Then there was greywater (water from the washbasin, kitchen sink and bathroom), and that was decided to be directed near the farm after passing it through layers of stones and pebbles.

Plumbing line outlet outside the house

Regarding the plumbing lines, the slope for the sewage tank had to be decided. The house level had to be above the tank level, and if they were quite far away, the slope had to be planned, and it had to be placed at an even lower depth. A Few things needed to be planned while planning the washroom:

• Since we had decided to give tiles on three sides of the bathroom wall (for easy cleaning), plumbing lines could be easily worked on by drilling on the walls, unlike electrical lines that had to be sent through the holes in the blocks. This also meant the plumbing work could wait until the masonry work was complete.

• The type of closet - Indian or Western. In my case, it was a Western closet, and when choosing a Western closet, it was ideal to find out its other details too, as they could be accommodated in the pre-work that was done. Helped choose the level for flooring and tile work.

  • S type or P Type

  • Type of flushing system

  • Inbuilt or exterior flushing tank

It would be best if the theme of the house is chosen beforehand, and the fittings are purchased at the earliest. That eased the plumbing work and the masonry work that would follow in the bathroom. We had decided upon black fittings throughout, and that narrowed down our options. Otherwise, there were quite a lot of options in the market for the closet, basin, and other fittings.

Water inlet for house through flooring. Would be hidden under the floor tiling. Decided after concreting, hence had to be done above the basement.

• The washbasin could be either countertop or wall-mounted. That again brought about a difference in how we did the counter below it and how the water exit was planned. If it was a countertop, the water outlet could be planned inside the cabinet. If it was left open, it would have been best to choose a good-looking outlet connection. If it was wall-mounted, plumbing lines would have been placed in the wall by drilling them like in a normal masonry structure.

• While planning the outlet for Blackwater, it was found best to have Small tanks in between the entire passageway. This would act analogously to junction boxes in electrical lines. This would help look into any errors in the pathway in the future. These could be replaced by Door bends if available.

• Plumbing, like electrical, was best when it had minimal turns and shorter routes.

Ways to reduce the expenses in electrical and plumbing would generally be by reducing the length of pipes that are used to travel electricity or water around the house. Not only does it take up a lot of plastic and wires, but it also causes waste of electricity and possibilities for blockages in the case of plumbing. Passing too many wires through a pipe and having a number of turns in a pathway would cause the heating up of lines, again leading to loss of electricity and sometimes potential failure along the lines.

Another critical decision would be about the position of the service box aka meter box - MCB. The equipment that shows the reading of units of electricity consumed to the government officer. It is best to have it at eye level and at an easy access place as the government holds a set of instructions on how it is to be set up for convenient verification for the government officers.

The light fittings and plumbing fixtures were chosen with a lot of particulars in mind hence causing a lot of delay and quite a lot of money. As already said, the fixtures needed to be particularly in black and the Fancy lights for the house had to be balanced between traditional and modern choices. The switch boxes, switches and sockets were also chosen to be black again (Carbon Black Fabio from Havells). The pictures of these I ll update as they get ready on-site.

These have been a few basic observations from being on-site when the electrical and plumbing team worked and I am sure there is a lot more to planning and executing this on-site. As always said, it's best to consult a professional while planning and fixing the electrical equipment and plumbing fixtures.

With that note, I end this blog here. Talking about the current state of my mind, I am excited and anxious about the project. This weekend is the last auspicious date for House warming in another 30 days and thus we are rushing to have it done by Sunday. However, there's at least 10% of work left. If you are reading this and are angry at me for not inviting you to the party, hang in there. It's not a party yet, let's all have a blast at the house once it's fully set!

As always said, thanks for staying around and reading it through!

Have an Amazing Day :)