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1 Provide a drip course over the junction of masonry wall with the RCC slab. A drip course is a sort of projection with a ½” deep cut called throating on its underside. Also provide such a throating on all outer corbels, copings and projections over windows and verandahs etc. The drip course will break the travel of rain water along the underside of projection or ceiling. It will also stop water from entering the joint between masonry and RCC. Normally a fine crack appears along this joint because two different materials are joining here. Drip course will prevent the water from entering inside through this crack. Solution to avoid this crack has already been given in last part. 2 Always keep the top surface of all the RCC projections and sunshades over the windows sloping outward. Provide a slope of at least ½” for 1 foot projection. This will not allow the rain water to stagnate over these projections. Don’t create a trough sort of sunshade with a spout in it. Generally such spouts get blocked with time and rain water accumulates in the trough causing unhygienic conditions. Keep the top surface plain and sloping. Round off the junctions of sunshade and projections with the walls. 3 Now some tips on water supply system for your building. One problem that every house owner fears most is the leakage from concealed pipes. To avoid this most troublesome problem, some builders are again resorting to unconcealed pipe system. Unconcealed pipes look ugly. Prefer to have concealed pipes and to keep the concealed system trouble proof, take four precautions—one, choose the pipe material carefully; two, take extra care in making pipe joints leak proof; three, allow a minimum rather no pipe to run below the floorings and four, frame & keep an exact layout of laid water supply lines. See that all pipes are concealed in the walls only and the pipe layout is so designed that no pipe is carried below any flooring. Know that lesser are the number of joints in water supply network, lesser are the chances of leakages. 4 In general practice, water supply line drawings are not drawn for a house. The architect simply shows the position of fittings in bathrooms, kitchen, lawns or elsewhere and the line and location of pipes is left to the plumber. During the construction of house, make an effort to draw exact plans of water supply lines by noting their position in the courtyard and in the walls. Note exact height of horizontal pipes above the floor and exact location of vertical pipes. Transfer the sketches to fair drawings and keep these handy. Later in life, whenever there is any leakage anywhere, these plans shall save a lot of chiseling and repair work. 5 On water supply, the most crucial question in the minds of house builders today is that pipes of which material should be used by them. Earlier, only GI pipes were used for water supply in buildings. Today, PVC pipes, Stainless Steel (SS) pipes and Copper pipes are also being used and their use is constantly increasing. Each material has its plus and minus points. GI pipe is time tested. Its fittings are easily available. Labour for it is easily available. However, wherever water is hard, it gets corroded with time and its scaling starts. Copper pipes provide better water pressure as a pressure drop occurs in GI pipes as their inner surface is relatively rough in comparison to copper pipes. However, Copper and SS pipes are costlier. If water has dissolved oxygen in it, these also get corroded. cPVC and uPVC pipes are easily available in market and corrosion or scaling too is lesser in them. But these get damaged if water has organic impurities. If subjected to UV rays or direct sunlight continuously, again these get damaged. Sometimes, their fittings too are not available. Plumbers too may not be easily available for PVC pipe work. Their use for hot water supply is also debatable. 6 At one time, copper pipes had become available at the price of C class GI pipes. Last year saw a steep rise in the cost of copper and now, copper pipes are many times costlier than GI pipes. PVC pipes and fittings if used bring a saving of 10 to 15% over B class GI pipes and fittings. Keeping all factors in view, it is still best to choose medium class GI pipes. Copper pipes can be chosen only if you want to go for the best without any cost considerations in mind. More tips will follow next week. Till then, happy building!
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