I just returned from a trip to Bangalore India where a friend of mine is building a house in a moderate-to-nice neighborhood.  I thought I’d post some things I learned about building there.

Like many places with this climate, homes are generally all concrete with some air-coniditioning but no heating system.

Much of the floors are marble or ceramic tiles.  The tiles were set during initial construction of the walls and about 1″ of plaster was poured over them for protection.  Once the rest of the house is done, the plaster will be chipped up and the floors polished.  I found this really strange but my friend said it was common.

Granite is mined locally so it’s common to use slabs for flooring and walls in some cases.  It’s considered a typical building product and not upscale.

Wood floors on the other hand need to be imported and are considered exotic.

They have a well on the property but wells are not considered reliable so a rain collection system is used to capture gutter water in a sistern and then pumped to a tank on the roof.  Again, lots of climates take this approach. 

In some parts of town, you can rent a house for $50-$100 American dollars a month.  My friend bought his 50’x80′ lot years ago but if he bought it today it would cost $600,000 American dollars.  Lots in this neighborhood currently go for $150 a square foot.

Labor is very cheap so there are multiple families that literally live on the lot during construction.  They all seemed happy to have the work and were proud of the work they did.

I included a couple of pics.  Ignore the large file.  I couldn’t figure out how to remove it.