Building a home or an office space is a very important decision in an individual’s life. For instance, he would have collected his ideas and planned for the finances over a period of time. Therefore any mistake made can turn out to be too costly. It might not always be practical for the individual to invest his own efforts in the actual construction of the building; both from a practicality and from an expertise angle. At this juncture, the choice of construction companies in Kerala become extremely important. It is always wise to do some ground work and invest in a good construction company. This would save the efforts spent on modifications later.
Let’s look at this 8 pointer guide.
The first and foremost point to consider is – Who are the people behind the company you are engaging with for the construction of your building? Above all, the quality of the people running the organization matters a lot. The value systems the promoters have in terms of the construction company decides the ultimate quality and usability. It also helps determine whether it is actually going to serve the intended purpose of the building. Therefore, the primary parameter to evaluate before choosing your construction company is the people running the organization. This becomes especially important because ultimately the promoters decide how and what goes into the building of the project.
The second parameter is the approach of the construction companies in Kerala towards quality. It is one thing to say that the company is a quality construction company; but it is a completely different thing to say that the focus on quality is achieved through taking a set of measures which ensures that a specified level of quality is achieved.
Construction is a very complicated industry. The quality of the final products depends on hundreds of building materials that go into the construction. Labour and the quality of the finishes are also key to the quality of the finished product. Therefore the approach of the organization towards quality is one of the most important parameters that need to be looked at.
The third parameter to evaluate is the level of transparency with respect to the construction of the building. A good construction company always offers transparency to its customers. Transparency is the fact that the company is very open in terms of each and every material they use in construction; whether it is cement, steel, electrical materials, tiles or paints. It will make an immense difference if the company is open about the exact materials that go into the construction of the building at each and every stage.
The next important parameter is the approach of the company towards running of a project. If the company has a planned approach whereby it is able to offer its customers a detailed plan in terms of the timelines, the detailed specifications of each and every product that will go into the building at each stage, the quality measures that the company is adopting at each and every stage; it will make a big difference in terms of the ultimate quality of the project in the end. Hence a company that follows a methodical approach in terms of the schedule, cost, quality, specification of materials would have an advantage over the others.
Another key factor is the mix of the team that is available within the company. Different people come with different skill sets. To name a few, you need the services of an in-house architect and an in-house engineer well versed in construction. Another key requirement is a high quality purchasing department. This team would ensure that the products are being bought at reasonable rates. Furthermore, hands on experience in the construction industry is a must. The choice of personnel in a team is very important in determining the company’s ability to keep the building costs reasonable. A good construction company would have a mix of diverse complementing skills required to run the project effectively. This would ultimately result in a good quality product in the end.
The commitment that the company is ready to give its customer before the project starts is very vital. This is one important thing to look for before zeroing in on construction companies in Kerala. It is only natural for a customer to be apprehensive about the fact that once the construction starts, there are chances that the costs may escalate to a level beyond the budgeted plan. Therefore, to avoid this, ideally you should always choose a construction company who can commit to you the final cost at which the product would be delivered. However, This should be based on an initial set of specifications and a set of costs assigned to the specifications.
If these specifications do not change during the course of construction of the project, the final bill that the customer would have to pay would not deviate much from the estimates provided in the beginning. This can only be ensured if the company is able to evaluate and plan for every element – both material and labour- well in advance and plan for the hidden costs as well.
This point is particularly important in the case of construction companies in Kerala. How this becomes important is that every customer would be looking at the project with a specific timeline in mind; which could be due to personal reasons, family reasons, business or professional reasons. In short the customer would want to complete the project within a certain time-frame from the start of the project. If the company does not take a planned methodical approach to factor in various elements like the availability of materials, labour, problems that could arise in a state like Kerala due to the labour union problems, material union problems, unplanned holidays, strikes etc., the schedule of the project will be impacted dramatically.
Another factor that becomes important is the change in weather conditions. For eg. if the rainy season falls in between the execution of a project, it has to be planned well in advance and an appropriate schedule has to be adopted. Failure to consider these factors may cause a delay in the delivery of the final product. This would result in a difficult situation for a customer who is particular about the timely delivery of his project.
One last point to note is the flexibility that the construction company is ready to offer. This is important because after a particular project is started, once the customer gets familiar with the construction process, there might be a few changes that he would be interested to make. This could be in terms of materials or design or additional elements to be included in the project. The company should be ready to engage the customer in a way that he is given enough flexibility. He should be allowed to change some of the specifications of the materials used; maybe an additional unit here and there. All this should be done without leaving any room for the customer to be penalized for it.
So the costs should be agreed upon upfront in terms of the possible additional changes for different elements. This puts the customer in a really strong position to go back to the contractor with reasonable changes to be made during the construction of the project. This ensures that the final project is what the customer wants and not what he had asked for in the beginning. This might seem an unscientific way of designing and constructing a project. But in reality customers are not fully equipped to make 100% concrete decisions about their needs before the construction starts. Therefore this level of flexibility would definitely add to the quality of the final project.
Finally, we hope that this article has helped you in getting a fair idea on how to evaluate construction companies in Kerala. For more details on house construction in Kochi, please do contact us.
Our team would be happy to help!